# Please recommend dystopian novels. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 5, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451 "2009-08-05T19:00:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/1 "2009-08-05T19:00:31Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/2 "2009-08-05T19:11:55Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/3 "2009-08-05T19:12:18Z")
Three I’d highly recommend. [The Demolished Man](http://www.amazon.com/Demolished-Man-Alfred-Bester/dp/0679767819/ref=cm_lmf_tit_7) by Alfred Bester [Player Piano](http://www.amazon.com/Player-Piano-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0385333781/ref=cm_lmf_tit_8) by Kurt Vonnegut [A Canticle For Leibowitz](http://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibowitz-Walter-Miller-Jr/dp/0060892994/ref=cm_lmf_tit_10) by Walter M. Miller Jr ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/4 "2009-08-05T19:17:27Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Three I’d highly recommend. > > [The Demolished Man](http://www.amazon.com/Demolished-Man-Alfred-Bester/dp/0679767819/ref=cm_lmf_tit_7) by Alfred Bester 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. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/5 "2009-08-05T19:25:00Z")
Second _Canticle_, also Charles Stross’s _Glasshouse_. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/6 "2009-08-05T19:27:32Z")
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Minority Report by Phillip K. Dick. Not at all like the movies based upon them. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/7 "2009-08-05T19:43:07Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Three I’d highly recommend. > > [The Demolished Man](http://www.amazon.com/Demolished-Man-Alfred-Bester/dp/0679767819/ref=cm_lmf_tit_7) by Alfred Bester > > [Player Piano](http://www.amazon.com/Player-Piano-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0385333781/ref=cm_lmf_tit_8) by Kurt Vonnegut > > [A Canticle For Leibowitz](http://www.amazon.com/Canticle-Leibowitz-Walter-Miller-Jr/dp/0060892994/ref=cm_lmf_tit_10) by Walter M. Miller Jr 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. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/8 "2009-08-05T19:46:14Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/9 "2009-08-05T19:49:09Z")
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!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/10 "2009-08-05T19:51:55Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/11 "2009-08-05T19:57:15Z")
Well, if you want you can [check out my blog](http://epicdystopia.blogspot.com). 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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_(novel)) 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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun,_with_Occasional_Music) by Jonathan Lethem: I just dig the mix of mystery noir and dystopian sf. [Perdido Street Station](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/12 "2009-08-05T20:35:44Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > 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. A future where government psychics can read your mind isn’t dystopian? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/13 "2009-08-05T20:38:28Z")
Ayn Rand’s ANTHEM- it’s a quick read without getting bogged down in her philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/14 "2009-08-05T20:49:53Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > A future where government psychics can read your mind isn’t dystopian? 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. ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/15 "2009-08-05T21:02:50Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/16 "2009-08-05T21:07:30Z")
> [@infinitii](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/17 "2009-08-05T21:07:51Z")
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”. ---
**Author:** ![palindromemordnilap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@palindromemordnilap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palindromemordnilap)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/18 "2009-08-05T21:12:23Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Minority Report by Phillip K. Dick. > Not at all like the movies based upon them. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/19 "2009-08-05T21:25:00Z")
While we’re at it, _A Canticle for Leibowitz_ isn’t dystopian either; it’s post-apocalyptic. ---
**Author:** ![infinitii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e8c25b/32.png) [@infinitii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/infinitii)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451/20 "2009-08-05T22:14:04Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > 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”. 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? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-dystopian-novels/505451.md?page=2)