Books like 'You Feel It Just Below the Ribs'
Readers who enjoyed You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor & Janina Matthewson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical sc-fi horror alternate history military, war & conflict dystopia historical-fiction lgbtq dark war
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The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel by Jeffrey Lewis
16 ratings“A brilliantly conceived page-turner.”—Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and Command and ControlAmerica lost 1.4 million citizens in the North Korean attacks of March 2020. This is the final, authorized report of the government commission charged with investigating the calamity. “The skies over the Korean Peninsula on March 21, 2020, were clear and blue... -
![Rustkiller by Dean F. Wilson]()
Rustkiller by Dean F. Wilson
6 ratingsWelcome to the Rust Valley. The Wild North is full of nasty places, but there are some places you just don’t go. One of them is that scrapyard desert known as the Rust Valley. It’s where vehicles go to die. That’s why you don’t go in after them. The bounty hunter Nox made a promise to himself that he’d never be caught dead there...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
![Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank]()
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
32 ratings“An extraordinary real picture of human beings numbed by catastrophe but still driven by the unconquerable determination of living creatures to keep on being alive.” —The New Yorker“Alas, Babylon.” Those fateful words heralded the end... -
![What Doctor Gottlieb Saw by Ian Tregillis]()
What Doctor Gottlieb Saw by Ian Tregillis
8 ratingsGretel has wires in her head. Gretel likes to pick wildflowers. Gretel is one of the subjects on the farm, and she is Doctor Gottlieb's responsibility, but she knows something she isn't telling -- and if Doctor Gottlieb doesn't figure it out, it may be his body in a ditch next. This story is set in the world of Ian Tregillis's Milkweed series, which began with Bitter Seeds...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction 20th-century adult alternate-history book child-abuse fiction -
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![Writers of the Future Volume 30: The Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year by Dave Wolverton, Orson Scott Card]()
Writers of the Future Volume 30: The Best New Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year by Dave Wolverton, Orson Scott Card
6 ratingsEmbark on Voyages of Imagination and Wonder. Discover the new visionaries of imagination. Experience the thrills, laughs, heartbreak and tears that can all be found in this fabulous new anthology. We’ve scoured the globe to find the most powerful new writers, and then paired them with the most gifted new illustrators to bring you L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XXX...Categorized as:
dark dystopia post-apocalyptic aliens alternate-history anthologies christian dark-fantasy -
![The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by Mark Hodder]()
The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by Mark Hodder
16 ratingsIt is 1862, though not the 1862 it should be. . . . Time has been altered, and Sir Richard Francis Burton, the king’s agent, is one of the few people who know that the world is now careening along a very different course from that which Destiny intended... -
![The Rift Walker by Clay Griffith, Susan Griffith]()
The Rift Walker by Clay Griffith, Susan Griffith
15 ratingsPrincess Adele struggles with a life of marriage and obligation as her Equatorian Empire and their American Republic allies stand on the brink of war against the vampire clans of the north. However, the alliance's horrific strategy for total victory drives Adele to abandon her duty and embark on a desperate quest to keep her nation from staining its hands with genocide...Categorized as:
dark dystopia historical-fiction post-apocalyptic war action-adventure alpha-mc alternate-history -
![On the Beach by Nevil Shute]()
On the Beach by Nevil Shute
28 ratingsAfter the war is over, a radioactive cloud begins to sweep southwards on the winds, gradually poisoning everything in its path. An American submarine captain is among the survivors left sheltering in Australia, preparing with the locals for the inevitable. Despite his memories of his wife, he becomes close to a young woman struggling to accept the harsh realities of their situation...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dark dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction post-apocalyptic war 20th-century -
![Tale of the Thunderbolt by E.E. Knight]()
Tale of the Thunderbolt by E.E. Knight
16 ratingsAs the Resistance attempts to overthrow their vampiric alien masters, elite Cat force member David Valentine embarks on a terrifying journey in search of a long-lost weapon that will guarantee their victory-and the end of the Kurian Order's domination of Earth...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic war action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
![Fiddlehead by Cherie Priest]()
Fiddlehead by Cherie Priest
