I love dystopian novels, I feel like I’ve read them all. Any suggestions?
I love dystopian novels, I feel like I’ve read them all. Any suggestions?
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I love dystopian novels, I feel like I’ve read them all. Any suggestions?
If you haven’t read The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, it’s pretty dystopian. I just finished it and am still recovering.
I just looked that up. It sounds good and I’ve downloaded it.
Another one on my TBR list!
Have you read the Oryx and Crake, and the two that follow, by Margaret Atwood?
Yes, loved them
I Am Legend
Children of Men
Parable of the Talents, and Parable of the Sower
Childhood’s End
Earth Abides
Day of the Triffids
Midwich Cuckoos
Can you tell I like dystopian too? ?
I loved Atwood’s Madadam trilogy too.
@Becky I’ve not read them all, 5 of them. So have you read The Road?
Yes. I forgot about The Road. I loved it.
Have you read Blindness by Jose Saramago?
@Becky no! I just looked it up, it’s on my list. Have you read the birdbox? Very intense book
No, but I’ve heard enough about it to be intrigued and add it to my list.
Have you read This Perfect Day by Ira Levin? An oldie or Wool?
I’ve read perfect day and wool
This Perfect Day is one of my favorites for last 35 years.
@Sue which world would you have chosen?
@Kathy tough question. Ima say I don’t like to be told what to do. I’m going to the island.
@Kathy you’re good!
@Sue my sister also read the book, we decided we would take the shots! ?
@Sue – me too! I made my husband and both sons read it. The copy I had was my dads old paperback with a scantily clad woman on the front. My son taped a playing card over the picture so he wouldn’t get teased at school!
I have never read This Perfect Day. Adding it to my list now.
Life as We Knew It, by Susan Pfeffer?
Necromancer by William Gibson. The City and The City by China Meiville. Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley. The Death of Grass by John Christopher, The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.
Tito Perez I loved it. I am a huge fan of most of his books. Loved Perdido Street Station as well.
The Darkest Minds?
I have, I like the first one, but not the next
What’s that about?
Oooh! That makes me nervous. I just finished yr first one today.
It’s about kids who develop abilities and the fall out of the country after.
1984, On The Beach, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm?
On the Beach is one of my favorites!
And Fahrenheit 451 is in my top 5.
On the Beach-another classic!
The Stand?
Everything by Stephen King
Have you read The Girl With All the Gifts, by M.R. Carey?
Yep
Loved it.
I feel like I’m talking with my people! 😀
Me too! I knew you would all be helpful.
following
The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler is my favorite, Gold Fame Citrus
Read parable of the sower, then the second one, that one was not so good in my opinion
Yeah, Sower is definitely better
YES!
My husband complains about my love of all things dystopian as I always get depressed after a solid read, but it’s my version of horror ?
Alternatively: might I suggest some non fiction/current event books? ???????
In all seriousness, I saw mentioned Earth Abides; I loved that one. The other Hugh Howey’s besides Wool have been good too (Molly Fyde not so much, but I think that was an early work).
Read the first two
I love everything by Hugh Howey! Wool is one of my favorites
Red Rising trilogy?
I haven’t picked those up yet. What are you thoughts?
I loved Red Rising series.
@Elaine Just great books! Excellent characters, great story line. Just lots of fun to read and an awesome fandom when you are done!!!
Love Red Rising!
Iron Gold by Pierce Brown will be available January 2018…the saga continues!!!!!!! <3
Agreed – so good.
Ready Player One?
OMG, loved, loved, loved that book!!!
That one is so good!!
Ooooh, Alas Babylon, by Pat Frank
A classic!
Ditto!!!
The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver
A Canticle for Leibowitz? I’m getting ready to reread that.
The Last Ship? The tv series was shite. The book was good.
I wrote a dystopian but I fear it wouldn’t have merit amongst the titles mentioned here. But… I’m sure you haven’t read it! ?
Tell me! Please.
The Infection.
I’m a nurse, and that title makes me curious ? (I read The Coming Plague (non fiction) years ago and still am haunted….)
I may put it back on Kindle. It’ll sell for cheap. Lol
I’m working on my craft. It’s my first novel. While it holds a very special place in my heart, it’s a novice attempt.
