Dystopian Science Fiction

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My favorite books to read growing up were dystopian science fiction novels, like Player Piano or 1984. I also love Twilight Zone and I want to get the complete series on DVD.

Is anyone else interested in dystopian science fiction? If so, which novel do you think reality most resembles. I think Brave New World is what the world is about. Everything is so shallow and mass produced unless you live in some traditional society that is separated from civilization. I hope Player Piano comes true, where they tear apart the machines and then rebuild the society from the ground up.

I also love dystopian science fiction novels I still love Stephen King's The Stand, although as I got older, the ridiculous deus ex machina started annoying me I also love 1984, but I haven't read brave new world yet ( shame on me ) I've not really read a novel that resembles reality yet. I don't know if this counts as dystopian, but I'm reading Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon right now. It's certainly filled with paranoia, and I recommend it if you like some more "experimental" literature.

In this case, it's not a work of fiction but a movie - Blade Runner. Horrible pollution and a Grand Canyon wide class chasm makes people move "off world," instead of trying to improve things on earth. And the new racism is directed at Replicants, who face murder at the hands of Blade Runner police officers for returning to earth after a failed rebellion sparked by maltreatment by their human makers. But who has more real humanity? The Replicants yearning for humanity, or their hard hearted makers, and the unfeeling Blade Runners who kill rogue Replicants?

I too am a fan of dystopian sci-fi novels. I still love reading
Fahrenheit 451 whenever I get a chance to.

@ Bluth: You're not the only one who hasn't read Brave New World. I own a paperback copy, but I have not had the opportunity to read it, nor a opportunity to read 1984.

I read 1984 back in high school and didn't care much for it, though I can't say I remember why. More recently I did try to read The Hunger Games and didn't like the choppy and bland prose at all. As far as I can gauge, most dystopian fiction seems to have the same kind of plot: the protagonist rebels against a totalitarian government or some other oppressive system. I can see why it might appeal to writers who want to preach against their political opponents or make some kind of commentary on society, but strip away these ideological trappings and it's hard to tell these rebellion narratives apart.

Oh, and why is every post-apocalyptic environment in sci-fi some kind of bleak desert wasteland? Give me overgrown cities rotting in the jungle any day!

Fredrik Pohl's Gateway series has a pretty interesting take on the future state of human society.

It was written back in the late 70's to mid 80's. He did not predict the fall of the USSR, but he did predict the emergence of Brazil and China as major powers...

He also has an interesting take on the internet, A.I., terrorism and the healthcare crisis.

I don't consider Fahrenheit 451 sci-fi. Dystopian yes, but sci-fi no. It does occur in the future, and it has a few things that require the use of sci-fi elements/setting descriptors that aren't neccessary, but science fiction is not central to the story. I consider A Brave New World sci-fi because without the sci-fi elements, the story wouldn't work. I've never read 1984.

I liked the Gateway series. The whole rationing of resources despite having the resource rich vastness of space within reach didn't make much sense, but I liked it.


This is a list of dystopian fiction I've read. Not a complete list, but it's what I could remember right now --

Illium & Ollympos by Dan Simmons -- Not entirely dystopian depending on location, but a major part of the setting is. This is by far one of my fav book/series ever written.
The Martian Chronicles by Bradbury -- It starts out great, and you watch the decline as you read. The last A few of the stories from The Luggage Store on are just disturbing for how they portray the dystopian future.
The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher -- Remnants of Humanity fight back against alien invaders. I read this in middle school.
To Live Forever by Jack Vance -- I feel the ending was a copout, but I liked the setting and I admit I did like the main character.
The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance -- I didn't care much for these two stories, but I read them because it was Vance, and I like Vance.
The Last Planet/Star Rangers -- Andre Norton
Desert Called Peace by Tom Kratman -- Heavy on the military action
Patriots and Reach Trilogy by David Drake -- Patriots is seemingly light on the dystopian but it builds and builds driving the characters actions.
The Peace War & Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge -- Bobbling... ruins everything
Starfarers by Poul Anderson -- The dystopian future seems incidental throughout the story, but becomes of prime importance at the end.
Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds
Rogue Wizard series by Stasheff. Although each story starts in a version of a dystopian future that varies on how the culture of the planet being visited panned out, it's a mix of elements from both fantasy and sci-fi. They're fun reads. Not great as some other stories, but fun.


