Best Dystopian Books

This is a classic tale of humanity awash in totalitarianism. A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. First published during the epoch of Stalinist Russia, today it is clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, and under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of Orwell's masterpiece is a message still ferociously fresh.

"In a world where freedom is a forgotten word, and individuality is sacrificed for stability, humanity has traded its soul for comfort and control. Genetic engineering determines your fate, and the soothing grip of 'soma' keeps you blissfully compliant. But what happens when a man from outside this perfect society begins to question its foundations? Through the eyes of 'John the Savage,' Aldous Huxley explores a chilling dystopia where progress and happiness come at the ultimate cost: our humanity. Brave New World is a haunting vision of the future that forces us to confront the price of utopia."

One of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction A post-apocalyptic classic set in a burned-out America. A father and his young son walk under a darkened sky, heading slowly for the coast. They have no idea what, if anything, awaits them there . . . The Road is a masterpiece of American fiction from Cormac McCarthy. The landscape is destroyed. Nothing moves save the ash on the wind. Cruel, lawless men stalk the roadside, lying in wait. Attempting to survive in this brave new world, the young boy and his protector have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves. They must keep walking. In this unflinching study of the best and worst of humankind, Cormac McCarthy boldly divines a future without hope, but one in which, miraculously, this young family may yet find tenderness. With an introduction from John Banville, author of The Sea. Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature. 'The Road made me cry for days' – Emma Donoghue, author of Room and Haven 'The most important environmental book ever written' – George Monbiot, author of Feral and Regenesis Adapted into a critically-acclaimed film starring Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron.

A National Book Award FinalistA PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end. Twenty...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Dystopian, Fiction, Science Fiction lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Dystopian, Historical, Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Before The Testaments, there was The Handmaids Tale: an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction (New York Times).The Handmaids Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was...

WINNING MEANS FAME AND FORTUNE.LOSING MEANS CERTAIN DEATH.THE HUNGER GAMES HAVE BEGUN. . . .In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and once girl between ...

Sixty years after its publication, Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before."Fahrenheit 451 The temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns."Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to dest...

It Can_x0092_t Happen Here is the only one of Sinclair Lewis_x0092_s later novels to match the power of Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith. A cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, it is an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression, when the country was largely oblivious to Hitler...

Original cover edition here THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS. AGAIN.Three terrible things happen in a single day.Essun, masquerading as an ordinary schoolteacher in a quiet small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Mighty Sanze, the empire whose innovations have been civilization's b...

In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren?s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to sal...

Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems_x0097_there's a rabbit in his waiting room and a triggerhappy kangaroo on his tail. Nearfuture Oakland is a brave new world where evolved animals are members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mindnumbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage. Metcalf has been shadowin...

"I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.""I live for you," I say sadly.Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the colorcoded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he w...

Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life_x0097_Shevek must make the unprecedented ...

He succeeds in placing before the reader a vision of the world in cosmic time' Norman NicholsonThe Time Traveller knew that Time was only a kind of Space. The fantastic story of his adventures in a machine which could travel in any direction of Space and Time has captured the imagination of millions.H. G. Wells, one of the giants of twentiethcent...

In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating Georg...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Dystopian, Fiction, Science Fiction, Science lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

The exhilarating dystopian novel that inspired George Orwell's 1984 and foreshadowed the worst excesses of Soviet RussiaYevgeny Zamyatin's We is a powerfully inventive vision that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Ayn Rand. In a glassenclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the allpowerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of t...

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 cardas lowly Merchandising Officer Hack Nike is about to find out. Trapped into building street cred for a new line of $2500 sneak...

The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old waysfarming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eterna...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around DystopianScience, Dystopian, Fiction, Teen, Young lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Shortlisted for the 2011 Costa First Novel AwardForty years in the future. The oncegreat city of Bohane on the west coast of Ireland is on its knees, infested by vice and split along tribal lines. There are the posh parts of town, but it is in the slums and backstreets of Smoketown, the tower blocks of the Northside Rises and the eerie bogs of Big...

There will come a day... when love will mark you as a traitor. In a society where emotions are nothing and function is everything, Avlyn Lark is just trying to blend in. She's lucky to be alive, unlike her twin brother Ben who died when they were four. And she's lucky to have been taken from her biological parents and assigned to a Level Two family...

