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Find out moreCommonly extrapolating elements of current society, dystopian fiction explores the darker side of possible worlds. Discover more than a Brave New World here.
Step into another world, just on the edge of existence, a fairy tale if you will, but somehow sharper, more vivid, and quite startling as it draws on folklore and oh so human qualities and reactions. On a remote island called Neverness exists a village, we hear the story of the villagers, separate, together, living with and alongside a spellbinding natural world. The author Zoe Gilbert was the winner of the 2014 Costa Short Story Award and this is her debut novel. Each chapter is a story in its own right, yet each leads to the next and the next to make one complete tale. This is a book that tested, pushed and pulled me, as it speared my attention and hurled it aloft. I felt, really felt so many emotions, from deep aching sadness, to bounding wonder, through to discovering warm love in unexpected places. Zoe Gilbert has created a place apart, simple, wild, and stunningly beautifully yet be warned, it has a ferocious bite. If you look, really focus straight ahead, then take your thoughts to the corner of your eye and feel there, just behind you, you may just see a glimpse of Neverness. Or you could settle down, and allow Zoe Gilbert to guide you into a breathtaking world. Folk is one of my picks of the month and I have fallen rather deeply in love with it!
Step into another world, just on the edge of existence, a fairy tale if you will, but somehow sharper, more vivid, and quite startling as it draws on folklore and oh so human qualities and reactions. On a remote island called Neverness exists a village, we hear the story of the villagers, separate, together, living with and alongside a spellbinding natural world. The author Zoe Gilbert was the winner of the 2014 Costa Short Story Award and this is her debut novel. Each chapter is a story in its own right, yet each leads to the next and the next to make one complete tale. This is a book that tested, pushed and pulled me, as it speared my attention and hurled it aloft. I felt, really felt so many emotions, from deep aching sadness, to bounding wonder, through to discovering warm love in unexpected places. Zoe Gilbert has created a place apart, simple, wild, and stunningly beautifully yet be warned, it has a ferocious bite. If you look, really focus straight ahead, then take your thoughts to the corner of your eye and feel there, just behind you, you may just see a glimpse of Neverness. Or you could settle down, and allow Zoe Gilbert to guide you into a breathtaking world. Folk is one of my picks of the month and I have fallen rather deeply in love with it!
June 2012 Guest Editor Joanne Harris on Lord of the Flies... I first read this when I was ten. It terrified and fascinated me. It still does. The Lovereading view... William Golding’s iconic and enduring novel is interesting in many ways. Firstly it was a debut book and secondly it was rejected by numerous publishers and editors before it was picked up off the ‘slush-pile’ by a young editor at Faber and Faber. More than 50 years later the schoolboys to savages story is still a relevant, disturbing and shocking comment on the human condition.
Nearly a quarter of a century after its initial appearance, Gibson’s groundbreaking cyberpunk debut has lost none of its modernity and fascination. Extrapolating the world of the internet and video games culture, an unforgettable vision of a future where data, sprawling cities, artificial intelligences and multi corporations fight an invisible war, as seen through the buccaneering computer jockeys who surf its interfaces.
Heart-pounding and thrilling urban dystopian fiction from an exciting young author. A No. 1 New York Times bestseller debut, Divergent is now available in this special collector's hardback edition, boasting 72 pages of bonus content. A novel of non-stop suspense and twists and turns that you least expect. There's romance too and a heroine who is determined to fulfill her plans even when conflict seems the only course of action. A debut novel that will leave you breathless. ***The Divergent Series Box Set - The bestselling Divergent series - including the trilogy Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant plus Four - A Divergent Collection and the companion guide, World of Divergent, are now available as a boxed set for the first time!
This is a heart-pounding and thrilling urban dystopian fiction debut from an exciting young author. Divergent is a novel of non-stop suspense and twists and turn that you least expect. There's romance too and a heroine who is determined to fulfill her plans even when conflict seems the only course of action. ***Divergent, A Collector's Edition - The first in the Divergent series is now available as a special collector's hardback edition, boasting 72 pages of bonus content. A must have for fans of the series! ***The Divergent Series Box Set - The bestselling Divergent series - including the trilogy Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant plus Four - A Divergent Collection and the companion guide, World of Divergent, are now available as a boxed set for the first time!
