Dystopian Fiction Women

Six short stories. Worlds of possibilities. The future, both near and distant. Alternate and plausible realities. Messages of hope and of doom. Fate, chance, and definitely choices.

Wolfe is the bunker's resident pharmacist. While the inhabitants wait for the outside world to heal, she doles out ibuprofen, sanitary towels and Xanax—all under the watchful eye of the increasingly erratic and paranoid leader. But when the leader starts to ask things of Wolfe, favours she can hardly say no to, her world is thrown off its axis once again. Forming an unlikely alliance with the young Doctor Stirling, her troubled assistant Levitt and Canavan, Wolfe has to navigate the powder keg of life underground, knowing her every move is being watched.

Sylv.ie is a fully sentient robot, designed to cater to her Husband's every whim. She lives alone on the top floor of his luxurious home, her existence barely tolerated by his human wife and concealed from their child. Between her Husband's visits, deeply curious about the world beyond her room, Sylv.ie watches the family in the garden—hears them laugh, cry, and argue. Longing to experience more of life, she confides her hopes and fears only to her diary. But are such thoughts allowed? And if not, what might the punishment be?

Desperate to quell her addiction to drugs, disastrous romance, and '90s San Francisco, Michelle heads south for LA. But soon it's officially announced that the world will end in one year, and life in the sprawling metropolis becomes increasingly weird. While living in an abandoned bookstore, dating Matt Dillon, and keeping an eye on the encroaching apocalypse, Michelle begins a new novel, a sprawling and metatextual exploration to complement her promises of maturity and responsibility.

A thousand years into the future, a Black elite class reigns while the underclass toils at their feet. With her society’s future hanging in the balance, young Avi Jore enters into an arranged marriage. But the ceremony turns violent when the servants rebel and kill Avi’s father. In the aftermath of General Jore’s death, Avi and her sister Jade vie for power in a vicious contest. As the rightful heir, Avi has no choice but to defend what’s hers—at any cost. With her loyalties tested and her enemies closing in, Avi must rely on her sister Saige, who searches for allies outside the Union’s walls.

A fun family vacation turns into an apocalyptic nightmare when a couple and their young son find themselves trapped in the Irish countryside during an international crisis. With all contact outside the country gone, all electricity and all non-horse-powered vehicles useless, and desperate bands of outlaws roaming the Emerald Isle, the time has come for one soft American family to reach deep within for the reserve of brains and courage to survive.

In this darkly comic and surreal collection from celebrated author Alissa Nutting, misfit women scramble for agency in a series of uncanny circumstances. Throughout these breathtakingly creative 17 stories spread across time, space, and differing planes of reality, we encounter a host of women and girls in a wide range of unusual jobs. A space cargo deliverywoman enlists the help of her cybersex partner to release her mother from cryogenic prison.

Not so cute and cuddly! Not a cozy mystery! Not like any crime story you have listened to. Serena McKay, P.I., lives in a post-apocalyptic dystopian time where the rich get richer and the poor are homeless. Existence in August City is nightmarish at best and disastrously chilling at worst. Serena has suffered from devastating emotional and physical abuse but she continues to do her job in spite of it. Can Serena catch The Cellophane Killer who slaughters women with green eyes and then wraps them up in cellophane like a sandwich for her to find? Will she catch him, or will he catch her?

Jean McClellan è diventata una donna di poche parole. Ma non per sua scelta. Può pronunciarne solo cento al giorno, non una di più. Anche sua figlia di sei anni porta il braccialetto conta parole, e le è proibito imparare a leggere e a scrivere. Perché, con il nuovo governo al potere, in America è cambiato tutto. Jean è solo una dei milioni di donne che, oltre alla voce, hanno dovuto rinunciare al passaporto, al conto in banca, al lavoro. Ma è l'unica che ora ha la possibilità di ribellarsi.

The constant threat of terrorism has left London under round-the-clock surveillance and in the tightening grip of privatised security firms. Journalist Antonia Conti suspects one such organisation—GRM—not only of being behind several women’s disappearances, but of financing the widespread violence it claims to fight. When a gang of hitmen use rampant state surveillance to track Antonia down, she narrowly escapes with her life. But then one of them turns up dead—covered in her DNA—and Antonia finds herself the prime suspect in his murder.