Other fiction that is dystopian but not neccessarily sci-fi despite containing sci-fi elements:

Showboat World, Dying Earth(So far in the future the sun is going red giant), The Blue World -- All by Jack Vance, all are in the future and imply sci-fi elements but the sci-fi is not central to the story, or even really used at all.
The Year of the Jackpot by Heinlein -- One of my fav dystopian stories, but not sci-fi.
A State of Disobedience by Tom Kratman -- Modern Military Action, not sci-fi
Empire & Hidden Empire by Orson Scott Card -- Sci-fi elements, but really it's set in modern day. The sci-fi is used as a plot device, but heavily based in modern tech.
The Last Centurion by John Ringo -- Modern Day Military, not sci-fi

I just remembered Logans Run. The books, not the movie. Their are actually three books. The last one is weird though with a multiverse hop to a version of earth that is also dystopian but in a different way. The setting is a billions times better than the movie and spans the whole world and even space.

My take on that is that conventional space travel was still VERY expensive and, yes, there were resources to be had, but too few on Earth who could actually pay for anything. Hence, no motive to exploit those resources.

I think Pohl had a pretty low opinion of capitalism on the whole.

Also, Beyond The Blue Event Horizon was mostly about a single expedition to claim some extremely valuable resources.

At any rate, nice to meet someone else who appreciates those books.

After reading a lot of other sci-fi where I've seen various techniques portrayed that use low tech or modern tech to do things in somewhat plausible manners. I have a hard time believing in any form of basic resource restrictions holding water. There are literally resources everywhere for basic needs and functions, and someone somewhere will fill it to make a profit, whether it's extortion, capitalism, central statists, or robber barons.

Plausible restrictions are really limited to artificially created ones within the story. An example would be in Galactic Medal of Honor by Mack Reynolds where the villain was trying to control the market on space fuel and get control. But usually the artificial restriction is a plot device in and of itself and more likely the center of the story.

The exception to basic resources though is services, which I think the Gateway series did very well on both ends of the spectrum for having to much of and to little at various points in the story.

An example of to little service available would be that health care was really restricted and limited to the rich or resourceful. To much service would be the virtual form humans having to socialize/communicate(a very basic form of service) with regular form humans. They would spawn off a lesser copy to interact with a live form human while the main form continues on at a higher rate of speed in their virtual existence so they don't get bored and bogged down in an eternity of waiting for the real world. A surplus of a very basic method of service that they had no qualms about spending a little bit of processing power to do so.

I like William Gibson's sci-fi universe, especially he Neuromancer trilogy: A world where marketing and entertainment technology have been perfected, and computer hackers are referred to as "cowboys".

no PK Dick!?

I did already mention Bladerunner, the cinematic version of Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

I also like dystopian fiction. It makes me happy that it's so popular in the young adult section right now. Before, when I'd tell people that I liked dystopian fiction, they would ask me what it is. Now it seems like everyone knows what it is, and a lot of people like it. The Giver and Brave New World were my favorite books for years when I was younger.

Growing up in the late 80's to the mid 90's, my elementary school, and later middle school, primarily had the cold war era dystopian fiction with a smattering of other genres in the action/adventure/sci-fi/fantasy section. I agree that the dystopian fiction has taken a big portion of the young adult fiction currently.

I like dystopian science fiction. Some of my favorites are Asimov's Pebble in the Sky and another I can't remember the author or title off the top of my head. The ones I like most are usually where the world is radioactive, intense global warming, or the ozone layer has been destroyed. I think those are the ones that might come to resemble reality most at the rate we're going. I'm currently writing one where the character is fascinated by creatures that once inhabited the Earth like lions, rhinos, elephants, and others which went extinct. The characters live with an intense fear of the outdoors, seeing sunlight as their enemy because since the ozone layer is gone, the sun's rays can be deadly.