Dystopian Fiction | Self-Publishing Review

Review: Electric Order by Armani Martel

Electric Order, winner of the 2017 Baum Book Prize, holds no punches in its startling and unique vision of the future. The prologue has a razor-sharp hook that will grip you from the very start.

Set in a future not too far away, the story follows two characters – Paulo, a down and out police detective, who’s just about done in by a job that seems to have no end. He’s the compelling lead protagonist as he pursues Daniel, a mysterious villain wanted for a high-status murder. Paulo is the everyman: disgruntled but easy to like, if it were […]

Josh Machado Halcro2018-10-27T12:41:15+02:00August 26th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Armani Martel, Dystopian Fiction, Science Fiction|

Review: World, Incorporated by Tom Gariffo

At the rate humans are progressing in terms of technological advancement and artificial intelligence, it seems inevitable that reality will be shaken to its foundations in the near future. In World, Incorporated: A Modern Dystopia, author Tom Gariffo takes us to that not-so-distant future, the year 2058, and spins a masterful tale where the line between man and machine has never been so blurred.

A handful of decades in the future, the face of the globe has irreparably changed, with corporations controlling and documenting every citizen on the planet. Individual identity still exists, but it no longer has the […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2018-09-19T12:26:33+02:00August 22nd, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Dystopian Fiction, Science Fiction|

Review: The Tree that Grew Through Iron (The Panagea Tales Book 1) by McKenzie Austin

In The Tree That Grew Through Iron, the first book in The Panagea Tales, McKenzie Austin has created a remarkably inventive and magical novel that transports readers to a future where the world as we know it is no more.

After the natural world is destroyed by the greedy hunger of men for industrial achievement and production, a new system of survival must be established. In the landmass of Panagea, Time Fathers rule over each of their divisions, ensuring that time flows smoothly and industry proceeds uninterrupted. Nicholai Addihein – a Time Father and the story’s protagonist – discovers […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2018-08-15T10:46:37+02:00July 19th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Dystopian Fiction, Fantasy|

The First Conception: Rise of Eris by Nesly Clerge

Envisioning the end of the world seems like a common pastime for modern writers, but Nesly Clerge takes a very different approach in his new novel, The First Conception: Rise of Eris. Humanity hasn’t been subjected to a zombie outbreak or devastating climate change, but rather the inability to reproduce – not so much as a mysterious malady, but as an act of revenge.

After a lifetime of being abused and disrespected – physically, emotionally, mentally, and professionally – and seeing it happen to other women across the world, Dr. Katherine Eris Barnes decides to take matters into her […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2018-04-16T10:08:37+02:00April 14th, 2018|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Dystopian Fiction|

Review: The Separation by Thomas Duffy

A striking vision of an extraordinarily strange future, The Separation by Thomas Duffy imagines a world where the sexual divide has never been greater – a world where men and women are unaware of the opposite sex, and kept apart for the purpose of social advancement and peace. With a small but dynamic cast of fascinating characters embroiled in this bizarre premise, this novel sings with social commentary, both about present gender conflicts and how those issues may develop in the future.

Finn is a young man who has only recently learned of the existence of the opposite sex, and […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-02-12T10:02:00+02:00March 15th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Dystopian Fiction, Thomas Duffy|

Review: Shredded by Charles O’Donnell

With a splash of Orwellian dystopia and a frighteningly timely plot, Shredded, the new novel from Charles O’Donnell, challenges the creature comforts we have come to love in our newly digitized world, and poses a terrifying question: What if privacy could be completely erased? In the not-so-distant future, the safety of anonymity has been eliminated, thanks to the introduction of the Worldstream, the near-perfect catalogue of every life and event available through the Internet of Things. Essentially, the Worldstream is social media, Big Brother and live-streaming all rolled into one, making anyone’s most intimate details vulnerable to invasion.

In […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2023-04-03T08:54:07+02:00March 30th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Charles O'Donnell, Dystopian Fiction|

Review: Reverence by Joshua Aaron Landeros

Reverence by Joshua Aaron Landeros is a suspenseful work of dystopian science fiction about a not-too-distant future. In an action-packed novel that touches on many of the issues of the day, readers are dropped in the near future (2065), where a new empire has risen to power, the United Nation Republic, leading the world and dominating all who threaten their security with a cyborg army.

Will, the protagonist of the novel, is one of these enhanced cybernetic soldiers, and his incredible abilities are put on display before the end of the first chapter. The premise reveals itself in a very […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-02-11T08:42:33+02:00February 9th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Dystopian Fiction, Science Fiction|

Paroxysm Effect by Ashleigh Reynolds

Fighting to survive in a world gone mad is a bold premise for any novel, particularly a dystopian one where the author is simultaneously required to world-build and deliver high-intensity action. In Paroxysm Effect, author Ashleigh Reynolds creates a utopian world of peace and prosperity, and then quickly destroys that façade, dropping her main character into a tangled plot of behavior-control chips that have suddenly ceased to function after 5 decades of dominion. The subsequent murder and mayhem makes for fast, voracious reading, and the pacing of this novel rarely lets up.