Sci fi stories that posit a society or world destroyed by something terrible and/or under autocratic rule. Return to general Sci Fi
Note: these books are currently sorted by release date, with newest first.
Word Count: 60,000
Summary: Queer Handmaid's Tale meets hyper-capitalist dystopia. Nonbinary, queer main character BREEDER is set in a distant but bleakly familiar future, where each person exists to repay Units to the violent Corporation. But girls and women can only be Breeders in this world, and can only repay the Corporation through reproduction. Is the price of survival worth the cost of submission? Will Meadows is a seemingly average fifteen-year-old Westie, who lives and works in Zone F, the run-down outermost ring of the Corporation. In the future state of the Corp, a person’s value comes down to productivity: the right actions win units, the wrong ones lose them. If Will is unlucky and goes into unit debt, there’s only one place to go: the Rator. But for Zone F Breeders, things are much worse—they’re born into debt and can only accrue units through reproduction. Every day in Zone F is a struggle, especially for Will who is fighting against time for access to an illegal medical drug, Crystal 8. Under the cover of night, Will travels to the Gray Zone, where life is less regulated and drugs—and people—are exchanged for gold. There, Will meets Rob, a corrupt member of the Corporation running a Breeder smuggling operation. Will also meets Alex, another teen whom he quickly recognizes as a Breeder in disguise. Suddenly, Will has an illicit job and money, access to Crystal, and a real friend. As the pair grows closer, Alex shares her secret: she is part of the Response, an uprising to overthrow the Corporation. Caught up in the new friendship, Will and Alex become careless as the two covertly travel into Zone B for a day of adventure. Nothing goes as planned and Will’s greatest fear is realized. Will his true identity be revealed?
Word Count: 120000
Summary: In this explosive sequel to Lilith Frost’s groundbreaking debut novel Trials on the Hard Way Home, Bryan, now James, must undertake a harrowing journey into his past amidst the treacherous landscape of an apocalyptic America. James must do whatever it takes to continue protecting a lifetime of secrets—secrets that first led him to his new life and have since made him the target of nefarious plots. In the harsh realities of home, supernatural dangers lurk around every corner, and nothing is quite what it seems in the dark. James must contend with the horrors of his youth and his decision to abandon a brighter future with the men he loved, all while struggling to survive against human treachery and creatures of the night. Reconnected with family and a lost love he never thought he would see again, the past and present collide in this thrilling and heart-wrenching mystery that breathes fresh life into the science fiction, LGBTQ+, and fantasy genres. How to See in the Dark is an exciting and poignant story in which one man must face the traumas of his youth, navigate the challenges of unconventional love, and trust in the loyalty of friends in a world where everyone has a secret to protect.
Word Count: 70000
Summary: Jacqui faces her biggest mystery yet - and her greatest fear. A drive-by shooting leaves Jacqueline Spadros with little remaining support for the life she's built apart from her estranged husband Tony. As evidence grows that the Hart Family is behind the attacks, which up to now have been laid on the doorstep of the notorious Red Dog Gang, Tony brings formal charges against the Harts before the Commission. Jacqui wants to stop the Red Dog Gang and learn the truth about Charles Hart's obsession with her. But the truth is stranger than she ever imagined. And what she learns changes everything. This is chapter 7 of a 13-part future steampunk noir series. Please begin with The Jacq of Spades and read the books in order.
