Outread Aubrey! Challenge discussion
SPRINT: Dystopian (2/1-2/28)
Dystopian is possibly my favorite genre, but I'm woefully behind on my study of it. So, this will be a good motivator for me. :) I need to get through The Hunger Games for sure. Ideally the rest of the Divergent series as well. I also have Captives on my Kindle... And then there's Matched, and The Selection, and Pulse, and who knows what else I'm forgetting...
Thanks for the advanced warning ... Anyone have dystopian suggestions? Other than Hunger Games, and what's listed above, I'm not sure what else I'd read in the genre ... :)
Zekkaina (LadyDragonKeeper) wrote: "Thanks for the advanced warning ... Anyone have dystopian suggestions? Other than Hunger Games, and what's listed above, I'm not sure what else I'd read in the genre ... :)"Red Rain by Aubrey Hansen. :)
Here's a list...including stuff above. I haven't read a lot of these and some of them (like Divergent) I've decided *not* to read because of other's comments on content. But I figured a list would be helpful.Hunger Games
The Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mockingjay
Divergent
Four: A Divergent Story Collection
Divergent
Free Four: Tobias Tells the Story
Insurgent
The World of Divergent: The Path to Allegiant
Allegiant
Uglies
Uglies
Pretties
Specials
Extras
Matched
Matched
Crossed
Reached
Safe Lands
Captives
Outcasts
Rebels (not releasing till August)
Cantral Chronicles
Precisely Terminated
Noble Imposter
The Giver Quartet
The Giver
Gathering Blue
Messenger
Son
Book of Ember
The City of Ember
The People of Sparks
The Prophet of Yonwood
The Diamond of Darkhold
Shadow Children
Among the Hidden
Among the Impostors
Among the Betrayed
Among the Barons
Among the Brave
Among the Enemy
Among the Free
The Ender Quintet (Not sure if this is really dystopian or just sci-fi since I haven't read it...)
First Meetings in Ender's Universe
Ender's Game
A War of Gifts
Ender in Exile
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Unwind Dystology
Unwind
UnStrung
UnWholly
UnSouled
Swipe
Swipe
Sneak
Storm
Spark
Singles
Replication: The Jason Experiment
Red Rain: The Prequel to Crook Q
Animal Farm
1984
Fahrenheit 451
Lord of the Flies
By no means a complete or even large list compared to what's out there, but hope it's helpful. Now I need to pick some of them to try myself.
Awesome! I've read quite a lot of those, but I last read Hunger Games two years ago, all of them within about 12 hours, so I don't remember it. I was given the boxset for my birthday and was looking for an excuse to reread them. Now I'll just have to think of some others to read too. :)
Wow, that's a fantastic list, Leah! Thanks so much for that! Most of those were on my mental "I need to read this one day..." list.
Not that I'm planning to participate (dystopian being a genre I see the societal value in but no personal attraction to), but I see one glaring omission from the list: Red Rain.
Aubrey wrote: "Wow, that's a fantastic list, Leah! Thanks so much for that! Most of those were on my mental "I need to read this one day..." list."Welcome. ;) I like making lists. ...sometimes.
Jonathan wrote: "Not that I'm planning to participate (dystopian being a genre I see the societal value in but no personal attraction to), but I see one glaring omission from the list: Red Rain."
Red Rain is there. *points to the singles section*
I might re-read the Shadow Children series. Some people find them depressing, but they're kind of comfort reads for me. Plus they're fairly quick reads and they're a lot of them! AND the library has them. Plus I own a few myself. I'm kind of interested in Swipe too.
*laughs* I forgot my own book counted for this.
Is "City of Bones" dystopian? It sounds like it is, but it might be more fantasy...
What's it classified under on Amazon? Those categories aren't always accurate, but it's a start. (I haven't read it yet myself.)
Leah wrote: "Red Rain is there. *points to the singles section*"I apologize; so it is. (I scanned through the list half-a-dozen times and never saw the "Singles" section until you pointed to it...)
Wow, Leah! Thanks for the list! I guess this is my prompt to finally read the Hunger Games trilogy (my brother already has, he's waiting for me so we can watch the movies, LOL). I've also had my eye on the Matched trilogy as well ... I know the Divergent movie is coming out, so there's 100+ holds on the title ... I think I'll pass on it for now. :PHmm, Ender's Game was always shelved in scifi at the library I worked at, so IDK. I want to read that too, 'cause the movie looked pretty good and a friend said it was faithful to the book ...
Katie - No, it's urban fantasy. It's good, imo, but not dystopian.
