So once upon a time I decided to do recommendations, did it like twice,
completely forgot and never did it again. Then I saw a recommendations video
from Jen Campbell and Sanne (Booksandquills), where they recommended
apocalyptic fiction. And I wrote a round-up a couple of days ago, not posted
yet, and my most read genre was dystopia, and I thought I’d recommend some
dystopia. In the video Jen and Sanne also showed one book that they hadn’t
read, but wanted to read, which I really liked, so I thought I’d also add one
or two I’d like to read.
Recommendations
Patrick Ness wrote the Chaos Walking trilogy, which is really good, but
this is a stand-alone dystopia novel. It’s about a kid named Seth who in the
first few lines, kills himself, and then he wakes up. He’s in another world, in
his old house in England, and he’s wrapped in bandages and he has no idea where
he is, like is he dead, is it heaven, is it purgatory? And it’s hard to explain
it without spoiling it. It’s just very beautiful. We also get these flashbacks
leading up to Seth’s suicide, and it’s just very beautiful, and it’s very
exciting, and the big reveal is just… uh, fascinating.
I really loved this, it’s very weird and interesting. It’s got this
very… believable apocalypse. The main commodity is food, oddly, or calories.
There is a plague on all the food and people don’t have food. And it’s global
warming palooza, and everything is just gone to shit. And this guy named
Anderson Lake is in Thailand looking for foodstuffs that they think might have
gone extinct, and he hopes to bring it back home so his company can profit. And
different countries are basically using bioterrorism for profit, and obviously
they can’t control it, so bio engineered plagues run rampant. And it’s really
interesting. And there’s a robot, a windup girl, named Emiko, who Lake falls in
love with, and it’s a weird concept.
This is a YA dystopia that I think I got for free, or for like 2 dollars
on my kindle. And I didn’t have much faith in it to be honest. I was wrong. I mean
it’s not great literature, but it was a lot of fun. It’s about a girl named
Aria who lives in a like, dome, where everything is scrubbed clean, and kids
are engineered basically. She gets into some trouble and is suddenly outside
the dome, I don’t remember exactly why. Her mom goes missing, and I think she
goes to find her. And she goes out, into this wasteland, where “savages” live.
She runs into a “savage” named Perry, and they sort of stick together. And it
was funny, and it was exciting. So I really liked it. It’s quick and fun and I
should read the other two.
This is the book that 1984 was inspired by, which when you read them
both is very easy to pick up on. It’s set in the One State of the Great
Benefactor. There aren’t individuals, just numbers, and urges and emotions have
been greatly subdued, and nature has been banished. It’s about one person, one
number, D-503, who is the chief engineer on a big ship, and he decides to take
down his thoughts in a journal. And he meets this other number, a gorgeous
woman, I-330, and he goes on this journey of discovery, of nature, and what
people used to call a soul. And it’s very interesting. I love reading old
dystopia novels, because they’re fancy, and impressively prescient, and it’s
sort of set in our time, and I like seeing what they thought would have
happened, which I love. I thought it was really interesting, and weird, and I
liked it.
Want to read
So I have seen the, I guess it’s a miniseries, based on this book, and I
like that. I’ve also on several occasions listened to the Norwegian version of
the radio play, and I’ve always loved it. I’ve never read the original. It’s
about this guy, Bill, who wakes up in the hospital and discovers that everyone
else is blind. Bill used to work with Triffids, these huge plants that can walk
around. They’re used for fuel and everything. And they have these stingers.
Which is why Bill is in the hospital, he’s been stung in the face. And he
misses out on the most spectacular meteor shower ever. And this is what made
everyone blind. And suddenly the Triffids have the upper hand. And I really want
to read it. It’ll be fun.
It’s about a man named Robert Neville who is the last living man on
earth, but he’s not alone, he is surrounded by vampires who come and taunt him
at night, and during the day he hunts them. And I’ve seen the movie, and I
really want to read it, it sounds really fascinating.
So these are my dystopia recommendations. Do you have any
recommendations? Leave them in the comments, I’m excited to hear.
More than This by Patrick Ness
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson