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Favourite dystopian fiction?

  • 27-07-2017 7:10pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,961 ✭✭✭


    For me it would have to be 1984. I read it by the light coming into my bedroom from the landing when I was in my early teens. Some heart-breaking/gut-wrenching stuff.

    I wonder if the first Dark Tower book by Stephen King qualifies as dystopian? It's not our future, but it's a pretty bleak picture of a world that has moved on. I re-read that lately and really enjoyed it.

    All the other examples I can think of are films, rather than books.


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Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,995 ✭✭✭Ipso


    The Road by Cormac McCarthy.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,569 ✭✭✭Special Circumstances


    The Indo


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,189 ✭✭✭Malayalam


    The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. I haven't seen the tv version, would love to. Very prescient in terms of fallout from ideological war. Lionel Shriver's The Mandibles is another very interesting dystopian work, not as brilliant but more recent. She predicted Donald Trump as POTUS and her editors almost succeeded in getting her to change that as they said it was too incredible :)


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,246 ✭✭✭judeboy101


    The man in the high castle, not sure it qualifies?


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,023 ✭✭✭✭Joe_ Public


    Not particularly a fan of the genre, but love the novels and stories of JG Ballard. I think he had a bit of a twisted mind (you'd need it to have written Crash) but it helped him write great books with great narrative sweeps and lots of dark humour. Still can't get with The Atrocity Exhibition, mind!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,162 ✭✭✭Wyldwood


    Atwood wrote some great dystopian novels but The Handmaid's Tale is superb and terrifying and not too far off the treatment of women in some parts of the world today. I'm really enjoying the televised version also.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭evolving_doors


    Brother in the Land

    Had it read to us in school (primary school !). Now that I think of it it was pretty bleak (post nuclear apocalypse, Lord of flies meets Walking dead!). Just the shock we needed to realise how important family was and how society can break down pretty quick.

    I have to chuckle when I see secondary students walking around clutching their Hunger Games and Maze Runner dross.
    In my day....

    Must read it again


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 9,639 Mod ✭✭✭✭Manach


    Slightly tongue in cheek, any Star Trek novel. Other than that, Fallen Angels by Larry Niven where the Greens take over and ruin the planet.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,961 ✭✭✭LionelNashe


    Ipso wrote: »
    The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

    Have read the Crossing trilogy, and No Country for Old Men. I really like the prose style. Nobody else would have the audacity to write sentences as stark and brutal as he does.
    Malayalam wrote: »
    The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. I haven't seen the tv version, would love to. Very prescient in terms of fallout from ideological war. Lionel Shriver's The Mandibles is another very interesting dystopian work, not as brilliant but more recent. She predicted Donald Trump as POTUS and her editors almost succeeded in getting her to change that as they said it was too incredible :)

    Only realised yesterday, when googling, that this was a dystopian novel. From the title, I had assumed it was a hitorical romance or something similar.
    judeboy101 wrote: »
    The man in the high castle, not sure it qualifies?

    I liked the TV version, especially season 1, and the Japan-isation of the west coast of the USA. Wasn't so impressed with the novel, plot-wise.


  • Registered Users Posts: 45,535 ✭✭✭✭Mr.Nice Guy


    I thought Brave New World was good and held up pretty well considering it was written in the early thirties.

    'It is better to walk alone in the right direction than follow the herd walking in the wrong direction.'



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  • Registered Users Posts: 10,525 ✭✭✭✭OwaynOTT


    I thought Brave New World was good and held up pretty well considering it was written in the early thirties.

    Started reading it for the first time in work the other day and so far I would agree.
    Farenheit 451 for a classic book. And wool by Hugh Howey was quite good but the two other books in that trilogy didn't blow me away.
    So much dystopian fiction nowadays though. Nearly every second young adult book is dystopian.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,525 ✭✭✭✭OwaynOTT


    For me it would have to be 1984. I read it by the light coming into my bedroom from the landing when I was in my early teens. Some heart-breaking/gut-wrenching stuff.

    I wonder if the first Dark Tower book by Stephen King qualifies as dystopian? It's not our future, but it's a pretty bleak picture of a world that has moved on. I re-read that lately and really enjoyed it.

    All the other examples I can think of are films, rather than books.

    I wouldn't really count it but The Stand would fall into the category for me.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 16,287 Mod ✭✭✭✭quickbeam


    One of my favourite genres.

    I love:
    Day of the Triffids, and in fact, a lot of John Wyndham's output.
    On the Beach, Nevill Shute
    I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

    As well as some already mentioned (eg: Handmaid's Tale, The Stand).