Word Count: 111,000
Summary:
- Fantasy
- Fantasy - Alternate History
- Fantasy - Contemporary
- Fantasy - Dark Fantasy
- Fantasy - Heroic
- Fantasy - LGBTQ+
- Fantasy - Low Fantasy
- Fantasy - New Adult
- Fantasy - Weird Fantasy
- Fantasy - Young Adult
- Fantasy – Gods and Heroes
- Horror
- Horror - Man-Made Horrors
- Horror - Mythic
- Horror - Weird Horror
- Horror - Young Adult
- Sci Fi
- Sci Fi - Alternate / Parallel Reality
- Sci Fi - Alternative History
- Sci Fi - Apocalyptic Fiction
- Sci Fi - Dystopian & Post-Apocalyptic
- Sci Fi - Immortality
- Sci Fi - LGBTQ+
- Sci Fi - Military
- Sci Fi - Near Future
- Sci Fi - New Adult
- Sci Fi - Realistic
- Sci Fi - Science Fantasy
- Sci Fi - Singularity
- Sci Fi - Social
- Sci Fi - Space Exploration
- Sci Fi - Superheroes & Villains
- Sci Fi - Time Travel
- Sci Fi - Transhuman
- Sci Fi - Utopian
- Sci Fi - Weird Sci Fi
- Sci Fi - Young Adult
Word Count: 100212
Summary: The America of our near-future is divided across socio-economic and technological-philosophical lines. The Traditionalists eschew any and all post-human technologies in favor of tangible materials. They uphold strict hierarchical structures based on religion, family, and leadership. They long for the return of the global markets wiped out by a world-shaking disaster called The Great Tide. The Interconnected stand in stark opposition to their ways, living without property, family, or religion, and modifying their bodies with the help of new and invasive technologies. They speak to each other wordlessly, employing a technological telepathy they call ‘thexting’ to communicate mind to mind, and embrace the gifting economy of Merit to maintain their post-scarcity lifestyles. Marto, the traveling Interconnected historian, has exiled himself to protect the ones he loves from his dark secret. In his absence, Helen, a runaway Traditionalist aristocrat, struggles to find her place among the Interconnected, unwilling to return to her cruel family. Reyleena, the former head of security in the Interconnected town of Reverside, has returned to a life of quiet solitude, broken occasionally by the impositions of The Other, an omnipresent AI, who will not leave her alone. Meanwhile, Barnabas, the Traditionalist leader of New Atlantic, fights to return to his township in the wake of an attack. Nora, his sister, remains in Reverside and must come to terms with her new life in captivity.
Word Count: 22000
Summary: RELEASING IN AUDIOBOOK FORMAT APRIL 26TH, 2021 Colton is a trans man living in a climate-changed world. He plies the canals that used to be city streets, earning a living taking tourists on illicit journeys through San Francisco's flooded edges beneath the imposing bulk of the Wall. Tris is an elf who comes through the veil to the City by the Bay - the Caille - on a coming of age pilgrimage called the Cailleadhama. He is searching for his brother Laris, who went missing after crossing through the Caille years before. The two men find they have common cause, and together they set off to find Laris in a world transformed by the twin forces of greed and climate change. And in the end, they find out more than they ever expected, both about the warming world and their own selves. Note: This story was originally published in the "Myths Untold: Faery" anthology from Wilde City Press. It is presented here in its original form.
Word Count: 20000
Summary: An Artificial Superintelligence bent on destroying humanity. A mech warrior determined to stop it. No one is safe. Not before, not now, not ever. Jedidiah Martin survived the AI apocalypse that almost destroyed America. He was there when they took down Isaac, the superintelligence responsible for nearly ending humanity. But is Isaac dead for good? From the ashes, a new threat has emerged. The people from a neighboring town are missing, as is Jedidiah’s nephew, Blake. All hell is about to break loose. With his band of mechanized warriors, Jedidiah sets out to find answers. But the questions keep coming: Is Isaac back from the grave? What does he want with Blake? Will he try to finish humanity for good this time?
Word Count: 20000
Summary: Zeke is a hermit in his late forties who lives a quiet life in a small cabin in the Western Montana mountains, a few miles outside of Thompson Falls. He’s gotten used to being alone since the end of the world, and has everything he needs. Everything but someone to talk to. Nathan is a younger man on a cross-country trek, searching the country for someone... anyone still alive. Saddled with a ghost from his old life and a case of OCD, he stumbles upon Thompson Falls and a pack of rabid dogs. Rescued by Zeke, he has to figure out how to be human again. And with Christmas just a week away, both men have to figure out if there’s something left to be hopeful for, and if they might have a future together.