@Jenn everyone starts somewhere ?
The Fireman by Joe Hill
I’m kind of recommending it to everyone
Stephen Kings’s son right?
I read when of his books, can’t remember the title, but it was horror and I wasn’t a huge fan. I will look at the fireman
@Joyce yep
Yes! I enjoyed it!!!
Yeah, it’s Stephen King’s son. This book is kind of a horror, but also dystopic. There’s a lot of different things going on.
I absolutely loved this book. Took me a while to get through it because of the sheer size of it but I absolutely loved it. I’m not often one for re-reading books but I’ve put this in that category.
I bought it last night. This thread is getting expensive! LoL
Yeah, I listened to the audiobook through overdrive, because I’ve got quite a commute. I’m so glad for libraries. I had no idea how long it was until looking on Goodreads.
California, by Edan Lepucki. Into the Forest, by Jean Hegland.
Loved Into the Forest. The movie wasn’t as good, but good enough that it was hard to watch at times
The movie wasn’t as good, but I’ve still watched it several times. Always gets me thinking about what I would do.
I loved Into the Forest. I got it from the library but I want to buy my own copy someday.
The Outliers, by Kimberly McCreight
Never Let Me Go and Anthem for dystopian. If you also like a touch of the apocalyptic then check out The Dog Stars and The Road
Came here to add Never Let Me Go. Amazing book. But it took me days to recover.
@Becky I know what you mean ?
Never Let Me Go is such a good book.
Never Let Me Go looks interesting. I’ve read the other two
This is my favorite thread ever. ❤️
The handmaids tale
One Second After? Dies the Fire, or Conquistador (by SM Stirling)
One Second After was VERY good.
It scared the beejeezus out of me and that’s rare
The Tripod series (The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, The Pool of Fire and When the Tripods Came) by John Christopher.
“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy
This book is excellent. Magpie’s Song by Allison Pang.
Gracling, Raven Boys (more fantasy), MindJack tilogy, Jennifer Armentrout, Richelle Mead, Uglies/Pretties, Guardian Series (Amethyst), The Dead and the Gone, Forest of Hands and Teeth
Earth Abides George R Stewart
The Pines Trilogy. Blake Crouch. Excellent.
Loved the Pines Trilogy!
My latest read in the genre was “Gather the Daughters” – very good!
I love this group! Even though I’ve read many that were suggested. I also got quite a few that I haven’t. It’s such a narrow genre. So many Dystopian books are YA, I’ve read some good YA dystopian, but so many seem like that were actually written by teenagers. Or the first book is good, but the next is crap. I’ve expended to alt reality, and found Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series, which I highly recommend.
This is a great discussion. There are quite a few titles I haven’t read, so thanks everyone for adding to my tbr list!
Red Rising gets better with each book. More complex. The new one will be over 700 pages .
I have GOT to get to these!
This I have to check out!
Hic Sunt Leones: A Red Rising Trilogy Fan Group after you become addicted. A great group of fellow readers including the author, Pierce Brown , every now and then.
Darkness At Noon, by Arthur Koestler.
Highly recommend The Only Ones. It’s about woman who has to raise a clone of herself as her child after a pandemic. So interesting. The narrative style takes a bit to get into, but totally worth it.
Who’s the author please?
that sounds interesting
Thanks @Lila
and from goodreads Amber:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21535525-the-only-ones
Thanks. I’ve added it to my tbr list on GoodReads.
The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell and I second Alas, Babylon and The Fireman
Born trilogy by Tara Brown and Hollowland by Amanda Hocking both are YA but good!
Been wanting to read California. Really liked A Canticle for Liebowitz, The Girl with All the Gifts, and The Postman. Also, LOVED Fahrenheit 451 ❤️
The Girl with All the Gifts was excellent. I read the book and the shory story it was based on. The short story was heartbreaking.
Just ordered Red Rising from Amazon. Thanks so much for this discussion! !!
I have an ARC of it on my shelf!
How about a dystopian novel from another country? Here’s one from Brazil: https://www.aworldadventurebybook.com/reading-list/and-still-the-earth
Don’t know if it’s been mentioned yet but the Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole and also Shatter Me.
Station Eleven
Second this!
