Dystopian literature

[Francesca R]

I'm interested in any recommendations/synopses that anyone has, since I have a broad interest in this genre, but have not read very much of it at all, and am daunted by the long list of works out there.

At school I read sci-fi such as War of the Worlds (HG Wellls), Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham) and The White Mountains (John Christopher). I'm not sure those count as dystopian though.

In recent years I've read Ninteen Eighty Four (George Orwell), Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), and in the last month Lord of the Flies (William Golding) and The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood). The latter two were very enjoyable. With the former two, their reputation was so great that the novels themselves left me a bit flat

In short, I'm a rookie.

Which have you liked and why do you like them? Thanks :)

[Spindrift]

I agree with you on Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World. Dystopian works by definition can be depressing and can be a tough read.

More a post-apocalyptic novel but try "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller.

[JSmith]

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis -- "Buzz" Windrip is elected president in 1936 and quickly transforms America into a fascist state. Buzz doesn't last long thanks to his ambitious cronies, but freedom never returns to America. In Lewis' vision, American fascism has that good-old-boy flavor; his tyrants aren't the humorless serious types like Big Brother. Instead they're down-to-earth, folksy people. Think of car salesmen who have complete power over you.

Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov -- Adam Krug is a philosopher in a nation torn apart by civil war. One of Krug's classmates, the Toad, takes power, and uses his resources to get Krug's public support of the new regime. Nabokov wrote a serious dystopian novel with plenty of humorous swipes at bureaucracies. The Toad shouldn't have any problem breaking Krug except for the bureaucractic incompetency of Toad's regime.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury -- in the near future firemen don't extinguish fires, they burn books instead. Guy Montag is a fireman who enjoys his job until he has a change of heart and becomes a fugitive reader. Who needs books when there's constant electronic entertainment? Why think when you can amuse yourself all the time?

Mockingbird by Walter Tevis -- this book's part dystopia, part apocalypse. In the future robots do everything for us. Humanity is freed from drudgery so we can stay high. Spofford is a self-aware robot that oversees his mechanical brethren. Spofford wants to die, but he can't because he's programmed to take care of all humanity. His way around his programming was to add contraceptives to all the narcotics. A pair of humans who aren't interested in getting high meet and try to bring humanity back. I recommend this book because I liked the idea of an apocalypse brought about through indolence.

If you have an interest in apocalyptic fiction, I can make some more recommendations. These books should keep you busy for a while, though ...

Happy reading,
Jason

[Pope130]

Two off my favorite "End of the World as We Know it" novels are Pat Frank's "Alas Babylon" and John Christoper's "No Blade of Grass".

"Alas Babylon" is a nuclear war story set in Florida in 1959. It's not only a very realistic look at the aftermath of the collapse of society but also a fascinating view of American society of 1959.

"No Blade of Grass" is set in Britain in the late 1960's or early '70's. The apocalyptic event is the emergence of a plant virus that destroys grass. That includes the cereal grains (rice, wheat, maize and so on). It's a darker and more violent story, but also quite convincing. It was made as a movie, good 'B' grade in quality. It's hard to find here in unedited form.

Robert Klaus

[jimbob]

Basically my school reading list, I think the most optimistic book we studied was Farenheit 451...

[jimbob]

Pope130, "Death of Grass" by John Christopher?

Also on my school reading list...

[Pope130]

Pope130, "Death of Grass" by John Christopher?

Also on my school reading list...

Jimbob,
Yes, "No Blade..." is the North American title, I should have noted that in my post. Incidentally, the movie has Wendy Richard ("Are You Being Served" and "Eastenders") in her only appearance as a brunet.

Robert Klaus

[G-K-4]

I'm interested in any recommendations/synopses that anyone has, since I have a broad interest in this genre, but have not read very much of it at all, and am daunted by the long list of works out there.

...

Which have you liked and why do you like them? Thanks :)

I've read most of the same dystopian classics that you have, and then some. I like this genre and its siblings.

