Books like 'The Divers' Game'
Readers who enjoyed The Divers' Game by Jesse Ball also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi dystopia dark literary-fiction politics
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Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 31 ratingsIlya Kaminsky's astonishing parable in poems asks us, What is silence?Deaf Republic opens in an occupied country in a time of political unrest. When soldiers breaking up a protest kill a deaf boy, Petya, the gunshot becomes the last thing the citizens hear--they all have gone deaf, and their dissent becomes coordinated by sign language... -
![Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle by Harold Bloom, Terry Southern]()
Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle by Harold Bloom, Terry Southern
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsA critical overview of the work features the writings of Terry Southern, William S. Doxey, Jerome Klinkowitz, Richard Giannone, John L. Simons, James Lundquist, and other scholars.- After the bomb, Dad came up with ice / Terry Southern- Vonnegut's Cat's cradle / William S... -
![Playground by Richard Powers]()
Playground by Richard Powers
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFour lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic new novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home... -
![First Shift: Legacy by Hugh Howey]()
First Shift: Legacy by Hugh Howey
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsIn 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech (CAN) outlined the hardware and software platform that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. In the same year, the CBS network re-aired a program about the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma... -
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![I Am Not a Number by Lisa Heathfield]()
I Am Not a Number by Lisa Heathfield
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe powerful and heart-wrenching new novel from Lisa Heathfield, award-winning author of Seed and Paper Butterflies. Perfect for fans of Sarah Crossan, Louise O'Neill and Lisa Williamson.The Traditionals have been voted to lead the country, winning people over with talks of healing a broken society, of stronger families and safer streets. They promised a happier future for everyone... -
![Choice by Jodi Picoult, Thérèse Plummer]()
Choice by Jodi Picoult, Thérèse Plummer
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsListening Length: 38 minutesIn this thought-provoking short, #1 New York Times best-selling and award-winning author Jodi Picoult explores a dystopian crisis through the pinhole lens of an ex-couple experiencing an unwanted pregnancy.Margot and James are broken up—for good this time. James made sure of it when he dropped the bomb on Margot: that he doesn’t want kids, ever... -
![The Doomed City by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky]()
The Doomed City by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsArkady and Boris Strugatsky are widely considered the greatest of Russian science fiction masters, and their most famous work, Roadside Picnic, has enjoyed great popularity worldwide. Yet the novel they worked hardest on, the novel that was their own favorite, the novel that readers worldwide have acclaimed as their magnum opus, has never before been published in English... -
![Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt is the year 2081. Because of Amendments 211, 212, and 213 to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is stupider, uglier, weaker, or slower than anyone else. The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced.One April, fourteen-year-old Harrison Bergeron is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel, by the government... -
![The Semplica-Girl Diaries (short story) by George Saunders]()
The Semplica-Girl Diaries (short story) by George Saunders
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNovelette, Free online fiction.From newyorker.com“The Semplica-Girl Diaries” deals with a family in a not-too-distant future (or perhaps an alternate present or past?) that is struggling to keep up with the Joneses—which, in this society, means leasing some unusual garden ornaments... -
![We of the Forsaken World... by Kiran Bhat]()
We of the Forsaken World... by Kiran Bhat
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn a distant corner of the globe, a man journeys to the birthplace of his mother, a tourist town destroyed by an industrial spill. In a nameless remote tribe, the chief’s second son is born, creating a scramble for succession as their jungles are being destroyed by loggers... -
![The Free People's Village by Sim Kern]()
The Free People's Village by Sim Kern
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsIn an alternate 2020 timeline, Al Gore won the 2000 election and declared a War on Climate Change rather than a War on Terror. For twenty years, Democrats have controlled all three branches of government, enacting carbon-cutting schemes that never made it to a vote in our world. Green infrastructure projects have transformed U.S...Categorized as:
dystopia politics literary-fiction fiction sci-fi lgbtq social-commentary alternate-history -
![1984: An Audible Original adaptation by Joe White, George Orwell]()
1984: An Audible Original adaptation by Joe White, George Orwell
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the age of uniformity.From the age of solitude and doublethink.From the age of Big Brother.From me, Winston Smith.Greetings.It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith... -
![Motorman by David Ohle]()
Motorman by David Ohle
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFiction. It is curious that a reprint could be heroic. It is more curious that a book this good could go out of print so quickly. And it is most curious that an introduction would even be required for a novel that, if you examine it carefully in the right kind oflight, might actually be seen to be steaming... -
![Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj]()
Czarne oceany by Jacek Dukaj
