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.
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Summary: Life in 1960 Fellowship America is tenuous. High school senior, Ian Hobart, dreams of becoming a star reporter. Until one symbol changes his life forever. One fall day in 1960 Fellowship America, Ian rides his bike home after his shift as copy boy. He is dreaming of the day he is a star reporter and can afford his own car, but all his dreams vanish at the sight of the Fellowship shield burned into the family’s front door. He can’t believe it. Doesn’t want to believe it. The Fellowship’s Angels of Death Took his parents and older brother. And that can mean only one thing—he and his siblings will be next. Pursued by Fellowship agents, Ian gathers his younger siblings and what supplies they can carry. They flee into the wilds of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where they rely on Ian’s savvy and survival skills. But life in the mountains is brutal and unforgiving. Resources are limited. Food is scarce. And winter is coming. They won’t survive without help. With no one else he can trust, Ian turns to his best friend. And puts all their lives in danger.
Word Count: 81,000
Summary: In the last surviving cities of a ruined world, the concept of “woman” has been forgotten to history. Those unfortunate enough to lack a Y chromosome live as second-class citizens in a world dominated by mascs. Ember is Y negative. He is scorned, bullied, abused by every masc he encounters, at work and at the gym. Not even his Y negative roommate cuts him any slack. He wants so desperately to be accepted as a masc that he’d rather buy black market testosterone than food. Something’s gotta give—he needs a change in his life, but has no idea how to find it. Jess is a masc with a passion for studying the recovery of their devastated world. His boyfriend is pressuring him for more commitment, and his father expects him to take over the family business. He can’t wait to get away from civilization for his seasonal research out in the wild. When Jess offers Ember a job, their lives collide in the isolated wasteland, and their initial attraction turns into a relationship that horrifies those around them. Soon their struggle to stay together and to be who they are turns into a fight for their lives.
Word Count: 42060
Summary: Dark deeds are being done, and Jenn Canaday, a special agent with the FBI, has been assigned to look into them. This takes her to New Mexico, where cattle are being rustled and people are going missing—one of them the niece of the state’s governor. Meg Parkinson is a sheriff’s deputy in the small town of Laurel Hill. She and Jenn had once spent a steamy week together, but then Jenn had sent her away, something Meg hasn’t gotten over, as reluctant as she is to admit it. When Meg notices that the homeless camp on the edge of her town has become deserted, Jenn is brought into her vicinity to aid in the investigation. Will the former lovers be able to work together? Can they rekindle the flame that had once burned so brightly? And will they learn what’s behind all the disappearances without disappearing themselves?
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Summary: They said it was a suicide mission. Cora has only one question. When can they start? Cora’s world gets larger as she seeks out allies. The cost to find them leads her to once again cross the dragon, Lucius. The wheels of fate continue to turn. Are Cora and Lucius destined to fight to the death, or can the future be changed?
Word Count: 120000
Summary: Isabelle des Zephyrs has always been underestimated, but after discovering the well of hidden magic within her, unraveling a centuries-long conspiracy, and stopping a war between rival nations, she has gained a newfound respect amongst the cutthroat court. All that is quickly taken away when Isabelle is unfairly convicted of breaking the treaty she helped write and has her political rank and status taken away. Now bereft, she nevertheless finds herself drawn into mystery when her faithful musketeer Jean-Claude uncovers a series of gruesome murders by someone calling themselves the Harvest King. As panic swells, the capital descends into chaos, when the emperor is usurped from the throne by a rival noble. Betrayed by their allies and hunted by assassins, Isabelle and Jean-Claude alone must thwart the coup, but not before it changes l’Empire forever.
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Summary: Bloodlines: Book 3 of The Wildblood Learning the truth about the Altered, and the legacy of The Vista, is the first priority of Team Three. It may earn them exile from their home. They know this. Failure is not an option. Loyalty has its price. So does revenge. Someone has to pay. ~~~~~ The Wildblood Series A Post-Apocalyptic Action Adventure No one remembers what started the war, the big one. Civilization stopped, and what came next was fueled by rage and fear. Twenty years on, The Vista remains isolated, and the original survivors are content with that. Their children are not. The search for others will send them out into a world they know nothing about, where the line between enemy and ally is blurred.
