In another thread I saw nekokami mentioning the book Fahrenheit 451, which has always been one of my favorite dystopia novels. I wonder what other similar book are out there that you can recommend? Here are the ones I enjoyed reading:


1984 (Orwell)
Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury)
Brave New World (Huxley)
A Clockwork Orange (Burgess)
Ambient (Womack)

Alexander, I like those books, too. My fav has to be Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
Wikipedia has a nice shortlist of dystopian lit at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_literature.

Well, the Council Wars (http://www.webscription.net/c-42-council-wars.aspx) series by John Ringo, kinda qualifies as both. But it's also definitely MilSciFi. :shrug:

Atlas Shrugged
The Man in the High Castle
In the Presence of Mine Enemies
The "Draka" series by Stirling

Gulag Archipelago


There is also one that I can't quite remember the name. I think it was something like "The Children's War". It was set in a Nazi Europe in the early-mid '80s.

Gulag Archipelago is not a fiction. At least the Solzhenitsyn's book is not, and I'm not aware of any other with this name.

Dystopias not on the wikipedia list: The Gate to Woman's Country, by Sherri Tepper (actually, many of her books qualify as dystopias), The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (and its sequels), The Weapon Shops of Isher by A.E. Van Vogt, the Tripods trilogy by John Christopher. A related category is apocolyptic fiction (end of the world stuff). Asimov, Greenberg and Waugh edited a great anthology titled Catastrophies that covers the spectrum from end of the universe to end of human civilization as we know it. For something a little different, try The Clowns of God By Morris West.

In re-reading my own post, I realize that I have a preference for dystopias in which the conflict is resolved, as opposed to the more "classic" dystopia in which the hero fails to affect the society and the conflict remains unresolved. Your mileage may vary, naturally. ;)

Try the Postman by David Brin. Was made into a very poor movie, but a very good book. Also Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which became the Blade Runner movie by Philip Dick.

You might to try this web-site which deals with Allo-history novels, which has a good listing of many books by author's who have created current day dystopias by altering key events from the past. Particularluy changing the outcomes of things like the Civil War, WWII, etc.
http://www.uchronia.net/

M.T. Anderson's 'Feed' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_%28novel%29) is quite interesting. I listened to an audio version my wife picked up at the library. There's a review (http://books.slashdot.org/articles/04/07/27/1614215.shtml) up at Slashdot.

It really makes you think...

:cool: --ryan

You might to try this web-site which deals with Allo-history novels, which has a good listing of many books by author's who have created current day dystopias by altering key events from the past. Particularluy changing the outcomes of things like the Civil War, WWII, etc.
http://www.uchronia.net/

One of my favourites in this category is 'Climb the Wind' (http://www.uchronia.net/bib.cgi/label.html?id=sargclimbt) (for somewhat biased reasons :wink: ).

Harris's 'Fatherland' (http://www.uchronia.net/bib.cgi/label.html?id=harrfather) is also very good (and quite appropriately dystopian as well!).

:cool: --ryan

Gulag Archipelago is not a fiction. At least the Solzhenitsyn's book is not, and I'm not aware of any other with this name.

I know. That was a joke. Anyway, I have another:

The Children of Men by P.D. James

There's also "The Sleeper Awakes" from HG Wells:
http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/593

Or "socialist utopias" like Looking Backward and Equality:
http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/829
http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/824

And of course, "the original", Utopia from Thomas More:
http://www.feedbooks.com/discover/view_book/198

Got quite a few utopia/dystopia in my p-books too. Ira Levin's "The perfect day" for example:
http://www.amazon.com/This-Perfect-Day-Ira-Levin/dp/0394448588

Or Mockingbird from Walter Tevis.

As I mentioned in a previous message, I just finished The Road by Cormac MacCarthy. This is a very powerful book, and one of the most pessimistic views of our future I've ever read.

I don't know if Saramago's Blindness could be considered a dystopia, but I would add it to the list. It is a novel where apparently all humans go blind except a woman. Great read.

Future Imperfect (http://www.webscription.net/p-167-future-imperfect.aspx) collects dystopias by Keith Laumer.

These are not (alas!) available in ebook form (or even in print right now, for that matter), but two old favorites of mine are: Limbo by Bernard Wolfe, and Sheep Look Up by John Brunner. In Limbo, Wolfe managed to predict the whole modern primitive movement, and he did it in 1953! Of any science fiction book ever written in the last century, Sheep Look Up comes the closest to predicting the world the way it is.

Jim

did you know theres a 1985 book as well?

has anyone read it?

want to read the trveller and dark river they look very good?

Marge Piercy: Woman on the Edge of Time.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Coming Race (Already uploaded by R Wood)