Dystopian fiction is the genre that rooted from the original idea of a Utopian society, a phase coined by Sir Thomas More.
Being the opposite of a utopian society, a dystopian one is oppressed by the government and many times induces its citizens to believe it is a world of perfection through means of propaganda or entertainment as pacification.
I read through many of the dystopian novels written from the 18th century to the 21st, here were a few of my favorites.
10. The Running Man by Stephen King (Richard Bachman)
Tells the story from the perspective of a man named Ben Richards who lives in the year of 2025. The global economy has collapsed and Ben must earn money in order to buy medicine for his gravely ill daugther, Cathy. His wife has resorted to prostitution. In his desperation, he signs up to participate in a game show. A deadly violent game show in which he is pursued by hunters and earns top dollars for every hour he stays alive.
9. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
A military science-fiction book set in the future. Human beings narrowly escaped complete mass wipeout from the two previous wars fought against the insectoid alien species, "Buggers". In preparation for the next, third invasion, humans have gathered the world's most talented children to be the next fleet commanders. They are tested through a series of "games", including zero gravity, in which their survival skills are tested to the limits.
8. The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Told in the perspective of a young sixteen year old girl named Tally, The Uglies Series takes place 300 years from now. At the coming age of 16, every teenager receives a special plastic surgery in which their appearances and their personalities are changed- forever. Tally is excited for her surgery where she'd finally become "pretty" but when her friend Shay runs away to the rebel City of Smoke and the government gives her an ultimatum, Tally is forced to track down her friend. The secrets she discovers in the City of Smoke was nothing she imagined.
7. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The tale takes place in the near future in a theocratic military dictatorship run by the Republic of Gilead. Earth is extremely polluted and heavily diseased with STDs. The overthrow of the United States government began with a staged terrorist attack that eventually suspended all constitutional rights and stripped women entirely of their identities. The story is told in the perspective of Offred, once a mother and a wife, she is now forced to be a concumbine for a high ranking commander. In the midst of wedlock sex and betrayal, she finds herself in the middle of a secret rebellion brewing against the Gilead empire.
6. Soylent Green by Harry Harrison
Becoming increasingly closer to our time, Soylent Green takes place in New York City, in the year 2022. New York City has become over inhabitated with a population of about 40 million people. Homelessness, poverty, and food scarcity is common. People are given food rations produced by the Soylent Corporation, a company who produces processed foods. The Soylent Corp.'s newest product is Soylent Green, a wafer product advertised to be "high-energy plankton". While New York City Police Department detective Robert Thorn investigates the murder of William R. Simonson, a director of the Soylent Corp., he discovers life-changing, disturbing information about the Soylent Green wafer.
5. The Giver by Lois Lowry
The book is told from the viewpoint of a young boy in his twelfth year of life. The society has eliminated pain and hardships by converting the people to "Sameness". He and the other children his age are given their life-long jobs. He inherits the position of the "Receiver of Memory" where he is given the responsibility of holding onto the past so hidden away from the people.
4. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd
Originally published as comic series in the 1980s, V for Vendetta takes place in the late 1990s in Britain after a major epidemic. The British government turned into a totalitarian state. V, a mysterious man with the mask, plots a string of terrorist attacks while killing off former officials who know of his identity. He fights back to show that someone is capable and willing to stand up against the government.
3. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Cloud Atlas is a collection of 6 stories from various time periods that eventually tie together to spell out one concept. It spans from the nineteenth century South Pacific to the post-apocalyptic future. Each tale is revealed to be a story that is read or observed by the main character in the next.
2. 1984 by George Orwell
A truly profound book, George Orwell depicts what would happen in a totalitarian government that controls all aspects of our life-even our thoughts. Citizens are mind-controlled and trained to be obedient and abstinent by the Party and the almighty leader, Big Brother. Sex has become a feelingless, uncomfortable duty to the Party. Winston, a Party member, finds himself in love with Julia, another Party member and together they engage in months of secret affairs. They're faced with unimaginable horrors as the Party will do anything to control their minds.
1. A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Considerably the most relevent to our society today, Huxley describes the World State, where pleasure is always in fashion. People have recreational sex beginning at an early age, take drugs called soma to feel high, and are casted into class systems through advanced means of technology, training their minds as to be perfectly fit for their job positions. In a world where emotional feelings are suppressed with drugs and the idea that "everyone belongs to everyone", a figure enters their world from the "uncivilized" outside, changing their outlooks forever.
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