Set in an alternative historical present, in a "eusistocracy"--An extreme welfare state -- that holds public health and social stability above all else, it follows a young woman whose growing addiction to illegal chili peppers leads her on an adventure into a world where love, sex, and free will are all controlled by the state.

In the coming centuries the world's population has exploded. The earth's crowded with cities, animals are nearly all extinct, and drought's so widespread that water is rationed. There are no maps, no borders, no numbered years, and no freedom, except for an elite few. It's a harsh world for an orphan like Nadia Stepan, and she dreams of a green vacation spot called Lighthouse Island, in a place called the Pacific Northwest.

The legendary Reaper, Darrow, to defend Mars from a bloodthirsty would-be conqueror, begins his long voyage home, an interplanetary adventure where old friends will reunite, new alliances will be forged, and rivals will clash on the battlefield.

A humanlike bot has an emotional awakening, which leads him on a quest for connection. 2054. Humans have locked themselves out of the internet and Elon Musk has incinerated the moon. At a screening of a classic movie, Jared notices a strange sensation around his eyes. Bots are not permitted to have feelings, but as the theater lights come on, Jared discovers he is crying. But a bot with feelings could be a danger, and Jared's new life could come...

"The Freedom Race, Lucinda Roy's explosive first foray into speculative fiction, is a poignant blend of subjugation, resistance, and hope. In the aftermath of a cataclysmic civil war known as the Sequel, ideological divisions among the states have hardened. In the Homestead Territories, an alliance of plantation-inspired holdings, Black labor is imported from the Cradle, and Biracial "Muleseeds" are bred. Raised in captivity on Planting 437, kitchen-seed...

The archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world; lucky citizens enjoy long, fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their forearms, meant to measure their health and well-being, fall below 10 percent. Then they retire themselves, embarking on a ferry ride to an island where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are readied to restart life afresh. Proctor Bennett...

"Ma Daode is feeling pleased with himself. He has just been appointed Director of the China Dream Bureau, tasked with overwriting people's private dreams with President Xi's great China Dream of national rejuvenation. He has an impressive office, three properties and a bevy of mistresses texting him night and day. But just as Ma Daode is putting the finishing touches to his plan for a mass golden wedding anniversary celebration, things take an uneasy...

"Political activist and anarchist author Aric McBay (Full Spectrum Resistance) toggles between the years 2028 and 2051 to give us the experience, with breathtaking realism, of what might happen in the span of just one generation to a society that is already on the brink of collapse. In 2028 environmental activists hesitate to take the fight to the extreme of violent revolution. Twenty years later, with the natural environment now seriously degraded,...

The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on earth. Science cannot stop the world from running backwards, as woman after woman gives birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans. Twenty-six-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, adopted daughter of a pair of big-hearted, open-minded Minneapolis liberals, is as disturbed and uncertain as the rest of America around her. But for Cedar,...

An audacious wonder of a novel about baseball and a future America, from the always inventive and exciting author of The Love Wife and Who's Irish. The time: Some thirty-five years hence. The place: AutoAmerica--governed by "Aunt Nettie," an iBurrito of AI algorithms and the internet, in a land half under water. The people: Divided into the angelfair "Netted," whose fate it is to have jobs and live on high ground, and the mostly coppertoned "Surplus,"...