I love dystopia, of all sorts. But feel like I’m at a loss of finding new ones. Some of my favourites have been:
Oryx and drake
Handmaids tale
I who has never known men
Lord of the flies
World war Z
The diary of a midwife
Moths
I do truly love zombies but there isn’t much around that’s well written. I’m a voracious reader so forgive me if I’ve read your recommendation but it’s always handy for someone looking for something!
by pocketfullofuranium
29 Comments
Blindness by Jose Saramago
The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe by D. G Compton
The Doloriad by Missouri Williams
*Dreamsnake* by Vonda McIntyre is a feminist dystopian novel about a woman who is trekking across a post-apocalyptic wasteland — or maybe another planet, it’s never really made clear — to find a replacement for her alien dreamsnake. She uses her three pet snakes to heal people, feeding them special concoctions that cause the snakes to synthesize medicines in place of their venom and inject it with their bites.
If you’re looking for a more literary take on zombies, you might like *Zone One* by Colson Whitehead. It’s about a guy who volunteers as part of the civilian effort to clear the last few zombies out of Manhattan — now referred to as “Zone One” — in order to make it habitable again. Colson Whitehead went on to win a Pulitzer for his later work.
You may also want to check out some older dystopian sci-fi. The obvious picks are great — *Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World,* & *1984 –* but I also highly recommend the largely-forgotten *Space Merchants.* Great book, terrible title. It’s not about selling stuff in space — it’s about a hyper-capitalist future where corporations have fully replaced governments. It follows a protagonist who used to be part of the upper echelon of what he thought was a clean and orderly society as he is suddenly thrown down to the level of the average worker.
If you’re open to short stories, you might try Cyril Kornbluth’s *With These Hands,* a sci-fi short story about the aesthetics, economics, and ethics of AI art, which was somehow written in *1955.*
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner is a bleak and frightening novel of ecological catastrophe.
my favourite is and oldie….the Children of Men
Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
The Last Hour of Gann. Please give this book a try. It has bad cover art and is misclassified as scifi romance, but it is one of the best scifi horrors I’ve ever read, includes 2 dystopian worlds, earth being in the early stages, and will haunt you forever. There are trigger warnings for sure.
The enemy series
It’s ya but it’s a tough read and I don’t think it’s like most ya at all
The Postman by David Brin – written in the ’80s but there was a 2020 revision.
Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
Both feeling a little prescient at the moment.
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
Basically anything by Jesse Ball
Blackfish City by Sam J Miller
What We Can Know by Ian McEwen
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. No zombies, but an interesting take on dystopian society
Here is a version that happens at the first of a situation
Moon of the Crusted Snow Waubgeshig Rice
One of the best books I have read this year. It’s a unique take on the post apocalyptic story, based on a reservation in Canada. I suggest the audio book
Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
Justin Cronin wrote a series that starts with The Passage – they have vampires, not zombies, but they might suit you. I enjoyed them a lot.
It’s an older book but Day of the Triffids is different than most. A man goes in for eye surgery and when he wakes up most of the world is blind, and also Russia bioengineered killer plants!
The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks Dalton!
The Dog Stars
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Zone One by Colson Whitehead. Excellent book with a zombie apocalypse. Quite possibly the best writing I’ve seen in a book in this genre. Plus it has a great story.
The Girl With All The Gifts
I read *The Chrysalids* in school… I remember loving it as a teenager. Might pick up a copy to read again just out of interest.
Wanderers by Chuck Wendig-2 parts I’m about 2/3 thru first. Love it
Flowers for Algernon
Never Let Me Go
The Stand
The Power by Naomi Alderman is not about zombies but it’s a little like Atwood, and it’s really good. The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey was really good and a really interesting look at zombies
When She Woke is really good. It’s a dystopian re-imagining of the scarlet letter about a society where “criminals” are turned yellow, orange or red based on their crime. It follows a teen girl who is turned red for having an abortion.
A boy and his dog at the end of the world by Charlie Fletcher. I finished it recently. Very good end of the world tale. Highly recommend!
Children of Men the book is really good, then watch the movie because the cinematography is incredible. Plus there’s a video essay about the movie called Don’t Ignore the Background which was interesting.
Sarah Lyons Fleming writes zom poc that are my favorite books
Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh