Dystopian World

Sura Neelin is on the run from her creditors, from her past, and her father's murderers. She can't get a job, she can't get a place to live, she can't even walk down the street: the total surveillance society that is mid-21st-century America means that every camera and every pair of smart glasses is her enemy. But Sura might have a chance in the alternate reality of the games. People can disappear in the LARP game worlds, into the alternate economy of Notchcoin and blockchains.

Children of the New World introduces listeners to a near-future world of social media implants, memory manufacturers, dangerously immersive virtual reality games, and alarmingly intuitive robots. Many of these characters live in a utopian future of instant connection and technological gratification that belies an unbridgeable human distance, while others inhabit a post-collapse landscape made primitive by disaster, which they must work to rebuild as we once did millennia ago.

Lauren Russell, her family, and the community of Trout Run Valley had been blessed with a workable blueprint for overcoming nearly insurmountable odds - odds that had been surmounted against them, and others like them, since the blackout, subsequent decline of society, and the world's devolution. The aftermath of the most recent onslaught, a ruthless attack by a menacing enemy, had left them reeling in its wake, leaving a once-sustainable food supply damaged beyond repair and two of their own senselessly murdered.

Bounty hunter Hal Mason is doing well for himself, a year after the System converted Earth into a lawless, apocalyptic Dungeon World. Now, though, old friends have come calling with a new opportunity and with it, the murky politics of Galactic interests and overlapping contracts. Hal must protect the first train to cross the new wildlands of the American Midwest.

In a post-apocalyptic world, where the rules have changed, Lance and his family, along with other survivors of the next-world, continue their struggle. Each setback grievously felt, and the clashes with military forces and desperate outlaws, have drained them both physically and mentally. But for Lance, he is left wondering how it will all end, as every day seems harder than the last. Can they reach the safety he promised everyone in one piece?

Twenty years after the nuclear exchange that ended modern civilization, Daimyo Rikimaru Hanzo is the senior protector of the Shogunate. He is a Specialist—one of Teledyne’s enhanced warriors from the Corporate Wars—gifted with enhanced strength and near-limitless endurance. Rikimaru, along with his fellow Specialists Ayame and Mikael, have carved out a small island kingdom in the Strait of Juan De Fuca, northwest of Seattle. Together, they have rebuilt a semblance of civilization under Shogun Kojima’s rule.

After emerging from a bunker, Sergeant Elsie Sharpcot, a shrewd war vet, and her PTSD-afflicted second in command, Dorian Wakely, must lead a group of six soldiers through a world in which all products of human creation have been arranged by an unknown hand into a vast grid resembling an outdoor warehouse.

The year is 2060, and by executive order, the president has herded 2/3 of the American population to underground bunkers specially built to save America from worldwide destruction. The remaining 1/3 are sacrificed in the practicality needed to construct 50 bunkers. This story begins a century later when rumors evolve about escaping to the outside world. To maintain order within the bunker communities, just the mention of wanting to go outside led to the expression of being careful about what you wish for!

The end came fast for Lieutenant Nathan Ward. One moment he was participating in an international convention of mounted police officers, the next he was in a command bunker watching the world’s two biggest corporations - Obsidian and Teledyne - destroy it in an exchange of nuclear hellfire. While Columbia, Missouri, was spared a direct strike, a near-miss EMP fried most of the vehicles and the electrical grid. Then the corporations started a shooting war in the streets, and they didn’t care who got caught in the crossfire. But Columbia was one of the last cities still standing.

This is the story Harry Ransom. If you know his name it's most likely as the inventor of the Ransom Process, a stroke of genius that changed the world. Or you may have read about how he lost the battle of Jasper City, or won it, depending on where you stand in matters of politics. Friends called him Hal or Harry, or by one of a half-dozen aliases, of which he had more than any honest man should. He often went by Professor Harry Ransom, and though he never had anything you might call a formal education, he definitely earned it.

Cassy and her clan have made it alive to the promised oasis of her farm and prepare for the upcoming winter. But old enemies race to catch up to them and have a different plan in mind. Meanwhile, resistance cells in New York face long odds, including betrayal from within and a tightening gauntlet from the invaders and their quislings. The 20s hint at a plot to level the playing field against the invaders, but their end-game is unclear.

Author Chris Pike's debut novel Unexpected World is a gritty and compelling survival tale about human courage and steadfast determination to live, to endure, and to persevere against all odds. Assistant District Attorney Dillon Stockdale is on the phone with his daughter when an EMP obliterates the entire electrical grid of the United States. Anything relying on a computer is fried, including the plane his daughter is on.

She’s a martyr. A myth. A ghost. A legend. She’s my soulmate and my captive, my conscience and my wrath. I love her too much to let her die; I fear her too much to wake her from her slumber. She’s mine. And now she’s gone. He’s unnatural. Undying. Unethical. Unstoppable. He’s the keeper of lies and lost souls. Mine slipped through his clutches. I am his wife, his queen, the love of his very long life. And soon, I will be his executioner.

They say I am a queen. They say I married a monster. That I did so willingly. They say he cannot die, that he does not age. That, together, we rule a ravaged world. They say I used to be one of them, but now I am a traitor. They say many things, all which I cannot remember, but.... I fear what they say is true. Then there is what they don't say, what I see in their eyes - the king terrifies them. He cannot be stopped. And, most worrisome of all.... He is coming for me.

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.

Lance was just trying to get through his terrible day when his world came crashing down. As the blazing sun dipped below the horizon, Lance's heart pounded in his chest, each beat pushing him closer to the edge of desperation. Racing against time and a cosmic cataclysm, he must navigate a ravaged world after a monstrous CME strikes the Earth, plunging it into darkness. But this harrowing journey is not solely to survive the aftermath; it's a race to reach his injured father in distant Kansas, where a lonely farmhouse stands as their last beacon of hope.

Russell and his friends have been through the ringer, but they survived. Now, there are only two questions left. Is Sarah safe? Where can they find her? He misses his wife. Every moment apart is torture. Sarah has been better. She doesn’t trust Spencer, even though he helped her escape Valintino. The wound has slowed her down, but she’s determined to get away.

It is 2085, and Truckee Wallace, a factory worker in Crunchtown 407 (formerly Little Rock, Arkansas, before the secessions), has no grand ambitions besides maybe, possibly, losing his virginity someday. But when Truckee is thrust unexpectedly into the spotlight, he is tapped by the president for a sensitive political mission: to deliver a talking goat across the continent. The fate of the world depends upon it. The problem is - Truckee’s not sure it’s worth it.

After a long journey, Russel, Cathy, and Clyde have made it to Philadelphia. Max, the German Shepherd, senses the danger. All throughout the city, riots and mayhem slow their progress. Where is Amber? Russell is anxious to find her and then get home to Boston. He hopes Sarah has survived. The streets of Bean Town aren’t safe. She had no choice, Sarah had to bolt. Could she make it to her parents in Dover?

Iris Prince is starting over. After years of drifting apart, she and her husband are going through a surprisingly drama-free divorce. She’s moved to a new house in a new neighborhood, and has plans for gardening, coffee clubs, and spending more time with her nine-year-old daughter Melanie. It feels like her life is finally exactly what she wants it to be. Then, one beautiful morning, she looks outside her kitchen window—and sees that a wall has appeared in her front yard overnight. Where did it come from? What does it mean? And why does it seem to keep growing?