The grandaddy of the genre you have mentioned is We by Yevgenny Zemyatin (sp?). It's pretty good.
Utopia by Sir Thomas More is also a good book and it obviously well pre-dates We, but it's not a dystopia, it's a utopia.
How about The Golden Age trilogy by John C. Wright?
A far future setting some would call utopian, others dystopian.
I forgot Candide!
Candide is, indeed, awesome, but I now realize I don't understand what genre you're going for.
But to riff on Voltaire:
--Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
--Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais
--Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine, which, although written by a fascist, is my all-time favorite novel
Slaughterhouse-Five has already been mentioned, but I'd like to add:
every Kurt Vonnegut novel from Player Piano to, say, Breakfast of Champions
S.M. Stirling's Change series (Dies the Fire, etc.). But, living in the Wilmette valley, I could be biased.
Dystopic/ Post Apoc
Along with the great ones listed already
Wolf and Iron -Gordon R. Dickson
Dark Tower- Stephen King
Windup Girl -Paolo Bacigalupi
Snow Crash -Neil Stephenson
Otherland Series - Tad Williams
The Stand- Stephen King
Armor - John Steakley
SLA Industries game setting material.
The Postman- David Brin -the book is pretty different from the movie
A Boy and his Dog - Ellison
I am Legend - Mathesion
The books of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
The Handmaids Tale -Margaret Atwood
Wolf of Shadows- Whitley Streiber
The film Alphaville
Children of Men -PD James
The Tank Girl comics
Martha Washington Goes to war comics
Dystopic/ Post Apoc
Along with the great ones listed already
Children of Men -PD James
I read this and enjoyed it, but, imho, the film is much better.
Alphaville is pretty good, too.
I don't care for it's apparently Ayn Rand principles, but The Girl Who Owned A City holds a special place in my heart. It was the last book that was ever read to me in elementary school, and I was apparently read an unabridged version that's a little gorier than the cleaned up version that's available nowadays.
Dystopic/ Post Apoc
Along with the great ones listed already
Children of Men -PD James
I read this and enjoyed it, but, imho, the film is much better.
Alphaville is pretty good, too.
I do agree the film is excellent.
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Candide is, indeed, awesome, but I now realize I don't understand what genre you're going for.
Actually, I didn't mean a distinct genre, but any of them.
To expand on the list, even though it is quite different, and also religious, and not set on Earth as we know it: the Wind on Fire series.
Gulliver's Travels
When I first read this I didn't think it was that great, except for the horse-people (the giants sorta freaked me out). I'm going to see if I still have a copy around - it's been a while.
Lot of good titles on these lists, but I haven't seen anyone mention the much-less-well-known Veracity yet (Laura Bynum). It falls apart a bit at the end but I found it an enjoyable read all the same.
I'd also submit Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
Gulliver's TravelsWhen I first read this I didn't think it was that great, except for the horse-people (the giants sorta freaked me out). I'm going to see if I still have a copy around - it's been a while.
I have read this three times and it always blows me away. Where Candide ends with at least a glimmer of hope ("Let's get to work" or whatever), GT is just a caustic, gaping hole of nihilism.
The third part is kind of boring, although gamers should enjoy the obvious forerunners of DragonLance gnomes.
Plus, it's where I learned the word "diuretic."
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<Counts back.>
Wow, it's been a lot longer than I thought since I read it! At that time I had not been introduced to gaming OR much causticism shit. I'm going to see if I can get it from the library today.
<Thinks about giants.> F##~!
Another book I read around then, Robinson Crusoe, sorta fits in here.
Ursula K. LeGuin's The Dispossessed
I don't normally place this in the same category as most of the other books mentioned (though I guess it is definitely social commentary), but it is a most excellent book. Her Left Hand of Darkness is also a pretty good pick for the social commentary category.
Ursula K. LeGuin's The DispossessedI don't normally place this in the same category as most of the other books mentioned (though I guess it is definitely social commentary), but it is a most excellent book. Her Left Hand of Darkness is also a pretty good pick for the social commentary category.
I am ashamed that I have yet to read The Dispossessed or any of her other sci-fi stuff, except some early short stories.
EDIT: Word for word, I think she is one of the best writers that sci-fi/fantasy has ever produced.
To add to the worthy ones already mentioned, I have to say V for vendetta. The book, not the movie, of course. Watchmen also merits mention.
The New York Times
Some of my favorites have already been mentioned, but I'd also recommend the following:
• Isobelle Carmody's Obernewtyn series—post-apocalyptic YA fantasy.
• Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower: near future, set in the economic collapse of the US, when California descends into fire and chaos, and Oregon and WA close their borders. Alternatively, for those more interested in sci fi, her Lilith's Brood series is excellent.
• Molly Gloss's Dazzle of Day—Quaker's... In... Space! Meditative, rather than action-packed. [But TW for sexual violence.]
• Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker, which is in the same universe as Windup Girl, but YA, set earlier, and minus the graphic sexual violence (though the danger thereof is implied).
• Ursula K. Le Guin's City of Illusions, though it may help to read Planet of Exile first.
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The book I am currently reading, The Diamond Age; Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, has so far served as a brilliant introduction to Neal Stephenson and hits three of the four designated genres.
A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller
Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood (and its companion, the Year of the Flood)
Jennifer Government, by Max Barry
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
Gun, With Occasional Music, by Jonathan Lethem
A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess - did anyone say that yet?
I used to have a long list of these, though some have already been mentioned here...I'll try to dig it up.
EDIT: Also The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
Guns Germs and Steel.
Guns Germs and Steel.
Hee hee!
My friend just went on a huge alcohol-fueled anti-Jared Diamond rant the other day, mostly centering on how JD doesn't take into consideration the new findings that have come to light on Ancient Aliens!
It was most amusing.