Book suggestions; dystopian future

spikealmighty

Hi guys just flew through the Hunger Games, I really liked that it was based in a dystopian future.

Can anyone suggest any other series that might be of interest featuring a dystopian world, something a bit more adult to get more stuck into?

Toby Take a Bow

does it have to be a series?

If not, you could try some of the following:
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Brave New World by Huxley
1984 by George Orwell
Carhullian Army by Sarah Hall
The Scarlet Plague by Jack London
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

spikealmighty

Thanks Toby, doesnt hafta be a series, I just like series because theyre more indept, detailed, longer. I like a book that leaves me wanting more!;)

I'll do a google on them tomorrow!:D

dots03

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

does it have to be a series?

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

...also Oryx & Crake + The Year of the Flood by Atwood.

Bodhidharma

A bit left field here but V fo Vendetta and Watchmen are both great reads. They're graphic novels, so maybe not what you're looking for.

Trevillian

When I was researching/writing for my novel The A-Men, I read a lot of dystopian stories to get just the right balance of future world and collapsing society. I wanted to use the trope of the main character entering a riot-torn corporate-run city while mixing this with strong fantasy elements/stories. Gibson was an early influence for me... but the final list included:

Cloud Atlas*
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Battle Royale
Brave New World
A Clockwork Orange
Count Zero*
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Neuromancer
The Children of Men
Altered Carbon*

The ones with asterisks are my personal favourites.

*But* very early on I also added noir classics especially from the 1940s to my reading list, and in this way created plotlines that were very much in the dystopian/crime/punk vein. Though few scifi authors cite noir fiction as an inspiration, when you read them they have many dystopian tropes and really shows me that they do/were influenced.

Somewhere in the Night, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Nightmare Alley --- almost everything by Cornell Woolrich… the list goes on.

D-Generate

Farenheit 451 is dystopian I suppose.

Cianos

Also check out the novella 'Anthem'

cynder

Got my hands on ' divergent ' I love the hunger Games and this is supposed to be something similar, also 'matched' 'delirium' 'gone' and 'withered' are supposed to be similar to the hunger games. Haven't read any of those though. Don't think anything can match the hunger games.

****************
Loved Divergent!

Seres

'We' Yevgeny Zamyatin : influence for Brave New World and 1984

eclectichoney

Seres wrote: »

'We' Yevgeny Zamyatin : influence for Brave New World and 1984

Good call! 'We' is such an under-rated book. The best dystopian novel imo.

mr123red

A few Dystopian future books Id recommend are,
The maze runner series by James Dashner
Shades Children by Garth Nix
The Enemy series by Charlie Higson
The maze runner and the enemy series can be a bit graphic though so if thats something you avoid in books then their not for you.

PurpleBee

The Time Machine by H G Wells is pretty amazing. Fahrenheit 451 is absolute rubbish

MARTINOZ

The Postman is a good one.

jam_mac_jam

In the Country of Lost Things, Paul Auster. I really liked this.

Mercurius

'The Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi is an amazing read.

Socialist_Pig

Mercurius wrote: »

'The Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi is an amazing read.

was just about to post that and decided to make sure it hadnt been mentioned before.Nearly finished it and its a great read

Eoin

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan - sort of sci-fi / dystopian future / detective novel. There are two other books following it, but I wasn't as keen on those ones.

MJRS

From what I know about the Hunger Games, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro seems somewhat similar thematically! I wouldn't google it though, a lot of my enjoyment hinged on finding out what the **** was going on in that school, and it was pretty mind0blowing when it's revealed. Go in blind, it's the only way!

Also the Chrysalids, and the Stand (although I didn't really enjoy the second half of it).

1984 goes without saying right?!

Ole Rodrigo

Does anyone know the title of a book - it was mentioned on a recent IT roundup which I can't find with google - its a literary sci fi/ dystopian future, far in the future when the sun is a red giant, near the end of its life, and how society has evolved to that point and the effect the dying sun has on personal values etc. I can't remember much more other than its character driven as much as anything else .... hopefully it might ring a bell with someone. Thanks !