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsDukaj od nowa skonfigurował klasyczną twardą fantastykę naukową.Mroczna, sugestywna, boleśnie realistyczna wizja społeczeństwa posthumanistycznego.Czarne oceany – przerażająca otchłań myśli ludzkiej.Nicolas Hunt kieruje tajnym projektem rządowym, badającym komercyjne zastosowania telepatii. Rezultaty tych badań zmienią nieodwracalnie nie tylko jego życie, ale także losy całego świata... -
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![Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee]()
Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratings'You said that you would come back. You looked me in the eye and said that. Well, if you had, this is what you would have seen: soft wood, black cracks, fridges in the road. The broken spines of old rides at Dreamland.'In the coastal resort of Margate, hotels lie empty and sun-faded 'For Sale' signs line the streets. The sea is higher - it's higher everywhere - and those who can are moving inland... -
![How to Buy a Planet by D.A. Holdsworth]()
How to Buy a Planet by D.A. Holdsworth
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Earth has been sold to aliens. What could possibly go wrong?It’s the Year 2024. Drowning in debt following the pandemic and facing ruin, the world's leaders have taken the only logical decision.They’ve sold the planet...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction politics action-adventure aliens book contemporary fiction -
![The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville]()
The Universe in Miniature in Miniature by Patrick Somerville
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn this genre-busting book from award-winning novelist Patrick Somerville characters, stories, and stray thoughts revolve around the "The Machine of Understanding Other People," the story of a Chicago man who is bequeathed a supernatural helmet that allows him to experience the inner worlds of those around him... -
![Anna by Sammy H.K. Smith]()
Anna by Sammy H.K. Smith
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA chilling feminist novel set in a near-future dystopia, Anna explores the conflicts between selfhood and expectations, safety and control, and the sacrifices we make for the sake of protection.Beaten. Branded. Defiant.Anna is a possession. She is owned by the man named Will, shielded from the world of struggles by his care. He loves her, protects her, and then breaks her... -
![Every Version of You by Grace Chan]()
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn late twenty-first century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside a hyper-immersive, hyper-consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise, and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile their aging bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction sci-fi fiction mental-illness lgbtq contemporary pollution-climate-change -
![Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson]()
Good Night, Sleep Tight by Brian Evenson
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“PERHAPS TOMORROW I WILL WAKE UP ANOTHER PERSON. PERHAPS TOMORROW I WILL WAKE UP NOT A PERSON AT ALL.”From the “master of literary horror” (GQ) comes a collection of new stories tracing the limits and consequences of artificial intelligence and “post-human” relationships... -
![A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar]()
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD“Wondering if there’s a novel out there that gives Cormac McCarthy’s The Road a run for its money? Here you go. [A Guardian and a Thief is] an indelible piece of writing, in equal parts dazzling and devastating...Categorized as:
literary-fiction dystopia fiction sci-fi contemporary historical-fiction mystery book -
![Memories of the Future by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky]()
Memories of the Future by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWritten in Soviet Moscow in the 1920s—but considered too subversive even to show to a publisher—the seven tales included here attest to Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s boundless imagination, black humor, and breathtaking irony: a man loses his way in the vast black waste of his own small room; the Eiffel Tower runs amok; a kind soul dreams of selling “everything you need for suicide”; an absentminded...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction politics 20th-century adult anthologies classics communism -
![Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories by Maureen F. McHugh]()
Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories by Maureen F. McHugh
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn her debut collection, Maureen F. McHugh examines the impacts of social and technological shifts on families. Using deceptively simple prose, she illuminates the relationship between parents and children and the expected and unexpected chasms that open between generations...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction adult anthologies contemporary family female-author fiction -
![Dance Dance Revolution by Cathy Park Hong]()
Dance Dance Revolution by Cathy Park Hong
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"The Guide" is a former South Korean dissident and tour guide who speaks a fluid fabricated language; "the Historian" interviews the Guide and annotates the commentaries. Cathy Park Hong's passionate and artful poem sequence weaves an ultimately revitalizing dialogue on shared experience in a globalized world, using language as subversion and disguise... -
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![From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryū Murakami]()
From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryū Murakami
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the Fatherland, with Love is set in an alternative, dystopian present in which the dollar has collapsed and Japan's economy has fallen along with it. The North Korean government, sensing an opportunity, sends a fleet of rebels in the first land invasion that Japan has ever faced. Japan can't cope with the surprise onslaught of Operation From the Fatherland, with Love...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction politics adult alternate-history asian-mc book contemporary -