H.G. Wells took a stab at it in The Sleeper Awakes. Jules Verne wrote a novel called Paris in the Twentieth Century which isn't really a dystopia, except it is for the protagonist. Jack London's The Iron Heel is pretty grim. At this point it's more of an alternate future novel, but that is definitely a dystopia. One other which I have heard recommended but not yet read is We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

If you're not averse to graphic novels, try Alan Moore's V for Vendetta. (The book is better than the movie.) For a short story I really recommend "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. I read that in seventh grade and I still think about it. And if you haven't seen Terry Gilliam's film Brazil yet, do so. Make sure you get the "Final Cut", from the Criterion DVD, and not, not, not the "love conquers all" version.

Have you ever read any of the "ambiguous utopias"? These are novels that describe a "utopian" or at least "better" society but don't ignore the flaws, conflicts, and human limitations that make fiction interesting. They often contrast two different societies, one being the not-quite-utopia, and the other being a dystopian analog or descendant of our own society.

Classics include The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin and Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing is also probably another example, but if you're posting to the JREF you'd probably find that book rather "woo". I might also place Kim Stanley Robinson's California Trilogy in the "ambiguous utopia" category (as a set), but these books are more often categorized as "ecological fiction" or "California fiction".

Some people also consider Iain M. Bank's "Culture" novels to be ambiguous utopias, but I've only read a couple of them and am not sure myself. The main character in Consider Phlebas fights against the Culture's utopia, and in the novella "State of the Art" there is a lot of internal disagreement within a Culture spacecraft crew about what the good life really is.

I hope that these are some useful recommendations. Happy reading!

[Francesca R]

*Oh wow this forum is awesome sometimes*

Thanks so much / so far all :)

[jimbob]

Actually there was one book that wasn't dystopian/apocalyptic that we studied at school:

"To kill a mockingbird".

Good book, but not exactly a happy ending.

[Magenta]

One other which I have heard recommended but not yet read is We by Yevgeny Zamyatin.


I've read and would also recommend We. It's similar to Nineteen Eighty-Four but was written in the 1920s.

How about Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (filmed as Blade Runner)

[Georg]

Fatherland (http://www.amazon.com/Fatherland-Robert-Harris/dp/0061006629)

by Robert Harris.

[brodski]

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, the book that kick started the modern genre.
ETA beaten to it...

Although not, to my mind, strictly within the dystopian genre (it's in now way sci-fi nor futuristic), I'd also recommend darkness at noon by Arthur Koestler, a fascinating examination of the mindset of a totalitarian regime, and beautifully written.

And whilst we're stretching the boundaries, get copy of the script of Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco (there was a fantastic new translation recently commissioned by the Royal Court theater)

[blobru]

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, the book that kick started the modern genre.
ETA beaten to it... ...And whilst we're stretching the boundaries, get copy of the script of Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco (there was a fantastic new translation recently commissioned by the Royal Court theater)

Toss in Kafka as an absurdist who wrote borderline dystopias -- dystopia as pointless bureaucracy -- The Castle being a fair example.

We is probably my favorite novel in any genre. Citizens as numbers sounds such a cliche, but it seems original here, part of the mad logic of the book, which reads like a blank verse diary. Mirra Ginsburg translation recommended.

Stanislaw Lem, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub (apparently based on a Victorian-era dystopian[?] work, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by James De Mille). Writing in Communist-era Poland, Lem no doubt got to know dystopia close up.

The worlds in several of Philip K Dick's stories could be classified as dystopias. Clans of the Alphane Moon is the oddest I think, almost a satire on the genre, about a "utopia" where each citizen's mental illness determines his or her class.

Of course the great-granddaddy of the genre, though technically not a novel, is Plato's Republic, in its own way more interesting, and frightening, than anything that followed, given that it is conceived as a utopia (that I can't imagine anyone would want to live in) and its subsequent influence on political theory and history.

[brodski]

Of course the great-granddaddy of the genre, though technically not a novel, is Plato's Republic, in its own way more interesting, and frightening, than anything that followed, given that it is conceived as a utopia (that I can't imagine anyone would want to live in) and its subsequent influence on political theory and history.

If we include Republic then we are all really missing the obvious, Utopia by Thomas More.

[blobru]

If we include Republic then we are all really missing the obvious, Utopia by Thomas More.

Sure.