Travel is good

MJRS wrote: »

From what I know about the Hunger Games, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro seems somewhat similar thematically! I wouldn't google it though, a lot of my enjoyment hinged on finding out what the **** was going on in that school, and it was pretty mind0blowing when it's revealed. Go in blind, it's the only way!

Also the Chrysalids, and the Stand (although I didn't really enjoy the second half of it).

1984 goes without saying right?!

Thanks everyone for all the recommendations. "The Stand" and "The Passage" are my favourite books.

I might have a look at "The Hunger Games".

I love dystopian and post-apocalyptic literature. There is a book group based in London on meetup.com which specialises in such literature.

http://www.meetup.com/post-apocalypticbookclub/

Enjoy it! They have a good reading list. You can be a virtual member, from Ireland. It's the only book club that I have found which specialises in this subject.

david75

Gonna look lots of these up. thanks folks

cynder

The passage is a fantastic book cant wait for the next instalment later in 2012.

Riddley Walker by the recently deceased Russell Hoban is an extraordinary book. Very different and well worth a look.

mcgovern

Jennifer Government by Max Barry is set in a world controlled by corporations. Not brilliant but different.

Ole Rodrigo

I found that title : Tales of the Dying Earth, by Jack Vance. Might be slightly more sci-fi/fantasy although it gets good reports.

Coriolanus

The Child Garden

highlydebased

Somebody else who's into dystopian literature- never thought I'd see the day!

Many of the good ones are mentioned here already, but for sake of repetition definately read:
-We (Yevgeny Zamyatin)
-1984 (Orwell)
and Brave New World (Huxley)

Have a look into JG Ballard's stuff- there's loads of it. Many of them deal with societal failure and things like that (High Rise for example deals with a high rise building dividing itself into three "classes" if you like, with strange results etc).

Get yourself an account on goodreads.com because there's tonnes of different lists there.

gutenberg

Just thought I'd chime in with an endorsement for anything by Margaret Atwood - she's amazing! I'm also flying through the Hunger Games at the moment, bloody addictive!

Seres

gutenberg wrote: »

Just thought I'd chime in with an endorsement for anything by Margaret Atwood - she's amazing! I'm also flying through the Hunger Games at the moment, bloody addictive!

Just gettin stuck into The Handmaids Tale . Love Dystopian Novels too .

cynder

i know, its brilliant ive read it 4 times over. Cant wait to the film, ive just read city of bones/ city of ashes/city of glass/ city of fallen angels its like harry potter meets twilight meets buffy, not a dystopian future but good.

goodreads in brilliant, it gives you recommendations based on what you like, its given me a good few so i have 54 books on my to read list,,,

gutenberg

Seres wrote: »

Just gettin stuck into The Handmaids Tale . Love Dystopian Novels too .

It was mentioned a while back in the thread, but I think Oryx & Crake has to be among her best ones, along with The Blind Assassin. Another one I'd recommend, though strictly speaking it's not a dystopia, is her Alias Grace, it's an absolutely fantastic book about a woman convicted of murder, and the attempts to understand why she did it. Creepy & fascinating.

Seres

gutenberg wrote: »

It was mentioned a while back in the thread, but I think Oryx & Crake has to be among her best ones, along with The Blind Assassin. Another one I'd recommend, though strictly speaking it's not a dystopia, is her Alias Grace, it's an absolutely fantastic book about a woman convicted of murder, and the attempts to understand why she did it. Creepy & fascinating.

Thanks will bear them in mind if i enjoy Hanmaid Tale .

david75

Finished 'The Road. Heavy but brilliant and so well written. The ending is so touching, after everything they've been through.

