Dystopian fiction

Octavia Butler’s dystopias are more believable than Orwell’s or Huxley’s

“I have trouble believing in a government efficient enough to keep track of us all in the way that the government in Orwell’s novel was able to do. In terms of a terrifying glimpse into the future, I still think that Octavia Butler got it closer than the mid-20th-century dystopian novelists, Orwell and Huxley. Go…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jun 7

How to make your setting a character in your dystopian novel

Science fiction writers and literary agents have been blogging the past few days about how to make your setting come alive. And young-adult author Beth Revis explains why this is doubly important in a novel about a future dystopia. One of the most important things that separates a dystopian novel from all the rest is…

Books & Comics Beth revis Jun 1

Incarceron Is The Hunger Games In The City Of Ember

The latest young-adult reading sensation, Incarceron, feels like a mash-up of a few of the genre’s best-known books. Luckily, the book does have a supremely clever central conceit, which grows on you as you read it. Spoilers ahead… Reading Incarceron, it’s hard not to feel a certain amount of deja vu. Catherine Fisher’s hit YA…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders Mar 25

Dystopian Science Fiction Is Aiming For The Twilight Generation

What comes after vampire teen lit? Dystopia. A pair of authors have just made deals with mainstream publishers for young adult novels about dark, romantic futures. Apparently, after the apocalypse, there will be no chocolate, nor women over 20. Gabrielle Zevin, whose previous YA efforts include Elsewhere and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, sold a…

Books & Comics Alasdair Wilkins Mar 25

6 Things The New “Prisoner” Changed For The Worse

The Prisoner used its premise of a spy trapped in an idyllic, but oppressive, village to ask questions about individuality in a conformist, overly processed society. Here are six ways last night’s remake throws away that rich premise. Spoilers below… So now that the first two hours of AMC’s remake of The Prisoner have already…

Television Charlie Jane Anders Nov 16

John Joseph Adams Sees Your Dystopian Future, Starts A Magazine

John Joseph Adams has put out some of the most entertaining themed anthologies in the past few years, taking in zombies, vampires and interstellar civilizations. Now he’s putting out an anthology of dystopian fiction, and starting an online fiction magazine. Adams’ latest anthology project is called Brave New Worlds, and it’ll be published by Night…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders Oct 19

Doctorow’s Little Brother Shows The Genesis Of Dystopia

Young-adult authors have conquered science fiction with a mixture of angst, romance, and the discovery that adults are wrong. But Cory Doctorow’s Hugo/Nebula-nominated Little Brother puts a geeky, subversive spin on that formula. Spoilers! Little Brother is set five minutes into the future, when terrorists blow up San Francisco’s Bay Bridge and the BART tunnel.…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Apr 23

Everybody’s Broken In The Dollhouse

Joss Whedon‘s Dollhouse is not a playful space — it’s a shattered dungeon where everybody’s ruled by id. Dolls and dollmakers alike, everybody’s a lightning flash away from revealing their ugly reptilian brains. Spoilers ahead. Last Friday’s episode of Dollhouse might actually be my favorite so far. (Yes, even better than “Man On The Street.”)…

Television Charlie Jane Anders Apr 13

Handmaid’s Tale Too Politically Incorrect For Canadian Schools?

Margaret Atwood’s seminal dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale has been called many things before — but sexist? That’s what one Toronto parent is claiming in his quest to get it out of schools. Actually, it sounds as though Robert Edwards is mostly offended by the anti-Christian themes in Atwood’s seminal story of a future theocratic…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders Jan 16

Octavia Butler’s dystopias are more believable than Orwell’s or Huxley’s

How to make your setting a character in your dystopian novel

Incarceron Is The Hunger Games In The City Of Ember

Dystopian Science Fiction Is Aiming For The Twilight Generation

6 Things The New “Prisoner” Changed For The Worse

John Joseph Adams Sees Your Dystopian Future, Starts A Magazine

Doctorow’s Little Brother Shows The Genesis Of Dystopia

Everybody’s Broken In The Dollhouse

Handmaid’s Tale Too Politically Incorrect For Canadian Schools?

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