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: The Complete Powerless World Series in one set! Prequel, Before the Power was Gone “My name is Anne Mathews. I'm a prepper. But I haven't always been. This is how it started.” Book 1, When the Power is Gone Russ and Anne Mathews live in a rural suburb in Tennessee. Regular people, with regular jobs, living a normal life - except for one thing. They are what many people call "preppers". They have stocked up on supplies to survive any kind of event they can think of that may occur to disrupt life as they know it. When that event comes, they start preparing for the new way of life they will face. Along with their teenage son, and their next door neighbors and best friends, they plan their exit from a neighborhood too close to the city to a farm in the country. They just have to get there. Their faith in their own capabilities and in humankind will be challenged, as they fight to protect and keep their supplies and, quite possibly, their lives. Book 2, When the Peace is Gone Russ and Anne Mathews made their escape from their home, along with family, friends, and new friends they made along the way. Now, they must build a new life for themselves at the Warren farm, without the luxury of electricity and very few traces of the 21st century. The problem: there are a lot of people who didn’t prepare for something like this, and some of those people will stop at nothing to take what the group has, by whatever means necessary. They must protect the farm and their supplies day and night from those who would do them harm to acquire them. These people are not soldiers. They are everyday people like you and me. They’re building a clan. How far will they have to go in order to secure the safety of the ones they love in their new home? What price will they pay in the process? Book 3, When the Pain is Gone They thought they were safe, somewhat hidden from the world. They were wrong. They thought they knew how to protect themselves and each other. They were wrong again. In the blink of an eye, they lost people, good people, who were trying to help others. When the evil outside the farm finds its way in, how will they react? Will they hide themselves away, or join in the fight for survival and freedom? They’ve paid the ultimate price. How much more will this new way of life cost them?
Word Count: 71387
Summary: Beware the Gray People Each Seeking, the magic that protects the town of Carra must be renewed, which means the children of the Exalted Family must go into hiding. Whether through disguise or bribe, through trusted friends or perfect hiding places, every child of the Priest family must avoid capture for the full day of The Seeking. When things go wrong with the renewal, it’s up to seventeen-year-old Dahlia, the middle child of the Priest family, and her girlfriend, Bisa, to escape Carra and find the magical beings responsible for the protection. They must learn who would require such a cruel game every year and if the protection of the Gray People is really worth such a price. What they will discover is far worse.
- Fantasy
- Fantasy - Dark Fantasy
- Fantasy - LGBTQ+
- Fantasy - People of Color
- Fantasy - Weird Fantasy
- Fantasy - Young Adult
- Horror
- Horror - LGBTQ+
- Horror - Monsters
- Horror - People of Color
- Horror - Post-Apocalyptic
- Horror - Weird Horror
- Horror - Young Adult
- Sci Fi
- Sci Fi - Alternate / Parallel Reality
- Sci Fi - Colonization
- Sci Fi - Dystopian & Post-Apocalyptic
- Sci Fi - LGBTQ+
- Sci Fi - People of Color
- Sci Fi - Weird Sci Fi
- Sci Fi - Young Adult
Word Count: 101000
Summary: Brey would rate himself least likely to survive a zombie apocalypse. Yet here he is. True, it was a viral apocalypse not zombies, but still… Gone from spoiled rich kid to convict in sixty seconds flat. Stuck in prison with his family three thousand miles away. But not for long. Soon everyone is on the run from the virus. When guards set the convicts loose, Brey vows to reunite with his family no matter what it takes. So what if he sucks at keeping promises? He’s damned if he’s breaking this one. Getting home is his only goal. Too bad there’s somebody who won’t make that easy for him… Hank is a cop. He enforces the law. Even the toxic ones. Waterfall, a small city that made it through the apocalypse, survives on the sale of human beings. Nobody’s getting in the way of Hank’s plans to stop them. Nobody but the rich kid he once arrested for murder. Now the guy’s up for sale, and Hank’s plans go south in a hurry. On the spot to make a quick decision, he buys him. What else can he do?… Dark with snark and crazy romantic. Want to tag along with Brey and Hank while they figure out how to reconcile the irreconcilable? For heart-stopping drama, heart-breaking scenes, swoon-worthy love, and a happy-ever-after to last a lifetime, read now or buy On the Eve of Forever and enjoy! NOTE: On the Eve of Forever was previously published as Backbone by Pride Publishing. It has been rewritten and expanded by approximately 25,000 words.
Word Count: 75000
Summary: A storm is coming ... One year has passed since the unpopular second Diamond Purge began. When the trains in Bridges mysteriously stop running, tensions among the populace rise to the point that the other three Families decide something must be done. Private investigator Jacqueline Spadros gets an unusual request: mediate with Cesare Diamond so that Inventors from all Four Families may meet to find a solution to the crisis. But Jacqui has more pressing problems. Her best friend is dying, she has a missing-persons case that she can't seem to solve, and her teenage sister-in-law is out of control. When her lawyer blackmails her for the enormous amount she owes him, Jacqui does something no one would ever have expected.
