Fiction Survival Stories

Astrid Llewelyn has always scoffed at her eccentric mother's stories about killer unicorns. But when one attacks her boyfriend - ruining any chance of him taking her to prom - Astrid finds herself headed to Rome to train as a unicorn hunter at the ancient Cloisters the hunters have used for centuries. However, all is not what it seems at the Cloisters. Outside, unicorns wait to attack.

Taj is the most talented of the aki, young sin-eaters indentured by the mages to slay the sin-beasts. But Taj's livelihood comes at a terrible cost. When he kills a sin-beast, a tattoo of the beast appears on his skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on his mind. Most aki are driven mad by the process, but 17-year-old Taj is cocky and desperate to provide for his family. When Taj is called to eat a sin of a member of the royal family, he's suddenly thrust into the center of a dark conspiracy to destroy Kos.

Cade is settling into a new boarding school, contemplating his future, when he finds himself transported to another realm. He soon discovers their new world is populated with lost remnants from the past: prehistoric creatures, ancient relics, and, stranger still - people. Overwhelmed by his new surroundings, Cade has little time to adjust, for soon he and his fellow classmates are forced to become contenders in a brutal game, controlled by mysterious overlords.

Thrown into solitary confinement for his failed escape attempt from furnace prison, Alex Sawyer struggles not to let the hellish pitch-black silence overwhelm him. Before another escape attempt is even possible, he must first survive the nightmare that now haunts his endless nights. Because the hole doesn’t need monsters to do its dirty work — not the usual brutes in black suits and their silver-eyed, fleshless hounds, or wheezing freaks with filthy syringes.

Torin Ten-Trees and his closest companions, Bryn and Grimsa, set out to join The Gatewatch and become trollhunters. When a troupe of meddling dwarves throws them off course, they are captured by trolls, and taken as prisoners to a secret gathering deep underground. There, they learn that an ancient giant has crowned himself king of the trolls, and he plans to utterly destroy The Gatewatch. Their perilous journey back to the land of sun and stars will stretch their strength to the limit, strain their wits, and demand an unspeakable sacrifice. Will it be enough to defeat the Troll King?

Alan Russell thought about his family night and day. They didn’t just mean the world to him, they were his world. As a devoted husband and father, his sole purpose was to love, support, and protect them. Yet Alan had gone a step further, doing everything in his power to ensure his family’s survival in what he believed would become a perilous and uncertain future. On the day civilization changed forever, he found his efforts hadn’t been enough.

Sera Lighthaven has always felt as if she didn’t quite belong among her people, the Cerulean, who live in the city above the sky. She is curious about everything - especially the planet her city is magically tethered to - and can’t stop questioning things. Sera has always longed for the day when the tether will finally break and the Cerulean can move to a new planet. But when Sera is chosen as the sacrifice to break the tether, she feels betrayed by everything in which she’d been taught to trust. In order to save her city, Sera must end her own life.

The nightmare of the outbreak is finally over, but Cat’s fight has only just begun. Exhausted, wounded, and reeling from revelations that have shaken her to her core, Cat is at a breaking point. Camped in the woods with Cole and Leoben, she’s working day and night, desperate to find a way to stop Lachlan’s plan to reprogram humanity. But she’s failing - Cat can’t even control her newly regrown panel, and try as she might to ignore them, she keeps seeing glitching visions from her past everywhere she turns.

Catarina Agatta is a hacker. She can cripple mainframes and crash through firewalls, but that's not what makes her special. In Cat's world, people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, allowing them to change their bodies in any way they want. And Cat happens to be a gene-hacking genius. That's no surprise, since Cat's father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction.

Twelve-year-old Donn Fendler steps away from his Boy Scout troop for only a minute, but in the foggy mountains of Maine, a minute is all it takes. After hours of trying to find his way back, a nervous and tired Donn falls down an embankment, making it impossible for him to be found. One sleepless night goes by, followed by a second...and before Donn knows it, almost two weeks have passed, leaving him starving, scared, and delirious.

