#distopian fiction

[joe-story-corner]

The time kaleidoscope.

Jonas ran. He was nearly there, time was breaking down around him. Each fracture a glimpse into his past and the worlds. If only he could get to the reset panel he could fix the disaster that he had unwittingly unleashed. There was no definitive start point from Jonas’s perspective. One day he might have been at the beginning and the next he would be turning it on. Jonas had not made the machine out of benevolent desire for the betterment of humankind, but out of arrogance just because he could. He never stopped to think if he should.

Jonas could not remember exactly when he realised that he was living his days out of order. Too single minded in his task, he had entered a madness of obsession, re-living the same days over and over. Maybe it was when the cracks opened and he could no longer tell which event was historical and which was yet to happen that was the impetus that he needed to realise that he had made a terrible mistake. He saw dark and terrible futures if he did not fix the machine where everyone lived their life non-linearly. One day they would be an adult and the next a child. All he knew was that he had to undo the damage his arrogance had wrought.

People had always laughed at Jonas and dismissed him as mad. Through the fractures in time and space he re-lived each failure and success; he lived thousands of years in moments. He saw the heat death of the universe and the beginning of time. Jonas could see infinite possible futures through the cracks in time. He saw himself running to the reset panel in many of them, and stopping time breaking more than it already had and saving the world. He could no longer tell which version of him he was. It was like looking through a bizarre kaleidoscope of possible futures. Each possibility blurring into each other and happening at the same time, it became maddening the longer he looked but it was impossible to look away. Each future was happening to him at the same time.

Time fractured further. Jonas ran. He was nearly there, time was breaking down around him. Each fracture a glimpse into his past and the worlds. If only he could get to the reset panel he could fix the disaster that he had unwittingly unleashed…

[rinniereads123]

Last Man Standing

Summary: The last person on Earth writes their final thoughts.

WC: ~600

Warnings: suicidal ideation (pls tell me if there are any more I should add)

a/n: This is my first time posting my own work anywhere. I really only use Tumblr to read fanfics, but I don't actually write fics lol. I may or may not post more of my own stuff. It'll be kind of an eclectic collection if I do. I do however keep my masterlists updated with fics I enjoy, so check that out. | masterlist

༺═─────────────═༻

Silence. It’s one of those things that feels inescapable, all-encompassing, yet void. I’ve lived most of my life in silence, but I remember what it was like before. The world used to be lively and joyous, but then silence wrapped its cold dead hands around me. It hasn’t let go yet, and I’m not sure it will. 

I think I miss music the most. Music was something that brought so much color to my life. Each moment could be marked by a song. I used to listen to music with my family. We would all sing and dance together and just have a good time. I can’t do that anymore. I’m alone in the silence.

What I crave is the sound of people. The everyday hustle and bustle. Passing conversations, laughter, crying, fighting, and joy. Joy has a sound and you don’t even realize that until you no longer hear it. The sound of someone’s slowing breath when you hug them. That’s joy. The sound of playful banter during a game. That’s joy. There is no joy anymore because it’s only me, the earth, and my dear enemy: silence.

At this point, I’m just waiting for death to take me like silence did. It’s already taken everyone else in this dull world. Why not me? Why did I have to be the last man standing?

As a child, you fantasize about what it would be like to be the last person on Earth. You would raid the grocery stores and eat whatever you wanted. You would live in the nicest house in your neighborhood and steal the biggest TV from Walmart. You could do whatever you wanted whenever you wanted. The thing you fail to realize when you’re a kid is that when everyone is gone, your life becomes bleak and lonely. Not only that but there is no one working so nothing works. I don’t have electricity or running water anymore. All the laptops and phones I could find ran out of power a long time ago. For a while, I was listening to the few records I could find, but I listened to them so much that they got worn and don’t work anymore. I’m so desperate to hear anyone’s voice. To feel anyone’s embrace, even death’s. But no. Death isn’t merciful. It left me in the hands of its sister, silence.

