The Best of Dystopian Lit

On an unnamed island, in an unspecified time period, the inhabitants enter a plight caused by the blight of ‘industrial civilization’ and the arrival of humiliation, deforestation, and colonization.

With the machine gone, can Vic's happy memories be 'put back' now he's returned from war?

Connected wirelessly to her husband? No wonder Hazel left him. Now she lives with her father in a trailer park — along with his lifelike sex doll, Diane (...)

An epic work of post-apocalyptic fiction, in which people awake to face an unrecognisable world in which everything they once knew is no more. However, salvation manifests in the most mysterious ways — but malevolent forces have other ideas.

Tropic of Orange takes place in a Los Angeles where the homeless, gangsters, infant organ entrepreneurs, and Hollywood collide on a stretch of the Harbor Freeway.

This is more than 100 years old, but London's classic 1908 work focuses less on science-fiction, and more on the breakdown of politics in a future society: specifically the rise of an oligarchic tyranny in the US, which bankrupt the middle classes and rule over its poor subjects. Sound familiar?

Adventure into a world where love, sex, and free will are all controlled by the state.The Eusistocratic Republic of Finland has bred a new human sub-species of receptive, submissive women, called "eloi", for sex and procreation, while intelligent, independent women are relegated to menial labor and sterilized so that they do not carry on their “defective” line.

Now think of the current world where a president has reduced women to nothing but body parts and sexual beings.

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, Paolo Bacigalupi writes a completely new and intriguing world. Set in a time where calories are the currency, Anderson Lake is AgriGen's Calorie Man, sent to work undercover as a factory manager in Thailand while combing Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. He meets Emiko, a human who's… not so human.

The Windup Girl is a fantastic exploration of the future, of what's important to us, of evolution and of humanity. Where do we draw the line, and if we cross it, what are the consequences?

We'll leave this quote from the book here:

“The Senator was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his “ideas” almost idiotic, while his celebrated piety was that of a traveling salesman for church furniture, and his yet more celebrated humor the sly cynicism of a country store. Certainly there was nothing exhilarating in the actual words of his speeches, nor anything convincing in his philosophy. His political platforms were only wings of a windmill.”

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. A chance to escape a poor life and live in a palace, and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for one girl, it's a nightmare.

The premise seems like a really bad interpretation of The Bachelor, but trust us, this is one riveting tale that does not take itself too seriously, and ends up being quite the interesting read.

In an alternate United States, love has been declared a dangerous disease, and the government forces everyone who reaches eighteen to have a procedure called the Cure. But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena meets enigmatic Alex, a boy from the Wilds who lives under the government's radar. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?

A cross between X-men and Ghost in the Shell, perhaps. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. In a world where the government places military interests at the forefront, where will humanity lie?

In this dystopia, this police state, authorities ensure that only one company is allowed to make robots, and only one type of robot is allowed. What happens to humans? And will robots take over?

It is the future. There is no war, no hunger, no pain. No one in the community wants for anything. Everything needed is provided. It's a utopia, not a dystopia. Or is it?

At 12 years old, a group of elders decides your path. But is that the right and best decision? And what are they hiding?

In a not so far off future, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue — Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). If you've watched the movie, you'd know how this pans out. If you haven't, let's just say you're in for a rude awakening.

Here's yet another YA book turned movie… and while The Maze Runner has been a bit more underrated compared to its peers, there's no doubt that something's going on with these books.

Children and teens wake up in an area called The Glade, and they have always been convinced that if they can solve the maze that surrounds the Glade, they might find their way home… wherever that may be. But it’s looking more and more as if the Maze is unsolvable. Are there answers to this world? Are there forces behind this?

In a post-Truth and a Trump era, the sales and popularity of 1984 has seen a surge. In an age when Big Brother is watching, when intelligence and surveillance are at an all time high, and when media manipulation is going unchecked, 1984 truly is the piece of fiction that endures. Fiction or reality? You decide.

The hauntingly prophetic classic novel set in a not-too-distant future where books are burned by a special task force of firemen. What happens when the censorship of news and literature takes over? What happens when the leaders of a country decide that they're allowed to say whatever they want to say?

Bradbury’s powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to creat a novel which, forty years on from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.

In this dark satire, humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively serve a ruling order. What's the future like, when humans are reduced to just mere labour?