History Main / Dystopia

* ''Kilroy Was Here'' by progressive rock band Music/{{Styx}} tells the story of a young rock musician in a future fascist dystopia, where music is outlawed on the order of a powerful right-wing religious group.

* ''VideoGame/MasterDetectiveArchivesRainCode'': Kanai Ward is a PoliceState (as a result of [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans senseless despotism]]) run by an organization of [[DirtyCop dirty cops]] known as the Amaterasu Corporation Peacekeepers, and its current condition is marginally the responsibility of [[spoiler:WellIntentionedExtremist Makoto Kagutsuchi, the company's CEO, who, while certainly better than Yomi, is actually [[ALighterShadeOfBlack the same has him only with the altruism and empathy that Yomi lacks]], who hides that the city's population are homunculus clones of their original counterparts and they've been tricked into eating human flesh as part of their dietary needs for the past three years.]]

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB_l86BCUf A different song of the same name]], by Canadian solo artist Gowan, defines LyricalDissonance by sounding cheerful in tone while mentioning the likes of the Ministry of Truth and, during the chorus, asking the question:

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB_l86BCUf A different song of the same name]], by Canadian solo artist Gowan, defines [[LyricalDissonance]] by sounding cheerful in tone while mentioning the likes of the Ministry of Truth and, during the chorus, asking the question:

* ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' is set in a totalitarian future Britain ruled with an iron fist.

* ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'': Parodied in the BadFuture as run by bowler hats.

--->Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water\\

* Effectively universally-recognized "[[TropeCodifier canon]]" dystopian literature:
** ''Literature/{{We}}'' by Yevgeni Zamyatin
** ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'' by Aldous Huxley
** ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' by Creator/GeorgeOrwell.
[[AC:Examples by author:]]
* Creator/PoulAnderson:
** "Literature/SamHall" is about a dystopian society where everything about everyone is recorded in a massive national database. One clerk creates a fake file about a fictional dissident named Sam Hall (named after an angry drinking song) into the database as a joke, who escapes all police searches because he doesn't actually exist. The nation eventually tears itself apart trying to track down a nonexistent criminal.
** In ''Literature/AWorldCalledMaanerek'', the Hegemony is out to force all mankind in unity, to hold loyalty only to the Cadre. They choose their mates, who are allowed contact seldom, and all children are raised in creches. Your life position is choosen when you are bred for it, and entails burning out parts of your mind if you are lowly enough. When ships sent out to find more humans to bring them into the fold, they will freely, when problems mount too high, take over part of a planet and let the men run wild with ColdBloodedTorture and rape to release their aggressions.
* Creator/PhilipKDick:
** In ''Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep'', the novel which inspired ''Film/BladeRunner'' (nominally an adaptation), the Earth is ruined and mostly abandoned.
** ''Literature/TheManInTheHighCastle'' is set in an AlternateHistory in which [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Germany]] and Imperial Japan won UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Saying that it falls under this trope is probably redundant.
%%** ''Literature/FlowMyTearsThePolicemanSaid''
* Creator/CyrilMKornbluth:
** "Literature/TheMarchingMorons" has similar themes to the film ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'', above. Except that the super-intelligent aristocracy are the ones slaving away, to keep the vast mentally challenged majority from killing themselves out of sheer incompetence.
** Kornbluth produced some other memorably nasty dystopias. The two worst are probably the eponymous militarized, back-stabbing city-state in "The Luckiest Man in Denv" with its endless, pointless nuclear war against Ellay, and the [[ReligionOfEvil sadistic Merdeka cult]] in "Shark Ship", whose ideas of parenting include "child-flogging benches" and cheerful nursery rhymes such as:

* Creator/AynRand:
** ''Literature/{{Anthem}}'' follows the awakening and rebellion of the main character in a collectivist dystopia where individual identity is suppressed, and all citizens are taught to consider themselves interchangeable and replaceable parts in a great machine. On top of that, the government has mandated cultural and [[MedievalStasis technological stasis]] at a pre-Industrial Revolution level.
** The villains of ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' are aiming to create an effectively dystopian America, but the country collapses on them because they lack both charisma and competence. Towards the end, one of the villains insinuates that the decimation of children and the elderly might be in order to prevent starvation for the rest of the people.
* Creator/KurtVonnegut:
** "Literature/HarrisonBergeron", a short story focusing on the problem of government forcing equality by any means possible. The beautiful must wear hideous masks, the strong and agile carry sacks of iron on their backs...so it goes. It is still to this day debated whether the story is intended as a serious satire on egalitarianism or intended as a StealthParody of dystopias like Creator/AynRand's; since Vonnegut was both a socialist and an anarchist, both interpretations have their believers.
** Vonnegut's recurring character Kilgore Trout is a science fiction author said to specialise in dystopian stories. In one of them, human beings have become so irrelevant in the face of advanced technology that suicide is seen as an act of great virtue and patriotism since it rids the nation of one useless mouth to feed.
* More than half of what Creator/JanuszZajdel wrote consists of exploring various dystopiae from various angles. The best known are "Paradyzja", which has a government paranoid about things like earphones dangling off a table [[spoiler:(for a good reason)]], and "Limes Inferior", with its rigidly stratified society that claims to take the best from capitalism and communism (actually achieving the ''worst'' of both).
[[AC:Examples by work:]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}: The Book of D'Ni'', the survivors of the fallen {{Utopia}} D'Ni discover Terahnee, which appears to be everything D'Ni was and more, but it is not what it appears. While D'Ni's Utopia was built on [[FunctionalMagic semi-magical technology]], Terahnee is built on slavery. In fact, slavery of the same people the D'Ni survivors intermarried with. Time to run!

