Books like 'Empty Hearts'
Readers who enjoyed Empty Hearts by Juli Zeh also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary sc-fi mystery dystopia politics crime suspense literary-fiction satire terrorism
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Deep State Stealth by Vikki Kestell
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsConspiracies. Collusion. Plots. Secrets within secrets and plans within plans.Thanks to Gemma and the nanomites' timely intervention, President Jackson survives Vice President Harmon's attempt to assassinate him and seize the presidency. Back in Albuquerque, Gemma makes a difficult decision: She allows the explosion that killed her identical twin sister to serve as the cover-up for her own "death... -
![Fever by Deon Meyer]()
Fever by Deon Meyer
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNico Storm and his father Willem drive a truck filled with essential supplies through a desolate land. They are among the few in South Africa--and the world, as far as they know--to have survived a devastating virus which has swept through the country...Categorized as:
crime dystopia literary-fiction suspense action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook -
![Leap by Michael C. Grumley]()
Leap by Michael C. Grumley
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsONE OF MANKIND'S GREATEST LEGENDS HAS BEEN DISCOVERED.SOMETHING EVERY CIVILIZATION HAS SEARCHED FOR...BUT NOT WHAT ANYONE WAS EXPECTING.Facing the cold, clear glass, Alison Shaw stared nervously into the giant seawater tank.It was just one year ago that she and her team of marine biologists had stunned the world with their incredible breakthrough.And now...they were about to do it again...Categorized as:
political-intrigue politics suspense action-adventure adult audiobook book conspiracies -
![The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh]()
The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsA writer in a totalitarian state is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a number of child-murders that are happening in his town.'Sometimes you don't even know what you've been craving until the real thing comes along.' New York Times'McDonagh is more than just a very clever theatrical stylist. His tricks and turns have a purpose... -
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![Hard to Be a God by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky]()
Hard to Be a God by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe novel follows Anton, an undercover operative from the future planet Earth, in his mission on an alien planet, that is populated by human beings, whose society has not advanced beyond the Middle Ages...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction politics satire 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Unparalleled by D.S. Smith]()
Unparalleled by D.S. Smith
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWaking up in a strange house, with no memory of how or why he is there, Stuart Milton finds his life has changed beyond recognition. His pregnant wife is missing, but his only living relative, his brother, is incapable of substantiating his claim. Lost in a world of confusion that is spiralling out of his control, Stuart finds temporary salvation in a psychiatrist assigned to his case... -
![Surviving the Collapse by James Hunt]()
Surviving the Collapse by James Hunt
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCaptain Kate Holloway moved her family to New York to start over, and break the barriers that her work had created. But when an EMP brings New York to its knees, Kate must fight to survive amid the terror descending upon the city and rescue her family... -
![Chrysalis by S.E. Harmon]()
Chrysalis by S.E. Harmon
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA gunshot to the head is bad enough. Waking up with amnesia is far worse. I learn that the hard way when I wake up in the hospital, my memory practically wiped. I don’t know why someone wants me dead. Hell, I don’t even know my name. They say my name is Christian Cross. Too bad that name means nothing to me.I haven’t forgotten everything, though... -
![The Golden Apple by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson]()
The Golden Apple by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNausea, then microamnesia, then the laughing jag, then sex. Be patient. The clear light comes next. Then we can discuss Truth. As if we haven't been discussing it all along. -Hagbard Celine, The Golden Apple Illuminatus! Part II, from the original and genuine trilogy of conspiracies, is performed in all its unabridged brilliance by a full ensemble cast...Categorized as:
dystopia humor political-intrigue politics satire 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Overlord Protocol by Mark Walden]()
The Overlord Protocol by Mark Walden
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsHOW FAR WILL OTTO GO TO PROTECT HIS FRIENDS? Otto Malpense and his friends thought their first year at the Higher Institute of Villainous Education was the most adventurous and exciting that they would ever encounter. They were dead wrong...Categorized as:
crime dystopia humor political-intrigue suspense action-adventure anti-hero audiobook -
![Unto the Breach by John Ringo]()
Unto the Breach by John Ringo
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsSequel to Ghost, Kildar and Choosers of the Slain.Michael Harmon has been there and done that. Rescued co-eds, killed major terrorists, stopped nuclear assaults. Now he'd just like to kick back and relax with his harem of lovelies. Unfortunately, the world keeps turning...Categorized as:
political-intrigue suspense terrorism action-adventure adult book contemporary fiction -
![The Pulse by Skylar Finn]()
The Pulse by Skylar Finn
