Dystopian Novels: THE TOMORROW FILE by Lawrence Sanders

Dystopian Novels
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dystopias are sometimes found in science fiction novels and stories. Please see the article dystopia for discussion of definition. Note that there is no one definition of dystopia that is agreed upon by all, as the term is usually used to refer to something much more specific than simply a nightmare world or unpleasant future.

Entries should only be added to these category if their article clearly states that they are dystopian.

See also: Category:Utopian novels.
Subcategories

There are 2 subcategories in this category, which are shown below. More may be shown on subsequent pages.
A

*
[+] Atlas Shrugged

N

*
[+] Nineteen Eighty-Four

Pages in category "Dystopian novels"

There are 123 pages in this section of this category.
1

* 1985 (novel)

3

* 334 (novel)

A

* Acidity (Novelette)
* All Tomorrow's Parties (novel)
* Alongside Night
* Among the Brave
* Among the Enemy
* Among the Free
* Among the Hidden
* And Chaos Died
* Anthem (novella)
* Ape and Essence
* Atlas Shrugged

B

* The Baby Squad
* Bend Sinister
* Brave New World

C

* Camp Concentration
* The Castle (novel)
* The Children of Men
* Children of the Dust
* Chung Kuo
* Cloud Atlas
* The Cold Cash War
* Count Zero

D

* Dayworld
* Dayworld (1985)
* Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
* The Domination

E

* Elvissey

F

* Fahrenheit 451
* Fatherland (novel)
* Feed (novel)
* Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
* The Foundation Pit
* A Friend of the Earth
* Futureland

G

* Gathering Blue
* The Giver
* Graffiti Christ
* Gridlock (novel)
* The Guardians (novel)


H

* The Handmaid's Tale
* Headhunter (novel)
* Hello America

I

* "If This Goes On—"
* In the Presence of Mine Enemies
* The Iron Heel
* It Can't Happen Here

J

* The Jagged Orbit
* Japan Sinks (novel)
* Jennifer Government

K

* K is for Killing
* Kallocain
* Kazohinia

L

* Lanark: A Life in Four Books
* The Lathe of Heaven
* Left Behind (series)
* New Babylon
* Level 7
* Limes inferior
* List of dystopian literature
* Logan's Run
* Lokenath Bhattacharya
* Lord of the World

M

* Make Room! Make Room!
* The Man Who Japed
* The Man in the High Castle
* Memoirs Found in a Bathtub
* Mona Lisa Overdrive
* Moscow 2042

N

* Native Tongue (novel)
* Neuromancer
* Never Let Me Go
* Nineteen Eighty-Four

O

* Oryx and Crake

P

* Parable of the Sower (novel)
* Parable of the Talents (novel)
* The Penultimate Truth
* Perdido Street Station
* A Planet for the President
* Planet of the Apes
* Player Piano (novel)
* The Plot Against America


P cont.

* Prayers for the Assassin

R

* Radio Free Albemuth
* Random Acts of Senseless Violence
* Resurrection Day
* Return from the Stars
* The Running Man
* Running Out of Time (novel)

S

* A Scanner Darkly
* The Secret of the League
* Shade's Children
* The Sheep Look Up
* The Shockwave Rider
* The Simultaneous Man
* The Sleeper Awakes
* The Sound of His Horn
* The Space Merchants
* A Spectre is Haunting Texas
* Stand On Zanzibar
* Stark (novel)
* A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder
* Suicide Circle: The Complete Edition
* The Supernaturalist
* Swan Song (novel)
* Swastika Night

T

* Terraplane (novel)
* This Other Eden (novel)
* This Perfect Day
* The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
* The Time Machine
* Time Out of Joint
* The Trial

U

* The Ultimate Solution
* Ultraviolet (novelization)

V

* V for Vendetta (novelization)

