29 odpowiedzi

1. Children of men?

2. I like the theme – and some good books there. My suggestions for more:
   A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
   The Wanting Seed – Anthony Burgess
   Nineteen-Eighty-Four – George Orwell
   Brian Aldiss – HARM
   Fugue for a Darkening Island – Christopher Priest
   Quiet Woman – Christopher Priest
   Charisma – Michael Coney
   The Jaws that Bite, the Claws that Catch / vt The Girl with a Symphony in Her Fingers – Michael Coney
   The Silent Multitude – DG Compton
   Vurt – Jeff Noon
   Pollen – Jeff Noon
   Alice IN Wonderland – Jeff Noon
   The Red Men – Matthew De Abaitua
   If Then – Matthew De Abaitua
   The Carhulan Army – Sarah Hall
   We Are Not Anonymous – Stephen Oram
   Cwen – Alice Albinia
   Stillicide – Cynan Jones

3. When There Are Wolves Again is the best book I have read in a couple of years. It was a nice treatment for climate grief as it gave me a realistic sense of hope for the future, which is rare in cli-fi. Mostly the reality of cli-fi stories tends to be a major downer. I'm currently working my way through her other books, which so far are good, but not as good as this.

   A few you missed:

   Extremophile (behind you on the shelf) which is set in future London and is a cli-fi dystopia.

   There are a a couple of William Gibson's that include future England, Mona Lisa Overdrive which is half set in London (without climate change, but does have the near future dystopia), and either the Peripheral, or Agency (or possibly both), again set in London. These have climate change which has killed 90% of the human race, and most of the non-human species on earth.

   And Fugue for a Darkening Island, by Christopher Priest, which is just Britain falling apart.

4. Wolves just won the BSFA award for Best Novel. 🐺🏆

5. A decade or so back I read Simon Morden's Equations of Life, Theories of Flight and Degrees of Freedom. They depict, among other things, a dystopian future London with people living in stacked cargo containers in Regents Park and Japanese refugees building a Shinknsen Bullet Train line in the London Underground. I enjoyed reading them at the time, but those are the only bits I still remember, probably because I read the books while commuting to and from work on said London Underground.

6. Hi Jon. Just taking a stroll down booktube memory lane in the interests of nostalgia since going awol. Actually this is a sub-genre that has always fascinated me. I know nothing of the books you outlined because my experience has been more focused on the vintage and prior. Of course 1984 is my guage with mostly Orwellian novels taking up the slack. Brave New World (previous to 1984 of course) and Clockwork Orange being prime examples. Must admit I've always found dystopic books from the US authors to be more absorbing. Anyway, glad to see you're still fit and productive so keep the flag flying. All best Kenny.

7. I have been thinking about Economics and society for years & beyond SF.

   Where are the economists saying that English speaking countries should have had mandatory accounting in high schools since 1950?

   You know that Adam Smith guy used the word 'education' Eighty Times in Wealth of Nations. He wrote "read, write and ACCOUNT" FIVE times.

   Economists mention him but just about that "Invisible Hand". Smith used that so often it can be counted on ONE Finger in 1100 pages!

   Have economists been giving us an Invisible Finger since Keynes took the Long Run?

   We are not in Keynesland any more, Toto!

   And then we have all of these people who cannot figure out Planned Obsolescence in automobiles half-a-century after the Moon Landing! I swear this is Way Too Stupid to be science fiction.

   Can you explain to people over there what a Merlin engine is? We stole it from you Brits and put it in the Mustang. How long ago was that? My alzhiemers is kicking in again.

8. 💡 Behind the scenes! 🤓 I was thinking if you’d gone full 4:3 I’d’ve cheered in laughter 😂

9. Nice selection. Some I’ve read, others are in my TBR. As an American I find British science fiction pretty fascinating and British authors are among my favorites.

10. Thanks so much for mentioning Ken MacLeod! I read the sequels to Star Fraction decades ago but could remember only the plots, not the author or titles. Loved them, especially The Cassini Division. Now on my hunting list!

11. Re climate SF, I've just finished KSR's The Ministry for the Future which is an encyclopedia of climate change. I l learnt a lot! I've read Children of Men, Market Forces (Mad Max meets Mad Men) and Greybeard is on my TBR. I do have The Stone Canal , but perhaps I should read The Stone Fraction first?

