Authors have been fascinated with the end of the world since the beginning of the world, and recently there's been a veritable epidemic of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. The world has ended by way of zombies, epidemics, nuclear accidents, corporate takeovers and anything that even vaguely possesses the potential for disaster. Here are two futuristic novels that offer inventive world-building, thought-provoking issues and, perhaps, even some hope to temper the despair that pervades the genre at its worst.
“Station Eleven” (2014) by Emily St. John Mandel is a novel that has the power to remind its readers of the best and worst in characters. It is one of the few dystopian novels I've read whose characters felt real. During a performance of “King Lear” one snowy night in Toronto, famed actor Arthur Leander collapses on stage, paramedic and former member of the paparazzi Jeevan Chaudhary attempts to resuscitate him, child actress Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror and, outside the theater, a deadly flu epidemic is spreading. The novel moves back and forth in time in the lives of Jeevan, Kirsten and Arthur, portraying the strange connections that bind them all together both before and after the epidemic. This is a beautifully constructed novel whose twists and turns feel both surprising and organic. The precise, spell-binding prose brings the world to life. From the Museum of Civilization constructed in an old airport to the dangerous prophet who haunts a small Great Lakes town to the Traveling Symphony that brings Shakespeare from settlement to settlement, this is a society that has not only survived the end but is trying to learn how to thrive and grow from it. Mandel has a talent for balancing the beautiful and the terrible, and it's on full display in this gently elegiac novel.
"The Proxy" (2013-2014) duology by Alex London presents a world turned upside down by a disease of an entirely different kind: capitalism. In a city where contracts govern everyone's lives from the moment they're born, Syd serves as the proxy for Knox, a wealthy troublemaker. When Knox commits a crime, Syd is punished for it. So when Knox kills a girl in a car accident, Syd is sentenced to death. “Proxy” is the perfect blend of thoughtful ideas about capitalism and our increasingly corporate world and well-plotted and exciting action sequences, offering a little bit of everything. The world-building is both clever and well integrated into the story, as London slips in details like the personalized ads that hover around everyone, the extinct exotic animals cloned and brought back to life in the zoo and the genetically programmed Guardians that prosecute wrongdoers. The characters are more than the usual dystopian saviors and villains. They're not always the most likable, but the swift changes between multiple third-person points of view ensure that the reader isn't stuck in anyone's head for too long. As an added bonus, there are diverse characters whose diversity isn't their defining characteristic. It's something different in the world of dystopia and hopefully something that bodes well for the future of the genre.
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