W

* The Wanting Seed
* We (novel)
* When Heaven Fell
* When Smuts Goes
* Wind on Fire
* The World Inside
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THE TOMORROW FILE
by Lawrence Sanders
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
genetic rating, artificial enovulation, natural brandy, pharmacology library, pleasure pill, film spindles, slave factor, political drug, stroked palms, government servers, palm stroke, heavy analysis, pure glycerol, checkered cap, botulism outbreak, new dollars, inflatable splint, commercial mail, ashen hair, assistant deputy directors, readout screen, ultimate pleasure, somber eyes, lip rouge
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Chief Director, Paul Bumford, Angela Berri, Art Roach, Grace Wingate, Maya Leighton, Mary Bergstrom, New York, Tomorrow File, Department of Creative Science, San Diego, Seymour Dove, Department of Bliss, Phoebe Huntzinger, Seth Lucas, Operation Lewisohn, Angela Teresa Berri, Leon Mansfield, Project Phoenix, Arthur Raddo, Burton Klein, Louise Rawlins Tucker, Chevy Chase, Deputy Director, Die-Dee Doll
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Text Stats
These statistics are computed from the text of another edition of this book. (learn more)
Readability (learn more) Compared with books in All Categories
Fog Index: 8.4
17% are easier

83% are harder
Flesch Index: 64.5
27% are easier

73% are harder
Flesch-Kincaid Index: 6.2
15% are easier

85% are harder

Complexity (learn more)
Complex Words: 13%
42% have fewer

58% have more
Syllables per Word: 1.6
44% have fewer

56% have more
Words per Sentence: 7.9
5% have fewer

95% have more

Number of
Characters: 1,176,554
93% have fewer

7% have more
Words: 197,297
95% have fewer

5% have more
Sentences: 24,944
99% have fewer

1% have more
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a terriffic read, January 28, 2006
By Joseph T. Colagreco "cojaysea" (cliffside park, nj United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
a mostly unknown gem from 1973 by the author who became known for THE FIRST DEADLY SIN and THE MCNALLY CAPERS . when i read this novel back in 75 ( the first paperback edition) i did not want to see the year 2000! SANDERS' look at the immediate future is horrifying. predicting the future is always risky business but SANDERS fills his futuristic tale with the most incredible plot twists and memorable caracters. welcome to a world where many people are born in a test tube with genetic ratings ( those who were born naturally are known as OBSOS for obsolete) the dept. of health and welfare is now known as the dept. of public happiness or the dept. of bliss. almost all drugs are legal. people drink vodka and smack and smoke marijuana as readily as we drink vodka and tonic. pot is legal and sold by the government . one brand is called BOLD. when you have sex with someone that person is known as a 'user". if you enjoyed the sex then it was "profitable".( martha and i used each other last night , it was quite a profit". money is called LOVE. ( sorry nick but theres no love in this project lets move on to something else) . food and drink as we know it is almost all genetically engineered from petro or oil.people eat "petroveal" and "propeas" and drink wine that tastes like fuel. occassionally you can find a real bottle of wine made from REAL grapes that will cost a fortune.( what do you want to eat tonight nick, fake italian or fake french?) an artificially inseminated male with a grade a genetic rating is catogorized as a AINMA-A. the government controlls all genetic ratings and if you dont have an A rating you cant have children. the united states is a huge corporation heading towards leading a corporate world. known now as simply THE US ( the u.s. of america was dropped ) any nation can join the US. costa rica and purto rico where the first to join. england is thinking of joining the us at the time of writing. medical and genetic engineering are racing ahead with startling and frightening rapidity. the govt. absolutley rules everything. nicolas bennington flair is the main carachter whos job among other things is to protect and keep alive a dying obso social genius named hyman lewishon. he comes up with the most frightening and horrifying idea i think ive ever read in any sci fi or social fiction tale that i wont even hint at to avoid spoiling it for those who havent read it yet. his friend and user is paul bumford . also his understudy . they work directly for angela lee berri, the director of the dept. of bliss. the reader is taken on a ride with so many plot twists and turns and surprises through the machinations of corporate power and political leaders that after a while nothing is as it seems. who is screwing who?? right up to the final line of the book the suspense is just incredible. a tale of futuristic social and governmental workings that is sometimes funny,always frightening and endlessly fascinating. SANDERS imagination must have been working overtime on this one. never again did he rise to this level. never again did he write anything like it. the first part of the book is titled "X". the second part of the book is titled"Y". the third part is titled "Z", the final chapter ,only one paragraph long is titled "A". see what i mean about different? ive read this book 3 times and will probably read it again. dont miss this almost unknown gem.