*Glowers at her list of books she wants to read before borrowing from the library* I should have saved Gathering Blue... Unfortunately none of the ones on my shelf are dystopian. Here's hoping these books here at home will be just so good I'll fly through them....yeah, right.
I happened to be (finally) going through the resurrected Baen Free Library today, and one of the items there was "excerpts from" a collection of dystopian stories: Brave New Worlds.
Zekkaina (LadyDragonKeeper) wrote: "Hmm, Ender's Game was always shelved in scifi at the library I worked at, so IDK. I want to read that too, 'cause the movie looked pretty good and a friend said it was faithful to the book ... "Yeah. Trouble is, dystopian is technically a subdivsion of sci-fi. And I get all the subdivisions confused.
Ah, gotcha. I'm not to familiar with the dystopian genre myself ... At first glance, it doesn't totally appeal to me, but I've read Jill Williamson's Captives and enjoyed it, so besides all the book to film adaptations, this will be the push I need to explore a bit more in this genre. :)
Ender's game isn't dystopia. Dystopia denotes a bad government. Ender's Game is about a boy going to war against aliens, not gaining freedom from oppression.Personally, I believe that dystopia isn't limited to sci-fi, even though most are. Dystopias are about a society that is marketed as and believed to be perfect, but really is very far from the case. Usually this involves the main characters freeing themselves from their flawed government and starting fresh, but it's not necessary. This could just as easily be a fantasy or even historical fiction, if handled properly. I'm personally working on writing a Super Hero Boarding School Dystopia.
Kendra wrote: "Ender's game isn't dystopia. Dystopia denotes a bad government. Ender's Game is about a boy going to war against aliens, not gaining freedom from oppression."I haven't read Ender's Game (a decade and more ago, I resolved not to read it until I'd completed writing at least one novel of my own), but from what I've read about it, I would say that a society that would conscript a child into its war sounds very much like a dystopian society.
Kendra wrote: "Personally, I believe that dystopia isn't limited to sci-fi, even though most are. Dystopias are about a society that is marketed as and believed to be perfect, but really is very far from the case."
Um. That's the "seedy underbelly of the Utopia," one of the major categories of dystopian fiction, maybe even the single largest category, but certainly not all dystopian fiction. (Even if we extend it to "societies trying to become what they see as perfect.") A society that openly oppresses one group of people for the benefit of another to a sufficiently egregious degree could qualify, I think, for example.
It's hard to think of examples outside the flawed-quote-Utopia subgenre, I think, because usually when a government has accumulated enough power to fit (my idea of) the "dystopian society" label, it's either tried to achieve a Utopia in the past or makes that its current aim. (History provides far too many examples: the French Revolution, arguably the Pax Romana ...)
Jonathan wrote: "Kendra wrote: "Ender's game isn't dystopia. Dystopia denotes a bad government. Ender's Game is about a boy going to war against aliens, not gaining freedom from oppression."I haven't read Ender's Game (a decade and more ago, I resolved not to read it until I'd completed writing at least one novel of my own), but from what I've read about it, I would say that a society that would conscript a child into its war sounds very much like a dystopian society...."
I have read it (for my study of sci-fi last year) and for the most part, the only difference between it and our own society is that they have war against the Buggers (what they call a certain alien group) on their mind and not just humans (although Russia is making threats) and there's a battleschool orbiting above their heads (which is actually quite a nice place compared to some stuff I've read about Sparta). Ender never actually GOES to war, he and his friends just learn the art of war and have no idea that their "simulations" are actual ships and buggers towards the end until the war is over.
Whoa, spoilers! Some of us are meaning to read Ender's Game before the movie comes out, lol.
Aubrey wrote: "Whoa, spoilers! Some of us are meaning to read Ender's Game before the movie comes out, lol."Sorry! I have weird ideas concerning spoilers (I.e. I'll usually read the last chapter second), so I sometimes forget how their defined. The plot is actually MUCH more involved than that, however, and there are WAY more twists to it.
I've heard a lot of negative things about the guy who wrote Ender's Game so I haven't read it on principle. I usually go for a separation of books from authors but I've heard some of his writing has really harmful subtext and I just don't want to even go there.Would 'Riddley Walker' by Russell Hoban count as dystopian? It's post-apocalyptic in a world without technology but I guess that's not really enough to qualify it... My uncle recommended it so I was thinking of reading it soon.
Miriam wrote: "I've heard a lot of negative things about the guy who wrote Ender's Game so I haven't read it on principle. I usually go for a separation of books from authors but I've heard some of his writing has really harmful subtext and I just don't want to even go there."I've heard so many mixed reviews it's hard to know what to think... I haven't read it yet either.
