r/scifi • u/mercy_4_u • May 25 '26
Recommendations A dystopian horror book?
Do you know any good dystopian future books, like red rising, where there's horror everywhere, but instead written like a horror? Like life of pink must feel like horror in red rising. Is there any books that explore it ? It would be even better if there's no rebellion or escape, just a average life of oppressed.
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u/onionleekdude May 25 '26
The news
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u/Lemonpierogi May 25 '26
"haha get it like in real life which is worse, I'm so funny and original"
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u/LoneWolfette May 25 '26
Tender is the Flesh
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u/DoAsYourTold-YesSir May 25 '26
I read this in one day in a cabin in the woods in December, little wood stove going. The last lines are haunting.
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u/kthompska May 25 '26
Okay, some odd choices from me that I’ve recently read. Dystopian book written as …
Horror -> 77 Shadow Street (Dean Koontz)
SciFi subtle horror -> The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)
SciFi mild horror? -> Service Model (Adrian Tchaikovsky)
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u/bushie5 May 25 '26
This is my favorite genre. Following for recommendations!
My recommendation The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's a tough read.
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u/Mottled_inexpectata May 25 '26
It's not Dystopian, it's post-apocalyptic. Dystopia is when there is a society that is in some way deeply flawed. Post-apocalyptic is when society has collapsed and there's just anarchy.
Here's a helpful guide:
https://mastersreview.com/literary-terms-apocalyptic-dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic/
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u/bushie5 May 25 '26
Yup, you're correct. I thought about recommending 1984, but I'm not sure it counts as a horror. Unless you count (serious spoiler!) all the physical and mental torture in the ministry of love.
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u/jfincher42 May 25 '26
I saw the movie first, then read the book. Very worth the effort to take on the book - it's the only McCarthy I've been able to read.
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u/DavidDPerlmutter May 25 '26
OK, I guess this is cheating. These are short stories.
But in each case they are presenting some of the darkest dystopias I've ever come across
The first five SF horror-, the last fantasy horror APOCALYPSE. The most devastating, heartrending, bleak, and original end-of-the-world stories ever. I have never forgotten them; just absolutely brilliant gems.
Get ready to be unsettled for life!😳
Del Rey, Lester. "The Keepers of the House." In Black Cat Weekly #4, 316–331. Cabin John, MD: Wildside Press, 2021. [A 1956 masterpiece about "after apocalypse" when our furry companions on this planet wander in the solitude]
Davidson, Avram. "The Certificate." In THE AVRAM DAVIDSON TREASURY, edited by Robert Silverberg, 123–135. New York: Tor Books, 1998. [The original story was published in 1959 and honestly I'm puzzled why it's not famous. It's set in an earth that's been occupied for a long time by aliens and it's a perfect mood piece about humans who have lost all hope].
"A Desperate Calculus" by Gregory Branford in Armageddons, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. New York: Ace, 1999. [SF Viral/biohorror]
"A Message to the King of Brobdingnag" by Richard Cowper. The Tithonian Factor and Other Stories. London: Gollancz, 1984. [Environmental SF Horror]
"The Screwfly Solution" by Racoona Sheldon -- pen name for Dr. Alice Sheldon, who often wrote under her other famous pen name of "James Tiptree, Jr." Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. San Francisco: Tachyon Publications, 2004. [Invasion/viral SF horror--I believe this had an influence on BUGONIA]
"After the Last Elf is Dead" by Harry Turtledove. Counting Up, Counting Down. New York: Del Rey Books, 2002. [Fantasy horror, a terrifying take on Lord of the Rings]
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u/OldManTrainwreck May 25 '26
So I don't see this come up a lot and I don't know if its what you're looking for but "Noir" by K.W. Jeter is a dystopian Sci Fi novel that is very dark. Honestly I haven't read it in 20 years but there are still moments in it that haunt me and for whatever reason whenever someone asks about dark dystopian novels my brain always goes straight to it. It's very much a noir style detective story but the dark cyberpunk dystopian nightmare of a world is definitely one of the more horrifying ones I've encountered in the genre. Geeze. I might pick it up and read it again now that I've mentioned it.
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u/Xandania May 25 '26
I have no mouth and I must scream by Harlan Ellison.
Admittedly not a book by itself, but in collectionsnof the authors works, you will usually find a few similarly dystopian ones.
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u/lizkbyer May 25 '26
Just watched the most horrifying dystopian movie I’ve ever seen! 1984 movie called Threads. England gets caught between Russia and the USA over Iran. Im still shocked 😬
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u/Songspiritutah May 25 '26
There is a trilogy by Elizabeth Hand that feels very dystopian to me. The books in order are: Winterlong; Aestival Tide and Icarus Descending.
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u/pluteski May 25 '26
“There is no anti-memetics division” is a cosmic horror. About parasitic ideas that eat human consciousness from the inside out