Best Dystopia Books

[ComaBaby01]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 12:29am

Dystopia: a work of fiction describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror; state in which the condition of life is extremely bad as from deprivation or oppression or terror.


These turn out to be some of the best books. The Giver by Lois Lowry and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells are a couple of my favorites, and of course Fahrenheit 451. I didn't fancy Brave New World so much, for some reason.

Has anyone ever read The Guardians by John Christopher? It was recommended to me and I've never heard of it...

[Taryn]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:22am

Clockwork Orange should definitely be on the list. And 1984.

[feinstein9]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:55am

I thought those wre useally refered to as "negitive-uptopia" books, but I'm glad there's a much better name out there! Handmaiden's Tale is another.

[AC126748]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 7:40am

The Master and Margarita
Darkness at Noon
1984

[Roscoe]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 11:51am

CLOCKWORK ORANGE and THE WANTING SEED, both by Anthony Burgess.

Also, P.D. James' CHILDREN OF MEN. Very different from the film, well worth reading.

[yodamarie78]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 12:10pm

Anthem by Ayn Rand

[Phantom23]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 12:43pm

Some of my favourites are:

1984 by George Orwell
Fahreheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd
The Trial by Franz Kafka

Dystopia is one of my favourite genres! I still have a lot to read in it, though. I haven't gotten to We, Brave New World, Anthem, or a bunch of others yet.

[lildogs]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:10pm

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:11pm

The Handmaids Tale- Margaret Atwood.

a fantastic book.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:21pm

The Handmaid's Tale is fantastic, but Margaret Atwood also wrote Oryx and Crake about fifteen years later. That one is just as intriguing.

The Season of Passage by Christopher Pike (one of his adult novels) is also really wonderful. I think it fits under dystopia, but I could be wrong.

[lildogs]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:22pm

Atwood is one of my fave writers--Cat's Eye and The Blind Assassin are also quite good--esp Cat's...

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:29pm

I want to roll around in Margaret Atwood's literature. It's so good that it's delicious! Have you read The Edible Woman? It's one of her earliest, if not her first, novel and it actually borders on what is considered "chick lit" today. It's truly intriguing.

I LOVE YOU, MARGARET ATWOOD!!!

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 1:30pm

the copper elephant by adam rapp

[Auggie27]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 4:03pm

Atwood's has eerily proved prophetic.

Not exactly dystopian, but my favorite cautionary tale of the cold war was ON THE BEACH by Neville Shute. I recently re-read it, and re-watched the underrated Showtime miniseries with Armand Assante and Rachel Ward made in 2000. I still find it one of the most affecting portraits of a post-apocolypse world. Also worth seeing: TESTAMENT with Jane Alexander. Still a powerful film. (And a British film -- never shown -- anyone reall the title? It made it on PBS, I think.)

What's startling about the 2000 ON THE BEACH is the shorthanded portrayal of an arrogant American president. He waits for China to blink, and then all hell is unleashed in a 37 minute war, with the fallout killing everyone, ultimately.

[Kringas]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 4:22pm

I'm going to add a vote for The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake, although I do have to say I found the latter pretty dull until the last hundred pages or so, when it really started to come together. No one does apocalyptic fiction like Margaret Atwood.

[DG]

Posted: 5/30/07 at 4:23pm

I just read the daily paper.