Future Survivors, the Apocalypse Group discussion
Dystopian Books
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Best dystopian book you've read?
This is so hard to pick! >_< Well, to narrow it down to a few I would pick The Hunger Games (whole series), Delirium/Pandemonium, Eve, The Selection, Wither, Awaken and Across the Universe/A Million Suns.
Lauren ~Dobby Is a Free Elf~ wrote: "This is so hard to pick! >_< Well, to narrow it down to a few I would pick The Hunger Games (whole series), Delirium/Pandemonium, Eve, The Selection, Wither, Awaken, Uglies (whole series) and Acros..."Lol hard to narrow it down even further from that list!
For me, Atwood's The Handmaid's Tales and McCarthy's The Road stand out as new classics in the genre. But I have tons of favorites.The Handmaid's Tale
The Road
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I thoroughly enjoyed Legend ~By Marie Lu
as well as trilogys: Divergent, Delirium, Maze Runner, Birthmarked & Hunger Games.
And another Favorite The Declaration ~By Gemma Malley
The Walking Dead series of Graphic Novels by Robert Kirkman.
Basically, all the books on my Dystopian shelf are my favorites. It seems like all the ones I pick out and read become my favorite.
I really enjoyed Divergent & Insurgent. Looking forward to the next book!
I like the hunger games and all but it is not my favorite. I love Divergent it is my absoulte favorite in this genre. EPPP!!! I'm on the secondbook Insurgent. Can't wait for the third. I love Tobias and Tris <3.
George Orwell's classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four still rules for me.
Orwell unmasked our language as controlling our political thought with Newspeak. When the "War Department" was renamed the "Department of Defense", that was Newspeak. Oceania called it the "Ministry of Peace". (No doubt he would have laughed when the US named the MX missile "The Peacekeeper".) Call it an inheritance tax or a death tax, you set your opinion and echo Orwell's insight.
Orwell foresaw the surveillance society, where cameras watched us in every store, parking lot, and intersection, even though the technology for doing so was fifty years ahead of his time. Imagine televisions that looked back half a century before Kinnect. (He didn't anticipate our phones constantly reporting our location, though.)
The novel anticipates the state of continuous but shifting war to keep the proles in line. His doublethink lets us accept contradictory ideas without apparent notice.
The very term Orwellian has become synonymous with these concepts, and his Big Brother synonymous with oppressive government.
For me, the most significant moment deals with Big Brother's exploitation of opposition radicalization to discredit any dissent. (view spoiler)
1984 is dystopian without being post-apocalyptic. It didn't need some grand cataclysm that created its state of affairs. It just imagines a slow and steady evolution towards control, a path we still seem to be walking. I find this remarkably prescient book as relevant and significant today as in 1948.
Orwell unmasked our language as controlling our political thought with Newspeak. When the "War Department" was renamed the "Department of Defense", that was Newspeak. Oceania called it the "Ministry of Peace". (No doubt he would have laughed when the US named the MX missile "The Peacekeeper".) Call it an inheritance tax or a death tax, you set your opinion and echo Orwell's insight.
Orwell foresaw the surveillance society, where cameras watched us in every store, parking lot, and intersection, even though the technology for doing so was fifty years ahead of his time. Imagine televisions that looked back half a century before Kinnect. (He didn't anticipate our phones constantly reporting our location, though.)
The novel anticipates the state of continuous but shifting war to keep the proles in line. His doublethink lets us accept contradictory ideas without apparent notice.
The very term Orwellian has become synonymous with these concepts, and his Big Brother synonymous with oppressive government.
For me, the most significant moment deals with Big Brother's exploitation of opposition radicalization to discredit any dissent. (view spoiler)
1984 is dystopian without being post-apocalyptic. It didn't need some grand cataclysm that created its state of affairs. It just imagines a slow and steady evolution towards control, a path we still seem to be walking. I find this remarkably prescient book as relevant and significant today as in 1948.
My fav has to be Birthmarked by caragh O'Brien, awesome story, and a really good author at expressing all emotions through out the book!! However everything mentioned here are all GREAT BOOKS!!