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn EMP means the end of the world as they know it for a family who fights to survive. When disaster strikes in the form of an EMP, Charlie's family flees to their homestead. They fortify their ranch and prepare to ride out the worst of the chaos. Unfortunately, the gang of scavengers who followed them from the city have other plans... -
![Maker Space by K.B. Spangler]()
Maker Space by K.B. Spangler
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsConspiracies, political cover-ups, acts of terrorism… As one of the first cyborgs employed by the federal government, Agent Rachel Peng thought she had already lived through it all. Then, without warning, fourteen blocks of downtown Washington, D.C. are gone, blown apart by bombs unlike anything Rachel has ever seen... -
![Effacement by Hieronymus Hawkes]()
Effacement by Hieronymus Hawkes
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen recording every aspect of your life has become the law, what happens when your connection to the world is severed? With the advent of BioNarratus’s Vitasync neurochip, serious crime has all but disappeared. Without a lifelog you can’t get a bank account, medical insurance, or a job... -
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![Orlando People by Alexander C. Kane]()
Orlando People by Alexander C. Kane
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGretch Wolgast is a bit of a dud. Just ask her. She's a 21-year-old college dropout who has a loser job at the mall. Sure, she can lift a tennis ball with her telekinetic powers. But only three feet in the air. And she has to be sitting. Gretch is an OP, one of thousands born in Orlando, Florida, in the early 1980s who mysteriously developed the ability to move things with their minds... -
![Bitter Harvest by Michael R. Hicks]()
Bitter Harvest by Michael R. Hicks
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA year has passed since the Sutter Buttes incident. Jack Dawson and Naomi Perrault, having failed to find the elusive bag of lethal New Horizons seed, are fired, and their secret agency shut down. In Los Angeles, Naomi is recruited by a self-made billionaire in the pharmaceuticals industry. Her colleagues have made such progress, they must have New Horizons seed... -
![Out of Time by Dave Sinclair]()
Out of Time by Dave Sinclair
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsAtticus Wolfe is a man out of time.November 1963As an MI6 spy in 1963, Atticus Wolfe should be enjoying everything the swinging sixties has to offer.But he’s not.That’s because Atticus Wolfe is from the 21st century.Accidentally torn from present day and flung into 1960s London in the midst of a cultural revolution, Atticus must acclimatise to a time not his own... -
![Oranges and Lemons by Christopher Fowler]()
Oranges and Lemons by Christopher Fowler
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"The most delightfully, wickedly entertaining duo in crime fiction." The Plain Dealer When a prominent politician is crushed by a fruit van making a delivery, the singular team of Arthur Bryant and John May overcome insurmountable odds to reunite the PCU and solve the case in the brainy new mystery from acclaimed author Christopher Fowler... -
![Blood Ties by Sophie McKenzie]()
Blood Ties by Sophie McKenzie
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA gripping thriller from the Richard and Judy award-winning author of Girl, Missing, Sophie McKenzie. When Theo discovers the father he thought died when he was a baby is still alive, he's determined to find him. The clues lead him to the lonely Rachel, who has problems of her own, including parents who compare her unfavourably to her long-dead sister...Categorized as:
crime dystopia political-intrigue action-adventure audiobook book contemporary espionage -
![Improbable by Adam Fawer]()
Improbable by Adam Fawer
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFrom a brilliant new talent comes a riveting novel of chance, fate, and numbers, and one man's strange journey past the boundaries of the possible.David Caine inhabits a world of obsession, rich rewards, and rapid, destructive downfalls...Categorized as:
crime political-intrigue suspense action-adventure adult audiobook book contemporary -
![Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah]()
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn the stories of Adjei-Brenyah’s debut, an amusement park lets players enter augmented reality to hunt terrorists or shoot intruders played by minority actors, a school shooting results in both the victim and gunman stuck in a shared purgatory, and an author sells his soul to a many-tongued god.Adjei-Brenyah's writing will grab you, haunt you, enrage, and invigorate you... -
![Choosers of the Slain by John Ringo]()
Choosers of the Slain by John Ringo
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsSequel to Ghost and Kildar.Former SEAL Michael Harmon (Ghost, Kildar) has a pretty good life. He's settled down in the country of Georgia and built a solid commando-quality militia out of his local retainers. The Keldara have an ancient history of being first-class mountain warriors and all they needed was a few million in modern weapons and training to bring them up to speed...Categorized as:
crime political-intrigue politics terrorism action-adventure adult alternate-history anti-hero -
![A Deeper Blue by John Ringo]()
A Deeper Blue by John Ringo
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsSequel to Ghost, Kildar, Choosers of the Slain and Unto the Breach.Heart-sick over the deaths of so many of his Keldara followers, and one in particular, former SEAL Mike Harmon, hero of Ghost, Kildar and Choosers of the Slain, decides to sit this one out. WMDs headed for the US no longer matter to the Kildar...Categorized as:
political-intrigue suspense terrorism action-adventure adult book contemporary fiction -