14 ratingsEx-spy ‘Belle Boyd’ is retired – more or less. Retired from spying on the Confederacy anyway. Her short-lived marriage to a Union navy boy cast suspicion on those Southern loyalties, so her mid-forties found her unemployed, widowed and disgraced. Until her life-changing job offer from the staunchly Union Pinkerton Detective Agency...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction war action-adventure alternate-history book female-author fiction -
![Valentine's Exile by E.E. Knight]()
Valentine's Exile by E.E. Knight
14 ratingsDavid Valentine is revered as a hero for his part in fighting to regain Earth's freedom. When a former Quisling traitor is badly wounded, he asks Valentine to find his wife, who has vanished into the darkness of the Kurian Order. With the help of old friends and new allies, Valentine traces her to a mysterious, heavily guarded compound in Ohio...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic war action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history -
![At the Queen's Command by Michael A. Stackpole]()
At the Queen's Command by Michael A. Stackpole
10 ratings1763: The Crown Colonies of Mystria are in turmoil, trapped between warring empires and facing insurrection from natives and colonists alike...Captain Owen Strake, a wounded and battle-weary Redcoat of the Queen's Own Wurms, has come to this untamed land... -
![Dreadnought by Cherie Priest]()
Dreadnought by Cherie Priest
18 ratingsMercy Lynch is working at a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when she learns that her husband has died in a POW camp and her estranged father is gravely injured and wishes to see her. With no good reason to stay in Virginia, Mercy sets out to see her father in Seattle... -
![Ganymede by Cherie Priest]()
Ganymede by Cherie Priest
18 ratingsThe air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straighter. Although he’s happy to run alcohol guns wherever the money’s good, he doesn’t think the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side-effects. But becoming legit is easier said than done, and Cly’s first legal gig—a supply run for the Seattle Underground—will be paid for by sap money...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia historical-fiction war action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book -
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![Warday by Whitley Strieber, James Kunetka]()
Warday by Whitley Strieber, James Kunetka
16 ratingsThe unthinkable happened five years ago and now two writers have set out to find what's left of America.New York, Washington D.C., San Antonio, and parts of the Central and Western states are gone, and famine, epidemics, border wars, and radiation diseases have devastated the countryside in between... -
![War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches by Kevin J. Anderson, Mike Resnick]()
War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches by Kevin J. Anderson, Mike Resnick
6 ratingsWar of the Worlds: Global Dispatches features stories by the brightest stars in the science fiction firmament. One of the most startlingly original and entertaining SF anthology concepts in years, perfectly preserving the spirit of H. G. Wells's classic. H. G...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war adult aliens alternate-history anthologies cosmic-horror fiction -
![The Martian in the Wood by Stephen Baxter]()
The Martian in the Wood by Stephen Baxter
6 ratingsStephen Baxter's The Martian in the Wood, a Tor.com Original In the aftermath of the First Martian War, in the interim between it and what was to come later, England seemed to once again become a green and peaceful place, if one haunted by the terrible events in Surrey that had happened in those early years of the century. Although people hoped and prayed peace had come, they were wrong... -
![Killer by David Drake, Karl Edward Wagner]()
Killer by David Drake, Karl Edward Wagner
6 ratingsOn the nightmare planet Zuyle evolved a race of predators so deadly they could overrun worlds. Only two of them almost destroyed the planet Doronin...Categorized as:
historical-fiction action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history book classics fiction -
![The Kingmakers by Clay Griffith, Susan Griffith]()
The Kingmakers by Clay Griffith, Susan Griffith
15 ratingsThe epic Vampire Empire trilogy rushes to a heart-wrenching conclusion of honor and love, hatred and vengeance, sacrifice and loss. A war to the death. Empress Adele has launched a grand crusade against the vampire clans of the north. Prince Gareth, the vampire lord of Scotland, serves the Equatorian cause, fighting in the bloody trenches of France in his guise as the dashing Greyfriar...Categorized as:
dark dystopia historical-fiction lgbtq post-apocalyptic war action-adventure alpha-mc -
![Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner]()
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
20 ratingsOne hundred very short chapters, told in an utterly original first-person voice, propel readers through a narrative that is by turns gripping and darkly humorous, bleak and chilling, tender and transporting.What if the football hadn't gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn't want anyone to know...Categorized as:
