Awise!!
I have some more books that fit this thread!
Dean Koontz has a lot of stuff in this vein, and though he’s not a very good writer, the plots completely captured me when I was a teen. Watchers is his classic, and I re-read recently and learned I should have left it in the past. Two other favorites of mine were his Midnight, in which a small town is overtaken by genetically modified monsters from a secret lab, and Dragon Tears, which involves a man with four (4) un-decended testicles developing special powers, a dog that can think, and the Koontzian stalwarts: Decent Policeman and Plucky Female.
Charles Soule’s book Anyone is an identity-is-tricky SF novel split between present day and near future. My thoughts are here, but short version? It’s real good.
I did not like Wanderers, by Chuck Wendig, which has a Stephen King-ish modern day plague/infection, but no real interesting characters and a plot that doesn’t move fast enough.
Upthread is a recommendation for Patrick Lee’s first novel, Breach, which is basically the perfect book for this thread. If you like this stuff and haven’t read that, stop reading this thread and get it now!! The two followups aren’t as strong but if you like the world and characters, they’re good fun. His next book after those is called Runner, and it’s nearly perfect, too. The plot is break fucking neck and is full of scenes and moments that made me exclaim aloud, annoying my wife. The moment where the girl mind controls him not so she can torture him, but so that he has to watch while she makes him torture HER had me sitting forward in my seat and swearing in shock (and delicious appreciation).
One Second After by William Forstchen didn’t work for me. It is apocalypse war-gaming on the community level. An interesting scenario and lots of fascinating little details about how a community would respond to the challenges of total electronic breakdown. None of the characters know why the US has suffered an EMP strike but have to deal with it all the same, there’s bargaining and backstabbing between various communities all dealing with unique challenges of their own, and it’s unique in the Preppers literature in that it’s focused on how a community deals with disaster, not just individuals. But the writing is flat and hacky, the characters merely sketched, the plot beats feel schematic, and that all dragged me down quicker than the story pulled me forward.
Devolution by Max Brooks, author of World War Z: hi-tech utopian group in the PNW gets mauled by Sasquatch. A good scenario let down by bland characters and pretty awful writing.