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Dystopian fiction

  • Author:
    Kempley, Rita
    Summary:

    Dystopian sci-fi thriller with darkly comic shading set in the New York Archipelago in 2120. After hurricane Adolph turns New York City into Big Apple Sauce, the good life goes on and on and on for one-percenters like Margaret Hughes. Margaret looks like she’s twenty-two, but she’s really more than a hundred years old thanks to the life-extension technology she and her father developed in the 20th century. As the chief neurosurgeon of the Hughes Medical Center, she “youthanizes” only wealthy clientele. Her practice virtually insures the status quo. Rich, famous, beautiful: Margaret has it all. But she’s kind of bored until Chase Lyman saunters into her life one hot and thirsty afternoon. Chase comes from the wrong side of the tracks— or would if there were any tracks left. The infrastructure crumbled decades ago. As a rollerblading medical courier, Chase relishes the challenge of swiftly transporting organs from donor to recipient. He has his pick of the “grinder” groupies, his own pigeons and all the warm beer he can drink. Yep, life is good until Chase begins a steamy affair with Margaret, who pretends she’s only a nurse. Margaret continues the ruse until Chase is mistakenly kidnapped by religious fanatics with a grudge against life-extension, her father and the center. Driven by guilt— certainly not love— Margaret mounts a daring rescue attempt that forces her to rethink the consequences of her life’s work upon herself, Chase and humankind.

  • Author:
    Nolan, Yvette
    Summary:

    Forced to rely upon traditional wisdom for their survival, Elena and Bern retreat from the remains of civilization to a freezing, desolate landscape where they attempt to continue their lives after the end of the world. When a charismatic stranger from the village arrives seeking their aid, the women must decide whether they will use their knowledge of the past to give the society that rejected them the chance at a future.

  • Author:
    Carey, M. R.
    Summary:

    Koli never planned to set foot outside his small village. He knew that beyond its walls lay a fearsome landscape filled with choker trees, vicious beasts, and Shunned men. But when he was exiled, he had no choice but to journey out into this strange world where every moment is a fight for survival. But if he can find lost London, there may still be a way for him to survive.

  • Author:
    Shaw, Ali.
    Summary:

    A compulsive, mesmerising and wildly imaginative novel in the vein of Pan's Labyrinth and Station Eleven, following four people as they struggle to survive in a world where nature fights back - from the award-winning author of The Girl with Glass Feet.

  • Author:
    Roth, Veronica
    Summary:

    The first of four new short stories told from the perspective of everyone's favorite Divergent love interest! More Four! Fans of the Divergent series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth will be thrilled by The Transfer, the first of four new short stories told from Four's perspective. Each brief story explores the world of the Divergent series through the eyes of the mysterious but charismatic Tobias Eaton, revealing previously unknown facets of his personality, backstory, and relationships.

  • Author:
    Roth, Veronica
    Summary:

    Complete your Divergent library with the Four stories! Fans of the Divergent series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth will be excited by Four: The Traitor, the fourth of four stories, each between fifty and seventy-five pages long, set in the world of Divergent and told from Tobias's point of view. The Traitor takes place two years after The Son and runs parallel with the early events in Divergent ... In this robust story, readers follow Tobias as he uncovers the details of an Erudite plan that could threaten the faction system, and makes plans of his own to keep Abnegation safe. At the same time, Tobias is getting to know a new transfer initiate: Tris Prior.

  • Author:
    Wells, H. G.
    Summary:

    An unnamed Time Traveller visits the year 802,701 and finds two unusual races whose ways of life lead him to question the social and financial assumptions of his own era. Packed with adventure, romance and a great deal of social commentary, Wells’s first novel popularized the concept of time travel and gave rise to the term "time machine."

