Have only read the first three... Brave New World was the most meticulously thought out of the societies though. It is also without a doubt the most likely future society of the dystopias we might find ourselves living in... Huxley even wrote an essay in the 60s (30 years after writing the book) about how much society can become like the world depicted in BNW...

BaldFriede wrote: JJLehto wrote: Sadly, I never read "We" and I never even heard of that last one  But out of the 3 I have read it has to go to 1984. Great story. I liked Fahrenheit 451 as well and Brave New World....meh. I was not a fan. Unfortunately Lem is very little known in English speaking countries because a lot of his work has not been translated into English yet. The situation is different for Germany; most of Lem's works have been translated into German, and he is zhighly regarded here. Many of his works have nothing whatever to do with SF though, but all are typically Lem, which means he discusses certain topics in a thought-provoking way.

English readers aren't aware of Stanislaw Lem ? What a pity, I've read about 5-6 books by him and have to say that Solaris and Tales of Pirx the Pilot are amongst my most favourite ones.

However, if something is dystopia, it's Nineteen eighty-four

And by my opinion, Blade Runner isn't Dystopia. Not so much, when compared to others.

clarke2001 wrote: Fiasco is depressive. But it's a great book anyway! ^^As for Blade Runner Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? it's showing dystopian elements while clearly belonging to the cyberpunk; dystopias are often intersected with other SF subgenres, be it hard SF (Clarke's 'City and The Stars'), new wave (Walter J. Miller Jr.'s 'Canticle for Leibowitz' - great novel!), even alternative history - Robert Harris' 'Fatherland' is set-up in world where Hitler won - but it's just a tool for a detective story, and only marginally dystopia/science-fiction, in a same way space opera Star Wars are knights, dragons and wizards in SF disguise. But I'm off the subject. However, I must metion THX 1138, Lucas' dystopian movie; as far as I know the screenplay was never rendered to a novel. A great piece if you like archetypal dystopia.

By the way Moris, have a good luck with installing Linux. And MAKE Swap. I didn't and have problems to do now. There are guides, but I don't understand them. So I suffer.

Yep, Androids are half CP, half DT (not Theater), but CP without matrix, hacking, neuro implants, it's lacking something. This is why I didn't think about it as prog.

But I simply like alternate histories. For example in as Fried mentioned, The Man In the High Castle, reality when Hitler & Hirohito won the war and USA is not so much free, there is one pulp author, who writes a book about how it would be, when Hitler lose the war. Simply brilliant. 

Oh and from Harry Turtledove's wiki page:

wikipedia wrote: The Master of Alternate History" Turtledove has been dubbed "The Master of Alternate History". Within that genre he is known both for creating original alternate history scenarios such as survival of the Byzantine Empire or an alien invasion in the middle of the Second World War and for giving a fresh and original treatment to themes previously dealt with by many others, such as the victory of the South in the American Civil War and of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. His novels have been credited with bringing alternate history into the mainstream. His style of alternate history has a strong military theme with scenes of combat happening throughout many of his works.

Kotro wrote: Only read the first three, Fahrenheit 451 being my pick out of those. Some good suggestions here.   I also enjoyed Max Barry's Jennifer Government and, if graphic novels count, the amazing Moore/Lloyd work V for Vendetta.

Yes, V for Vendetta is for sure interesting. As is a lot of Alan Moore's work.

Thanks Moris, I'll go for it. I already read one book by F.Pohl in collaboration (Merchants with Space, or something like that), but do not remember it well. I was 11 then :- / with 1984 14, with City & Stars 13 ...

This is a problem, I've read all these classics when I was very young. Reading book isn't like listening album, it's far more hard. And you can't do anything while reading. Maybe eating. Yes, I eat all the times :-)-

Now, prepare your souls for upcoming post of gargantuic size (really big), but let's just enjoy it. It's my epitaph (confusion ...)

So here is promised post, I've been doing some research, some of my thoughts, ideas, opinions, knowledge etc... enjoy

I'll give you some examples of what I like. It's not just Dystopia-like universe, but I'm sure you won't mind, as long as it's good.

Seems like you woke my INNER SCI-FI / FANTASY geek >:- )

Raff Yes, it has Dystopian elements, but I wanted to say that 1984 is simply way beyond all other Dystopias for me. But I have few pictures (not just) for you :-)


However, that doesn't matter much. You're right that generally speaking, Do Androids (perfect book)



and Blade Runner (such an atmospheric movie) are good examples too.



P.K.Dick Talking about Dystopic things, almost everything by this author is in dark future. Or current time reality (more like 40-50 years ago, as by current I mean his reality when he wrote it), fear of nuclear war from his era etc .... Really, I've read 12 of his books (all translated to Czech) and have to say - go for him.

Canticle on Leibowitz :-) who knows this little gem. World after nuclear catastrophe.



And even Lem hated Harlan Ellison, I'll add something by him: I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM (he's screaming you know). Short story, maybe twenty pages, but it's so thrilling in a very horror sense of this word. From eponymous game. Also another gem of atmospheric gaming. These two will give you creeps for sure.



And also quite apocalyptic society.



