Books like 'Absolution'
Readers who enjoyed Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
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The Vintage Bradbury: The Greatest Stories by America's Most Distinguished Practioner of Speculative Fiction by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe author of Fahrenehit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, offers a personal selection of his best stories, featuring "Dandelion Wine," "The Illustrated Man," The Veldt, "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit," and twenty other classics... -
The Trials of Koli by M.R. Carey
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Trials of Koli is the second novel in M R. Carey’s breathtakingly original Rampart trilogy, set in a strange and deadly world of our own making.Beyond the walls of Koli’s small village lies a fearsome landscape filled with choker trees, vicious beasts and shunned men. As an exile, Koli’s been forced to journey out into this mysterious, hostile world. But he heard a story, once...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book coming-of-age fiction -
The Stranding by Kate Sawyer
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRuth lives in the heart of the city. Working, drinking, falling in love: the rhythm of her vivid and complicated life there is set against a background hum of darkening news reports from which she deliberately turns away...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction outdoors fiction post-apocalyptic sci-fi contemporary apocalyptic -
Evil Among Us by J.K. Accinni
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLorna, Jennifer and Seth struggle to reach the Hive amid the chaos of Armageddon... -
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The Pulse by Bobby Akart
Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLife on Earth hangs in the balance, and only a handful of people realize it.Until the first Geostorm hits Europe.As the poles shift, the planet's magnetic field weakens, stripping away our protection from the Sun's power.That which gives us life, can take it away as well...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book disaster -
Geostorm The Shift: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller by Bobby Akart
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsEarth is alive. Deep beneath her skin is our planet's life blood. Rivers of molten iron, pushing around a core - her beating heart. This moving, fluid iron generates the magnetic field maintaining the delicate balance of life on earth. Until she has a change of heart. "Spellbinding...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book disaster -
Devil's Homecoming by Bobby Akart
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBuild. Destroy. Rebuild. The dawn of human existence has proven ... we are warlike creatures. Civilizations are built, then they're destroyed. After destruction, will you have the tenacity to overcome obstacles and rebuild? Your fellow man may be the biggest hurdle because Hell is empty and the Devils are all here...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book christian -
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... -
The Twilight Zone: Complete Stories by Rod Serling
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSubmitted for your approval...These nineteen classic stories confirm Rod Serling as one of the finest fantasy writers of our time. Serling's legendary television series The Twilight Zone consistently demonstrated his remarkable gift for storytelling. In the years that have followed, millions have experienced and remembered these timeless scenarios, now airing regularly on the Sci-Fi Channel... -
On the Edge by Mike Sheridan
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOrdinary People Surviving Extraordinary Times In book three, the situation at the Cohutta worsens. The Camp Eastwood and Benton survivors are forced to take decisive action or risking losing all they have achieved. Separated from Colleen and the rest of his group, for Jonah Murphy, things are very much on the edge... -
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... -
Numbers Raging by Rebecca Rode
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTHE THRILLING CONCLUSION IS HERE. It’s been ten weeks since Treena returned to NORA. The council has rejected her war preparations at every turn and Dresden is backpedaling on his promises. Treena’s secret followers push her to unseat Dresden and take control—something she refuses to consider now with NORA on the brink of war. Vance has his own set of troubles... -
The Best Short Stories of J. G. Ballard by J.G. Ballard
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFirst published in 1978, this collection of nineteen of Ballard's best short stories is as timely and informed as ever. His tales of the human psyche and its relationship to nature and technology, as viewed through a strong microscope, were eerily prescient and now provide greater perspective on our computer-dominated culture... -
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As the World Dies: Untold Tales Volume 1 by Rhiannon Frater
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsTHE FIRST DAYS: AS THE WORLD DIES introduced Jenni and Katie and their harrowing journey to the makeshift fort in the Texas Hill Country. But theirs is not the only tale to be told. In the first volume of the AS THE WORLD DIES UNTOLD TALES experience three terrifying tales of those who are forced to face the unrelenting and hungry walking dead...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies apocalyptic fiction futuristic -
Event Horizon by Steven Konkoly
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsPrevious cover edition for ASIN B00I0DP2U2For alternate cover edition see hereThe critically acclaimed post apocalyptic saga continues...With Boston collapsing faster than Alex Fletcher predicted, his personal rescue mission deep into the heart of an increasingly unfamiliar city reaches a critical point... -
R Is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsContents:Introduction · in R Is for Rocket [“King of the Gray Spaces”] · ss Famous Fantastic Mysteries Dec ’43 The End of the Beginning [“Next Stop: The Stars”] · ss Maclean’s Oct 27 ’56 The Fog Horn [“The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms”] · ss The Saturday Evening Post Jun 23 ’51 The Rocket [“Outcast of the Stars”] · ss Super Science Stories Mar ’50 The Rocket Man · ss Maclean’s Mar 1 ’51 The Golden...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction 20th-century action-adventure anthologies children-books classics fiction -
