Can anyone help me remember the title of a dystopian book I read in the mid-90s?

[JulieAnderton]

I read it in the mid-90's, but could possibly have been written earlier than that.

Set in the near future, there is a been a global heatwave, followed by a global ice-age (or maybe the other way around). A man and his son need to keep travelling to find food and shelter.

I'm sure mechanical/robotic birds that start reproducing on their own also feature, but I might be getting my books mixed up.

[Portofino]

The Road?

[AugustMoon]

I don't know the title of your book but it sounds really good so watching this thread!
If you like that sort of thing have you read:
Blind Faith - Ben Elton
Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep? Aldous Huxley (sounds like you may have done! Or seen bladerunner)
Sorry i can't be of more help

[AugustMoon]

Doh, just realised "Do Androids...." is not written by Aldous Huxley (that was Brave New World) - Phillip K Dick

[CoteDAzur]

Brave New World is very good, too.

[PlotTwist]

Is it The Ice People? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ice_People

[monal]

Doves? I can't remember the name of the bloody book either but I've read it too! How helpful.

[Franup]

Something by J G Ballard as sure I've read it and now trying to recall the book's name!

[monal]

I'm thinking of this

[monal]

xposts with PlotTwist!

[CoteDAzur]

The Drowned World - J G Ballard ?

[CoteDAzur]

Drowned World had the heat wave but man & son travelling sounds more like The Road.

[Franup]

That's the one CoteDAzur. Hate sci fci but loved that! More dystopia I suppose

[JulieAnderton]

Not The Road, although the man and son travelling is a similar theme.

I went through a long phase of reading dystopian/utopian novels when I was doing my A-levels in the mid-90s. Love Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World (although was rather disappointed with them both when I read them more recently), The Handmaid's Tale.

I really enjoyed Blind Faith. Ben Elton has obviously been very influenced by the aforementioned novels, but I thought it wasn't completely derivative.

Must read Do Androids Dream. It's on my shelf waiting! My husband has read it and says it is very different to Bladerunner?

I remember also reading books by Marge Piercy and Doris Lessing around the time of my mystery dystopian book, but think they went a bit over my head.

[JulieAnderton]

Sorry - lots of x-posts!

Yes - it is The Ice People. Thank you PlotTwists and Monal

It sounds as though my reproducing mechanical birds must be another novel. Any ideas??

[CoteDAzur]

Franup - I think you would really enjoy Vermillion Sands by J G Ballard. It is a collection of loosely connected short stories, all taking place in the same time & place - slightly in the future and a future that might be called dystopian, and more "speculative fiction" than sci-fi.

[PlotTwist]

I don't think they are birds, but there is robots in it that reproduce in The Ice People, it's one of the things I definitely remember.

[CoteDAzur]

Yes, Do Androids Dream... is quite different than Blade Runner. The story is quite different and also Philip K Dick's style is not so dark and action-filled as was the film.

[JulieAnderton]

Yes, you are right, PlotTwists. Just found this on amazon:

'Set in the near future, it imagines not a globally warmed world, but an earth slowly returning to aridity and cold. A universal freeze has also descended upon relationships between men and women, who live in morbid segregation, with feathered robots as sexual partners. In a neat reversal of First World-Third World assumptions, Africa's relative warmth offers a last hope to northerly survivors as the novel charts one man's struggle to rescue his alienated son and bring him to where the sun shines' - Rose Tremain.

[monal]

And they're called "Doves" hence the bird confusion.

[PlotTwist]

books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Ice_People.html?id=rF8gAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y it mentions them here, the robots

[JulieAnderton]

Yes, I think that is probably where I got the bird bit from. Although I suspect I might have taken them as being robotic doves literally when I read the book.

Going back to my parent's house at the weekend, so will have a dig around to see if my copy is still there.

[Franup]

Thanks CoteDAzur!

[AnnaBegins]

Have you read We by Zamyatin? Sounds like you'd like that too!

[AugustMoon]

Thanks to this thread I am now reading The Road, which is bleak but i'm enjoying it nonetheless. Will read The Ice People next - thank you mumsnet (again)

[AugustMoon]

AnnaBegins, googling that one now. I like yr name btw - counting crows? (Realise the thread went quiet a few days ago but in case you check in again)