Next time you find yourself imagining being the last man standing, remember that you will never hear or see your family again. Remember that you will never go on a trip with your friends again. Remember that everything you rely on will stop. Not as fun as you had hoped, huh? That first week is fine. You get to live out that childhood fantasy of eating sweets for every meal and taking everything you ever wanted from the store. After that, the reality of it all starts to sink in. You hope and pray that someone will walk through that door. You don’t care if all they do is yell at you for doing something wrong, you just want to see someone. Hear someone. 

I guess if someone is reading this then maybe I wasn’t the last man standing after all. I’m sorry for leaving you alone, but I can’t stand to be in the company of silence anymore. It’s driving me insane. I can’t even hear my own voice. The narrator in my head died along with everyone else. If death won’t come to me on her own, I’ll bring her to me. I hope you don’t share my fate. I’ll be waiting for you on the other side.

[showtiming]

Brazil (1985) Dir. Terry Gilliam.

[wakingupnexttoyou]

I didn't read as many books as normal in June lol but still read a lot. Quite a few really good reads over a few different genres!

[the-dolphin-queen]

Recommended reading (other than fanfiction) after I finish my reread of the Six of Crows duology?

[discoveringmyself88]

“Feed” by M.T. Anderson

[alexandria-lib]

A memoir of the past decade (2014-2024) would be a dystopian sci-fi novel in any time before that.

[robinjohnmorgan]

HAN’S COTTAGE. An inspirational and enchanting fairy story for grownups.

Proving to be one of his best books, Han’s Cottage has created a stir and touched the hearts of all its readers. This truly is a magical story, that captivates the reader from page one. It is written with such love and insight, as Robin John Morgan, has crafted a tale of deep emotion and beauty, by blending real life with fantasy, around his character Emily, a young twenty one year old, grieving the loss of her Grandma Hannah.

After a year, and feeling a pull within her, she returns to Han’s Cottage, and discovers a very magical secret life, that was hidden to all, and guarded by Han. From the moment she arrives, a series of strange events happen, which lead Emily to finally face her loss, recover from grief, and walk into the light of her future of hope and happiness. Without doubt, Robin John Morgan’s finest book to date.

This is the one book everyone should be reading, an enchanting and breath taking work of magical fantasy, that will touch your heart for a long time to come.

Available now, in print and digital formats from all online sources.

[reillyissof]

But like think about it, think of any kind of fantasy or dystopian show or book. They always have some sort of racism or just prejudice against a group of people to make lore interesting lmao

Litteraly anyone who is making backstory/history for a fantasy setting ever:

Racism

[gurokichi]

I could never become bored of you, not that easily, at least! You are my Bon, you can't get rid of me that easily <3

Yeah, I got 2 kitties! Both of them are boys, and their names are Pickle and Bean! Maybe one day you'll get to see pictures of them! I also have a dog, snails, isopod, beetles, chickens, and hermit crabs! Got a bit of a zoo around here!

I'll definitely watch some of your suggestions, and I will be sure to tell you my thoughts! Just another excuse to talk to you!

I will hopefully be posting on my blog again soon, and I am so excited to now that I know you will be watching my blog (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)

I mainly read fiction, distopian, and horror/gore. But also, like when books have lgbt+ characters, and have read a few Manga! I just borrowed a book from a friend called "The Corpse Queen" by Heather M. Herrman, I strongly suggest it, I've also just started reading a GL Manga series called "Whisper Me a Love Song" and so far have been really enjoying it!!! I like plants in many ways, I learn about plants, I grow both indoor and outdoor plants, and I have a fascination with all living or once living things,,, and they happen to fit in that category too!!! I don't think I could pick just one flower as my favorite, but I do enjoy Asters a lot! Bleeding hearts? awe, it makes sense that a sweetie like you would love a poisonous flower!