dark dystopia historical-fiction lgbtq war action-adventure alternate-history audiobook -
![The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez]()
The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez
10 ratingsMars is supposed to be dead.…Bizarre quakes are rumbling over the long-dormant tectonic plates of the planet, disrupting its trillion-dollar mining operations and driving scientists past the edges of theory and reason...Categorized as:
historical-fiction action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history audiobook book exploration -
![Final Blackout: A Futuristic War Novel by L. Ron Hubbard]()
Final Blackout: A Futuristic War Novel by L. Ron Hubbard
10 ratingsLondon 1975. As the great World War grinds to a halt a force more sinister than Hitler's Nazis has seized control of Europe and is systematically destroying every adversary -- except one...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction post-apocalyptic war action-adventure adult alternate-history book -
![Armored by John Joseph Adams, David Barr Kirtley]()
Armored by John Joseph Adams, David Barr Kirtley
10 ratingsArmor up for a metal-pounding feast of action, adventure and amazing speculation by topnotch writers (including Nebula-award winner Jack McDevitt, Sean Williams, Dan Abnet, Simon Green, and Jack Campbell) on a future warrior that might very well be just around the corner... -
![Pilgrimage To Hell by Jack Adrian]()
Pilgrimage To Hell by Jack Adrian
10 ratingsOn a January day, a Presidential inauguration day, a one-megaton blast ripped through the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C. Subsequent explosions around the globe changed the face and the shape of the earth forever. Out of the ruins emerged Deathlands...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia post-apocalyptic war action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook -
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![Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters]()
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
26 ratingsA young black man calling himself Victor has struck a bargain with federal law enforcement, working as a bounty hunter for the US Marshall Service in exchange for his freedom. He's got plenty of work. In this version of America, slavery continues in four states called "the Hard Four... -
![Eifelheim by Michael Flynn]()
Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
16 ratingsIn 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and has never been resettled. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. Tom indeed becomes obsessed. By all logic, the town should have survived, but it didn't and that violates everything Tom knows about history...Categorized as:
historical-fiction 21st-century action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history audiobook book -
![Fallout by Todd Strasser]()
Fallout by Todd Strasser
16 ratingsWhat if the bomb had actually been dropped? What if your family was the only one with a shelter?In the summer of 1962, the possibility of nuclear war is all anyone talks about. But Scott's dad is the only one in the neighborhood who actually prepares for the worst... -
![The Inexplicables by Cherie Priest]()
The Inexplicables by Cherie Priest
14 ratingsRector “Wreck ’em” Sherman was orphaned as a toddler in the Blight of 1863, but that was years ago. Wreck has grown up, and on his eighteenth birthday, he’ll be cast out out of the orphanage.And Wreck’s problems aren’t merely about finding a home. He’s been quietly breaking the cardinal rule of any good drug dealer and dipping into his own supply of the sap he sells...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction post-apocalyptic war action-adventure alternate-history audiobook book -
![Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History by Gardner Dozois, Michael Flynn]()
Roads Not Taken: Tales of Alternate History by Gardner Dozois, Michael Flynn
6 ratingsAlternate History: The What-If? fiction that has finally come into its own! Shedding light on the past by exploring what could have happened, this bold genre tantalizes your imagination and challenges your perceptions with thrilling reinventions of humanity's most climactic events... -
![The Greyfriar by Clay Griffith, Susan Griffith]()
The Greyfriar by Clay Griffith, Susan Griffith
20 ratingsRousing pulp action and steampunk come together in a heartbreaking story of high adventure and alternate history.In the year 1870, a horrible plague of vampires swept over the northern regions of the world. It is now 2020 and a bloody reckoning is coming. Princess Adele is heir to the Empire of Equatoria, a remnant of the old tropical British Empire...Categorized as:
dark dystopia historical-fiction post-apocalyptic war action-adventure alternate-history audiobook -
![It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis]()
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
24 ratingsThe only one of Sinclair Lewis's later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith, It Can't Happen Here is a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century adult alternate-history audiobook -
![Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James K. Morrow]()
