Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Dystopian future novels

60 replies

alltouchedout · 23/10/2016 19:27

Anything in that vein that you'd recommend? Books I've enjoyed include The Stand, Atwood's Handmaid's Tale and Oryx & Crake trilogy, Justin Cronin's trilogy which starts with The Twelve... I'll give absolutely anything a go tbh. I loved Auster's In The Country of Last Things too, if that counts.

Also, alternate history novels- any you think are great? And maybe sci fi too- I love Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children of God and the first book in The Forever War series, for example.

All suggestions will be tried outo. I live to read and I don't consider reading even a book I hate to be wasted time :)

OP posts:
atticusclaw2 · 23/10/2016 20:59

Yes Children of the Dust - guaranteed to haunt 1980s children!

atticusclaw2 · 23/10/2016 20:58

DS and I share a love of this genre (although he's only 11 and so his choices are obviously different from mine!) He recommended The Boy in the Tower to me which was a really good book for someone of his age getting into this genre.

He wants me to read the Tripods series which is sitting on the bookshelf but Ive never read. He loved them.

allthekingsshoes · 23/10/2016 20:56

Just looking at this for ideas but help me - Children of the Dust - is this the book I read when I was 9 and its stayed with me ever since but I've never really know the name ? It just rings a bell. Nuclear fall out? From a child's point of view?

tigerdog · 23/10/2016 20:51

Will be pinching some of these recommendations too. To give one back, I read Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time as part of a comparative study with The Handmaid's Tale years ago and enjoyed it.

dudsville · 23/10/2016 20:50

My apologies, I'm just place making so I too can follow up any recommendations!

atticusclaw2 · 23/10/2016 20:48

Maze runner is v teenage IMO. Divergent slightly better but still a YA book.

Nothing wrong with YA books per se (Children of the Dust and The Host are both decent reads) but there's much better out there.

DustOffYourHighestHopes · 23/10/2016 20:46

Uh oh, just read the linked thread and added 5 books to my amazon basket...

Might transfer them to my xmas wishlist.

Divergent/Maze Runner etc are entertaining but note vvvv teenage and a little little little bit (hah) unbelievable.

Original poster
alltouchedout · 23/10/2016 20:39

Fantastic to have all these recommendations :) Thank you!

OP posts:
VivienneWestwoodsKnickers · 23/10/2016 20:38

The, Maze Runner trilogy, also Divergent trilogy.

EsmesBees · 23/10/2016 20:33

Day of the Triffids deserves a mention, giving how innovative it was at the time. The writing of the female characters hasn't aged well though.

DustOffYourHighestHopes · 23/10/2016 20:32

Yup, justin cronin did the Passage.

lakeswimmer · 23/10/2016 20:29

I enjoyed The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall but partly because it's set in Cumbria (where I live) so I liked working out where the places she mentions are.

atticusclaw2 · 23/10/2016 20:21

I struggled with the Strain. It was too obviously written to be made into TV/Film (which it then has been of course so it that respect it worked). Thatstyle of writing does seem to be a trend with a lot of books atm though.

cdtaylornats · 23/10/2016 20:21

The Postman by David Brin

efeslight · 23/10/2016 20:20

The Road by Cormac McCarty, extremely bleak and disturbing...if you like that kind of thingWink
I think the Stand is one of my least favourite King novels, I cant quite put my finger on why.
Also 1983 and Brave New World as recommended by pp

ClashCityRocker · 23/10/2016 20:20

Oh hang on, the passage is the Justin Cronin one, isn't it?

ClashCityRocker · 23/10/2016 20:19

I wasn't keen on wool. Thought it a bit dull.

Red rising trilogy is good.

Reading 'the passage' at the moment which I'm enjoying.

Scorbus · 23/10/2016 20:19

It's YA but the Unwind series is very good.

dontpokethebear · 23/10/2016 20:16

pushing I have to admit I found the second quite hard going, but worth persevering. I couldn't put any of them down!

Kennington · 23/10/2016 20:14

On the beach
JG Ballards super Cannes and high rise and the rest of them

PushingElephantsUpStairs · 23/10/2016 20:09

Dontpoke I am only half way through the second book - I'm hooked it's even better than the first

DustOffYourHighestHopes · 23/10/2016 19:55

STATION ELEVEN. Don't expect some action-actiony thriller. More contemplative. But so is Handmaid's Tale, and you liked that. I didn't find it teen-y at all. It's a cross between apocalyptic, and literature.

Wool is very dense but fun (as fun as post apocalyptic stuff gets, which is sort of depressing fun)

dontpokethebear · 23/10/2016 19:52

pushingelephants just came on to say 'Wool' trilogy. Very, very good!

EsmesBees · 23/10/2016 19:51

On the beach by Nevil Shute has stayed with me. Maybe considered a bit old fashioned now, but quieter and less dramatic than other novels in the genre. It's basically about people going about their normal lives while waiting for the end of the world.

bumpetybumpbumpbump · 23/10/2016 19:50

I loved station 11 Smile can't wait for the film!

Swipe left for the next trending thread