Your favourite dystopian novels - Writers Forum

Kelhanion · 03-22-2008, 08:59 AM

I've always enjoyed reading novels with a strong message, especially those that comment our society through dystopian futures. What dystopian novels would you recommend and why? What are the classics that have taught you the most?

I start with Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four. The book had a great impact on me as it showed how to control people by manipulating their thoughts and environment and by using their own emotions and feeling of insufficiency against them.

RomanticRose · 03-22-2008, 09:49 AM

Ayn Rand's Anthem.

rainhands · 03-22-2008, 11:19 AM

I recently read Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, in which Snowman (the narrator) believes himself to be the last man on Earth. It begins quite unnervingly, leaving the reader feeling around in the dark, but as the novel progresses and Snowman looks back on his memories as Jimmy, we come to realise that his parent's past is our present. It's strange because the familiar and the unfamiliar are woven throughout the book - issues in our world are taken to extremes, such as people's desire to stay looking youthful, celebrity culture and science. The probing questioning of short-term science versus long-term morality, and of "how far is too far" was very interesting and the book certainly calls for us to readdress the way we live our lives.

I'm just about to start on The Handmaid's Tale (an earlier work by Atwood) which again explores a dystopian future, and I'd definately recommend Oryx and Crake if you haven't already read it.

Stewart · 03-22-2008, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RomanticRose

Ayn Rand's Anthem.

That's just a rip-off of Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, with added Randian nonsense.

RomanticRose · 03-22-2008, 12:26 PM

It's still my favorite dystopian novel.
You might have books on your shelf, that you call favorites, that I would consider nonsense. Wouldn't it be boring if we all liked the same thing?

Danielle · 03-24-2008, 06:17 AM

This is my favourite genre of books personally. I perfer books that comment on society and leave the reader with something to think about. My favourite author is George Orwell so I would have suggest 1984 and also Animal Farm for protestations regarding totalitarian Russia. Aldous Huxley's Brave new world is also a brilliant book.

I must check out Atwood book that was suggested.

Katastrof · 03-24-2008, 08:30 AM

Come one people! What about the original dystopian story? What about Paradise Lost?

Mike C · 03-24-2008, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katastrof

Come one people! What about the original dystopian story? What about Paradise Lost?

Indeed.

Also, Clockwork Orange, Cordell's If You Believe the Soldiers, Many of Moorcock's Cornelius Novels and, also by Burgess, 1985.

seigfried007 · 03-24-2008, 09:28 AM

I read Oryx and Crake. Very interesting but nothing really happens in the book and it's not linear at all. "Literature as science fiction" so to speak.

Some of the characters were interesting and much of the past was interesting (loved the bit about the chicken). Just don't expect sequential flow. It's too damn artsy to bother with that

rainhands · 03-24-2008, 09:40 AM

Yeah, it did jump around a LOT, and mostly the important stuff happens in the last quarter of the book. Very imaginative and believable, though.

Quote:

Come one people! What about the original dystopian story? What about Paradise Lost?

I haven't read Paradise Lost yet. I'm a tad afraid of tackling it, if truth be told. *hides*

Stewart · 03-24-2008, 01:25 PM

There's one I've got on my shelves although I've not read it yet, called The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstoya. Based on that surname, she has a famous family connection in that she's from the Tolstoy family.