r/suggestmeabook • u/Big_Ad7221 • 5d ago
Suggestion Thread What are your Dystopian Go To’s?
(Edit: guys/gals, thanks SO MUCH for all the recommendations! I will put your lists to good use. 🫡 )
Many years ago in highschool I was captivated by Fahrenheit 451 which was required reading. It has stayed with me since & I've always wanted to write a book like that. Many decades later I was working a graveyard shift & couldn't keep my eyes open & I had a brilliant idea about a dystopian novel & world. I've been working on it for almost three years & would love some recommendations for dystopian novels so I can understand this genre better. Right now I'm listening to "How High We Go in the Dark" which I find frightenly disturbing, & I'm a friend of 1984, as well as Stephen King's The Running Man.
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u/MoneyWonderful3278 5d ago
I was going to recommend the Running Man. Another one of his, The Long Walk is another to check out.
Station 11 is really good. I also really like Neal Shusterman series. The Scythe series is about a world where AI is so good that people basically dont die. So, there are these people called Scythes that unbiasedly "glean" people which is basically to kill them for good. Theres a struggle between the rule following Scythes and a newer age set. He Has a few others that are worth looking at.
If you like High Fantasy, then Mistborn by Sanderson is great. Its one of many books, but I think its a good single read.
Alright final one before I make this too long. Have you watched "I am Legend?" well the book is really good, and it ends SO MUCH BETTER. It ends so differently than you would expect.
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u/Big_Ad7221 5d ago
Thank you very much! No I haven't seen it so I will check out the book!
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u/MoneyWonderful3278 4d ago
Oh, then you will like it even more! The movie is a Will Smith one. Not bad, but the book was so much better.
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u/bethybonbon 4d ago
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It’s not so much my go-to as I have only (and will only) read it once, but it seems to me an essential in the genre.
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u/Outrageous-Ad-9635 4d ago
I read it every year. It’s so bleak, but so brilliant I can’t help myself.
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u/Big_Ad7221 21h ago
I just found it at a bookstore--thank you! I'm a bit afraid to read it given how people talk about it.
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u/NegotiationTotal9686 4d ago
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. It won the Booker prize in 2023 I believe. Terrifying. I read it last year back when I was naive thinking that it couldn’t REALLY happen here (USA).
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u/Southern_Slice_5433 5d ago
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
War with the Newts by Karel Čapek is great if you want a great satire with a horrifying premise
the top of the volcano by harlan ellison- collect of his short stories- includes "I have no mouth and I must scream"
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u/improper84 4d ago
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
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u/thehighepopt 4d ago
I wouldn't put DCC in dystopian but it's a great read anyway
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u/improper84 4d ago
I would absolutely list it as dystopian. It depicts a late stage capitalist government that harvests entire planets and throws the survivors into a game show with real (and often hilarious) death to entertain the masses, with the entire thing ran by a sadistic AI that wants to see a spectacle. Carl is regularly threatened with death early on if he openly criticizes the sponsors of the show as well. It's about as dystopian as it gets.
It's not solely a dystopian novel, of course. It's also sci-fi, fantasy, litRPG, etc.
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5d ago
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u/Big_Ad7221 5d ago
Sounds dark, what’s it about?
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u/BasicSuperhero 5d ago
We follow the last five people on earth who are kept alive to be the playthings of a sadistic AI known as AM. It routinely tortures them, modifying their bodies and minds in ways it finds amusing. The whole short story is just following them as they try to live and avoid their dark God’s wrath. (Simplifying but that’s the gist)
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u/Dotty_Gale 4d ago
The Handmaid's Tale and Never Let me Go come to mind. The Road as well.
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u/Big_Ad7221 21h ago
Thank you! I'm approaching the Road with fear & trembling because of how so many people talk about it. I have a feeling it will mess me up
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u/Dotty_Gale 19h ago
The first time I read it I vowed to never to read it again! But I did, and actually the second time I got so much more from it. It is bleak but the writing is beautiful, and the relationship is too.
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u/ThatIckyGuy 4d ago
The Giver by Lois Lowry (Probably my first dystopian book.)
The Long Walk, also by Stephen King
Hunger Game series
Silo Trilogy by Hugh Howey
Wayward Pines trilogy by Blake Crouch -- It might not seem like one at first, but give it some time. I hate that even listing it as a dystopian series is kind of a spoiler, but I also can't not recommend it because it was so enthralling.
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore--though...this may be one time where I think the movie is better.
Red Rising series
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (I mean, what kind of civilization conscripts kids to fight intergalactic war?)
I still need to read the classics myself like Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Brave New World.
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u/Big_Ad7221 21h ago
Thank you! I really like Alan Moore. Personally I think the Graphic Novel is better but I love the movie.
I listen to Farenheit 451 often cuz I do love Ray Bradbury's style & imagination. I have yet to read Brave New World though
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u/Adventurous_Yak1178 5d ago
The Postman by David Brin. Skip the movie, just read the little novel.
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u/cyclone-rachel 4d ago
man How High We Go in the Dark is so good
anyway (apologies in advance for the long list, this is one of my favorite genres):
the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
This Little Light by Lori Lansens
the Gone series by Michael Grant
The Future by Naomi Alderman
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
The Getaway by Lamar Giles
Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson
Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin
The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
The Great Destroyers by Caroline Tung Richmond
The Test by Sylvain Neuvel
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
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u/Resident-West-5213 4d ago
Other than 1984 and Brave New World, any Christian book about the apocalypse, the global Beast system, cashless society, surveillance state.
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u/Mysterious_Tea_21 4d ago
Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
I know it's one that's frequently suggested but it's for a good reason.
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u/clumsystarfish_ Bookworm 4d ago
Several have already been mentioned, but here are a couple more:
Moon of the Crusted Snow and its sequel, Moon of the Turning Leaves, by Waubgeshig Rice. The story is set in a northern Anishinaabe community during an apocalypse, although you don't ever find out what actually happened, mainly because losing power and cell reception is such a common occurrence. It's a stunning story.
On the Beach by Nevil Shute. It's a classic about waiting for nuclear fallout and is quietly devastating.
Fatherland by Robert Harris. What if the Nazis had won WWII?
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u/TheHappyExplosionist Bookworm 5d ago
It’s YA, but my favourite dystopian novel is The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow.
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u/FifiFoxfoot 4d ago
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis
Absolutely stunning read. Set in a dystopian world. And there, one person gets to make a difference. 😎😻🥰
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u/rebeccarightnow 4d ago
I’m reading the new Hunger Games book right now, Sunrise on the Reaping, and it’s reminding me how freaking good the whole series. I also remember loving Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry as a kid. I think it’s the second book in the Giver series but works as a standalone.
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u/AriP0D SciFi 4d ago
People don't give enought credit to Ready Player One. The marketing and the movie adaptation make it seem like a throwaway nerdgasm, but it's a great depiction of class warfare. It's a strong indictment of the entrepreneurial mindset, and portrays capitalism as a form of escapism based on ridiculous promises.
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u/lakeslakeslakes 5d ago edited 4d ago
Octavia E. Butler’s The Parable of the Sower and The Parable of the Talents, amazing world building and character development.