 | Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Buy used from: £2.72 Hardhitting, engrossing novel about a young woman's dangerous journey through a near lawless U.S, and the philosophy she preaches in an effort to make sense of the surrounding chaos.
|
 | Parable of the Talents (Earthseed) by Octavia E. Butler
Buy new: £4.99 / Used from: £4.10 If possible, an even more gut wrenching read. Our heroine's faith is put to the supreme test when radical Christian fundamentalists threaten her fledgling Earthseed community.
|
 | The Handmaid's Tale (Contemporary classics) by Margaret Atwood
Buy new: £4.97 / Used from: £0.01 Perhaps the most famous feminist dystopia, Atwood's book renders women mere breeding vessels in a society governed by right wing religious extremists. A frightening, thrilling, 'thinking' book
|
 | Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Buy new: £6.29 / Used from: £1.82 This book just blew me away. The breadth of the author's biological, cultural and anthropological knowledge is outstanding. Prescient? A most unnerving vision of the future.
|
 | Herland (Dover Thrift Editions) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Buy new: £1.25 / Used from: £0.01 The ultimate feminist utopia - a completely matriarchal society. Take time to read this one carefully. It has the potential to reshape your ideas on everything from motherhood to mythology.
|
 | Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Buy used from: £3.47 Junior high school students meet the TV show Survivior.- with the aim being to kill each other off! Can a repressive future government use fear to turn us against our beliefs? A hard lesson learned.
|
 | Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Buy used from: £0.15 Can't really say much that hasn't already been said. I first read this book when I was 17, (now 22), and it changed the way I looked at the world. Read it.
|
 | The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
Buy used from: £0.01 An oldie, but a goodie. Fear and persecution run rampant in a post apocolyptic society where even slight genetic mutations are work of the devil. Interesting ending - does it let the whole book down?
|
 | The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
Buy new: £4.97 / Used from: £1.98 This book will completely redefine your ideas of gender - if in fact gender CAN be given a definition. Also some very interesting ideas on religion.
|
 | We (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Buy new: £5.73 / Used from: £2.95 Can every aspect of human existence be reduced to scientific formulae? Nope, and that's the message we learn alongside our protagonist throughout the course of this book. Stunning stuff.
|
 | Brave New World, and, Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
Buy used from: £4.35 If I'm being honest, the science in the first few pages almost put me off - very complicated! But stick with it - it's a classic for good reason. Don't forget to read the companion piece, BNWR.
|
 | Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus (Penguin Popular Classics) by Mary Shelley
Buy new: £2.00 / Used from: £0.01 Not for everyone, but one of my all time favourites. Still retains a poignant message about the inherent dangers of science and technology found in a large majority of subsequent science fiction.
|
 | A Clockwork Orange (Penguin Modern Classics) by Anthony Burgess
Buy new: £4.86 / Used from: £1.46 I love the way this book looks at the function of language, both as a repression mechanism and as a means of alienating oneself from mainstream society. Fascinating, but it'll kick you in the guts.
|
 | Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Buy used from: £1.20 I'm halfway through this one, and I don't like it. Seems to go against the general opinion, but there it is. I'm still reading in the hope it gets better. I'll let you know.
|
 | Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
Buy used from: £1.83 A beautiful book. Despite it's simplistic city=bad, nature=good message, the gorgeous imagery will really get under your skin. Great characters, too.
|
Listmania!
