Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Dystopian Fiction

Options
  • 05-11-2012 1:57am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 5,021 ✭✭✭


    Im about to tuck into Ubik but after that Im stumped for something suitably dystopian to keep me liberal. Ive already read the stuff on the list below. Im a sucker for the cyberpunk stuff but a bleak, grinding post apocalypse ala Fallout/Mad Max can make up for any lack of neon ;)

    Any good recommendations?

    Neuromancer
    Snow Crash
    1984 (I read this annually ... like a religion)
    Farenhiet 451
    Brave New World
    Starship Troopers
    Ubik
    Children of Men


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 270 ✭✭Supermensch


    A Clockwork Orange. Don't let the movie put you off. I mean, it does follow the book pretty accurately, and while it is still fairly graphic, it's sort of softened by the quasi-cockney language the narrator, Alex, uses. Really good book, it's a shame I can convince nobody to give it a chance :o

    Gateway by Frederik Pohl is somewhat dystopian. It's an alright book, enjoyable read. The whole crux of it isn't that great, but the book itself wasn't long enough for me to have felt massively let down by it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,267 ✭✭✭mcgovern


    If you liked Snow Crash, The Diamond Age I thought was even better.
    The Wool Series by Hugh Howey could also fit (though I've only read the first two myself).
    The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester.
    The Forever War by Joe Halderman if you liked Starship Troopers.
    Jennifer Government by Max Barry is an easy read.
    I assume you've read the rest of Gibson's Sprawl Triology :) Not as good as Neuromancer but worth a read.
    Also, some more of PKD's work could interest you, but they are usually not too focused on the society the novel is set in.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,021 ✭✭✭Hivemind187


    cheers. I've read Clockwork Orange (brilliant) but Im going to have a look at the ones you mentioned.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,551 ✭✭✭Goldstein


    I'd second Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man and make sure you read The Stars My Destination. Both among the finest science fiction novels ever written.

    Following on in the military sci-fi vein from The Forever War and Starship Troopers, you might also enjoy the excellent Armor, Old Man's War and Scott Westerfield's two Succession books.

    Some others off the top of my head are Asimov's Foundation series, The Space Merchants, The City and the Stars and Hardwired.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,438 ✭✭✭TwoShedsJackson


    I'll third 'The Demolished Man' and add 'Inverted World' by Christopher Priest, it's in the SF Masterworks Series.


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 840 ✭✭✭The Late Late Show


    I love dystopian fiction and have read most of the ones mentioned here as well The Handmaid's Tale and the Maddaddam trilogy (and will read The Testaments), also read The Postman (people have mixed views on the film version but do not let that stop you reading the book if you don't like the film as they are different) and Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Love watching this genre too with Mad Max, Handmaid's, Blade Runner, Terminator, etc. all variants. Am not a fan of the Mad Max ripoff movies or the ripoff of Handmaid's Tale books doing the rounds. Any other recommendations would be welcome.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 15,754 Mod ✭✭✭✭smacl


    Any other recommendations would be welcome.

    The Girl with all the Gifts / Boy on the bridge, The end of the world running club and The Windup Girl come to mind. Cage of Souls is a little bit more off beam but an excellent read.


Advertisement