Books like 'Severance'
Readers who enjoyed Severance by Ling Ma also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsalternate cover for this ISBN can be found hereThe universe began as an enormous breath being held.From the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others — the basis for the Academy Award-nominated film Arrival — comes a ground-breaking new collection of short fiction: nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories... -
Dust by Hugh Howey
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsWool introduced the world of the silo. Shift told the story of its creation. Dust will describe its downfall. The residents of Silo 18 have a new mayor and the chance of a new beginning. But just as they regain their footing, their gravest threat emerges: Silo 1, and the men who brought Earth into ruin. But power, politics, and the survival of the human race are complex...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia post-apocalyptic survival action-adventure alternate-history audiobook -
Wolf 359 by Gabriel Urbina, Zach Valenti
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLife's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Hephaestus Research Station, currently on Day 448 of its orbit around red dwarf star Wolf 359. He's stuck on a scientific survey mission of indeterminate length, 7.8 light years from Earth...Categorized as:
humor action-adventure aliens alternate-history audiobook book classics contemporary -
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsMore than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order... -
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Strands of Sorrow by John Ringo
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA hardened group of survivors fights back against a zombie plague that has brought down civilization.With the world consumed by a devastating plague that drives humans violently insane, what was once a band of desperate survivors bobbing on a dark Atlantic ocean has now become Wolf Squadron, the only hope for the salvation of the human race. Banding together with what remains of the U.S...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic survival zombies action-adventure adult alternate-history -
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, Andy Weir
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 87 ratingsJason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.- - -'Are you happy in your life?'Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious... -
Shift by Hugh Howey
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIn 2007, the Center for Automation in Nanobiotech outlined the hardware and software platforms that would one day allow robots smaller than human cells to make medical diagnoses, conduct repairs, and even self-propagate. In the same year, a TV program aired the effects of propranolol on sufferers of extreme trauma...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia post-apocalyptic survival 21st-century action-adventure alternate-history -
Judgment by Delta James
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLars Jakobsson, the leader of the Berserker Syndicate controls everything. He is also my only hope.LarsRhys Donovan is mine. The moment I laid eyes on her she became my obsession. We had one fabulous night together before she disappeared from my bed. In the end, she’ll come to me because I marked her and started her transition. And when she does, I’ll demand judgment... -
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe Jorgmund Pipe is the backbone of the world, and it's on fire. Gonzo Lubitsch, professional hero and troubleshooter, is hired to put it out, but there's more to the fire, and the Pipe itself, than meets the eye. The job will take Gonzo and his best friend, our narrator, back to their own beginnings... -
Replay by Ken Grimwood
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsAt forty-three Jeff Winston is tired of his low-paid, unrewarding job, tired of the long silences at the breakfast table with his wife, saddened by the thought of no children to comfort his old age. But he hopes for better things, for happiness, maybe tomorrow ...But a sudden, fatal heart attack puts paid to that...Categorized as:
drama dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book -
Recursion by Blake Crouch, سعید سیمرغ
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 77 ratingsMemory makes reality.That's what NYC cop Barry Sutton is learning, as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.That's what neuroscientist Helena Smith believes...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark drama dystopia post-apocalyptic urban 21st-century action-adventure -
Elsewhere by Dean Koontz
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe fate of the world is in the hands of a father and daughter in an epic novel of wonder and terror by Dean Koontz, the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.Since his wife, Michelle, left seven years ago, Jeffy Coltrane has worked to maintain a normal life for himself and his eleven-year-old daughter, Amity, in Suavidad Beach... -
Found by Imogen Keeper
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsKILLING A PERSON changes you. Killing your little brother destroys you. I should know. His name was Carl. When he was a kid, he always ate the blue M&Ms first and then the green. He dreamed of going to go to the moon. I didn't hesitate. I didn’t even blink...Categorized as:
apocalyptic coming-of-age dystopia family female-mc humor post-apocalyptic action-adventure -