12. Some more :
    Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, Facial Justice by L.P. Hartley, The Road to Corlay by Richard Cowper, Second Sleep by Robert Harris, Death of Grass by John Christopher, Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing, 👍

13. No John Wyndham?

14. As mentioned, I’ve never been a fan of the apocalyptic stories. However, I’m sufficiently intrigued by the Girl with All the Gifts, particularly the Wikipedia summary, to keep an eye out for a sale in ebook. 🤔🤓 Certainly I’m reminded of the Mathieson “I am Legend”.

15. Loved the Girl with all the gifts and the sequel. The audiobooks very good.

16. Fun fact, The Girl With All the Gifts was filmed at Stoke-on-Trent's main bus station. It was deemed suitably apocalyptic.

17. I'm not English so I couldn't possibly speculate about why England is a utopia for writers of dystopias. Speaking of such writers, Ballard's The Drowned World is deliciously bleak. Great video.

18. Peter Dickenson's The Changes trilogy, or the 70's BBC TV series of it

19. I have listened to just two of the books from your list; The Children of Men and The Girl with All the Gifts. Did you intentionally omit Brave New World (wonderfully narrated by Michael York) due to its controversial subject?

20. And thanks for the callout to Ken Macleod, one of my favorites. Also: thanks for recommending The Sea and Summer. It's kind of on topic. I know it takes place in Australia, but to an unwashed American, they are sort of the same. At least I can't really distinguish your accents.

21. They said it was "the empire that the sun never sets"…but nothing is forever.

22. Interesting video, as always. Thanks for the synopses! …TBR… One book that I don't see a lot of love for is "Flood", by Steven Baxter. My understanding is a horrifying kind of double feedback mechanism whereby rising ocean levels cause flooding, which puts more weight on the crust, causing it to sink, causing more flooding. On the ocean side, flooding results in less weight on the crust under the ocean, causing it to rise, causing more flooding on the land side… Anyway poor England with its low – lying population centers is an early victim. The action moves elsewhere.

23. Britain does seem a pretty perfect backdrop for Dystopian/Post Apocalyptic fiction as there always seems to be a general air of decline and despair about, and I'm not just talking about the last time I went to Croydon. I haven't read the Star Fraction since it first came out, overdue for a re-read as I only remember fragments of it but I do remember really liking it. Children of MenI have read though and really didn't like it much. One of the rare books where I think the film version is better. P.D. James doesn't write SF very well IMO. Some good recommendations only about half of which I've read so far although a few haven been on my list to get to for a while like Market Forces. Definitely intrigued what the secrecy at the beginning is all about, I'm sure all will be revealed in due course.

24. Great to see Market Forces get the attention it deserves!
    The Girl With All The Gifts is SOOO good, just like all of MR Carey's books.
    I picked up a copy of After Atlas, that seems like it's right up my alley.

25. Another Priest novel, Fugue for a Darkening Island.

26. Fantastic list Jon!
    Really want to read A Dream of Wessex.
    Apart from some obvious classic examples (War of the Worlds, Brave New World, The Day of the Triffids), I really enjoyed some recent reads such as The Tide Went Out by Charles Eric Maine – where all but the last few pages are set in an England within a rapidly falling apart world without water, and Vurt by Jeff Noon set in a future alternate mad Manchester. Looking forward to reading the follow-up Pollen sometime in the next few months. Oh, and not forgetting All the Fiends of Hell (Adam Nevill) – the mad dash through the south of England countryside trying to get to the coast while being pursued still highly memorable 6 months on from reading it!
    Another one not read yet so can't vouch for it is Untied Kingdom by James Lovegrove.

27. Just finished The Wall by John Lanchester. Very good.

28. Great video! The Book of Dave – Will Self, has duel timeline set around north London 'now' and in far future. Great story that has stayed with me a long time.

29. England is the ideal venue for Dystopian SF: after all, British writers codified SF during the Scientific Romance era and they know – when at their best- how to take advantage of the landscape and the fact we are a small island. I endorse many of the books you select, but there are many, many, many more that fall into this ballpark…