May 25, 2011

Dystopian Dare

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I've recently been obsessed with dystopian fiction. The only reason I know the term "dystopian " is because of my recent obsession...and because my current novel project falls under this sub-genre.

Dystopia. n. "An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one."

In other words, books like The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins), We (Yevgeny Zamyatin), 1984 (George Orwell), Matched (Ally Condie), and movies like Equilibrium and The City of Ember.

Dystopian fiction is popping out of authors and publishing houses like vampire books after Twilight (Stephanie Meyers). To cope with the rising tide of excellent books (or at least hopes of excellent books), I am embarking upon a dystopian marathon. The next series of books I will consume are pulled solely from that sub-genre. My current list of hopeful reads is as follows:

The Maze Runner, by James Dashner
The Long Walk, by Stephen King (pen name: Richard Bachman)
Divergent, by Veronica Roth
Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi
Enclave, by Anne Aguirre

There's no guarantee that I'll last through all five of these books without wanting to switch genres, but I promise to get through all five of them before the summer is out. Dystopian fans, keep your eyes out for a new favorite novel and cross your fingers for the authors succumbed to my scrutiny.



(Question for my readers: If you could choose your favorite dystopian novel of all times and demand that I read it before any of these other ones, what would it be?)




Nadine Brandes is an adventurer, fusing authentic faith with bold imagination. She writes stories about brave living, finding purpose, and other worlds soaked in imagination. Her debut dystopian novel, A Time to Die, releases 2014 from Marcher Lord Press. When Nadine's not taste-testing a new chai or editing fantasy novels, she is out pursuing adventures. She currently lives in Idaho with her husband. You can find out more about Nadine and her books at http://nadinebrandes.com.

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