What video games do you like to play? I'd love to hear all about your current favorite game! What part of history do you like so much? Oh and you collect things too! I would love to hear all about your little hoards 💕

-Dolly

I’M YOUR BON?? ASJHFSHBHKHGSGHFHJKSHLJS (＞＜)

Okay. Anyways. Sorry, got a lil excited there... I’m your Bon, and you’re my Doll!! All mine!!! I’m glad to hear that you wouldn’t get bored and leave. I’d do anything to make sure my precious doll stays with me!

AWH, they sound so darling. You have so many… how do you keep up with all of them??That’s really cool, though! You definitely have some uncommon pets.

I’m excited to hear your thoughts (๑>◡<๑)

I will definitely be watching my doll’s blog! How could I not? Anyone would find it hard to take their eyes off you. Besides, I’d love to see more of your posts when you decide to go back to it.

Ah, those are all good genres! Thank you for the recommendation, and I’ll check out the manga you mentioned later. Asters are gorgeous; my doll has great taste in flowers!!

I usually prefer games with long stories. I like RPGs and visual novels the most! I find pixel art really nice to look at, so a lot of my favorite games feature that. I’ve been playing through a farming sim called Fields of Mistria lately; it’s been really enjoyable so far! The best way I could describe it is as a mix of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. As for my current favorite games, they’re probably… Minecraft, Danganronpa, Persona 5 Royal, and Identity V. I’m not finished playing through P5R, but I like it so far. I’m currently replaying and trying to get all achievements in every Danganronpa game! I’ve finished Trigger Happy Havoc, and I’m now working on Goodbye Despair. Having a bit of trouble though, because I have a friend I’m sharing my Steam library with who is ALSO playing through the Danganronpa games. I can’t play the games until they get off, bleh. AH, I also started a playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2. I suck ass at it. I ended up punching my horse when trying to get on it. I also drew my gun on it multiple times. So sorry to my horse, it did not deserve that. It took me like 10 minutes and frantic googling to figure out how to get back on my horse after I accidentally got off (ᵕ—ᴗ—)

Do you play any videogames? If you do, I’d love to hear about what you like to play.

Ah, I just like history in general. I love to learn about things. Some things that caught my interest for awhile in the past though are torture/execution methods, the Chernobyl disaster, the Carrington event, WW2, old medical treatments, and Greek mythology. I haven’t been into history as much lately.. so I probably couldn’t explain anything here well.

I do collect stuff! I have a collection of various plushies, figurines, keychains, and knickknacks stored in my room. I think my favorite things that I own are probably my jar of uranium glass and this stunning piece of bismuth I got just a couple weeks ago. I’d like to start a full on collection of uranium glass, but that’s expensive, and I have no idea where I’d put it. Uranium glass is absolutely gorgeous, though! I hope to at least get a couple more pieces in the future.

[alaskan-wallflower]

i know i just made a poll on this but

kyle is SO an english/history brain. (i’m dividing it up by prrving this)

English:

Kyle is all about debate. He loves speeches. He loves putting stuff together for projects. English is totally Kyle’s thing! There are so many speeches and logistics. I feel like Kyle is more memory oriented than anything as well like I dunno. Kyle just seems like he’d love to sit down with a book and unwind by reading something he genuinely enjoys. Not a textbook, not a math book, but a genuine book. (He’s probably into distopian fiction or something)

History:

I don’t remember the episode name but that one episode where they did the history project. Kyle seemed so immersed in it! Like genuinely immersed. We’ve seen him do other projects (Like in Follow that Egg) where he seemed like he genuinely wasn’t interested in it (“I don’t care Wendy. I just want my A.”) but in that episode he seemed like he was actually trying/interested in the project. I dunno. I feel like people only make him a math nerd because of stereotypes. There’s no actual proof Kyle likes math. I don’t think there is at least.

[duckprintspress]

To celebrate Science Fiction Day, which is today on January 2nd, 2023, we asked DPP contributors to recommend us their favorite science fiction that they read in 2022! And we got some really awesome answers… (all spelling/grammar is sic the original recommender)

The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard. D. V. Morse’s recommendation: “lesbian pirates in space with lots of Vietnamese culture throughout. And so much more I want to say that I keep deleting because spoilers.”