![Neon Green by Margaret Wappler]()
Neon Green by Margaret Wappler
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIt's the summer of 1994 in suburban Chicago: Forrest Gump is still in theaters, teens are reeling from the recent death of Kurt Cobain, and you can enter a sweepstakes for a spaceship from Jupiter to land in your backyard. Welcome to Margaret Wappler's slightly altered alternative '90s. Everything's pretty much as you remember it, except for the aliens...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction adult alternate-history book contemporary family female-author -
![Dog Logic by Tom Strelich]()
Dog Logic by Tom Strelich
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIf "Dr. Strangelove" and "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" got together and had a litter of puppies you'd get "Dog Logic", a duck-and-cover fable and love story. Funny, inflammatory, and weirdly propheticHertell Daggett is the divorced and damaged caretaker of a failing pet cemetery on the outskirts of Bakersfield, and he's just discovered a lost civilization... -
![A Better World by Sarah Langan]()
A Better World by Sarah Langan
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe author of Good Neighbors , “one of the creepiest, most unnerving deconstructions of American suburbia” (NPR), returns with a provocative and disconcerting novel about a woman questioning her new home in an exclusive company town after a night out goes terribly wrong.Welcome to Plymouth Valley... -
![Low Flying Aircraft And Other Stories by J.G. Ballard]()
Low Flying Aircraft And Other Stories by J.G. Ballard
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsContents:The Ultimate CityLow-Flying AircraftThe Dead AstronautMy Dream of Flying to Wake IslandThe Life and Death of GodThe Greatest Television Show on EarthA Place and a Time to DieThe Comsat AngelsThe Beach...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook contemporary fiction -
![The Sorrow Proper by Lindsey Drager]()
The Sorrow Proper by Lindsey Drager
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Sorrow Proper is a novel-length investigation of the anxiety that accompanies change. A group of aging librarians must decide whether to fight or flee from the end of print and the rise of electronic publications, while the parents of the young girl who died in front of the library struggle with their role in her loss... -
![Palestine +100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba by Basma Ghalayini, Mazen Maarouf]()
Palestine +100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba by Basma Ghalayini, Mazen Maarouf
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsPalestine + 100 poses a question to twelve Palestinian writers: what might your country look like in the year 2048 – a century after the tragedies and trauma of what has come to be called the Nakba? How might this event – which, in 1948, saw the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes – reach across a century of occupation, oppression, and political isolation, to shape the...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction politics adult anthologies contemporary fiction poc-author -
![The Hall of the Singing Caryatids by Victor Pelevin]()
The Hall of the Singing Caryatids by Victor Pelevin
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter auditioning for the part as a singing geisha at a dubious bar, Lena and eleven other “lucky” girls are sent to work at a posh underground nightclub reserved exclusively for Russia’s upper-crust elite. They are to be a sideshow attraction to the rest of the club’s entertainment, and are billed as the “famous singing caryatids.” Things only get weirder from there... -
![Mania by Lionel Shriver]()
Mania by Lionel Shriver
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSet in a parallel yet all too familiar near past, a brilliant subversive novel from the New York Times bestselling author about a lifelong friendship threatened by the Culture Wars. In an alternative 2011, the Mental Parity movement takes hold. Americans now embrace the sacred, universal truth that there is no such thing as variable human intelligence... -
![The Measure by Nikki Erlick]()
The Measure by Nikki Erlick
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsIt seems like any other day: You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today when you open your front door, waiting for you is a small wooden box. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live.From suburban doorsteps to desert tents, every person on every continent receives the same box... -
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![Terrienne by Jean-Claude Mourlevat]()
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![Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman]()
Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA dark and witty story of environmental collapse and runaway capitalism from the Booker-listed author of The Teleportation Accident.The near future. Tens of thousands of species are going extinct every year. And a whole industry has sprung up around their extinctions, to help us preserve the remnants, or perhaps just assuage our guilt... -
![Ostatnie lato rozumu by Tahar Djaout, Gabriela Hałat]()
Ostatnie lato rozumu by Tahar Djaout, Gabriela Hałat
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOpowieść o księgarzu, który podejmuje samotną walkę w obronie wolności słowa.Kule zamachowców skierowane do Tahara Djaouta przed domem w Algierze zdecydowały o nieostatecznym kształcie Ostatniego lata rozumu, pieśni o odwiecznej walce między „jedyną słuszną postawą” a otwartością myślenia, między dogmatem a wolnością i pięknem różnorodności. Nad księgarzem Boualemem Yekkerem (z jęz... -
![Extinction Journals by Jeremy Robert Johnson]()
Extinction Journals by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsYou can survive a nuclear blast. All you need is some luck, and maybe a customized business suit coated in cockroaches. It could work. At least that's what Dean believed before the bombs actually dropped and his suit led him to murder a Very Important Man at the foot of a blackened obelisk. Now D.C. is looking awfully empty. Life on Earth is pretty much coming to an end...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic book contemporary fiction -