Voices of the Fall by John Ringo, Gary Poole
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsORIGINAL STORIES SET IN JOHN RINGO'S BEST-SELLING BLACK TIDE RISING SERIES. The zombie apocalypse is here in these all-new stories from John Ringo, Sarah A. Hoyt, Michael Z. Williamson, Jody Lynn Nye, Travis S. Taylor, and many more. Sequel to the best-selling anthology Black Tide Rising.Civilization had fallen...Categorized as:
apocalyptic disaster dystopia post-apocalyptic zombies action-adventure adult alternate-history -
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Under the Blue by Oana Aristide
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA road trip beneath clear blue skies and a blazing sun: a reclusive artist is forced to abandon his home and follow two young sisters across a post-pandemic Europe in search of a safe place. Is this the end of the world?Meanwhile two computer scientists have been educating their baby in a remote location. Their baby is called Talos, and he is an advanced AI program...Categorized as:
dystopia apocalyptic post-apocalyptic literary-fiction epidemy disaster fiction sci-fi -
Going Home by A. American
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsImagine you’re driving down the interstate, it’s Friday and all you can think about is getting your weekend started. Then to begin the ruination of your much anticipated weekend the grating tone of the Emergency Alert System flashes over the radio, then promptly dies.This is the beginning of a 250 mile odyssey for Morgan Carter...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic survival zombies action-adventure adult alternate-history -
Outland by Dennis E. Taylor
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsWhen the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, it's up to six college students and their experimental physics project to prevent the end of civilization. When an experiment to study quantum uncertainty goes spectacularly wrong, physics student Bill Rustad and his friends find that they have accidentally created an inter-dimensional portal...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia humor post-apocalyptic survival action-adventure adult alternate-history -
The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsBob Howard, from The Laundry, secret UK agency against evil forces, narrates boarding yacht of Ellis Billington for Gravedust device that talks with dead. Ellis plans to raise Jennifer Morgue, monster from deep sea, rule world. U.S. Black Chamber sends lethal Ramona Random, in conflict with her bosses. Includes: Pimpf tale - Bob in virtual game; Afterword; Glossary... -
Hydrous by Amara Rae
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA witch with the gift of water. A fae bred in duty. An immortal world on the brink.NaiyaI’m supposed to lead my coven… but I don’t think there’s anything I can do to stop the vicious wave from crashing down on us. We have enemies on all fronts, including among our own kind, because our mothers mated with other immortals... -
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 80 ratingsThe Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet... -
Last Another Day by Baileigh Higgins
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsHumanity falls...Trapped in the shower by her undead husband, Morgan prays for rescue but quickly realizes she's on her own. She escapes, only to find that the horror has spread and now threatens everything she holds dear. With each passing moment, death becomes more certain.Logan returns to his childhood home and teams up with Max, an army deserter racing against the clock to save his family...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia humor literary-fiction post-apocalyptic survival zombies action-adventure -
One Second After by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsNew York Times best-selling author William R. Forstchen now brings us a story which can be all too terrifyingly real ... a story in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages ... A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP)... -
Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable. What follows is the most terrible global catastrophe in the history of the human race-and a Dark Age more universal and complete than could possibly be imagined... -
Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsThe year is 2033. The world has been reduced to rubble. Humanity is nearly extinct. The half-destroyed cities have become uninhabitable through radiation. Beyond their boundaries, they say, lie endless burned-out deserts and the remains of splintered forests. Survivors still remember the past greatness of humankind...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia post-apocalyptic survival zombies 21st-century action-adventure -
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A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr., Mary Doria Russell
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 43 ratingsIn a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia literary-fiction post-apocalyptic social-commentary survival 20th-century -
Feed by Mira Grant
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsThe year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED... -
The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross
Rated: 3.91 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsNEVER VOLUNTEER FOR ACTIVE DUTY ...Bob Howard is a low-level techie working for a super-secret government agency. While his colleagues are out saving the world, Bob's under a desk restoring lost data. His world was dull and safe - but then he went and got Noticed... -