1984brave new world
handmaids tale
lord of the flies
clockwork orange
also enjoyed margeret atwoods oryx and crake and after the flood
Brendon wrote: "I certainly agree with the top of your list. I already wrote an overlong opinion on my favorite, Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, above.
1984
brave new world
handmaids tale
lord of the flies
clockwork orange
Huxley's Brave New World is a close second, another dystopia without an apocalypse genesis. It frames a society of the contented, people genetically bred and trained from birth for their lot in life, the consumerist society of pleasures (sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll = bread and circuses.) Contrasting that with a parallel society of outcasts, a more primitive culture, savage but "free", has been reused in many subsequent dystopian stories (Logan's Run, Judge Dredd, and Uglies come to mind.)
I have been meaning to read The Handmaid's Tale for some time. (Since I saw the movie, to be honest.) I will get to it, someday. Really.
Thought I'd mention a few other of my favorite dystopian books:
Ray Bradberry's Fahrenheit 451 describes a world where books are banned. Bradbury sees the lack of reading as spawning a stagnant society of superficial knowledge and thought. (If he didn't think much of television in the 1950s, I wonder what he'd think of it today? I bet he'd add Facebook and Twitter to his list.)
Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic world where the modern world was destroyed long ago by nuclear war. Written at the height of the Cold War, the fact that civilization's destruction was by war isn't terribly important to the plot, which describes a group of monks religiously maintaining every possible scrap of the accumulated knowledge of mankind against the day civilization can be reborn.
Stewart's Earth Abides is as much apocalyptic as post-apocalyptic, one of the first novels where civilization falls to disease. And then, the survivors try to put the pieces back together again.
More recent book, Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, describes a biological dystopia. Set in Thailand, where the rising seas of global warming threaten the low-lying coastal cities, the nation resists Western bio-technology: specifically genetically engineered crops that allow Western genetech companies to assert intellectual property rights to the food supply (think Monsanto). They hang on the edge of crop die off as evolving insects, molds and fungi attack crops, forcing a race to constantly develop new crop varieties that resist each new threat. Bacigalupi's prose is rather plain, but the book bristles with unique ideas.
Divergent, Hunger Games... and my new favourite... THE DECLARATION TRILOGY! :D
Uglies/Pretties/Specials was one of my favorites series. Hunger Games too,of course.
I definitely like the Hunger Games Trilogy, Walking Dead, and Eden. All so different yet very entertaining. I want to read more books. I can't get enough. I know there are better books out there somewhere! I'm going to run by the list of books everyone posted. I've read Divergent, but I was a bit disappointed. :(
For Goodreads reviewer and prolific reader Katy Sozaeva the best BOOK she's ever read is my dystopia "Rabbletown: Life in These United Christian States of Holy America." Here's Youtube video of her saying so: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn9xWF...
The Chrysalids probably my favourite read. Beautiful portrayal of how the world could collapse which is very believable and also of how it will affect the behaviour of people
Divergent is hands down the best dystopian book I've ever read! Really, really love that book! I also liked Partials and THG! Can't wait for more dystopian books to be released next year! It's my favourite genre so I'll be looking forward to some more interesting reads.
Tiffany wrote: "Divergent is hands down the best dystopian book I've ever read! Really, really love that book! I also liked Partials and THG! Can't wait for more dystopian books to be released next year! It's my..."
Yesm Divergent is AWESOME, can't wait for the third book :) And THG of course is amazing. Have you read Unwind or Blood Red Road? Those are two others that I adored :)
Raquel wrote: "I'd say The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood (yes, I'm a Margaret Atwood's fan) and 1984."I am a huge Atwood fan, too. Haven't read The Year of the Flood yet, but it is in my pile. Also loved The Road, On the Beach, Earth Abides and The Stand.
Almost very book in this discussion is YA category. Hopefully, these will fall under the dystopian umbrella -
Skinjacker Trilogy: Everlost; Everwild; Everfound which is also YA and
God's War which is not YA and my favorite of the last few years.