** The Fire Nation itself is revealed to be this. The people are actually quite friendly but they are ruled by a militaristic regime whose leader is continuing his father's obsession with taking over the world.

* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', where Aku rules the world as a dictator.

* ''VideoGame/MasterDetectiveArchivesRainCode'': Kanai Ward is a PoliceState (as a result of [[DespotismJustifiesTheMeans senseless despotism]]) run by an organization of [[DirtyCop dirty cops]] known as the Amaterasu Corporation Peacekeepers and its current condition is marginally the responsibility of [[spoiler:WellIntentionedExtremist Makoto Kagutsuchi, the company's CEO, who, while certainly better than Yomi, is actually [[ALighterShadeOfBlack the same has him only with the altruism and empathy that Yomi lacks]], who hides that the city's population are homunculus clones of their original counterparts and they've been tricked into eating human flesh as part of their dietary needs for the past three years.]]

Often, they can be too one-note. The author is thinking "[[CapitalismIsBad capitalism sucks!]]", for instance, and everything wrong with the world turns out to be the fault of nasty {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s and their nasty, greedy {{megacorp}}orations. Conversely, it could be "government sucks!" and the corporations are the last line of defense against the evil, totalitarian [[ObstructiveBureaucrat bureaucrats]]. Either way, it is one note.

[[caption-width-right:350:Welcome to a bleak, grey world where a [[Literature/XeeleeSequence brief life burns brightly]]. Where BigBrotherIsWatching you. Where [[Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream you could do nothing but eternally scream]]. Welcome to a world where hope comes to ''die.'']]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'': [[EvilStatesOfAmerica America]] [[AfterTheEnd was]] this in the backstory with a corrupt, fascist government, [[MegaCorp corporations]] running unchecked and a military police that used soldiers wearing PowerArmor and firing energy weapons to put down protests. The situation was made worse by a combination of a [[PostPeakOil resource crisis]], food shortage and the new plague, all of which caused America to go to war with China. Then they start [[NukeEm lobbing nukes at each other]]. The resulting wasteland has dozens of small dystopias picking on the honest settlers of the post-apocalypse.

* ''Series/TheDevilJudge'' is set in an alternate universe where South Korea has become one. The televised trials are meant to [[BreadAndCircuses distract the people]] while the politicians and businessmen kidnap innocent bystanders [[PlayingWithSyringes to be experimented on.]]
* The first season of ''Series/{{Viper}}'' takes place in a dystopian [[TheFutureIsNoir tech noir]] setting. [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture The day after tomorrow]], society benefits from advanced communication technology and medical achievements such as fully artificial heart transplants. However, this comes at the cost of being constantly terrorized by the organized [[{{Cyberpunk}} techno-mafia]] that closely runs the city behind the scenes. The police are often as corrupt as the criminals they're supposedly trying to stop, forcing the lead character to take the vigilante path in the hope of restoring the city to a brighter state. Throw in the fact the local government [[BigBrotherIsWatching may rob you of your own thoughts and memories if they decide they have a better use for you]], and you start to see how bleak it really is.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. A SpaceOpera in which Earth is a bureocratic, militaristic [[TheFederation federation]], where the (few) good guys are criminals.

* ''Series/LifeForce'': Not only is Earth a FloodedFutureWorld in 2025 due to unprecedented GlobalWarming, an oppressive, authoritarian task force known as The Commission is employed by what is left of the government of a decimated United Kingdom. They promptly scapegoat scientists for the climate disaster, arresting those who still desire to make things better, and hunting down controversial products of their profession before it happened - genetically-modified psychics, known as 'senders' - for their own shadowy aims.

* The Alphaverse in ''Series/CharlieJade'', a corrupt megacorp-dominated plutocracy where chip implants are mandatory, people are divided into castes, justice is an illusion, and pollution and depletion of natural resources are so ridiculously high that the dominant megacorp plans to use its trans-universe link to steal water from a [[{{Utopia}} utopian parallel Earth]].
* The MirrorUniverse in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is a dystopia and its own trope. Various different takes on Trek's particular mirror universe fiddle with the extent of its dystopian nature. One novel posited that it was a relatively recent thing, caused by the Enterprise-E crew not wiping Zefram Cochrane's memories before they left the past, thus causing humanity to venture into space paranoid about the threat of the Borg. Another posited that the society had simply always been more cruel and ruthless, as proved by things such as Achilles refusing to return the body of the king's son (one of his few acts of mercy) in ''The Iliad''. ''Deep Space Nine'' seemed to have a take on it closer to just making everyone in the mirror universe a {{Jerkass}}.
* Several alternate universes and/or timelines seen in ''Series/StargateSG1'' featuring the breakdown of society, the defeat/near defeat of Earth by its enemies, etc.

