Hi friends! It has been so fun to see you all joining this quest. I hope that this quest offers you both the classics that maybe you read or didn't read in school, but also, a lot of new, fresh voices and voices from different cultures and perspectives. I mentioned in my first post that I have a long, long list of options going, and I fully expect that this quest will expand to have all the badge tiers available to it. I think probably I will aim to add a few books quarterly, so a few every season, and those adds will be targeted and will themselves hopefully be relatively distinct from each other.

In my research for this quest, I learned a lot about the types of dystopian literature that folks have pointed to, and the categorization really depends on who you're asking, so while there are other categorization systems out there, I will share with you some info about the categorization system that I personally decided to use while I was working on the quest.

Not to be that bitch citing Wikipedia, but here we go. Wikipedia defines dystopian fiction (and utopian fiction) as being "sub-genres of speculative fiction that explore extreme forms of social and political structures." Wikipedia quotes Keith Booker's 1994 book The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature when it says that dystopian literature provides "fresh perspectives on problematic social and political practices that might otherwise be taken for granted or considered natural and inevitable." From Pamela Gosselin's 2002 Encyclopedia of Literature and Science, Wikipedia shares that "dystopias usually extrapolate elements of contemporary society, and thus can be read as political warnings," which definitely is how I typically take a dystopia, as a warning of how things can escalate and become more extreme.

As for the types... I saw this structure repeated a bunch of places, but felt like the explanations given in an article on the site "Films for Action", linked here gave me a framework that I personally liked, so went with that. The article introduces itself with this banger line, so I was sort of sold immediately: "The twentieth century saw four basic visions of hell on earth, or dystopia."

I want to note really quickly that not every author likes the dystopia label. Margaret Atwood prefers the term "speculative fiction." Very validatingly (I know it's not a word), she also stated that natural disasters and things like a pandemic are not true dystopias, as they were not intentionally and artificially arranged by a government, so that does make me feel a little more confident in not including works that are purely post-apocalyptic. Rivers Solomon also noted that in referring to their work that is in this quest, An Unkindness of Ghosts, as dystopian could soften the impact, as it was based on real events. What I will say is that for me, dystopia does not necessarily mean fictional. This quest is fictional works, but many works of dystopian literature include actions perpetrated by real governments. I personally think that dystopian literature is so effective because of its underlying basis in reality.

But anyway, getting back to the types... Here are the types within this framework (again, there are other frameworks, but I liked this one) that I tried to categorize the works in our quest into, and what they're all about. They are named after people who are considered leaders in those genres or those who wrote kind of the ultimate prototype of that type from the 20th century, though I want to note that for some, there were actually examples of that type that pre-date that author's work. They are... Orwellian, Huxleyan, Kafkaesque, and Phildickian.

Orwellian: these are characterized by authoritarian, totalitarian rule, often militarized, with elevation of a specific group, i.e. "The Party." Surveillance, repression of speech/dissent, and just like, really intense control over the lives of everyone, or of a specific group (minorities of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and trans folks and women, etc. usually), living within that society. Policing of language is also often very prevalent. 1984 by George Orwell is a key example (though I will note that there are works that fall under this category that pre-date Orwell, but I will still include them in this group!).

Huxleyan: These sometimes are "seeming utopias." They tend to be labeled "soft" dystopias compared to the Orwellian ones. Often there will be a stratification of social class or hierarchy. Control in these societies is exerted differently - not by violence and fear, but by desire, debt, narcotics, and other overwhelming-the-senses/removing of pain types of things.

Kafkaesque: Rule by bureaucracy and endless red tape. These are often satires of government or workplaces. People are controlled by a barrage of paperwork, by the belief that if they just follow the rules their needs will be met.

Phildickian: These societies rule over their members by replacing the real world with a virtual or abstract version of reality for them to live within. Often people are very numbed-out to the horrors going on IRL and spend their waking hours plugged into the alternative, more comfortable reality that has been provided to them. These alt realities also function as a tool for surveillance.

Now, there are other categorizations you might see as well. Common labels include "reproductive (or patriarchal) dystopia," "corporate dystopia," "environmental (or ecological) dystopia," and "religious dystopia." A lot of my searches also differentiated YA dystopias as being a bit different, as they often focus on rebellion specifically. I considered those as well, but most of the books still exhibit at least some dominant traits that align with the core 4 categories above.