Word Count: 13000
Summary: Poems written by Cyborgs in the future, melding sci-fi and poetry, human and machine. The Cyborg Anthology takes place in a future where there was a thriving world of Robots and Cyborgs living peacefully beside Humans, but a disaster destroyed all Robot and most Cyborg life. The book is organized like a typical anthology of literature, split into sections that include a biography of each poet and a sample of their poetry. It covers early Cyborg poetry, political, celebrity, and pop culture poets, and ends with the next generation of Cyborg poets. The narrative takes place in the time after a cataclysmic event, and the collection wrestles with this loss. Through the lives of the poets, the book chronicles the history of personhood for technological beings, their struggle for liberation, and demonstrates different ways a person can be Cyborg. The poems and biographies together tell the story of a complex and enthralling world-to-come, exploring topics that are important in the future, and also urgent right now. “With mordant wit and a playful satiric touch, these Cyborg poems showcase a dazzling range of poetic forms and ideas: imaginative and charmingly subversive. Move over Norton Anthology of Poetry, there’s a new force in town, and they are a delight.” —Renée Sarojini Saklikar, author of Listening to the Bees and Children of Air India “The premise of this collection alone is fabulous. The poems are potent and powerful. With echoes of Le Guin, Brunner and Monáe, Lindsay B-e’s debut is layered and smart, provocative, and deeply satisfying. I was moved and fascinated. Speculative poetry at its best.” —Hiromi Goto, author of Chorus of Mushrooms and Darkest Light
Word Count: 120,000
Summary: In Zero-Day Rising, the third book of the BetterWorld trilogy, Kiyoko resolves to free her sister and bring down President Rand and MediaCorp. However, MediaCorp unleashes its ultimate plan: direct mind control with cerebral implants. Can Kiyoko and Waylee’s team stop them? Can they penetrate MediaCorp’s networks and end the company’s grip over humanity? All while eluding the biggest manhunt in history, in a country where everyone and everything is under surveillance?
Word Count: 131000
Summary: As the epic trilogy hurtles toward its conclusion, the fight for the future isn’t over yet. It could lead to a new beginning, or it might spell the end for the last vestiges of humankind. The generation ship Forever has left Earth behind, but a piece of the old civilization lives on in the Inthworld—a virtual realm that retains memories of Earth's technological wonders and vices. A being named Lilith leads the uprising, and if she succeeds in setting its inhabitants free, they could destroy Forever. But during the generation ship's decades-long voyage, humanity has evolved. Liminals with the ability to connect with the world mind and the Inthworld provide a glimmer of hope. They'll have to face not only Lilith’s minions, but also the mistrust of their own kind and persecution from a new government as homotypicals continue to fear what they can't understand. The invasion must be stopped, the Inthworld must be healed, and the people of Forever must let go of their past and embrace what they’re meant to become.
Word Count: 115000
Summary: The Earth is dead. Five years after the Collapse, the remnants of humanity travel through the stars inside Forever: a living, ever-evolving, self-contained generation ship. When Eddy Tremaine and Andrissa “Andy” Hammond find a hidden world-within-a-world under the mountains, the discovery triggers a chain of events that could fundamentally alter or extinguish life as they know it, culminate in the takeover of the world mind, and end free will for humankind. Eddy, Andy, and a handful of other unlikely heroes must find the courage and ingenuity to stand against the rising tide. Otherwise they might be living through the end days of human history. "Quality, innovative worldbuilding grounds this volume in the “Liminal Sky” series. Fans of The Expanse will find plenty to enjoy here as different groups with widely varying goals and beliefs come together in a struggle to survive the vastness of space and one another." -Library Journal
Word Count: 161705
Summary: An underground city, built centuries ago to ride out the devastating heat. A society under attack. And a young solar engineer whose skills may be the key to saving her city…if she doesn’t get herself killed first. When Jossey was ten, the creatures of the aboveground took her brother and left her for dead, with horrible scars. Now, years later, she’s a successful solar engineer, working to keep her underground city’s power running, but she’s never really recovered. After she saves dozens of people during a second attack, she is offered a top-secret assignment as a field Engineer with Patrol, but fear prevents her from taking it…until Patrol finds bones near where her brother disappeared. She signs on and finds herself catapulted into a world that is far more dangerous, and requires far more of her, than she ever imagined. The creatures and the burning heat aboveground are not the only threats facing the City, and what she learns during her assignment could cost her her life: one of the greatest threats to the City may in fact lie within. With thousands of lives at stake, can she act in time? Aestus is an adult dystopian science-fiction series set centuries after climate change has ravaged much of Earth. An epic story of vengeance, power, shifting loyalties, and survival that looks at just how far people will go to protect what they love, brought to you by science writer S.Z. Attwell, Aestus paints a picture of a world in which far too little has changed.