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Summary: Welcome to the last of the great flying Cities! It’s 9172, YE (Year of the Empire), and the future has forgotten its past. Soaring miles over the Earth, Autumn, the sole surviving flying city, is filled to the brim with the manifold forms of humankind: from Human Plus “floor models” to the oppressed and disfranchised underclasses doing their dirty work and every imaginable variation between. Valerius Bakhoum is a washed-up private eye and street hustler scraping by in Autumn. Late on his rent, fetishized and reviled for his imperfect genetics, stuck in the quicksand of his own heritage, Valerius is trying desperately to wrap up his too-short life when a mythical relic of humanity’s fog-shrouded past walks in and hires him to do one last job. What starts out as Valerius just taking a stranger’s money quickly turns into the biggest and most dangerous mystery he’s ever tried to crack – and Valerius is running out of time to solve it. Now Autumn’s abandoned history – and the monsters and heroes that adorn it – are emerging from the shadows to threaten the few remaining things Valerius holds dear. Can the burned-out detective navigate the labyrinth of lies and maze of blind faith around him to save the City of Autumn from its greatest myth and deadliest threat as he navigates his feelings for his newest client, the handsome golem Alejandro?
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Summary: The battle against fate begins. Cora Blake needs answers to her growing magical abilities. She returns to her hometown in the Native Free Lands for the first time since she was a child, seeking out the tribe’s elder. But when a prophecy foretells of an attack on the tribal lands, she must fight against fate to prevent a war. The dragon Lucius manipulates from the shadows, while Cora’s own demons threaten to break her. Trapped in a conflict that appears predetermined, Cora must turn against the agency that trained her. She came to Heaven’s Crest for answers. What she found is a cause worth fighting for.
Word Count: 54,637
Summary: Laurie Parkinson, who’s lived in Laurel Hills all his life, is a gay sheet metal worker who’d rather be a gay hairdresser. Wheat Dupuis, who’s also gay, is the scion of one of Laurel Hill’s wealthiest families. He’d rather grow grapes than become CFO of Dupuis International. Laurie wakes one morning to discover his family gone and his town decimated by a bacteria that has lain dormant for millennia, incased in ice. With the melting of the ice caps, the bacteria is released, and mankind faces a pandemic that could surpass the Black Plague. Wheat and his family are on their way to safety when the unthinkable happens and he’s left behind. Laurie knows of a bunker in the woods outside Laurel Hill, where he intends to take refuge. On the way there, Laurie finds and rescues Wheat. Can two such dissimilar men work together through a pandemic to find their families ... and possibly find love, as well?
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Summary: In post-apocalyptic Oregon, a forest paradise is surrounded by lands gutted from corporate greed. One tribe holds the hope of a new future for mankind. One young man becomes paramount in returning human spirituality to a hostile world. But first, he must find himself. Embedded in this culmination of an adventure trilogy that spans the life of a boy transitioning into a powerful man, find a love story that spans more than a lifetime is revealed. Find a path of redemption for a lost soul. Join kindred spirits as Jamari is joined by Rodney, the First Knight Shaman; Peter, the Second Knight Shaman; Terry, the Third Knight Shaman; and the Sophia Shaman as they discover and investigate a new portal into the Other Worlds of shamanic lore. When Jamari's wandering spirit is called back into the mortal realm from a near disastrous loss to godhood in the Upper World, does he resent what he's lost, or does he build on what he's learned? Wait, back to the mortal realm? When did he leave? THAT's the story!
Word Count: 170000
Summary: The enemy hunts him, but not for the reason he thinks. How does a human survive in an alien dominated InterGalactic Community? By becoming an assassin, of course. At least, that’s what Leopold thought when he became an assassin for the elite. Pretending to be an alien known as Voidstriker, Leopold feeds his appetite for vengeance, killing aliens as well as taking their money. It's a win-win to his mind. That is, until a bounty is placed upon his head. With his true identity now revealed to the IG Community, Leopold knows it's only a matter of time before the powerful family members of his victims come for blood. Far worse is the fact that the one who put the bounty on his head, is the one he most fears. A routine job three cycles ago brought him face-to-face with Mastrodai, a prince of the powerful Mrrog Nation. Not only did Leopold—accidentally—destroy part of Mastrodai’s moon, but one glimpse of the mighty alien had him feeling desire for the first time in his life. He ran, and like predator after prey, Mastrodai never stopped hunting him. Leopold is convinced that Mastrodai wants bloody revenge. But when he finally confronts the mrrog, he is stunned to realize Mastrodai wants something very different. Something surprisingly intimate—the one thing that scares Leopold more than torture. Reader Discretion advised: Off page torture and abuse, and aftermath of rape. While the intimacy between Leopold and Mastrodai is always consensual, there are others who wish to break Leopold into as many pieces as possible.
