This book examines the recent popularity of the dystopian genre in literature and film, as well as connecting contemporary manifestations of dystopia to cultural trends and the implications of technological and social changes on the individual and society as a whole. Dystopia, as a genre, reflects our greatest fears of what the future might bring, based on analysis of the present. This book connects traditional dystopian works with their contexts and compares these with contemporary versions. It centers around two main questions: Why is dystopia so popular now? And, why is dystopia so popular with young adult audiences? Since dystopia reflects the fears of society as a whole, this book will have broad appeal for any reader, and will be particularly useful to teachers in a variety of settings, such as in a high school or college-level classroom to teach dystopian literature, or in a comparative literature classroom to show how the genre has appeared in multiple locales at different times. Indeed, the book’s interdisciplinary nature allows it to be of use in classes focussing on politics, bioethics, privacy issues, women’s studies, and any number of additional topics.

In this diverse and vigorous mix of stories by newcomers and luminaries, writers offer their takes on what life might hold for us in the next few years. The resulting visions of war, oppression, and daily struggle are sometimes humorous, sometimes terrifying (and occasionally both), but always thought-provoking.

Utopia and Dystopia in the Age of Trump focuses on utopias and dystopias that either prefigure or suggest alternatives to the rise of individuals such as Donald J. Trump and the changing conditions of America we now see around us. These topical studies provide compelling reading for both the general reader and the specialist.

Magic has exploded back into the world-vampires, demons, ghosts, and other creatures of legend crawled out of the shadows, finally escaping their prisons-and the power previously only in the hands of secretive societies like Skull & Bones and the fascist Thule Society has been laid bare for the entire world to see.After the initial shock, businesses did the expected: found a way to turn magic into profit. The occult "gold rush" at the forefront of magically imbued politics built a world of wealth inequality, greed, and innovation.Bartender Jane Auburn was an early adopter of a new drug sponsored by Pelican Pharmaceuticals that allows her to move at the speed of vampires and match the strength of demons.Soon, she discovers the price for such powers may be more than she can pay: her life. Thrust into the front lines of toxic magic and occult corporate warfare, she will need to uncover what other skeletons these new companies are hiding. Preferably before she clocks out from an overdose or has to bite her tongue and endure her mandated corporate exploitation!At least she was not the only one in Austin, Texas to sign up for magic in a pill. After all, as it says in all their commercials, "Pelican Pharmaceuticals: they keep you going even when you're dead!" And how bad can the side effects possibly be?

Mike Auburn dangles above the city of Chicago from the beams of a half-built skyscraper. He is seconds from plummeting towards the circuit board of buildings and streetlights below, but oblivion is not what he seeks—it’s the dead. Obsessed with discovering evidence of the afterlife, Mike’s death-defying stunts have brought him closer than ever to lifting the veil of reality, always just out of reach. However, his ventures to the edge have not gone unnoticed, and a mysterious organization by the name “O’Neill” seeks to recruit him to their own cause: preparing the city for impending Ragnarok, the end of the world as they know it. Before long, a world ruled by scientific method and rational thinking is challenged by the supernatural—luring the dead, the damned, and the demons that have long awaited the return of magic, and they will stop at nothing to bring it back for good. Suddenly, Mike is at the center of a battle between the forces of reason, of good, of evil...and everything in between.

Some of the biggest names in YA and adult literature explore the lives of teen protagonists raised in catastrophe''s wake—whether set soon after disaster or decades later. New York Times bestselling authors Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Susan Beth Pfeffer, Carrie Ryan, Beth Revis, and Jane Yolen are among the many popular and award-winning storytellers lending their talents to this original and spellbinding anthology.

Imagine living in a world where everything you do is controlled. In the distant future the United States has been split into two regions separated by a barren wasteland; this is the country of Dystopia. Here the individual is discouraged, freedom is an illusion, food is rationed, and everything you do is tracked by a chip implanted in your arm. This is Dana Ginary's world. At age seventeen, people receive their career assignments chosen for them by a government body. Forced to work at the Waste Management Plant because she was declared too individualistic, Dana finds herself surrounded by death and brutality. Knowing her days are numbered, she looks for a way to leave the plant before she, too, becomes one of its causalities. It is then she meets a man named George and soon finds herself caught up in a cat and mouse game between the resistance and the Dystopian government. Dana finds herself faced with an agonizing choice of whom she will betray and whom she will save: her friend George, her parents, or herself.