According to AI Overview, a dystopian novel describes a fictional, future society that is deeply divided and oppressive, serving as a warning about the potential negative consequences of contemporary social, political, and technological trends if left unchecked. They often feature a protagonist who rebels against or tries to escape the controlling system. Coldwire by Chloe Gong is the beginning of a new dystopian series set in a future world where society is divided between those who live in a virtual reality ("upcountry") and those who remain in the real deteriorating world ("downcountry"). The protagonist is a soldier who must clear her name of treason. The House of Quiet by Kiersten White introduces a dystopian future where lower class children are sent to get a "procedure" which unlocks powers which allow them to enter the upper class world. When Birdie goes to rescue her younger sister, who was sent to the house to get the procedure, she find out that all is not as it seems. An Ocean Apart by Jill Tew is set in a world divided between Cruisers who live in ships floating above the world, where their environmental crimes have decimated the earth, and the Marshers that lead subsistence existences in the world below. Marsher Eden Lowell enters a Bachelor-like contest to win the hand of a Cruiser in the hopes of sabotaging the class division.
In the cyberpunk dystopian novel Coldwire, "downcountry" is a crumbling real world and "upcountry" is a replica virtual reality world where a cold war rages between two powerful nations, Medaluo and Atahua. Medan orphans in Atahua are forced to attend Nile Military Academy. Eriale graduated from the academy and joined NileCorp private forces downcountry. Then Atahua's most wanted anarchist Nik Grant frames her for assassinating a government official. She is given a choice: cooperate with him to search for a dangerous program in Medaluo or go down for treason. Meanwhile, Lia is finishing her last year upcountry at Nile Military Academy. She is paired with Keiran, her academic nemesis, for their final assignment, to retrieve classified research from a rogue scientist. Lia is determined to beat him for valedictorian and prove her worth. When their respective journeys converge, Eriale and Lia unravel a conspiracy that threatens to undermine everything they know about themselves and the world they live in. Using alternating first-person perspectives, themes of diaspora, corporate control and artificial intelligence are explored.
The House of Quiet sits in the middle of a deadly bog. It's a place for children whose "Procedure" triggered psychic abilities too terrible to be lived with. Birdie and her family worked to afford a procedure for her younger sister Magpie to unlock her abilities so she could get an upper class job. But when Magpie doesn't return from the House of Quiet, Birdie secures a position as a maid at the house, hoping to find her. The patients there are not as expected. They are from wealthy families whose children don't need the procedure. Fellow maids Minnow and Birdie find love interests among the upper class residents. together they find a way to unravel the house's secrets and escape its tentacles. The plotline is reminiscent of X-men with a slow build that ultimately wraps up in a satisfying ending.
Set in the Miami area after an environmental collapse brought on by greedy corporations, An Ocean Apart introduces Eden Lowell who lives in the surrounding Marshes with barely enough to survive. She blames the Cruisers, the corporate elite who sail on massive ships rather than suffer the results of environmental crimes they have committed on land. Together with her best friend and possible love interest Henry, she hunts for drones to sell parts for water rations. When she partners with the Ringmaster, a political agitator, to enter a contest to win a cash prize and the hand of Theo Desjardins, the Cruiser son of the woman threatening the Marshes, things don't go a expected. She finds herself falling for Theo, who is sympathetic to the problems in the Marshes. Torn between her two identities, her feelings for Theo and Henry and two possible outcomes, she struggles between following her head or her heart.