Word Count: 75000
Summary: What if the person who hated you most was the only one who could save you? Thousands of gentlemen have gone bankrupt in Bridges and trouble brews between the Diamond and Spadros crime families. Yet the city is united in its desire to exact vengeance for those murdered in the zeppelin disaster. Penniless and alone, private eye Jacqueline Spadros confronts the lowest point of her life. Seen as an accomplice in the financial crisis and accused of a crime she didn't commit, Jacqui faces trial in front of a hostile jury - and could receive the death penalty. Jacqui knows she's been framed by the illusive Red Dog Gang. But will the jury believe her?
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Summary: D.C. Fergerson presents The Dragon’s Dream Saga: The epic series featuring Cora Blake, a Native American sorceress as she tries to defy fate in a world of magic, myth, technology, and pulse-pounding action. Cora Blake never realized the danger. As an Arcane Agent for a black ops team, she was trained to never get caught. With her magic, stealing information was easy, quiet, and harmless. That was before she knew they had crossed Lucius, the most powerful dragon in the world. With her entire team dead, Cora begins a desperate race against time. In a foreign land with no support and her own government on her tail, she must know the secret of what they stole. What is Project Phoenix? Her every move is watched. There’s no dark alley Lucius’ eyes can’t reach. Is he an ally or her worst enemy?
Word Count: 16508
Summary: Lyncoln Ryland always saw himself as an ordinary man with an ordinary job, working maintenance in an ordinary mall. The only thing about him that isn’t ordinary are his feelings for the man who’s renovating the mall, but any kind of relationship with such a sophisticated man is highly unlikely. Adam James is the wealthy man who owns the mall. He’s secretly been yearning for Lyncoln, a man he doesn’t see as ordinary in the least. But Adam’s family has plans for him, and they don’t include a relationship with a blue-collar worker. All this is about to change when the sirens go off, signaling the possible end of the world. When the two men realize this isn’t a drill, they take shelter in the mall that isn’t quite as ordinary as everyone believes. What will the outcome be when two such disparate men must survive the apocalypse together?
Word Count: 112200
Summary: Miranda has three days until an arranged marriage erases her existence forever. Unable to bear a loveless marriage in a nation where wives surrender all rights, Miranda escapes. Freedom costs more than she imagined. In 1961 Fellowship America, obedience is enforced by genetically-identical female assassins called the Angels of Death. Angels who pursue her across a country where trust is fatal and truth is treason. Miranda uncovers her father's unforgivable acts and her mother's lies. The aunt whose funeral she attended? Alive and a scarred warrior of the resistance. When her supposedly dead aunt agrees to train her, Miranda seizes the chance to fight back. She'll risk everything to prove she's more than the naive girl who fled marriage. Book One of the Fellowship Dystopia trilogy: One girl's escape fuels a war. What would you sacrifice to keep your soul? “a chilling but inherently fascinating read from start to finish.” —Jim Cox, Midwest Book Review “Intense and gripping”… “strongly recommended”—K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite Now Miranda faces an impossible choice: retreat to the suffocating safety of her old life, or join a resistance that could cost her not just her independence, but her family, her future, and possibly her life. My Soul to Keep is a powerful exploration of resilience, identity, and the courage to chart your own path in a world determined to dictate your destiny. In a world where conformity means survival, what would you sacrifice to keep your soul?
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Summary: Bad "Things" lurk in dark, abandoned spaces... Love, Death, & The After: Abandoned Spaces picks up the story where Rainey and her Team, along with Kendale's survivors, left off in Darkness. Escaping a late-night Nagual attack, and with her lover held together by "shoelaces and bailing wire," Rainey encounters the secret behind the Nagual hidden within a black site lab--a secret from The Before with a treacherous purpose in The After. Stopping the Nagual plan is hard enough, but her team has betrayed the trust of the town's survivors, while an attack by the Nagual's "Maker" and his militant allies looms. When someone compromises Preston's life, Rainey might be out of time and luck altogether. The black site's lead scientist puts his agenda on hold until he and his militia support team can eliminate Rainey and her team. Tesla has a golden opportunity to test his Nagual creations against an old nemesis and the geopolitical forces standing in the way of his greater destiny. Meanwhile, the emergent Nagual, Adam and Cain, have plans of their own. Book 2 of 3 in this four part series, "Love, Death, & The After: Abandoned Spaces" brings a science-fiction take on cutting edge bioengineering that pits the limits of romance, loyalty, and community against a violent world hell-bent on devouring it all. Book 1: Love, Death, & The After: Darkness Book 2: Love, Death, & The After: Abandoned Spaces Book 3: Love, Death, & The After: Never Again
Word Count: 89,000
Summary: A heart-rending loss… Flora Bock will never forgive the Anferthian invaders for murdering her birth-parents. Growing up with the grandson of her sworn enemies is living a nightmare—until the day she sees him through the eyes of a young woman. But giving her heart to him is the ultimate betrayal of her parents’ memory. A life in peril… There are precious few places in the galaxy where Fander K’nil is safe. One look into Flora’s beautiful, hate-filled eyes is proof enough that Terr is not one of those places. He must keep her at a distance and stay alive long enough to fulfill his destiny. No matter what his heart desires. An empire at stake… Just as Fander and Flora begin to discover the depth of their feelings for each other, they are thrust into a deadly game of politics and assassination with an enemy who stops at nothing to stay in power. With the lives of everyone they love at risk, they must find a way to avert a new invasion before it’s too late—even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice.