In some ways, I find the philosophical utopias way scarier than the literary dystopias; the authors of the latter realize the society they are describing only seems perfect to the powerful and/or delusional characters in the story, and that their utopia, the very idea of utopia, is tragically flawed; the authors of the former don't.

It's the same feeling I get when people I've just met smile of a sudden and want to tell me "the most wonderful secret in the world", and hand me a pamphlet with a bearded man on the cover, gazing at the horizon.

[brodski]

In some ways, I find the philosophical utopias way scarier than the literary dystopias; the authors of the latter realize the society they are describing only seems perfect to the powerful and/or delusional characters in the story, and that their utopia, the very idea of utopia, is tragically flawed; the authors of the former don't.


Quite, that's what's so scary about the works of Anne Rand (acutely, her prose is what's really scary, I would add some of her works to the list, but I wouldn't want to dignify them with the label literature. ;)

[DmKrispin]

I liked Psion, Catspaw, and Dreamfall by Joan D. Vinge. The stories center around Cat, an outcast half-human psion orphaned as a child and left to fend for himself in the abysmal underbelly of an otherwise prosperous and enlightened society. You got dystopian social commentary, entertaining sci-fi, interesting characters, solid story-lines, and people who can do way cool stuff with their psychic powers! (also a little sex, drugs, and politics thrown in for good measure)

[Pope130]

Since we're including older dystopias, I'll mention an obscure one. Jules Verne's "The Begum's Fortune". A large bequest (the titular "fortune") is to be used to create an ideal model society. Germans and French disagree on how to carry this out, so agree to disagree, and create two working models. They set up in Oregon (that's how I first got interested, not much fiction set in my home state).

The Germans create a very dark, controlled, industrial society. The French colony is very open, beautiful and filled with art and music.

The French colony sounds much better, until you notice that the homes, music and art all mandated by the governing council. It's the 'light' side of dictatorship, but dictatorship nonetheless.

Robert

[Gregory]

Jennifer Government is a huge amount of fun, although much more humorous than most of the books being recommended. It's also dissimilar from a lot of them in that it features a government with two little power--the world is essentially run by various businesses and corporations, with no one with the power to reign them in, and the results are very grim (or they would be, if the book weren't so funny).

[mhaze]

The movie.

Idiocracy.

Since like, you are talking about reading, and like, that's a bummer.

[Alt+F4]

Jennifer Government is a huge amount of fun, although much more humorous than most of the books being recommended. It's also dissimilar from a lot of them in that it features a government with two little power--the world is essentially run by various businesses and corporations, with no one with the power to reign them in, and the results are very grim (or they would be, if the book weren't so funny).

I'll second this. Great book.

[chapka]

I enjoyed Philip Roth's The Plot Against America; a sort of alternate-history dystopia.

Of course, it all depends on your definition of "dystopian." One of my favorite novels, The Way We Live Now, is set in the author's own society but shows the workings of that society in a dystopian way.

[Darth Rotor]

Farenheit 451

Ender's Game

Neuromancer

1984

Brave New World

Logan's Run



DR

[juniper_ann]

The Giver by Lois Lowry

[Fiona]

Not sure if it fits here but I would add The Plague ( La Peste) by Albert Camus

[Tricky]

One of my favorites is Earth by David Brin. It is a near-future sci-fi novel that extrapolates a lot of present trends such as global warming and reduced privacy. Still sci-fi, but with a whole lot to chew on.

[zooterkin]

Darth Rotor beat me to the recommendation of Logan's Run. Just to be clear, this is the original novel, by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, published in 1967, rather than a novelisation (if there was one) of the film, which only took some basic elements from the original.

ETA: There's also a recent series of books set in a future where the world is run by China, and most of the Earth's surface is covered by a continuous city. I read the first two or three, but didn't feel like continuing. It was, I think, focusing mostly on the politics, and perhaps the history of how the Chinese came to be in power, but the society was fairly dystopian for the average member of the population. Unfortunately, I can't remember the author (though I think he was British or American) or the title of any of the books, and googling has not jogged any memories. (I'll look next time I'm in the local library, if I remember, and no-one else recognises the description.)

[Wudang]

The Syndic by Cyril Kornbluth
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Incompetence by Rob Grant
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
Market Forces by Richard Morgan

[thesyntaxera]

No mention of Philip K. Dick yet?!?

