
Ask HN: What is your favorite dystopian novel and why? - gcatalfamo
I can&#x27;t explain why but for some reason those books are those I can&#x27;t put down until finished.<p>I love Asimoov and Huxley&#x27;s work but while Brave New World has some background incoherence, 1984 is still my favorite depiction of a bad future.<p>I wouldn&#x27;t say a I have a favorite dystopia genre, but Orwell and Gibson novels are those I have appreciated the most.<p>What&#x27;s yours?
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dudul
By far "1984". I re-read it once in while, and am always terrified to see that
each time, it looks a little more like our actual world.

I like "Brave New World" as well. It is interesting to see how our present is
a mix of both Huxley's and Orwell's worlds.
[http://postimg.org/image/ue0pdq56r/](http://postimg.org/image/ue0pdq56r/)

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atmosx
If you like Orwell's work you should read Koestler. He had a very strong
influence to Orwell's work. try "Dark before Noon".

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thorin
Probably the trial (kafka) or the plague (camus) but the one book I struggle
to put down to put down is l'etranger as it's so easy to read in a single
sitting and do compelling.

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ChuckMcM
Benford's Timescape always freaked me out a bit. Scientists in a dystopian
future sending messages into the past in order to prevent their future from
occurring.

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Mormal1
I don't know if it counts as dystopian but you should check out Flowers for
Algernon - it's on similar lines.

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fatimafouda
SPOILER ALERT: "But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle
was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother." \-
1984 Haunting last line. All struggle is futile; acceptance is inevitable. So
yeah, pretty bleak, but favorite book nonetheless. I also love Kurt Vonnegut's
Slaughterhouse 5, which while not classically dystopian, still manages to
elicit dystopian stoic despair against the backdrop of a seemingly normal
world (our very own time and age). It automatically coaxs readers to draw
parallels..maybe dystopia is not something imagined. Maybe it's more familiar
than we think. Lastly, Robert A. Heinlein needs to be mentioned at least once
in this thread; Farnham's Freehold and a Stranger in a Strange Land.

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atmosx
For a series of psychological reasons I try to avoid reading 1984.

From what I have read so far, I would say that it's Cryptonomicon. But it's a
_good_ future, it's a very sad future. Not as sad as Huxley's or Orwell's but
sad enough.

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dudul
The thing with "Brave New World" is that it's _not_ a sad future. Everyone is
happy. Everyone is conditioned to be happy with their situation. Alphas are
happy to be alphas and enjoy a lot of privileges, Betas are happy to be betas
and not have to deal with as many responsibilities as Alphas, etc. And this is
the scariest part to me in the book.

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atmosx
Hm, you intrigued me, I need to read it.

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ajeet_dhaliwal
Nineteen Eight-Four is mine too and it is because I think it is genius. I
enjoy writing and I may even be able to write something good one day but the
insights and truths in this book that parallel our society and appear to be
timeless from when it was written to now make it my one of my favourite works
of fiction. I can point to the book for some example for so many of the things
that happen day to day. And yes, as said, the last line is truly chilling.

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mindcrime
Definitely Orwell's _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ although it's hard to explain
exactly why. But it's probably at least in part because I read it when I was
fairly young, and it was one of the first "classic" dystopian novels that I
read. And it made me so angry. I finished that book with a really deep-seated,
almost primal, loathing of "Big Brother".

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thesmileyone
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, and it's sequel, Homeland. Actually more of a
"what if" set in the US at present time but still shows how there is a very
narrow gap between current times and the time predicted in the book!

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mcintyre1994
I really enjoyed Stephen King's The Long Walk in addition to a few others
already mentioned.

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paulcole
Running Man, another Bachman book, is another dystopian favorite of mine.

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flignats
The Silo series by Hugh Howey was pretty great

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DanBC
"Earth Abides" was pretty good.

