Pop Culture

Futuristic Fiction with Crossover Appeal: A Reading List

Cassandra Neace

Staff Writer

Cassandra Neace is a high school English teacher in Houston. When she's not in the classroom, she reads books and writes about them. She prides herself on her ability to recommend a book for most any occasion. She can be found on Instagram @read_write_make

gameboard of the godsThis installment of the Riot Recommendation is sponsored by Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead.

In a futuristic world nearly destroyed by religious extremists, Justin March lives in exile after failing in his job as an investigator of religious groups and supernatural claims. But Justin is given a second chance when Mae Koskinen comes to bring him back to the Republic of United North America (RUNA). Raised in an aristocratic caste, Mae is now a member of the military’s most elite and terrifying tier, a soldier with enhanced reflexes and skills. 

When Justin and Mae are assigned to work together to solve a string of ritualistic murders, they soon realize that their discoveries have exposed them to terrible danger. As their investigation races forward, unknown enemies and powers greater than they can imagine are gathering in the shadows, ready to reclaim the world in which humans are merely game pieces on their board.

 

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If the last few years in fiction have taught us anything, it’s that the future is really effing scary, and everyone loves to read about it. What’s up with that? Kids and adults alike have flipped for stories that present a look at what the future might be like. It seems we can’t get enough of the guessing, of the edgy tales, of walking right up to the cliff and peeking over into the unknown. And many of these stories? They’re written for younger readers but become equally beloved by adults.

We asked you to tell us about your favorite works of futuristic fiction with mad crossover appeal.  Here’s what you came up with.

Ready Player One by Ernie Cline

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Wool by Hugh Howey

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Nexus by Ramez Naam

Across the Universe Trilogy by Beth Revis

The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Legend by Marie Lu

The City and the City by China Mieville

The Divergent series by Veronica Roth

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Cinder and Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

The Passage and The Twelve by Justin Cronin

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

What’d we miss, readers?

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