With his vivid, stylized prose, cyberpunk intensity, and seemingly limitless imagination, Jack Womack has been compared to both William Gibson and Kurt Vonnegut though Gibson admits, "If you dropped the characters from Neuromancer into Womack's Manhattan, they'd fall down screaming and have nervous breakdowns". Random Acts of Senseless Violence, ...

Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans _x0097_though no one calls them that anymore.His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all...

Nebula Award Finalist A "brilliantly crafted, engrossing" dystopian novel of environmental disaster by the Hugo Awardwinning author of Stand on Zanzibar (The Guardian). In a near future, the air pollution is so bad that everyone wears gas masks. The infant mortality rate is soaring, and birth defects, new diseases, and physical ailments of all kin...

Alternate cover edition for ISBN 044900094X / 9780449000946For previous cover edition see hereConnie Ramos, a woman in her midthirties, has been declared insane. But Connie is overwhelmingly sane, merely tuned to the future, and able to communicate with the year 2137. As her doctors persuade her to agree to an operation, Connie struggles to force ...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Dystopian, DystopianTeen, Young, Fiction, Science Fiction lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

@doctorfusionbebop: Some 17 y. o. chick named Dee Guerrera was just sent to Alcatraz 2.0 for killing her stepsister. So, how long do you think she'll last @morrisdavis72195: I hope she meets justice! She'll get what's coming to her! BWAHAHA!@EltonJohnForevzz: Me I think Dee's innocent. And I hope she can survive.WELCOME TO THE NEAR FUTURE, where ...

A dystopian novel about the terrible oppressions of an American oligarchy at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, and the struggles of a socialist revolutionary movement....

_x0093_Fresh, compelling_x0097_and timely._x0094_ _x0097_Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Carve the Mark and the Divergent series _x0093_Vividly conjured_x0085_positively chilling._x0094_ _x0097_The New York Times _x0093_Spectacular._x0094_ _x0097_Buzzfeed Set in a nearfuture Taipei plagued by pollution, a group of teens risk everything to save their city in this thrilling novel from critic...

An anthology of short stories that presents a journey through alternate histories and projections of the future in which the world's diversity is reflected....

Five women. One question. What is a woman forIn this ferociously imaginative novel, abortion is once again illegal in America, invitro fertilization is banned, and the Personhood Amendment grants rights of life, liberty, and property to every embryo. In a small Oregon fishing town, five very different women navigate these new barriers alongside a...

Librarian note: This is a later printing of ISBN 0307275434 with a slightly different cover than the one used on the first printing. As Goodreads does not allow for more that one record per ISBN a record for the first printing was added without the ISBN.Told with P. D. James_x0092_s trademark suspense, insightful characterization, and riveting storyte...

Fahrenheit 451 meets The Giver in an award winning dystopian story about the dangers of censorship and how far we will go in the pursuit of freedom.What if you were only allowed to speak 500 wordsThe city of Ark is the last safe place on Earth: the polar ice caps have melted and flooded everything, leaving few survivors. To make sure humans do not...

I know nothing. I am a tabula rasa, a blank sheet of paper, an unhatched egg. I have not yet become a woman, although I possess a woman's shape. Not a woman, no: both more and less than a real woman. Now I am a being as mythic and monstrous as Mother herself . . . 'New York has become the City of Dreadful Night where dissolute Leilah performs a dan...

Playful, passionate, provocative, and frequently very funny, Jeanette Winterson's The Stone Gods is a story about Earth, about love, and about stories themselves. On the airwaves, all the talk is of the new blue planet_x0097_pristine and plentiful, as our own was 65 million years ago, before we took it to the edge of destruction. Off the air, Billie Crus...

An electrifying story of two ambitious friends, the dark choices they make and the stunning moment that changes the world as we know it foreverOrla Cadden is a budding novelist stuck in a deadend job, writing clickbait about moviestar hookups and influencer yoga moves. Then Orla meets Floss a striving wannabe Alister who comes up with a plan for...

First published in 1962, J.G. Ballard's mesmerizing and ferociously prescient novel imagines a terrifying future in which solar radiation and global warming have melted the polar ice caps and Triassicera jungles have overrun a submerged and tropical London. Set during the year 2145, the novel follows biologist Dr. Robert Kerans and his team of sci...

