I’m a big fan of cyber-punk and related sci-fi genres, but a consistent theme is population growth/overpopulation.
Are there any good sci-fi books that feature a decline in population as a key storytelling element? Not specifically looking for a post apocalyptic book where an event reduces population, but more a slow decline or the lack of population is a key element of the storytelling/world-building.
by PoopSmoothies
6 Comments
The Handmaid’s Tale by M. Atwood, We by Y. Zamyatin, and The Dispossessed by U. Le Guin (maybe less for the last two but kinda same vein in that kids are rare)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick (the book Blade DlRunner is based on) has a pretty significant decayed population
Children of Men.
Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn
It is driven by a specific event, but…. The End of Men is a very interesting novel. It’s core plot driver is that the population of men declines dramatically in fairly short order. Very interesting viewpoint that I have not seen done elsewhere.
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Every environment in this book was clearly built for *way* more people than are currently living there, but the reasons vary a lot. The lack of people is not something directly pointed out in the story, but it’s always there in the background.