Third this!
Ditto!
Yes!
OMG there’s a boy here 😮
The Red Queen series?
It’s on my library wish list
Red Queen is YA and not complex enough in my opinion. Very predictable outcome. Still enjoyable but not worth continuing the series IMO.
Ender’s Game. Also this: http://www.shortlist.com/news/20-best-dystopian-novels and this: http://www.listchallenges.com/50-best-dystopian-novels
Read Enders Game. Thanks for the link!
Also the Gone-Away World (one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever read). And Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman may kind of fit a dystopian world view …
Des monde
Shades of Gray, The Giver, I am Legend
Loved the giver and the other two by same author
@Sarrah loved those books!
@Sarrah The Giver series has 4 now!
I didn’t know that the Giver was only one of four- till I read them.
Dog Stars,American War.
One of my favorites, ever: https://www.amazon.com/Far-North-Novel-Marcel-Theroux/dp/031242972X
Love this too: https://www.amazon.com/Station-Eleven-Emily-John-Mandel/dp/0804172447/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=F468V3BNG7J4Q51Q7DS4
Rootless trilogy! Loved it!
Saving THIS post!
The Last Girl by Joe Hart and the two that follow. It’s a pretty new trilogy that came out in the past 2 years or so.
Love his books!
This Perfect Day by Ira Levin
So excited! My 13 year old read my favorite author of all time today, Kurt Vonnegut, who I read all through high school. I would consider him dystopia. We started with 2BRO2B, a short story which I had not read! Probably Cat’s Cradle next!
So we have Star Trek, Dr Who, Vonnegut and we are doing Kubrik too! Now if she only liked Bowie!
We by Eugene Zamitin
Red Rising trilogy and/or The Passage
The Passage trilogy is great!!!
I love The Passage trilogy!
He, She and It by Marge Piercy.
The Matched Trilogy. The Girl With All the Gifts.
Tanya Pace titles? Author? I did like Matched. I will look this up-thanks.
Following! Me too!
Do you like young adult lit? I really liked Eve (series) and City of Ember (series).
All children grow up in boarding schools without knowing their parents. Boys and girls are in different boarding schools. A few days before graduation, Eve finds out what really happens to the girls after graduation – basically they become breeders through IVF – and she escapes. Anna Carey is the author. You can look it up on Goodreads
The Giver is also a series.
The Road, the Passage, the Wool Omnibus
The Passage is incredible!
The Wool series is fantastic. I couldn’t put them down.
Have you read these? Amazing!!!
Th Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi as an entry to his world, Shipbreaker also amazing
I second the vote for The Windup Girl!
Don’t forget The Water Knife!
I am so happy you posted this question! ?
Me too! Just stacking up my TBR.
The Girl with all the Gifts is phenomenal
Red Queen series is amazing!
Shatter Me is a beautifully written series also!
The first one is so full of beautiful words, I almost can’t handle it!
@Chelsea I got a tattoo of the first title for that reason exactly
@Shaley That is awesome. I have a whole file of quotes for a future tattoo from the book.
Random Acts of Senseless Violence. Excellent.
Just started getting into dystopian novels! I’ve read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, and am just starting The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. I’m going to come back to this post with a pen and paper!
Right?!? My Goodreads list grew a lot larger today.
Madd Addam trilogy by Margaret Atwood is one of the best distopian series I’ve read. It really pictures it.
Oh, for a twist try The Girl with All the Gifts
Have you read Atwood’s “The Heart Goes Last”? Mind you, Atwood considers her work to be speculative fiction, but still, like “Handmaid” this is certainly a dystopian world – just not as wildly different as what we have today. In fact, it is a bit too close for comfort!
I can also recommend “The Beautiful Bureaucrat” https://drchazan.blogspot.com/2015/07/data-in-lives-out.html
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. I may be biased it is based in CO but I love it!
Loved it and Station Eleven.
http://listverse.com/2008/03/12/top-12-dystopian-novels/
What great information
Ready Player One
Loved!! The audiobook read by Wil Wheaton was great
@Kathy yes! That’s how I read it too!
It’s all about Wil Wheaton for sure!! Great way to take it in.
