Reading 101: Dystopian Fiction by I Was a Teenage Book Geek

There are so many books I have read and loved since I began I Want To Read That that I never would have even picked up before I began blogging. Instead of asking people for individual recommendations for similar themed books I decided to invite a guest to do a post for me on a particular genre or type of book. Hence Reading 101 was born.

So I will pass you over to Lauren from I Was A Teenage Book Geek...



When Sammee asked me to write a guest post on dystopian fiction for her Reading 101 feature, I figured it would be easy.

After all, dystopia is my favourite. When I’m in need of some serious escapism, I like nothing better than picking up a book that will take me out of my safe, somewhat dull early-21st century existence and into a world that’s... well, EVEN worse than this one.

Now, considering that I love dystopian fiction so much, you’d think that I could knock together a snappy definition that would tell you exactly what the genre is. You would, right?

Well, you would be wrong. Turns out, this genre is way more slippery than I realised all those times I was escaping into it. (Or I’m just not that smart. Whichever.)

But luckily, in my experience, you’ll know a dystopia when you see one. And it’ll go something like this....

1) It’s the future. Or maybe it isn’t. (But usually, it is.)
2) Assuming it is the future, something has happened between now and then to make this far-off world different to the one we know. Think nuclear holocaust, environmental disaster, economic crisis or major political changes. Whatever: it’s different. But the focus won’t usually be on the change that’s taken place: it’ll be on the society that has evolved as a result of it. Usually.
3) At first glance, this vision of the future may well look like the perfect society. The citizens may live a life free of disease or poverty. They may all be beautiful. But scratch the surface, and you mark my words, there’ll be something sinister going on underneath. Of course, sometimes it may be completely obvious that this new world is a sinister one. (Like, if the government are demanding that teenagers fight each other to the death for sport: that’s pretty much frowned upon in most utopian societies.)
4) That main character you meet, going about their (probably) futuristic business? They will be kick-a**. Although not necessarily physically. They may be mentally kick-a**, instead. Or emotionally. That’s just as good.
5) Because that sinister thing going on beneath the surface? It’s control. And it’s terrifying. And our heroine (or possibly hero) will need every ounce of their kick-a**ness to escape its clutches.
6) Prepare for AWESOME.

Feel like escaping into some dystopian goodness yourself? Check out these genre favourites from my bookshelf:

The Hunger Games trilogy – Suzanne Collins
It’s the future. America is now Panem: twelve districts subject to the Capitol’s oppressive rule. We don’t know exactly how things got this way, but what we do know is the districts attempted to stage an uprising and failed. The annual Hunger Games are their cruel and unusual punishment. Each year, the Capitol randomly selects one boy and one girl from each district, puts all twenty-four in a huge arena with assorted weapons, and commands them to fight to the death in a televised battle. Only one can survive.

The Hunger Games is probably my favourite YA book ever, and definitely my favourite dystopia. It has everything you could want in a book of this genre: amazing world-building, nail-biting action, and the most kick-ass teenage heroine OF ALL TIME in Katniss Everdeen. There’s also a love triangle, but it’s a love triangle of the non-lame variety. I promise. And the best news? It’s a trilogy. See also: Catching Fire. And soon: Mockingjay.

The Declaration – Gemma Malley
It’s the future, and we’re in England. Yay! In an over-populated world, miracle drug Longevity makes it possible for human beings to live indefinitely – but only if they sign a declaration stating that they won’t have children. Anna is a Surplus: an illegal child raised by the state, told that she’s a burden to Legal society and must work as a servant to atone for her existence. While Anna’s always accepted her fate, when she meets Surplus Peter she finds that maybe some things are worth fighting for after all.

The first in a trilogy, The Declaration is one of those dystopian novels that really makes you think about the way our society is headed and how we treat people. Its strength is in its ideas, and the sequel – The Resistance – is even better.

Restoring Harmony – Joelle Anthony
It’s the future. 2041, to be precise. On an island in British Columbia, Molly has grown up far away from the problems big cities have faced since the Collapse of '31: corruption, crime, shortages of essential supplies. But when Molly's mother becomes worried about her father down in Oregon, she asks Molly to venture out into post-collapse America to rescue him. Hint: in a dangerous world like this one, that’s not going to be easy.

