Books like NK3 by Michael Tolkin

The novel opens beneath the H LYW OD sign over a Los Angeles devastated by a weaponized microbe that has been accidentally spread worldwide, erasing human identity. In post‑NK3 Los Angeles, the hills are surrounded by a sixty‑foot fence where the former rich have become the new aristocracy, the Verified. Inside the fence, life is a perpetual party, ruled by the Verified and led by the Chief, who consults gargantuan effigies in the center of the fence for guidance. Outside the fence, in downtown Los Angeles, the Verified maintain control over the mindless and nameless Drifters, Shamblers, and Bottle Bangers through an invented mythology, keeping them in a gift economy until they are no longer needed. The story follows several figures—Elusive Eckmann, a man hiding with the last functioning plane at LAX; Shannon Squier, a pre‑NK3 pop superstar who has been pulled from the shambling masses; a treacherous member of the Chief's inner circle; and Hopper, a unique Drifter compelled by an inner voice to search for a wife whose name and face he does not know—each threatening the fragile power balance in this ruined yet magnetic city.

First publish date: 2017