* Two episodes of ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' are [[spoiler: set in the year 2019 after the show's technology had been used to transfer the rich into younger bodies permanently. The situation snowballed until the city is a war zone, some people going insane and others getting kidnapped for their bodies. Morale of the story is [[{{Cyberpunk}} advanced technology will be abused by the privileged]]]].
* ''Series/KamenRiderDecade'' has Diend's World, which is essentially the [[Series/KamenRiderBlade Missing Ace]] movie split off from Blade and combined with Decade to make an original story with [[TheRival Diend]] as the protagonist. On the outside, the world seems to be an {{Utopia}} with everyone helping each other out and being nice, but it turns out that they ''have'' to be nice or else a monster comes out, grabs them, then [[{{Brainwashed}} brainwashes]] them to be nice. It also sucks for Riders because the brainwashed people will attack any and all riders. Tsukasa even tells the ruler of the world, Jashin 14, that he made a hellhole, not a paradise. [[spoiler: When Jashin 14 is destroyed, Diend's older brother reveals that he was acting of his own free will and will become the new Jashin 14]].
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' has the episode "The Wish" in season three, in which Willow and Xander are vampires. The Master has taken control of Sunnydale and Angel is Willow's (and arguably Xander's) sex slave.
* The Shadow universe in ''Series/{{Lexx}}'' is a grungy cyberpunk world with religious overtones (the church of the shadow) and some steampunk looks, a classic {{Shadowland}} dystopia.
* As with the novel it's based on, ''Series/TheManInTheHighCastle'' is set in an AlternateHistory in which [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Germany]] and Imperial Japan won UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Saying that it falls under this trope is probably redundant.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' has envisioned some very unpleasant future worlds. Most notable is the world of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E65TheObsoleteMan The Obsolete Man]]" where anyone the state deems obsolete (ie, anyone it doesn't like) is disposed of.
* On Halloween 2016 for the holiday and to encourage everyone to vote, ''Series/TheDailyShow'' broadcast an episode [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture from Halloween 2020]], where Donald Trump is president. In this future Iceland has been nuked ("because that's where ISIS come from obviously"), the dollar's value has collapsed to the point where Trevor eats it as food rather than spending it, women must wear a device on their arm that gives their "hotness" rating (with their rights being determined by their rating), the US government regularly holds ''yard sales'' to pay the bills, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking comedy has been banned]], among other things (and, for some reason Trever's pirate broadcast has ad breaks). All the while, Trevor begs the viewers to go vote in the election. It's just as dark (and ridiculous) as it sounds.
* ''Series/BlackMirror'' is an anthology series with the main theme of the episodes being the nasty consequences caused by the use of technology, so most of the episodes set in the future would somewhat count, but the most notable example is in the episode "[[Recap/BlackMirrorFifteenMillionMerits Fifteen Million Merits]]", in which people live underground, having to ride exercise bicycles to generate energy, while television literally rules the society.
* ''1990'', a 1970s BBC TV series depicted a then-future Britain which has fallen apart after a national bankruptcy, and the country has turned into a rigidly-controlled totalitarian state under the Home Office's "Public Control Department" or P.C.D., everything is rationed according to perceived social status, and malcontents are sent to "Adult Rehabilitation Centres".

** In "Examination Day", [[ChildProdigy child prodigies]] such as Dickie Jordan are killed for scoring too well on government tests.
** "To See the Invisible Man", possibly; Mitchell Chaplin undergoes a lengthy government-mandated CoolAndUnusualPunishment aimed at correcting his morality rather than due to a specific crime, and there are enforcement drones buzzing around everywhere, but the society as a whole seems peaceful and prosperous.
** In "Room 2426", Dr. Martin Decker lives in an oppressive society where people are routinely arrested for committing intellectual crimes against the State such as wrong thinking or being an outsider and are taken to the [[Room101 titular room to be tortured]].
* ''Series/BraveNewWorld'': New London operates on a strict caste system, people take drugs constantly to take away any unhappiness, family has been abolished as everyone's artificially conceived, no one is supposed to have privacy or monogamous relationships and religion isn't something most even know about.
* ''Series/UtopiaFalls'': New Babyl is a city where everyone lives in a sector based on profession. While they believe diversity is their greatest strength, with people of all races living in harmony together, any independent personal expression isn't acceptable, deemed subversive and a cause for disunity you will be interrogated over by the Authority, the city's SecretPolice who censor culture. Moving outside of the city's bounds or seeking knowledge about the past too is forbidden. They all wear uniform jumpsuits most of the time, and have a very authoritarian culture with ritual submission to their long-deceased founder Gaia, who's treated as almost like a god. Particularly defiant dissidents are given UnPerson treatment, or “ghosted”. They also practice eugenics, as people who have DNA deemed “unfit for reproduction” are also labeled “dissonant” by the government, all babies being tested at birth, and prohibited from having children. The dissonant also get assigned work, usually dangerous things like mining, due to being deemed “expendable” after turning 18. [[spoiler:Finally, it turns out that the government has lied for centuries to its people about the outside world being uninhabitable-it actually is, with two other cities, one of which secretly controls them.]]

* ''VideoGame/ShaunWhiteSkateboarding'', as unlikely as it may sound, is all based around how the 'Minstry' has taken control of the people, forcing them to conform to a bland unemotional state and being constantly monitored. The only way to save the city is to skate around it, as which point colours start to appear and suddenly people no longer want to wear a tie.

** ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'' by Creator/GeorgeOrwell.
* Speaking of Orwell, the titular ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' is considered a true animal paradise free from man's corruption. Everyone believes HumansAreTheRealMonsters and DumbIsGood. Unfortunately the pigs emulate humans and take over, subverting every precept of Old Major's code of Animalism to suit themselves and their agenda before ultimately doing away with the entire thing and replacing it with one precept: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
* The 1907 novel ''Literature/LordOfTheWorld'' by Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson shows Western civilization as having turned into a secular humanist society that is militantly hostile to Christianity, and Senator Julian Felsenburgh aims to ensure world peace by stamping out Christianity once and for all. This is brought to a head with the arising of TheAntichrist...

