五部不容错过的反乌托邦小说

张晓敏

Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

In Simmons' debut2） novel， the United States has just experienced a time of massive unrest. The country is now run by the ultra-conservative Federal Bureau for Reformation. Protagonist3） Ember was born out of wedlock4） sixteen years ago when the US was the democracy we know. Now， her very existence is illegal， and she and her mother are arrested. With the help of her ex-boyfriend Chase， Ember needs to find a way to escape， break her mother out of federal prison， and find a place for them to live in a world that no longer makes sense. While there's not as much death in this novel as in The Hunger Games， there is more outright torture that we see happening directly on the page.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Three hundred years from now， the world has entered a post-scarcity economy5）. Every sixteen-year-old is provided with plastic6） surgery as a marker of their coming of age. Tally is almost sixteen， and when her friend Shay runs away before her surgery， the government tasks Tally to find Shay in the rebel city of Smoke and to report the location to them. But when Tally finds Smoke， she discovers more than she bargained for7）， learning secrets the government would kill to protect. What really happens when one turns from an Ugly to a Pretty？

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

When seventeen-year-old Amy agreed to join her parents on a mission to colonize a new planet， she expected to be woken from a cryogenically8） frozen state planetside， ready to start building a new society. She didn't expect to be woken early by a boy named Elder， the future leader of the spaceship Godspeed. Life onboard hasn't been easy， and now Amy needs to help Elder re-shape a society where no one has choices while on board a spaceship that is falling apart around them.

Partials by Dan Wells

In the mid-twenty-first century， the human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials—genetically engineered organic beings identical9） to humans. The population has been reduced to only tens of thousands by RM， Partials' weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune. The few survivors of the plague huddle10） together on Long Island， looting11） the ruins of the surrounding city for supplies. In the eleven years since the world collapsed， RM has killed every infant born to the survivors， who are still carriers of the disease. On the mainland， Partials are also beginning to die. Sixteen-year-old human Kira Walker is a medic in training， and she is desperate to cure RM. She hypothesizes12） that the Partials may hold a key to the cure and risks everything to see if she's right.

Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow

In a near-future Britain， the government is effectively controlled by media corporations. A teenager boy called Trent McCauley enjoys making his own films out of film clips he's downloaded from the internet. All of the films he uses are under copyright by someone else， and what he's doing is highly illegal. When his hobby causes the government to shut off the internet for his entire family， he runs away to London where he meets other teens just like himself. Living on the fringes and off the grid13）， Trent and his friends decide to take on the media giants to change the laws that have become too oppressive.

《第五条款》（克丽丝滕·西蒙斯著）

在西蒙斯的这部处女作中，美国刚刚经历了一段时期的大规模动荡，政权现由极端保守的联邦改革局掌控。主人公恩贝尔是私生女，出生于16年前，那时美国还是我们所了解的民主国家。而现在，恩贝尔的存在违反了法律，她和母亲都被逮捕了。在前男友蔡斯的帮助下，恩贝尔需要想办法逃跑，把母亲救出联邦监狱，还得在这个不再有意义的世界里为自己和母亲找个栖身之所。虽然这部小说中没有《饥饿游戏》中那么多的死亡，但从字里行间我们却能直接看到更多赤裸裸的折磨在发生。

《丑人儿》（司各特·韦斯特菲尔德著）

300年后，世界已经步入了后稀缺经济时代。每个人到了16岁都要接受整形手术，这是成年的标志。塔利就快16岁了，她的朋友谢伊在手术前逃走了，于是政府派给塔利一项任务——去反叛之城烟城寻找谢伊，并向他们汇报她的位置。但当塔利找到烟城时，她的发现却让她很意外，知道了政府不惜杀人也要保守的秘密。当一个人由丑变美时究竟会发生什么呢？

《穿越苍穹》（贝丝·雷维斯著）

当17岁的埃米同意与父母一起完成把新行星变殖民地的任务时，她预想着自己将在低温冰冻状态下的行星边际被唤醒，准备开始建立一个新社会。没想到她被一个名叫埃尔德的男孩提前唤醒，而埃尔德正是“神速”号宇宙飞船未来的领导者。宇宙飞船上的生活并不容易，现在埃米需要帮助埃尔德重新塑造一个社会，这里的人们在登上这艘即将毁灭的宇宙飞船时就已经别无选择。

《半人》（丹·韦尔斯著）

21世纪中叶，在经历了与“半人”（经过基因改造的有机生命物种，和人类长得一模一样）的一场战争后，人类几乎灭绝。半人以一种名为RM的病毒为武器，使得人类数量锐减至数万——因为仅有一小部分人对这种病毒具有免疫力。这些从瘟疫中幸存下来的极少数人在长岛市扎堆，靠劫掠已沦为废墟的周边城市来寻求补给。在世界崩溃后的11年里，幸存者们依然是该疾病的携带者，RM夺走了他们生下的所有新生儿的生命。在美国本土，半人们也开始相继死亡。16岁的正常人吉拉·沃克是个见习医生，她迫切希望找到治疗RM的方法。吉拉猜想半人可能持有治疗RM的关键要素，于是不顾一切地想证明自己的想法是否正确。

《盗版电影院》（科里·多克托罗著）

在不久的将来，英国政府实质上由媒体集团控制。一个名叫特伦特·麦康利的少年喜欢用他从网上下载的电影片段制作自己的电影。他使用的所有电影都有版权，所以他所做的事情是严重违法的。当特伦特·麦考利的这一爱好招致政府切断他们全家的网络连接时，他逃到了伦敦，在那里遇到了与他有相似遭遇的其他少年。生活在市郊又远离公共设施，特伦特和他的朋友们决定对抗媒体巨头，改变已变得过于严苛的法律。

1. dystopian [d?s?t??pi?n] adj. 反面假想国的，反面乌托邦的

2. debut [?de?bju?] adj. 首次露面的

3. protagonist [pr??t?ɡ?n?st] n. （戏剧、小说或真实事件里的）主人公

4. born out of wedlock： 非婚生的。wedlock [?wedl?k] n. [旧]婚姻

5. a post-scarcity economy： 后稀缺经济社会，是一种理论设想，在这种社会里，商品、服务、资讯都大量存在，可以被人们无偿占有，货币也将不复存在。

6. plastic [?pl?st?k] adj. 【医】整形的

7. bargain for： [通常与否定词或more than连用]预料；指望

8. cryogenically [?kra???d?en?k?li] adv. 低温地

9. identical [a??dent?kl] adj. 完全相同的

10. huddle [?h?dl] vi. 挤在一起

11. loot [lu?t] vt. （战争或暴乱时）抢劫（商店或房屋）

12. hypothesize [ha??p?θ?sa?z] vt. 猜测；假定

13. off the grid： 与公共设施断开连接