Give me some good dystopian novels

I have read only 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World so far.

If you have a flexible definition of "good", Perdido Street Station.

All the cyberpunk stuff by Willian Gibson.
"Angle Station" by Walter Jon Williams.
The entire Schismatrix collection by Bruce Sterling.
"Valis" by Philip K. Dick.
"The End of the Empire" by Alexis Gilliland.

The last recommendation isn't dystopian at first.  In fact, it's a utopian view of the future, where most of Humanity transferred themselves as information into "polises" of fantastic computational capacity.  Within these polises, iconic utopia exists.  However, events in the real universe intrude and then some very dystopian things happen.  Then, the book revolves around what can only be called "a galactic calamity".  After that event was realized by the characters, their utopias shatter and the real dystopian phase starts.

That book is "Diaspora" by Greg Egan.

"Man in High Castle" by Phillip K. Dick
"Dr. Bloodmoney" by Phillip K. Dick
"A Clockwork orange" by Anthony Burgess
"The Wanting seed" by Anthony Burgess
"Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood
"Perdido Street station" by China Mieville

>>3
Greg Egan seems to like exploring humanity and computation.

Is Diaspora better than Permutation City? That novel was full of infodumps, and really wasn't any good.

>>5
Hey!  Don't slander the 'Gan!  I liked "Permutation City", from what I recall of it ... the issue of discreteness in computation and how it doesn't matter for computed consciousness; the issue of how to handle spending your time unto eternity; all that construction of a 6-dimensional computing matrix, which was supposed to self-perpetuate; the simulation of a designed world and lifeforms on it, which eventually "took over" the 6D matrix; etc.  Heck, now I want to read that AGAIN (or, "egan"?).

Overall, however, I found "Diaspora" a lot better.  The entire first chapter goes into how the 'Gan imagined how a computational mind would be "born".  That part alone made it fascinating to read.  Then he got into the really geeky stuff, like colliding neutron stars, a linear accelerator 3 times the length of the diameter of Pluto's orbit, the destruction of Earth's biosphere, femtomachines, a 5D world, and traveling from universe to universe by slipping through wormholes that pierce their branes.  GOOD STUFF!

Fair warning, though:  The end of the novel is a real downer.  Talk about major ennui.  Brr!  It makes you want to start hugging people just to cope.

>>6
To be fair, some of the ideas were interesting. I think there was a rather good novel hidden in the dross. What it needed was a better butt-kicking editor.

I just find it a bit hilarious when a scifi author goes into great detail about technology in their universe. It's like Tom Clancy in a fantasy setting; the reader is left wondering what was the point?

I'll make sure to give Diaspora a chance though, because I like the territory Greg Egan is probing.

>>7
We 'hard scifi' readers like that sort of thing about "great detail about technology".  :^)

Enjoy Diaspora.  Come back and tell us about it (with minimal spoilers for other readers) if you have any points you contend.

One day, perhaps, we'll talk about Linda Nagata:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Nagata

She's another phenomenal "imagineer".

the 12 kingdoms was based of a series of Japanese novels, which I believe have been translated to english

Battle Royale.

If you are up for reading a comic Transmetropolitan comes highly recommended.

Here's a link; http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3363731/Transmetropolitan_%5Bfull_bonuses%5D_by_ashdevil_77

Anon is seeding.

"The Great Goatse" is one of my personal favorites in this line of work. It tell the story of a man that realized that the very fabric of life and of the universe itself is found withing itself (at this point a great deal of religion is thrown at you but it is not a real minus for reading it), when he make this astounding discovery he then goes to great lengths to do something with this. It is at this moment when he meets "the cab driver" who began to explain how he van see the true nature of the world he lives in. Spoiler: the gateway for intergalactic travel is hidden within you body, goatse found this out and then let you know where is it

how is Battle Royale? I was thinking of picking it up but Im not into Japanese shit that much, but I also heard that one of the scenes in the book is basically inspired by Reservoir Dogs so...

The Handmaid's Tale, also Margaret Atwood. Heavier on the gender issues than Oryx and Crake, but I think its particular depiction of how America in panic degenerates into extremist, reactionary religious conservatism is quite hilarious. Because it's rather likely.

Read  This Perfect Day, and Playｅr Piano

"The World Inside" by Robert Silverberg

I guess it's not really a dystopia by 4chan standards though, since it's about a society where people constantly have sex and the concept of rape doesn't exist

You might try some Heinlien stuff. Stranger in a Strange Land etc.

You might try Heinlien. Stranger in a Strange Land, etc.

Stranger in a Strangle Land isn't a dystopia novel. 

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore- also a graphic novel.
"Utopia" by Thomas More- explains where the concept of Utopia and Dystopia came from, Thomas More being the man who coined the phrase.

>>20

The great thing about Utopia is that it's describing a dystopia.  I think it's really an attempt to rewrite the Republic and show how crappy life in Plato's ideal city would be.

This one was very interesting. Liked reading it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_%28novel%29

"Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro (Very quiet dystopia - It creeps up on you when you aren't looking.)

"The Plot Against America" by Philip Roth (An alternate history.)

"The Traveler" & "The Dark River" by John Twelve Hawks are both fun dystopic (is that a word?) reads.

It Can't Happen Here - Sinclair Lewis

Seconding Ishiguro.  The guy's not "poop in a bucket and it's automatically awesome" like some authors (more like "wrote one or two good books and rides on the fame of those"), but Never Let Me Go is an interesting concept.

Anything by Isobel Carmody; though I didn't like them very much, her Obernewtyn series is set in a dystopia, and some people love 'em.

snowcrash by neil stevenson is another good one

A Clockwork Orange by Antony Burgess. Best book ever.

>>27
You fail so hard. Snow Crash isn't dystopian per se, it's just an exaggerated parody of cyberpunk. Also, the author is Neal Stephenson. Are you sure you actually read the book?

>>29
The cyberpunk genre is fairly dystopian.  I think Snow Crash qualifies.

>>29
>>30
Doesn't matter if it is dystopian or not anyway - everybody should have read Snow Crash. No exceptions!

>>31
MegaConcur.  That hypervelocity railgun that was used against the pirate ship made me pop mental wood.  You gotta get people to listen to Reason!

>>29
so? "dystopian" and "parody" are not mutually exclusive concepts.

David Zindell, Requiem for Homo Sapiens. Explores ideas similar to those discussed above concerning computation, consciousness, and dementionality.

>>14
Enjoy your masturbatory didacticism.

Animal Farm.  You pig.

>>23
The Roth isn't in anyway a dystopia, but it is a fantastic book.

The Handmaiden's Tale.

Anthem By Ayn Rand

       and

1984 By Orwell (the Dr. Seuss of Dystopia)

Fucking Orwell. He's a whiney little bitch, but he's all you'll ever need.

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
The grandfather of all modern dystopia novels.

This thread is full of doubleplusungood fagspeak and unwin.

NEWSPEAK, MOAR LIEK JEWSPEAK, AMIRITE???

>>41
Speaks the truth.

I Am Legend. A broken world in the 70's seen from the eye's of a man from the 50's. If nothing else, it's a good POV read.

>>39
FUCK AYN RAND

doubleplusunspeak, newfag.