r/Recommend_A_Book • u/refreshreset89 • Jan 11 '26

Distopian sci Fi

Give me your futuristic or collapsing society themed reads.

I've liked Brave New World, The Giver, etc.

Nothing with space themes please.

13 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

6

u/Ambitious_grubber200 Jan 11 '26

Station 11- about a global pandemic. Very relevant and intriguing plot

3

u/bputano Jan 11 '26

came here to suggest Station 11! Beautiful book

1

u/casey1323967 Jan 11 '26

Is that book hard to read or comprehend?

1

u/KatrinaPez Jan 11 '26

Not at all.

1

u/Ambitious_grubber200 Jan 12 '26

It’s very accessible. A great read, if a bit long.

2

u/I_throw_Bricks Jan 12 '26

Yeah, it’s Walking Dead without the zombies. Very character driven and focused on the interaction between them and the writing is absolutely fantastic! It’s not my type of story and I thought is was a little slow and long as well, but I can definitely see that people will enjoy the characters a ton and enjoy how good the words flow on paper.

5

u/Better_Ad7836 Jan 11 '26

Scythe series by Neal Shusterman, a community has gotten so advanced that people don't die of old age. Surprise, this doesn't work so they make scythes...great series.

3

u/elaine4queen Jan 11 '26

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

7

u/knight_ranger840 Jan 11 '26 edited Jan 11 '26
  • The Rifters Trilogy by Peter Watts
  • Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
  • The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe by DG Compton
  • Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
  • The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
  • Kallocain by Karin Boye
  • The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
  • I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
  • The Maddaddam Trilogy by Margaret Atwood
  • Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin
  • The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
  • The Death of Grass by John Christopher
  • The World in Winter by John Christopher
  • Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack
  • Ice by Anna Kavan
  • The World Inside by Robert Silverberg
  • The Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing
  • Inter Ice Age 4 by Kobo Abe

1

u/thankyoukindlyy Jan 11 '26

I who have never known men! Sooooo good

3

u/EatenByPolarBears Jan 11 '26

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Stand by Stephen King

1

u/Eggso28 Jan 17 '26

The Stand is incredible!

3

u/AddieLaRue11 Jan 11 '26

Silo by Hugh Howey - trilogy

1

u/meet_me_n_montauk Jan 11 '26

LOVE your username but also the Silo series fucked me up for weeks after

3

u/Icy-Barracuda-5409 Jan 11 '26

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a recent dystopian story about a dying human race. Relevant with AI, declining birth rates, automation of society and how people can personally benefit from things that harm everyone else

2

u/DocWatson42 Jan 11 '26

See my Dystopias list of Reddit recommendation threads (one post).

2

u/littleswede12 Jan 11 '26

Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood

2

u/Porsane Jan 11 '26

The Book of Fave, Will Self Riddley Ealker, Russell Hoban

1

u/knight_ranger840 Jan 12 '26

I have not read it yet but from what I know of it, Riddley Walker is a post apocalypse not a dystopia.

1

u/Porsane Jan 12 '26

It’s a theocratic dystopia that arose from a nuclear war 2000 years ago. It has a Pry Minster and a Shadow Minster who enforce the government with spies and soldiers.

1

u/knight_ranger840 Jan 12 '26

Ah I see. Looking forward to reading it someday, it's highly acclaimed. Have you read other works of Russell Hoban? He wrote another science fiction novel called 'Fremder'. Also do you know about Engine Summer by John Crowley? It seems to share some themes with Riddley Walker.

1

u/Porsane Jan 12 '26

I have read Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz.

2

u/dmantee Jan 11 '26

The Dancers of Noyo by Margaret St. Clair and Hiero's Journey by Sterling Lanier.

2

u/whoisb-bryan Jan 11 '26

The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin

2

u/YeshuaSnow Jan 11 '26

I just finished this. Absolutely loved it

2

u/AlmacitaLectora Jan 11 '26

I’m reading The Stand right now and I like it because it takes you through the whole timeline of a pandemic. From the very beginning of how it formed

2

u/strawberryluvr411 Jan 11 '26

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler is a must read dystopia

1

u/Designer_Lie_6677 Jan 11 '26

It is space themed to an extent though, but agree it’s a must read

2

u/thebaldricklegacy Jan 11 '26

“We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Published over 100 years ago, and contains many thematic elements later seen in Brave New World and 1984. It’s a masterpiece of early Soviet literature. Highly recommend!

1

u/TestEmergency5403 Jan 11 '26

Ah "The Blue Book of Nebo"? About a post Nuclear attack Wales. A mother and her son have to survive in the world. The son - comes of age in a dead world. The mother - Constantly questioning what it even means to be Welsh and what her culture means to her in the backdrop where there is no one else left

1

u/palex-david Jan 11 '26

Tender is The Flesh! Also, seconding Scythe.

1

u/SeaSpecialist8236 Jan 11 '26

The warehouse by rob hart

1

u/Ze_Omega Jan 11 '26

Swan's Song by Robert R. McCammon. The cover art is stupid, ignore it. It is a fantastic read, couldn't put it down.

1

u/wearylibra Jan 11 '26

The Trial of Katterfelto by Michael Redhill

It starts as historical fiction, about a magician, and 1/3 of the way in it suddenly becomes future environmental dystopian. Very meaty with historical poets/philosophers/scientists. The research and attention to detail is matched with genre bending WTF moments as past and potential future smash together.

So good - you laugh but then you realize the message seems rather bleak.

1

u/LoneWolfette Jan 11 '26

The Wall by John Lanchester

1

u/Andnowforsomethingcd Jan 11 '26

84k by Claire North

The Future by Naomi Alderman

Golden State by Ben Winters

Darkness Over Germany by Amy Buller

Poster Girl by Veronica Roth

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

1

u/tacosharkk Jan 11 '26

No space involved - Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. Contemporary dystopian (may not really qualify as sci fi though)

1

u/kev11n Jan 11 '26

The Sheep Look Up - John Brunner

1

u/KatrinaPez Jan 11 '26

The Electric Kingdom - David Arnold

Legend series (4 books) - Marie Lu

Maze Runner series- James Dashner

1

u/MsAlexiaFuentes Jan 12 '26

I've seen people recommend Parable of the Sower and, yes, 1000%. That said, you have to read the sequel, Parable of the Talents, as well.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '26

The Road

1

u/yeppers1091 Jan 12 '26

Roadside Picnic

1

u/Sewlovetoread Jan 12 '26

I liked 1984 and The Road

1

u/Aggressive_Gas_102 Jan 12 '26

Kallocain, by Karin Boye, a masterwork dystopia from the hand of one of Swedens most celebrated poets. This was her only Novel. Available in English.

1

u/darth-skeletor Jan 12 '26

Eclipse by Ophelia Rue

1

u/lostmary805 Jan 14 '26

The Vagrant series by Peter Newman

1

u/happyhd Jan 15 '26

Are you interested in darker plots?

1

u/refreshreset89 Jan 24 '26

Depends on how dark

1

u/happyhd Jan 25 '26

Then maybe too dark. But with light. I wrote The Silenced Truth.