Apocalytpic/dystopia fiction

[HarderToKidnap]

I love stuff set either at a) the end of the wrold (like The Stand, Cell) or set in a world almost the same as ours but where it's a bit fucked up (like Never Let Me Go, Romanitas, Handmaid's Tale).

Does anyone have any good apocalyptic or dystopian recommendations? Thanks.

[kellestar]

I'm going through a really post apocalyptical and dystopian thing at the moment. Mainly YA but suitable for adult readers.

www.librarything.com/catalog/viciouslittlething&tag=DYSTOPIA this links to my librarything and everything I have read, want to read that I've tagged as dystopian.

I'm reading Mockingjay at the moment.

[Ephiny]

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (and sequel After The Flood - rumour is that there's going to be a third book). If you liked The Handmaid's Tale you'd probably like these.

[sfxmum]

I will keep pushing this book as it is one of the best in the genre that I have read
Swastika night just don't read too much of the page for spoilers
early feminist,well realised dystopia fiction

[LittleCheesyPineappleOne]

After the Flood is AMAZING.

[teameric]

The Road
How I Live Now (actually a young adult book but I really enjoyed it!)

[herjazz]

J G Ballard

[LittleCheesyPineappleOne]

My favourites as a teenager were Nineteen Eighty Four, Brave New World, and The Chrysalids (John Wyndham).

[Pogleswood]

I'd recommend The Carhullan Army,by Sarah Hall.
(also,though I don't know if it's still in print,The Time of the Fourth Horseman,Chelsea Quin Yarbro)

[bearcrumble]

It is a comic but Y: The Last Man is great - something happened that killed off all the men on the planet (bar one). It's finished now and you can buy the collected graphic novels.

Also, Kellestar - if you are into YA stuff - the classic is surely Z for Zachariah?

[paisleyleaf]

Mara and Dann by Doris Lessing
The Book of Dave By Will Self

I'm really looking forward to Year of the Flood (but could maybe do with rereading Oryx and Crake first)

[InvaderZim]

Some suggestions, all science fiction: (I tend to like ones which are about society)

The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S Tepper
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K LeGuin
The Dispossessed by Ursula K Leguin
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell has a dystopian story in it
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller, Jr

I'm sure I could think of more, I love the genre. Here's a list from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_literature

[bruffin]

As mentioned before John Wyndham, I have just reread a lot of his books. My favorite as a teenager was The Chryslids as well. The Day of the Triffids is very good as well.

If you don't mind teenage fiction then John Christopher wrote quite a few books based in the aftermath of wars ie The Tripod Trilogy and The Prince in Waiting series.

[bearcrumble]

Oh and I just bought this - www.amazon.co.uk/Windup-Girl-Paolo-Bacigalupi/dp/1597801585/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283088773&sr=1-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 which looks great but I've not started it yet (am half way through Anathem).

[catinthehat2]

The Man in the High Castle [Philip K Dick]

In fact, loads of PKD is dystopian come to think of it.

On the Beach [Nevil Shute]

Death of Grass [John Christopher]

Lots of JG Ballard will bring you down as well

[stripeyknickersspottysocks]

The Passage

[MinaTannenbaum]

Two Marge Piercy novels: Woman on the Edge of Time and Body of Glass.

[BelligerentGhoul]

'The Knife Of Never Letting Go' and the rest of the trilogy by Patrick Ness. They are young adult fiction and I've yet to read the final one but I highly recommend them.

yes to 'How I Live Now' too, if you don't mind teenage. Also, 'Brother In The Land' - think it's Robert Swindells.

On The Beach - Neville Shute.

When The Wind Blows - Raymond Briggs - is a graphic novel and v good.

[edeluna]

Two come to mind:

Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Absolutely chilling and bleak, but underneath all of that, really about hope. Amazing.

The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway. Part apocalyptic, part fantasy with what I thought was a pretty creative take on world destruction. It did drag a bit in the middle, but was overall a good read.

And I also second BelligerentGhoul's recommendation of 'The Knife Of Never Letting Go' by Patrick Ness. I just whizzed through that book and really enjoyed it.

[Takver]

Erm, InvaderZim, surely the Dispossessed is utopian, not dystopian (unless you're a really hardcore capitalist). Similarly, I'd really call Woman on the Edge of Time utopian, with our present day being the contrasting dystopia. Both very good reads, though.

I'd add Walk to the End of the World and sequal Motherlines by Suzy McKee Charnass (a very, very dystopian dystopia if there is such a thing), and also Native Tongue and sequal the Judas Rose by Suzette Haden Elgin.

Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban is quite hard work (or I found it so), but a fascinating post-apocalyptic story - its written in an imagined 'future English', which is really quite different from standard English, though perfectly readable once you get the hang of it.

[Takver]

BTW this is a good list of feminist dystopias and post apocalyptic novels. They come from a set of lists here.

[retiredgoth2]

Yevgeny Zamyatin's 'We', and HG Wells' Time Machine.

These two invented the genre....

[Earthymama]

Hooray someone else likes Sheri Tepper and Marge Piercy!!
Great recommendations, I love this area of fantasy.
There's a follow up to Plague of Angels out in the next few days/

[grendel]

I would second 'The Gone Away World' by Nick Harkaway. Brilliantly written. Lots of wry humour but quite black too.

Would also second 'The Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell which I've just finished. I'd say there were TWO dystopian story threads in there, especially the middle story which is particularly bleak and poignant.