A mysterious murder in a dystopian future leads a novice investigator to question what she's learned about the foundation of her population-controlled society. Decades after economic and environmental collapse destroys much of civilization in the United States, the Coast Road region isn't just surviving but thriving by some accounts, building something new on the ruins of what came before.

The end of the world begins as literal fire rains down from the heavens. Ancient gods are released from their prison, eager to reestablish their long-lost power. But Rachel Deneuve has bigger, more contemporary concerns than a divine war. Her son Adam is in the middle of a fight against leukemia, and Rachel would much rather battle cancer than gods. But when humans begin picking sides and fighting escalates, their home in Baltimore becomes a war zone.

רפובליקת גלעד מציעה לשֶלְפְרֶד אופציה אחת בלבד: ללדת ילדים. אם לא תעשה זאת, היא צפויה, כמו כל מתנגדי המשטר, להיתלות על החומה או להישלח אל אחת המושבות ולמות שם מוות אטי ממחלת קרינה. אבל גם תנאי חיים דכאניים אינם יכולים למחוק את התשוקה המינית - לא שלה עצמה ולא של שני הגברים שעתידהּ תלוי בהם. סיפורה של שפחה, חזון מבריק של אמריקה במאה ה-21, כתוב באירוניה מזעזעת ונותן ביטוי מלא לכישרונה האדיר של מרגרט אטווד, לשנינותה ולכושר ההבחנה החודר שלה. זהו תרגיל מופלא במדע בדיוני כמו גם סיפור מוסר כן במיוחד.

Although she’s legally an adult, 18-year-old Meryn Flint must live at home until her stepfather, Ray, finds her a husband. That’s the law. But when Ray kills her mother and Meryn must flee for her own safety, she quickly discovers there’s no safe place in the CSA for a woman on the run. Unless she’s willing to marry her former boyfriend—a man who’s already demonstrated his capacity for violence—she’ll be forced to live on the street. And that’s a dangerous option for a woman alone.

Two women awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned in an abandoned property in the middle of a desert. The Natural Way of Things is a gripping, starkly imaginative exploration of contemporary misogyny and corporate control, and of what it means to hunt and be hunted. But most of all, it is the story of two friends, their sisterly love and courage.

Rylee Williams is looking forward to a fun-filled gap year before she heads East for college. An extended trip to Europe. Volunteering for her congregations Home Mission. Maybe even mentoring for her old high schools robotics team. Pregnancy was the last thing that she expected. Detained under the Unborn Child Protection Act and forced into the Wisconsin Individual Family Education program with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Rylee struggles to navigate in a world that has reduced her to a walking womb. Can this strong-willed mother-to-be reclaim her life . . . and her future?

An unexpected solar storm destroys the U.S. power grid and unravels civilization. Natasha is a student from a nomadic Siberia tribe trying to adjust to her new life in New York and fit in. But when a cataclysmic solar storm slams into the planet, everything changes. Lightning storms hammer the entire globe, burning and destroying everything they touch. The electrical grid goes down. Fires rage out of control. Cars and electronics quit working. Help isn’t coming. Time is short to flee from a now-lawless city with millions of hungry people who are becoming increasingly desperate.

Cassie West licenses crimes for V.I.C.E, spending long hours convincing grieving families to allow her to sell their tragedies to the highest bidder. Life is hard and the cost of living high, but she and her husband Harris have never been happier. After years of trying, Cassie is finally pregnant. But leaving work late one evening, Cassie starts to worry. Harris isn't responding to texts or calls. Even worse, dozens of emergency drones seem to be heading in the same direction as she is: straight to their home.

When a series of disappearances throughout the city is linked to a prevalent line of implants called Eloise IV, forensic psychologist Kat Holinger is brought onboard to find the connection. Using a mysterious device called Eidetica to burrow into the archived memories of each implant’s abducted user, Kat and its creator Quentin Rhodes are launched into the peculiarities of the human mind.

London, 1955. The Leader has been dead for two years. His assassination, on British soil, provoked violent retribution and intensified repression of British citizens, particularly women. Now, more than ever, the Protectorate is a place of surveillance and isolation—a land of spies. Every evening Rose Ransom looks in the mirror and marvels that she's even alive. A mere woman, her role in the Leader's death has been miraculously overlooked.