ANDREW HUNTER MURRAY The Last Day. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
The world has literally stopped turning in Andrew Hunter Murray’s dystopian thriller. Andrew Hunter Murray’s debut novel The Last Day is one of an interesting new strain of post-apocalyptic dystopian thrillers. Unlike standard cli-fi apocalypses that project...
MARC-UWE KLING QualityLand. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Marc-Uwe Kling’s satirical dystopia QualityLand is set in a world uncomfortably close to our own, where algorithms rule. Welcome to QualityLand by Marc-Uwe Kling (translated from the German by Jamie Lee Searle), the newest book in the over-the-top,...
ROB HART The Warehouse. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Rob Hart’s dystopian novel about an online fulfilment warehouse describes a world that feels disturbingly familiar. Consumerism and the American Dream are in the firing line in Rob Hart’s debut novel The Warehouse. David Eggers mashed Google, Microsoft and Apple...
MELISSA FERGUSON The Shining Wall. Reviewed by Dasha Maiorova
In Melissa Ferguson’s imaginative and original debut, Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal clones inhabit a bleak and desperate dystopia. The Shining Wall questions the nature of humanity and compassion in a world bereft of both. The depiction of an unhappy future, societal...
BEN H WINTERS Golden State. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
In this new part-noir, part-dystopian novel, Ben H Winters imagines a world where the state records everything and lying is a crime. Ben H Winters has made a habit of writing what might be called crime fiction/dystopian mash-ups. His trilogy The Last Policeman...
JAY KRISTOFF Lifel1k3. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Lifel1k3 is the first of a new series from internationally best-selling and prize-winning Australian author Jay Kristoff. Your body is not your own. Your mind is not your own. Your life is not your own. Humorous and profound in equal measure, Lifel1k3 is a...
LOUISE ERDRICH Future Home of the Living God. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Louise Erdrich successfully joins a long line of novelists exploring current issues through a cracked, extreme reflection of our own world. Dystopia has a long history in literary fiction. A breakdown in social order or a reshaping of society are useful lenses through...PHILIP MILLER All the Galaxies. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
A great deal goes on in All the Galaxies as boy and his dog search the secular afterlife, while Scotland groans under a dystopian vision. All the Galaxies is a book that is hard to categorise. It is an odd mixture of dystopian vision, some light horror with a...
DANIEL FINDLAY Year of the Orphan. Reviewed by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Year of the Orphan is a distinctive story of bravery, resilience and self-sacrifice in a vicious, haunting future. Sometimes it feels as though the most pressing question of the 21st century is how we can best prepare for the apocalyptic collapse of civilisation...
CLAIRE CORBETT Watch Over Me. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
This is a powerful portrayal of what can happen in war and in the skilful hands of Claire Corbett the message is clear: there but for the grace of God … The world is at war. It always has been. Our sense of security is an illusion. At any moment, on any day, in...
KIM FALCONER The Blood in the Beginning: Ava Sykes #1. Reviewed by Lou Murphy
A killer ride packed with punches, this riveting cross-genre urban-fantasy thriller is set in dystopian Los Angeles. Ava Sykes is a 24-year-old in her final year of studying medical science at UCLA. After graduation she hopes to be accepted for an internship with the...
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