Gattaca.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I thought the book was far better than the movie (Bladerunner).

quote:

Originally posted by Crom:

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

I find it (Atlas Shrugged) to be a book full of good ideas, but a terrible book to read. Rand is verbose, pedantic and repetitive in the extreme. Plus, her prose is about as exciting as cold oatmeal. She needed a strong editor and some writing talent.

Again - good ideas, but a terrible novel.

That's almost exactly the way I felt. In fact, I would be a little more harsh. I simply couldn't finish the book.
I like Rand's philosophy when clearly stated, but simply couldn't "get it" from the book.

I liked Brave New World, because, if you think about it, it is not really "dystopian". You really can just go to Tahiti! No reason for anyone to have any unpleasantries in any way.

Whew! Now I don't have to read that behemoth!

quote:

Originally posted by fpuhan:

quote:

Originally posted by detroit192:
Hmmm, most of those listed I would characterize as Apocolyptic not Dystopian...but Alas Babylon has already gotten two mentions so I will give it a third. And Earth Abides gets another shout out. So if we are going Apocolyptic there is always Fail Safe but I read Level Seven about the same time (early 80's/early teen years for me) as the other two and it always stayed with me.

Amazing! Someone else has read Level 7. I read it as a teenager, and it has always stayed with me, too!

I read Level 7 last year, it was sort of a lighter version of On the Beach, like if your grandmother were to die, and then you find out it was your other grandmother who was kinda a bitch, but only when her blood sugar was low, so you can't really blame her. What I'm saying is, they were both incredibly depressing.

Since we're confusing apocalyptic stories, with dystopian stories, I'd like to suggest Wool by Hugh Howey, set in a massive bunker complex, a vault if you will, after some apocalyptic event has turned the surface of the Earth into a poisoned wasteland.

quote:

Originally posted by FiveFiveSixFan:
Catch 22 is among my favorites.

Damn, beat me to it! I loved that book!

quote:

Originally posted by Southflorida-law:

quote:

Originally posted by FiveFiveSixFan:
Catch 22 is among my favorites.

Damn, beat me to it! I loved that book!

I love that book, too - it is probably my favorite comic novel. But I don't think it is dystopian or apocalyptic.

Black comedy. Absurdist. Slightly surreal. Not dystopian.

Easy: 1984

(Did you mean to exclude it, since you read it?)

How could I over looked La Planète des Singes? Or since I did not read it in the orginal French Planet of the Apes.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by FenderBender:

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:
Atlas Shrugged.

absolutely this.

I find it to be a book full of good ideas, but a terrible book to read. Rand is verbose, pedantic and repetitive in the extreme. Plus, her prose is about as exciting as cold oatmeal. She needed a strong editor and some writing talent.

Again - good ideas, but a terrible novel.

Thank you, my sons got it for me.....if a book doesn't grab me in the first 50-100 pages I seldom go on.....I just couldn't muddle through it.

quote:

Originally posted by cmr076:

quote:

Originally posted by Sock Eating Golden:
Tagging for future reference. After 34 years of HATING reading. I found that I could get 1984 for free on my Kindle. I could not put it down.

Currently reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to my boys when I put them down to sleep or nap. (They are 5 and 3).

good for you. One of my fondest memories as a small child was having my parents read to me every night before bed. We rarely watched TV in the evenings because I was always so excited to pick up where we left off the night before. I was reading at a high school level when I was 12, and still power through at least one book a week now (sometimes two), I'm certain both of those things go back to my parents reading to me at night.

I remember my parents reading "uncle Remus" tales when I was much younger.

I am sure these are no longer PC.

life lessons learned early though

johnr

A Boy and His Dog, both apocalyptic and dystopian

You guys have already hit the big ones.

One I haven't seen mentioned yet is Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It's a curiously intriguing read.

Alas Babylon
Lucifer's Hammer
Earth Abides

I've probably forgotten a dozen others

Fahrenheit 451.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

I also enjoyed Lucifer's Hammer and Catch 22 - one that I read as a kid was the Tripods series by John Christopher

The White Mountains
City of Gold and Lead
The Pool of Fire
When the Tripods Came

He also wrote No Blade of Grass which is also very good.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:
Earth Abides.

I read it in Junior High. I enjoyed it but I wouldn't call it my favorite. I'm just glad that someone else around here has read it.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
Several of Margaret Atwood's novels:

"The Handmaid's Tale"

"Oryx and Crake," "The Year of the Flood," and "MaddAdam."

Others, too. This is a common theme in Atwood's novels.

I loved Atwood. "Oryx and Crake" really stuck with me, and I think there was another, not terribly dystopian, just disjointed, but it stuck with me as well.
Has anyone read Justin Cronin's "The Passage"? That's more an apocalypse story as well.

Wolf and Iron by Gordon R Dickson is pretty good read. Has guns and dogs in it, so most folks on Sigforum should like it.


Ken

Tagged for future reference