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Cap’s recommendation: “a ‘motley crew/found family on a perilous journey’ story that centers queer, poly, and otherwise non-traditional characters and relationships. Book 1 of a Hugo-winning series, female author.”

The Testing (The Testing Trilogy) by Joelle Charbonneau. Annabeth Lynch’s recommendation: “I absolutely loved it and I never see people talk about it. It’s distopian sci-fi.”

Threadbare (Storm Fronts Series) by Elle E. Ire. boneturtle’s recommendation: “an action-packed futuristic scifi story featuring ruthless mercenary and cyborg Vick, whom no one (including herself) believes is human, and her lover and handler Kelly, the only person who trusts her implicitly. A simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking lesbian romance that confronts the nature of love and humanity, and what it means to be the hero when you feel like the villain.”

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace. Adrian Harley’s recommendation: “one of my favorite books I read this year. It’s got a fun adventure setup about a VR gamer who starts discovering the truth behind the star NPCs of the VR game, PLUS the most chillingly plausible dystopia I’ve ever read, bar none, PLUS an aro/ace protagonist and a central platonic relationship.”

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal. Dei Walker’s recommendation: “it’s The Thin Man in SPAAAACE with a heroine with chronic pain, a really deftly handled non-gender-binary selection of characters, and queer.”

Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell. alec’s recommendation (without comment).

Scythe by Neal Shusterman. nottesilhouette’s recommendation: “the whole series has queer characters in it though the first book is really focused on like 5 people that are all kinda straight. and I am queer, and I like it.”

Global Examination by Mu Su Li. Nina Waters’s recommendation: “queer semi-dystopian vaguely sci-fi manhua shenanigans!”

The Martian by Andy Weir. Rascal Hartley’s recommendation: “not queer, but definitely one of my absolute favorite reads.”

What were YOUR favorite science fiction reads of 2022? We’d love to hear about them!

Who We Are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fanfiction authors navigate the complex process of bringing their original works from first draft to print, culminating in publishing their work under our imprint. We are particularly dedicated to working with queer authors and publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Love what we do? Sign up for our monthly newsletter and get previews, behind-the-scenes information, coupons, and more.

[izartn]

Thinking about the setting of CFC again, and I know I said on my first post after reading the book that Meatbun should have just gone urban fantasy to get her kick with the more out there elements more plausibly, the scifi plot elements were the weakest on the book but...

You can tell she really wanted to go full on scifi, bc thinking about it, I think going full on 100-200 years on the future with he technology (no aliens or space travel super avaible except for like, maybe the moon or Mars) would have really aided both what she wanted to explore re:technology and the ways we use and abuse it, and her commentary on arts and fictional worlds.

Plus the pseudo superpowered He Yu and Xie Qingcheng and their resulting mental illness and infection by RN-13 would have fit better; maybe even targeting the way humanity has started to openly play with modifying genes and neuroplasticity.

Mandela as an ideology widespread and having to fight it. Making the matrix plan much more scary and plausible.

Like. The distopian sci-fi film noir of it all would have fit like a glove to what she's trying to do in the novel, and to her protags.

Come on, distopian scifi serves to amplify the worst and the best the same way historical fantasy does, and Meatbun loves to go to extremes from what we've read of her.

He Yu being raised by robot nannies that he loves until he realises/is explained they're just unfeeling programs and getting a bit of that real human connection with Xie Qingcheng? Poor wire monkey kid.

Realising "nobody" "real" cares for him would hit weirder here, if not harder. Getting a complex about having to program his own behaviour if he wants to fit and be loved by others! Pushing himself to master coding (he's a hacker in canon! Tie that even tighter to setting and plot and his emotional journey dammit), almost falling but then ruthlessly dismissing the false fantasies created by technology! In the way he does by the end of the book but hitting harder in this setting bc that unreality it's an element that's been there from the beginning.

