While the totalitarianism that provoked George Orwell into writing 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' seems to be passing into oblivion, his harrowing, cautionary tale of a man trapped in a political nightmare has had the opposite fate, and its relevance and power to disturb our complacency seem to grow decade by decade.

At age eight, David watched as his father was killed by an Epic, a human with superhuman powers, and now, ten years later, he joins the Reckoners--the only people who are trying to kill the Epics and end their tyranny.

In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patrn̤, the 142- year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.

I thought things would change when I found the others. We would stop running. We would fight the Mogadorians. And We would win. But I was wrong. Though we came together, we barely escaped with our lives. And now we hide. The six of us are powerful - but not strong enough to take on army. We haven't discovered our full legacies. We haven't learned to work together. And time is running out, because we need to find Number Five before they do. The battle...

Alternate chapters follow teenagers Todd and Viola, who become separated as the Mayor's oppressive new regime takes power in New Prentisstown, a space colony where residents can hear each other's thoughts.

When suicide becomes a worldwide epidemic, the only known cure is The Program, a treatment in which painful memories are erased, a fate worse than death to seventeen-year-old Sloane who knows that The Program will steal memories of her dead brother and boyfriend.

Petty criminal Zara Cole has a painful past that made her stronger than most, which is why she chose life in New Detroit instead moving with her family to Mars. In her eyes, living inside a dome isn't much better than a prison cell.

When the moon's gravitational pull increases, causing massive natural disasters on earth, Miranda and her family struggle to survive in a world without cities or sunlight, and wonder if anyone else in still alive.

Alex, a resourceful seventeen-year-old running from her incurable brain tumor, Tom, who has left the war in Afghanistan, and Ellie, an angry eight-year-old, join forces after an electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky and kills most of the world's population, turning some of those who remain into zombies and giving the others superhuman senses.

Now that David's closest friend has turned into his most dangerous enemy, he is devastated, but not willing to give up hope that his friend can find redemption. In order for that to happen though, David and the Reckoners must face the most powerful High Epic of all. Or die trying.