Banned Books Week, this year celebrated from September 25 to October 1, is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read whatever the hell you want.
Written in 1931 and published the following year, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, is a dystopian vision of where the human race was headed. Set in London in the year AD 2540, the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning and psychological manipulation, that combine to profoundly change society. It is now considered to be one of the greatest and prescient novels ever written. It’s also been banned numerous times over the past few decades–the American Library Association ranks Brave New World as No. 52 on their list of most challenged books–which ironically is something that Huxley predicted would happen.
In celebration of Banned Book Week, find a list of self-published titles whose authors attempt to see into what looks to be a very bleak future.
Star Soldier by Vaughn Heppner
Echoing Huxley’s belief that reproductive technology would go high-tech, Heppner’s first novel in the “Doom Star” series features super soldiers that were created in gene labs.
The so-called “Highborn” decide to replace the now obsolete Homo Sapiens, who played a part in their creation. STAR SOLDIER is the story of techno hell in a merciless war. It’s survival of the fittest in a brutal war of extinction.
The Seeds Trilogy by K. Makansi
K. Makansi is the pen name of a mother/daughters trio–Kristina Blank Makansi, Amira K. Makansi and Elena K. Makansi.
Their trilogy–THE SOWING, THE REAPING and THE HARVEST–takes place in a post-apocalyptic world called Okaria, where the powerful kill to keep their secrets, and the food you eat can change who you are.
Wool by Hugh Howey
Hugh Howey’s brilliant trilogy begins with the (now traditionally published) title, WOOL (the other titles in the series are SHIFT and DUST).
In a ruined and toxic future, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.
His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.
Last Of The Chosen by Lawrence P. White
The first part in the “Spirit of the Empire” series, begins with The Empire, hundreds of thousands of civilizations scattered across the galaxy, that has been subtly invaded by the Chessori, diminutive creatures wielding a powerful mind weapon.
Ellandra of the Chosen, the youngest and last surviving leader, flees the Chessori and lands on a little-known emerging world called Earth, where she is rescued by Mike Carver, an innocent bystander. Together they will try to restore the Empire to its former glory.
Autonomously Yours by K.N. Parker
While AUTONOMOUSLY YOURS is set in the future and deals with technology yet to be fully realized, the heart of the story deals with love and loss, and the way people are treated as objects, feelings that are very much present in life today.
Posing the age old question of “if something can be created, should it?” the story will leave readers engaged and pondering the future possibilities.
AUTONOMOUSLY YOURS is an enjoyable read that does not attempt to answer questions it poses, but engages into deeper understandings of how people treat one another and what it means to be human.
City on a Hill by Ted Neill
CITY ON A HILL is a gripping post-apocalyptic novel, replete with fight scenes, underdogs, alternative histories, lies and betrayals.
The world and the main characters are fully realized: Sabrina, the cagey logician who must constantly prove herself in order to be taken seriously as a female cadet, Lindsey the free spirit hemmed in by a world which denigrates expression.
Entertaining, well written, and thought provoking, CITY ON A HILL is a classic post-apocalyptic epic.