** ''Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep'', the novel which inspired ''Film/BladeRunner''. Nominally, the film is an adaptation.

** ''Literature/FlowMyTearsThePolicemanSaid''.
* ''Literature/BendSinister'', a book by Vladimir Nabokov in which a fictitious East European country is [[DayOfTheJackboot taken over]] by the Ekwilist [[BlackShirt Party of the Average Man]], who want to end conflict by equalizing all personality attributes and making everyone the "average man." In reality, all they succeed in doing is ruining the lives of the country's inhabitants, murdering the family of the country's only internationally renowned figure, the philosopher Adam Krug, and driving him insane.
* ''Literature/GrimoiresSoul'': Kesterline is a deeply misogynistic and classist society where the only people who get any real benefits for the most part are male nobles, and keeps control by making people believe that the outside world is little more than an irradiated wasteland.
* ''Literature/HeecheeSaga'' by Frederik Pohl. An ultra-capitalist society where everything has price but nothing has value... [[RecycledInSpace in space]].
* ''Literature/ChungKuo'', a series by David Wingrove where 36 billion people live in [[DomedHometown domed cities]] run by a Chinese [[TheEmpire oligarchy]]
* ''Literature/WatershipDown'':
** Efrafa. Both a classic ruled-by-dictator-with-a-fist-of-iron dystopia and also a rabbit warren!
** Earlier in the story is Cowslip's warren. On the surface it appears to be a rabbit Utopia, with no predators in sight and plentiful food, leaving the inhabitants time to become quite cultured, but there's a reason its nickname is [[spoiler:the Warren of Shining Wires]].
* Creator/RayBradbury's ''Literature/{{Fahrenheit 451}}'', with an America where all books are banned. In the end, there is a bit of twisted hope, as all the cities get blown apart, leaving the chance for those who have kept the literary tradition to rebuild. Also made into a movie.
* The Guild in ''Literature/{{Flawed}}'' was created to make society better, after everyone blamed flawed politicians for society's failings. The effort to prevent Flawed people from getting into office snowballed into treating flawed people like second-class citizens, and everyone else living in fear of being caught doing anything out-of-line.
* Robert Sobel's AlternateHistory classic ''Literature/ForWantOfANail'' has the United States of Mexico, a bellicose and [[TheEmpire imperialistic]] PoliceState that retains slavery until 1920 and is largely run behind the scenes by a ludicrously successful MegaCorp.
* ''Literature/TheGiver'', a once-rare dystopian novel for kids, with a society that has gotten rid of pain and conflict through "The Sameness."
%%* The planet Camazotz from ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime'' is another children's lit example.
%%* [[Creator/KeyVisualArts Key/Visual Arts]] did a kinetic novel in this vein, called ''VisualNovel/{{planetarian}}''.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}: The Book of D'Ni'', the survivors of the fallen {{Utopia}} D'Ni discover Terahnee, which appears to be everything D'Ni was and more, but it is not what it appears. While D'Ni's Utopia was built on [[FunctionalMagic semi-magical technology]], Terahnee is built on slavery. In fact, slavery of the same people the D'Ni survivors intermarried with. Time to run!
* Danish author Dennis Jürgensen wrote a book titled ''Dystopia'', which hits all the main points, and offers an interesting solution... two youths from a dystopia where the 'social issues' are xenophobia, intolerance and mistrust, are thrown into a FishOutOfWater situation in another world, named 'Dystopia', where the issue is apathy and defeatism. Can two different, and equally flawed, attitudes cancel each others out? Maybe so. Good luck finding a translation of that book, tho...
* ''Literature/ThisPerfectDay'' by Ira Levin depicts a communist technocratic dystopia controlled by a computer. In fact at the end it is revealed that the computer is controlled by a programmer elite.
* Margaret Atwood's ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale''. Everything is rationed by the theocratic government - including fertie women; the environment's a mess.
* The People's Republic of Haven from the Literature/HonorHarrington series practically defines this trope. Also a deconstruction, as the cost of maintaining a police state is what forces Haven into an expansionist mode and ultimately into open conflict with Manticore.
* The world of ''Literature/JenniferGovernment'' is an ultra-capitalist Dystopia, where everything is for sale if you have enough money. Also, at one point, the antagonist John Nike reads an old sci-fi novel ''The Merchants in Space'', and dismisses the classic notion of a big government dystopia, and is disappointed when the book turns out to be a satire of capitalism.
* Kurt Vonnegut:

