Books like “Anthem”

What to read after “Anthem” by Ayn Rand: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury · 1953
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
Guy Montag is a fireman who burns books in a future where reading is a crime and screens fill every quiet moment. After a young neighbour asks him whether he is happy, curiosity makes him hide a book of his own, and he begins to question everything his job stands for.
2
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K. Dick · 1968
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia” and “Philosophical”
- Dystopia
- Philosophical
In a dust-choked future, a bounty hunter is paid to retire androids that have escaped to Earth and passed as human. As he tracks them down he starts to question what makes a life real, and whether he can trust his own memories.
3
We
Yevgeny Zamyatin · 1924
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia” and “Philosophical”
In the glass city of OneState, citizens live by a strict timetable and are known only by numbers. When the mathematician D-503 begins to keep a private journal, a woman named I-330 draws him into a movement that wants to tear down the walls of the ordered world.
4
Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell · 1949
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
In the totalitarian superstate of Oceania, every thought and word is watched. Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting the past, until he starts a diary and a secret affair. His small rebellion against a system that controls reality itself slowly closes in around him.
5
A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess · 1962
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia” and “Philosophical”
- Dystopia
- Philosophical
Alex, a teenager who loves violence and classical music, leads his gang through nights of brutal crime. When the state captures him, it offers to cure his impulses with an experimental treatment, making him the subject of a system that manufactures both good and evil.
6
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley · 1932
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia” and “Philosophical”
In a future where citizens are engineered for contentment and kept calm with a drug called soma, Bernard Marx and the Savage John discover the cost of a stable, pleasure-driven society. John's arrival from a reservation exposes the emptiness behind the World State's comfort.
7
The Time Machine
H. G. Wells · 1895
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia” and “Philosophical”
- Dystopia
- Philosophical
An inventor builds a machine that carries him far into the future. He finds a gentle people living above ground and a sinister race below, and slowly learns what became of humanity. A short, influential tale of time travel and a dark vision of the end.
8
Uglies
Scott Westerfeld · 2005
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Rebellion
In a future where everyone turns pretty at sixteen through surgery, fifteen-year-old Tally longs for the operation. When her friend runs away instead, Tally is sent to find her, and learns what the surgery and the society that demands it really cost.
9
The Trial
Franz Kafka · 1925
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia” and “Philosophical”
- Dystopia
- Philosophical
A clerk is arrested one morning and told he is on trial, though no one will say for what. As he tries to navigate a faceless legal system, his ordinary life unravels. A bleak, darkly funny novel about bureaucracy, guilt and power.
10
Red Rising
Pierce Brown · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Rebellion
On a future Mars, a miner from the lowest caste learns that the paradise he was promised does not exist and that his people are slaves. He is remade as a member of the ruling class and sent into a brutal contest where he plans to bring the whole system down.
11
The Darkest Minds
Alexandra Bracken · 2012
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Rebellion
After a disease kills most American children, the survivors develop dangerous powers and are locked in government camps. Sixteen-year-old Ruby escapes and joins a group of runaways searching for a safe haven, while learning the cost of her own abilities.
12
Wool
Hugh Howey · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Dystopia”
- Dystopia
- Rebellion
In a future where the air outside is deadly, people live in a buried silo and are told that anyone who asks to go outside will be sent there to die. When a sheriff starts asking questions about the world beyond the walls, the silo's careful order begins to crack.