Fried, the novel you mentioned I once read. Very special one, as it's so damn ... sinister (what if are like that often) and also it's PKD non sci-fi, which is quite ... weird (OK, it's OK, because he was weird, we like his stories to be weird)



To this, I have one contribution: Frantisek Novotny - Dlouhy den valhaly (long day of valhalla), it's seven parts (each 500 pages) story about Nazis who won WW2 with unholy mystic powers of old vikings. Really fantastic, can just recommend



War demons with regular people. Now, living in Dystopic world, threatened by powers beyond imagination, Human is on extinct



Umm, what society is DUNE ?



Prime example of CYBERPUNK, but basically it's also Dystopia



A Clockwork Orange is basically Dystopia, isn't it ? Or maybe mild Dystopia.







Source is my list of read books:

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs28/f/2008/075/0/3/Read_books__2008_03_14_by_marty_plzen.png - http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs28/f/2008/075/0/3/Read_books__2008_03_14_by_marty_plzen.png

& Some listal.com, Top 32 Dystopian NOVELS:

http://www.listal.com/list/dystopian-novels - http://www.listal.com/list/dystopian-novels
Top 50 Dystopian movies, also worth of checking. How many you've seen :-)

http://www.listal.com/list/top-50-dystopian-movies-all - http://www.listal.com/list/top-50-dystopian-movies-all

I also like this list, seen it a year ago:

http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/the-top-50-dystopian-movies-of-all-time/ - http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/the-top-50-dystopian-movies-of-all-time/

And good old wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_films - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_films
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_literature - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_literature

Neuromancer wasn't easy reading for me and also, it isn't my most beloved book, but it's a good one. Added that it's understood as "father" of a genre, it has its historical value too. I like cyberpunk.

http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/cyberpunk-movies-by-decade/ - http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/cyberpunk-movies-by-decade/

This page can provide interesting information. I remember, about two years ago, how keen on these things I was. Now, prog rock reigns ;-)

But Dune, that's different case. I like it, I love it. I've read most of Czech released Herbert's work (including 5/6 Dune novels, except Saviour of Dune, which I wasn't able to pass through) & his son's, Brian Herbert's Dune-expanded and explained universe, which makes it in total 5+6.

Of course, my Dune voyage began with this:

Umm, what exactly didn't you like about Dune ? I can understand Neuromancer, I myself wasn't so interested (average, average + value), but with Dune, this book has special place in my life. I remember, six years (or seven) ago, when I had strong fever, wasn't able to do anything, just lie in my bed.

I realized that I have some Dune books near bed. I took them, opened and read. 

Le Guin, seems like it's a good writer. We shouldn't take Lem so much seriously in these views. Yes, good writer, but old-schooled in a bad way of this word - rejecting a lot of good, new things. I like American sci-fi for example. Except pulp ones.

But ... Perry Rhodan, I've read almost 1.000 issues of this ... pulp :-D it was so readable, so promising and interesting. Then.

First I "read" this when I was 6-8 (something like that), in comic form

And actually, I never read whole book. I wanted to, but this does not matter at all, as I heard dozens of analyses, people talking about it. :-D I even heard one guy re-telling it from memory, almost word to word. It's like the best from "compulsory" writers (Jan Neruda, Alois Jirásek, Božena Němcová, these from 19th century and many others). Čapek is different. He's like PROTO-SCI-FI

Really some beautiful artworks from upcoming MOVIE (yes, shocking, after all these years). It will be Czech movie though, as Karel Čapek is taken as some kind of national hero here. He's very good writer (if you have slight chance to read him, then try to do it, as it's something ... unique).

For me, probably the best Czech writer. Except Jiří Kulhánek of course, but that's another case (since 1990's, he writer brutal fantasy/sci-fi combination of humorous, un-charismatic superhero fighting with even bigger threats, reflecting modern society ... everything is dripped in satiric, surreal, insane way that I simply love)

http://kultura.idnes.cz/valka-s-mloky-ma-slibny-zacatek-podivejte-se-na-vytvarne-navrhy-psq-/filmvideo.asp?c=A091126_235420_filmvideo_jaz

Hope you can read it Moris. If not (and for others), try to use translator if you're interested.

And of course, War With Newts was some kind of warning signal that Nazi Germany is growing stronger and stronger. Karel Čapek died shortly after ... Well, WW2 started with, if not annexation of Austria, then when Germany stole our borderlands (actually, about 33% of our land). Never mind, I don't want to go into political discussion if not necessary, there's too much to say, but you probably already know it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_Čapek#Life_and_work

I wanted to quote something, but there's too much information that I'll just leave you his page. Worth reading. He's like Genesis of Czech writers.

And your second point - I think that Post-apocalyptic, Dystopic, Utopic (some people argue that Brave New World is utopia in some elements ... interesting opinion), Cyberpunk are very similar. Intelligent sci-fi, as opposed to

James wrote: Only read Brave New World and We so far.  I have Fahrenheit 451 to read soon.  Out of those two, I prefer We (although the translation I read annoyed me a little). Another Dystopia I want to read is Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence.  This is a post-apocalyptic novel.

I've just  saw Pandorum. Even it's sci-fi survival horror, it can be taken as a little bit Dystopia. After all, they're last humans left in universe.