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Panem sacrifices twenty-four teenagers (one girl and one boy from each of the twelve districts) each year in a [[DeadlyGame violent death match]] broadcast live in order to show the citizens of the nation the cosequences if they try to rebel again. And that's not even taking into account how horribly and unfairly the country is run year round. Even most Capitol citizens don't have it as good as you may think.
* ''Literature/GeneticsChronicles'': Set in a half-ruined London recovering from WorldWarIII where GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke, the orphaned main character grapples with her desire for freedom despite being turned into a TykeBomb by the fascist government.
* Oddly approached in ''Literature/TheCure'' by Sonia Levittin. The near-future society depicted does not allow [[NoSexAllowed sex]], art, inventiveness, and most forms of emotion, and like "Literature/HarrisonBergeron", differences between individuals are stamped out as best as possible. The main character is musically inclined, so the leaders of the society consider having him ReleasedToElsewhere--but as a last-ditch effort they put him through a simulation of the MiddleAges, attempting to show him why they fashioned their society as an opposite to that time period. ([[spoiler:It sort of works--the main character decides ''both'' societies are horrible and there must be a way to TakeAThirdOption.]])
* The late Creator/OctaviaButler's books ''Literature/ParableOfTheSower'' and ''Parable of the Talents'' are this. They are America in the 2020's and 2030's respectively (the books were written in the 90's). People are sold into slavery by the police, given dog collar-like things, and every city is a WretchedHive.
* Creator/CyrilMKornbluth's ''Literature/TheMarchingMorons'' has similar themes to the film ''Idiocracy'', above. Except that the super-intelligent aristocracy are the ones slaving away, to keep the vast mentally-challenged majority from killing themselves out of sheer incompetence. Kornbluth produced some other memorably nasty dystopias. The two worst are probably the eponymous militarized, back-stabbing city-state in "The Luckiest Man in Denv" with its endless, pointless nuclear war against Ellay, and "Shark Ship's" [[ReligionOfEvil sadistic Merdeka cult]], whose ideas of parenting include "child-flogging benches" and cheerful nursery rhymes such as
-->Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water\\
She thrust him down and broke his crown; it was a lovely slaughter.
* ''Literature/TheSchoolForGoodMothers'' has a DepartmentOfChildDisservices that declares mothers unfit for anything from explicit and ongoing abuse to leaving an infant with a tween baby-sitter. It also features SinisterSurveillance both at the home of the protagonist and at the school, where mothers practice parenting skills on [[DeceptivelyHumanRobots life-like dolls]] as stand-ins for their children.
* Creator/AynRand's:
** Novella ''Literature/{{Anthem}}'' follows the awakening and rebellion of the main character in a collectivist dystopia where individual identity is suppressed, and all citizens are taught to consider themselves interchangeable and replaceable parts in a great machine. On top of that, the government has mandated cultural and [[MedievalStasis technological stasis]] at a pre-Industrial Revolution level.
** The villains of ''Literature/AtlasShrugged'' are aiming to create an effectively dystopian America, but the country collapses on them because they lack both charisma and competence. Towards the end, one of the villains insinuates that the decimation of children and the elderly might be in order to prevent starvation for the rest of the people.
* ''Literature/UtopiaForTheDevil'': James Parkes' 2010 novella focuses on a utopia where society is controlled and regulated by a system known as Eden, due to TheEvilsOfFreeWill. The protagonist, Leon, exists outside of Eden and challenges the society.
* ''Literature/XeeleeSequence'': A Hard Science-Fiction soap opera based around futurology, time travel and theoretical physics. It is infamous for being a universe so bleak and oppressive that it is often compared with the likes of 1984 than its contemporaries. If you want to be scared of the prospects of state-controlled time travel, mass xenocides on a universal scale, the creation and utilisation of child soldiers to an almost technical and realistic level, grotesque body modifications, insane levels of totalitarianism, the sheer scale of things and the literal end of the universe, the Sequence is the go-to series to read.
* ''Literature/YawningHeights'' by Alexander Zinoviev is an exaggerated picture of the Soviet society with names and key words (like "Khruschev" or "party") replaced with caricature substitutes in BlandNameProduct style (like "Boar" and "fratry"). BlackComedy with FictionalDocument fragments containing scientific analysis in very plain words including his view on pop science -- he was a professor, specialist in Mathematical Logic.
* Creator/PoulAnderson's short story "Literature/SamHall" is about a dystopian society where everything about everyone is recorded in a massive national database. One clerk creates a fake file about a fictional dissident named Sam Hall (named after an angry drinking song) into the database as a joke, who escapes all police searches because he doesn't actually exist. The nation eventually tears itself apart trying to track down a nonexistent criminal.
%%* In ''Literature/TheActsOfCaine'' it's one half of the setting. The other half is DarkFantasy.
%%* ''Literature/MidnightWorld'' trilogy by Alexander Yang.
* Allie Condie's ''Literature/{{Matched}}'' series takes place in The Society, where you are "matched" with your optimum partner for marriage and having children, the only person you're allowed to pursue a romantic relationship with. The Society decides everything from what you eat and where you work, to when you can have kids and when you'll die. People declared Aberrations are treated as 2nd class citizens.
* The ''Literature/DeliriumSeries'' is set in a future America where love is considered a disease and every citizen has to be "cured" via brain surgery at eighteen.
* In ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'', the city of Chicago has split into five factions based on the virtue they believe needs to held up to stop society falling into ruin again. Everyone who turns sixteen must take a test to see which faction they best fit into, and those who fail the initiation or refuse to join become Factionless, living on the streets excluded from the rest of society. Anyone who is considered Divergent (i.e. their thinking doesn't fall squarely into the ideology of a single faction) is hunted down for threatening the system.
* In the world ''Literature/{{Uglies}}'' is set in, anyone over sixteen is given an operation that leaves their faces and bodies flawless[[spoiler:... and their minds empty.]]
* The Literature/SisterhoodSeries by Creator/FernMichaels: The world seems similar enough to the world in RealLife, with people going about their lives. However, there are indications that the world in this series is actually a [=Dystopia=]. The courts are unable to deliver justice, because the balance of power leans too heavily towards the defense attorneys, and the prosecutors are lucky if the defendant does not get OffOnATechnicality, let alone win a single case. Also, the prosecutors need proof before they charge someone, but strangely, there never seems to be proof to find. On the plus side, if a character gets in legal trouble, s/he can call up a defense attorney and be assured that s/he is perfectly safe. The President of the United States has three men with gold shields at his disposal. These three men have ''carte blanche'', can break laws with impunity, answer only to POTUS, and if they come for you, well, you better pray that they don't kill you! In Las Vegas, the casinos have more security than UsefulNotes/HomelandSecurity can ever hope to get! Also, the casinos are monitored by men who will have you beaten up or thrown in jail if you prove to be a threat to the casinos. When you put these details together, you get a picture of a country that is more fascist than democratic. Yikes!
* The online short story "ILU-486" takes place in a world where conservative Christian views on birth control and abortion have become law, and follows the women that need medical assistance and the outlaw doctors that provide it. Chillingly, all the oppressive laws (apart from the return of gibbets) are based on actual submitted legislation from American politicians.
* In Creator/PoulAnderson's ''Literature/AWorldCalledMaanerek'', the Hegemony is out to force all mankind in unity, to hold loyalty only to the Cadre. They choose their mates, who are allowed contact seldom, and all children are raised in creches. Your life position is choosen when you are bred for it, and entails burning out parts of your mind if you are lowly enough. When ships sent out to find more humans to bring them into the fold, they will freely, when problems mount too high, take over part of a planet and let the men run wild with ColdBloodedTorture and rape to release their aggressions.
* ''Literature/TheWhiteMen'' by Kenneth Bøgh Andersen takes place in future Denmark where the government has put a series of vicious laws in place to counter an over-population crisis, which includes the euthanasia of a broad group of "unwanted", including everyone over the age of 65 and everyone who drops under a set national average in their grades. [[spoiler:As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the laws have essentially been rendered meaningless, the country actually suffers from a brewing ''under''-population problem, and that the government's sole reason to uphold them is that they allow them to stay in power]].
* Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel ''Literature/ItCantHappenHere'', in which the U.S. becomes a totalitarian state.
%%* ''Literature/TheLeonardRegime''
* ''Literature/ThoseThatWake'' is set in a future New York where the city becomes more hopeless every day, and people have withdrawn into themselves. The sequel, ''What WE Become'', turns the city into a CrapsaccharineWorld.
* ''Literature/OfMiceAndMooshaber'' is set in a country that is only vaguely alluded to by names or background events. The state is controlled by a dictator Albin Rappelschlund who governs the country, nominally with support from the rightful ruler Duchess Augusta. The civilization and technology of the country appear advanced, there is metro, satellite transmission, television broadcasting, and flights to the Moon are common; however, this bizarrely contrasts with things like child labour, horse-drawn wagons, rural-like inns in the capital city or State Office for suppressing and annihilating witchcraft. People fear everything and cannot trust one another, so this vision of society is certainly very bleak with very unsettling feel.

