In 2017, Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale, which was crafted into a Netflix series, brought the ‘Political Dystopian Fiction’ genre to the fore. The year 2020 has only given it a new meaning. We as humans are born storytellers. How we curate our stories speaks of the way we see the world and our place in it. But the catch? It all keeps coming true. And we crave more. We are entering into the next industrial revolution where remote sensing, 24x7 surveillance, robot policing and shut borders are becoming a reality—something which was once spoken of in chilling tones in fiction not long ago. Even as we make sense of all this, books categorised as “dystopian” are witnessing brisk sales.
Burn-In
By PW Singer
AI, robotics, revolution and America—this book has got the right mix of excitement. You have FBI Special Agent Lara Keegan tasked with field testing the first police robot. With a mastermind threatening to push the nation into chaos, Keegan and the machine forge a new kind of partnership. A perfect techno-thriller with just the right touch of the chilling tomorrow.
The Intuitionist
By Colson Whitehead
An unnamed city with the mysterious Department of Elevator Inspectors that has two warring factions—the Empiricists, who work by the book, and the Intuitionists, who intuit defects. The protagonist goes on a search for the perfect elevator that could reinvent the city radically… if only she can find the lost notebooks of Intuitionism’s founder, James Fulton.
Divergent
By Veronica Roth
A dystopian Chicago world is divided into Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful) and Erudite (the intelligent). Every year 16-year-olds must select any one of these factions and undergo physical tests of endurance and psychological simulations to face an unknown future.
The Testaments
By Margaret Atwood
Fifteen years after The Handmaid’s Tale swept the imagination of the world, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead returns. But it is nearing the end of its power. Three radically different women come together finding themselves, pushing for what they believe in, and as a result changing forever the world of the Republic and its grip of power.
A Clockwork Orange
By Anthony Burgess
It is a nightmarish future where 15-year-olds rob, kill, rape and riot with abandon, till the State decides to re-educate them. Thus begins a black comedy. Divided in three parts, it moves from being a youth subculture of extreme violence to the protagonist succumbing to his violent, reckless nature. There was a redeeming climax which was edited out by publishers.
The End We Start From
By Megan Hunter
Set in a country that is frightening and recognisable at the same time, one finds citizens forced to become refugees, mysterious environmental crisis, floods that usurp London, and in the midst of it all a family fleeing with their newborn baby in search of safety. Their journey for safety and humanity traces both the family’s fear and the baby’s wonder.
Station Eleven
By Emily St John Mandel
A story that is frighteningly close to our times—a deadly flu virus touches down in North America and wipes out civilisation. Twenty years later, in an altered world, a small group of actors and musicians fight to keep the remains of art and humanity alive. At the same time, a violent prophet and a constantly moving before and after world threaten their own existence.
The Hunger Games Trilogy
By Suzanne Collins
The only rule here is to kill or be killed. Behind all the gore and lust for blood and the animal instinct to fight for survivals, this is also a story about a family and how far one can go to protect the people you love. The story revolves around 12 districts and the annual fight that determines which district is showered with food and the Dark Days that await should one rebel.
Dawn
By Octavia E Butler
Salvation comes at a price. Earth is completely destroyed after a nuclear war. Those who could be saved are taken in by an alien race, who are benevolent enough heal the planet, cure cancer and increase human strength, while the survivors are in a deep sleep. As they awake, they must choose their freedom, but there is a price to pay.