Shambling Towards Hiroshima by James K. Morrow
10 ratings2010 Sturgeon Award winnerNebula and Hugo Award nomineeIt is the early summer of 1945, and war reigns in the Pacific Rim with no end in sight. Back in the States, Hollywood B-movie star Syms Thorley lives in a very different world, starring as the Frankenstein-like Corpuscula and Kha-Ton-Ra, the living mummy. But the U.S...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war 20th-century adult alternate-history anthologies comedy fiction -
![Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch]()
Camp Concentration by Thomas M. Disch
16 ratingsLouis Sacchetti is a poet and pacifist imprisoned for refusing to enlist in the war against Third World guerillas. Sacchetti and the other inmates are used in perverse scientific experiments, and Sacchetti is infected with a germ that raises intelligence to incredible heights while causing decay and death...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia historical-fiction post-apocalyptic war 20th-century adult alternate-history -
![Ghosts of War by George Mann]()
Ghosts of War by George Mann
8 ratingsGhosts of War picks up the story a month after the end of Ghosts of Manhattan. New York City is being plagued by a pack of ferocious brass raptors – strange, skeleton-like creations with bat-like wings that swoop out of the sky, attacking people and carrying them away into the night...Categorized as:
historical-fiction action-adventure adult alternate-history book conspiracies cosmic-horror fiction -
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![A Red Sun Also Rises by Mark Hodder]()
A Red Sun Also Rises by Mark Hodder
8 ratingsA tale of good and evil, where neither is what it seems! Aiden Fleischer, a bookish priest, finds himself transported to an alien world. With him is Miss Clarissa Stark, a crippled hunchback of exceptional ability, wronged by an aristocrat and cast out from society...Categorized as:
historical-fiction war action-adventure adult alternate-history book disaster epidemy -
![The Grasshopper Lies Heavy by Chandler Duke]()
The Grasshopper Lies Heavy by Chandler Duke
8 ratings1966 -- a century after the Confederate States of America won the Civil War -- the Cold War rages. The Soviets control the west coast. The British have The Colonies. The Confederacy is a powder keg in the middle. A terrorist attack in dystopian Atlanta lights the fuse. A Captain in the KKK grows disillusioned with his country. A widow who won’t grieve grows disillusioned with herself...Categorized as:
apocalyptic dystopia historical-fiction adult alternate-history book fiction historical -
![Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis]()
Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis
26 ratingsTruth is a human right.It’s fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction lgbtq 21st-century action-adventure aliens alternate-history audiobook -
![Clementine by Cherie Priest]()
Clementine by Cherie Priest
18 ratingsMaria Isabella Boyd’s success as a Confederate spy has made her too famous for further espionage work, and now her employment options are slim. Exiled, widowed, and on the brink of poverty…she reluctantly goes to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago.Adding insult to injury, her first big assignment is commissioned by the Union Army... -
![The IX by Andrew P. Weston]()
The IX by Andrew P. Weston
8 ratingsSoldiers from varying eras and vastly different backgrounds, including the IX Legion of Rome, are snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing, and transported to the far side of the galaxy. Thinking they have been granted a reprieve, their relief turns to horror when they discover they face a stark ultimatum: Fight or die...Categorized as:
dark historical-fiction war action-adventure adult aliens alternate-history audiobook -
![Corsets & Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances by Trisha Telep, Maria V. Snyder]()
Corsets & Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances by Trisha Telep, Maria V. Snyder
14 ratingsDark, urban fantasies come to life in the newest collection of Steampunk stories, Corsets & Clockwork. Young heroes and heroines battle evils with the help of supernatural or super-technological powers, each individual story perfectly balancing historical and fantastical elements...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction war action-adventure alternate-history anthologies fiction historical -
![Boneshaker by Cherie Priest]()
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
28 ratingsIn the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born... -
![Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt]()
Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt
18 ratingsWhen streetwise Molly Templar witnesses a brutal murder at the brothel she has recently been apprenticed to, her first instinct is to run back to the poorhouse where she grew up. But there she finds her fellow orphans butchered, and it slowly dawns on her that she was the real target of the attack...Categorized as:
dystopia historical-fiction war action-adventure alternate-history book coming-of-age epic
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