Dystopian Anthology

Leah is a picker. Her job is to sift through the refuse and waste of the silo and sort it for recycling. She enjoys making homemade paper and writing stories, but she just happens to live in an underground silo full of mysteries, and in a dystopian world that has been destroyed by mankind. The two things that she loves to do most in the world are both illegal.

An incurable disease kills millions around the world. A selfish father is about to be its next victim. See what he wishes for in his last hour. Gene Carlotta is on his deathbed and won’t live long enough to see the next sunrise. As his life flashes in his mind’s eye he comes to realize the one thing he never gave his son and the heartbreaking remorse that consumes his last moments.

In the immaterial depths lies a layer of darkness. In this absence of light, voices bellow. Crying out their stories and begging for acknowledgment of someone...anyone. For some, they have been given a breath of life over the years, for others they’re just now being released. For the first time, they have been gathered in an ensemble.

In a world with an uncertain future, do you imagine for the best or for the worst case scenario? Twelve writers tackle extreme solarpunk utopias and apocalyptic or political dystopias—and the gray areas in between—in Biketopia, the fourth volume of the Bikes in Space series of feminist science fiction stories about bicycling. Some find love and fierce resistance in the end times; others imagine an ecological future of saving technology, with solarpunk ecotopian visions, at times paired with crushing social control.

A collection of eight gripping speculative fiction tales: . . . a gang of teens discover clues to their heritage and unsettling facts about their backward world . . . a university student develops an innovation to revolutionize the holographic film industry . . . alien pirates compel a pilot to know what it means to be alien . . . a hybrid man struggles for freedom on a mining planet . . . a team of rebel agents attempt a daring operation aboard a hijacked medical supply freighter . . . and more! This collection includes the following stories: Phane The Vx Wars The Jisil-ou-az-lar Audra The...

Chloe has never run away from a battle in her life, and she's not about to start. As an apocalyptic nightmare unfolds before her, the enigmatic Bram Tice joins her quest as they try to undo the damage the unseen powers unleashed on their world. Chloe races to unlock her murdered professor's secrets, the key to it all. But she discovers her reluctant companion has even darker, more dangerous secrets of his own. Feeling every ounce of her mortal being, Chloe enters a new world of high- and low-caste fae, vampiric scabs, and still, somehow, finds a strength within herself to fight back.

This collection of stories from Goodreads bares the truth of the pandemic in 500 words and more. It exposes the ugly face of the epidemic and the havoc it unleashed on our collective minds. Enjoy the works of eight authors as they depict their version of the epic times we have lived in and survived to tell the tale.

For decades, George R. R. Martin - best-selling author of A Song of Ice and Fire - has collaborated with an ever-shifting ensemble of science fiction and fantasy icons to create the amazing Wild Cards universe. In the aftermath of World War II, the Earth’s population was devastated by a terrifying alien virus. Those who survived were changed forever. Some, known as Jokers, were cursed with bizarre mental and physical deformities; others, granted superhuman abilities, are known as Aces.

This post-apocalyptic dystopian short story follows Elizabeth, a mechanical and chemical engineer who used to work for a rapid prototyping firm. She uses the skills from her former life to provide for her and the woman she took under her protection, Melissa. The two seem to thrive in adverse conditions to bring semi-modern conditions to their hidden camp. But even after the world ends, you sometimes need something pretty.

Written in the classic science-fiction era of the 1950s and '60s, these stories have out-of-this-world endings reminiscent of The Twilight Zone episodes from the same time. Listeners encounter diverse characters, from a teen surfer and a 1940s boxer to space travelers and strange Arctic villagers. Thought-provoking themes create a unique blend of escapism and intellectual stimulation.

Some religions state that the very universe was created by words. The nation of America was founded using words. Words established the rights and freedoms this nation enjoys. The first of those rights is freedom of speech, which implies so much more than the right to use words. This anthology contains four stories from four authors. Each story pays tribute to either the ideals held by America’s First Amendment or to the concept that the words people use hold power. These authors took the concept of words and placed it in futuristic, apocalyptic, and fantasy settings.

The ant scurries on the counter, alone, and the only remnant of its poisoned colony. Empathizing with the ant, Natalie ponders putting it out of its misery. As a scientist, she knows her flowcharts point to humankind's destruction: much like the ants, we polluted our colony too. Heading up one of a handful of secret labs, Natalie's mission to save humanity seems more like a cliché sci-fi movie than reality. Or maybe the world-weary views she possesses stem from her own bitter past.

In The Memory Librarian, music, fashion, film and activist icon Janelle Monáe returns to the Afrofuturistic world of her critically acclaimed album, Dirty Computer, to explore how different threads of liberation—queerness, race, gender plurality, love—become tangled in a totalitarian landscape...and to discover costs of unravelling them.

Killer bots anyone? What about an eco-Armageddon? And what really happened at Roswell anyway? From ancient mysteries on Earth to far-future conflicts on other worlds, this collection of sixteen sci-fi short stories from the author of The Anti Life Series and the Final Update trilogy promises to take you on an adventure. Whether it’s human-sized parasites, clone lovers, or intergalactic war—there’s something in this novel-length story collage for every science fiction enthusiast.

Are you brave enough to face the terrifying truth lurking behind your neighbor's perfect smile? "Manufactured Minds" isn't just a story – it's a heart-stopping journey into suburban hell that will rewire your brain! Prepare for an adrenaline-fueled rollercoaster as Elise Thompson unravels a sinister conspiracy that will make your skin crawl. You'll feel the paranoia creeping in, questioning everything you thought you knew.

The world is on the brink of annihilation, we just don't know yet. An invisible enemy is waging war under the shadow of a deadly pandemic. The threat comes by way of an alien life-form. They exist among us. They are not like us, like you and I, made up of carbon and nitrogen. But they are here, right now, we just can’t see them. But make no mistake about it, this unseen enemy sees us - and like a whisper in the wind, it brings death.

Kvinden harker, sluger vand, basker vildt med armene, sluger mere og opgiver, synker sammen, hovedet under vand. Skriiitch, dyt! Jeg har været så opslugt af programmet, at en bil må bremse hårdt op for at undgå at ramme mig. Chaufføren peger på min hale og sætter en finger i tindingen, drejer rundt. "Sjoskerøv, du vil nok gerne indlægges i Dødskampen?" råber han forskrækket. Jeg er så optaget, at jeg ikke gider svare jokkehovedet. Krydser gaden. (Citat fra Svend Åge Madsens novelle Skabt for hinanden).

In the future, biohacking has taken humanity to the brink of evolutionary advantage as Artificially Integrated Persons perform at maximal potential, but for Jagga, his utopia turns into a nightmare.

Spanning multiple locations and times, and rendered in fine detail and vivid color, this transportive, expansive collection shows what it means to live as human inhabitants on our one miraculous planet. Lyrical, at times hilarious, and always heartfelt, each of these ten stories is a reflection of individual choice in the face of man-made apocalypse: in a near-future Seoul, where air pollution has become so fatal that the city has been encased in a translucent biodome, a civil engineer charged with its upkeep contemplates an arranged marriage.

This short story follows two ex-employees of an online gaming company as they struggle to find their way in a dystopian future that has no mercy for the weak. They have each other's backs as they go on a snack run. Heather and Emma have the munchies. Things just got real.