1984-type books?

Anita Blow

Just finishing up 1984 and loved it. Looking for other books like it that anyone could recommend?

Really finding it hard to find a good book that'll hold my interest. I'm really into books with a dystopia setting but would read any fiction that borrows from reality/real-life events.
Bit vague I know but any suggestions??

Einhard

I'm just about to read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and from what I understand it's set in a pretty dystopian future.

Nody

Well there's the Hunger game series but they are teenage style and I personally could not get past the first but some do love it. There's the Mistborn series if you're leaning towards fantasy.

Personal favourite have to be Altered Carbon series by Richard Morgan though; you also have his Black Man and Market Forces which are standalone books.

Another option would be something like the Gaunt series (WH40k) about being a grunt in a future war (and being seen as valued as a soldier of the Russian army during WW2) though it has usually a sort of happyish ending to the stories.

emeraldstar

Einhard wrote: »

I'm just about to read The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, and from what I understand it's set in a pretty dystopian future.

Also, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World perhaps, and Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. I thought BNW was only okay though, and I couldn't stand NLMG. 1984 is better than both.

Priori

Have you read Cormac McCarthy's The Road? Bleak, visual, haunting and poignant imho.

InvisibleBadger

WE by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a similar dystopian/utopian themed book written in the 1920s

Quatermain

Have a look at "The Man in the High Castle", by Philip K. Dick. It's an alternate history book where the Allies lost WW2, and most of the world has become colonised by the Axis powers.

PyeContinental

Brave New World (written before it) and Fahrenheit 451 (written after it) are probably the most comparable books to 1984.

Several classic films that are required viewing for comparison are THX 1138, Silent Running, Logan's Run, and Soylent Green.

Although a critical and box office flop, Aeon Flux is a recent derivative, worth watching for comparison.

I like Idiocracy from 2006. It's actually a comedy, yet at the same time carries a serious message about the dystopia that our intellectually lazy, X-Factor entranced, welfare society is inexorably heading towards.

Anita Blow

Thanks for that everyone! Have enough books to keep me going for a while now. Don't know which one to start with now! Brave New World was mentioned twice so might start with that

dr gonzo

Anita Blow wrote: »

Thanks for that everyone! Have enough books to keep me going for a while now. Don't know which one to start with now! Brave New World was mentioned twice so might start with that

Brave New World is probably the closest thematically but, of course, very different. On top of the connection I think they make for a fascinating comparison. I definitely recommend starting with that.

Anita Blow

Thanks for that. Just downloaded it there

Procrastastudy

A Brave New World better than 1984 imo

r3nu4l

emeraldstar wrote: »

Also, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World perhaps, and Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. I thought BNW was only okay though, and I couldn't stand NLMG. 1984 is better than both.

There is a strong argument to say that Brave New World is closer to the current state of life tha1984 ever will be .

SPOILERS IN THIS LINK

I prefer either of the above to The Road. That was a good book but it merely deals with a world in the aftermath of a post apocalyptic event rather than the generation of a dystopian world. I also didn't find the book as shocking as many others did. To my mind, if you had seen Mad Max then you pretty much had the basics of the same sort of world as in The Road

Bannasidhe

Robert Harris' Fatherland is worth a read. It's set in a world where the Nazis won WWII.

Earthhorse

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Don't know how to sell it to you other than to say it is quit an accurate portrayal of the fascistic mindset.

highlydebased

Have a look through this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76346360

IspeakcozIcan

Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler.

DavyD_83

highlydebased wrote: »

Have a look through this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76346360

And this one:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=61158645

ThirdMan

List of dystopian literature on Wikipedia.

Wereghost

Anita Blow wrote: »

Just finishing up 1984 and loved it. Looking for other books like it that anyone could recommend?

Really finding it hard to find a good book that'll hold my interest. I'm really into books with a dystopia setting but would read any fiction that borrows from reality/real-life events.
Bit vague I know but any suggestions??

Animal Farm is another classic by the same author and is an allegorical tale that addresses similar themes. It's deceptively easy to read.

Golding's Lord Of The Flies deals with a large group of kids stranded on an island after what's hinted to be a nuclear war, and the effect that the experience has on their civilised values.

Wereghost

Oops, double post!