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Posted: 2017-04-24T13:50:57Z | Updated: 2017-04-24T21:48:20Z

The end of 2016 brought with it a spike in classic dystopian book sales. George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four and Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale which will be released as a Hulu show this month each piqued the interest of book buyers, who mightve drawn uncomfortable parallels between the stories and the world around them.

These books, of course, are not the only dystopian titles resonating with readers. The science fiction subgenre has enjoyed a long period of popularity thanks to YA installments like The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner and The 100, each with its own onscreen offshoot.

There are those in the sci-fi genre who are tired of dystopias proliferation; there are, after all, many ways to speculate about the future, and not all of them need be pessimistic . Still, as the subgenre grows, its capacity for holding a mirror to todays problems climate change, stringent definitions of gender, and discrimination based on race or gender or nationality persists.

If you still see the worth in dystopian stories for social change or for entertainment value there are, luckily, loads to choose from. Climate-fiction, or cli-fi, has emerged as a sub-subgenre of dystopian fiction, with authors like Lidia Yuknavitch and Jeff VanderMeer both of whom have upcoming film adaptations leading the charge. Other titles explore cryonics, religion, gender and more.

Weve included a few were excited about below. Just note that our definition of dystopia is a broad one; any vision of the future that could go awry qualifies.