* More than half of what Creator/JanuszZajdel wrote consists of exploring various dystopiae from various angles. The best known are "Paradyzja", which has a government paranoid about things like earphones dangling off a table [[spoiler: for a good reason...]], and "Limes Inferior" with its rigidly stratified society that claims to take the best from capitalism and communism (actually achieving the ''worst'' of both).
* The world of ''Literature/{{Kronk}}'' has roaming bands of murderous "pre-pubes", gangs of scholars, and bounty hunters who swoop down on car wrecks to grab the organs of any occupants not able to resist. The media acts as a law of its own, staging crimes to get footage for their reality show, the police will charge and brutalize anyone involved in a crime, including the victims, and religion is computerized and controlled by the State. A sexually-transmitted Peace Disease gets introduced, and everything goes to Hell...
* ''Literature/TheIronHeel'' by Creator/JackLondon is an early enough example (published in 1908) that it may well be the TropeMaker, and is certainly at least widely considered to be the first modern example of this trope. While it's not as well known as some other examples, Creator/GeorgeOrwell himself acknowledged it as an influence on ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''.
* ''Literature/BattleRoyale'' is set in a Dystopian Japan where the regime gets teenagers to kill each other in televised death games. This cows the population and helps solve the delinquency problem, in theory.
* ''Literature/TheTamariskHunter'': The people around the Colorado River have lost most if not all of their water rights to California, resulting in the collapse of civilization around the river.
* ''Literature/{{Utopia}}'': Perhaps ironically enough, the perfect society envisioned by Sir Thomas More, [[TropeMaker which gave us the word]] "Utopia," has more in line with this from a modern perspective. In their society, it's true that nobody is poor, homeless, or hungry, they only has to work six hours a day, they can follow any faith they wish, and they have plenty of leisure time. However, communal living is the only option, jobs ''are'' a requirement, slavery is practiced as punishment for criminals (although they can be freed for good behavior), their leaders are in power for life, privacy and personal possessions don't exist, you can't travel freely without a passport, and if you have sex before marriage, you can be forbidden from receiving either. And while all faiths are tolerated, atheists are hated due to the ever-present fear that they would have no reason to act moral without a belief in God (although instead of being killed or exiled, they're simply sent to priests to change their mind about their beliefs).
* ''Literature/TheSisterVerseAndTheTalonsOfRuin'' has this as its initial act 3 setting -- a surveillance state where political dissidents are detained for reeducation, and low-income families are regularly culled.
* ''A Sojourn in the City of Amalgamation in the Year of Our Lord 19--'', by Jerome B. Holgate, published in 1835, may well be the UrExample of the Dystopian future novel. Only trouble is, the sociopolitical movement Holgate depicts as having led to moral, political and social degeneration in his far future world is ''human rights for black people''. [[ValuesDissonance Yeah.]]
* The infamous Neo-Nazi novel ''Literature/TheTurnerDiaries'' begins with a [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 1990s America]] (the book was written in the [=70s=]) where guns have been outlawed, the government has begun behaving like a second Gestapo, and white people are finding their dominion threatened by Jews and people of color (who, as fitting for a piece of white supremacist propaganda, are depicted in as racist and dehumanizing a fashion as possible). The [[DesignatedHero "heroes"]] of the novel are violent white supremacists who not only want to [[FinalSolution kill every non-white person on earth]] but also [[CategoryTraitor every white person who isn't as racist and genocidal as they are]]. Their actions not only create a world that is dystopian in itself to anyone who is not a white supremacist, but result in the wiping out of ''ninety percent of humanity'', which only a white supremacist [[EsotericHappyEnding would consider a happy ending]].
* ''Literature/{{Rainbow}}'': The [[TheEmpire World Hegemony]] is a OneWorldOrder that has conquered a future Earth. It is a militaristic, autocratic dictatorship and police state that enforces state atheism and uses its women (from ''[[WouldHurtAChild thirteen]]'', no less) effectively as [[BabyFactory breeding slaves]].
* In ''George and the Ship of Time'', the sixth and final book in the ''Literature/GeorgesSecretKeyToTheUniverse'' series George, having [[spoiler: left Earth on the ''Artemis'' at the end of the previous book]], arrives in one of these when the ''Artemis'' finally touches down. It is the year 2081, George having taken off in 2018, although thanks to TimeDilation George is still a young boy. In this dystopia, two corporations took over the world in an event known as the Great Disruption, one of them named Eden and led by a man named [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump Trellis]] [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Dump]], with the other only referred to as 'Other Side' and led by a woman named Bimbolina Kimobolina. Most people don't have access to any form of transport apart from walking and are dressed in medieval clothes, although the rich literally live above the clouds.
* Creator/TomKratman's ''{{Literature/Caliphate}}'' revolves around a brutal, tyrannical Islamic state after fundamentalists hijack democracy with their superior numbers to take control of most of Western Europe and Northern Africa. Drawing, music and entertainment are forbidden and heavily policed, Christians are tolerated so long as they give up their civil rights and get treated as second class citizens by paying up the jizya tax (they are also forbidden to convert to Islam because the Caliphate is heavily dependent on it). Christian boys are taken to become [[ChildSoldiers janissaries]] while girls can be treated like [[SexSlave sex objects]]. Women in general (both Christians and Muslims) live under [[NoWomansLand a misogynistic hell where they are punished if they are raped]].
%% * ''Literature/EveOfMan''
* ''Literature/SnowCrash'' is an interesting case as it is a ''libertarian'' dystopia rather than a totalitarian one. The USA has broken down into city-states run by {{Mega Corp}}s. Fenced neighbourhoods are guarded by cyborg guard dogs that can outrun cars and are packing miniguns. Pizza delivery boys [[TheDeterminator will not allow]] ''[[TheDeterminator anything]]'' to make their customers wait... because the company they work for ''is'' TheMafia and a pizza arriving at any temperature other than "piping hot" [[DisproportionateRetribution means the boy gets a bullet in the back of the head]]. Messages are passed along by teenage couriers on razor skateboards and they have enough self-defence gear to break out of an FBI building. But it's played with as no matter how violent and scary the world is, [[RuleOfCool it's undeniably cool shit]].