He Yu having to deal with his hallucinations when he's on his lower moments in this version would also be even more also even more oomph, given people giving in to the technological ghosts would be something he's used to seeing. And then realising his own brain is creating that trap when he thought he was above deluding himself. Like he does in canon but you know. Tying it with the plot and setting better, which makes it hit harder.

You also just know the elite He Yu is born feom are on some hunger games almost capitol bullshit. HY deciding to study cinematography and arts in this kind of culture. Meatbun ripping apart the abuse of AI, tying in with her criticism of the lower common denominator re:fluffy simple stories.

Compare that to a Xie Chengqing even more determined that science has everything studied about human behaviour and emotions are just silly hormones that can robe one of control. At the same time rejecting the frivolous use of technology; finding unsuspecting common ground with He Yu despite it all. Mmm. His brand of condescending old fashioned machismo and general internalised homophobia (and He Yu's if we're talking about it) (although in He Yu case it could just be denial of XQC in specific though which would be hilarous/sad considering. all of the story) would be maybe more difficult to translate but honestly humanity is such a shit show that I would buy we having regressed and then progressed again on the human rights front. Anyway it's more about his unhealthy repression, controlling tendencies, and trying to be good at being human by societal standards, for his sister and master/prpfessor/adopted father. That can be explored perfectly on this setting regardless.

Maybe it's the aftermath of a conflict and that's why people are so crazy about Mandela! Collective trauma around incomprehensible loss. Human nature at his most basic need for love and companionship vs survival, like Meatbun likes.

The more I think about this the more I like it. Mmm. Did censure prevent Meatbun of going all out with the scifi? Because it really really fits.

[rjalker]

Martha Wells with The Murderbot Diaries is just like she's taking things she knows are Scifi™ and sticking them in the story but she has no understanding of why those things are common in scifi and also has no desire to learn or I guess even understand why they were included in the first place, so instead she just presents them as fact that do not need to be questioned or even noticed.

A lot of science fiction asks the question, "How much technology can you add to your body before you stop being human?"

And Martha Wells was like "oh that sounds neat. Anyways disabled people aren't fully human anymore. This is just a fact. It's fine. No no one's going to question or deconstruct this. No I'm not making this statement to make a statement about the way disabled people are dehumanized. No I'm not even doing it to show that this is a dystopia. This is not a distopian fact. It's just a fact. It will never be explored or expanded upon. 99% of readers will not even notice it because of how little importance it has and the fact that I don't treat it as a big deal at all."

Like.

Lady.

This is not how this works.

And this whole problem definitely stems from her issue of not planning ahead. She originally intended The Murderbot Diaries to just be that first short story, and it was going to have a tragic ending. Then she decided to keep writing for it.

Some things work if it's just a single short story that's all you see of the world.

But that stops working once you decide that actually, you're going to expand it. Except you're gonna just keep refusing to expand upon this thing you created that you don't even see as a problem.

Consistently separating Real Humans from Disabled Humans is only a good writing choice if the whole fucking point of the separation is to criticize ableism and the dehumanization of disabled people.

Martha Wells isn't questioning anything. She's not deconstructiong anything. She just thought calling disabled people augmented humans and then making sure no one can forget that they're not Really Human Anymore was a cool scifi sounding idea, without realizing that you do in fact need to address this shit if you're going to include it in your worldbuilding.

This is just bad writing. And it very clearly stems from Martha Wells' inability to plan ahead. But this is her responsibility and yes, disabled people are going to continue to be upset by and offended by this stupid lazy decision she chose to make. She decided to make systemic ableism a set dressing for her story, without ever actually doing anything to question it or utilize it in any way.

That's just bad writing.

pro fucking tip: do not just pick out elements of dystopic settings to put into your story unless you're actually planning to use them. There's a fucking reason a lot of science fiction deals with dsiability and whether or not disbled people should be considered human or not. If you are unwilling or unable to fucking actually reckon with this question then don't fucking ask it. It's not just a quirky little decoration you can throw into your story for fun. That's not how this works.

[thewriterwithnoplan]

65 is to the single-dad + feral-daughter trope what Divergent was to distopian fiction.