Best Dystopian Novels

1984 (Signet Classics) by George Orwell

"Outside, even through the shut window pane, the more...25 points

"Outside, even through the shut window pane, the world looked cold. Down in the street little eddies of wind were whirling dust and torn paper into spirals, and though the sun was shining and the sky a harsh blue, there seemed to be no color in anything except the posters that were plastered everywhere." The year is 1984; the scene is London, largest population center of Airstrip One. Airstrip One is part of the vast political entity Oceania, which is eternally at war with one of two other vast....25 points

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

A beautifully written novel about a terrifying vis more...12 points

A beautifully written novel about a terrifying vision of utopia.12 points

The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel by Margaret Atwood

In the world of the near future, who will control women's more...10 points

In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies?Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are viable.Offred c...10 points

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frighte more...9 points

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociolo...9 points

The Running Man by Stephen King

Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) crafted The more...7 points

Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) crafted The Running Man early in his career, though after such mega-hits as Carrie and The Shining. A bit of a departure from the supernatural horror that is most frequently associated with his work, the novel describes a science fiction dystopia where market capitalism and television game shows have spiraled out of control, and the separation between the haves and the have-nots has been formalized with separate currencies. King establishes characters qu...7 points

Lord of the Flies (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by William Golding

William Golding's classic tale about a group of En more...6 points

William Golding's classic tale about a group of English schoolboys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island is just as chilling and relevant today as when it was first published in 1954. At first, the stranded boys cooperate, attempting to gather food, make shelters, and maintain signal fires. Overseeing their efforts are Ralph, "the boy with fair hair," and Piggy, Ralph's chubby, wisdom-dispensing sidekick whose thick spectacles come in handy for lighting fires. Although Ralph tries to impose...6 points

The Time Machine (Signet Classics) by H.G. Wells

The story that launched Wells's successful career- more...5 points

The story that launched Wells's successful career-the classic tale of the Time Traveler and the extraordinary world he discovers in the far distant future. A haunting portrayal of Darwin's evolutionary theory carried to a terrible conclusion.5 points

Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of more...5 points

Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a super computer and run completely by machines. His rebellion is a wildly funny, darkly satirical look at modern society.5 points

A Clockwork Orange (Norton Critical Editions) by Anthony Burgess

"A brilliant novel . . . a savage satire on the more...4 points

"A brilliant novel . . . a savage satire on the distortions of the single and collective minds." -New York Times "Anthony Burgess has written what looks like a nasty little shocker, but is really that rare thing in English letters: a philosophical novel." -Time A terrifying tale about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom, A Clockwork Orange became an instant classic when it was published in 1962 and has remained so ever since. Anthony Burgess takes us on a...4 points

The Long Walk by Stephen King

Phenomenal bestselling horror. On the first day of more...3 points

Phenomenal bestselling horror. On the first day of May, one hundred teenage boys meet for an event known throughout the country as "The Long Walk," a deadly contest of endurance and determination, where each step could literally be their last. On the first day of May, one hundred teenage boys meet for an event known throughout the country as "The Long Walk." If you break the rules, you get three warnings. If you exceed your limit, what happens is absolutely terrifying.3 points

The Children of Men by P.D. James

Told with P. D. James's trademark suspense, insightful more...2 points

Told with P. D. James's trademark suspense, insightful characterization, and riveting storytelling, The Children of Men is a story of a world with no children and no future. The human race has become infertile, and the last generation to be born is now adult. Civilization itself is crumbling as suicide and despair become commonplace. Oxford historian Theodore Faron, apathetic toward a future without a future, spends most of his time reminiscing. Then he is approached by Julian, a bright, attract...2 points

The Iron Heel (Penguin Classics) by Jack London

Part science fiction, part dystopian fantasy, part more...2 points

Part science fiction, part dystopian fantasy, part radical socialist tract, Jack London’s The Iron Heel offers a grim depiction of warfare between the classes in America and around the globe. Originally published nearly a hundred years ago, it anticipated many features of the past century, including the rise of fascism, the emergence of domestic terrorism, and the growth of centralized government surveillance and authority. What begins as a war of words ends in scenes of harrowing violence as th...2 points

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Here is the novel that started it all, launching the more...2 points

Here is the novel that started it all, launching the cyberpunk generation, and the first novel to win the holy trinity of science fiction: the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the Philip K. Dick Award. With Neuromancer, William Gibson introduced the world to cyberspace--and science fiction has never been the same. Case was the hottest computer cowboy cruising the information superhighway--jacking his consciousness into cyberspace, soaring through tactile lattices of data and logic, rustling enc...2 points

