In Pluribus, Carol is one of the few people left on the planet who are not infected by the alien virus. In this inventive novel, Laura Byrd is the only person left alive on Earth. She’s a scientist at an isolated Antarctic research station, so when the killer virus spreads across the globe, it doesn’t reach her. But the other layer to this story is the City, a liminal space where the dead reside as long as someone alive on Earth remembers them. So when everyone dies on Earth except Laura, the City is then only populated by people she remembers.

This is considered the third book in Octavia Butler’s Patternist series, but it was the fourth book in the series to be published. You don’t have to read them in order, but it’s recommended. I wanted to get it on your radar, whether you start here or at the beginning. Clay’s Ark is set in an alternative United States, where a father and his twin teenage daughters are taken captive by sickly attackers. Transported to the attackers’ compound, the captives learn an alien virus has spread among the inhabitants, making the humans stronger and more aggressive. The three captives are then given a choice: join them or be given a different virus that will mark them as outcasts, if it doesn’t kill them first.

An alien virus love story! When aliens come down from space and invade the minds of the human race, one parasite finds that her host body, Melanie, refuses to cede complete control of her brain. Instead, Wanderer, the invading parasite, discovers Melanie often thinks of Jared, a human in hiding who has not been infected. Driven by thoughts of him, Wanderer finds herself a willing passenger as her host embarks on a road trip to find Jared, the man they now both love.

This is an excellent (and disturbing) collection of stories all related to people and aliens, feeling like an outsider, and ultimately, what it means to be human. A group of humans develops body protuberances after an alien technology disaster; a group of aliens derives joy from extreme human emotions; an alien sex bot falls from the sky to Earth; outcasts from a lunar colony must undergo procedures to adapt to our planet; a human and an alien fall in love; and more.

Read this if your favorite aspect of Pluribus is the utopia-attaining virus that takes over the world. Trina is a trans woman who lives with her wife Deeba in a new world under the influence of an alien entity called The Seep. Since its arrival, mostly everything has become peaceful on Earth, with no more war or greed or classism. There’s even Seeptech that can make dreams a reality, which is where things start to go wrong for Trina. When Deeba decides she wants to be reborn as a baby and live life over, she leaves Trina behind. Hurt and lonely, Trina takes off on a road trip, where she meets a young man whom she decides she is going to save from the Seep while also trying to deal with the hole that Deeba has left in her heart.