When it became apparent that the COVID pandemic would last a while, I read Camus’ The Plague, which had so many similarities to what the world went through.
With the election of quasi-fascists in the US, I’ve read folks bringing up portions of Orwell’s 1984 as predictions. Any other books that people believe represents all or part of our existence into the short-term and medium-term future?
A combination of Stephen King’s 1982 The Running Man (published under his Bachman pseudonym), The Handmaid’s Tale (1985, Margaret Atwood), and the screenplay for The Purge (2013, by James Demonico).
The first for the relentless emphasis on media fame, the second for the obvious repression of everyone (not just women), and the third for the love of mass slaughter of “inferiors” that will no doubt be a highlight of the second Trump Administration.
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.
Defense Sec nominee Pete Hegseth has proposed doing what a radical Evangelical group successfully accomplishes in the novel: destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem so the Third Temple can be built on the Temple Mount, thus ushering in the Second Coming of Christ.
The album Impera by Ghost.
Which is sort of a cheat, since (in addition to not being a book) it’s more inspired by the first Trump presidency and 1/6, but it’s a great concept album about the collapse of an empire and its decadent, amoral, anti-intellectual leadership.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler.
I seriously considered that, but I don’t think the collapse will come quite that quickly. Of course, the OP doesn’t give us a fixed timeline either so the deregulation, the company towns, the war between the have some and have-not’s while the “have-it-alls” look on… well, like I said. I considered it a lot.
Instead I’ll go with the society that evolved prior to the explicit sci-fi/fantasy elements in Heroes Die. A near-future with massive ecological and climate issues, with only the ultra rich able to enjoy clean air and limited reserves of nature. An incredibly rigid caste system evolved from corporate roles, as a partial result to government and social collapse following massive pandemics earlier in history.
Said history being rewritten within the generation of the parents of the protagonist, so almost all earlier history, political and social thought are purged. And both the elite and groundlings are kept amused by the effort of actors (a comparatively low-caste role but still popular) who live violent lives after travelling to an alternate earth with high fantasy elements.
Said actors often causing MASSIVE destruction and chaos there because it’s entertaining, and that’s their job.
Sure, we don’t have that tech, but it appears our species will NEVER outgrow the Break and Circus stage. And as long as they are entertained, we can and will keep pushing until our greed destroys us, which given climate change and other issues as the politics of the world turn ever more violent and antagonistic…
Yeah. Sooner, not later. Not in the next 4 years, probably not in the next decade… but this election to me and similar ones like it around the world…
I don’t think we have the time or will to get our shit together before it becomes unrecoverable, or at least, so bad that society collapses to a pre-information age, probably early industrial or worse.
NOTE - if I was thinking of ONLY the US, I might have gone with “If this Goes On” with the US becoming a theocracy, but far too much of the rest of the world is heading into various authoritarian shittiness as I don’t think most of them would leave us alone even if we became isolationist again.
Dammit. Now I kinda want an AI based Apocalypse book ending. Then we could shift the blame more easily…
A mix of 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale, followed by On the Beach; once the system starts to fall apart because of their actions and it becomes obvious they’ll lose power I expect the fascists to do their best to kill all of humanity out of spite.
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch.
In the Garden of Beasts, a non-fiction account of the experiences of the American ambassador to Germany and his family between 1933-37, during the rise of Hitler and Nazism. I read it in 2017, and I was struck by the parallels to the rise of trumpism. I suspect a re-read would parallel trump 2.0 even more closely.
ETA: @Atamasama , ‘A Little Golden Book’ version of Planet of the Apes, Heheh. What satirical source is that from? The artwork style looks familiar.
Let me blow your mind. It’s real.
Wow. The ‘Little Golden Book’ series has gotten a lot cooler since I was a kid. I see some other interesting choices…
(Not too much of a hijack I hope, since novelizations of X-Files and Stranger Things might fit the thread topic just fine. We definitely seem to be in the Upside Down right now)
I think “I can’t believe this is real life now” fits the point of this thread. 
Came here to say this. I read it a couple of months before the election and it was hard enough. I don’t think I could handle it now.
As a premonition of our current predicament, this is hardly a perfect match, but it’s worth a mention!
The novel Night of Camp David (1965) (by the co-author of Seven Days in May) features a president who is losing his sanity due to extreme paranoia. He thinks the news media are trying to bring him down. Most of the advisors and politicians interacting with him do not recognize his fragile condition.
According to Wikipedia, “He erratically expresses his desire to develop a closer relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, and attempts to cut ties with US allies in Europe.”
Sounds interesting. Seven Days in May (the movie version, at least–I haven’t read the book) stayed pretty close to the plausible in its depiction of a power-hungry general, who was utterly contemptuous of the principle of civilian rule.