Kevin Garvey, Mapleton's new mayor, wants to bring a sense of hope to this traumatised community, but his family has fallen apart in the wake of disaster. His wife has joined a homegrown cult, and his son is a disciple of the prophet Holy Wayne. Only Jill, Kevin's daughter, remains, and she's no longer the sweet student she once was. Written with a rare ability to illuminate our everyday struggles, The Leftovers is a startling novel about love, connection and loss.
Fifty years from now, our world is unrecognisable. Pollution and warfare have poisoned the skies, the water and the soil. Pockets of society still exist, living in highly fortified strongholds, while those outside the walls roam the landscape - either predator or prey. But even these isolated compounds are not safe; armies of demons and once-men assault their defences, and inevitably, one by one, they succumb. Civilisation has fallen and anarchy is the only law. Logan Tom and Angel Perez are the last two Knights to stand against the forces of chaos. These two extraordinary people have the ability to resist the dark tide, and to them will fall twin tasks: to find and protect a very old and a very new magic. They are humanity's last hope. Although the odds are stacked against them, Logan and Angel have the power to halt the destruction of the Old World. It will be up to others to usher in the New ...
Winner of the 2013 Leeds Book Awards 14-16 age category. This is a debut novel not to miss. It's an original and haunting psychological thriller that's packed with intense mystery and secrets that will have you gripped from the very first page. It's the story of Kyla whose mind has been erased; every single memory gone, living with a new name with a new family to get a second chance. But is this a second chance or is everyone around her lying ? She thinks so and is determined to prove it. Fans of Sophie McKenzie and Suzanne Collins will love it.
At the Medio School for Girls, distinguished young women are trained for one of two roles in their polarized society. Depending on her specialization, a graduate will one day run a husband's household or raise his children. Both paths promise a life of comfort and luxury, far from the frequent political uprisings of the lower class. Daniela Vargas is the school's top student, but her pedigree is a lie. She must keep the truth hidden or be sent back to the fringes of society. And school couldn't prepare her for the difficult choices she must make after graduation, especially when she is asked to spy for a resistance group desperately fighting to bring equality to Medio. Will Dani cling to the privilege her parents fought to win for her, or will she give up everything she's striven for in pursuit of a free Medio - and a chance at a forbidden love?
The astonishing bestseller is now a fantastic movie. Here is the original novel with new movie artwork on the cover. The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. In a dark vision of the near future, The Hunger Games is set in the ruins of a place once known as North America. The cruel Capitol keeps order in its twelve outlying districts by forcing them each to send one boy and girl to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a terrifying reality TV show broadcasting a live fight to the death. Click on the link to visit the Hunger Games website - www.thehungergames.co.uk The Hunger Games came into the author's psyche whilst she flicked between television channels broadcasting real war coverage and reality television programmes. It is the first in a trilogy. The Hunger Games Trilogy: 1. The Hunger Games 2. Catching Fire 3. Mockingjay
January 2011 Guest Editor Lisa Gardner on Suzanne Collins... I read the first novel of her trilogy, The Hunger Games, over the summer, and was mesmerized. I'm not huge into futuristics, but this book worked for me because the world she created felt so real, and her characters even more genuine. Her sixteen-year old protagonist, Katniss, is everything a heroine should be--tough, vulnerable, determined, desperate, gifted and flawed. Plus, the whole set up of kids being forced to fight to the death for the amusement of a bored nation--to look at TV offerings these days, we're halfway there. The Lovereading view... The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. In a dark vision of the near future, The Hunger Games is set in the ruins of a place once known as North America. The cruel Capitol keeps order in its twelve outlying districts by forcing them each to send one boy and girl to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a terrifying reality TV show broadcasting a live fight to the death. Without really meaning to, 16 year old Katniss becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever. The Hunger Games came into the author's psyche whilst she flicked between television channels broadcasting real war coverage and reality television programmes. It is the first in a trilogy. The Hunger Games Trilogy: 1. The Hunger Games 2. Catching Fire 3. Mockingjay
It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined — every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute . . . and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.
Dystopia - The opposite of Utopia.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from dys-‘bad’ + Utopia. An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.
H.G. Wells was the first popular dystopian writer with the Time Machine (1895) in which the future doesn’t bring continuous improvements in human kind, rather its demise to the baser darker side of our nature. Through Metamorphosis (1915) by Franz Kafka, Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell and on to The Handmaid's Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood dystopian fiction continues to probe the darker areas of the human condition.
Perhaps all the end of world prophecies have fueled the demand, never the less the contemporary dystopian offerings are proving popular reading – especially among a younger audience. We hope you enjoy the selection.