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Help needed with dystopian titles


Gelfling

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I love the dystopian genre (it scares me silly with the ideas and paranoid thoughts it triggers, but I can't stop reading) but I am at a loss for the next one to read.

 

I have read:

Nineteen Eighty-Four

A Handmaid's Tale

Animal Farm

Oryx and Crake

Farenheit 451

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Brave New World

 

 

Any other recommendations would be appreciated :lol:

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I really recommend Cormac McCarthy's The Road. More "post apocalyptic" than "dystopian", but close enough. Also, I would always recommend JG Ballard for this sort of stuff. Particularly some of the more modern ones, which are all about the fragmenting and destruction of apparently civilised modern society. Go for Cocaine Nights or Super-Cannes.

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I definitely recommend This Perfect Day by Ira Levin. I really enjoyed it. I believe it's out of print, as I got my copy off eBay, but it's well worth tracking down. :lol:

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I suppose you could call some alternative history novels like Len Dieghton's SS-GB or Robert Harris' Fatherland as 'dystopic' because they depicts the Nazis truimphant.

 

Daniel Keyes' classic Flowers for Algernon is dystopic from a very personal perspective.

 

Of course, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess depicts a very dystopic future.

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Welcome aboard my dystopic friend! This is also my favourite genre and I find this Wikipedia list indispensable! I've set myself a small challenge to read 5 dystopian novels this year; so far I've only read I am Legend by Richard Matheson - it's in Wikipedia's list, but I don't think it's such a dystopian novel. Still, it's a very good read.

 

Parts of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas are dystopian in nature. Ayn Rand has written a couple, although I've only read Anthem, which is a short novella.

 

A Clockwork Orange is one of my favourite reads. Anthony Burgess also wrote another one called 1985. It's partly a collection of essays regarding George Orwell's 1984, and partly a dystopian story of what society might be like in 1985 (it's not a sequel though). I believe this book is out of print but I recently tracked a copy down on ebay and can't wait to read it!

 

I have a lot of dystopians on my TBR pile but obviously I can't comment as to their merit. However, some others I've heard about include Pierre Boulle's Planet of the Apes, The Long Walk and The Running Man, both by Richard Bachman, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin and Z for Zachariah by Robert C O'Brien (aimed at younger readers).

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Cloud Atlas. Of course. Actually, there are fragments of Mitchell's Ghostwritten which are dystopian, too, but most of it is less so.

 

Some weird choices in that list, by the way, Kylie. "I have no mouth and I must scream" is just about my favourite short story, but it's odd seeing short stories on there. The Trial by Kafka is fantastic and dark, but again I'd not call it dystopian. Huxley's Island is more utopian, I'd say. And there are few "alternative history" rather than genuinely dystopian books, too, like The Man In The High Castle or The Plot Against America (both of which are brilliant).

 

Hmm. Perhaps I've read rather too much of this stuff.

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Of those titles you listed, Andy, I've only read The Trial, and I have to agree that it's not very dystopian.

 

I think some people may have gotten 'dystopian' confused with 'sci-fi' or other such genres when they were adding books to the list (not referring to The Trial of course).

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  • 6 years later...

Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien. Although this is more a post-apocalyptic novel than dystopian it is worth reading. I stumbled across this book by accident and it changed my view of the genre completely. It's a simple read and the plot isn't anything immensely complex but it definitely messes with your mind.

This is one of those books where what's not put on the page is what really makes the story. Its in those intense moments where your mind is left to its own devices that really grip you. I would definitely give this book a go if you're into paranoia inducing fiction :)

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  • 1 month later...

I suppose you could call some alternative history novels like Len Dieghton's SS-GB or Robert Harris' Fatherland as 'dystopic' because they depicts the Nazis truimphant.

 

Daniel Keyes' classic Flowers for Algernon is dystopic from a very personal perspective.

 

Of course, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess depicts a very dystopic future.

I agree..

 

With Clockwork Orange.

 

I re-read it as an "adult" recently.

and wow...It's very good! Excellent voice to.

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I can also recommend Swastika Night by Katherine Burdekin.  Was SO good.  way before 1984.

 

Swastika Night is a futuristic novel, first published in 1937.  The novel is inspired by Adolf Hitler's claim that Nazism would create a "Thousand Year Reich".  The novel takes place seven hundred years after Nazism achieved power, by which time Adolf Hitler is worshipped as a god. Though no major character is a woman, the story concentrates on the oppression of women, portraying the Nazis as homosexual misogynists. Christians are marginalized, Jews eliminated, and women disenfranchised — deprived of all rights.

 

Literary historian Andy Croft has described it as "the most original of all the many anti-fascist dystopias of the late 1930s".

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Someone mentioned it already, but We by Zamyatin is an oft overlooked dystopian novel. I read it as a teenager, and while it wasn't as good as 1984 or Brave New World, it's pretty much a cross between them both, and I think it's worth a read. I went through a dystopian book phase myself, but I've never heard of Oryx and Crake. I'll have to add it to my list. :) 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, I have started "Ready Player One" by Ernest Clin but it is a lil too Young adult for me. Nevertheless the book loks good. It s consedered to be Dystopia.

 

I would debate that it's Young Adult.  The main protagonists are young, but its biggest selling point is a nostalgia for popular culture from the 70s and early 80s  :shrug:

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Welcome aboard my dystopic friend! This is also my favourite genre and I find this Wikipedia list indispensable! I've set myself a small challenge to read 5 dystopian novels this year; so far I've only read I am Legend by Richard Matheson - it's in Wikipedia's list, but I don't think it's such a dystopian novel. Still, it's a very good read.

 

I missed this wiki link the first time around- I really enjoyed it, thanks!

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I would debate that it's Young Adult.  The main protagonists are young, but its biggest selling point is a nostalgia for popular culture from the 70s and early 80s  :shrug:

You may be right. I haven't finished it yet. It's on my "To finish when dont have anything better" list :) I may move it forward though if you think it's worth it :)

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You may be right. I haven't finished it yet. It's on my "To finish when dont have anything better" list :) I may move it forward though if you think it's worth it :)

 

I thought it was great - but then I grew up in the 70s/80s so I loved all the pop culture stuff from that era  :smile:

 

Now I'll sit back and wait for people to question whether or not I've ever 'grown up' :giggle2:

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I didn't get all of the references (I was born in the '80s), but I still thoroughly enjoyed the book. So if you do persevere, I hope you enjoy it :).

 

I may finish it. I liked the idea of the game, so I may endeed finish it. :) Will share my opinion when I do :)

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  • 1 year later...

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