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Twenty stories of fantasy, science fiction, pirates, horror, spies, and kindergarten noir. From the space-based lothario to the diminutive thief each looking for their next score, and from the jilted romantic traveling through time to the kingdom refugee whose day never ends, there's something for everyone In A Flash!
Word Count: 87200
Summary: Some stories are epic. The Earth is in a state of collapse, with wars breaking out over resources and an environment pushed to the edge by human greed. Three living generation ships have been built with a combination of genetic mastery, artificial intelligence, technology, and raw materials harvested from the asteroid belt. This is the story of one of them—43 Ariadne, or Forever, as her inhabitants call her—a living world that carries the remaining hopes of humanity, and the three generations of scientists, engineers, and explorers working to colonize her. From her humble beginnings as a seedling saved from disaster to the start of her journey across the void of space toward a new home for the human race, The Stark Divide tells the tales of the world, the people who made her, and the few who will become something altogether beyond human.
Word Count: 325
Summary: It’s 200 years after WWIII and he earth is poisoned with Carbon-14 and plutonium. Following the decade long night of nuclear winter and the Great Famines, what’s left of the human race is fragmented and much of the old world is nuclear wastelands inhabited by different factions, from the cannibalistic Ferals, who have reverted to savagery, to the Scavengers who pick among the ruins of the old world cities for useful items to barter with the Dusteaters, nomadic warlike factions who are at war with the despotic Utopians, the most technologically advanced and powerful of the human enclaves, who have forged a new civilization that is controlled by an elite of fertile scientists and intelligentsia who live underground in Sub City, which sprawls beneath Silo City and Surfer Town, where the infertile topsiders called the Mudsurfers live and work for their troglodyte masters. Thundersky often wonders why he doesn’t get sick? All the topsiders get sick from the radiation and the cancers. So sick, that living to 35 is considered a grand old age. Only the Scholars live for longer. But the Scholars manufacture the medicinals that everybody needs to survive. Thundersky is different, not only is he immune from the radiation and cancers that have plagued the earth for 500 years, he’s also a genius and just 19, he has designed an antimatter impulse drive capable of achieving 50% the speed of light. It’s been months since Thundersky submitted his data and applied to the prestigious Tech Training Academy but has heard nothing since. Not all the Scholars are tyrants; some believe the exploitation of topsiders is cruel and wrong. The human experimentations conducted in the Utopian prisons on Dusteater terrorists is barbaric and inhuman. Among them, Grand High Scholar Blackstone Washington and High Scholar Blossom Flora, who for the past twenty years, following the purge of the geneticists and bioengineers have been protecting the “Genesis Child” from the Grand High Council who would kill him. But now people are getting suspicious and asking questions about the topsider who never gets sick, they must act quickly before his true identity is discovered and contrive to bring Thundersky into Sub City and alter his records with a little help from the ARTI-QS-Six-Zero-Two Quantum AI. Zim Steven, head of the SSS is soon suspicious of the new young genius and discovers that he is the Genesis Child, but before he can act, an ancient quantum system is activated at a secret location beneath the flooded ruins of Manhattan, and a countdown begins to unleash another thermonuclear holocaust upon our dying world and a race against time begins. Thundersky is selected to go to New York with an elite team of military tacticals to locate the NORAD system and deactivate it. Meanwhile, Zim Steven lays his plans to make certain that Thundersky and his companions never return to Silo City alive. After their transport drone is shot down by Dusteaters, Corporal Venus Jane and Fox, Thundersky and his best friend Tiger White are the only survivors, with just an armored vehicle. They are pursued by Dusteaters and the infamous Godders of Pennsylvania and a desperate battle for survival begins. While in the wilderness, the foursome make unlikely allies, and Thundersky falls in love with a handsome young Dusteater fighter, Reaper Bloodbuck. Utopia’s arch enemy, the queen of the Dusteaters, the Prophetess will reveal things to Thundersky’s that will unravel his life and everything he believes in, and soon, it’s realized that the humble Mudsurfer is far more powerful than even the Scholars could have imagined…