The Great Dystopian / Utopian Novels

7. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick (1968)
The novel that the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner was based on. It tells of a bounty hunter who hunts down androids who have illegally resided on Earth (androids are banned from the planet). Dick paints a bleak picture where earth has been devastated by a war that has sent most earthlings off-world, those that remain want tangible attachments to the past. Animals such goats or cats, are one way to do this but as most species are all but extinct only a few can afford them. The others compensate by purchasing manufactured versions of the real thing. Dick brings into question what is or can be considered real when the artificial animals (and humans) are so like the real thing that identifying them is almost impossible.

8. Anthem by Ayn Rand (1937)
Anthem is Rand's version of the state under extreme socialism where the ego (your idea of self) has been sacrificed to the group. It is a short novel and centers around a man who questions the state of things and eventually rediscovers his individuality.

9. Jennifer Government by Max Barry (2003)
Jennifer Government is a humourous, although frightening, novel about a world where giant corporations rule and the government is almost powerless to enforce the law. It is written in a brisk style with little contemplation as to the implications this society has on its citizens (except though the actions of the characters). There is no outsider involved who is the catalyst for the author to relate the deeper meanings of his novel to the reader. You are basically on your own.

10. Logan's Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson (1967)
Old age is a burden on society. In this novel by Nolan and Johnson, middle age is a burden. In Logan's Run, everyone lives a life of pleasure until their 21st birthday where by they are exterminated. If anyone tries to live longer, they face the Sandmen who hunt them down like dogs. That is, until one, Logan by name decides he doesn't want to die either. Logan's Run is the logical result when age is looked at as a detriment to society rather than a blessing.

11. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (1924)
The first dystopian novel, We was to influence all writers afterward. A precursor to Orwell's 1984 this novel describes the ultimate socialist state where individuality and with it the power to imagine has been eliminated. When the protagonist (D-503, there are no individual names) gets caught up in an organization who oppose the state, his anguish and resulting actions are a glimpse into the power of a state to destroy individuality.

12. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (2003)
Oryx and Crake is Atwood's second foray into sci-fi except this time it isn't the loss of the ability to give birth which is the center of the novel (as it was with The Handmaid's Tale) but what might happen to the world where science and technology are viewed to be more important than the care of the natural environment. The novel describes a future where all mankind except one (named Snowman) has been eliminated through a viral disaster. With only genetically engineered humanoid herbivores to keep him company, Snowman thinks about his past before the catastrophe and his future in the post-apocalyptic world with the reader taken on as a passenger. Oryx and Crake is a cautionary tale of the first order.

Other Notables:
Neuromancer by William Gibson
The Running Man by Steven King
The Stand by Steven King
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Utopia by Thomas Moore
Island by Aldous Huxley

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