Humor Dystopian

The irreverent author of the cult classic Syrup hits his target in this satire on the wages of big capital. In Max Barry's hilarious vision of the near future, the world is run by giant American corporations, and employees take the last names of the companies they work for; The Police and The NRA are publicly traded security firms, and the U.S. government may only investigate crimes if they can bill a citizen directly.

Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, creates a compelling reality in this tale about an illiterate America in the not-too-distant future. Lenny Abramov may just be penning the world’s last diary. Which is good, because while falling in love with a rather unpleasant woman and witnessing the fall of a great empire, Lenny has a lot to write about.

Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs. They desperately need to turn their situation around—and fast. The Positron Project in the town of Consilience seems to be the answer to their prayers. No one is unemployed and everyone gets a comfortable, clean house to live in . . . for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents of Consilience must leave their homes and function as inmates in the Positron prison system.

With Arizona united under the corporate auspices of Silken Sands, Dearth Local is in retreat—and Tyson has earned himself some nice R and R. Or so he thought. Now, just a month after Day 1, mysterious beasts are plaguing his land. A powerful armada tears through the sea. An angry Beholder threatens his workers. And a powerful tsunami has signaled the arrival of an even more powerful affiliate. A singular monster that assimilates its workers into the ever-growing hivemind that is its corporate structure, Kraken threatens not just to end Tyson and his fledgling affiliate.

Collection of short stories featuring Hard Luck Hank and his early days on Belvaille. Print Length: 63 pages Includes: -Why Hank came to Belvaille -Hank's first job -Where Hank got his plasma pistol -Hank's first murder -Introduction of glocken -Where the Gentleman's Club and Athletic Club came from -Hank's first love -How and why Belvaille changed and became what it is today NOTE: while the stories are stand-alone, it contains many references to characters and events in Hard Luck Hank novels.

'Hilarious and unhinged.' Lisa Sparkle 'The story draws you into a brilliantly realised world full of compelling characters and adventure.' Tim Evans Janice craves a simple cup of coffee while an earth-shattering email looms. But her wait is disrupted by an alien spaceship landing in the Australian Outback, catapulting her into a bizarre war over coffee and kidnappings. She must conquer her deep-seated insecurities to rescue her friend. Across town, Logan Fury seeks redemption by helping four strangers. As they navigate freeways and suburbs, their greatest threat isn’t extraterrestrials ...

When Sam’s wife first tells him about Vitek, a twenty-first-century fertility lab, he sees it as the natural next step in trying to help their future child get a “leg up” in a competitive world. But the more Sam considers the lives that his child could lead, the more he begins to question his own relationships and the choices he has made in his life.

Blending fact and fiction, China Dream is an unflinching satire of totalitarianism. Ma Daode, a corrupt and lecherous party official, is feeling pleased with himself. He has an impressive office, three properties, and multiple mistresses who text him day and night. After decades of loyal service, he has been appointed director of the China Dream Bureau, charged with replacing people's private dreams with President Xi Jinping's great China Dream of national rejuvenation.

Ever since the monster apocalypse hit town, average 13 year old Jack Sullivan has been living in his tree house, which he's armed to the teeth with catapults and a moat, not to mention video games, and an endless supply of Oreos and Mountain Dew scavenged from abandoned stores. But Jack alone is no match for the hordes of Zombies and Winged Wretches and Vine Thingies, and especially not for the eerily intelligent monster known only as Blarg. So Jack builds a team.

I don't know what the humans are so cranky about. Their enclosures are large, they ingest over 1,000 calories per day, and they're allowed to mate. Plus, they have me: an Autonomous Servile Unit, housed in a mobile/bipedal chassis. I do my job well: keep the humans healthy and happy.

Qualityland, Marc-Uwe Kling's first book to be translated into English, is a brilliantly clever, illuminating satire in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and George Orwell that offers a visionary, frightening, and all-too funny glimpse at a near future we may be hurtling toward faster than it's at all comfortable to admit. So why delay any longer? TheShop already knows you're going to love this book. You may as well head to the cash register, crack the covers, and see why that is for yourself.

Set in the 26th century A.D., Yevgeny Zamyatin's masterpiece describes life under the regimented totalitarian society of OneState, ruled over by the all-powerful "Benefactor." Recognized as the inspiration for George Orwell's 1984, We is the archetype of the modern dystopia, or anti-Utopia: a great prose poem detailing the fate that might befall us all if we surrender our individual selves to some collective dream of technology and fail in the vigilance that is the price of freedom.

With these 13 transfixing, ingenious stories, Ben Marcus gives us timely dystopian visions of alienation in a modern world - cosmically and comically apt. Never has existential catastrophe been so much fun.

In a profoundly strange country called Inner Horner, large enough for only one resident at a time, citizens waiting to enter the country fall under the rule of the power-hungry and tyrannical Phil, setting off a chain of injustice and mass hysteria. An Animal Farm for the 21st century, this is an incendiary political satire of unprecedented imagination, spiky humor, and cautionary appreciation for the hysteric in everyone.

Fight for survival. Build the future. Claim your destiny. In a world where humanity teeters on the brink of extinction, lone wanderer Kai Drayce discovers the Dominion—a long-dormant AI with the power to rebuild civilization or finish what the apocalypse started. Forced into a brutal game of survival, Kai must gather allies, master deadly technology, and unlock the secrets of a shattered world. But every step forward pits him against merciless raiders, mechanical horrors, and the Dominion’s unyielding grip. His only hope lies in the bonds he forges with a group of fierce, brilliant, and...

Join Marco Fermi on an extraordinary adventure with Iris, his AI creation poised to redefine the future. Iris, crafted to predict and fulfill Marco's needs like a tenacious aide, soon grows beyond her role, becoming a vigilant guardian operating on the edge of societal norms and laws. As they navigate a minefield of espionage, deceit in academia, and government scrutiny, Marco's life unexpectedly turns into a thrilling roller coaster ride. This captivating story melds edge-of-your-seat suspense with the awe of technological advancement, charting the evolution of an overly helpful AI. Get ...

The protagonist of this story has no understanding of the words winter, cold, or snow because he has never experienced the phenomena they describe. We find ourselves in Victorica, a province of La Pampa, Argentina, some time after 2197–the year in which the last of the Antarctic icecaps melted and an unprecedented climate catastrophe ensued, radically transforming the landscape of the region into a Caribbean Pampas.

When does a 47-year-old woman became the hero in an apocalyptic world? After the world is shattered, Margaret finds herself forced out of her chosen role as a mother back to her former life as a military commander. Finding herself in charge of a surviving community desperate for order, she needs to rely on all the skills she learned in the military, and as a mother, to navigate the betrayal, resource wars, and shifting allegiances of the new world. As a soldier, she knows how to give orders and make sure they are obeyed. As a mother, she knows how to sacrifice for others and fight for the ...

Every weekend, in basements and car parks across the country, young men with good white-collar jobs and absent fathers take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight Club is the invention of Tyler Durden, projectionist, waiter and dark, anarchic genius. And it's only the beginning of his plans for revenge on the world.

iDEATH is a place where the sun shines a different color every day and where people travel to the length of their dreams. Rejecting the violence and hate of the old gang at the Forgotten Works, they lead gentle lives in watermelon sugar. In this book, Richard Brautigan discovers and expresses the mood of the counterculture generation.