Got Paul Auster's 'the country of last things' and Margret Atwood's 'year of the flood' from the library.

they didn't have any of the others mentioned in this thread at my branch so i'm gonna hit the Ilac library up

thanks for the recommendations folks

Seres

Finished M Atwoods Handmaid Tale , Good Story , as always with these Dystopian Novels leaves me with a kind of an empty feeling or strong sense of loss at the end ! Now onto the Hunger Games ... , are the Hunger Games directed at teenagers ? was in the teenage fiction section at the bookstore yesterday !

cynder

Hunger games was in the young adult section of my local bookstore, they are aimed at 13+, if you recall many adults have read harry potter which is like 11+ they even did harry potter adult style covers on the books. Twilight was also in the young adult section and many adults have read those books. Hunger games is brilliant regardless of your age.

I think the only reason Hunger Games might be in the teenage section is because there is no sex in it and its protagonist is 16 (but there are plenty of adult characters in all the books). There is violence, not too graphic though.

Travel is good

Yes, adults read these books too! I just bought the first two books in The Hunger Games set. I read the first three of HP, and will get to the others at some stage.

I loved the Margaret Atwood books, The Handmaids Tale and Orkxx and Crake.

I love this thread. I will definitely follow up on the recommendations here. We should form our own dystopian/post-apocalyptic book club!

mcgovern

I only read the first of The Hunger Games, and while its not bad, it's essentially a version of Battle Royale aimed at at early teen girls I would say.

Seres

mcgovern wrote: »

I only read the first of The Hunger Games, and while its not bad, it's essentially a version of Battle Royale aimed at at early teen girls I would say.

Id agree i feel i have out grown it . I just finished it too , while i found it quite entertaining i wouldnt really be interested in books 2&3 . Lacks a bit of depth for me . The idea was good but i think it fell down in the last section of the book .

OwaynOTT

A newspaper.

Valmont

I would strongly recommend The Great Explosion by Erik Frank Russell. It's been described as Catch 22 in space.

apsalar

Always loved any John Wyndham books..I know they are a bit dated now, but I think they were pretty good for the time.The chrysalids is still a firm favourite with me..years after first reading it for school at 14....

Tried reading brave new world...sorry to say I got bored:(...Atwood is another firm favourite, and only just recently read the handmaids tale. Fahrenheit 451 is also good. My sister has been bugging me to read the road so will be doing so shortly.

megtyler

any james michener book

Seres

apsalar wrote: »

Always loved any John Wyndham books..I know they are a bit dated now, but I think they were pretty good for the time.The chrysalids is still a firm favourite with me..years after first reading it for school at 14....

Tried reading brave new world...sorry to say I got bored:(...Atwood is another firm favourite, and only just recently read the handmaids tale. Fahrenheit 451 is also good. My sister has been bugging me to read the road so will be doing so shortly.

Im half way thru The Road , its very hard to read , very moving and very nerve racking . I wouldnt call it dystopian , post apocalysis yes .

Duckee

I'm a big fan of this sort of fiction, and some of my favourites are "Spares" or anything by else Michael Marshall Smith really.

'A canticle for liebowitz' is worth a punt too, although it drifts off a bit towards the end.

david75

Ok. Now i'm confused. Finished Margaret Atwood's year of the flood, only to be thrown by the most infuriating non-ending ever, then to find that it's actually a sequel/companion to Oryx&Crake, which I haven't read!. And it's part of a trilogy! feck!

mrsWhippy

God I love this type of book too!

Just ordered The Hunger Games on bookdepository for 7 quid.

Read Stephen Kings 'The Stand' last year, fantastic read! 'The Road' was a horrific book and one which has haunted me since. 1984 was also a classic ..

I read Oryx and Crake too and thought it was one of the better Atwood novels .. very enjoyable.

Keep the suggestions coming

sudzs

david75 wrote: »

Ok. Now i'm confused. Finished Margaret Atwood's year of the flood, only to be thrown by the most infuriating non-ending ever, then to find that it's actually a sequel/companion to Oryx&Crake, which I haven't read!. And it's part of a trilogy! feck!

What's the third one???

Just spotted this thread and was going to suggest those 2 Atwoods.

Tom Joad

Swan Song by Robert McCammon is up there with The Stand - best book I have read in a long time.

WickedWest

Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Leafonthewind

Blood Red Road by Moira Young