Everyone loves a dystopia, so today we’re giving you eight great dystopian novels to keep you entertained. So prepare for a world where things aren’t that great.
A Clockwork Orange, published in 1962, features the disaffected teenager Alex. This young gentleman causes quite a wake of destruction in his dystopian world.
Atlas Shrugged is a 1957 novel depicting a world where the best and brightest abandon America in response to aggressive regulations are put into place. This all results in a strike by business leaders against the government.
Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? follows the bounty hunter Rick Deckard as he is charged with putting down rogue androids. The main theme ponders what separates humans from robots, in the film technology has advanced to the point where the line has become very grey.
Fahrenheit 451, by acclaimed author Ray Bradbury, is set in a world where the written word is banned. In this world humanity is kept from feeling depression, to do this they limit access to material that makes people feel, kind of like Welcome to the Monkey House but without all that monkey masturbation.
The world in Max Barry’s Jennifer Government has been taken over by corporations, to the point where your surname reflects which corporation owns you. This is a liberal response to Ayn Rand’s works. In a world where the corporations are more important than people no one wins.
Franz Kafka’s The Trial centers around Josef K., who is arrested and then appears before a court, all the while not knowing why he is in trouble. In this world you are assumed guilty, kind of like the current media.
Don DeLillo’s Underworld spans decades, from the 50’s to the 90’s. It features several intertwining storylines, telling the tale of a baseball game in 1951 and the Cuban missile crisis. For a book that you have to read to understand it’s actually quite good.
By now everyone’s heard of V for Vendetta, since it was made into a film it’s hard to avoid. This story tells the tale of a disfigured man as he attempts to finish what Guy Fawkes began. Definitely worth a read if you like good things.