Popular themes that pop up in all 4 categories include things like loss of identity, forced conformity, censorship, and surveillance. We also sometimes see competitions or the use of a lower social class as entertainment for a higher one, and often these competitions include the possibility of death. Use of propaganda and changing language also pop up a lot. As does... wait for it... hyper-capitalism and corporate influence, either operating in tandem with governments or sometimes, a government has collapsed and now the company has dominant social control. Imperialism, colonialism, and slavery/indentured servitude are also often explored. Class divisions are explored a lot, too! Some of our books included do have a post-apocalyptic element, also, I just tried to be specific about including ones that show a dystopian society either creating that post-apocalyptic event, or an authoritarian or corporate control type of response to the post-apocalyptic event.

So, which books fit into which categories? I will update this as books are added, so that this can continue to be a reference to you, but here is how I categorized them, with Orwellian being the most popular category both in the books selected, but in the literature at large. Some books did not fit perfectly but contained enough similarities that I included them in that category. This categorization is not a perfect science, but just a jumping-off point for discussion.

Orwellian/Primarily Orwellian Books in Our Quest

• 1984 by George Orwell
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Crosshairs by Catherine Hernandez
• We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (this book reportedly inspired Orwell)
• The Blueprint by Rae Giana Rashad
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (also religious and reproductive)
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (though... from the POV of a Capitol citizen, perhaps more Huxleyan? 🤔)
• Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailley
• American War by Omar El Akkad
• An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
• Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
• Dark Motherland by Samrat Upadhyay
• Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdich (reproductive)
• The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
• Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
• These Vengeful Gods by Gabe Cole Novoa
• Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang (I struggled with this one)
• Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
• Futureland by Walter Mosely

Huxleyan/Primarily Huxleyan Books in Our Quest

• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• The Ten Percent Thief by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
• The Resisters by Gish Jen

Kafkaesque/Primarily Kafkaesque Books in Our Quest

• The Trial by Franz Kafka
• The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
• The Employees by Olga Ravn

Phildickian/Primarily Phildickian Books in Our Quest

• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
• The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin
• The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
• Neuromancer by William Gibson

Combos!!! Many books display strong traits from a mix of categories.

Kafkaesque and Huxleyan Combo

• The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

Orwellian and Phildickian Combo

• Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Orwellian and Huxleyan Combo

• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia (patriarchal)
• Wool by Hugh Howey

Orwellian and Kafkaesque Combo

• The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa
• The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz

Huxleyan and Phildickian Combo

Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei

SO, now that I have info-dumped on you, I would love to know what you think about all of this! Do you find yourself gravitating toward a specific category? Are you interested to dive deeper into one of these categories?

The quest description needs updated since these are not exclusively Cosmere books on this list. It truly is all Brandon Sanderson although it is missing his Sanderson Curiosities books like Dragonsteel Prime or The Way of Kings Prime.

with every quest drop the badges seem to be getting better and better! the new bug & dystopian quests may have taken over as my favourite badges, but i also love the botanical horror, queer horror & intro to poetry badges.

do you have a favourite? does the aesthetic of a badge sway you when you’re deciding which quests to check out?

We just released 32 new color variants of our current avatars, focusing on increasing the skintone range of our human-like avatars. Some of the more popular avatars, like the ghost, dragon, and alien, have more colors also :) We'll be coming out with more colors and brand new avatars soon!

What are your favorite pink covers that aren't valentines themed? I seem to have gotten a lot lately .

What about you guys? It could be from any genre 🙌 What combo or book setting do you love to read? For me It would be Slow Burn and Emotional Angst. The combination is an absolute chef kiss for me. 90% of the time delivers a banger.

Does anyone know if there is an emotional damage rating system for books that's equivalent to your average spice rating system? This came up cuz I just finished reading The Poet Empress and in my soul it feels right to label it a solid category 4 emotionally damaging wreckage, but also.... relative to?🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

So I’m looking for some books/series where it had you on the edge of your seat. I’m talking audible gasps, NO WAYs, epic plot twists you never saw coming, cliffhangers. 🤯😱🫣🫢

Books where you guess and theorize but you are WRONG.

There’s nothing that gets me more excited than those feelings for books.📚 indie authors welcome.

I believe @bbyoozi has made a similar post in the past here, and I found myself thinking of the post today. It was such a great way to get diverse book suggestions and also know about everyone. Since we have a lot of new members joining us , I thought it would be a fun way to see how diverse this community has gotten as it grows. So, What book/literary genre/sub-genre do you think best describes your country? You can provide as many diverse examples as you like. I will go first, the literature from my country varies by region quite vastly and by languages. However one over-arching theme that is widely written about and unifies it all is partition related literature and writing on colonialism.

Despite being only at the beginning of this book, I’m really enjoying the plot and the characters, and there are some beautiful quotes! Unfortunately, I’m finding it a bit confusing having such short chapters, each from a different POV.😵‍💫