While it’s common for dystopias to initially look like the perfect society, Restoring Harmony gives us something a little different: a future vision of the world that in many ways seems terrible, but might wind up not being that bad after all. It’s an uplifting dystopia. It has heart. It has a beautiful romance. And the kind of protagonist that kicks a** with a violin.

Genesis – Bernard Beckett
It’s the future. Of course it is! The world as we know it is over, but The Republic survives on a small group of islands called Aotearoa. Fourteen year old Anaximander is undertaking her entrance exam to The Academy. Her specialist subject is a man named Adam Forde, who once changed the course of The Republic’s history forever. It takes us a while to find out how exactly, or what this means to Anax, but when we do it’ll BLOW YOUR MIND.

Genesis rocks because it reads like it was written in the future. It’s a little alien at first, and very hard to summarise without giving its secrets away. Which I would NEVER do, because I want you to read and love this book for yourself. If the prospect of reading an entire book about an academic entrance interview doesn’t fill you with excitement, then this should be one of those occasions when you ignore your gut instincts and just read it anyway. You won’t regret it.

Feed – M.T. Anderson
It’s the future. Duh. In a world where teens have the internet ‘fed’ right into their brains, creativity and independent thought has been exchanged for school™ and obsessive consumerism. As a result, Titus and his friends are jaded, shallow and in some ways stupid. But on a recreational trip to the Moon, Titus’s view of the world is challenged when he meets Violet, the daughter of an academic, and their group suffers a viral attack on their feeds.

Narrated in exactly the way you’d expect a boy like Titus to tell his story, at first Feed doesn’t feel like the deepest book you’ve ever read. At times, I’ll be honest, Titus is downright annoying. But when the story takes a tragic turn, the superficial tone to his voice makes what happens all the more poignant. Though it will seem impossible at the start, there’s a strong chance you will cry reading this book.

Go. Read dystopia. Enjoy.

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Thanks Lauren! They all sound fabulous! I now really want a copy of Restoring Harmony - it sounds ace!

Reading 101: High Fantasy by The Bookette

There are so many books I have read and loved since I began I Want To Read That that I never would have even picked up before I began blogging. Instead of asking people for individual recommendations for similar themed books I decided to invite a guest to do a post for me on a partictular genre or type of book. Hence Reading 101 was born.

So, without further ado, I will pass you over to Becky from The Bookette for the first Reading 101.

Before I became a blogger, I thought of Fantasy as a genre. A genre that I loved and could quite happily have married and lived happily ever after with. But I’ve been blogging a while now and I keep hearing different terms when it comes to Fantasy. There is High Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Sci-Fi Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery to name but a few of the different sub genres. It can become mightily confusing for the reader looking for something that is just Fantasy.

Sammee asked me if I would write a guest post about High Fantasy and because I love her and her blog I said why yes, of course. I would love to. But who would know there is such a contradictory definition of High Fantasy out there.

Wiki characterises High Fantasy as a story which is set in an invented or parallel, entirely fictional world. Our world as we know it is the primary world. High Fantasy novels are set in a secondary world which is fictional. Sounds really straight-forward, but oh no! Wiki then goes on to say that any of these three scenarios fit into the High Fantasy sub genre:

1) The primary world does not exist. Lord of the Rings is a great example of this because so many people have heard of it. The world which Frodo knows and loves is Middle Earth. In no part of the story is our real world referred to.
2) The primary world exists and provides a portal to the secondary world. Ah ha, so some characters may know only too well that the Primary World exists but they venture into the Secondary World. Great classic examples are The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. The portals being the wardrobe and the rabbit hole respectively.
3) A distinct secondary world existing within our Primary world. Let’s all here it for the one and only Harry Potter. Harry knows muggles, has had the distinct misfortune to be raised by them and is punished for performing magic in front of them. Although some might argue that HP could be viewed as an Scenario 2 fantasy in the first novel as the Hogwarts Express is the portal to the magic school.
Source: Wikipedia

So you see many types of fantasy can be categorised as High Fantasy.

I prefer to think of High Fantasy as Scenario 1. That is fantasy books which exist entirely in their own worlds. The characters never knowing anything about our real world. So what books do I love that would fit in this very narrow definition?

