Book suggestions; dystopian future

spikealmighty

Hi guys just flew through the Hunger Games, I really liked that it was based in a dystopian future.

Can anyone suggest any other series that might be of interest featuring a dystopian world, something a bit more adult to get more stuck into?

Toby Take a Bow

does it have to be a series?

If not, you could try some of the following:
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Brave New World by Huxley
1984 by George Orwell
Carhullian Army by Sarah Hall
The Scarlet Plague by Jack London
The Road by Cormac McCarthy

spikealmighty

Thanks Toby, doesnt hafta be a series, I just like series because theyre more indept, detailed, longer. I like a book that leaves me wanting more!;)

I'll do a google on them tomorrow!:D

dots03

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

does it have to be a series?

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

...also Oryx & Crake + The Year of the Flood by Atwood.

Bodhidharma

A bit left field here but V fo Vendetta and Watchmen are both great reads. They're graphic novels, so maybe not what you're looking for.

Trevillian

When I was researching/writing for my novel The A-Men, I read a lot of dystopian stories to get just the right balance of future world and collapsing society. I wanted to use the trope of the main character entering a riot-torn corporate-run city while mixing this with strong fantasy elements/stories. Gibson was an early influence for me... but the final list included:

Cloud Atlas*
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Battle Royale
Brave New World
A Clockwork Orange
Count Zero*
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Neuromancer
The Children of Men
Altered Carbon*

The ones with asterisks are my personal favourites.

*But* very early on I also added noir classics especially from the 1940s to my reading list, and in this way created plotlines that were very much in the dystopian/crime/punk vein. Though few scifi authors cite noir fiction as an inspiration, when you read them they have many dystopian tropes and really shows me that they do/were influenced.

Somewhere in the Night, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Nightmare Alley --- almost everything by Cornell Woolrich… the list goes on.

D-Generate

Farenheit 451 is dystopian I suppose.

Cianos

Also check out the novella 'Anthem'

cynder

Got my hands on ' divergent ' I love the hunger Games and this is supposed to be something similar, also 'matched' 'delirium' 'gone' and 'withered' are supposed to be similar to the hunger games. Haven't read any of those though. Don't think anything can match the hunger games.

****************
Loved Divergent!

Seres

'We' Yevgeny Zamyatin : influence for Brave New World and 1984

eclectichoney

Seres wrote: »

'We' Yevgeny Zamyatin : influence for Brave New World and 1984

Good call! 'We' is such an under-rated book. The best dystopian novel imo.

mr123red

A few Dystopian future books Id recommend are,
The maze runner series by James Dashner
Shades Children by Garth Nix
The Enemy series by Charlie Higson
The maze runner and the enemy series can be a bit graphic though so if thats something you avoid in books then their not for you.

PurpleBee

The Time Machine by H G Wells is pretty amazing. Fahrenheit 451 is absolute rubbish

MARTINOZ

The Postman is a good one.

jam_mac_jam

In the Country of Lost Things, Paul Auster. I really liked this.

Mercurius

'The Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi is an amazing read.

Socialist_Pig

Mercurius wrote: »

'The Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi is an amazing read.

was just about to post that and decided to make sure it hadnt been mentioned before.Nearly finished it and its a great read

Eoin

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan - sort of sci-fi / dystopian future / detective novel. There are two other books following it, but I wasn't as keen on those ones.

MJRS

From what I know about the Hunger Games, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro seems somewhat similar thematically! I wouldn't google it though, a lot of my enjoyment hinged on finding out what the **** was going on in that school, and it was pretty mind0blowing when it's revealed. Go in blind, it's the only way!

Also the Chrysalids, and the Stand (although I didn't really enjoy the second half of it).

1984 goes without saying right?!

Ole Rodrigo

Does anyone know the title of a book - it was mentioned on a recent IT roundup which I can't find with google - its a literary sci fi/ dystopian future, far in the future when the sun is a red giant, near the end of its life, and how society has evolved to that point and the effect the dying sun has on personal values etc. I can't remember much more other than its character driven as much as anything else .... hopefully it might ring a bell with someone. Thanks !

Travel is good

MJRS wrote: »

From what I know about the Hunger Games, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro seems somewhat similar thematically! I wouldn't google it though, a lot of my enjoyment hinged on finding out what the **** was going on in that school, and it was pretty mind0blowing when it's revealed. Go in blind, it's the only way!

Also the Chrysalids, and the Stand (although I didn't really enjoy the second half of it).

1984 goes without saying right?!

Thanks everyone for all the recommendations. "The Stand" and "The Passage" are my favourite books.

I might have a look at "The Hunger Games".

I love dystopian and post-apocalyptic literature. There is a book group based in London on meetup.com which specialises in such literature.

http://www.meetup.com/post-apocalypticbookclub/

Enjoy it! They have a good reading list. You can be a virtual member, from Ireland. It's the only book club that I have found which specialises in this subject.

david75

Gonna look lots of these up. thanks folks

cynder

The passage is a fantastic book cant wait for the next instalment later in 2012.

Riddley Walker by the recently deceased Russell Hoban is an extraordinary book. Very different and well worth a look.

mcgovern

Jennifer Government by Max Barry is set in a world controlled by corporations. Not brilliant but different.

Ole Rodrigo

I found that title : Tales of the Dying Earth, by Jack Vance. Might be slightly more sci-fi/fantasy although it gets good reports.

Coriolanus

The Child Garden

highlydebased

Somebody else who's into dystopian literature- never thought I'd see the day!

Many of the good ones are mentioned here already, but for sake of repetition definately read:
-We (Yevgeny Zamyatin)
-1984 (Orwell)
and Brave New World (Huxley)

Have a look into JG Ballard's stuff- there's loads of it. Many of them deal with societal failure and things like that (High Rise for example deals with a high rise building dividing itself into three "classes" if you like, with strange results etc).

Get yourself an account on goodreads.com because there's tonnes of different lists there.

gutenberg

Just thought I'd chime in with an endorsement for anything by Margaret Atwood - she's amazing! I'm also flying through the Hunger Games at the moment, bloody addictive!

Seres

gutenberg wrote: »

Just thought I'd chime in with an endorsement for anything by Margaret Atwood - she's amazing! I'm also flying through the Hunger Games at the moment, bloody addictive!

Just gettin stuck into The Handmaids Tale . Love Dystopian Novels too .

cynder

i know, its brilliant ive read it 4 times over. Cant wait to the film, ive just read city of bones/ city of ashes/city of glass/ city of fallen angels its like harry potter meets twilight meets buffy, not a dystopian future but good.

goodreads in brilliant, it gives you recommendations based on what you like, its given me a good few so i have 54 books on my to read list,,,