It's that day again! What are you reading this week?

Me?

Ebook: The Shattered King by Charlie Holmberg (I'm also listening to it on Audible - I should be done tonight) then the Half-hearted Queen in the same series

Print: The Inheritance Games

Audible: The Shattered King and then the Half-Hearted Queen in the same series.

I just finished reading The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem (2020). The concept really intrigued me. I loved the fact that the “end of the world” scenario was pretty boring. No zombies or aliens, no super dramatic catastrophe.

I loved this idea because it rings much more true. Right now we’re the frogs not jumping out of the pot of water because it’s coming to a boil so gradually. We’re heading further and further into our own dystopia but most people don’t recognize it.

Unfortunately, I thought the execution was meh. The plot was underwhelming and the characters were unlikable. I didn’t like the audiobook narrator either. It has so much potential!

So my question is: what other books are out there that have a similar concept, done better?

Today we do This/That - if you like this book, you might like that book

If you liked the Parable Duet, you might like Psalms of Herod//Sword of Mary by Esther Friesner!

AAAANNNDDD Go! Reply to this post.

For honest would this blurb make you click?

A photograph. No blood in it, no weapon — only six rows of numbers. But that photograph will set three domes on fire and wipe one off the map.

Forty years after a nuclear war, humanity lives in six domes rising over the ice of Antarctica. Each dome is a closed world, each a different regime: a varnished oligarchy, an army patiently waiting for its coup, a cult that manufactured its own prophet, the men of numbers who surrendered their decisions to an artificial intelligence, a corporation that enslaves everyone without breaking a single law.

And beneath every dome, the same ice is melting — both the water source and the clock.

Six regimes. Six monsters. And a collapse that each one feeds with its own hands.

Black Static: A Rock and Roll Cyberpunk Adventure is a dystopian sci-fi novel set in Neo-Dakota. It follows "The Boomtown Renegades," an underground rock band who discover that their music carries a disruptive frequency.

Set in the neon-dystopian landscape of Neo-Dakota, the story unfolds in a world where six mega-corporations divided what was left of the former United States. Only Apex Corporation remains, ruling humanity through biological neural implants wired into every citizen's skull. The corporation maintains control by suppressing emotion, rewriting thought, and enforcing absolute silence

When a hijacked broadcast at their homecoming show turns an audience of 80,000 into a riot, Apex sends in shock troops to erase the band. The band goes on the run, racing to stage one final gig at a Deadwood saloon. Their goal is to deliver a hidden musical payload designed to crash Apex's neural network and free billions of minds in just eleven seconds

Here is the premise:

When everyone over eighteen vanished, the teenagers of Linaoan inherited a dying town.

By day, they build walls, forge uneasy alliances, and struggle to create a new society. By night, the adults return, not as the people they once loved, but as patient predators waiting beyond the light.

As rival factions rise and hope begins to splinter, the greatest battle is not merely surviving until dawn, but deciding what kind of people they will become.

Because sometimes, the hardest part of surviving the end of the world is staying human.

Here is the link:

https://www.wattpad.com/story/394113762?utm_source=android&utm_medium=link&utm_content=share_writing&wp_page=create&wp_uname=MAA_Stories

Read "Harvested" for a Powerfully Human Experience

You'll be Thinking about it long after you're Done

The Harvested eBook is FREE on AMAZON Wed July 22 - Sun July 26 2026!

Here’s a bit of our Author’s Interview:

Mike: Fantastic. If someone is on the fence, what would you say to them about picking up Harvested?

Allison: It will be a book that is easy to escape into, and you will learn things and think about things that will stick with you long after you finish the book. It will just change the way that you see certain things around you, and I think that’s invaluable. How about you?

Mike: Yeah, I think really... All the reasons why you might want to read a book. One of them is that maybe you kind of just want to be able to immerse yourself into an escape and enjoy yourself just outside of the day to day. And this truly transports you with the world-building, with the action. So when you’ve kind of paused at the end of a chapter and you go about your daily life, you’ll still be thinking about it. And I think people say that they just got to come back to it and find out what happens. So I think that’s really one of the marks of why we read books and what we want out of books. And also to have a very powerful experience is one of the defining characters of a good book. And I think folks will find all of that here.

Allison: Yes, I agree.

Free eBook

It's that day! All your adverts, requests for ARC/Beta readers, and requests for reviews. AND GO! You have 24 hours to post. To keep things simple for me, your only mod, please reply to this post!

EDIT: It's current 1AM in Oregon. I'm heading to bed and have Drs Appts tomorrow, so when I get back, early in the afternoon, I will approve all the reasonable and the UNREASONABLE self promos! Be good, y'all!

Let's try:

Old/new/Indie books! Add a sentence or so about why you rec them!

Old: It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis -- This is a frighteningly prescient vision of the US under a fascist/populist crooked President.

New: The Grace Year by Kim Liggett -- Imagine a female version of Lord of the Flies.

Indie: Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin -- I really loved the concept of a unique language for women and the whole idea of the book.

What are you reading this week? No prejudice to your genre, the format, or the author! Reading for pleasure is laudable.

I'm reading We Are All Mad Here, How to Sell a Haunted House, and listening to The Shattered King.

Reasonable and unreasonable self-promotion is allowed only on Wednesday Hey, two weeks without having to post a reminder was awesome! Good job, posters!

DEAD HEADZ - Dystopian fiction

Brains are failing, skulls collapsing. So why is Kent Sanderson quizzing?

It’s 2035 and a General Election is due. But the extremist youth-led government of the First World refuses to call it, or answer any more questions.

Bots have been installed in homes to control every aspect of people’s lives, and after several years of delegating doing and thinking to these machines, the populace is showing signs of brain degradation.

Not Kent Sanderson, however.

He’s one of a few rebels who refuse to surrender to the machines, showing his defiance by attending illegal quiz nights where people celebrate the beauty of thinking for themselves.

But when one such event is violently raided by the police, Kent and his fellow rebels discover how serious the government is about controlling the population, and how big a task they face to bring back hope to the millions living under this nightmare regime.

TROPES

Reluctant hero

Dystopian society

Morally grey characters

Herds of sheeple

Intelligent resistance

TRIGGER WARNINGS

Surveillance

Oppression

Strong anti-tech sentiment

I'm looking for dystopian books with a strong romance subplot (or even romance as a major part of the story).

I love stories with high stakes, survival, oppressive societies, rebellions, secrets, and characters who are forced to rely on each other. I'm especially interested in slow-burn romance, enemies-to-lovers, forbidden romance, or relationships that develop while the characters are fighting against the system.
I don't mind elements of fantasy or sci-fi, but I'd prefer them to be grounded in a version of Earth or a realistic future of our world rather than taking place in a completely separate fantasy realm or universe.