If you’ve been hankering for a story about civilization’s Big Reset, here are three titles I think you’ll enjoy:
Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen
This is the entry point to the Book of Swords series a series fine on its own but really the hook here is that the world with all the standard fantasy tropes was set up by a science fiction event. The source of the magic, demons, and other creatures encountered in the text in other words are all of our own making. How that plays out in the book is what makes it so fun.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
The big reset in this hard science fiction story is the breakup of the moon and the resulting debris cloud that ends life as we know it on Earth. The story divides itself roughly into three parts: the race to send a last-hope colony into space before time runs out, the reorganization of society once everyone else on Earth is dead, and how the Earth is eventually repopulated. The neat part of this story is that Neal likes to dig into the hard-science why’s of orbital mechanics and he portrays the dying Earth in a way that doesn’t resort to the cliché of mass hysteria and rampant lawlessness.
The Wingman by Mack Maloney
Mad Max meets Top Gun in this tale of a world after a WWIII-type event where society collapses and reorganizes itself in little city states and fiefdoms ruled by warlords. Enter the Wingman, a hot-shot pilot with the world’s last remaining F-16. Not a lot of subtext to absorb in this story but plenty of action.
What books would you recommend to your fellow readers? Leave us a message in the comments!