    Will follow thread eagerly for more recommendations.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,239 ✭✭✭Jimbob1977


    Brave New World

    Fahrenheit 451

    Fatherland

    Animal Farm

    A Clockwork Orange


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,969 ✭✭✭✭alchemist33


    Fahrenheit 451 stands out for me.

    A problem I have though (particularly with The Handmaids Tale, maybe as its the last one I read) is that the genre presents vivid bleak perspectives but the story is often lacking. Handmaid didn't really go anywhere, except developing some of the society, until the last chapter.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 255 ✭✭PuppyMcPupFace


    Hi all. I've just reread the Handmaids Tale after the tv show. Brilliant but bleak.


  • Registered Users Posts: 17,848 ✭✭✭✭Thargor


    The Road has to be the pinnacle of dystopian fiction tbh, its so utterly bleak it affects you emotionally as you read it, John Hillcoat absolutely nailed it with the film aswell, it has to be one of the best book to screen adaptions ever made. I just wish they'd gone into more detail about the disaster and its effects on the wider world but I suppose the not knowing was part of its theme.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 255 ✭✭PuppyMcPupFace


    Would anyone class The Stand in this category? I've often thought so. Great book.


  • Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 23,195 Mod ✭✭✭✭GLaDOS


    I'd consider the likes of The Stand and The Road to be post-apocalyptic fiction as opposed to dystopian, as it's a case of society being destroyed and attempting to survive and/or rebuild.

    Dystopian for me would be 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, where society is still there, but has mutated into something terrible.

    Maybe I'm being pedantic though.

    Cake, and grief counseling, will be available at the conclusion of the test



  • Registered Users Posts: 90 ✭✭MadamRazz


    I loved Swan Song by Robert McCammon
    The Year of The Flood by Margaret Atwood would be another one to try.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,961 ✭✭✭LionelNashe


    GLaDOS wrote: »
    I'd consider the likes of The Stand and The Road to be post-apocalyptic fiction as opposed to dystopian, as it's a case of society being destroyed and attempting to survive and/or rebuild.

    Dystopian for me would be 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, where society is still there, but has mutated into something terrible.

    Maybe I'm being pedantic though.

    I'd never thought of it like that but I think it's a useful way to look at it


  • Registered Users Posts: 2 The Nigerian Prince


    Have read the Crossing trilogy, and No Country for Old Men. I really like the prose style. Nobody else would have the audacity to write sentences as stark and brutal as he does.

    Been meaning to read Blood Meridian. Not dystopian but it does have a grim, stark view of the world and humanity as a whole.


  • Registered Users Posts: 362 ✭✭wreade1872


    We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which was the inspiration for 1984 is rather good. If you've seen films like Equalibrium or Aeon Flux you'll recognize elements of it there too.

    Paris in the Twentieth Century, the lost Jules Verne novel is pretty interesting. Not saying its great but interesting to see Verne's idea of a dystopia. I thought it seemed a lot like the real 1980's :) .

    H.G Wells, The Shape of Things to Come is pretty interesting too. Its quite dry though, its basically a history book but of a fictional history. Its a dystopia which becomes a utopia through mass murder and the control of the earth by a co-op of air-force people.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,087 ✭✭✭thegreengoblin


    I loved The Road, it really hit home.

    But if I had to pick one I'd go for the Wool trilogy by Hugh Howey. It's an immense story, which sucks the reader in from the start. Howey has a great talent for making you want to turn the page fast but at the same time leaving you fearful of what you might see. Hugely enjoyable.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,943 ✭✭✭✭the purple tin


    Children of Men by PD James.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,747 ✭✭✭fisgon


    The Mandibles, by Lionel Shriver (of We need to talk about Kevin fame).

    Entertaining, hilarious at times, troubling, inventive. Focused on the US and a collapsing economy.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,088 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Loved 'Fahrenheit 451' from the first time I read it, rather a number of moons ago. It would be the book I have read most often.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,922 ✭✭✭snowflaker


    Nineteen Eighty-Four - Greatest book ever written
    Brave New World


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,767 ✭✭✭La_Gordy


    wreade1872 wrote: »
    We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which was the inspiration for 1984 is rather good. If you've seen films like Equalibrium or Aeon Flux you'll recognize elements of it there too.

    Absolutely agree with We. It's excellent and inspired not just 1984, but many dystopian novels. The bleakness, the rebellion, and the 'living in a bubble' - great themes!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 10,943 ✭✭✭✭the purple tin


    spurious wrote: »
    Loved 'Fahrenheit 451' from the first time I read it, rather a number of moons ago. It would be the book I have read most often.
    I loved the fact that overdoses were so commonplace that they had callout emergency stomach pump technicians. More like plumbers than doctors.
    It also coined the phrase 'the fourth wall'
    great book.


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