I read the first few chapters. It was harsh, but brilliant. I'll get back to it later.
I'm usually not very sensitive to spoilers (it won't stop me from reading the book), but still! *winks*
I'm not familiar with that title myself, Miriam. Check what it's catalogued under on Amazon, library sites, etc., and use your best judgment. Post-apocalyptic is a separate genre, so if it feels more like "The Road" than "The Hunger Games," I wouldn't count it.
I'm usually not very sensitive to spoilers (it won't stop me from reading the book), but still! *winks*
I'm not familiar with that title myself, Miriam. Check what it's catalogued under on Amazon, library sites, etc., and use your best judgment. Post-apocalyptic is a separate genre, so if it feels more like "The Road" than "The Hunger Games," I wouldn't count it.
Miriam, (and everyone else) Ender's Game is /extremely/ disturbing, but it's not exactly objectionable. I haven't read anything else by the author just because he is a little too crude for my taste; but the most disturbing thing about Ender's Game is the actual subject material. It's not even so much thematic material it's just--the protagonist is /ten years old/ and you people think that Floyd got a raw deal. (Although, now that I think of it, I wonder if that's where I got the idea.) It is a brilliant book, and the writing is extremely good. The twist at the end is unexpected and then, suddenly, it gets weird. Which is probably the #1 reason I never read any of the sequels. They're probabaly weirder.
I don't honestly know if I recommend Ender's Game or not. I don't regret reading it, but neither will I read anything else by the author. It's one of the most disturbing books I've ever read, but it also really makes you think about moral greys and it is incredibly well written.
Is Ender's Game crude? And what exactly is disturbing about it?
I know with Ender's Game when the film came out a lot of people were calling for a boycott because of Orson Scott Card's anti-LGBTQ views, which he has been very vocal about in the past. (Including saying that any government which tried to 'change the definition of marriage' was his mortal enemy and he would try and overthrow it, which is a little melodramatic, and sounds like the start of a dystopia in itself.) I'm not a big one for boycotting things, but if something's potentially problematic in that way, I won't seek it out, either. Hmm, looks like Riddley Walker is under sci-fi on Amazon, so wouldn't count for the sprint. Never mind. I won't have time to be racing anyone anyway so I doubt one book would make much difference ;)
Leah wrote: "Is Ender's Game crude? And what exactly is disturbing about it?"A little bit, yes. And it's disturbing because it's about ten year old children fighting a war they don't even understand--and what they do to themselves, to each other, to actually win it. And the main character's older brother has a sub-plot and he's a total psychopath. Think of the antagonist from Toy Story with the intelligence of a politician. That's disturbing.
*makes notes of dystopian books to check out*
I picked up Uglies and Swipe at the library today. We'll see if I like either of them.
Ooh, I loved Uglies. Not as much as I like Scott Westerfeld's other series though (Leviathan - Behemoth - Goliath) because STEAMPUNK. But that's not dystopian so it's irrelevant here. (I forgot that I own Uglies; I've been meaning to reread it for ages. I might do that.)So my dystopian sprint contributions are going to all be rereads at this rate - the Hunger Games trilogy, Lois Lowry's books, Uglies ... oh well, I've been looking for excuses to refresh my memory of all of those, I haven't read them in the last two years, so...
If I'm not mistaken, the Giver is being made into a movie and Mockingjay is coming out ... If you need another excuse. I started reading the Hunger Games last night and had to force myself to quit at 2:00am since I had to get up at 5:30 today... Oops. :)
I finished Hunger Games already. It only took me a couple of hours the first time I read it a couple of years back, and it was a similar experience this time. Though it depressed me rather, all that death and hopelessness, and I felt pretty bad for the rest of the day. Not that I was having a great day anyway. I'd forgotten all the little details of the book, so it was nice to go over them!
I finished it last night ... Now I'm really interested to see how they adapted the novel in the Hunger Games movies --especially the last thing in the Area. OMGoodness! I didn't think the novel wasn't super graphic or lingering on detail in those types of scenes in general (just enough so we can picture what's going on) but to depict those scenes on screen ... I don't think I'm going to turn into a huge fan of the genre, but I've enjoyed the novels I've read much more than I thought I would. Reading the Hunger Games and comparing it to Captives (Jill Williamson's Inspy dystopian) ... granted there storyline differences, but I really missed the Christian POV that Captives had.
Instead of Divergent, I'm going to be reading "Matched" after I finish the Hunger Games trilogy ... one of my friends suggested it to me.
@Zekkaina: I didn't think the HG books were too graphic either. Perhaps the people who think the violence is so devastating just have more vivid imaginations...And, yes, Jill's books compared to Hunger Games...I know Hunger Games are the best sellers and all, but Jill's totally got an edge on them. In writing style as well as content.