GNOSIS
https://www.amazon.co.uk/GNOSIS-Ian-Cawley-ebook/dp/B01GLINASS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467794543&sr=8-1&keywords=ian+cawley+gnosis
Following!
One of my favs
@Rebecca have u also read this author’s Young Elites trilogy!? It is just as awesome as Legend!
I read the first book. I started the rose society awhile go but never finished it! I’ll have to try it again!!!!
Yess do so!
Backbiters/YA Dystopian by Debra Glasheen
Anything by Mira Gramt
Not a Drop to Drink; Mindy McGinnis and Veracity; Laura Bynum
@Hugh‘s books. Wool to start.
Any newspaper
Love dystopian books, love this group! Girl with All the Gifts author, M R Carey has a new one, The Boy on the Bridge, waiting for it from the library…
Thanks, I didn’t know! Just put it on hold at the library.
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
Don’t know if this has been suggested. Exit West, a novel by Mohsin Hamid. Came to me with a rave recommendation but I guess dystopian fiction is really not my cup of tea.
I feel the same every time I walk into my local bookstore. ?
I don’t really read anything else but trying to find a book club online or offline to do with this genre is near impossible.
I’m loving the suggestions above. I’ve added a load on to my tbr pile.
Thanks guys and thanks Kathy for the post.
I love everything Bella Forrest atm. This is a great series!
I just bought the Mistborn Trilogy for my great-nephew but I think I should read it myself first 😉
Has anyone mentioned Justin Cronin’s trilogy? Those books are hard to classify, but I’d go with dystopian. Loved those books.
I got about half way through the second book. Put it down and then not picked it up again.
@Amber that’s too bad, the second one was a bit of a slog, but the third was very good.
Flawed and perfect by cecelia ahern
The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben Winters
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Policeman-Novel-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B0076Q1GW2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504095422&sr=8-1&keywords=the+last+policeman
I just read those this year and thought they were good.
Ryu Murakami – Coinlocker babies
This one was okay, but it is near science fiction and starts with the fall of US society. It continues through three novels. The cause of the societal collapse is different, so I founf that part interesting. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4922079-one-second-after
Fred Strydom’s The Raft and The Inside Out Man! 🙂
Me too. They’re offering an entire course on it in my daughter’s HS this year. She signed up for it.
Dead Tropics by Sue Edge 🙂 She is from Australia and is a very talented writer. The second novel is coming soon. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13646673-dead-tropics?from_search=true
NK Jemison’s 5th Season. I’m about 2/3 through, far future dystopia.
I read that one, there’s another book after isn’t there?
@Kathy 2 more in this series and at least 2 other series! I’d only read shorts from her before.
Just finishing The Last Tribe by Brad Manuel–very good!
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhwak. Dystopian/utopian queer and magical
Read your twitter feed. ?
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller is excellent.
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
Try When She Woke
CLING by Jeff Menapace…his first venture in the dystopian genre!
If you can handle the YA genre, The City of Ember set is pretty cute.
Daughters of the North
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Follow
I highly recommend the Southern Reach Trilogy and Borne by Jeff Vandermeer.
Following ?
No, We Cannot
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/05/a-golden-age-for-dystopian-fiction
Thanks for the link!
I love this page. I have never even heard of dystopian genre. I probably should not admit that.. but.. thanks everyone for the education and great reads.
Fantasy often contains magic, dystopian novels rarely do. Dystopian novels are typically bleak, possibly post apocalyptic, totalitarian governments are common in dystopian writing.
Not sure what it says about me that I like them so much ?
WOW! I wish someone would just make a list of all of these!!
There are lists on google of dystopian stories etc. I’ve looked them up before
Under the Never Sky series is good
Matched
Atlantia by same author as Matched
Yes!
You liked it?! I’m still waiting for Matched to become a movie series. I couldn’t believe divergent hit the screen before it has
@Blair I did kinda like it! ?
The Giver actually has 3 companion books that most people don’t know about
I read them all, The Giver was the best, I liked the others though since they finished the story.
What about dystopian/sci-fi with romance?
Tell me more
My favorite! Shatter Me by Mafi.
Oh and the Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole. My default answers for all recommendation questions ?
@Jackie somehow have shatter me on my kindle but haven’t read it yet!