The perfect gift for fans of the Maze Runner series, this boxed set includes all three hardcover editions of #1 "New York Times" bestselling author Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners series "Steelheart," "Firefight," and "Calamity." Find out what James Dashner called "fantastic," with "relentless" suspense and an "explosive" climax. How far would you go...

Thou shalt kill.A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life_x0097_and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe_x0097_a role that neith...

Koushun Takami's notorious highoctane thriller envisions a nightmare scenario: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian programme, they are provided arms and forced to kill until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japa...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around DystopianScience, Dystopian, Fiction, Teen, Young lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Shades of Grey tells of a battle against overwhelming odds. In a society where the ability to see the higher end of the color spectrum denotes a better social standing, Eddie Russet belongs to the lowlevel House of Red and can see his own color_x0097_but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything in between are all just shades of grey, and must be col...

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government _x0093_rehabilitation camp._x0094_ She might have survived the mysterious disease that_x0092_s killed most of America_x0092_s children, but she and ...

How do you fight an enemy when they're inside your mind A gargantuan glasswalled tower looms over a deadly wilderness. They say it's all that's left.The Tower's survival is humanity's survival, and each must serve it faithfully...Twentyyearold Liana Castell must be careful what she thinks. Her life is defined by the number on her wristband a...

No one speaks of the grace year. It_x0092_s forbidden.In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That_x0092_s why they_x0092_re banished for their sixteenth year, to...

Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into ...

Rick Yancey's entire blockbuster bestselling 5th Wave series is now available in a boxed setgreat for bingereading!In The 5th Wave, Cassie finds herself in a world devastated by alien attack, desperate to save herself and find her lost brother. As the onslaught from the Othersthe beings that look human and kill anyone they seecontinues, Cass...

Coming to Netflix in 2018, this mustread story is a confident, actionandviolence packed thriller, and future classic noir SF novel from a multiawardwinning author. It's the twentyfifth century, and advances in Technology, have redefined life itself. Human consciousness can now be stored in the brain and downloaded into a new body (or 'sleeve')...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around DystopianScience, Dystopian, Fiction, Teen, Young lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

In Wyoming, a little girl reads people_x0092_s darkest secrets by the way they fold their arms. In New York, a man sensing patterns in the stock market racks up $300 billion. In Chicago, a woman can go invisible by being where no one is looking. They_x0092_re called "brilliants," and since 1980, one percent of people have been born this way. Nick Cooper is amo...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Dystopian lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for imaginative storytelling, atmosphere, or character-driven reflection. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Firstborns rule society. Secondborns are the property of the government. Thirdborns are not tolerated. Long live the Fates Republic.On Transition Day, the second child in every family is taken by the government and forced into servitude. Roselle St. Sismode_x0092_s eighteenth birthday arrives with harsh realizations: she_x0092_s to become a soldier for the Fat...

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone t...

With undertones of vampires, Frankenstein, dragons' hoards, and killing fields, Matt's story turns out to be an inspiring tale of friendship, survival, hope, and transcendence. A mustread for teenage Fantasy, fans.At his comingofage party, Matteo Alacrán asks El Patrón's bodyguard, "How old am I...I know I don't have a birthday like humans, but ...

It_x0092_s graduation day for sixteenyearold Malencia Vale, and the entire Five Lakes Colony (the former Great Lakes) is celebrating. All Cia can think about_x0097_hope for_x0097_is whether she_x0092_ll be chosen for The Testing, a United Commonwealth program that selects the best and brightest new graduates to become possible leaders of the slowly revitalizing postwar...

ROMANCE SET IN A DYSTOPIAN FUTUREIn postapocalyptic North America two emerging nations are at war and sexual slavery is legal. Lila Velez desperately wants to lose her virginity before the troops visit her town and take it away by force. She makes plans to seduce her only friend. Lila does not love him, but he is the only man who has shown her tru...

Considered one of the great dystopian novels_x0097_alongside Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World_x0097_Ira Levin's frightening glimpse into the future continues to fascinate readers even forty years after publication.The story is set in a seemingly perfect global society. Uniformity is the defining feature; there is only on...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A stunning new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts_x0097_Year One is an epic of hope and horror, chaos and magick, and a journey that will unite a desperate group of people to fight the battle of their lives_x0085_It began on New Year_x0092_s Eve.The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spr...