Dystopian Short Stories

The Dome protects us. It is life for all who live under the ice barrier, but it is on the brink of failure. The Elders saw this coming; they have a plan. There's just one problem: I can't breathe underwater like everyone else. I'm the last air-breathing human in the Dome. As the Aquatics migrate to their new home, I'll need to find a way to survive.

Ruby James has finally made it. As an official Rater, she's reached upper class society and all that comes with it - a huge house in a guarded neighborhood, box seats, and an elite client list. She even has the perfect boyfriend to go with it, one she expects to marry as soon as her career settles. Then she uncovers a terrible secret. One her boss will do anything to protect.

Delight in intriguing, thought-provoking conversations about ethics, philosophy, and social issues! After Dinner Conversation is a monthly literary magazine publishing short fiction. Each issue features both established writers and up-and-coming authors who contribute fascinating philosophical insights on controversial topics like marriage equality, assisted suicide, the meaning of death, animal rights, and defining your "purpose." It's time to go deep in search of truth! If you love reading imaginative short stories on hot topics that make your brain think deeply but also have you laughing...

Abby never expected life to be easy. The daughter of a father she's never met and a mother who works three jobs just to get by, she walks herself to her middle school in Chicago, fixes her own dinners, and keeps herself company. Despite all the disadvantages stacked against her, however, Abby manages to keep a smile on and even dedicates her time to helping others who have even less than her. But one July day, something happens in the city that causes a mass panic while she's out grocery shopping, and Abby's life is forever changed.

Chloe has never run away from a battle in her life, and she's not about to start. As an apocalyptic nightmare unfolds before her, the enigmatic Bram Tice joins her quest as they try to undo the damage the unseen powers unleashed on their world. Chloe races to unlock her murdered professor's secrets, the key to it all. But she discovers her reluctant companion has even darker, more dangerous secrets of his own. Feeling every ounce of her mortal being, Chloe enters a new world of high- and low-caste fae, vampiric scabs, and still, somehow, finds a strength within herself to fight back.

The 'best short story writer in English' (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose—wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned—Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.

In the aftermath of World War II, the Earth’s population was devastated by a terrifying alien virus. Those who survived were changed forever. Some, known as Jokers, were cursed with bizarre mental and physical deformities; others, granted superhuman abilities, are known as Aces. Now the virus has reached Britain.... Queen Margaret rules over a country in which such legendary figures as Herne the Hunter, Spring-heeled Jack and Babh, the goddess of war, roam at will.

To be born underground, in the dark, never to see the surface. That seemed to be Loreto’s fate. Born nearly half a century after the world had been destroyed by total, global, nuclear war one young man must find his destiny. He must learn what it means to be himself. Destined to become a Topsider, will he walk upon the surface? Will he be one of the brave few who work to usher humanity back to Earth’s population? Find out in Loreto: An Earth Has Fallen Short Story. See Loreto Rucker’s humble beginnings as he grows into the young man we will meet in Servidio’s Earth Has Fallen Post-...

Jim travels to northern Michigan to decompress and deal with his feelings in a rustic log cabin owned by his deceased girlfriend's family. Not only is the cabin off the grid, it is a place of peace and solitude, that is, until the Ebola virus is unleashed upon the USA. In a panic, the CDC and the FDA release a vaccine that's only just started testing.... Now the infected roam the world, and even in northern Michigan, Jim isn't safe. He eagerly awaits Janie's family to join him; they are preppers, who may be the key to his survival, and they are the only family he has left.

America is peaceful and back at the top of the world seventy years after the Second Revolutionary War tore through the country and gave birth to Central—the new government. For Lily Sandover the Second Revolution is just another war to learn about in school, until her political father gets promoted into Central and she is taught that everything is not as it appears.

This collection of three novellas chronicles the dramatic events from the founding of the first Martian colony in the middle of the 21st century to the first election of the Martian Republic in the 22nd century. Together the three novellas are a sweeping, cautionary tale of a grand social and economic experiment on Mars.