* ''Literature/{{Truancy}}'' is set in a totalitarian city ruled by its Mayor and Educators, who treat students and minors as second-class citizens, encourage bullying, and make sure that every student's life is a living hell in order to curtail any rebelliousness early in life.
* ''Literature/RebornAsASpaceMercenaryIWokeUpPilotingTheStrongestStarship'' has the police-state version. The ultra rich elite get to live planet-side, a simple home with a garden runs for hundreds of million of Enel (roughly US dollars), while just about everyone else lives on space-stations, as second-class citizens. The government officials running said stations are rife with corruption, able to arbitrarily hand down summary judgments, with no courts to make appeals to. The "safety net" for people who find themselves with a fine they can't pay back, even if they liquidate all their assets, is the slums, where people have no rights whatsoever, women routinely getting gang-raped and drugged with highly addictive substances against their will, forced into prostitution, and then abandoned, left in piles of their own waste, and the withdrawal symptoms, when their profitability ends. The alternative is forced labor in a PrisonColony to repay the debt, but prisoners are not segregated by gender, so PrisonRape is an ever present threat.
* In ''Literature/ShipCore'', things pointedly did ''not'' get better after Humanity fought long and hard to earn their freedom from an AI known as The Entity. Human controlled space broke down into at least 9 different inter-stellar territories and they all come with their own distinct flavor. The protagonist Alex and her OnlyFriend Elis, both from originally opposite sides of the AI WAR, now having to work together to survive are sickened at the sheer callousness of two of these powers, the Solarian Federation and The Corporate Systems. The latter will happily provide goods and services until they milk you dry and then spit you out, while the former ships off colonies to a world with very, very hostile fauna, with only the barest of information and explanation and then dumps them there to be left on their own, but the most recent arc (currently ongoing as of this chapter), the colonial dropship not only drops them ''right on top of a nest of insects that could pass for dragons'', but when Alex and Elis undertake an emergency rescue mission, the lead freighter captain '''goes out of his way to hinder and antagonize any kind of rescue attempt.'''
* In ''Literature/WakingUpAsASpaceship'', there are several flavors. The Freedom Union is a FalseUtopia PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny that uses brainwashed child soldiers, ''and that's the tip of the iceburg.'' The Dawning Star Empire is both a police state and a megacorp run government. The New England country is a FeudalFuture and all the horrors that come with it. The neutral space? The Maw of Lawless Space, intentionally left as a pirate haven so the major power blocs can all enjoy their proxy wars without a care.
* ''Literature/TheAsteriskWar'': The entire world is all but completely controlled by six {{Mega Corp}}s which forced countries back into the system of monarchic rule, and the one place that isn't a [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Location]], Asterisk, is used primarily as a stage for very dangerous martial arts duels and tournaments among the teenage students.
* In ''Literature/StartingANewLifeForTheDiscardedAllRounder'', the home country of the protagonist Roa has a false meritocracy system in place. It's a very strict apprenticeship system to decide your career path if you're a citizen there. As an apprentice, you are dismissively called "an all-rounder" and that's if the mentor is being charitable. Only '''20%''' of the apprentices ever get certified and proceed to a successful life as an adventurer or craftsman. The remaining 80% are left to wallow with their own devices, in abject poverty until they die. The top brass blames them for failing and refuses to acknowledge the many flaws in the system, most notably that the mentor, without supervision of any kind, is the ultimate arbiter of which apprentice he certifies or not. Heck, the mentors ''don't even have to teach their apprentices at all''. Any apprentice who tries to get a second mentor, after being driven to quit, or expelled, is not likely to find one, because they're treated as "cowardly quitters" or "loser failures" respectively. How they were mentored, if they were mentored at all, is never examined. Should the apprentice succeed ''in spite'' of this crippling handicap, ''assassins'' are sent at them to try and cover up the systems' flaws. '''Surrounding countries''' have repeatedly stated that this is not sustainable, but the top brass just doesn't care.