Let’s begin with Garth Nix who I happen to adore. I love his Abhorsen Trilogy. The First book is SABRIEL. This is the blurb from the trilogy website.

For many years Sabriel has lived outside the walls of the Old Kingdom, away from the random power of Free Magic, and away from the Dead who won't stay dead. But now her father, the Charter-Mage Abhorsen, is missing, and to find him Sabriel must cross back into that world.

Though her journey begins alone, she soon finds companions: Mogget, whose seemingly harmless feline form hides a powerful -- and perhaps malevolent -- spirit, and Touchstone, a Charter-Mage long imprisoned by magic, now free in body but still trapped by painful memories.

With threats on all sides and only each other to trust, the three of them must travel deep into the Old Kingdom, toward a battle that will pit them against the true forces of life and death -- and bring Sabriel face-to-face with her own hidden destiny.

A tale of dark secrets, deep love, and dangerous magic!

You can download a sample chapter of SABRIEL here.

One of the things I love most about this series is that each book is better than the last and there are not many series books that you can say that about.

For those of you who still love tween fiction I have to recommend the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage.

The series begins with MAGYK and it really is. I love the world building in these books. It is so enchanting and the characters are adorable too. Blurb from the series website:

The seventh son of the seventh son, aptly named Septimus Heap, is stolen the night he is born by a midwife who pronounces him dead. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across a bundle in the snow containing a new born girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take this helpless newborn into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?

The Septimus Heap website is the coolest. It has a brilliant map and you can do lots of fun things. Go check it out.

An oldie but a goodie is The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin. This was recommended to me by a friend at uni. What good taste in books he had (and political parties now I think of it)! It was first published in 1968. Blurb from Goodreads:

A superb four-part fantasy, comparable with the work of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, the "Earthsea" books follow the fortunes of the wizard Ged from his childhood to an age where magic is giving way to evil. As a young dragonlord, Ged, whose use-name is Sparrowhawk, is sent to the island of Roke to learn the true way of magic. A natural magician, Ged becomes an Archmage and helps the High Priestess Tenar escape from the labyrinth of darkness. But as the years pass, true magic and ancient ways are forced to submit to the powers of evil and death.

An author who is prolific in the genre of High Fantasy is Diana Wynne Jones. I haven’t read many of her novels but I loved The Merlin Conspiracy. Blurb from Goodreads:

The islands of Blest keep the balance of magic in half the multiverse. If something goes wrong with the magic on Blest, it will have a ripple effect on many other worlds. Something is about to go wrong ?

It all begins when the Merlin of Blest dies of a heart attack. Or was he murdered by sorcery?

Two friends, Roddy and Grundo, suspect a conspiracy, but no adult will believe them. When a boy from another world, Nick, blunders into the trouble on Blest, Roddy tries to enlist his help. But what can three children who are just discovering their magical talents do against the new Merlin, the Earthmistress, and the dark powers they’re calling up? The dangers are great, and if Roddy, Grundo, and Nick fail to stop the conspirators before they disrupt the balance of magic, the results will be far more far-reaching and destructive than they can imagine.

And finally, my most recently discovered author of High Fantasy is Maria V. Synder. I read STORM GLASS book and loved it. The blurb from Goodreads

As a glassmaker and a magician-in-training, Opal Cowen understands trial by fire. Now it's time to test her mettle. Someone has sabotaged the Stormdancer clan's glass orbs, killing their most powerful magicians. The Stormdancers—particularly the mysterious and mercurial Kade—require Opal's unique talents to prevent it happening again. But when the mission goes awry, Opal must tap in to a new kind of magic as stunningly potent as it is frightening. And the further she delves into the intrigue behind the glass and magic, the more distorted things appear. With lives hanging in the balance—including her own—Opal must control powers she hadn't known she possessed…powers that might lead to disaster beyond anything she's ever known.

Maria has also written the STUDY series which I have bought but haven’t got around to reading yet. I hear nothing but wonderful things about it.

I am a dreamer which is I think why I love High Fantasy. I’d be really interested to see if anyone has read any great High Fantasies recently and get some recommendations of new authors to try.

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Thanks Becky! I am digging out my copy of Sabriel right now!