swap_horiz California Alternatives

1

Golden Son

Golden Son moves Pierce Brown's Red Rising story beyond the first novel's academy setting into interplanetary conflict....

Contemporary Dystopian Rebellion Brown

8.82 Great

2

Dark Age

The fifth book in Pierce Brown's Red Rising Saga, Dark Age was published in 2019 after the 2018 installment Iron Gold. I...

Contemporary Dystopian War Brown

8.43 Great

3

The House of the Scorpion

Nancy Farmer's The House of the Scorpion places a young person's search for identity inside a society that treats some h...

Contemporary Biotech Cloning Farmer

8.38 Great

4

Light Bringer

Published in 2023, Light Bringer is Pierce Brown's sixth Red Rising Saga novel and continues directly from Dark Age. Dar...

Action Contemporary Dystopian Brown

8.36 Great

5

Monsters of Men

Published in 2010, Monsters of Men concludes Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy after The Knife of Never Letting Go an...

Contemporary War Ya Ness

8.31 Great

6

The Ask and the Answer

"The Ask and the Answer" is a 2009 young adult dystopian novel by Patrick Ness, serving as the second installment in the...

Contemporary War Ya Ness

8.23 Great

7

The Drowned Cities

The Drowned Cities is a young adult novel by Paolo Bacigalupi, published in 2012. Set in a future United States devastat...

Post Apocalyptic Contemporary Environmental War

7.78 Good

8

Iron Gold

Iron Gold is a 2018 science fiction novel by Pierce Brown and the fourth book in the Red Rising Saga, continuing the sto...

Contemporary Dystopian Political Brown

7.72 Good

9

Daemon

Daemon is Daniel Suarez's techno-thriller, self-published in 2006 and commercially released in 2009, about a self-execut...

Contemporary AI Corporate Tech

7.64 Good

10

Super-Cannes

Super-Cannes is a dystopian novel by British author J.G. Ballard, published in 2000. It is set in Eden-Olympia, a gated...

Contemporary Corporate Isolation Violence

7.56 Good

11

Jennifer Government

Jennifer Government is a satirical science fiction novel written by Australian author Max Barry and published in 2003. T...

Contemporary Corporate Satire Consumerism

7.42 Good

12

The Mime Order

The Mime Order is a dystopian novel by Samantha Shannon, published in 2015 as the second book in The Bone Season series,...

Contemporary Rebellion Shannon Clairvoyant

7.42 Good

13

The Mask Falling

"The Mask Falling" is a dystopian science fiction novel by Samantha Shannon, published in 2021. It is the fourth install...

Contemporary Dystopian Shannon Clairvoyant

7.39 Good

14

Concrete Island

"Concrete Island" is a novel by British author J.G. Ballard, first published in 1974. The story centers on Robert Maitla...

Modern Survival Urban Isolation

7.35 Good

15

Ignite Me

"Ignite Me" is a young adult dystopian novel written by Tahereh Mafi, published in 2014. It serves as the third and fina...

Contemporary Revolution Ya Totalitarian

7.24 Good

16

Memoirs of a Survivor

"Memoirs of a Survivor" is a 1974 dystopian novel by British author and Nobel laureate Doris Lessing. The narrative foll...

Modern Post Apocalyptic Literary Lessing

7.19 Good

17

The Bone Season

"The Bone Season" is a dystopian science fiction novel published in 2013 by Samantha Shannon. It follows Paige Mahoney,...

Contemporary Dystopian Shannon Clairvoyant

7.18 Good

18

The Lord of Opium

"The Lord of Opium" is a 2013 young adult science fiction novel by Nancy Farmer, serving as the sequel to "The House of...

Contemporary Biotech Cloning Farmer

7.12 Good

19

Independent Study

Independent Study is a young-adult dystopian novel by Joelle Charbonneau, published in 2014 as the second book in The Te...

Contemporary Survival Ya Totalitarian

5.86 Mediocre

20

The Fever Code

The Fever Code is a 2016 young-adult dystopian novel by James Dashner and a prequel to The Maze Runner. It is set before...

Post Apocalyptic Contemporary Prequel Ya

5.72 Mediocre