Transition by Iain M. Banks
Rated: 3.85 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsThere is a world that hangs suspended between triumph and catastrophe, between the dismantling of the Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers, frozen in the shadow of suicide terrorism and global financial collapse. Such a world requires a firm hand and a guiding light...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
Emma: Part One by Lolita Lopez
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsEmma Ramirez has her hands full just trying to hack out a living in the desolated Outlands of a post-apocalyptic Texas. Zombies, cyborgs and skin traders all threaten the small, isolated farm where she’s lived alone since her father’s death. Sporadic radio traffic and infrequent visits from trusted family friends provide her only contact with the outside world...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic zombies action-adventure adult alpha-mc alternate-history -
War in 2020: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals by Ralph Peters
Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDescribed as “the military counterpart of Orwell’s 1984, The War on 2020 is the breathtaking novel by the New York Times bestselling author of Red Army, Ralph Peters. Soviet Central Asia, 2020. A decaying Soviet Union is on the brink of disaster. Their only hope is American’s seventh cavalry. They’re plunging into the horrors of war in the new millennium...Categorized as:
dystopia 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history book contemporary espionage -
The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rated: 3.87 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsLee’s best friend went missing on Bodmin Moor, four years ago. She and Mal were chasing rumours of monsters when they found something all too real. Now Mal is back, but where has she been, and who is she working for?When government physicist Kay Amal Khan is attacked, the security services investigate...Categorized as:
dystopia 21st-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history alternate-universe audiobook -
Countdown City by Ben H. Winters
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThere are just 77 days to go before a deadly asteroid collides with Earth, and Detective Hank Palace is out of a job. With the Concord police force operating under the auspices of the U.S. Justice Department, Hank's days of solving crimes are over...until a woman from his past begs for help finding her missing husband...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia post-apocalyptic survival 21st-century action-adventure adult -
The Fold by Peter Clines
Rated: 3.87 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsSTEP INTO THE FOLD. IT’S PERFECTLY SAFE. The folks in Mike Erikson's small New England town would say he's just your average, everyday guy. And that's exactly how Mike likes it. Sure, the life he's chosen isn’t much of a challenge to someone with his unique gifts, but he’s content with his quiet and peaceful existence... -
The Twin Paradox by Charles Wachter
Rated: 3.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWith ten years passing for every three minutes on a remote stretch of Texas coast, planes fall out of the sky, evolved species are on the hunt, and people die inside one of the most vicious ecosystems ever grown—all a result of the government’s efforts to slow down time.A lot can happen in ten years. That’s the point... -
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City of Savages by Lee Kelly
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt has been nearly two decades since the breakout of the Third World War, and Manhattan is now a prisoner-of-war camp ruled by island native Rolladin, who controls the city’s survivors with an iron fist. For Skyler Miller, Manhattan is a cage that keeps her from the world beyond the city’s borders. But for Sky’s younger sister, Phee, the Central Park POW camp is the only home she’d ever want... -
Contagion by L.I. Albemont
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA novel of the living deadA remote mountain town is isolated by a snowstorm as an ancient evil, gone pandemic, turns the residents into the living dead. Almost overnight the town becomes a snowy tomb of the roaming, hungry infected. Stranded by the weather, hiding, a small group of survivors follows the progress of the disease as society around them and around the world begins to break down...Categorized as:
apocalyptic drama dystopia epidemy post-apocalyptic survival zombies action-adventure -
Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin
Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsOne of The Telegraph’s Best Fiction Books 2011Moscow, 2028. A cold, snowy morning.Andrei Danilovich Komiaga is fast asleep. A scream, a moan, and a death rattle slowly pull him out of his drunken stupor—but wait, that’s just his ring tone. And so begins another day in the life of an oprichnik, one of the czar’s most trusted courtiers—and one of the country’s most feared men... -
The Beautiful Land by Alan Averill
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsTakahiro O’Leary has a very special job… …working for the Axon Corporation as an explorer of parallel timelines—as many and as varied as anyone could imagine. A great gig—until information he brought back gave Axon the means to maximize profits by changing the past, present, and future of this world...Categorized as:
