Jump to content

Dystopian novels


Chiara

Recommended Posts

I'm really into dystopian novels at the moment :smile: I have just read the whole Hunger Games trilogy and I absolutely loved it. I am now reading Crossed, the second book of the Matched series and I really want to read more dystopian books. Does anyone know some other good dystopian novels? :smile:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 56
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. A favourite of mine....it's just brilliant.

 

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Also brilliant (but I think McCarthy is a bit of a Marmite writer - people tend to love or loathe his style of writing).

 

The Unit, by Ninni Holmqvist

 

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

 

The Postman, by David Brin

 

Battle Royale, by Kouhun Takami (although the plot here has a lot of similarities to The Hunger Games).

 

 

Hope these help :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's also the Noughts & Crosses series by Malorie Blackman and the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. Both are most definitely YA. They're both pretty good series, although I preferred the latter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow all these stories sound great! Thanks for all your recommendations! :D

 

Just wondering.. are you specifically looking for YA?

 

Not specifically. Although I'm really into YA at the moment I also want to read some dystopian novels that aren't YA. :smile:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Brave New World is my favourite one so far.

 

No one suggested you 1984 by Orwell... Maybe it's so famous that it's useless to mention it x-)

 

Another one is The Man in the High Castle by Philip Dick, basically it is the author's guesswork about how the world would have been if the Allies had lost WWII.

 

I also heard some people say that The Giver's trilogy by Lois Lowry is worth reading, but I still have to.

 

And finally, I think that also High Rise by J. G. Ballard may interest you. The novel is set in an ultra-modern high-rise building, the people living in it are like a society isolated from the outside world, but this society, due to some problems, starts degenerating.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. A favourite of mine....it's just brilliant.

 

A favorite of mine too! I absolutely adore this book. I posted some thoughts on it here if you're interested in discussing it further.

 

As to other dystopian recommendations, I'd suggest Battle Royale if you enjoyed The Hunger Games. Also, Bladerunner, The Running Man, and Fahrenheit 451.

 

Cheers,

Alyson

Edited by AlysonofBathe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am going to second Dilirum and Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver. Very rarely does a book capture my imagination in the way that both of these did - they are real edge of seat stuff. I can't wait for the third and final one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

If you are into graphic novels at all then I can really help you. Some of my favourite stories ever are in comics.

 

V For Vendetta by Alan Moore is simply amazing. If you've seen the film then don't worry because the comic is totally different.

 

Watchmen by Alan Moore is also amazing and has often been heralded the Citizen Kane of comics.

 

Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan is possibly my favourite comic series. It's about a world in which all male mammals on Earth have died mysteriously apart from two males: a man called Yorick and his pet monkey, Ampersand. The story takes place over a few years as he journeys across the world in search of his fiancé. The series looks in depth at what could possibly happen in such a world, focussing upon a multitude of characters and showing how they have coped in a male-less world. Don't think it's misogynistic, as if women can't cope without men: they do. But the dystopia forces some to do things that normal society would not allow.

 

The manga Ikigami also has fairly dystopian trends to it, set in Japan after a government mandate has made it so that a select amount of people are scheduled to die at some point in their lives. This is to attempt to get people to live their lives to the full. People are given death papers 24 hours before they die in order to let them do as they please, to leave a final impression on the world. Every person goes about this a different way, some being peaceful, others not so much. Really good read.

 

On the side of short stories we have one of my favourites: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. The story follows five characters who are made immortal by a rogue supercomputer who wishes to torture them for all eternity after the bombs have dropped. Well written and very chilling, I really recommend giving this a read.

 

For books, well, as previously mentioned A Clockwork Orange and Battle Royale are both amazing, though stick away from the Battle Royale manga.

 

Can't really think of anything else at the moment. Hope you've got a good list now, though :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really enjoyed Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. A Clockwork Orange and Fahrenheit 451 have already been mentioned but I feel the need to repeat it because they are absolute favourites of mine so give those a go! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

I think Dystopian novels are becoming more popular what with the whole end-of-the-world scenarios with zombies, aliens and vampires. They're generally quite gripping from my experience (The Hunger Games, The Road...) and can be quite emotional. What is everyone's general opinion about them? Do you like them? What do you like most about them and what has been your favourtie dystopian novel?

 

I'm currently reading The Farm which is a dystopian novel. It reminds me a bit of The Hunger Games from what I have read and I absolutely loved that novel. I'm looking forward to seeing how it pans out and how it compares to The Hunger Games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got a few dystopian novels but I've only read Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games so far (the first book) and Yahtzee Croshaw - Jam, if I remember correctly. Dystopian young-adult novels (which The Hunger Games is, and Jam isn't) are not my favourite genre but I find them to be nice and entertaining every once in a while (science-fiction is one of my favourite genres though). The Hunger Games (book one) was quite good, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. Jam was great, it's an apocalyptic novel with lots of humour (does that count as dystopian?). Jam would have to be my favourite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The new Lauren Oliver (Requiem) is out on March 21st if anyone is interested - Kindle version a week earlier. I have already preordered mine.  

That dystopian sounds a bit weird from the synopsis on her website. Love being the disease? I don't know if I would personally call that dystopian.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...