(quotes from amazon and wiki)

Radio Free Albemuth-
It recounts the friendship of two California men, Nicholas Brady, a record store clerk and later a record company executive, and Philip K. Dick, a writer. During the several decades spanned by the novel, America slides into fascism, particularly under the presidency of Ferris F. Fremont, who comes into office in 1969. Once entrenched, Fremont begins tossing dissidents into camps and in some cases executing them. Brady, meanwhile, has been receiving communications from a Godlike intelligence which he dubs Valis (an idea the author utilized previously in Valis). Valis guides Brady in the secrets of the universe, in the conduct of his life, and in a plot to bring down the monstrous Fremont, a cause to which Brady is finally martyred. This bleak political vision is given extra force by its autobiogrphical tone. Though not one of Dick's best novels, it is an engrossing, non-stop excursion into a believable vision of Hell.

Flow my tears, the policeman said-
The novel is set in a dystopian future United States, albeit one which is entering a post-totalitarian era with prospects of future democratic reform. Set in a then-future 1988, it extrapolates events from the late sixties and early seventies. These culminated in a "Second Civil War", also called the "Insurrection", which led to the collapse of democratic institutions in the United States and elsewhere. The National Guard ("nats") and US police force ("pols") re-established social order through instituting a dictatorship, with a "Director" at the apex, and police marshals and generals as operational commanders in the field. Compulsory sterilization of African Americans has sharply reduced their population, and increased their social status. By comparison, radicalised former university students eke out a desperate existence in subterranean kibbutz communes. However, there appears to be no social barriers to the use of recreational drugs in this future, nor are some forms of paedophilia a crime.

Do androids dream of electric sheep?-
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" takes place in 1992 (in later publications, it takes place in 2021) several years after the fallout resulting from "World War Terminus" destroyed much of Earth. In the aftermath, the United Nations encourages people to emigrate to off-world colonies to preserve the human race from the effects of the radioactive dust.
The people who remain on Earth live in cluttered cities where radiation poisoning causes significant illness and gene damage. All animals are endangered. Owning and caring for an animal is considered a civic virtue and a status symbol, depending on the rarity of the species. Animals are bought and sold according to the price of the latest Sidney's Catalog, including extinct animals (listed as 'E') and animals currently unavailable on the market (listed in italics at the last going price). Some people who cannot afford an animal choose to buy an artificial, robotic animal to maintain social standing. The protagonist Rick Deckard owned a sheep, which died of tetanus and was replaced by an electric replica to maintain the illusion of animal ownership. Deckard, an active bounty hunter for the San Francisco Police Department, prepares for a typical work day. He feeds his electric sheep as usual to prevent his neighbor from suspecting its true nature. Meanwhile, his wife spends her days at home under the influence of the empathy box and mood organ.

At the police station Deckard learns that the active senior hunter Dave Holden has been incapacitated by a Nexus-6, the most advanced and humanistic type of android created to date. Deckard is chosen to find the six remaining Nexus-6 models in the San Francisco area. His superior asks him to travel to the Seattle headquarters of the Rosen Corporation, the makers of the Nexus-6, to confirm that the Voigt-Kampff test will work on the new model. There he meets Rachael Rosen, a sharp-tongued, dark-haired woman who claims to be the company heiress.


There are many, but those are some of the ones that jump out at me.

[rats]

I nth Philip K. Dick.

If you enjoyed Handmaid's Tale you'll probably also like Oryx and Crake.

I haven't read any yet, but apparently J. G. Ballard mostly writes about dystopian societies.

[Almo]

Yeah, the real version of Brazil. Though I'm aware the OP wants books. :) I was pretty impressed by 1984, and its prescient nature. Interestingly, bits of Brazil are taken from 1984, like when the kid attacks Winston. There's a similar scene.

I'd say Catch-22 is one that hasn't been mentioned. It's pretty grim.

[Francesca R]

And if you haven't seen Terry Gilliam's film Brazil yet, do so. Make sure you get the "Final Cut", from the Criterion DVD, and not, not, not the "love conquers all" version.

