Well, dystopian society books?

*The Giver

*Brave New World

*The Cure

The first two are classics, while the third is relatively unheard of, but I <3'd it.

Try "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin. One of my favorites. Very similar to 1984, but it has overlapping themes of Huxley and Orwell, though it was written in 1921 (long before the other two)

I know its a bit of a stretch but the hunger games, books not movies, is all about a fucked up government.

Others are already listed, but IMO nothing quite hits home like 1984.

A great movie is Gattica

The Hunger Games books are really good. Younger level, but good.

I'm reading The Space Merchants now. It was written in 1952.

In a vastly overpopulated world, businesses have taken the place of governments and now hold all political power. States exist merely to ensure the survival of huge trans-national corporations. Advertising has become hugely aggressive and by far the best-paid profession. Through advertising, the public is constantly deluded into thinking that the quality of life is improved by all the products placed on the market. Some of the products contain addictive substances designed to make consumers dependent on them. However, the most basic elements of life are incredibly scarce, including water and fuel.

So far it reminds me of Mad Men restructured as House of Cards. Fascinating to see how that retro future sci-fi is almost too close for comfort in the present.

Oh, just remembered Project Gutenberg for a huge variety of free ebooks too in case you didn't know of them.

I was looking for a free ebook version of this as I like Fred Pohl and haven't read this, and I found this page which you might appreciate.

Get a library card.

And leave the house?!
Just joking, libraries are excellent resources too.

/lol you only have to leave once to get that card,then you have access to not only ebooks and audio books but to all the best news sites and a much deeper research base.

Also, use them or lose them.
After all my comments here I forgot to recommend Stranger In A Strange Land By Robert Heinlen for u/FalcoLombardiPhD. One of my old favourites.

I liked most of that book, it is unkind to women, I enjoyed it anyway. Those were the days when it seemed to empower women. So I get that.

It is indeed, but it's a product of it's time (1961) and written by a man who maybe didn't get out much. Still a fascinating read though.

One of my favs, yes.

They have ebooks and audio books available from your home computer.

PKD

Stand on Zanzibar

We

Brave New World

Erewhon

Anthem

The Giver

Looking Backward

The Wanting Seed

I feel that "We" is under represented. Most people know about Brave New World and 1984, but I haven't meet anyone else who as read "We".

Thats cause it is nearly impossible to google/dewey decimal.

Erewhon is interesting just cause it covers a the threat of a robot uprising... but it was written in 1872... about a secluded country that became more technologically advanced than the rest of the world... then banished all technology when they realized it was inevitably going to take over... Wouldn't even let the guy that discovered their place to keep his watch... a slippery slope to AI...

Also a couple fun ideas about illness, money, religion and extreme veganism... I think they call em Jainists IRL.

brave new world, if you haven't. handmaids tale and maddaddam trilogy by atwood, especially the second two books in the trilogy.

Atwood is amazing, put her on your list.

If you are into short fiction you should read some Harlan Ellison. Probably the finest American short story writer of the 20th c. "I have no mouth and I must scream" is probably his most famous story so it's a good place to start. A lot of his collections are based on a theme. "Love aint nothing but sex misspelled" looks at interpersonal relationships and "Deathbird Stories" looks at our "new Gods".

Also if you are looking for speculative fiction there is always William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. The godfathers of Cyberpunk.

And if you are reading just to get those weird predictions of the futures nothing comes as close as Stand on Zanzibar from 1968. There is so much shit in there about today your mind would be blown... Even a predicted "President Obami"

http://www.themillions.com/2013/03/the-weird-1969-new-wave-sci-fi-novel-that-correctly-predicted-the-current-day.html

That site cover a little of it but there is so much more...

Damn. Thanks for sharing. I have to read that book after seeing that website.

What's it's like reading it? Are the words and sentences outdated at all? Or could you pick it up today and think it's a recent book describing current affairs?

They make up a lot of whole new terms kinda like in 1984 or Clockwork Orange. So it doesn't come across as dated... kinda like BNW made up names for all the technologies... so does Stand on Zanzibar.

