Choose Your Own Future: Dystopian and Apocalyptic FictionLike this list

16 items

• Station Eleven

  a Novel

  Mandel, Emily St. John, 1979-

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  After a viral pandemic decimates civilization, a traveling theater troupe bringing art and Shakespeare to the world encounters a dangerous prophet in the wastelands. Using multiple perspectives and flashbacks, this complex and lyrical novel…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Handmaid's Tale

  Atwood, Margaret, 1939-

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  In the totalitarian Republic of Gilead (formerly the United States), Offred recounts her assigned role as handmaiden to the Commander and his wife in an oppressive system where women are strictly controlled.

• Red Clocks

  a Novel

  Zumas, Leni, 1972-

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  This thought-provoking, character-driven novel set in the near future follows four women in a small Oregon town whose interconnected lives are affected by the outlawing of abortion and assisted fertility.

• The Dog Stars

  Heller, Peter, 1959-,

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  A pilot who shelters in an abandoned airport hangar in a pandemic-ravaged country is compelled to look for survivors after hearing a radio transmission in this story of survival and hope.

• Red Rising

  Brown, Pierce, 1988-,

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  In a future society on Mars where people are separated by class, a miner from the low-ranking Reds infiltrates the academy for the future elite in this action-packed, gritty novel containing war games reminiscent of The Hunger Games.

• Parable of the Sower

  Butler, Octavia E.,

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  An African-American girl with hyperempathy flees her community after it is overrun with violence and embarks on a dangerous journey northward to find refuge while envisioning a way to save humankind in this thought-provoking look at the future.

• Hollow Kingdom

  a Novel

  Buxton, Kira Jane,

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  Narrated by the domesticated crow named S.T., humans are reduced to a zombie-like state and S.T. uses his know-how to help other animals survive while searching for a cure in this quirky apocalypse tale.

• Future Home of the Living God

  a Novel

  Erdrich, Louise,

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  In a world where evolution is moving backwards and the government is rounding up pregnant women to test for viable births, an adopted Native American girl relays her fears and experiences in a journal for her unborn child in this compelling,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Moon of the Crusted Snow

  a Novel

  Rice, Waubgeshig, 1979-

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  When a small Ashinaabe community in northern Canada goes dark and food delivery and communication are cut off at the onset of winter, the residents have to figure out how to survive while dealing with refugees from the collapsing south. An…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• American War

  El Akkad, Omar, 1982-

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  Historian Benjamin Chestnum chronicles the life of his family and especially his aunt Sarat as they suffer hardship and violence in a United States devastated by climate change and plague and embroiled in a Second Civil War in this dark, terrifying…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Water Knife

  Bacigalupi, Paolo

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  In a bleak and disturbing vision of the near future where the American Southwest is drought-ridden and cities and states ruthlessly fight over water rights, an enforcer, a journalist and a refugee track down rumors which could shift the power…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Passage

  a Novel

  Cronin, Justin

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  In a bleak near future where a military super-soldier experiment goes wrong and a virus turns most of humanity into bloodthirsty creatures, a young girl who survived the experiment emerges a century later who might save the human race. Recommended…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• World War Z

  An Oral History of the Zombie War

  Brooks, Max

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  An oral history of a decade-long war on zombies featuring multiple perspectives from around the world from the journalistic reports of the narrator.

• The Road

  McCarthy, Cormac, 1933-2023

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  An atmospheric, lyrical novel where a man and his son travel to the coast through a bleak, ash-covered world, scavenging food and fighting off cannibals as they struggle to survive.

• Oryx and Crake

  a Novel

  Atwood, Margaret, 1939-

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  In a world ruined by bioengineering, science, and corporations, Snowman (formerly named Jimmy), who might be the last human, embarks on a journey to find answers in this disturbing and darkly humorous narrative.

• The Stand

  the Complete & Uncut Edition

  King, Stephen, 1947-

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  An intricately plotted, atmospheric tome featuring a large cast of characters who survive an escaped supervirus in America and are drawn into two opposing groups, one led by a charismatic, spiritual leader and the other by the Walkin’ Dude.