Extremophile (2024), Ian Green’s novel of cyberpunk dystopia, bioterrorism, wild heist/caper shenanigans, and more! more! is a delight. It was short-listed for the 2025 Arthur C. Clarke Award. A great, gritty read.
Parable of the Sower (1993) cemented Octavia Butler’s place as one of the best writers of speculative fiction in America. Shortly after publication of this novel, she was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the so-called “Genius Grant.” Parable of the Sower has proved sadly prophetic about the collapse of both the environment and society.
Matt Dinniman’s hilarious novel Dungeon Crawler Carl (2020) is the first in a series of novels starring Carl and Donut as they navigate a world catastrophe (emphasis on the “cat”) requiring them to survive multiple levels of a fiendishly designed gamer dungeon. Their peril is being streamed to an alien audience of billions. The alien version of Twitch, I guess. This is LitRPG at its funniest, especially considering how ill-equipped Carl is for combat. On the book cover, you see him in his boxers with the pink hearts, being chased down by a goblin about to flatten him. As for Donut. . .she’s a survivor.
Fantastes 
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