  • Author:
    Lai, Larissa
    Summary:

    In this visionary novel by Larissa Lai--her first in sixteen years--a community of parthenogenic women, sent into exile by the male-dominated Salt Water City, goes to war against disease, technology, and powerful men that threaten them with extinction. Kirilow is a doctor apprentice whose lover Peristrophe is a "starfish," a woman who can regenerate her own limbs and organs, which she uses to help her clone sisters whose organs are failing. When a denizen from Salt Water City suffering from a mysterious flu comes into their midst, Peristrophe becomes infected and dies, prompting Kirilow to travel to Salt Water City, where the flu is now a pandemic, to find a new starfish who will help save her sisters. There, Kirilow meets Kora, a girl-woman desperate to save her family from the epidemic. Kora has everything Kirilow is looking for, except the will to abandon her own family. But before Kirilow can convince her, both are kidnapped by a group of powerful men to serve as test subjects for a new technology that can cure the mind of the body. Bold, beautiful, and wildly imaginative, The Tiger Flu is at once a female hero's saga, a cyberpunk thriller, and a convention-breaking cautionary tale--a striking metaphor for our complicated times.

  • Author:
    Atwood, Margaret
    Summary:

    Margaret Atwood's dystopian masterpiece, The Handmaid's Tale, has become a modern classic;and now she brings the iconic story to a dramatic conclusion in this riveting sequel. More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results. Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets. As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.

  • Author:
    Neuvel, Sylvain
    Summary:

    Award-winning author Sylvain Neuvel explores an immigration dystopia in The Test Britain, the not-too-distant future. Idir is sitting the British Citizenship Test. He wants his family to belong. Twenty-five questions to determine their fate. Twenty-five chances to impress. When the test takes an unexpected and tragic turn, Idir is handed the power of life and death. How do you value a life when all you have is multiple choice?

  • Author:
    King, Stephen
    Summary:

    This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides-or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail-and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man. In 1978 Stephen King published The Stand , the novel that is now considered to be one of his finest works. But as it was first published, The Stand was incomplete, since more than 150,000 words had been cut from the original manuscript. Now Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil has been restored to its entirety. The Stand : The Complete And Uncut Edition includes more than five hundred pages of material previously deleted, along with new material that King added as he reworked the manuscript for a new generation. It gives us new characters and endows familiar ones with new depths. It has a new beginning and a new ending. What emerges is a gripping work with the scope and moral complexity of a true epic. For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift. And those who are reading The Stand for the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues that will determine our survival. Cover artwork ©2020 CBS Interactive Inc.

  • Author:
    Makansi, K.
    Summary:

    The Resistance Has Begun. Remy Alexander wants vengeance. When she and her friends discover a clue that could help reveal the truth behind the massacre that claimed her sister's life, she may finally get her chance. Valerian Orlean wants answers. Why the girl he was in love with disappeared three years ago. Why she joined the Resistance—a covert organization sworn to destroy everything he believes in. When he is appointed to lead a government program whose mission is to hunt and destroy the Resistance, he may finally find his answers—and Remy. In a world where the powerful kill to keep their secrets, and the food you eat can change who you are, Remy and Vale are set on a collision course that could bring everyone together—or tear everything apart. In this science-fiction dystopia, the mother-daughter writing team of Kristina, Amira, and Elena Makansi immerse readers in the post-apocalyptic world of the Okarian Sector, where romance, friendship, adventure, and betrayal will decide the fate of a budding nation. Be sure to continue the story with The Reaping, Book Two of the Seeds Trilogy, and The Prelude, a novella about Soren Skaarsgard, one of the reader's favorite characters.