The Book by M. Clifford

It begins with four words: "Don't read The Bo more...2 points

It begins with four words: "Don't read The Book." All information, past and present, is controlled by The Book, a handheld digital reading device that exists in a paperless, sustainable, dystopian future that looks shockingly similar to our own. Among the multitude of Book lovers, we find Holden Clifford, a simple sprinkler-fitter who is content with his small life. Through his favorite story, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden discovers an inconsistency between the digital version and a rare paper...2 points

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

A hard to find, but influential, classic.1 point

Island (Perennial Classics) by Aldous Huxley

In "Island," his last novel, Huxley tran more...1 point

In "Island," his last novel, Huxley transports us to a Pacific island where, for 120 years, an ideal society has flourished. Inevitably, this island of bliss attracts the envy and enmity of the surrounding world. A conspiracy is underway to take over Pala and events begin to move when an agent of the conspirators, a newspaperman named Faranby, is shipwrecked there. What Faranby doesn't expect is how his time with the people of Pala will revolutionize all his values and -- to his amazement -- giv...1 point

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely more...1 point

Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of twentieth-century literature -- a chilling and still-provocative look at a post-apocalyptic future. In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks...1 point

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

Taxation has been abolished, the government has be more...1 point

Taxation has been abolished, the government has been privatized, and employees take the surname of the company they work for. It's a brave new corporate world, but you don't want to be caught without a platinum credit card--as lowly Merchandising Officer Hack Nike is about to find out. Trapped into building street cred for a new line of $2500 sneakers by shooting customers, Hack attracts the barcode-tattooed eye of the legendary Jennifer Government. A stressed-out single mom, corporate watchdog,...1 point

Blindness (Harvest Book) (Paperback) by Jose Saramago (Author)

In an unnamed city in an unnamed country, a man si more...1 point

In an unnamed city in an unnamed country, a man sitting in his car waiting for a traffic light to change is suddenly struck blind. But instead of being plunged into darkness, this man sees everything white, as if he "were caught in a mist or had fallen into a milky sea." A Good Samaritan offers to drive him home (and later steals his car); his wife takes him by taxi to a nearby eye clinic where they are ushered past other patients into the doctor's office. Within a day the man's wife, the taxi d...1 point

The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner

A Science Fiction Book Club Selection"When John more...1 point

A Science Fiction Book Club Selection"When John Brunner first told me of his intention to write this book, I was fascinated -- but I wondered whether he, or anyone, could bring it off. Bring it off he has -- with cool brilliance. A hero with transient personalities, animals with souls, think tanks and survival communities fuse to form a future so plausibly alive it has twitched at me ever since."-- Alvin TofflerAuthor of Future ShockHe Was The Most Dangerous Fugitive Alive, But He Didn't Exist!Nickie...1 point

Lily White by Shelley Poole

In the year 2043, eight-year-old Albert leaves his more...1 point

In the year 2043, eight-year-old Albert leaves his home to go on his first school trip. He walks through comfortable suburbs, but Albert must take care not to be spotted by the NUPS on his short walk. As the grandson of Polish immigrants, he and his family are classified as noncitz and are no longer welcome in Britain. Little does Albert know that there is no school trip and his parents have made a sacrifice that will impact on the lives of everybody concerned.Edward is the teenage son of George...1 point

Spa by B. F. Camis

Definitely SPA by B.F. Camis - It will freak you out more...1 point

Definitely SPA by B.F. Camis - It will freak you out but you won't be able to put it down. By far the most dystopian and original new work since A Handmaids Tale, Brave New World, or 1984. If you could trade one year of your life to be the most beautiful woman in the room, the woman that every other woman wishes she could be, the woman that every man wanted, what would you be willing to pay? What would you do to have a perfect body, to have a perfect face, to be thoroughly connected? What would...1 point

Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fi more...1 point

Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram,* "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island's Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the...1 point

Armageddon's Children (The Genesis of Shannara, Book 1) by Terry Brooks

If you have never read anything by beloved fantasy more...0 points

If you have never read anything by beloved fantasy writer Terry Brooks, take your chance with Armageddon's Children, a rich and absorbing epic in which the world lies in ruins as the powers of darkness and light battle for control. Want to learn more? Watch our video featuring Terry Brooks: Watch the video (high bandwith)Watch the video (low bandwith) ="/" noshade="noshade" class="bucketDivider" size="1"> 0 points

Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

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The Traveler (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 1) by John Twelve Hawks

A world that exists in the shadows of our own.A conflict more...0 points

A world that exists in the shadows of our own.A conflict we will never see.One woman stands between those determined to control history and those who will risk their lives for freedom.Maya is hiding in plain sight in London. The twenty-six-year-old has abandoned the dangerous obligations pressed upon her by her father, and chosen instead to live a normal life. But Maya comes from a long line of people who call themselves Harlequins-a fierce group of warriors willing to sacrifice their lives...0 points