So after stumbling on this guy - Simon Stålenhag
and his art:
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The notion of the future where everything is pretty much the same except for the robots and stuff, It popped the idea of a book suggestion if anyone had one. Dystopian futures and all that. I was looking at:
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But i wasn't sure if it would be a bit twee and "Twilight teenage fiction" for a grumpy old git like me
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Future? Alternative? Dystopian? All of the above. Sort of. Interesting, clever, funny stuff though.
Also, I like the idea of a Dysonian future, where vacuums rule the world! 😀
Loads out there.
Gibsons works are pretty dystopian. Philip K dick?
Ready Player One is very, er, one-dimensional. I'd give it a miss.
The Circle by Dave Eggers is a decent dystopian novel - although a different flavour to what you're talking about. Basically what awaits us if facebook and google keep up all their good work - privacy is banned.
There was a film made of it this year, but reviews I read suggested it was poor.
[url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson ]William Gibson is a good mind to explore[/url] and [url= https://www.wired.com/2014/05/dystopia-101/ ]top ten of dystopian books and films. [/url]
And if you want a bit of light reading after all that i recommend [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson ]Hunter S Thompson for the machinanations of our current situation[/url], yeah, I know he blew the back of his head off 12 odd years ago but his writings are just as relevant to our current situation.
Keeping it the same except adding robots doesn't really get you dystopia. Not sure it has a catchy name actually! Dysapointia?
Often older scifi gets you that sort of "add one scifi element without really futurising the whole world" thing, whereas modern scifi tends to want to do full world building. Asimov's I, Robot (nothing like the film!) is quite like this, lots of thinking about robots but it all feels like it's set in a 1980s insurance office, could be ideal for you. Dated but in a good way.
You've read "Brave New World" ?
Ready player one is good fun, but the back ground is soon ignored for the rip roaring 80's nostalgia.
Bit darker all for different reasons are, huge howeys Wool trilogy, Richard Matherson's I am legend*, Worldwar Z*, R. Morgan's Altered Carbon trilogy, and I like the little known Edward W. Robertson, his Breaker series is unusual & different
*if you've seen the films, forget their stories, the books are completely different..
Jg ballards stuff is ace (older is better than new stuff)
Gibson
Dick
Michael marshall Smith
Mieville is more alternate that dystopian
And well it's kinda dystopian Iain m banks culture stuff or Reynolds revelation space series
Margaret Atwood?
Davesport - Member
You've read "Brave New World" ?
If not, please do so. Now.
to add to the above, some random dystopias I have enjoyed....
Vurt - Jeff Noon
Book of Dave - Will Self
Plot Against America - Philip Roth
New York 2140 -Kim Stanley Robinson
though some may say more than one of these are stretching the definition.
Ready Player One, reads like it was written by a teenage, 80s, computer/DnD nerd for teenage, 80s, computer/DnD nerds.
I liked it.
Edit: I never played Dungeons and Dragons or ran a linux OS.
HG Wells "The Time Machine"
We're almost there...
vinnyeh - MemberVurt - Jeff Noon
Is Vurt a dystopia? I went to Manchester once, it's exactly like in the book except it's easier to get the mind altering substances in real life, and there seemed to be more human/dog crossbreeds than in the novel
Metrophage by Richard Kadrey is worth a go.
Try The Last Policeman. And if you like it, it's one in a trilogy so more where that came from...
Second for Shades Of Grey, Takeshi Kovacs Trilogy and Wool Trilogy. Old man's war series is decent too.
The Wool Trilogy by Hugh Howey.
The Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer.
Both pretty bleak, of the two Wool is very much more readable, straightforward and accessible , the Southern Reach Trilogy however, is genuinely weird. His style is very Thoreau, (some have compared his writing to Hemingway also) so be warned, but there's a unique bit of writing in amongst all the adjectives 😆
Posted in error
CFH sed > Also, I like the idea of a Dysonian future, where vacuums rule the world!
Or possibly in reference to Freeman Dyson, post-techno-utopia collapse.
Echo what's been said about Ballard, Gibson and Dick are great but write less about demolished civilization. Poss look at Russell Hoban's [i]Riddley Walker[/i] or go hardcore with Krasznahorkai's [i]Satantango[/i]. Failing that there's the recent Tory manifesto.
Wait up, OP's typo was "dystonian" not dysonian. I can only think of the one Tony capable of destroying civilizations.
The Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer.
Second this, and also his earlier book "Finch". Very weird, but really sticks with you.
China Mielville is also a great writer, again strays from "everything the same but robots".
I enjoyed Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon Trilogy (Takeshi Kovak), along with Black Man (same author).
Not sure I've read many books that can truly be decribed as Dystopian in theme though, more alternative history stuff, so I'll be trying out some of the above recommendations.
Boba fett, thanks for the heads up on Simon Stalenhag, his stuff looks great.
OP, you may also like mr_werewolf on instagram
And if you want a bit of light reading after all that i recommend Hunter S Thompson for the machinanations of our current situation, yeah, I know he blew the back of his head off 12 odd years ago but his writings are just as relevant to our current situation.
I wish he was still alive to write about what is going on today!
Not Dystopian? as such, but The Day of the Triffids and The Chysalids by Wyndham. Two of my favourite novels.
Neal Stephenson - Diamond Age & Snow Crash.
William Gibson - early sprawl stuff was great and his latest The Peripheral is a real return to form.
Margaret Atwood - specifically Oryx & Crake , The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam
Naomi Alderman - The Power - quite an incredible book
Philip K Dick - the main in the high castle
Paolo Bacigalupi - The Windup Girl
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Bit of light holiday reading...
Russell Hoban's [i]Riddley Walker[/i] is superb - a post-science, reverted to folklore sort of a future world. Highly recommended. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's [i]Lucifer's Hammer[/i] is completely different but a good, sometimes horrifying yarn. Walter M. Miller Jr.'s [i]A Canticle for Leibowitz[/i] is an intriguing story too - very worthwhile. None of these have robots though, so you might not like them 🙂 I could go on all day; The Death of Grass, The Road (obvs), The Book of Dave, On the Beach etc. Actually, none of them have robots either...
I spotted this while browsing in Waterstones the other day:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Swastika-Night-MASTERWORKS-Murray-Constantine/dp/1473214661?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ipad-uk-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1473214661
Set 700 years after Germany won WW2, and Hitler is worshiped as a god.
Actually written by Katharine Burdekin, first published in 1937!
Farnhams Freehold by Robert Heinlein