![2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]()
2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsThis Seedbox Classics edition of 2 B R 0 2 B or 2BR02B includes illustrations.2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut is a science fiction story that focuses on a society where individuals have an indefinite lifespan and the population of the United States is limited to forty million. In order for a new birth to take place, someone else must die... -
![Dissident by Cecilia London]()
Dissident by Cecilia London
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratings“I will always be with you…”Rising Democratic star Caroline Gerard hasn’t had an easy year. After losing her husband, she is raising two small children alone while trying to navigate the tricky and sometimes shallow halls on Capitol Hill. A string of nasty speeches has her scrambling to apologize to any number of candidates, including newly elected Republican Jack McIntyre... -
![Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias]()
Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhat happens when rhetoric about immigrants escalates to an institutionalized population control system? The near-future, dark speculative novel INK opens as a biometric tattoo is approved for use to mark temporary workers, permanent residents and citizens with recent immigration history - collectively known as inks. Set in a fictional city and small, rural town in the U.S... -
![Meet Us by the Roaring Sea by Akil Kumarasamy]()
Meet Us by the Roaring Sea by Akil Kumarasamy
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn the near future, a young woman finds her mother's body starfished on the kitchen floor in Queens and sets on a journey through language, archives, artificial intelligence, and TV for a way back into herself...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction fiction sci-fi contemporary lgbtq historical-fiction magical-realism -
![Dance the Eagle to Sleep by Marge Piercy]()
Dance the Eagle to Sleep by Marge Piercy
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOriginally published in 1970, Marge Piercy’s second novel follows the lives of four teenagers in a near-future society as they rebel against a military draft and “the system.” The occupation of Franklin High School begins, and with it, the open rebellion of America’s youth against their channeled, unrewarding lives and the self-serving, plastic society that directs them...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction politics adult book coming-of-age contemporary female-author -
![The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 by Laura Furman, Charles D'Ambrosio]()
The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 by Laura Furman, Charles D'Ambrosio
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn arresting collection of contemporary fiction at its best, these stories explore a vast range of subjects, from love and deception to war and the insidious power of class distinctions. However clearly spoken, in voices sophisticated, cunning, or na-ve, here is fiction that consistently defies our expectations... -
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![The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil: *Includes The In Persuasion Nation Collection by George Saunders]()
The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil: *Includes The In Persuasion Nation Collection by George Saunders
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBook Description Welcome to Inner Horner, a nation so small it can only accommodate one citizen at a time. The other six citizens must wait their turns in the Short-Term Residency Zone of the surrounding country of Outer Horner. It's a long-standing arrangement between the fantastical, not-exactly-human citizens of the two countries...Categorized as:
literary-fiction politics 21st-century adult anthologies contemporary fiction horror -
![Plastic by Scott Guild]()
Plastic by Scott Guild
Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"A stunningly brilliant novel. One of those books that will follow you around, into your dreams and your daily life. You have never read anything like it... -
![Interzone by William S. Burroughs]()
Interzone by William S. Burroughs
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIn 1954 William Burroughs settled in Tangiers, finding a sanctuary of sorts in its shadowy streets, blind alleys, and lowlife decadence. It was this city that served as a catalyst for Burroughs as a writer, the backdrop for one of the most radical transformations of style in literary history...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies classics contemporary fiction -
![The Lake by Bianca Bellová]()
The Lake by Bianca Bellová
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA dystopian page-turner about the coming of age of a younghero, which won the 2017 EU Prize for Literature.A fishing village at the end of the world. A lake that is dryingup and, ominously, pushing out its banks. The men have vodka,the women troubles, the children eczema to scratch at...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction book coming-of-age contemporary fiction young-adult sci-fi -
![Brown Morning by Franck Pavloff]()
Brown Morning by Franck Pavloff
Rated: 3.84 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsYou are living a fine life. You read the newspaper and play cards with friends. Gradually—things start to change. You are told that brown is the only acceptable color: if you have a black dog, put it to sleep. Buy a brown one. Add "brown" at the end of each sentence. Books are being burned. But you don’t notice. People still go to cafes; you feel secure... -
![The Cave by José Saramago]()
The Cave by José Saramago
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsJosé Saramago is a master at pacing. Readers unfamiliar with the work of this Portuguese Nobel Prize winner would do well to begin with The Cave, a novel of ideas, shaded with suspense...
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