Now I need to try and figure out what I've read that could be considered dystopian. Think I'll just let wikipedia guide my choices here to make things a little easier!

*goes to check out wiki*




The Time Machine ~ H G Wells
The First Men in the Moon ~ H G Wells
Nineteen Eighty-Four ~ George Orwell
A World Out of Time ~ Larry Niven
Neuromancer ~ William Gibson
The Handmaid's Tale ~ Margaret Atwood
Random Acts of Senseless Violence ~ Jack Womack (which isn't on the wiki list but most definitely qualifies!)

And to stray into comics I'd call V for Vendetta and The Dark Knight Returns dystopian. Probably not strictly literature though .

I also have The Dispossed by Ursala K. Le Guin and Children of Men by P D James sitting upstairs waiting for me to get to them.

On top of that there's been various random Sci-Fi books/shorts that I've read but that I'd struggle to name as well as many of Clark Ashton-Smith's short stories.


I had no idea Neuromancer could be considered dystopian. I own the book- it's one of those must-reads for spec fic fans. One day I'll get to it, though I'm not a fan of cyberpunk-type stuff. V for Vendetta is on my list to get too.




The most disturbing would probably be a 3 way tie between Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid's Tale and Random Acts of Senseless Violence. If pushed I'd probably give Nineteen Eighty-Four the edge because of the uniquely British focus but all 3 are nicely fucked up in their own ways. And in all cases the thing that makes them disturbing is that you can see echoes of those societies (and sometimes rather more than echoes) in the world of today and the attitudes of its people. It's that feeling that what is depicted in those books, or at least something very like it, could potentially happen for real that makes them chilling.


I think that's the very reason people write these kinds of books. They see the potential around them and it's frightening. I'm glad to see multiple people find 1984 the most disturbing, though. I've gotten through that one ok.



Not thus far. In fact I really rather like the genre.


Despite its chilling qualities?



No although it was on the wiki list and so may have to be added to my list of stuff to check out in the future (it's a long list, history has produced many, many fine books, too many for one person with a hectic life to ever read.)