Anyone recommend a good dystopian novel?

[anunlikelyseahorse]

I need a new book, and you lot are ace at recommending a good book, so please can I request your aceness again and ask for a good dystopian read.
I've done Orwell, Huxley, Wyndham, Atwood, Herbert, and a few others. I couldn't get on with Atwood, or The power by Naomi Alderman. James Herbert was a bit hit and miss, some of his books were great, others I gave up reading. I've read Suzanne Collins and think her book are really good.
My three criteria for a good read; gets straight into the story; written in third person (can't stand first person novels) reasonably believable story line. I don't have an issue with stereotype characters. TIA

It’s one of my favourite books, maybe the top

So well written and powerful

The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

Yep!

'The Road' by Carmac McCrathy, had strong narrative and third person perspective.

Just read Station Eleven in an afternoon. Fantastic book

I’m enjoying ‘Julia’ at the moment.

1984 from the point of view of Julia. Very well done.

I was going to say this too. I love it, but have found that it is very marmite, I recommended it to friends and they have been very meh about it. I loved the way the story was seen from different viewpoints and the way different characters were connected over time and geography, often without them realising the connections, although the reader was aware of them.

Have you read Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut? They fit in my mind with writers like Orwell and Wyndham.

I loved Station Eleven, wasn't so keen on the second one in the trilogy, The Glass Hotel but the third one, Sea of Tranquillity, is amazing and back on form.

If you like teen novels I thought the H.I.V.E books were fun when I read them with DC and also liked Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman.

I love it for the word it evokes but the plot is absolute rubbish. It makes no sense at all. I loved that world so much I was happy to read all three books in the trilogy but story is not that author's strong point.

Agree with PP that Ridley Walker is brilliant.

Thank you to all PPs who suggested On the Beach by Neville Shute. I loved a town Like alice and don't know this book, so I'm ordering it right now.

A lot of love for John Windham which I am pleased to see, I think he practically invented the dystopian genre! His books stand up well to time , which is a testament to his writing I think.

I also have a lot of fondness for Isaac Asimov, they tend to be a bit robotic, by which I mean about robots, but actually with all the current discussion about AI it is interesting to see how he envisioned artificial intelligence sixty and seventy years ago.

Agree with Vonnegut and Bradbury too. There were so many interesting writers around in their time. I am always surprised by how many short stories they wrote, it doesn’t seem to be so much of a thing these days, always exceptions of course, but I think a lot of their early work was published in magazines or periodicals which is certainly not as prevalent now.

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. It won the 2023 Booker Prize.

The Seventh Son by Sebastian Faulks

Also The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Was coming to say prophet song by Paul Lynch.
It’s absolutely gut punching at times (where I had to put it down to process) but has stayed with me since reading in the same way on the beach and Fahrenheit 451 did many years ago.

I didn't like this much.
Particularly towards the end.
There's a thread on it I think.

Another recommendation for On The Beach.
Blindness - Jose Saramago
Widowland - CJ Carey
Daughters of the North - Sarah Hall
Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Isiguro
Anything by Wyndham