Dystopian Science Fiction

The best-selling Extinction Cycle series by Nicholas Sansbury Smith first introduced listeners to a world ravaged by an engineered virus that turned men into monsters. Humanity's only hope was not a cure, but another bioweapon. When deployed it killed 90 percent of the infected, but the remaining 10 percent transformed into even more terrifying creatures called Variants. Here's a collection of Extinction Cycle short stories that explore the human spirit and the fight for survival in the face of overwhelming odds from some of the leading voices in the post-apocalyptic genre.

A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab, and soon, you'll be matched with your perfect partner - the one you're genetically made for. That's the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: Test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance, and love.

When Theo meets Kylee at the beach, it is love at first sight...but everything is about to change. As they share their first kiss, the ground trembles beneath them and a gigantic tidal wave strikes the beachfront, demolishing everything in its path. Theo, Kylee, and their friends now battle to stay alive as they realize everything outside their island is gone. The small group now faces a growing evil which threatens to make survival impossible. On Atlantic Island, there are no games....

Juliette, now mayor of Silo 18, doesn’t trust Silo 1, especially its leader, Donald. But in the world of the Silos, there is no black and white—everything is shades of gray. Donald may not be the monster Juliette thinks he is, and may in fact be key to humanity’s continued survival. But can they work together long enough to succeed?

Emily, David, Mason, Lisa, and Mark head to the California coast to find a boat back to Canada. They all felt that it would be much easier and quicker to sail home rather than go over land with the others. They were wrong. The trek through the lawless city to get to the coast is only the first step. Hardship and loss await as the teens struggle to overcome both the challenge of the journey and threats from within. The trip home will change them all - for good or bad, as the stranded teens make for home by sea.

When an EMP strikes, plunging the West Coast into chaos, Alan Hughes must lead a group of boys stranded far from their Alaskan home, while his wife, Zara, prepares their homestead for long-term survival. With communication down and society crumbling, they face impossible choices in this gripping post-EMP survival thriller. Perfect for fans of EMP survival fiction and dystopian novels, this story dives deep into the challenges of off-grid living, prepping for the end of the world, and the fight for survival against overwhelming odds.

Saff, a determined new doctor in the first year of her internship, had clawed her way out of a tumultuous past, only to be dragged back into it when the zombie outbreak hits. Forced to join her estranged father and his band of raiders, she's confronted with the harsh reality that desperation can make monsters out of anyone—even her.

Deep underground, 39 women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before. As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the 40th prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others’ escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.

Trust no one. Pull the trigger. Hide. Run. Stay away from the other survivors. Stay away from the Infected. Emma has obeyed her father's rules since she can remember running from the car accident that claimed his life. But one night that all changes. The knock at her cabin door and the voice of the girl on the other side don't make Emma help the girl. No - it's the fact that the girl, Anna, is willing to die to save her wounded brother that changes everything in Emma's world.

George Orwell's nineteen Eighty-Four is one of the most definitive texts of modern literature. Set in Oceania, one of the three inter-continental superstate that divided the world among themselves after a global war, Orwell's masterful critique of the political structures of the time, works itself out through the story of Winston Smith, a man caught in the webs of a dystopian future, and his clandestine love affair with Julia, a young woman he meets during the course of his work for the government.

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name....

When Lenina and Bernard visit a savage reservation, we experience how Utopia can destroy humanity. Cloning, feel-good drugs, anti-aging programs, and total social control through politics, programming, and media: has Aldous Huxley accurately predicted our future? With a storyteller's genius, he weaves these ethical controversies in a compelling narrative that dawns in the year 632 A.F. (After Ford, the deity). When Lenina and Bernard visit a savage reservation, we experience how Utopia can destroy humanity.

For 16-year-old Jane, life is a mystery she despairs of ever mastering. She and her friends are the idle, pampered children of the privileged class, living in luxury on an Earth remade by natural disaster. Until Jane's life is changed forever by a chance encounter with a robot minstrel with auburn hair and silver skin, whose songs ignite in her a desperate and inexplicable passion. Jane is certain that Silver is more than just a machine built to please. And she will give up everything to prove it.

Basra is the eternal city - a paradise filled with relics of the old world. We are welcomed into the upper sanctum of Basranian society where sly smiles and wicked eyes tempt us with riches and lavish comfort, yet something seems hopelessly wrong. The city is decaying. A rotten core with a deadly key that unlocks something even more sinister. As an ambassador for Tartarus, it's my duty to bridge the gap between us and the other cities. But even more, as part of this team, it's my right to know the truth.

In a futuristic world where predictive software can map out the lives of every living person and their descendants, Naomi Prynne is on trial. The charge: endangerment by way of a pregnancy. Thirteen jurors will determine whether Naomi is allowed to carry the pregnancy to term, but the jurors are also all plaintiffs, the software having predicted how Naomi Prynne’s child will affect each of them in life-changing ways.

In the future, mankind has learned to manipulate their DNA, harnessing only the good genes, like intelligence, strength, and height. They called this prime DNA and humans rushed to get these new pDNA injections, which gave them superhuman-like qualities. Centuries later, however, their DNA became so engineered that humans rarely lived past the age of 30, thanks to a new deadly disease called the Kiss. The only cure is to receive an injection of oDNA, DNA from an Original human that hasn't been genetically altered. Problem is there aren't many Originals left.

Mrs. Moore knew that leaving the city was the best chance that she and her students had to survive the EMP, but when half of her charges refuse to leave she knows she has to stay and try and protect them. Fighting against time and the people in her group that refuse to face the reality of their situation will be a huge challenge. Even after finding a safe haven to wait out the destruction and chaos they are threatened and have to flee for their lives. With her group's numbers lessening at every turn she must lead them on the 1500-mile journey back to Canada.

A cyborg with a mysterious and dangerous past. A naive girl fleeing the dying farmlands to forge her own future. Chance has fought his entire life, first for survival in the streets of Cyn City and later for money and prestige in the underground Cyborg Fight League. His fists and cybernetic arm have solved almost every problem he's ever faced, except for love. After losing the love of his life, he never thought he'd find someone again. Verity left behind everything she knows to start a new future in Cyn City.

It's not until Dez's father shows up, wielding a gun and knowing more about Kale than he should, that Dez realizes there's more to this boy - and her father's "law firm" - than she realized. Kale has been a prisoner of Denazen Corporation - an organization devoted to collecting "special" kids known as Sixes and using them as weapons - his entire life.

From out of the clear blue sky, an unknown chunk of rock from the frozen void strikes the Earth with unimaginable force, gouging a wound into the very crust of the planet. Millions die in an instant, and millions more await the end as the looming catastrophe unfolds...Thousands of miles away from the disaster, a call comes in the middle of the night. Families act, and react, and while panic spreads, the world keeps on spinning. Maybe a little slower, and perhaps with a teeny bit more of a tilt, but such things are a mere trifle to the existence of a planet.