I love dystopian science fiction and my favorite stories are about everything that could go wrong with our government, corporations, and people in general. These stories are a mark of what people thought would be horrific in the future or are horrific in the present day. Most of these books are at least 50 years old but I included one near the end that is relatively new. 

Fahrenheit 451

I could do a whole post on my love of Bradbury’s writing but for the sake of this post, I’ll just do Fahrenheit 451. There was a recent iteration of the story in film but the update doesn’t have the same message as the original and that message is an important one. How do you KNOW things? Bradbury’s writing in this book is beautiful. He paints pictures with words that are so clear and bright, you can’t help but see the story in your mind. Here is a short synopsis from Amazon:

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.

1984

Dystopian science fiction author, George Orwell is another one of my favorites, almost solely for the horror that is 1984. This book is a nightmare of the ultimate surveillance state that provides for all. This is required reading for everyone in the modern age of ever present surveillance.  Here is Amazon’s synopsis:

Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching…

Animal Farm

Animal Farm is a seemingly, light story but is not. This book is a clear lesson in the evolution of a totalitarian state. Here is the synopsis from Amazon:

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality.

It isn’t difficult to draw dotted lines from the characters in this book to historical figures of the past (or present). 

Brave New World

Brave New World is an interesting dystopian point of view. The reader is sees a very orderly, neat and tidy world that seems to be the best of everything. What happens when you bring in an element that doesn’t fit in your puzzle? Peacock recently did a television series from the book and the story is mostly right but the writers tweaked the end on a cliff hanger. A quick synopsis:

 Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story’s protagonist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World

The Churn

This is the newest novel in the bunch. Published in 2014, The Churn is really the best story to describe the pitfalls of Universal Basic Income. The Expanse saga is impressive. Unlike some other short story series, this novella is a stand alone story and does not require knowledge of the rest of the series. Here is Amazon’s synopsis of the story.

On a future Earth beset by overpopulation, pollution, and poverty, people do what they must to survive. The Churn follows a crime boss named Burton as his organization is threatened by a new private security force tasked with cleaning up the city. When the police start cracking down, Burton and his foot soldiers-loyal lieutenant Erich, former prostitute Lydia, and young enforcer Timmy-become increasingly desperate to find a way out.

https://www.amazon.com/Churn-Expanse-Novella-ebook/dp/B00I82884W

What are your favorite dystopian science fiction stories?