Your dystopian reads for dystopian times


Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Category: Reading Lists
Some of 2021's reads

As we prepare to enter unprecedented times, it is useful to remember three things.

One is that the dystopian futures ahead have already been imagined in fiction and in literature. So have the dystopian pasts which could have existed in history.

Two is that none of the authors who imagined those scenarios were psychics, or seers, or prophets. They simply looked at the world around them, and looked at who held the power in it. From there, the stories told themselves.

Octavia Butler couldn’t see the future. She saw what was happening in front of her and, in addition to studying the past, was able to imagine where it would lead. It’s important to tell the truth about her because mythologizing her is a disservice to her legacy.

— Kalynn Bayron (@kalynnbayron.bsky.social) January 9, 2025 at 8:46 PM

And three is that dystopian futures, for the most part, are never about technology or aliens. They are about small pivot points in history, caused by everyday people.

Sé has asked for some dystopian reads but wants “to see the stories where we solve the problems.” Good thing, then, that I tend to mainline the stuff.

Not all of these stories have solutions to problems, and not all of those solutions are obvious.

But where those solutions do exist, there is a very common thread.

I’ll let you find it.

Once you’ve found that thread, I’ll expect you to pick it up.

What to read now

If nothing else, read these:

  • The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States by Jeffrey Lewis
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • Vox by Christina Dalcher
  • Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin
  • Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Alternative dystopian pasts

  • The Alteration by Martin Amis
  • Pavane by Keith Roberts
  • Dominion by CJ Sansom
  • Civilisations by Laurent Binet
  • The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
  • It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
  • The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

Dystopian futures

  • Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
  • Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan
  •  + Ghost Hardware by Tim Maughan (a side story)
  • Metronome by Tom Watson
  • Dreamland by Rosa Rankin Gee
  • Femlandia by Christina Dalcher
  • When The Floods Came by Claire Morall
  • The Pharmacist by Rachelle Atalla
  • Hell Sans by Ever Dundas
  • The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird
  • The Drowned World by JG Ballard
  • Under the Blue by Oana Aristide
  • The Silence Project by Carole Hailey
  • The Marriage Act by John Marrs
  • The Stranding by Kate Sawyer
  • The Forcing by Paul E. Hardisty
  • The Wall by John Lanchester
  • Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
  • Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov
  • Intrusion by Ken Macleod
  • Swastika Night by Murray Constantine

Other lists

Please list your own reads below in the comments.

Now you scratch my back

If you enjoyed this list, I have a small request. There are a handful of books I need for my university research which are not available, either physically or digitally, in the UK library system. In fact, they’re not available commercially either, not even as ebooks. I’d need to import them, physically, from the US. (Now there’s a 1990s flashback.)

But if you wanted to make those books magically appear in the arms of my friendly neighbourhood postie, and my god does that man deliver me a lot of books, you could do that via this Amazon wishlist! Ta.

The Author

I’m a UK tech policy wonk based in Glasgow. I work for an open web built around international standards of human rights, privacy, accessibility, and freedom of expression. The content and opinions on this site are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of any current or previous team.

3 Comments

  1. Cory Curtis says

    Foundation and Empire | Isaac Asimov
    Logan’s Run | William F. Nolan

    So many!
    It seems like the fundimental foundation of Sci-Fi.

    Fun post . . . Goog luck with the Fork! LOL

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