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Maybe Brunner's "Children of the Thunder" as well. I've often wished that someone would invent the drug in *The Stone That Never Came Down*. (Hell, I'd settle for someone inventing a working *Stardropper* device.)

These works were never predictions btw! Authors often write about current socio-political events but "exaggerate" it to make it surreal and fiction. But the truth is, the authors saw it happening in their times too. These dystopian times we live in, have been in the oven for a loooooong time.

A lesser known one: The Space Merchants, by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth, 1951. Government has been subsumed by corporations. Sound familiar? A significant part of Philip K Dick's work has a totalitarian society as a backdrop. It's not laid out, as in "1984" - it's just there. Assumed.

Parable of the Sower is set in our current time period and probably her most popular work. It also has a sequel. Grim, though. Kindred would be the other top choice. Fledgling also rules Dawn … is … a strange choice to include in that shelf 😂

Folks, it's been coming for a long time. Instead of blaming one particular administration, think about the trends in government for the past 150 years. Each president had their own additions to our government. And, with every additional government agency, more freedoms were slowly whittled away.

The author's books were largely unavailable, only to be found in used bookstores. This one - just this one - was reissued in 2017. I don't think that is coincidence.

The grandchildren of Germans rationalize that THEIR family soldiers weren’t Nazis, but dutiful Germans doing their duty. It was someone else’s family being bad.

Love this display. Yes, these authors saw it coming, so much so that when I was re-reading 1984 this Spring I had to stop half way through because it was just too real. I just could not continue reading.

Missing from this display is Sinclair Lewis It Can't Happen Here, which stated that when Fascism came to America it would come with the flag wrapped around the cross. Very perceptive for a book written before trump was even around.

This is a perfect example of ignoring a whole generation of upcoming readers. HUNGER GAMES and the later HARRY POTTER books are two of the most read and most popular franchises with Gen Z and Alpha, with a lot to say about today and youth's fears, and we recycle the same old, same old. Gotta bridge

I was fortunate enough to have been assigned Dune, 1984, and Brave New World by my English teacher in HS back in the 80s. A co-ed, conservative Protestant, boarding HS mind you. Times have really changed since then, and not for the better...

Every one of these should be required reading. But if I had to choose a few, I’d start with: 1984 The Handmaid’s Tale Fahrenheit 451 Those are great introductions to our current situation!

Too bad most MAGA folks don’t read. And the ones that do seem to use dystopian fiction as instruction manuals. Same dudes who watch Scarface and want to be Tony Montana. Always missing the point.

It's absolutely wild to see how much of the worlds we once saw as fiction have become our reality in some way, shape, or form. The US needs to change, and in the OPPOSITE direction of where it's currently going.,,

Sad thing is the right regularly uses 1984 as a way to point blame at progressive policies and politicians. You can read the book and still not get it. Foundation would be another one. Only because all billionaires see themselves as Hari Seldan. And coal use equals regression.

No #Neuromancer? Too many people mistake that book for a full-on endorsement of "cyberspace," when it's really an examination of the endpoint of racism and unfettered, unregulated corpo-capitalism.

Missing? Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner, 1968 The Shockwave Rider, John Brunner, 1975 Lord of the Flies, William Golding, 1954

Hands down, Octavia E. Butler's work is spot on. The corporate towns, the working for the company store, the gated communities. the 2 parable works are 30 years old and could not have been more accurate to the times.

I would also add from a science perspective The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

Sadly instead of seeing them as a terrible warning the far right have adopted them as “how to do” manuals. They can only be stopped by ordinary people behaving decently and rejecting their hate and division. You can see through them if you have a good think about it.

I found it difficult to decouple from what i understand of Anerica’s past and what i can foresee of its future. When you encounter ppl whose minds are corrupted by manipulation and deceit, where the values you once understood them to have are absent and logic is replaced w anger, It seems inevitable

Butlerian Jihad coming to a planet near you… Somehow I missed reading Children of Time, Red Rising, and one of those Octavia Butler books. ✅ for all the rest