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Which Book To Read Next? (Theme: Dystopia)

#44
For a newer book, I recently read Laila Lalami's The Dream Hotel. It's set in a near future where all someone's online/social media activity, travels and actions seen through cameras, and even dreams for those who have an implant to be able to function with less sleep, are used to create a risk score of committing a crime. If someone is above a certain score, they're detained detained. And all this is contracted and run by for-profit companies whose interest is to keep people detained and grow profits.

But for a dystopia that actually happened, one of the most impactful books I've read in recent years is Han Kang's Human Acts. It opens during the 1980 Gwangju Massacre in South Korea. Warning, though, much of this book is absolutely emotionally devastating.
 
#46
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick

This 1968 novel was the inspiration for the movie Blade Runner. The movie differs in substantial ways from the book. The movie is much more focused on the setting and mood, while the novel is far for deeply philosophical and delves into the motivations of the individual characters.

I consider both the movie and the novel to be masterpieces, but in their own very different ways.

Another poster mentioned A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (1959).

This is an absolute must read - one of the great classics in social science fiction. It won the 1961 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel.
 
#47
I hesitate to mention this novel, even though it fits perfectly with the theme of this thread, because many people, myself included, have some serious concerns about the moral character of the author. I won't go into detail, but you can look it up.

The novel is Battle Circle by Piers Anthony. It's about a brutal future after a global nuclear war, where much of humanity lives by tribal warfare, although there are small pockets of pre apocalypse civilization remaining.

The novel is actually pretty horrific and depressing from beginning to end.

In fact, don't read it.
 
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#48
Against Will said:
I haven’t read Anthem, Player’s Piano or Logan’s Run. But the rest are all classics.
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Hopefully in the intervening 20 years, the OP has got round to reading Logan's Run, but if not, I definitely recommend the first two books (the third has a few captivating moments, but is often just silly, and a disappointing example of jumping the shark).

One of the things I really loved about the book Logan's Run, is that it gave me an even greater appreciation of the movie - I always loved how unique the world of the movie was, and how the technology, and culture seemed completely alien, yet vaguely familiar (as the plot develops it quickly becomes clear that the computer running the society is operating on the basis of incomplete, and unreliable data - understandable as a culture developing in a shelter, having survived several centuries of nuclear winter), such as "Carousel" being a rationalisation of the Christian Rapture, and the Buddhist Wheel Of Life, or how much of the weaponry is either unique, or subliminally representative of "Pre-catastrophe" weapons, and it took this already interesting world, and then to legitimise Logan's cover story, completely screws him over in a way that Hitchcock couldn't have dared in North by North West.

Where the Logan of the movie is robbed of 4 years of life (30 in the movie, which was presumably commentary on particularly the entertainment industry, but also societal values at the time), and forced into living as a fugitive; the Logan of the book is on his "Last Day" and comes up with the plan to run, as a means to infiltrate the network helping those find "Sanctuary" , which he plans to destroy, and kill everyone there.

What's impressive is the way the movie distilled so many concepts of the book, into this entirely different thing, that whilst frustratingly dated now, is still visually striking, and iconic. Indeed, some of the ideas are taken much further in the movie, in a very logical way, such as the Life Clock being analogous to smartphones of today, carrying the record of our entire identity, as well as facilitating financial transactions (in the book, the Life Clock simply indicates which 3rd of your life you're in, and transactions are still made using money, which means you need a job).

The book is completely different.

There never was a "Catastrophe" .

Catastrophe (overpopulation, and insufficient food resources) was averted, by the youth themselves opting to self-euthanize on their 21st birthday.

The world in the book is very much like the world of today, albeit 300 years into the future.

There isn't a class system, where "Sandmen" are born into a life of privilege.

Everyone is born in an automated, heavily fortified creche, where they are raised, and educated by machines, until they are 7 years old.

On their 7th birthday, they are sent out into the world, to spend the next 7 years doing whatever they want (mainly travelling the globe, gaining life experience, educating themselves, and figuring out what they want to dedicate the rest of their lives to.