Classic Stories 1: The Golden Apples of the Sun/R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsA spaceship captain determined to gather a cupful of the sun ... a nubile young witch who yearns to taste human love ... an expedition that hunts dinosaurs across the fragile and dangerous chasm of time...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult anthologies audiobook classics crime -
Lord of All Things by Andreas Eschbach
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsWinner of the 2012 Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for best German science fiction novel, Lord of All Things is also a story about love against all odds.They are just children when they meet for the first time: Charlotte, daughter of the French ambassador, and Hiroshi, a laundress’s son. One day, Hiroshi declares that he has an idea that will change the world...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure audiobook book contemporary drama fiction -
Of Mice and Mooshaber by Ladislav Fuks, Mark Corner
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLadislav Fuks (1923-94) was an outstanding Czech writer whose work, consisting primarily of psychological fiction, explores themes of anxiety and life in totalitarian systems... -
The Nothing Within by Andy Giesler
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRoot is... different.Though raised in a fearful society that reveres tradition and conformity, she’s irreverent, outspoken, and deeply curious. Her blindness sets her even further apart.Centuries after the Reckoning, a global biotech plague, savage chimeras still threaten human survival. After Root hears a voice that no one else can hear, she flees into the wilderness...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult apocalyptic book coming-of-age dark -
The Prologue to the Postnuclear Dystopia by Dmitry Glukhovsky
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe prologue to the fresh legend of European post-apocalyptic sci-fi, METRO 2033. This book inspired a score of video games, including the upcoming METRO: LAST LIGHT, gave birth to a series of novels written by followers across the world and will soon be turned into a Hollywood movie!Meet the legend for free. Welcome to the last refuge of the mankind after the end of the world... -
The Savage Boy by Nick Cole
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsForty years after the end of civilization... The author of the acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel The Old Man and the Wasteland returns! Amid the remains of a world destroyed by a devastating Global Thermonuclear Armageddon, barbaric tribes rule the New American Dark Age... -
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsFounded by the mysterious genius known as the Designer, the archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world. In this island paradise, Prospera's lucky citizens enjoy long, fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their forearms, meant to measure their physical health and psychological well-being, fall below 10 percent... -
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Hell's Children by John L. Monk
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt happened in a year: starvation, gangs of kids with guns, and every adult in the world dead from the Sickness. Houses are now mausoleums. Civilization lies in the hands of children who’ve never had to feed themselves or survive a winter without gas or electricity. Most will die. Others — a bare few — will tread a different path...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure apocalyptic book disaster epidemy fiction -
We Live Inside You by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWe are within you, and we are growing. Watching. Waiting for your empires to fall. It won't be long now. We are the fear of death that drives you and the terrible hunger that reshapes you in its name. We are the vengeance born from senseless slaughter and the pulsing reptile desire that negates your consciousness... -
Wolves by D.J. Molles
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThey took everything--killed his wife, enslaved his daughter, destroyed his life. Now he's a man with nothing left to lose ... and that's what makes him so dangerous.Ten years after the collapse, Huxley had built a good life again. He had a loving wife, a farm with fields of golden barley, and a daughter with a strange and wonderful gift. Then the slavers came... -
Skullcrack City by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsLife as a corporate drone was killing S.P. Doyle, so he decided to bring down the whole corrupt system from the inside. But after discovering something monstrous in the bank's files, he was framed for murder and trapped inside a conspiracy beyond reason... -
Under the Dome: Part Two by Stephen King
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAll hell has broken loose in Chester's Mill after an invisible force field suddenly and inexplicably descends on the small Maine town, isolating all within it from the outside world. As the grim reality of the situation dawns and panic sets in, each other town's denizens reveals their true nature in the face of shortages, rationing, lawlessness, and uncertainty... -
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThey travelled into the unknown and left themselves behind . . .On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history – yet who were its builders and where did they go?Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way... -
Live Another Day by Baileigh Higgins
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHumanity teeters on the edge...Max prepares to battle Ke Tau, a brutal killer who hungers for ultimate power, but his efforts are hampered by dwindling supplies and the ever-present threat of the undead. With morale at an all-time low, the camp's inhabitants will have to stand together and face their fears if they wish to survive...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure adult alternate-history apocalyptic audiobook book -
State of Shock by Jack Hunt
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 11 ratings"Fans of Alas Babylon and One Second After will enjoy this terrifyingly real, on the edge-of-your-seat, tale of survival and human courage." Six months after a deadly attack on the United States kills millions, obliterates the electrical grid and thrusts the nation into darkness, Lt. Scot Murphy and the others continue to face obstacles... -
2666, Part 1: The Part About The Critics by Roberto Bolaño
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsComposed in the last two years of Bolaño's life, 2666 has been greeted as his greatest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness,beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters include academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student caring for her widowed, mentally unstable father... -