Yeah, the real version of Brazil. Though I'm aware the OP wants books.I have seen Brazil a few times. I don't know which version, but I helped run the students' film society at uni and we put it in the schedule a couple of years running (which meant receiving a delivery of massively heavy 35mm reels and carting them over to our trusty projector in the lecture hall)

I did really struggle with it though. Not that it wasn't a very well done film, but I couldn't personally make dystopia and comedy mix. It actually made me shudder in several parts, right from the opening "arrest" scene of Tuttle/Buttle whomever. So I wouldn't be looking for more of that. But thanks for highlighting it anyway, and returning the memory :)

[Macoy]

Not to overlook the not-late great Harry Harrison:

'Make Room! Make Room!'

ETA And pretty much anything by John Brunner.

[thesyntaxera]

If you liked Donnie Darko...check out:

Southland Tales-The prequel saga(read these first)
http://www.amazon.com/Southland-Tales-Prequel-Richard-Kelly/dp/0936211806/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206638915&sr=8-2

and then watch the film:
Southland Tales
http://www.amazon.com/Southland-Tales-Carlos-Amezcua/dp/B0011VIO3W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1206638915&sr=8-1

El Paso and Abilene, Texas have fallen victim to twin nuclear attacks on July 4, 2005 – a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions which sent America into war. The PATRIOT Act has been upgraded to a new agency known as US-IDent, which keeps constant tabs on citizens – even to the extent of censoring the internet and using fingerprints in order to access computers and bank accounts. In order to be able to respond to a newfound fuel shortage, the German company Treer designs a generator of inexhaustible energy which is propelled by ocean currents, entitled "Fluid Karma." Unbeknownst to them, the generators alter the currents and cause the Earth to spiral out of control through space, ripping holes in the fabric of space and time.

In Los Angeles, a city on the brink of chaos, we follow the criss-crossed destinies of Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson), an action film actor stricken with amnesia; Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), ex-porn star in the midst of reconverting; and twin brothers Roland and Ronald Taverner (both played by Seann William Scott), whose destinies – on one evening – become intertwined with that of all mankind.

[jimbob]

Not to overlook the not-late great Harry Harrison:

'Make Room! Make Room!'


He's actually a pretty sharp political cartoonist too.

I found that out this year, when the Guardian's "view from..." was one of his cartoons for the South China post...

[Jeff Corey]

Not to overlook the not-late great Harry Harrison:

'Make Room! Make Room!'
"Soylent green is people" Charleton Heston on a good day. Otherwise he would have eaten Michael Moore. Not all at once, of course.

ETA And pretty much anything by John Brunner.
The Sheep Look up. Did it the style of Dos Passos's USA.

[Rrose Selavy]

No mention of Philip K. Dick yet?!?



.

Phillip K Dick was mentioned back in Post #11

http://forums.randi.org/showpost.php?p=3544511&postcount=11

I never read the book it was based on but a really scary film for me at the time was "Colossus: the Forbin Project"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project

[Rrose Selavy]

Dup post due to slow site loading.

[Rrose Selavy]

Dup post due to slow site loading.

[Rrose Selavy]

Dup post due to slow site loading.

[Rrose Selavy]

Dup post due to slow loading.

[jimbob]

It's an interesting post, but not so good that I want to see it four times...
:duck:

[Rrose Selavy]

It's an interesting post, but not so good that I want to see it four times...
:duck:

That's because this site, but no others I tried at the same time, was hanging before loading for several minutes but my post wasn't showing up either. Neither can I now see a way to delete the extra ones.

[Almo]

I have seen Brazil a few times. I don't know which version, but I helped run the students' film society at uni and we put it in the schedule a couple of years running (which meant receiving a delivery of massively heavy 35mm reels and carting them over to our trusty projector in the lecture hall)

I did really struggle with it though. Not that it wasn't a very well done film, but I couldn't personally make dystopia and comedy mix. It actually made me shudder in several parts, right from the opening "arrest" scene of Tuttle/Buttle whomever. So I wouldn't be looking for more of that. But thanks for highlighting it anyway, and returning the memory :)

Yeah, it was creepy, and I don't find it funny. It's such a good depiction of paranoia. The difference in endings is

The part where Lowry is sentenced and billed for his interrogation is missing from the theatrical print. Also, at the very end when Lowry is either dead or brain-dead, the theatrical fades to clouds and sky (as if he's escaped, at least in his mind) while the real version just leaves him bleakly in the silo.

