Apocalyptic Science Fiction

Eco-terrorists unleash the worst attack the world has ever seen. Over 25,000 autonomous combat drones are released in Manhattan. Hundreds of thousands are dead, and the entire island is evacuated and quarantined in just a few days' time. Ten years later, Manhattan is still empty of humans, with the exception of the salvage specialists of the most watched reality show in history: Zone War. Produced live and unedited, the show follows five teams of armored vehicle specialists who brave the active drones to recover lost riches and collect bounties on dead ones.

For 32 years archaeologist Julius Gabriel investigated the Mayan calendar, a 2,500-year-old enigma of time and space that predicts humanity will perish on December 21, 2012 (the winter solstice). Julius believes that certain mysterious sites represent pieces of a global puzzle linked to the salvation of our species. Ridiculed by his peers, Julius dies before he can solve the doomsday prophecy. Now only one person can prevent our annihilation: Julius' son, Michael, a patient locked up in a Miami mental asylum.

For years, like millions of other Americans, John Thomas Rourke had planned for what seemed inevitable — the destruction of civilization. There were various possible causes: global economic collapse, some uncontrollable pestilence, a world famine — or nuclear war. And the rumbling signaling the coming of Total War was becoming increasingly strong as Rourke, ex-CIA Covert Operations Officer, weapons expert, and survival authority, made his last desperate gambit to save his estranged wife and two children before the button was pressed.

All Ruby Behl wants for her 17th birthday is a good career path match, and to kiss her best friend and longtime crush, Wesley Fairchild. Unfortunately, the simplicity of teenage wishes evaporated a decade ago when the Tercera virus nearly wiped out the human race. Transmitted through touch, the slightest contact is prohibited in the safe haven community of Port Gibson.

Disorder and chaos ravage London when thousands are contaminated by the accidental discharge of an experimental bio-weapon. The disease robs its hosts of rational thought, giving them a singular desire - find more living flesh to infect. Cut off from information and senior leadership, one squadron of soldiers under the command of their senior NCO, Sergeant Major Johnson, finds itself forced to operate independently until the remnants of military and government command re-establish themselves safely at sea in the English Channel.

North America, 2047. For the small Pacific Coast community of San Onofre, life in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear attack is a matter of survival, a day-to-day struggle to stay alive. But young Hank Fletcher dreams of the world that might have been, that might yet be - and dreams of playing a crucial role in America's rebirth.

When the shattered fragments of the Black Moon collapsed onto planet Earth, splitting continents apart and flooding them with raging oceans, Darkness descended onto our world. The eruptions of hostile energy from behind the Edge distorted the laws of the physical world, creating new life forms which now threaten to take over the planet. The last remaining vestiges of humankind, too desperate for their own survival, have nothing to offer against their advance. So it's time to activate Incarnation: the last instruction issued by Project Stellar.

When a coronal mass ejection threatens to send the United States back to the Stone Age, Jim Graves must rush to prepare his family for the coming apocalypse. As the world around him plunges into anarchy, can he rise to the occasion? Jim's love for his family and will to survive are put to the ultimate test.

"I didn't realize how much I would miss grocery shopping until it was gone." Life was pretty good. The love of Alice's life had proposed, they were proud new homeowners, and she'd just landed a great promotion at work. Things were going to plan. Well, they were, until the Red Death struck. Billions dead in a matter of weeks. The survivors are few and far between. No one is safe. Life will never be the same again.

In the ancient canyons of New Mexico, the citizens of Little Pueblo prepare to sacrifice Ryan and his companions to demons locked inside a 20th-century dam project. But in a world where nuke-spawned predators feed upon weak and strong alike, Ryan knows avenging eternal spirits aren't a part of the game. Especially when these freaks spit yellow acid — and their creators are the white coat masterminds of genetic recombination, destroyed by their mutant offspring born of sin and science gone horribly wrong....

During the Upheaval, city after city fell to the Enillo Virus, filling the streets with ravenous ghouls. Not even the countryside was spared, as millions of the undead flowed over the land. From the mountains of Appalachia to the beaches of the Atlantic, the East Coast was dead. Two groups must enter this nightmare. On one side is John Talon and his small crew, desperate to secure the foundation of a new country. On the other side is Major Thorton, bent on the destruction of the soul of the nation.

At turns nonchalantly hip and charmingly deranged, Suzuki's singular slant on speculative fiction would be echoed in countless later works, from Margaret Atwood and Harumi Murakami, to Black Mirror and Ex Machina. In these darkly playful and punky stories, the fantastical elements are always earthed by the universal pettiness of strife between the sexes, and the gritty reality of life on the lower rungs, whatever planet that ladder might be on.

Orson Scott Card, Kevin J. Anderson, and Larry Niven have seen the future. Now you can, too. A constellation of the brightest lights in the science fiction and fantasy firmament have judged these authors to be the best, the brightest, the truest emerging stars in the field.

Cotton Crossing was a dead end, but not for Ginny Mills. She's just marking time, getting experience in the county library system, before moving back to a decent urban environment. Then the phones stop working. Lee Quartine knows there's no way the pretty girl at the library will even look at him. Especially since he can't open his mouth. He knows he's a hick, but when the power starts going out and the woods are full of strange creatures, it's good to have someone around who can build a fire. And kill.

As the United States unravels, the town of Fall Creek, Michigan struggles to survive. Hannah and Liam have endured the brutal winter and ruthless adversaries, but the threat has never been greater. Enemies from within have wrested control of the town — including what little remains of the food. Isolated, overpowered, and on the verge of starvation, the townspeople are faced with a desperate choice.

When the military safe-zone is overrun, the group must escape, carrying with them their own internal tensions. Alec blames Elaina for the release of the virus. Natalia hates her father for leaving her. Will is tormented by memories of his family killing each other. And worst of all, Elaina is infected with the virus. When the group splinters, two will find refuge in an abandoned town hosted by a rogue group of soldiers, it seems. Is it possible they've found a safe space, or is there evil lurking there, about to unfold? Before they discover the answer, they will lose one of their own.

North America, 2065. In a world that has rediscovered harmony with nature, the village of El Modena, California, is an ecotopia in the making. Kevin Claiborne, a young builder who has grown up in this "green" world, now finds himself caught up in the struggle to preserve his community's idyllic way of life from the resurgent forces of greed and exploitation.

The final volume in Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias triptych, Pacific Edge is a brilliant work of science fiction and an outstanding literary achievement.

When a massive solar flare wiped out all modern technology across the globe, the small town of Abney, Texas, was thrown into chaos. Shelby Sparks and her teenage son, Carter, have found refuge, but Shelby knows she can't simply remain hidden. Carter is a type-one diabetic in need of insulin - and Shelby will risk her life traveling to Austin to make sure he gets it. Shelby's best friend and high school sweetheart, Max Berkman, won't even consider letting her make the perilous journey alone.

When the guns went silent and the last bombs were dropped, billions were lost and the world had become unrecognizable. Nine years later, Reid Flynn and his eight-year-old daughter, Hannah, live a protected life behind the walls and rules of their small hamlet, Deliverance. Life is hard there but safe...or so Reid thought, until Hannah showed the first symptoms of the plague.

A mysterious outbreak has spread quickly, ravaging the globe. The illness is debilitating and deadly. Those who suffer from the virus succumb to a horrible death. Unfortunately, it doesn't end there. The infection transforms them into an unstoppable force of mindless killing machines. At the onset of the epidemic, Nila Carter and her family retreated to her father's cabin in search of safety and seclusion from all that transpired around them. With supplies, fresh water and fertile ground, they were joined by a handful of strangers and positioned themselves for long-term survival.