  • Author:
    Doubinsky, Seb.
    Summary:

    Williams Burroughs meets Philip K. Dick in this dystopian drug-fueled novel set in the not-so-distant future. Synth is a drug able to induce hallucinations indistinguishable from reality. But it's brand new, highly addictive, and more than likely dangerous. Even the dealers peddling the pills don't know what long term effects the drug will have on its users. For Markus Olsen, Synth offers an easy escape to his crumbling life. Markus, an ex-hacker, has been caught red-handed, and while his friends were sent to jail for thirty years, Markus decided to cooperate, agreeing to lend his services and particular criminal expertise to Viborg City's secret service, aiding the oppressive state power he'd been fighting to break in exchange for his relative freedom. But Markus' past as an anarchist comes back to haunt him, in the form of a credit card with no account but an seemingly unlimited balance as well as the discovery of a mysterious novel in which he is a main character. How much of his reality is being produced by Synth' How disconnected from real life has Markus become' Forced to face his past and the decisions he's made, Markus must decide to choose between the artificial comfort of his constructed life and the harsh reality of treason and the struggle for freedom. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

  • Author:
    Roth, Veronica
    Summary:

    More Four! Fans of the Divergent series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth will be thrilled by The Son, the third of four new short stories told from Four's perspective. Each brief story explores the world of the Divergent series through the eyes of the mysterious but charismatic Tobias Eaton, revealing previously unknown facets of his personality, backstory, and relationships.

  • Author:
    Brunner, John
    Summary:

    A prophetic look at the potential consequences of the escalating destruction of the Earth.

  • Author:
    Bachman, Richard
    Summary:

    A desperate man attempts to win a reality TV game where the only objective is to stay alive in this #1 national bestseller from Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman. "Tomorrow at noon, the hunt begins. Remember his face!" Ben Richards is a desperate man. With no job, no money, no way out, and a young daughter in need of proper medical attention, he must turn to the only possibility of striking it rich in this near-future dystopian America: participating in the ultra-violent TV programming of the government-sanctioned Games Network. Ben soon finds himself selected as a contestant on the biggest and the best that the Games Network has to offer: "The Running Man," a no-holds-barred thirty-day struggle to stay alive as public enemy number one, relentlessly hunted by an elite strike force bent on killing him as quickly as possible in front of an audience all-too eager to see that happen. It means a billion dollars in prize money if he can live for the next month. No one has ever survived longer than eight days. But desperation can push a person do things they never thought possible—and Ben Richards is willing to go the distance in this ultimate game of life and death....

  • Author:
    Walters, Eric
    Summary:

    A global blackout forces teenager Adam Daley and his neighbors to turn their community into a fortress, defending against countless enemies, but a new danger threatens to destroy them all.

  • Author:
    Walters, Eric
    Summary:

    In a world gone dark, life goes on for Adam and his fortified neighborhood of Eden Mills even if the extreme steps taken by his battle-hardened mentor Herb, his police chief mom, and the other leaders in the name of security and survival are increasingly wrenching and questionable. But with renewed determination, Adam will follow Herb's lead: he'll do what it takes, hell make sense of having had to defeat the enemy in such awful ways. All that matters is that their suburban home is safe again in a blackened world that still feels like a place worth living in. So when the next threat, more deadly and dangerous for being so unexpected, comes from within the walls, Adam isn't ready for it. And soon the very person in whom this sixteen-year-old has placed all his hopes will pay the price, because of Adam's mistakes, and mistaken trust.

  • Author:
    Walters, Eric
    Summary:

    "A teen's suburban neighborhood bands together for its own survival in a world stricken by a catastrophic blackout"--

  • Author:
    Lawless, J.R.H.
    Summary:

    If only fools think they can change the world, then a fool is the only one who can. Life doesn't pick winners and losers. That's for the corporations to decide. And they picked Liam Argyle for a carefree life of fame and fortune as host of the world's most popular reality show competition. Unfortunately, Liam doesn't do carefree. After two seasons of parading about the world's biggest victims on The Grass is Greener, he's been forced to put a happy face on one tragedy too many-and he won't turn a blind eye to the horrors of the corporate dystopian world of the 2070s any longer. Now, Liam is out to destroy the very people who made him a star. Even if he fails, he vows he'll never be a feckless pawn of the industrial-military-entertainment-culinary-janitorial complex ever again! . . . and this time, he means it. Contains mature themes.

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