Dark City Rising by CL Jarvis

SPFBO10

He wanted to fix the archaic medical education system. He ended up changing the world. Scotland, 1748. Professor William Cullen has a secret: he’s developing a new, egalitarian system of magic. If Scotland’s aristocrats learn he threatens their stronghold of power – upheld through dark magical means and buy-in from the Edinburgh’s illustrious medical school – he’s dead. When a noble is murdered for daring to champion Cullen, he realises confrontation is inevitable and he must take his fight to the enemy. Aided by his prodigious former student Joseph Black, Cullen must navigate a hostile academic system, locating the source of the aristocrats’ power before his secret abilities are uncovered and the assassins return for him. Fans of The Embroidered Book and The Baroque Cycle will be enthralled by this sweeping reimagining of 18th century Edinburgh on the cusp of scientific and philosophical revolution.

Kotov Syndrome by S. Morgan Burbank

WriteHive Book Club SPSFC 2022

The 2021 Queer Indie Awards winner for Best Dystopian Novel Erika Edens is panicking. Behind on her bills and stuck in a crappy job, she's blindsided when ex-love-of-her-life Abby shows up needing a place to stay. This is the perfect situation for a second chance... ...except that Abby is a computer simulation in the body of an android. Battling the rising hostility of her world and the demons in her head, Erika struggles to come to terms with living in a country increasingly hostile to non-human entities. Can Erika adapt to life with her new roommate? Or will her troubles end any chance at reconciliation before it gets started?

Icebreaker by Steven William Hannah 

SPSFC 2023

Inside their walls, the people are safe from exposure to the unnamed horror that broke the world long ago; but now Bear, the last scientist in Forgehead, takes a case that threatens to throw that safety into question. Someone has been terminally exposed to the phenomenon, despite never having ventured outside the walls. This has only happened once before - to Bear's father. With the safety of Forgehead in question, and an opportunity to finally discover what happened to his father, Bear must leave the safety of the walls to unravel the mysteries left behind by the pre-cataclysm world; a task that will require him to join the Interloper Initiative, the team who crew the gigantic Crawler landships, the only vehicles that can roam the world outside the walls in relative safety. "Icebreaker" is the first entry in the Interloper Trilogy, a tale of horror and science charting the last days of a dying world, and humanity's endeavour to survive.