![Love in the Time of Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith]()
Love in the Time of Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe latest installment in the delightful 44 Scotland Street series finds all our favorite residents up to their usual hilarious hijinks. In the microcosm of 44 Scotland Street, all of life's richness is found in the glorious goings-on of its residents... -
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![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...Categorized as:
dystopia politics literary-fiction suspense crime political-intrigue audiobook classics -
![Childless: A Novel by James C. Dobson, Kurt Bruner]()
Childless: A Novel by James C. Dobson, Kurt Bruner
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe second installment in the riveting new trilogy from Dr. James Dobson and Kurt Bruner transports readers to a not-too-distant future when the young and healthy strain under the burden of a rapidly aging population. Everyone is nervous about how Judge Victor Santiago will rule. The case involved the tragic demise of a loving mother and her disabled son... -
![The Oracle Code by Charles Brokaw]()
The Oracle Code by Charles Brokaw
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt was the most renowned and respected shrine in the Roman Empire, the object of veneration by Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Octavian, and a host of other luminaries. It stood for centuries within a sacred precinct the size of a large town at the heart of the greatest Greek city in the world. Yet it disappeared without a trace, creating the greatest archaeological enigma of the ancient world...Categorized as:
politics terrorism suspense political-intrigue action-adventure fiction mystery historical-fiction -
![Leviathan by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson]()
Leviathan by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe ultimate weapon isn't this plague out in Vegas, or any new super H-bomb. The ultimate weapon has always existed. Every man, every woman, and every child owns it. It's the ability to say No and take the consequences. - Hagbard Celine, LeviathanIlluminatus! Part III cheerfully ushers in the apocalyptic high-camp conclusion of the Illuminatus! Trilogy...Categorized as:
dystopia humor political-intrigue politics satire 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![Amen Maxine by Faith Gardner]()
Amen Maxine by Faith Gardner
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA new marriage.A perfect home.A machine that says it’s all a lie.Welcome to Silicon Valley, where the weather is perfect, the income is high … and Rowena Snyder is miserable. A transplant from New York, Rowena moved into her husband Jacob’s idyllic childhood home with their new baby. But suburbia isn’t Rowena’s cup of Starbucks. And she’s got serious anxiety and depression to boot... -
![The Marriage Act by John Marrs]()
The Marriage Act by John Marrs
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhat if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey?Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills — the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single... -
![Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling]()
Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsIn the near future sci-fi world of Qualityland, algorithms help create an idyllic life for its citizens, but what if the perfect world wasn't built for you?Welcome to QualityLand, the best country on Earth. Here, a universal ranking system determines the social advantages and career opportunities of every member of society... -
![The Final Stand by James Hunt]()
The Final Stand by James Hunt
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsPrepare and survive. An EMP cripples the nation on the day Detective Mike Thorton was supposed to bury his father. Fighting a panic-stricken city, an unknown enemy, and his own grief, Mike must rescue his family before the city devours them all...Categorized as:
dystopia terrorism literary-fiction crime suspense apocalyptic survival serial-killers -
![The Final Day by William R. Forstchen]()
The Final Day by William R. Forstchen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsThe highly-anticipated follow-up to William R. Forstchen’s New York Times bestsellers, One Second After and One Year After, The Final Day immerses readers once more in the story of our nation’s struggle to rebuild itself after an electromagnetic pulse wipes out all electricity and plunges the country into darkness, starvation, and terror...Categorized as:
dystopia political-intrigue politics suspense action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic -
![Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen]()
Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAnother instant classic from Carl Hiaasen—laugh-out-loud funny, tackling the current chaotic and polarized American culture (following in the path of Squeeze Me), with two wonderful new Hiaasen heroes“The afternoon of September first, dishwater-gray and rainy, a man named Dale Figgo picked up a hitchhiker on Gus Grissom Boulevard in Tangelo Falls, Florida... -
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![One of Us by Michael Marshall Smith]()
One of Us by Michael Marshall Smith
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt's not what you've done that counts it's what you remember....If you could sell your conscience, could you get away with murder?Hap Thompson works the gray area between truth and lies. He works for REMtemp, taking on other people's memories. It's illegal, but usually harmless. Maybe a petty criminal wants to pass a lie detector test. Or an unfaithful spouse wants to enjoy a guiltless affair... -
![A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess]()
