Apocalyptic & Dystopian audiobooks

Day Zero

By: C. Robert Cargill

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

Length: 8 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

In this harrowing apocalyptic adventure—from the author of the critically acclaimed Sea of Rust—noted novelist and co-screenwriter of Marvel’s Doctor Strange C. Robert Cargill explores the fight for purpose and agency between humans and robots in a crumbling world.It was a day like any other. Except it was our last . . .It’s on this day that... Read more

Dead Astronauts

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 7 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

A messianic blue fox who slips through warrens of time and space on a mysterious mission. A homeless woman haunted by a demon who finds the key to all things in a strange journal. A giant leviathan of a fish, centuries old, who hides a secret, remembering a past that may not be its own.Three ragtag rebels waging an endless war for the fate of... Read more

The Grace Year

By: Kim Liggett

Narrated by: Emily Shaffer

Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

"Emily Shaffer delivers a dynamic performance of this dystopian audiobook... She masterfully connects listeners to the characters' emotions, creating passionate and realistic performances." — AudioFile Magazine

This program includes a bonus conversation with the author.

A speculative thriller in the vein of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Power.... Read more

A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World

By: C. A. Fletcher

Narrated by: C. A. Fletcher

Length: 10 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

A "suspenseful, atmospheric tale. . .punctured by a gut-punch twist" (Entertainment Weekly), A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World is a story of survival, courage and hope amid the ruins of our world.

My name's Griz. I've never been to school, I've never had friends, and in my whole life I've not met enough people to play a game of football.... Read more

The Dreamers

By: Karen Thompson Walker

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 10 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • An ordinary town is transformed by a mysterious illness that triggers perpetual sleep in this mesmerizing novel from the bestselling author of The Age of Miracles.

“Stunning.”—Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven • “A startling, beautiful portrait of a community in peril.”—Entertainment... Read more

Scribe

By: Alyson Hagy

Narrated by: Shannon McManus

Length: 5 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

A haunting, evocative tale about the power of storytellingA brutal civil war has ravaged the country, and contagious fevers have decimated the population. Abandoned farmhouses litter the isolated mountain valleys and shady hollows. The economy has been reduced to barter and trade.In this craggy, unwelcoming world, the central character of Scribe... Read more

Rosewater

By: Tade Thompson

Narrated by: Bayo Gbadamosi

Length: 13 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

Rosewater is the start of an award-winning trilogy set in Nigeria, by one of science fiction's most engaging voices.

*Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, winner
*Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel, winner

Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a mysterious alien biodome, its residents... Read more

The Wolves of Winter

By: Tyrell Johnson

Narrated by: Jayme Mattler

Length: 8 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

A post-apocalyptic debut novel in a tradition that includes The Hunger Games and Station Eleven, this vision of a possible future shows humanity pushed beyond its breaking point, the forging of vital bonds when everything is lost, and, most centrally, a heroic young woman who crosses a frozen landscape to find her destiny.

Lynn McBride has... Read more

Hell Divers

By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Narrated by: R. C. Bray

Length: 10 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling seriesThey dive so humanity survives …More than two centuries after World War III poisoned the planet, the final bastion of humanity lives on massive airships circling the globe in search of a habitable area to call home. Aging and outdated, most of the ships plummeted back to earth long ago. The only... Read more

The Ancients

By: John Larison

Narrated by: Dani Martineck

Length: 13 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

“This richly imagined journey into a dystopian future is at once cautionary and provocative, inviting us to heed the lessons of the Ancients.”
—Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass

A richly imagined, sweeping novel of hope, love, and adventure set in the unforgiving world of our own descendants, by the... Read more

Burn

By: Peter Heller

Narrated by: Mark Deakins

Length: 8 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

From the best-selling author of The Dog Stars and The Last Ranger, a novel about two men—friends since boyhood—who emerge from the woods of rural Maine to a dystopian country racked by bewildering violence

Every year, Jess and Storey have made an annual pilgrimage to the most remote corners of the country, where they camp, hunt, and hike, leaving... Read more

The Morningside

By: Téa Obreht 

Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan

Length: 8 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

“A touching, inventive novel about belonging and loss” (People) from the critically beloved, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger’s Wife and Inland

“I marveled at the subtle beauty and precision of Obreht’s prose. . . Read in the context of today’s conflicts and injustices, climate emergencies, and political and racial... Read more

Island Rule

By: Katie M. Flynn

Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan, Corey Brill, Erin deWard, Kit...

