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

more dystopia please

105 replies

theredjellybean · 02/03/2019 15:10

help..i think i have run out of dystopian futures..

i have read all Margaret Atwood
the power, vox, the wall, the ship, farneheight 451, a book by ben elton about illegal books ( can't recall the name) , only ever yours, and the well, another one about a plague/virus in uk ( cant recall its name follows two mums and group of kids who were camping at the time escape to norway) , all three of the passage trilogy...

some more suggestions please....

OP posts:
CalmConfident · 05/03/2019 17:11

Just read the Gone series (my DS had them) and enjoyed it more than I should 😁 he has chaos walking so might try that too !

Original poster
theredjellybean · 05/03/2019 06:44

Thank you wonderful dystopic mumsnetters... I also forgot I just read 'gather all the daughters'... Again very good read, though bits were quite unpleasant.
This thread has given me loads of new ideas and reminded me of some books I'd forgotten I'd read.

OP posts:
ChesterGreySideboard · 04/03/2019 23:39

Glad to see love for Wool.
I’m on book 3 of The Passage at the moment and finding it hard going.

heebie · 04/03/2019 23:36

My favourite genre! Trying to think of ones not already mentioned - Gather the Daughters and The History of Bees.

bakingbernie · 04/03/2019 23:25

I have just finished the YA trilogy of The Children of the Mountain by R A Hakok. I did not realise it was Y. A until I finished the first one. I found it absorbing. Also Surviving the Evacuation by Frank Tayell I have read the 15 (!) books in this series.

Ftumch · 04/03/2019 22:24

The Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff(?) Vandermeer. Genuinely creepy and just bloody brilliant.
Agree with JG Ballard and John Wyndham.

Beamur · 04/03/2019 22:21

JG Ballard for some vintage dystopia.

Sal1977 · 04/03/2019 22:18

Wool trilogy is brilliant!

MrsGideon · 04/03/2019 22:18

Sweet Fruit Sour Land by Rebecca Ley. Genuinely one of the best books I've ever read. Has an air of Margaret Atwood about it so you'd like it if you loved the Handmaid's Tale

missnevermind · 04/03/2019 22:17

So many suggestions here. I’m having to post so I can find it later and make a list. I have read nearly half of all suggested so the rest should be right up my street.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 04/03/2019 22:14

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.

The Children of Men - PD James.

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro.

Am assuming you've done the classics: Brave New World, 1984, A Clockwork Orange, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The best YA dystopian fiction I've read is the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness, beginning with The Knife of Never Letting Go. I really recommend it.

Myfanwyprice · 04/03/2019 22:09

I think the small change trilogy by Jo Walton might fit your criteria, not my usual read, but absolutely loved them - just checked and the first book is 99p on the kindle at the mo.

Sadik · 04/03/2019 22:07

And I'm not sure that anyone has mentioned Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban - post nuclear apocalypse written in an imagined future post-English (which is actually very easy to read once you get your head round it)

Sadik · 04/03/2019 22:05

Moving away from 70s feminists, Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter is post-pandemic (though not really dystopian) and a really good read - the Gems are genetically modified humans.

Sadik · 04/03/2019 22:02

A few more classic feminist dystopias that might appeal if you liked Handmaid's Tale / Vox / The Power

  • Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (various futures, not all dystopian)
  • Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin
  • Walk to the End of the World and Motherlines by Suzy Mackee Charnas (real full on dystopia)
I'd definitely recommend Ursula le Guin. The Dispossessed is my favourite - it's subtitled 'An ambiguous Utopia' - but it features two worlds, Anarres (the ambiguous utopia) and Urras which is definitely dystopian. Her short story collection The Birthday of the World includes a number of dystopian stories, including my favourite short story of all time, Solitude which is post-apocalyptic.
KatsutheClockworkOctopus · 04/03/2019 17:53

Agree with What a Lovely Way to Burn and sequels .

Justonemorepancake · 04/03/2019 11:40

Ooh following this one. Love dystopian future books.

CalmConfident · 04/03/2019 11:38

Exactly !!!!

BareBelliedSneetch · 04/03/2019 08:20

@CalmConfident I bet WWZ could be done brilliantly as a series - each episode from a different persons perspective, like the book, slowly bringing them all together.

The film was utter rubbish.

LessLivid · 03/03/2019 23:22

There’s a sequel to Girl With All the Gifts (well, it’s more of a prequel). Think it’s called The Boy On The Bridge.

harper30 · 03/03/2019 22:49

@CalmConfident it would make a fantastic Netflix series!!!

Original poster
theredjellybean · 03/03/2019 21:35

You are all my people... Thankyou, I had forgotten the girl with all the gifts.. Read it and station 11 some time ago.
I have read passage and the following two books.
Have downloaded wool and the long road and will start working my way through the other suggestions.
And of course hanging out for the sequel to the handmaid's tale... ☺

OP posts:
CalmConfident · 03/03/2019 21:22

Read lots here (love Wyndham) and some great new ideas.

Commenting specifically to agree with harper30 about WWZ - fabulous book, film bears no resemblance to it - it made me so cross! It would make a fabulous one-off Netflix series!

sakura06 · 03/03/2019 19:28

@QuilliamCakespeare 👍😃

I also agree with @SisyphusDad about 'The Girls with all the Gifts'.

harper30 · 03/03/2019 19:03

Definitely the Stand by King and the Wool trilogy which I couldn't get enough of.
Slightly different to the other books recommended (thank you to pps I'm going to download station eleven right now!) have you read World War Z by Max Brooks? I swear to god it is nothing like the HORRIFIC film they made of it with Brad Pitt in, even his presence didn't make that pile of shit any better.
I've re-read WWZ at least 4 times I just love it and how it's presented as a factual retelling rather than fiction. Really good 😊

Swipe left for the next trending thread