Dystopian Literature: Plato to Atwood

The Dog Stars

By: Peter Heller
Narrated by: Mark Deakins
Length: 10 hours 40 minutes

“Leave it to Peter Heller to imagine a postapocalyptic world that contains as much loveliness as it does devastation. His hero, Hig, flies a 1956 Cessna (his dog as copilot) around what was once Colorado, chasing all the same things we chase in these pre-annihilation days: love, friendship, the solace of the natural world, and the chance to... Read more

We

By: Yevgeny Zamyatin
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
Length: 6 hours 51 minutes

“Often cited as the first modern dystopian science fiction novel. It directly inspired Orwell’s 1984, Vonnegut’s Player Piano, and more. Also a one-of-a kind Russian Futurist, synesthetic masterpiece of style. Read more

American War

A novel

By: Omar El Akkad
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 12 hours 21 minutes

“Omar El Akkad has delivered a stunning debut. He imagines a world in a not-too-distant future where Americans are at war with each other once again. The characters in this story are fully developed and individual, yet their histories - their stories - extend into the histories of all those displaced and affected by the forces of war. The title,... Read more

Parable of the Sower

Earthseed: Book #1

By: Octavia E. Butler
Narrated by: Lynne Thigpen
Length: 12 hours 2 minutes

“A definite classic! This acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel of hope and terror from an award-winning author pairs well with 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale. Read more

A Clockwork Orange

By: Anthony Burgess
Narrated by: Tom Hollander
Length: 7 hours 42 minutes

A vicious fifteen-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic. In Anthony Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is... Read more

Borne

The Borne Series: Book #1

By: Jeff VanderMeer
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
Length: 12 hours 10 minutes

In Borne, a young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Company―a biotech firm now derelict―and punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. Rachel ekes out an existence in the shelter of a run-down... Read more

Robopocalypse

A Novel

By: Daniel H. Wilson
Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
Length: 12 hours 38 minutes

They are in your house. They are in your car. They are in the skies…Now they’re coming for you.
 
In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos... Read more

The Girl With All the Gifts

By: M. R. Carey
Narrated by: Finty Williams
Length: 13 hours 4 minutes

In the ruins of civilization, a young girl's kindness and capacity for love will either save humanity -- or wipe it out in this USA Today bestselling thriller Joss Whedon calls "heartfelt, remorseless, and painfully human."

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her "our little genius."

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be... Read more

The Testaments

The Sequel to The Handmaid's Tale

By: Margaret Atwood
Narrated by: Ann Dowd, Bryce Dallas Howard, Mae Whitman, Derek Jacobi, Tantoo Cardinal & Margaret Atwood
Length: 13 hours 17 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE • The Testaments is a modern masterpiece, a powerful novel that can be read on its own or as a companion to Margaret Atwood’s classic, The Handmaid’s Tale.

More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on... Read more

A Canticle for Leibowitz

By: Walter M. Miller Jr.
Narrated by: Tom Weiner
Length: 10 hours 56 minutes

“A post-apocalyptic story about progress, regression, violence, ignorance, and the cycles that humanity seems doomed to repeat. After a worldwide catastrophe, a group of monks collects and preserves scientific relics and writings in a quest to rediscover lost, but fundamental scientific theories. The century-spanning story that follows looks at... Read more

The Long Walk

By: Stephen King
Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
Length: 10 hours 42 minutes

In this #1 national bestseller, master storyteller Stephen King, writing as Richard Bachman, tells the tale of the contestants of a grueling walking competition where there can only be one winner—the one that survives.

Against the wishes of his mother, sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and... Read more

After the Flood

A Novel

By: Kassandra Montag
Narrated by: Hillary Huber
Length: 12 hours 59 minutes

“A gripping story of one mother’s harrowing journey to survive a flooded earth and save her daughters from the dangers that surround them. Life after the great flood is treacherous, and lethal groups of raiders steal food, medicine, and children, killing those who would stand in their way. With flawed, relatable characters, After the Flood is a... Read more

Brave New World

By: Aldous Huxley
Narrated by: Michael York
Length: 8 hours

Originally published in 1932, this outstanding work of literature is more crucial and relevant today than ever before. “One of the most prophetic dystopian works of the 20th century” —Wall Street JournalCloning, feel-good drugs, antiaging programs, and total social control through politics, programming, and media—has Aldous Huxley accurately... Read more

Oryx and Crake

The MaddAddam Trilogy: Book #1

By: Margaret Atwood
Narrated by: Campbell Scott
Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The first volume in the internationally acclaimed MaddAddam trilogy is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future—from the bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments

Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where... Read more

The Year of the Flood

The MaddAddam Trilogy: Book #2

By: Margaret Atwood
Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne, Katie MacNichol & Mark Bramhall
Length: 14 hours 3 minutes

The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood. The Year of the Flood is a dystopic masterpiece and a testament to her visionary power. The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners—a religion devoted to the... Read more

MaddAddam

A Novel

The MaddAddam Trilogy: Book #3

By: Margaret Atwood
Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne, Bob Walter & Robbie Daymond
Length: 13 hours 22 minutes

A New York Times Notable Book
A Washington Post Notable Book
A Best Book of the Year: The Guardian, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, The Globe and Mail
A GoodReads Reader's Choice

Bringing together Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, this thrilling conclusion to Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction trilogy points toward the ultimate... Read more

Station Eleven

A Novel (National Book Award Finalist)

By: Emily St. John Mandel
Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
Length: 10 hours 39 minutes

“I never knew an apocalypse could be so peaceful. "Station Eleven" is the perfect tragedy and the perfect comedy, worthy of its traveling Shakespeare performers indeed. Its story is ingenious, its prose haunting, its characters dynamic and their actions remarkably bold. Read more

Red Rising

Red Rising: Book #1

By: Pierce Brown
Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
Length: 16 hours 11 minutes

“Red Rising is a compelling read for fans of dystopian sci-fi, offering a fast-paced, action-packed story about a rebellion against a brutal, class-based society, with themes of betrayal, revenge, and the fight for justice. Read more

The Passage

A Novel (Book One of The Passage Trilogy)

Passage Trilogy: Book #1

By: Justin Cronin
Narrated by: Scott Brick
Length: 36 hours 46 minutes

“I love me some Twilight vampires. The Passage series is not your Twilight vampires. I'm wondering if Cronin knows something we don't, because this is how I think vampires could take over the world. Survival, loneliness, coming of age - it has it all. You will be blown away by the world building and character development, which spans years,... Read more

The Twelve (Book Two of The Passage Trilogy)

A Novel

Passage Trilogy: Book #2

By: Justin Cronin
Narrated by: Scott Brick
Length: 26 hours 21 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The end of the world was only the beginning. 

In his internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed novel The Passage, Justin Cronin constructed an unforgettable world transformed by a government experiment gone horribly wrong. Now the scope widens and the intensity deepens as the epic story surges forward . . .

... Read more