
Speculative Fiction > Near Future
Featured Titles

A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess
In Anthony Burgess's influential nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, a teen who talks in a fantastically inventive slang that evocatively renders his and his friends' intense reaction against their society.
Year: 1962
Genre: Dystopian, Near Future, Speculative Fiction

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
by Philip K. Dick
Jason Taverner--world-famous talk show host and man-about-town--wakes up one day to find that no one knows who he is--including the vast databases of the totalitarian government. And in a society where lack of identification is a crime, Taverner has no choice but to go on the run with a host of shady characters, including crooked cops and dealers of alien drugs. But do they know more than they are letting on? And just how can a person's identity be erased overnight?
Year: 1974
Genre: Chase Story, Near Future, Science Fiction

The Long Walk
by Stephen King
In the near future, when America has become a police state, one hundred boys are selected to enter an annual contest where the winner will be awarded whatever he wants for the rest of his life. Among them is sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty, and he knows the rules--keep a steady walking pace of four miles per hour without stopping. Three warnings and you're out--permanently.
Year: 1979
Genre: Near Future, Thriller

Queen of Angels
by Greg Bear
In a world of wonders, wealth, and "perfect" mental health, a famous poet commits gruesome murder . . . Why? That crime, that question, leads a policewoman to a jungle of torture and forgotten gods; a writer to the bohemian shadows of a vast city; and a scientist directly into the mind-the nightmare soul-of the psychopath himself . . .
Year: 1990
Genre: Hard SF, Near Future, Technological Thriller

Gun, with Occasional Music
by Jonathan Lethem
Gumshoe Conrad Metcalf has problems--there's a rabbit in his waiting room and a trigger-happy kangaroo on his tail. Near-future Oakland is a brave new world where evolved animals are members of society, the police monitor citizens by their karma levels, and mind-numbing drugs such as Forgettol and Acceptol are all the rage. Mixing elements of sci-fi, noir, and mystery, this clever first novel from the author of Motherless Brooklyn is a wry, funny, and satiric look at all that the future may hold.
Year: 1994
Genre: Hardboiled Detective, Near Future, Satire, Speculative Fiction
Got It | Want It | Read It | Year | Title | |||||||
-- | -- | -- | 1962 | A Clockwork Orange | by Anthony Burgess | ||||||
-- | -- | -- | 1974 | Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said | by Philip K. Dick | ||||||
-- | -- | -- | 1979 | The Long Walk | by Stephen King | ||||||
-- | -- | -- | 1990 | Queen of Angels | by Greg Bear | ||||||
-- | -- | -- | 1994 | Gun, with Occasional Music | by Jonathan Lethem | ||||||
-- | -- | -- | 2004 | Cloud Atlas | by David Mitchell | ||||||
-- | -- | -- | 2007 | Sixty Days and Counting | by Kim Stanley Robinson | ||||||
-- | -- | -- | 2017 | Artemis | by Andy Weir | ||||||
-- | -- | -- | 2017 | Gnomon | by Nick Harkaway | ||||||
-- | -- | -- | 2017 | walkaway | by Cory Doctorow |