The Last Prophet has been found, yet he sees destruction ahead. In this sequel to the critically acclaimed There Will Come a Darkness, kingdoms have begun to fall to a doomsday cult, the magical Graced are being persecuted, and an ancient power threatens to break free. But with the world hurtling toward its prophesized end, Anton’s haunting vision reveals the dangerous beginnings of a plan to stop the Age of Darkness. As Jude, Keeper of the Order of the Last Light, returns home in disgrace, his quest to aid the Prophet is complicated by his growing feelings for Anton.

Sixteen-year-old Makayla Summerlin enjoyed one thing in her crazy, messed-up existence: hanging with her friends at school. But her life is uprooted when she suddenly finds herself forced to live with a grandfather she barely remembers. One act of defiance will change her life forever. Having trouble adjusting to her new home, she sets sail in her grandfather's old sailboat. On a journey that will challenge everything she has ever believed about herself, Makayla must overcome her fears if she, and a surprising stowaway, are to survive.

The Castaways finds Tom Tin and four other convicts drifting on the ocean when they come upon an empty ship. Shortly after, they also encounter two men who appear to be refugees from the abandoned vessel. But these two are not what they seem, and they become an obstacle for Tom as he travels home.

From the beginning Jonathan is spooked by the deserted island where his family is camping - and his premonitions come true. After Jonathan's mother breaks her ankle, Jonathan and his younger sister, Abby, are left alone. Then a devastating earthquake hits. The bridge is destroyed, the trailer is smashed, and there's no food or water. Suddenly Jonathan and Abby are fighting for their lives...

The Call of the Wild is the story of a dog in the frozen Yukon told from his point of view. But this brilliantly told tale of a canine hero is in fact a graphic picture of the great gold rush to the Klondike in 1897. Brutal and fierce on one hand, it is also a story of tenderness and loyalty between man and beast and remains one of the best- selling books in American literary history.

Every year since the Ashlords were gifted phoenix horses by their gods, they've raced them. First into battle, then on great hunts, and finally for the pure sport of seeing who rode the fastest. Centuries of blood and fire carved their competition into a more modern spectacle: The Races. Over the course of a multi-day event, elite riders from clashing cultures vie to be crowned champion. But the modern version of the sport requires more than good riding.

Even under the most normal circumstances, high school can be a painful and confusing time. Unfortunately, Lilianna’s circumstances are anything but normal. Only a few people know what caused her sudden change from model student to the withdrawn pessimist she has become, but her situation isn’t about to get any better. When people begin coming down with a quick-spreading illness that doctors are unable to treat, Lil’s worst fears are realized.

Cog looks like a normal 12-year-old boy. But his name is short for “cognitive development”, and he was built to learn. After an accident leaves him damaged, Cog wakes up in an unknown lab - and Gina, the scientist who created and cared for him, is nowhere to be found. Surrounded by scientists who want to study him and remove his brain, Cog recruits four robot accomplices for a mission to find her. Cog, ADA, Proto, Trashbot, and Car’s journey will likely involve much cognitive development in the form of mistakes, but Cog is willing to risk everything to find his way back to Gina.

Serina Tessaro has been groomed her whole life to become a Grace - someone to stand by the heir to the throne as a shining, subjugated example of the perfect woman. It's her chance to secure a better life for her family, and to keep her headstrong and rebellious younger sister, Nomi, out of trouble. But when Nomi catches the Heir's eye instead, Serina is the one who takes the fall for the dangerous secret her sister has been hiding. Trapped in a life she never wanted, Nomi has only one option: surrender to her role as a Grace until she can use her position to save Serina.

Returning from his training with Gold in the strange world of Somerset, Arbor is immediately forced into yet another battle - this time against multiple enemies. Worse, he receives reports of disturbing activity coming from the Goldenleaf Forest, and dire warnings of a threat that Laedrin will not be able to handle. The future holds many uncertainties - the hardest of which comes when Arbor is forced to make a choice between rescuing his sister from herself, and keeping the peace in his own lands.