Paingod and Other Delusions by Harlan Ellison
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsRobert Heinlein says, ?This book is raw corn liquor ? you should serve a whiskbroom with each shot so the customer can brush the sawdust off after he gets up from the floor.? Perhaps a mooring cable might also be added as necessary equipment for reading these eight wonderful stories: They not only knock you down?they raise you to the stars... -
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Drifters by John L. Campbell
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe survivors of the Omega Virus make a desperate effort to find the living. But the walking dead aren’t done with them yet…Helicopter pilot Vladimir Yurish is a man of his word. The last thing he wants is to abandon the safety of the U.S.S. Nimitz and his newly adopted son Ben... -
Origins by Kyle West
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFind the Black Files, or humanity falls.Alex never thought he'd be recruited for a mission to save humanity. He's learned a lot since leaving Bunker 108, but the horrors of the Wasteland aren't through with him yet.When the team risks everything to go after the Black Files, there's no going back... -
The Melting by Christopher Coleman
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe quest is no longer just to survive, it's to escape. The snow is melting, and the crabs are growing more violent. At the base of a blocked-off bridge spanning the South River, Dominic and his friends plan a daunting journey to flee Warren County and the monsters that came when the snow fell.But the crabs aren't the only danger they face... -
Off the Grid: EMP Survival in a Powerless World Boxset by Robert J. Walker
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe world stopped seconds after the EMP was detonated. No communication, no transportation, no power. Hundreds of millions of people are suddenly alone and afraid. With food and water in short supply, people are scrambling for resources. But fighting for your next meal might not matter if you can't stay warm during the worst winter storm in years.The Final StandPrepare and survive... -
This Fallen World by Christopher Woods
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe world has Fallen, but life goes on… Matthew Kade was a corporate assassin—one of the best agents Obsidian Corporation had. But then the bombs began falling, and the old world ended. Now he must navigate the new world he finds himself in, a world where the strongest survive, and the weaker do their bidding…or die... -
The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Volume II: Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThe second of a planned 10 volumes that will reprint all Sturgeon's short fiction covers his prolific output during 1940 and 1941, after which he suffered five years of writer's block... -
Countdown to Armageddon by Darrell Maloney
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsScott Harter was an average man. He wasn't dumb, but he'd never be invited to join Mensa either. He'd liked to have married a beauty queen, but his average looks certainly did nothing to attract any. Neither did his vanilla personality. No, Scott was average in every way, except when it came to luck. He was a very lucky man... -
Vacation by Jeremy C. Shipp
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt's time for blueblood Bernard Johnson to leave his boring life behind and go on The Vacation, a yearlong corporate-sponsored odyssey. But instead of seeing the world, Bernard is captured by terrorists, becomes a key figure in secret drug wars, and, worse, doesn't once miss his secure American Dream... -
Changeling Winds by Angela White
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings500 Years into the future, nine of every ten babies conceived are female. Men have been enslaved for their own protection and the only way to get a mate is to enter the Network Games and fight for one. The catch? It's a live battle to the death and the competition is fierce.Who's ready to play? Are ya? Are ya really?Let's meet the players...“…Angelica Eve Pruett...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction action-adventure apocalyptic book dark fiction genetic-engineering -
20 Minutes To Go Viral by Daniel Hurst
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSomething is spreading in the peaceful town of Amberfall. Something that threatens the whole of humanity. Something is going viral. 20 Minutes. 20 People. 20 stories that will make you want to stay inside and never greet another human being again. This is a short novella about a viral outbreak in a small town in the Lake District and shows how quickly disease can spread amongst the population...Categorized as:
literary-fiction dystopia fiction suspense mystery 21st-century psychological sci-fi -
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The After Days by Amy Ginsburg
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn a world without power, you need the power of friendship and love to survive."This is far and away the most compelling read I’ve experienced in a long time. No lie. This is seriously good. It’s fresh, entertaining, and thought-provoking...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction fiction post-apocalyptic sci-fi apocalyptic female-mc horror -
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom Laila Lalami—the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist and a “maestra of literary fiction” (NPR)—comes a riveting and utterly original novel about one woman’s fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance... -
The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsBeyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don't get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don't venture beyond the walls...Categorized as:
dystopia literary-fiction outdoors 21st-century action-adventure apocalyptic audiobook book -
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... -
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 20th-century adult anthologies classics communism contemporary -
One of the Boys by Jayne Cowie
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIf you could test your son for a gene that predicts violence, would you do it?Antonia and Bea are sisters, and doting mothers to their sons. But that is where their similarities end.Antonia had her son tested to make sure he didn’t possess the "violent" M gene.Bea refuses to let her son take the test. His life should not be determined by a positive or negative result...
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