Length: 9 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

From the author of the “urgent and heartfelt” (San Francisco Chronicle) novel The Companions, a genre-bending collection of interconnected short stories in the tradition of Jennifer Egan and Karen Russell.

An angry mother turns into a literal monster. A company in San Francisco can scrub your entire reputation and create a new one…for a price. A... Read more

Your Shadow Half Remains

By: Sunny Moraine

Narrated by: Sunny Moraine

Length: 4 hours

Abridged: No

This program is read by the author.

The Last of Us meets Bird Box in Sunny Moraine's Your Shadow Half Remains, a post-apocalyptic tale where eye contact causes people to spiral into a deadly, violent rage.

ONE LOOK CAN KILL.

Riley has not seen a single human face in longer than she can reckon. No faces, no eyes. Not if you want to survive.

But when... Read more

The Marrow Thieves

By: Cherie Dimaline

Narrated by: Meegwun Fairbrother

Length: 7 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions... Read more

Alebrijes

By: Donna Barba Higuera

Narrated by: Cisco Fernandez & Frankie Corzo

Length: 9 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

The next stunning novel from Donna Barba Higuera, author of Newbery and Pura Belpré Award-winning The Last CuentistaThis is the story as it was told to me by Leandro the MightyFor over 400 years, the world has been a barren wasteland. The few humans that survive scrape together an existence in the cruel city of Pocatel—or go it alone in the... Read more

Eden

By: Jim Crace

Narrated by: Ben Allen

Length: 8 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

From the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Harvest and Quarantine, a gorgeous, unforgettable retelling of the myth of Eden.

The inhabitants of Eden are untouched by death. In the garden they care for their orchards and the land, and give thanks for their good fortune, because they know that beyond the garden walls is a world where disease... Read more

Hangman

By: Maya Binyam

Narrated by: Ronnie Butler

Length: 6 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

An enthralling and original first novel about exile, diaspora, and the impossibility of Black refuge in America and beyond.
In the morning, I received a phone call and was told to board a flight. The arrangements had been made on my behalf. I packed no clothes, because my clothes had been packed for me. A car arrived to pick me up.
A man returns... Read more

Blue Skies

By: T.C. Boyle

Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan

Length: 15 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Denied a dog, a baby, and even a faithful fiancé, Cat suddenly craves a snake: a glistening, writhing creature that can be worn like “jewelry, living jewelry” to match her black jeans. But when the budding social media star promptly loses the young “Burmie” she buys from a local pet store, she inadvertently sets in motion a chain of increasingly... Read more

Users

By: Colin Winnette

Narrated by: Justin Price

Length: 6 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Miles, a lead creative at a midsize virtual reality company known for its "original experiences," has engineered a new product called The Ghost Lover. Wildly popular from the outset, the "game" is simple: a user's simulated life is almost identical to their reality, except they're haunted by the ghost of an ex-lover. However, when a shift in the... Read more

The Q

By: Amy Tintera

Narrated by: Kyla Garcia & Robbie Daymond

Length: 8 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

In this action-packed adventure from a New York Times bestselling author, two teenagers from opposite worlds must fight their way through a vast walled quarantine zone in a dystopian America toward their only chance for survival.

Seventeen-year-old Maisie Rojas has spent her entire life in the Q—a post-pandemic quarantine zone that was once... Read more

Lark Ascending

By: Silas House

Narrated by: Charlie Thurston

Length: 7 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

A riveting story of survival and hope, set in the not-too-distant future, about a young man forced to flee the United States and seek refuge across the Atlantic. 

As fires devastate most of the United States, Lark and his family secure a place on a refugee boat headed to Ireland, the last country not yet overrun by extremists and rumored to be... Read more

Lost in Time

By: A.G. Riddle

Narrated by: John Skelley

Length: 11 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

"Amazing! One of the twistiest time-tales I've ever read ..."—Diana Gabaldon"Crichtonesque thrillers don't come much better than this intricate outing which combines a fantastic premise … with a closed-circle whodunit. Readers won't be able to turn the pages fast enough."—Publishers Weekly, starred reviewPANGEA, 202,320,641 BCQuantum physicist... Read more

2 A.M. in Little America

By: Ken Kalfus

Narrated by: BJ Harrison

Length: 6 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

From "an important writer in every sense" (David Foster Wallace), a novel that imagines a future in which sweeping civil conflict has forced America's young people to flee its borders, into an unwelcoming world.



One such American is Ron Patterson, who finds himself on distant shores, working as a repairman and sharing a room with other refugees.... Read more