Please recommend dystopian novels.

I’ve read Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, and Nineteen Eighty-Four. My next two books are Animal Farm and Logan’s Run. Can you recommend some others you’ve read?

I’ve always loved Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. She also wrote The Handmaid’s Tale which is another dystopian novel and very good too.

Three I’d highly recommend.

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr

It’s been a long time since I’ve read it, but how is The Demolished Man dystopian? As I recall, it’s set in a functional and reasonably enlightened world.

Second Canticle, also Charles Stross’s Glasshouse.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Minority Report by Phillip K. Dick.
Not at all like the movies based upon them.

Ah, yes, I read Player Piano years ago, too, along with most of Vonnegut’s works. I can’t believe I forgot to include it.

I kind of love John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar, which is sort of urban/overpopulation-induced dystopia. Old-fashioned (e.g., computers the size of a room) but great, if horribly depressing.

I recently finished KJ Parker’s Devices and Desires trilogy which is not exactly dystopian, more like hard-boiled medieval-ish fantasy, but is rather dystopian/1984-ish in its worldview and might appeal to you for that reason.

I must confess to having hated Glasshouse, which I felt contained a lot of people acting in non-intuitive and frankly OOC ways for no other reason than to advance the plot and make the author’s points, but YMMV.

Yeah, Canticle is awesome. Check that one out. I’d recommend avoiding the “sequel”, though. It came out about forty years after the original and was - perhaps not surprisingly - a little disappointing.

I’d also recommend “Make Room, Make Room!” by Harry Harrison. It’s the novel on which “Soylent Green” is based, but the film changed a great deal of the original story.

thwartme

This is not usually my genre, but I loved Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

It’s the kind of book where I read quite a bit of it, and was vaguely wondering why it was a dystopia … and then when I figured it out, it was a real Holy Crap! moment.

Well, if you want you can check out my blog. I’ve been reading nothing but dystopian fiction for more than a year and a half, just for kicks.

Just a few of the ones I’ve enjoyed most:

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin: this is pretty much the grandpappy of what you’ve been reading. I found it much more lyrical and romantic (not as in love between people, but as in the Romantic movement) than either Brave New World or 1984.

Sea of Glass by Barry B. Longyear: started out much like several others, but took a turn into even more dark and twisted territory than I expected.

Gun, with Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem: I just dig the mix of mystery noir and dystopian sf.

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville: intelligent, beautiful, and full of some of the most impossible cruelty I’ve ever run across in print. I have loaned this book to several friends who are chronic readers - only one took to it, but he took to it with the strength that I did and has become a huge Miéville fan. Just the way he writes - over and over I have to go back and winnow out the meaning, but it’s worth it.

I could literally post dozens more, but it’s raining and I’m afraid I’ll lose power and this post. Are you also interested in post-apocolyptical novels, or just dystopian? They tend to get lumped together, but the more I read the further apart they seem.

Also, just to mention: Doc and Fluff, Battle Royale, The Running Man, Naked Lunch, War With the Newts, pretty much anything by William Gibson, and the Planet of the Apes.

A future where government psychics can read your mind isn’t dystopian?

Ayn Rand’s ANTHEM- it’s a quick read without getting bogged down in her philosophy.

Not by definition, no. It depends on how the government uses that power. I don’t recall it being used in a coercive or destructive manner in the novel, but again, it’s been more than 10 years since I’ve read it, and I may not be remembering it correctly.

I agree that it is not dystopian. However, I would also not agree that “Brave New World” is dystopian, so my view could be skewed.

I’d be curious how you came to that conclusion.

I’ve been saying for years that Brave New World was a genuine utopia. Everything worked out great for everyone except John, and the only problem there was that he was fucked up by having grown up outside the putative “dystopia”.

Actually anything by Dick qualifies. *Clans of the Alphane Moon * is the only personal fave whose name I can recall.

I think Atlas Shrugged is kind of dystopian as well…yup, it’s on Wikipedia’s list of dystopian novels. If you do read it, do yourself a favor and skip the radio address – you’ll thank me later.

While we’re at it, A Canticle for Leibowitz isn’t dystopian either; it’s post-apocalyptic.

Also, as far as I remember, everyone was completely satisfied and happy with life, no one had any unfulfilled needs, and everyone felt useful. Dystopia?