On their 14th birthday, they have to get a job, and become a contributing member of society, until their 21st birthday - their Last Day.

Most of the jobs we have today, are still how they occupy themselves (obviously there aren't human midwives anymore), but there is the need for a new type of job : the Deep Sleep Agent, or "Sandman".

Their job is to track, and kill anyone who fails to get themselves euthanized by the end of their 21st birthday.

And when I say kill them, that rather simplifies the fact that as much as anything, their purpose is to make a very public spectacle of a fate far worse than death in a euthanasia shop, to discourage anyone else who might be thinking of running, in search of "Sanctuary" .

To that end, the Sandman is armed with a weapon intended to subliminally tap into a collective memory of the old sheriffs six-shooter: though with each of the 6 rounds having a different function, such as a gas grenade, or an explosive round - the most feared being the "Homer" which will home in on an individual, chasing them through a crowd, and then...

Well, I'm not going to spoil it for you, but as you read the book, you'll come to dread reading each even more graphic, yet unsettling and disturbingly vague description of exactly what the "Homer" does to the victim.

Where the movie is a 70's Conspiracy Thriller, the book is Eco Horror, and a worrying number of themes, and ideas it brings up seem to either be evergreen concerns, or troublingly relevant today.

Well worth reading.
 
#49
Mustang Surly said:
Any or all of these 3 by John Wyndham:

•"Day of the Triffids"

•The Kraken Wakes"

•The Midwich Cuckoos"
Click to expand...


My Grandmother was a huge fan of Wyndham's work.

Triffids, and Cuckoos are bona fide classics, but man, Kraken is a bleak read - part Eco Horror, part Alien Invasion.

The format, and some of the language may seem a bit quant, and dated now, but it's a wonderfully doom laden journey - the sequence where they experience first hand an attack on a seaside town, is disturbingly matter of fact, and completely mystifying in its execution.


Obviously a pretty big influence on The Abyss, and from the look of the trailer, and inspiration for that BBC show The War Between The Land and The Sea.
 
#50
Wood and Wire said:
My Grandmother was a huge fan of Wyndham's work.

Triffids, and Cuckoos are bona fide classics, but man, Kraken is a bleak read - part Eco Horror, part Alien Invasion.

The format, and some of the language may seem a bit quant, and dated now, but it's a wonderfully doom laden journey - the sequence where they experience first hand an attack on a seaside town, is disturbingly matter of fact, and completely mystifying in its execution.


Obviously a pretty big influence on The Abyss, and from the look of the trailer, and inspiration for that BBC show The War Between The Land and The Sea.
Click to expand...

"Day of the Triffids" was made into a cheesy sci-fi flick in the USA. The Brits did better with "The Midwich Cuckoos", which was renamed "The Village of the Damned" and starred George Sanders.

Yeah, "Kraken" was pretty darned creepy.
 
#53
Mustang Surly said:
"Day of the Triffids" was made into a cheesy sci-fi flick in the USA.
Click to expand...


I remember a pretty awful British movie adaptation, from the early 60's starring Howard Keel.

My version - the version I saw as a kid, and made a huge impact on my generation - was the 1981 BBC TV adaptation (I think it was 3 hour long episodes).

I also remember a pretty terrible TV version about 15 years ago : it had potential, but ended up being laughably unwatchable, riddled with dumb ideas, and dumb characters (Jason Priestley running around London dressed like Biggles, in some weird, misguided, and completely anachronistic WWII "America to the rescue" iconography).

I don't remember an American movie adaptation, but I'd be interested to see it.
 
#54
The Parable of the Sower is tough to read these days, but it's excellent. This Perfect Day is an interesting twist - post the apocalypse that never happened. Handmaid's Tale is excellent as well.
 
#55
The Camp of the Saints
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#60
Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Follows a group of British schoolboys stranded on an uninhabited island during a nuclear war. Initially, they attempt to establish a civilised society, but without adult supervision, they descend into primal savagery, fear, and violence, leading to the brutal deaths of several children and the destruction of order.
 

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