this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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I'm nearly finished rereading 1984 and my appetite for dystopian books is whetted. What are some other great ones I should check out?

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[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 year ago (6 children)
  1. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It's a must read if you're into dystopia. Unlike Orwell, Huxley doesn't focus on politics of his time. Specially good to read alongside Island, an utopia of the same author, dealing with similar topics (society, drugs, the human condition).
  2. Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. It has some satirical vibes, but it is not a good book to read if you're feeling down (content warning: sexual violence). It focuses on a teen gang leader in the near future, and talks about themes like the impact of free will on morality.
  3. William Golding' Lord of the Flies. Technically not a dystopia, but it "scratches" the same itch. It's about a bunch of kids dumped in an island, without adult supervision, and the resulting nasty proto-society that they build from it.
  4. Yevgeny Zamyatin's We. It's perhaps one of the grandparents of the genre; it talks about individuality on a society controlled by a state that managed to conquer the whole globe.

There's also Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I don't recommend it - the book is basically a "if Orwell was right-wing, soapboxing instead of trying to explain what's going on, and with poor writing skills". Seriously.

[–] minorsecond@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah if never been interested in Atlas Shrugged, after learning it’s very conservative leaning.

Great suggestions!

[–] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago

Yeah, the whole book boils down to "the hand of the market will solve errything!". Except that Rand doesn't know that the hand of the market has Parkinson's.

[–] Haus@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

I read Brave New World &1984 back-to-back and highly recommend it.

[–] HipPriest@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

We is so obviously an influence on 1984 I'm surprised it isn't better known!

[–] dom@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

I dont know why I could never get through brave new world. I tried reading it once when I was in my early 20s and tried the audio book this year and couldn't do it.

[–] FoundTheVegan@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Brave New World and Clockwork Orange are two of my favorite books period. Great suggestions!

[–] tram1@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago

I read We before I read 1984 when I was young and I thought it was amazing. I would add that it's also kind of sci-fi.