1
1984
A classic novel that is definitively a dystopia.
Best Dystopian Science Fiction Books
The Top 25 Best Novels About Dystopias (aka really fucked up societies)
See the rankingScience Fiction and Dystopias go together like Lindsay Lohan and court appearances, but the terms don’t necessarily have to co-exist. Both genres exist independently and are popular on their own.
Dystopias are a fictional world, worse than our current world, where oppressive societal control exists under the illusion of a perfect society created by corporate, technological, religious or other controls. Dystopian fiction criticizes politics, societal values, technology, corporate control, and religion, showing the reader a worst case scenario, and making him or her question social and political systems.
Science fiction is not necessarily as critical of the future in a negative way. It focuses on futuristic stories with plausible scientific or technological content, and explores the impact of science on society. Dystopias are a genre that many non-science fiction writers, even literary writers, cross into, writing stories that incorporate a science fiction setting or at least touch on the boundaries of it. Some literary authors (that's you, Margret Atwood) like to claim their science fiction dystopias are not in fact science fiction.
What is it that makes a novel dystopian science fiction? The existence of hard science fiction (an emphasis on scientific and/or technical detail and accuracy) or soft science fiction [based on soft, or “social” sciences like anthropology and psychology] in a dystopian setting. Dystopian science fiction also intersects with other subgenres of science fiction, like alternate artificial intelligence, post-apocalyptic worlds, cyberpunk, and dying earth fiction. This list goes through the dark, the depressing, and at times, the humorous worlds that occur when science fiction and dystopian fiction gets into bed together, and brings you the top 25 best novels in the genre.
The ranking
2
Fahrenheit 451
A classic "What if?" story about book banning, happiness, and knowledge.
3
The New World (The Age Of Discovery)
A startling look at the role of government, including eugenics.
4
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner)
A novel that contains images that are Retro Futuristic, but is also a story about a post-apocalyptic Earth.
5
6
7
The Chrysalids
by John Wyndham
A Post-Apocalyptic tale where the apocalyptic event is now seen as God's punishment. The society practices a form of fundamentalist Christianity and genetic variance and mutations are considered impure and caused by the Devil.
8
The Time Machine
by Wells, H. G.
Follow a time traveller into an alien-like future Earth to witness the consequences of humanity's social and biological choices and evolution.
9
Neuromancer (1985) (The Sprawl) Start here
Gibson is the father of Cyberpunk and this novel in particular is significant. In this novel the term cyberspace is coined.
10
The Left Hand Of Darkness (1970) (Hainish Cycle)
Pacifism and a anarchy—both have merits.
11
12
13
The Road
A father and son walk a burned-out America toward the sea, in McCarthy's bleak and beautiful end-of-the-world novel.
14
I Am Legend
One of the first to make vampirism or zombies have a scientific origin with plenty of medical inquiry and rational causation provided.
15
16
The Female Man
by Joanna Russ
The book intertwines the lives of four women who live in parallel worlds—when they meet it is their views on gender roles that startle one another.
17
Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs) Start here
Humans can transfer their conciousness into new bodies. This sets up a detective style story about a murder.
18
1981: The Shadow Of The Torturer (The Book Of The New Sun) Start here
by Wolfe, Gene
The sun has dimmed, the Earth is cooler and has been transformed in wondrous ways.
19
A Clockwork Orange
Another famous Sci Fi novel made into a popular movie. A take on a future Britain in which behaviour modification is taken to an extreme in the quest for social order. Unique because the dystopia is still forming and is seen through the eyes of an adolescent protagonist.
20
21
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The shortlist
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