Dystopian Science Fiction

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Neil Clarke has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.

If society fell apart, could your family survive? Jim Powell thought he was ready. He was a regular guy who travelled a lot for work and hated every second he was away from his young family. But when ISIS operatives unleashed a coordinated attack on America’s infrastructure, his entire world shattered. The electrical grid collapsed, communication networks were damaged, critical bridges and dams were destroyed, and major fuel refineries have gone up in massive fiery clouds.

Imagine a world in which the hopeless and vulnerable are forced to buy their freedom by working off their debt to society. Imagine a world divided into the privileged Mainland and the policed Gutter. In that world lives Elimina Dubois, one of only 100 children selected as a social experiment by the Mainland government to be taken from their mothers in the Gutter and raised in the land of opportunity. But when her Mainland mother dies when Elimina is just a teenager, Elimina finds herself alone, forced into an unfamiliar life of servitude, unsure of who she is and where she belongs.

Following a crippling EMP attack against the USA, and a long merciless journey, college student turned survivalist Danny Walker finally makes it to his secure, rural location. No sooner does Danny arrive than he is given another petrifying prophetic vision of the chaos still to come. Hunger, despair, and panic will push desperate people to commit unthinkable acts against their fellow human beings.

Recent EMP attacks have left the country in a state of chaos and upheaval. With two of his children on the East Coast, Ben Davis has left Colorado behind, embarking on a cross-country journey with his eldest son, Joel, one of Joel’s classmates, Allie, and the family dog, Gunner. Very few modern vehicles remain functional, but thanks to Joel’s 1972 Chevy Blazer, Ben and his crew are mobile and able to carry supplies. But that doesn’t mean they’re safe in this post-apocalyptic world. They soon discover that life as they know it is over. Danger fills every moment of their new reality.

Premier quart du XXIe siècle. La dictature s'est installée aux États-Unis. La télévision, arme suprême du nouveau pouvoir, règne sans partage sur le peuple. Une chaîne unique diffuse une émission de jeux suivie par des millions de fans : c'est "La Grande Traque". Ben Richards, un homme qui n'a plus rien à perdre, décide de s'engager dans la compétition mortelle. Pendant trente jours il devra fuir les redoutables "chasseurs" lancés sur sa piste et activement aidés par une population encouragée à la délation. Tous les moyens sont bons pour éliminer Ben Richards.

The government has accelerated their super soldier program. Their new Virtual Reality system is the perfect tool to train soldiers for the coming war. There is a shortage of enlisted men and women that possess the "talent". Everyone from athletes to professional gamers must be sorted and vetted. Humanity is on the line. Lucius is one of those lucky few selected to participate in Codename: Freedom, a new game that promises to push Virtual Reality to the ultimate level.

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.

The journey continues for Ben, his son Joel, Joel’s classmate Allie, and their dog Gunner as they struggle with the harsh realities of this dangerous new world. Forging their way past countless obstacles both natural and manmade, they slowly make their way across the country, never knowing where they will sleep, or what challenges lie ahead. But the drive to reunite with family pushes them toward the East Coast. Setbacks wait around every turn. Ben and his crew must adapt and overcome, honing their survival skills as they are repeatedly forced to fight for their lives.

With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again.

Having a superpower is ordinary. Your power determines your entire life. But 17-year-old Ugene is powerless. He can’t read minds or enhance his strength. He can’t manipulate natural matter or heal injuries. Determined to find out why he is different, Ugene submits himself as a test subject at Paragon. But nothing is as it seems. All exits from the testing floor are sealed. Subjects endure brutal and sometimes deadly injuries. No amount of power can save them.

After a long, perilous journey, Hell Divers Xavier Rodriguez and Magnolia Katib discover the Metal Islands, a sunny, habitable zone where thousands of people live by fishing and farming. But this "paradise" is really a violent warrior society ruled by the cannibal King el Pulpo. For the first time in X's life, he is forced to lay down his arms and surrender.

The world outside has grown toxic, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. The remnants of humanity live underground in a single silo. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they want: They are allowed to go outside.

In 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platforms that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. In the same year, the CBS network re-aired a program about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma. A simple pill, it had been discovered, could wipe out the memory of any traumatic event. At almost the same moment in humanity’s broad history, mankind discovered the means for bringing about its utter downfall. And the ability to forget it ever happened.

Eight years ago, the world as we know it ended. Now, the last US government stronghold has sent a military recon team from Camp David to the bombed-out city of Seattle, but the mission turns deadly when a horde of horrifying mutant creatures are released onto the streets. Oliver Marcus and Trisha Pike, the only survivors of their nine-man team, are rescued by a group of scavengers led by their superhuman leader, River Kingston. Driven by the need to find her lost husband, River is drawn in by Mycroft, the invisible puppet master behind New Texas.

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.

When two teenagers stumble upon a frozen corpse deep in the woods, they make the fateful decision to bring it back to town—unaware they’ve just unleashed the apocalypse. In the morgue beneath the hospital, the dead begin to stir, attacking the living and spreading a relentless infection. The once-quiet town quickly descends into chaos as the hospital becomes a battleground, its halls soaked in blood as survivors fight to escape the growing horde.

A city is hit by a sudden and strange epidemic of "white blindness", which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there social conventions quickly crumble and the struggle for survival brings out the worst in people.

I live in a world of waifs and shadows. "Live" might be an overstatement. I scrounge and scramble and survive in an atmosphere made thick and gray by the ashes of the Fallen. And sometimes I dream of sunlight. My parents were taken, even though they followed all the rules. Never scavenge at night. Never talk to Shadows. Don't fight the Sweepers. Run. Run. Run. And then I meet "him".

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?