But it isn't an easy read... it is kind jumbled up like Pulp Fiction or some Vonnegut books.

I recently found the movie, so I may be overselling it (doubtful), but "V for Vendetta" - AMAZING. It struck so true to today's events that I was crying at times. Grown ass man, crying like a baby.

Definitely worth it. I watched it when I was young, I thought it was a horrible movie. I had no idea what was going on. During this watch, years later, HOLY SHIT! How could I have thought this was anything but a masterpiece?

"We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin deserves a shout here - it's the book that inspired Orwell to write 1984 (some would say even ripped off..).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_(novel)

The Time Machine by HG Wells

I believe that transhumanism plays a major role in the shaping of the world. Perhaps Well's had things right. Here is an article that should help clarify what I'm saying here.

https://thehumanist.com/magazine/september-october-2014/features/can-humanism-survive-the-coming-transhumanist-revolution

Orwell and Huxley are probably the most noteworthy, but you may also want to cosider reading The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. There is also a BBC documentary titled "Who's Afraid of Machiavelli" on the tubes that's well worth your time. Aleister Crowley also had some interesting thoughts regarding totalitarianism, and he approaches it with his brand of eschatology.

In addition, you may enjoy watching a lecture or two about George Orwell given by the late Christopher Hitchens. It's on youtube as well.

All of H.G. Wells' works are poignant for truth seekers.

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

G.K. Chesterton 'The Man who was Thursday' (chasing shadows)

Joseph Conrad 'The Secret Agent' (nothing changes)

Frederick Lewis Allen 'Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s' and the sequel 'Since Yesterday' the thirties

Frank Herbert 'Dune' (for the fountainhead and source of all scifi since 1965.)

L. Ron Hubbard 'The Invaders Plan' (ten book mega scifi saga)

Anthony Burgess 'The Malay Trilogy'

Graham Greene 'The Quiet American' and 'Our Man in Havana'

Charles Dickens 'Oliver'

Neal Stephenson 'Cryptonomicon'

Ben Elton 'Stark'

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.

Might be a stretch and it's only a novella but Anthem by Ayn Rand.

A brave new world and atlas shrugged are must reads. A brave new world is likely where we are headed before 1984 watch alduos Huxley videos on you tube. He died the same day as cs Lewis and JFK. His visions of the future from the 50s are scary

I'm currently writing one that takes place in a fantasy setting, something akin to Mistborn or First Law. I'll get back to you in a year :) lol

Brave new world, Aldous Huxley

Revolt of the Masses.

This Perfect Day by Ira Levin.

commenting to bookmark.

The Trial - Franz Kafka

The creature from jekyll Island is a must read for any awake citizen

H.G. Wells novels.

Welcome to the Machine - relatively new, but chilling nonetheless.

I would highly recommend Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, which is one of my favourite books. There are relevant themes of surveillance, civil liberties and social activism. Besides being really smart, funny and thrilling, it's quite informative. From a review - "it has detailed descriptions of how to counteract gait-recognition cameras, RFID's (radio frequency ID tags), wireless Internet tracers and other surveillance devices."

I also enjoyed the sequel Homeland. Aaron Swartz actually wrote one of the afterword essays, the other is by Jacob Appelbaum. Another random fact: it was shown briefly in Snowden's room in the great documentary Citizenfour.

If you're keen, you can download both for free on the author's website. Enjoy :)

Rather than being dystopian fiction, Daniel Quinn's book series Ishmael, My Ishmael and The Story Of B offers great insight into the dynamics of modern society; where everything originates from and where it all seems to be going. I certainly recommend it.

The story revolves around a telepathic Gorilla, just to pique your interest.

Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions or Slaughterhouse-Five

McLuhan's The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects

Toffler's Future Shock

Stephen Baxter/Arthur C. Clark's The Light of Other Days

Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Thoreau's Walden

BF Skinner's Walden Two

Neuromancer - William Gibson

There probably wouldn't have been a matrix movie without this book setting the theme.

theres a female author 1981 who its claimed wrote the Matrix (and the Terminator), the movie people stole her story.

http://www.3blackchicks.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000478.html