Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. A film is coming out which will make it super popular again. What I loved about it, apart from the beautiful writing, was the acceptance of the characters and the way the author told the story as if the dystopian world was completely natural - it was an interesting comment on what can become socially acceptable.
The Culture of Iain Banks’ novels is very attractive, anarchic, hedonistic utopia. Unfortunately, it all depends on technologies that might never exist.
Ooo, forgot to mention Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson (the book’s a lot better than the movie). Its future human society is a utopia until you turn 21, and then it very abruptly becomes a dystopia.
Neither the book nor the movie explains how it is possible to run a high-tech civilization with such a young population.
They don’t, really. In the book, at least, it’s clear that it’s gradually falling apart because the world is run by teenagers. In the film, they’re a bit older.
It is not a utopia. The state/culture of Earth is not utopian, and we don’t see enough of Martian culture to make a judgment. The new religion Mike starts is, well, a new religion, not a utopia – a utopia has to encompass a whole society. An autonomous farm-commune could count as a utopia, but not a group of people just living as neighbors and practicing a religion.
Even older than Pictures of a Socialist Future mentioned by puddleglum is the dystopian Le Monde tel qu’il sera by Émile Souvestre. Maybe this is the first published dystopia in a modern sense – so, I think you might be interested.
And let us not forget the influential “We” (1921) by Yevgeny Zamyatin.
Another Russian author who is unfortunately almost unknown is Alexander Sinowjew or Aleksandr Zinoviev whose 1976 novel Sijajustschije wyssoty (in German: “Gähnende Höhen”, I don’t know if an English translation exists) is a haunting dystopian satire set in a Soviet Union that has lost itself totally in a dehumanizing bureaucratic system. It’s brilliant but very hard to read/endure.
I’d also like to add Stand on Zanzibar (1968), The Sheep look up (1972) and The Shockwave Rider (1975) by John Brunner. The first one deals with overpopulation and its social impact, the second one with environmental degradation and pollution and the last one could be called a precursor of cyberpunk.
I have reread Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep look up a couple of months ago and was pleased to add them to the pretty short list of books read as a teenager that I still like.
In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster isn’t even close to his best books but it’s not as one-dimensional as many dystopian books seem to be. Plus, it’s well written.
Isn’t it rather set in a future after a future controlled by corporations?
I love FForde’s books but this sounds serious in contrast to his Thursday Next and Nursery crime series. Is it set in the same universe as his other series or an independent one and is it as serious as it sounds like?
… I have ordered it while writing – thanks for the suggestion.
I just started it because of this thread - no, it is not serious. 
Ah, good to know, thanks. In case you don’t already know it and are interested: One of our Thursdays is Missing is going to be published in a couple of months.
belladonna also mentioned The Year of the Flood and while I don’t think that it has the same quality as Oryx and Crake, the audio version is so well done that I enjoyed it almost more.
Let us not forget Island, Aldous Huxley’s Utopian book.
Personally, my top recommendation in dystopian science fiction is Wyst, Alastor: 1716, by Jack Vance. Like all of Vance’s books, the plot is basically an adventure story. It’s about a young man from a different planet who arrives on the world of Wyst, which is set up as a collectivist society where everybody works only 13 hours a week and receives equal portions of food and housing. I find the backdrop to be much more convincing than Brave New World, 1984, or Fahrenheit 451. Vance’s focus is not about oppression through torture and murder as much as on the psychological effects of the system, as the young people get wrapped up in a dumbed-down, hypersexualized culture, kind of like Idiocracy.
In addition, it’s just a very well-written novel. The main character, Jantiff Ravencloak, is one of the best protagonists I’ve ever seen in a science fiction novel. The minor characters are equally well-drawn and the conclusion is genuinely exciting.
So, it’s actually utopian SF!
Jack London’s *The Iron Heel *was an important influence on Orwell’s 1984.
Ayn Rand’s Anthem.
Harlan Ellison’s Repent Harlequin! said the Tick Tock Man.
I’ll add another vote for Ira Levin’s This Perfect Day. It’s both a solid adventure story and a neat satire of the left’s Care Bear fascism. "Christ, Marx, Woods and Wei led us to this perfect day … " Lord, that nursery rhyme still chills my blood.
*The Wanting Seed *and *A Clockwork Orange *by Anthony Burgess.
Harry Harrison’s Make Room! Make Room! which inspired the film Soylent Green.
Aldous Huxley’s Ape and Essence.
With which we’re all familiar, because it was the shortest book on the summer reading list.
But, not a good book to give to teenagers! 