[jimbob]

Rrose, I was feeling facetious, hope you didn't mind...

I also have that ptoblem sometimes

[Rrose Selavy]

Rrose, I was feeling facetious, hope you didn't mind...


No. Course not. It's just frustrating when it happens and you can't delete the excess posts. Just trying to cover myself so I don't look like a complete Newbie to this interweb thing.

[bruto]

Margaret Atwood has done a couple of dystopias. The Handmaid's Tale puts power in the hands of a military theocracy in a time of drastically reduced fertility; Oryx and Crake gives us genetic engineering and giant corporations.

[boooeee]

The Children of Men - I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet. I saw the movie first, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book at all (there's significant difference between the two).

[Mark6]

"Titan" by Stephen Baxter. US becomes a fundie dictatorship, followed by end of human race, with four or five people orbiting Saturn watching it in full knowledge they are last humans alive. About as depressing as it gets.

"Killing Stars" by Charles Pellegrino. The only alien invasion novel I ever found REALLY scary. In part because it is the only one in which genocidal aliens actually have rational reasons, and act accordingly.

[Sandy M]

I was going to suggest Stewart's (?) "Earth Abides," but I guess that's more post-apocalyptic than dystopian.

[Francesca R]

Margaret Atwood has done a couple of dystopias. The Handmaid's Tale puts power in the hands of a military theocracy in a time of drastically reduced fertility; Oryx and Crake gives us genetic engineering and giant corporations.Well I enjoyed The Handmaid's Tale, so that other one sounds like a buy. Thanks.

[Piscivore]

I love "The Handmaid's Tale". I've read it three times.

I've just started re-reading "Mockingbird", I enthusiatically second that one too. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and "Fahrenheit 451" as well.

One I haven't seen mentioned yet is "The Age of the Pussyfoot" by Frederik Pohl.

Stanislaw Lem, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub

I thought I was the only one who had read that.

[Vanda]

I'd say Catch-22 is one that hasn't been mentioned. It's pretty grim.


Catch-22 - grim and hilarious! I love that book, and I think the screenplay was very good as well.

[Vanda]

Many of Kurt Vonnegut's novels have dystopian themes.

[Matt the Poet]

Nobody's mentioned John Brunner yet.

While he did put out a lot of hackwork, his trio of differently flavoured dystopias are pretty strong stuff. The environmental catastrophes of The Sheep Look Up (and the bitter politics surrounding them) are looking more and more prescient by the decade, The Shockwave Rider anticipated cyberpunk by a good 10 years and Stand on Zanzibar is notable for being a clear attempt at a dystopia that actually turned out considerably nicer than the world we live in now.


One of my favorites is Earth by David Brin. It is a near-future sci-fi novel that extrapolates a lot of present trends such as global warming and reduced privacy. Still sci-fi, but with a whole lot to chew on.

Dystopia? Really? The lack of privacy is considered, by most characters in the book, a tiny price to pay for the ability to discover and stop the rich, selfish bastards who are ruining the world, and national differences seem to have been overcome in favour of an environmentally enlightened global politics geared towards hi-tech, low-impact mitigation strategies. I don't know if you have a copy with Brin's afterword in it, but he's pretty clear that he was trying to create the best of all plausible futures

[Charlie Monoxide]

Margaret Atwood has done a couple of dystopias. The Handmaid's Tale puts power in the hands of a military theocracy in a time of drastically reduced fertility; Oryx and Crake gives us genetic engineering and giant corporations.I'll second you on both of these Atwood books (which I read in the last year). I didn't quite like the ending of Handmaid's Tale, but really enjoyed the story premise and character depth.

Oryx and Crake can be a bit confusing at first, but is well worth sticking it out. It is kind of a "backwards written" story. I'm sure there's a literary term for that.

Being a Canuck, Atwood makes me proud ...

Charlie (typical jingoistic Canadian) Monoxide

[Jon.]

You might also want to try Philip Kerr's The Second Angel - a future society where a blood-borne disease has made clean blood the currency of the privileged.