Books like The 13th Continuum by Vera Strange

After a cataclysm threatens humanity with extinction, the remaining survivors inhabit intricately engineered continuums that sustain life until Earth can be repopulated. Within the Thirteenth Continuum, a group of young friends lives under a strict totalitarian regime, where any longing for the outside world is banned. Their shared imagination of life beyond the walls of their sanctuary sparks a quiet rebellion. When a startling discovery suggests that the surface might actually be attainable, the teens are thrust into a dilemma: risk their own survival to pursue an experience that has been forbidden for generations, or remain safe within the confines of the Continuum. The story explores the tension between authoritarian control and the human yearning for freedom, juxtaposing claustrophobic institutional life against the lure of an uncertain but potentially liberating surface.

First publish date: 2016