To give me hope: That I’ll live long enough to piss on Trump’s grave.
Imagine how gratifying that will be.
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Water Knife is a great read. Also liked his Ship Breaker series as a dystopian read although that was much more YA
Excellent recommendation! I re-read it once every three years or so. Quick read but very thought-provoking.
Thanks for all of the recommendations. For some odd reason this is one of my favorite genres. Lots of new material here to dig into!!!
On the Beach by Neville Shute. 1957 novel details the experiences of a mixed group of people in Melbourne, Australia as they await the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the Northern Hemisphere, following a nuclear war a year earlier.
Both good reads, but I’m partial to Stand on Zanzibar myself.
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In the same vein: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth. Although, maybe this starts to get into alternate history rather than dystopian fiction. I’m not sure where one draws that distinction.
I would like to recommend American War by Omar El Akkad. The setting is late 21st Century. The US is in a second civil war over the banning of fossil fuels in response to climate change. And a centerpiece of the conflict has been biological weapons. Ergo, the storyline is a confluence of climate disaster and pandemic stories.
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My recommendation is Ben H.Winters’ Last Policeman trilogy: The Last Policeman, Countdown City and World Of Troubles.
They are beautifully written and very entertaining. The first one opens in a time where an asteroid has been discovered that will hit Earth on a particular day. There is no way to deflect or prevent it. Things are starting to fall apart but the protagonist is a newly minted police detective who wants to investigate a murder.
The trilogy is very dark and left me thinking about it for days after I finished each of the novels. Maybe they are too much of a downer for these days but I will recommend them nonetheless.
http://benhwinters.com/books/
Ben Winters is also the author of a couple of fairly popular pastiches like “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters” and “Android Karenina”
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What I call the Jon Brunner “dystopian trilogy” of Stand On Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up and Shockwave Rider are all brilliant works. I haven’t read them in years but in my mind they hold up well for late 60s / early 70s views of the future world
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Broadly speaking, the actual devolutions into autocracy like Italy, Germany happen relatively quickly and pretty much in the same way over and over. This item deals with what I’m talking about:
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For real-world, right-this-minute dystopian fiction, you’ve gotta read this. Nuclear war, courtesy of President Trump.
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I find myself retreating into the (dare I say it) Utopian world of P.G. Wodehouse, who, if he’s your cup of tea, is nearly impossible to be depressed while reading. Real life has enough dystopia for my tastes right now.
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It’s not exactly in this category, but it’s very dystopian; Homage to Catalonia by Orwell. Taught me a lot about a future that could easily repeat the past.
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