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 84 ratingsTold by the central character, Alex, this brilliant, hilarious, and disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism... -
![We Have Lost The Chihuahuas by Paul Mathews]()
We Have Lost The Chihuahuas by Paul Mathews
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsLondon, 2046. The British Republic has a new First Lady. She’s Californian, ‘in-your-face, for sure’ and she’s got big plans for a Buckingham Palace refurb. When her three Chihuahuas go missing, one man is determined to avoid getting dragged into it all. His name is Pond. Howie Pond – presidential spokesperson, retired secret agent and cat lover... -
![Drone State by Tom Hillenbrand]()
Drone State by Tom Hillenbrand
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGlauser Award 2015 - Best German Crime NovelLasswitz Award 2015 - Best German SF NovelWhy interview witnesses when all their movements and conversations have already been archived on a hard disk? Why investigate crime scenes when police drones have already photographed them from all possible angles?A Brussels MP is found murdered near the EU capital... -
![Hitman Wedding by Eve Langlais]()
Hitman Wedding by Eve Langlais
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe employees of Bad Boy Inc. are gathering for a celebration. The bride sported the latest in bullet proof corsets. The groom wore a gun. The guests came armed for action. But the cake blew up before they could eat it. As for the honeymoon, it’s going to be a mad chase across the globe dodging bullets and bombs to find the culprit who wants them all dead... -
![氣球人 by Chan Ho-Kei, 陳浩基]()
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![Brilliance by Marcus Sakey]()
Brilliance by Marcus Sakey
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsIn Wyoming, a little girl reads people’s darkest secrets by the way they fold their arms. In New York, a man sensing patterns in the stock market racks up $300 billion. In Chicago, a woman can go invisible by being where no one is looking. They’re called "brilliants," and since 1980, one percent of people have been born this way...Categorized as:
crime dystopia political-intrigue politics suspense terrorism 21st-century action-adventure -
![I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin]()
I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsA standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.But there are rules:He cannot look inside the box.He cannot ask questions... -
![Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez]()
Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsThe shocking techno-thriller that cements Daniel Suarez’s status as the heir to Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy—a terrifying, breathtaking, and all-too-plausible vision of the world’s near future. Unmanned weaponized drones already exist—they’re widely used by America in our war efforts in the Middle East...Categorized as:
crime dystopia political-intrigue politics suspense terrorism action-adventure adult -
![Zero History by William Gibson]()
Zero History by William Gibson
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHollis Henry never intended to work for global marketing magnate Hubertus Bigend again. But now she’s broke, and Bigend has just the thing to get her back in the game... Milgrim can disappear in almost any setting, and his Russian is perfectly idiomatic—so much so that he spoke it with his therapist in the secret Swiss clinic where Bigend paid for him to be cured of his addiction..Categorized as:
crime dystopia political-intrigue politics suspense 21st-century action-adventure adult -
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![Homeland by Cory Doctorow]()
Homeland by Cory Doctorow
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 22 ratingsIn Cory Doctorow's wildly successful Little Brother, young Marcus Yallow was arbitrarily detained and brutalized by the government in the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco―an experience that led him to become a leader of the whole movement of technologically clued-in teenagers, fighting back against the tyrannical security state... -
![Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway]()
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World, blistering gangster noir meets howling absurdist comedy as the forces of good square off against the forces of evil, and only an unassuming clockwork repairman and an octogenarian former superspy can save the world from total destruction.Joe Spork spends his days fixing antique clocks...Categorized as:
crime dystopia humor literary-fiction political-intrigue suspense 21st-century action-adventure -
![Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff]()
Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsHigh above Manhattan android and human steelworkers are constructing a new Tower of Babel for billionaire Harry Gant, as a monument to humanity’s power to dream. In the festering sewers below a darker game is afoot: a Wall Street takeover artist has been murdered, and Gant’s crusading ex-wife, Joan Fine, has been hired to find out why...Categorized as:
dystopia humor literary-fiction political-intrigue satire action-adventure adult book -
![The Authorities™ by Scott Meyer]()
The Authorities™ by Scott Meyer
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSinclair Rutherford is a young Seattle cop with a taste for the finer things. Doing menial tasks and getting hassled by superiors he doesn't respect are definitely not “finer things... -
![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 -
![Little Brother by Cory Doctorow]()
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsMarcus aka “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems...
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