Personally it's my favorite "genre" because it allows for a lot of subtle ideas and I'm always interested in the futures I may never live to see. It also seems that there are a good mix of pulp fiction as well as literary fiction within the catagory. anyway, as a novice writer, my goal is to one day write a dystopian-type novel that I can be proud of. This will most likely occur years from now as I am trying to cut my teeth on short stories and improve my overall prose.
I was just curious though, what kind of people have thing for the grungy post-apocalyptic (or shiny dystopian) tales? What are some of your favorites?
I'm into it. I havent't read a whole lot but I'm into it. The Road is one of my favorites.
I love the genre. There is so much opportunity to explore cool ideas and atmospheres. I also have a soft spot for situations where regular people are forced to make hard choices--the test their mettle and find what they're made of.
I read this stuff for fun and my scholarship/research interests are mostly centered in disease narratives. Two geek-out pleasures for the price of one.
Favorites? So many.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Scientific Romance by Ronald Wright
The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
The Stand by Stephen King
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
Grass by Sheri S. Tepper
Swan's Song by Robert R. McCammon
...So many more, but I'll stop.
If you want to write a novel, write a novel. I've come to discover lately just how little writing shorts has prepared me for the demoralizing hell-slog of writing a novel. That's my own personal experience, of course, so feel free to ignore.
Gosh, where to start,
As far as fun/entertaining: THE HUNGER GAMES, though much-maligned, was a great read. WOOL, another great series. I loved the HATER series by David Moody. SPARES, by Michael Marshall Smith, had a good grungy feel.
THE ROAD, of course, stands on its own. Devastating.
The Last Policeman, by Ben H. Winters, is an excellent pre-apocalyptic series (book 3 of the trilogy hasn't come out yet).
I am a big fan of apocalyptic tales, in film and on the page.
Obviously, The Road is a must read.
The Postman by David Brin
One Second After by William R Forstchen
Lights Out by David Crawford
Ive heard good things about The Last Centurion by John Ringo. I am a couple chapters in and its certainly entertaining thus far.
I am actually in the midst of writing a YA Dystopian novel. I love all kinds of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Dystopian, and Apocalyptic stuff. I read and loved The Hunger Games and I also like the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi in the YA genre. I have been reading a lot of YA right now because that's what I'm writing. But I don't limit myself if I pick it up and find a book intriguing I'll read it!
"Dystopian", "apocalyptic" and "speculative" are three distinct types of fiction.
I don't say this just to be pedantic, though — if you're into the kinds of novels listed so far, then you'll probably get even more out of your reading by also looking into the books that fall into one category instead of all three.
Of the novels that I've read that seem to embody something of the spirit of all three genres, Lanark (by Alasdair Gray) is one of my favorites. For example: it takes place in Hell, which has a government, but also tries to reimagine the Portrait of the Artist-type of novel. I love it.
I'm personally into covert dystopian symptoms. For example contemporary ficiton that hints at a subtle societal flaw. I like to read fiction that explores the nosebleeds. Not the mind control, boots stomping, or food poisoning.
Yeah, I enjoy them.
Surprised to see all the mentions of Hunger Games but none of the evil distant brother/cousin Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Or the book that makes The Hunger Games look like Alice in Wonderland according to Quentin Tarantino.
To me, dystopia lost quite a bit of meaning to me in general. To me it just means, the opposite of utopia. But there isnt this unwritten law it needs to be about resource depletion. (Not saying anyone said this. Its just the assumption that bugs me.)
If you want to write a novel, write a novel. I've come to discover lately just how little writing shorts has prepared me for the demoralizing hell-slog of writing a novel. That's my own personal experience, of course, so feel free to ignore.
I have have nothing useful to add, I just logged in because this made me laugh, it's sooo fucking true :) Different animals, am I right??
Some of my favorite genres aswell. I would have to say the classics that I love in the dystopia field are the quintessential 1984 and Brave New World. Also J. G. Ballard's Crash, John Brunners Stand on Zanzibar, The Sheep Look Up. Some of my favorite post-apocalyptic novels are The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. I am Legend by Richard Matheson and the classic Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. Anything by Philip K. Dick can be considered dystopian/post-apocalyptic. I will say that although many novels contain a mixture of the two, they are very separate and independent genres. Dystopia being a future society which subjugates it's citizens, usually in some form of tyrannical fashion. A post-apocalyptic being a surviving portion of humanity after the majority of civilization has been destroyed in some cataclysmic event.
@Fugue, I liked Battle Royale all right. I thought for all its gore and shock value, it tried harder to shock me than it actually did. Mostly, from what I remember, a lot of the scenes that were supposed to be disturbing featured one-off characters I'd not known about until they died. I remember thinking the whole thing could have lost a hundred pages. I wouldn't have batted an eye, and it would have been stronger for it.
For all that, I think The Hunger Games is aimed at another audience, but one thing it does well that Battle Royale doesn't even try to do is create a post-apocalyptic/dystopian world that's almost alluring. Also, despite the fact that Katniss is one of the most dense characters ever written and it was sort of torturous to live inside her head, I genuinely cared for a lot of those characters. I just never felt that attachment to Battle Royale.
@Tim-- I would agree with you that some of the fat could of been trimmed on Battle Royale making it slightly stronger. I can't comment on Hunger Games the book because I haven't read it. I have seen the movie. To me, that movie was pretty similar to Battle Royale the movie. There were definitely one-off characters in The Hunger Games movie that had little to no lines, and then were killed off. Maybe the book does something different? I enjoyed Hunger Games but I felt more messed up after reading and watching Battle Royale. And the villain(can't remember his name) in Battle Royale is just one evil bastard.
LOVE this theme, have since I was a kid and didn't know/understand what it was. Need to read more of it, and am open to suggestions. It probably occupied more of my imagination as a youth than I can remember.
Is it me, or did they make a lot of these kinds of movies in the 80s and early 90s?
I wish those would come back into style again.
Fugue, I can't say reading The Hunger Games is worth it. There's a lot of really juvenile love fluttering, and Suzanne Collins basically created that by making Katniss really, really dumb. I feel like the movie works with the material well, and one of the biggest reasons is it gets us out of Katniss' head (the book's are written in first person, present tense). If you loved the movie, I'd say check out the books, because they'll expand the world. Many of those minor characters are more present, and it would make sense of some things in the movie.
I should re-read Battle Royale. It's been a while. I also have never watched the movie. I can say for certain Battle Royale is a much more mature work, and I think it's arguably more disturbing because of that.
Has anyone read 14 by Peter Clines? It's sort of an apocalyptic mystery. I think it could have been written better, but it's pretty interesting for the ideas it presents.