dark dystopia humor 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history anthologies -
American War by Omar El Akkad
Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsAn audacious and powerful debut novel: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle a story that asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itselfSarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074... -
Cities of the Red Night by William S. Burroughs
Rated: 3.76 of 5 stars · 29 ratingsWhile young men wage war against an evil empire of zealous mutants, the population of this modern inferno is afflicted with the epidemic of a radioactive virus. An opium-infused apocalyptic vision from the legendary author of Naked Lunch; the first of the trilogy with The Place of the Dead Roads and his final novel The Western Lands...Categorized as:
disaster dystopia epidemy literary-fiction satire 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Rosewater by Tade Thompson
Rated: 3.77 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsTade Thompson's Rosewater is the start of an award-winning, cutting edge trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging new voices.Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents comprise the hopeful, the hungry and the helpless—people eager for a glimpse inside the dome or a taste of its rumored healing powers...Categorized as:
dystopia poc-mc post-apocalyptic zombies 21st-century action-adventure adult afrofuturism -
The Atlantis Gene by A.G. Riddle
Rated: 3.76 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe greatest mystery of all time...the history of human origins...will be revealed.In Antarctica, researchers discover a mysterious structure, buried in ice.In a lab in Jakarta, an autism researcher identifies a revolutionary treatment that could change everything.But these two incredible discoveries aren't what they seem...Categorized as:
apocalyptic drama dystopia post-apocalyptic action-adventure aliens alternate-history audiobook -
Radio Silence by Alyssa Cole
Rated: 3.58 of 5 stars · 12 ratings“Rich in atmospheric details and rife with unexpected dangers…[a] refreshingly diverse cast of characters possess strong, sympathetic and magnetic personalities, ensuring that readers will be engaged with each step of their journey...Categorized as:
apocalyptic asian-mc drama dystopia poc-mc post-apocalyptic survival action-adventure -
Rabbits: A Novel by Terry Miles
Rated: 3.71 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsConspiracies abound in this surreal and yet all-too-real technothriller in which a deadly underground alternate reality game might just be altering reality itself, set in the same world as the popular Rabbits podcast. It's an average work day. You've been wrapped up in a task, and you check the clock when you come up for air—4:44 pm...Categorized as:
apocalyptic drama dystopia 21st-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
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Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh
Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsWhen an Earth-like planet is discovered, a team of six teens, along with three veteran astronauts, embark on a twenty-year trip to set up a planet for human colonization—but find that space is more deadly than they ever could have imagined...Categorized as:
coming-of-age poc-mc action-adventure afrofuturism alternate-history audiobook book contemporary -
Parasite by Mira Grant
Rated: 3.64 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsA decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease.We owe our good health to a humble parasite - a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the tapeworm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system - even secretes designer drugs. It's been successful beyond the scientists' wildest dreams... -
The Last Ship by William Brinkley
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe unimaginable has happened. The world has been plunged into all-out nuclear war. Sailing near the Arctic Circle, the U.S.S. Nathan James is relatively unscathed, but the future is grim and Captain Thomas is facing mutiny from the tattered remnants of his crew...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic survival action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
Fall or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson
Rated: 3.60 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThe #1 New York Times bestselling author of Seveneves, Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon returns with a wildly inventive and entertaining science fiction thriller—Paradise Lost by way of Phillip K. Dick—that unfolds in the near future, in parallel worlds.In his youth, Richard “Dodge” Forthrast founded Corporation 9592, a gaming company that made him a multibillionaire...Categorized as:
dystopia 21st-century action-adventure adult afterlife ai alternate-history audiobook -
Burning Paradise by Robert Charles Wilson
Rated: 3.35 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsCassie Klyne, nineteen years old, lives in the United States in the year 2015—but it’s not our United States, and it’s not our 2015.Cassie’s world has been at peace since the Great Armistice of 1914. There was no World War II, no Great Depression. Poverty is declining, prosperity is increasing everywhere; social instability is rare. But Cassie knows the world isn’t what it seems...Categorized as:
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