Ooh. Y'all make me want to read Captives first. (I'm pretty sure I have it on my Kindle...) I love THG movies, but I've yet to finish the books.
Yeah, the book itself is fine, but I could see the violence becoming going really gory onscreen (as it could be if it happened in real life), but I don't think that's the case ... According to my friends, at least. :)I totally agree with you about Jill Williamson! I love her characters especially ... Their voices are so authentic to me.
Aubrey wrote: "Ooh. Y'all make me want to read Captives first. (I'm pretty sure I have it on my Kindle...) I love THG movies, but I've yet to finish the books."
Do it! The second book just released last month. I was really impressed with the writing and how she's touching on so many topics relevant to teens today. BUT I have a feeling it'll be a cliffhanger, so maybe doing the Hunger Games first is better ... :P
Ha, yeah...Outcasts is totally a cliffhanging. But sooo true about the characters. She's probably my favorite author out there for character development and voice.Just finished Steelheart an I'm pretty sure it counts for dystopian. It was REALLY good too.
The Hunger Games movies were really well done, I thought. I've only seen the first one, but it's already better than the book, and I hear that Catching Fire is absolutely amazing. The violence was done tastefully. It's still very intense--but it's not gratuitous blood and gore or anything. I could write an entire essay on all the things they did right in that film.
Preach it, Katie! That movie is a brilliant piece of dystopian art. (Catching Fire was a little messier in the story department, being there were more threads and more complicated motives, but nothing ruinous.)
I just watched the first movie and what a difference it makes when an author is involved with the screenplay! (*cough*PercyJackson*cough*) I think the whole casting was well done too. Now I know why everyone's been raving about Jennifer Lawrence! She made me love Katniss ... I also thought Josh Hutchinson was perfect for Peeta --LOLs, I don't remember seeing him in anything since he was a kid (e.g. Bridge to Terebithia) and wow, he sure grew up. :P Oh, and Haymitch was perfect too. :)
Too bad I read The Giver quartet last month. Can someone give a list of clean dystopian? I really like dystopian, and want to read more, but I'm afraid of running into inappropriate content.
Morgan wrote: "Too bad I read The Giver quartet last month. Can someone give a list of clean dystopian? I really like dystopian, and want to read more, but I'm afraid of running into inappropriate content."The Shadow Children series is clean. Captives and it's sequel have some more mature content, but it's written from a Christian perspective and always portrays thing properly.
@Faith --I totally agree with that! Firstborn sounds interesting. I'm glad to see more Christian dystopian.I second the Captives series by Jill Williamson. I just found out I won book 2! It probably won't come in time for the sprint, but I can't wait to read it. :)
If Amanda Davis writes like her father, her novels should be clean (it's in that big list above).
Do you recommend the Giver series? I'm thinking of giving (haha) it a shot because of the upcoming film ...
For dystopian,other than Jill's series, I've only read the Hunger Games trilogy which I found pretty clean, minus the violence and allusions that some characters were forced into prostitution, but it's not described. I'm guessing Christian dystopian would be clean ... Check out the list above for more titles. :)
I definitely recommend The Giver. I liked the other three quite a bit, but, while I do like knowing what happens next, it kind of spoils the effect of the ending. I am unsure whether I want to see the movie or not. It isn't exactly something that can be effectively translated into a visual medium.I read the Hunger Games trilogy last year, after seeing the first movie after it came out on Netflix, and I did really like it. It was pretty much on the edge of what I'm comfortable with. I would have preferred for the stuff about what Finnick was forced to do to be omitted entirely, but I was glad it didn't go into detail.
The Shadow Children books sound really interesting, and our library actually has them.
The whole Finnick thing must not be in the movie... I heard rumors and was wary of the character going into the movie, but he turned out to be nothing outrageous (just a really slippery personality).
Outread Aubrey! Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Swipe (other topics)The World of the Hunger Games (other topics)
Among the Betrayed (other topics)
Among the Hidden (other topics)
Among the Barons (other topics)
More...
February's Sprint will focus on the DYSTOPIAN genre. Anything that can be classified as dystopian counts, from The Hunger Games to Fahrenheit 451. There is no restriction on length, but graphic novels/manga do not count. Tie-in books for dystopian movies will count for this one, however.
To be eligible, you must finish reading the book sometime between February 1st and midnight local time February 28th. By midnight local time on March 1st you need to post a complete list of all qualifying books on this thread to be entered. Prize goes to the person with the longest list! (There is no requirement to outread me for this challenge.)