5 Can’t-Miss Classics of Dystopian Fiction

For as long as we’ve had visions of utopia and perfect bliss, we’ve also envisioned the opposite. Mad scientists, thought police, totalitarian governments…in these grim versions of the future, there’s no shortage of villains. Always, however, the real culprit is human nature. If you enjoyed recent dystopian reads like  The Hunger Games trilogy and California, check out the dystopian classics that came first:
The Maddaddam Books: Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and Maddaddam, by Margaret Atwood
Convinced the human race is beyond hope, a scientist named Crake releases a deadly plague, but not before creating a new race of his own. His bioengineered “Crakers” are, like Adam and Eve, perfect beings meant to inherit the earth. The second book gives us deeper insight into Crake, showing us the world he grew up in, a world where consumer culture has run mad and religious cults like “God’s Gardeners” protest futilely against uber-corporations. Atwood does the just-about-impossible, making us pity (or at least understand) a man who’d like to wipe out humanity. Finally, one of the plague survivors, now confined to a fortified compound, relates this history to the Children of Crake, bringing the trilogy to a bittersweet close.
1984, by George Orwell
Winston Smith is a government employee of the Ministry of Truth, altering historical records to reflect whatever story the Party prefers. Even negative thoughts against the Party can be punished, and at home, in secret, Winston has been writing his thoughts in a diary. So it’s hardly surprising that when he catches a pretty girl staring, his first response is to fear she may be onto him. But Julia is also a rebel, and soon the two are meeting for trysts, taking the greatest risk of all—falling in love—in a society where every move is watched by Big Brother.
This Perfect Day, by Ira Levin
If you haven’t heard of this 1970 novel (which is entirely possible, as it seems to fly under the radar), get ready to stay up all night reading. Though Levin is better known for Rosemary’s Baby, to my mind This Perfect Day is his masterpiece. Under the benevolent control of a computer called Uni, the world’s population is peaceful and happy, provided they take their monthly drugs. Initially the hero, Chip, is a conformist: when his grandfather warns him Uni has a dark side, six-year-old Chip promptly reports him to the authorities. Years later his grandfather’s words return to him, and a rebel leader is born.
The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Once again, the desire to do good results in terrible evil. George Orr has a power he can’t control: whatever he dreams turns into reality. His psychiatrist, Dr. Haber, sees the potential to improve society and begins giving George suggestions while he’s under hypnosis. But in true Frankenstein fashion, each improvement only triggers more pain. Hunger, overpopulation? Haber whispers in his ear, and George wakes to a world where millions have died in a plague. Another whisper and alien spaceships land on earth. Soon the very fabric of reality is at risk.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K. Dick
San Francisco, 2021. Bounty hunter Rick Deckard tracks down escaped androids and ruthlessly “retires” them. Rick uses an empathy test to avoid killing humans by mistake: if they fail, the theory goes, they must be android. The irony, of course, is that Rick himself would never pass the test. Locked in a loveless marriage, his one desire is to own a non-mechanical animal, now (owing to mass extinctions) the ultimate status symbol. While Ridley Scott’s movie version, Blade Runner, differs widely from the book, both are marvelous, portraying a human race on the brink of losing all emotion. Enjoy both versions and compare—especially the endings.
What’s your favorite classic dystopian novel?