Leah is a picker. Her job is to sift through the refuse and waste of the silo and sort it for recycling. She enjoys making homemade paper and writing stories, but she just happens to live in an underground silo full of mysteries, and in a dystopian world that has been destroyed by mankind. The two things that she loves to do most in the world are both illegal.

Experience a thrilling journey through the vast expanse of the universe with Science Fiction Short Stories Vol. 02. This collection of short stories is a must-read for any science fiction enthusiast, and a perfect introduction to the genre for those new to it. With each story carefully crafted to ignite the reader's imagination, this book is an unforgettable ride through the depths of space and the mysteries of the unknown. Set in the far future, Science Fiction Short Stories Vol. 02 takes readers on a journey through time and space, exploring the infinite possibilities of the universe. ...

It's on the prowl... When an inquisitive paperboy notices something strange along his route, he immediately investigates. But what begins as an innocent inquiry will soon become something hauntingly sinister. And as the truth is unleashed, the neighborhood discovers... THE ATTACK IS JUST BEGINNING Now, hampered by a record storm and left to fend for themselves, three high schoolers must do the impossible. Their neighborhood is under attack--the infection spreading. And with a deadly creature and its undead minions on the loose, what these teenagers think they know, could never be more wrong...

The four stories narrate the struggles of the tiny island nation of Buron to resist the onslaught of its much bigger neighbor, Garsia, via any means necessary. “Green Monkey Syndrome” describes the disaster of a pathogenic weapon leaked among indigenous tribespeople; “The Gaoka Case” tracks through case files a pharmaceutical offensive designed to take advantage of the enemy’s patriarchal culture; “I Love Thee Winona” and “The Lost Bird” describe campaigns to manipulate disastrous weather patterns and deliver bioweapons through migrating birds.

There are many consequences of gravity. While our feet are firmly planted on terra, our hearts break, our souls seek homage from higher beings, our desire to learn creates intelligent animations landscapes change, demons posses, we dream of escaping to Mars and other planets. A collection of short stories set on Earth, space, and distant planets. This collection features the shorty story Glitch and the first publication of the poetry collection Consequence of Gravity.

Brace for a triple-dose of adrenaline with this three-book collection, including a sci-fi novella packed full of action and twists, and two creepy short stories sure to hit that macabre spot deep inside! In the Sci-fi Novella ADA, Teran’s world, submerged in a future of uncertainty, unravels after a mission gone awry. Part-man, part-synthetic, Teran faces choices that could reshape his destiny, all while navigating a flooded world filled with suspense, surprises, and relentless action. But the thrills don’t stop there. In Eyes in the Garden, Phil finds himself in an enigmatic old house,...

What happens when English teacher Boyd Walker forgets to die on his deathday? What's in the pearls that the antiquarian sells to the desperate villagers? Can two exploited castes work together to preserve a child's freedom? What if God was an intellectually disabled little girl? Can you predict what common people will do when facing existential crises? What about outright genocide? These are amongst the 13.5 gripping and upsetting short stories set in the oppressive totalitarian regime of Darrenbroath.

Written in the classic science-fiction era of the 1950s and '60s, these stories have out-of-this-world endings reminiscent of The Twilight Zone episodes from the same time. Listeners encounter diverse characters, from a teen surfer and a 1940s boxer to space travelers and strange Arctic villagers. Thought-provoking themes create a unique blend of escapism and intellectual stimulation.

In a world with an uncertain future, do you imagine for the best or for the worst case scenario? Twelve writers tackle extreme solarpunk utopias and apocalyptic or political dystopias—and the gray areas in between—in Biketopia, the fourth volume of the Bikes in Space series of feminist science fiction stories about bicycling. Some find love and fierce resistance in the end times; others imagine an ecological future of saving technology, with solarpunk ecotopian visions, at times paired with crushing social control.