* Redfern Jon Barrett's ''Literature/ProudPinkSky'' is set in the world's first gay state and plays with the genre, combining utopian and dystopian elements to create a work of 'ambitopia'.

* The CrapsackWorld of ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' is this thanks to NOL. They're also pretty justified in that, following the [[PlayingWith/{{Dystopia}} 'Playing With' page of this trope straight and justified]].

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' and its sequel. The United States' economy is failing and is rampant with LaResistance forces, Europe is under a dictatorship-like rule thanks to [=MJ12=] having enough power to work in the open, the majority of food that you find is either [[FutureFoodIsArtificial artificial]] or candy bars that mention they are made from [[HumanResources "recycled material"]]. All of this is happening while a pandemic is bringing the human race to its knees.
* The series ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' features several levels of Dystopia: AlienInvasion (a result of NewTechnologyIsEvil), also featuring a variation on the NoSexAllowed rule: No More Children.

* ''VideoGame/IronStorm'': UsefulNotes/WorldWarI has been dragging on for a horrifying 50 years and has become a ForeverWar. Everything is saturated with industrial grimness and in general decay. The global economy has become dominated by greedy and ignorant {{MegaCorp}}s and completely dependent on [[WarForFunAndProfit keeping the war running]]. As if that wasn't bad enough, humans in general have become militaristic {{Crazy Survivalist}}s. There's an oppressive new Eurasian empire, which is ruled by a completely insane quasi-religous zealot, who claims to be the new Genghis Khan. And if you think the supposed good guy countries of the setting are any better, think again: they're militaristic jingoists and crumbling democracies masquerading as brave saviors of civilization. Seriously, it's as if someone did a SpiritualAdaptation shooter game adaptation of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''...
* The ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series tends to feature a dystopia TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture with each release. In VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4, the dystopia is driven mainly by the mass appeal of private military services, the use of warfare as a means of economic stimulus and the growth in the application of nano-machine technology (the game's AppliedPhlebotinum).

* VideoGame/{{Oni}} definitely uses this trope. The first social issue is the environment. The environment is polluted like you would not believe. The government not only does nothing to address it, apart from using Atmospheric Processors to make the cities livable, but it brands anyone who tries to bring it up as enemies of the state and will crush attempts to reveal it. The second social issue is the development of science and technology. The government keeps an eye on scientists and carefully checks to make sure any technology developed is approvable (in other words, will not threaten it). They use the Technological Crimes Task Force as a SecretPolice force to enforce this.

** ''Cyberpunk RED'', in addition to all of this, has the heart of Night City as an [[UrbanRuins irradiated hellhole]] as the result of a fucked-up attempt to destroy Arasaka.

* In ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'', the country of Mindlesia is ruled by the oppressive Association of Victims of Avarice Crimes. AVAC interprets the law "however they please" and arrest citizens for "avarice crimes", regardless whether they're innocent or guilty. They also ban umbrellas and seed the rain with Fixer, an emotion-suppressing drug that makes the victim numb to everything going on around them, even AVAC's own crimes. Only Ajik City isn't affected by Fixerain because of the explosion at Citizens Alliance Research Institute weeks before the game's events, which destroyed their artificial rain files and Fixer manufacturing facilities. In protest, the Bunker of Freedom is created as a refuge for the citizens, but the 25,000V entrance fee makes it hard for them to escape there.

* In ''VideoGame/NoUmbrellasAllowed'', the country of Mindlesia is ruled by the oppressive Association of Victims with Avarice Crimes. AVAC interprets the law "however they please" and arrest citizens for "avarice crimes", regardless whether they're innocent or guilty. They also ban umbrellas and seed the rain with Fixer, an emotion-suppressing drug that makes the victim numb to everything going on around them, even AVAC's own crimes. In protest, the Bunker of Freedom is created as a refuge for the citizens, but the 25,000V entrance fee makes it hard for them to escape there.