Apocalyptic Adventure Fiction

Of science fiction and fantasy, guest editor Nnedi Okorafor writes, “There are times when it feels like a box, but within it, technically, you can expect anything.” The twenty stories in this collection simultaneously fulfill and defy expectations of genre, showcasing boundary-pushing...

The world isn't what it used to be after the first apocalypse. Scourge roam the desolate wasteland, preying on whoever dares set foot outside the few remaining Megapolis. While enforcing tax from the local province, Raiden and the Mercenary Union's cultivator team come face to face with the latest the Scourge could throw at them: monstrosities far beyond their capabilities. Surviving an onslaught they shouldn't have, the small group manages to find their way home, only to get caught up in a decades-old political play for power.

When she fell asleep, the world was doomed. When she awoke, it was dead. In the wake of a fever that decimated the earth's population - killing women and children and making childbirth deadly for the mother and infant - the midwife must pick her way through the bones of the world she once knew to find her place in this dangerous new one. Gone are the pillars of civilization. All that remains is power - and the strong who possess it.

Near what was once the Pacific northwest, Ryan Cawdor and his roving band of post-holocaust survivors discover a beautiful valley untouched by the nuclear blast that changed the earth forever. Resisting the temptation to settle in that idyllic land, the group is captured and forced deep beneath an extinct volcano to an isolated community of in-bred scientists. These psychopathic descendants of a 20th century government research team are blindly laboring to find better ways of genocide, unaware that the world they are striving to slaughter has already died.

Quinn, now keeping unexpected company, returns to Jackson to find his friends had been and gone. Facing a choice of north or south – of home or unfamiliar territory – he has to make the tough call and deal with the consequences. Rivera and Valentina are in Helena, where they struggle to tell allies from enemies.

Riven Thane has survived nearly the first half of his journey into the Abyssal Descent, but questions are starting to arise. It seems the Blood God isn't as transparent as he pretends to be. Whispers of lost fragments of the Blood subpillar have surfaced, crucial knowledge that could elevate Riven above the rest of his generation—or brand him a heretic and see him torn apart by the clergy. But he's not alone in walking this sinful path. Elder Thune and his agents are plotting in the dark, and every move Riven makes draws the attention of rivals who're just as desperate to ascend in power.

Three scientists were sent to Virginia to investigate how a human settlement has managed to coexist with primals. Those three scientists have now gone missing. And apparently it’s Lee Harden’s job to find them, get them out, and–most importantly–retrieve their research. But if Lee has any hope of getting past the huge population of primals in the area, he’s going to have to enlist the help of someone he thought he’d seen the last of: a human-primal hybrid named Kat.

Things have begun to go awry for the gods of Earth. Control of the game they started is quickly leaving their grasp.

An ambush by a roving group of mutant Stickies puts Ryan and Krysty Wroth in the clutches of a tyrant who plans a human sacrifice as a symbol of his power. The execution is set to take place at the new moon — one night away. Ryan devises an escape plan but is betrayed by another prisoner. As they break for freedom, the Stickie leader unleashes a team of hunter-trackers among the maze of narrow canyons of the Southwest. For Ryan and Krysty, there's nowhere left to run....

Almost leveled by the Soviet missiles that annihilated most of the West Coast, Snakefish is in the midst of a reconstruction, financed by a commodity far more valuable than the usual Deathlands jack. But greed and man's lust for power threaten to shatter the hard-won peace and tranquility of this fledgeling community as disparate factions fight for control of the substance that will give them wealth beyond their wildest dreams.

William Chanokh is immortal...and he’s trapped on the Galahad, an interstellar starship on a never-ending journey through open space. His only companions are Capria - mortal and in cryo-sleep - and Gal, an artificial intelligence, and the love of his life, with whom he spends every waking moment in the "Great Escape". After untold years living countless lives, Gal begins acting strange. Betrayed by his digital love, his long-term memory overwritten, and enduring violent manipulation, Will painfully peels back layers of simulation, fighting to reach reality 1.0...

Two years after an attack brought down the electrical grid across the United States, the recovery effort is well underway. A new network of armored trains carry supplies and industrial equipment crucial to rebuilding the country. But along the rails, one area of America is still mired in darkness, violence, and danger. Some call it the Badlands. Others the Wild West. The government simply refers to it as the New Frontier.

A feeling of longing for a home that no longer exists or for one that never was. Mike and the crew fight for their right to survive, to carve out a new home, even though Mike cannot help but carry with him all the group has lost. He now wonders if he can continue to sacrifice his own for the sake of others. As terrifying new monsters are born amid the chaos, do our heroes have the will and the firepower to overcome these latest threats?

Henry never realized he was special. Sure, he’s an engineer who served his country, but when the virus hit, he found himself alone in a nearly empty world. That’s the key, though: nearly empty. There’s no one left who has the technical know-how to make the world run again...except for Henry. For humanity to survive, he will have to rebuild society out of the motley crew of survivors. It might be impossible, but at the same time, Henry has always loved a challenge.

Get ready for a hostile takeover of epic proportions. In BuyMort: Bull Market Mayhem, the end isn't nigh—it's been leveraged, securitized, and is ready to liquidate. Say your prayers and check your credit score because when the celestial ledger closes, you'll want to make sure your cosmic assets are diversified.

With global warming out of control, large swathes of North America have been struck by famine and drought and are now known as the Desert. A young woman sets out across this dry, hostile landscape, gradually building an arcane apparatus she believes will bring rain to the parched earth. Jesse lives alone, far from civilization. Once, he too made rain, but he stopped when his abilities caused fatalities, bringing down not just rain but scorpions, strange snakes, and spiders.

They say greed lit the match, that gold was at the root of this evil. The miners up near Devils Desk, Alaska, dug too deep, blasted too hard, and they broke something that can never be repaired. Quakes shattered ancient barriers creating a rift between worlds that had been sealed by an ancient race, and the domino effect of those first tremors rocked both the earth’s foundation and humanity’s.

Chase Conrad didn’t get along with people. But that didn’t mean he wanted the world to end. Not like this. High in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, he receives a call that an asteroid is going to wipe out civilization. Not something you hear every day. Torn between hiding out in the mountains and returning to the family farm in Northern Idaho. Chase choses home. His sister and cousins will need him. Unfortunately, three young people and a trial of endurance interfere with his plans.

Etta comes from Nowhere, a village of survivors of the great plague that wiped away the world that was. In the world that is, women are scarce and childbearing is dangerous...yet desperately necessary for humankind's future. Mothers and midwives are sacred, but Etta has a different calling.

But Wynne has traded one set of foes for another, and a hunter in old tech armor wants him for sinister purposes. Neither fully man or machine, it's up to this new bunker core to rise up against all odds, using his wits and technology to prevail against twisted animal-folk, shining mutants, and threats literally from out of this world.