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Summary: In 2115, Jamari enters the challenges of the Manhood Rites for the Elk Creek Tribe of southern Oregon. After a series of tests and challenges, he is accepted into the young men's hall in the tribal seat of Milltown. In a post-apocalyptic world, Jamari must learn how to face the challenges of his times. He joins his mentor Shane and some new-found friends as he enters into tribal management lessons including forestry, crop management, militia leader, and the Night Studies. The night studies will teach him eros and how to please others in mankind's most valued trait: sexual studies. With a full day of classes, adventures, and expeditions, he also has the eros lessons at night. What's a poor boy to do when he's so busy? Jamari discovers an innate talent as a shaman and this changes everything he expected from his world. He's taken under the wing of the famed Peter Shaman, once the Second Knight Shaman of the entire tribe and joins an expedition to the Oregon coast to render salt. Along the way, he discovers new peoples, new lands, new cultures and expectations. Then, after a successful negotiation with a coast tribe, disaster strikes and Jamari must set aside his boyhood and embrace his shaman powers.
Word Count: 6000
Summary: In the far future domed city of Dickens, no mercy is given. So when Eleanora Bryce finds her husband dead at his own hand, she finds herself trapped between the truth and his mountain of debt. When Eleanora refuses to speak with the constable investigating the case, he suspects her of murder. Eleanora faces prison - or worse - unless she can find a way out of Dickens. But can she bear to return to the city which ruined her husband and murdered her son? A 6,000 word short companion story to the Red Dog Conspiracy steampunk crime fiction series. If you love sweet Regency romance or the works of Charles Dickens, you'll love Vulnerable. Vulnerable takes place shortly before the events in The Jacq of Spades: Part 1 of the Red Dog Conspiracy. It can be read at any time before book 4, The King of Hearts. Timeline: Gutshot: The Catastrophe The Alcatraz Coup Brothers Vulnerable <- you are here The Jacq of Spades The Queen of Diamonds The Ace of Clubs The King of Hearts The Ten of Spades The Five of Diamonds The Two of Hearts The Three of Spades The Knave of Hearts The Four of Clubs The Jack of Diamonds (coming October 2024)
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Summary: 1899 years after the Catastrophe, Bridges is run by the Mob. As its steam-driven infrastructure fails, a new faction rises. Can she stop them? The Red Dog Conspiracy follows the story of 22-year-old small-time private eye Jacqueline Spadros beginning from her first major case: the missing little brother of her best friend, whose murder ten years before in front of her still haunts her nightmares. The only clue? A Red Dog stamp across the alley from where the boy was last seen. Dodging the man - seemingly mad - who has publicly threatened her life, placating her brutal, sadistic father-in-law, and dealing with her feelings about her ex-lover, while being married to one of the city's biggest drug lords: Jacqui is a busy woman. Her life is about to get much busier. From the very first page, Jacqui is dragged into a web of lies, secrets, and betrayals which both endangers her life and the lives of those she loves. Dark, gritty, violent steampunk crime fiction which keeps you guessing to the very end. If you like crime fiction, noir, Victorian/historical, gritty steampunk, psychological thrillers, hardboiled mystery, hard sf, dystopian, or mafia romance you will love this set. This digital box set comprises Act 1 of a 13 part serial novel. Included in this set: The Jacq of Spades: Part 1 of the Red Dog Conspiracy The Queen of Diamonds: Part 2 of the Red Dog Conspiracy The Ace of Clubs: Part 3 of the Red Dog Conspiracy If made into movies, this set would be rated R for bad language, graphic violence, smoking and alcohol use, child kidnapping, teenagers murdered (a serial killer is on the loose), and sexual content (Jacqui is married, after all). Welcome to the Family.