I really enjoy the divergent series, but I will forever love the first ones I read, which was the Uglies series.
Has anyone read this series?
it's amazing and has become one of my favorite dystopian series!!
I really love the classics because they got me hooked on dystopian books. Brave New World, Farenheit 451, A Handkaid's Tale, and Lord of the Flies. Out of the "new" dystopian books I love The Hunger Games and now Divergent. It seems a lot focus too much on romance so a great dystopian is a gem in my eyes!
And David those books are going on my list! Heard good things :)
Of course I love The Hunger Games but I also though Divergent was very well done. Oh The Knife of Never Letting Go!!! I really want to read that! Has anyone read Legend? I've heard incredible things about that one, and The Maze Runner.
Nicki wrote: "And David those books are going on my list! Heard good things :)"I'm just finishing the third one :) Oh and there's a prequel novella for free on Amazon Kindle!
Turtle wrote: "Of course I love The Hunger Games but I also though Divergent was very well done. Oh The Knife of Never Letting Go!!! I really want to read that! Has anyone read Legend? I've heard incredible thing..."I really liked Legend, sequels out this month! Maze Runners pretty decent too :)
The Maze Runner series was pretty good albeit definitely YA.The prequel to the series, The Kill Order, was absolutely terrible though. I described it as a book for a 14 year old written by a 12 year old.
Annie wrote: "David wrote: "Has anyone read this series? it's amazing and has become..."Lol! Awesome!!
I recently finished Eden
and it was terrific! It does leave you with more questions than answers but its the first book in a series, so....
Loved Enclave. So original in the setting/location.
Oh never heard of The Immortal Rules or Declaration series. Something for my ToRead!
I really enjoyed One Second After. The book I always return to, though, is Brave New World.
I've read The Road too and I loved it. I think it's the most realistic dystopia story I've read but you definitely need a strong stomach on some of the scenes.
The Road but that's an obvious choice, also loved The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist
Love <3
Divergent
Delirium
Legend
Uglies
Divergent
Delirium
Legend
Uglies
The best books for me were The Planet of Apes by Pierre Boulle, The City by Clifford Saimak, The Chrysalids (which knocked me down completely) and Fahrenheit 451. From recent books, I enjoyed The Wool series by Hugh Howey a lot.
Fahrenheit 451 is by far my favorite dystopian book.
1984 still tops the list. No one has come close to creating the type of paranoia I felt when reading it. I just finished The Biomass Revolution though and it's got a good premise and is well written for an indie author. 1984 The Biomass Revolution
Well, I haven't read a lot of books to start with. But I will say that Angelfall is by far the best dystopian novel I have ever read. It's safe to say that it is better than The Hunger Games, and I mean it. Most people will say that THG is the best out there. But I beg to differ. I loved THG all right. I really, really do. But let's just admit that there are other books that are better than that. And like what I've said, Angelfall is. It is a mix between fantasy & dystopia/post-apocalyptic. Seems weird, huh? Two very distinct genre in one. The thing is, the author managed to blend them perfectly. The chemistry of the two main lead in this book is epic. And has so many feel to it than any other book I've come across. The action was gripping and intense. The banter was funny. The writing was fluid.So I suggest you try this one :)
another Angelfall fan here. And i would say Legend and Divergent are great too!
Joanna wrote: "another Angelfall fan here. And i would say Legend and Divergent are great too!"Well, I haven't tried them yet. But I will! Been hearing good things about those books :)
@Kirstin you should :) I'm going to try Unwind series too I heard it's also fantadtic hehe
Joanna wrote: "@Kirstin you should :) I'm going to try Unwind series too I heard it's also fantadtic hehe"
Oh, that's on my list too. Right now I have to finish City of Bones so that I can start with the more interesting books. Hehe :3 Happy reading.
I love divergent (and insurgent) also- partials and legend are awesome too!
Future Survivors, the Apocalypse Group
Books mentioned in this topic
The Time Machine (other topics)The Giver (other topics)
1984 (other topics)
The Stand (other topics)
Breeder (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Madeline Ashby (other topics)Ilsa J. Bick (other topics)
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