Others: Mostly positive Winston Smith lives in a society where the government controls people every second of the day. He fights this world with love. But it's dangerous: love for another person can be punished by death - and Big Brother is always watching. Orwell's classic story shows that there is no freedom unless ideas and beliefs can be questioned. This is as true today as when it was written, more than fifty years ago. --back cover
Genres: science fiction
Lists: …
Margaret Atwood
2000 · 641 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveMore than fifty years on, Iris Chase is remembering Laura's mysterious death. And so begins an extraordinary and compelling story of two sisters and their secrets. Set against a panoramic backdrop of twentieth-century history, The Blind Assassin is an epic tale of memory, intrigue and betrayal...
What made the match, strongest first
H. G. Wells
1933 · 431 pages · 1 review
Others: MixedA futuristic novel in which Wells predicts, along with the Second World War, an eventual rise of a World State run by a benevolent dictatorship. This state promotes science over religion and enforces English as a global language and finally paves the way for a true Utopian State. The version below called "Things to Come" is not the book by Wells; it is a description of the film made much later.
What made the match, strongest first
Kaliane Bradley
2024 · 384 pages · 6 reviews
Others: Leaning positiveIn the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she'll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible -- for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he's a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts. Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry's project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how -- and whether she believes -- what she does next can change the future.
What made the match, strongest first
Arthur C. Clarke
1952 · 220 pages · 9 reviews
Others: Leaning positiveChildhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival ends all war, helps form a world government, and turns the planet into a near-utopia. Many questions are asked about the origins and mission of the aliens, but they avoid answering, preferring to remain in their ships, governing through indirect rule. Decades later, the Overlords eventually show themselves, and their impact on human culture leads to a Golden Age. However, the last generation of children on Earth begin to display powerful psychic abilities, heralding their evolution into a group mind, a transcendent form of life.
What made the match, strongest first
Philip K. Dick
1955 · 200 pages · 1 review
Others: MixedThe year is 2203, and the ruler of the universe is chosen according to the random laws of a strange game under the control of Quizmaster Verrick. But when Ted Bentley, a research technician recently dismissed from his job, signs on to work for Verrick, he has no idea that Leon Cartwright is about to become the new Quizmaster. Nor does he know that he's about to play an integral part in the plot to assassinate Cartwright so that Verrick can resume leadership of a universe that is not nearly as random as it appears. Winner of both the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards for best novel, widely regarded as the premiere science fiction writer of his day, and the object of cult-like adoration from his legions of fans, Philip K. Dick has come to be seen in a literary light that defies classification in much the same way as Borges and Calvino. With breathtaking insight, he utilizes vividly unfamiliar worlds to evoke the hauntingly and hilariously familiar in our society and ourselves. From the Trade Paperback edition.
What made the match, strongest first
Philip K. Dick
1964 · 224 pages · 1 review
Others: NegativeOn a ravaged Earth, fate and circumstances bring together a disparate group of characters, including a fascist with dreams of a coup, a composer who plays his instrument with his mind, a First Lady who calls all the shots, and the world’s last practicing therapist. And they all must contend with an underclass that is beginning to ask a few too many questions, aided by a man called Loony Luke and his very persuasive pet alien. In classic Philip K. Dick fashion, The Simulacra combines time travel, psychotherapy, telekinesis, androids, and Neanderthal-like mutants to create a rousing, mind-bending story where there are conspiracies within conspiracies and nothing is ever what it seems.
What made the match, strongest first
Loved itThe classic tale, dystopian surveillance and the destruction of the human spirit. Better than I anticipated. Highly relevant, nicely written, horrifyingly tragic, a mind [ __ ] to this very day. Particularly Orwell's concept of double think. An extremely impressive achievement.
NeutralOrwell was commenting on the incumbent geopolitical situation, the aftermath of World War II, pulling that commentary from the Soviet Union. Was he just writing a novel, or was he looking at the world around him at the time and sending a warning?
Mixedthis one I read as an adult for the first time and I actually didn't really like this very much when I first read it... just because it's not my personal favorite doesn't mean I don't think it's worth reading I think there's a lot of worthwhile information in here
Mixedi do still think that is one of my favorite classics that being said though there is a portion where it's just like textbook that he's reading and i definitely skipped that part because i think it was just like too much info dumping for sure
Loved it1984 i still think it's one of the most interesting dystopian books ever written
Loved itthis is a book that makes you feel very claustrophobic while reading and it also makes you wonder about the parallels between this book and all well today in which we have so many ways to observe each other