PRE-PSYBERPUNK, ORIGINAL DISTOPIAN BIOMEDICAL FUTURE GENRE.
HACK WRITER'S RESEARCH PAYS OFF! OLD BOOK, YET PRESCIENT, October 21, 2005
By Louis James "LUXXCORP" (Tampa, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

The best book I've ever read 3 or 4 times.
Let's keep it a secret until I'm finished the screenplay adaptation.
Should I make it a mini-series for TV or a trilogy like The Matrix?
SEXPIT7@SE7EN7SILICONSTRIP, "The Big Guava"
Comment | Why no voting buttons? We don't let customers vote on their own reviews, so the voting buttons appear only when you look at reviews submitted by others.

my all time favorite book, June 22, 2005
By S. Gold "bookher" (minneapolis,mn) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This is the only book that I've read 5plus times. It is truly amazing, especially in that it was published 4 years before I was born. Way ahead of it's time, I look forward to reading it again!!!!

Biological Time Bomb went off back n 1973, October 31, 2002
By "tzia" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
To get full impact of The Tomorrow File, try digging up The Biological Time Bomb and comparing with Huxley's Brave New World and Brave New World Revsited.

The read it again -- The Tomorrow File, that is.

I first read The Tomorrow File and The Biological Time Bomb [sorry, can not recall that author's name] in 1973. MAYBE even 1972.

And by 1991 when the paperback re-issue was added to a bookstore across the street that is no more, well, I was seeing evidence every day that folks reading it for the FIRST time in 1991 were already LEFT BEHIND on what's real in "sociology."

Can't fault YOU, Larry. Or Aldous or Julian or even H.G. Welles and Upton Sinclair.

You warned them hard enough. Not that any bodies with the good old "It Can't Happen Here" attitudes ever paid attention.

Nicholas definitely pushed his luck too far. So far, even though thoroughly mind-diddled my own great love and I have stayed relatively free and happy with only the following chatter to show for going on 11 years...

Addresses Bill Joy's questions before he asked, March 18, 2000
By Len Delunas (Seattle) - See all my reviews
Several years ago this author suggested that our country will create a new branch of government - the scientific branch - for the purpose of identifying technolology that should not be pursued...and advising the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government to put that technology into the "tomorrow file" - essentially buried for a future time, when society might be better suited to absorb the consequences.

Excellent concepts.Appropriate material to help consider Bill Joy's observations.

Good weekend read;plenty of present-day parallels., September 3, 1999
Reviewer: A reader
Sanders probably isn't writing sci-fi as much as he is using the future setting to avoid libel claims. The focus on youth, intelligence, and information as a source of power are no future stretch. Government's/industry's job is to keep people happy by carefully managing the flow and spin of information, to maximize the benefits,not to the public at large, but to the executives, politicians and bureaucrats. This is best accomplished in a society where most people don't give a rip, unless their own boat is rocked. For parallels,one need only look to the current impact on market indices or consumer confidence measures of a tiny tick in a government-produced labor or inflation statistic, or to the impact on our perception of public safety produced by a favorable crime statistic. Is Nick Flair that much different from Bill Gates/Clinton, in his early appreciation and clever use of the power that derives from control of information? I guess I read this as satire.

Realistic, innovative science fiction., September 27, 1998
Reviewer: A reader
A book far ahead of its time, quite uncharacteristic of Sanders but still innovative and compelling. Nick Flair, the protagonist, gives the reader a view of the future from a 1970's perspective. There is no supercomputer controlling the world, just the basic ingenuity of mankind. Think of it as Brave New World and 1984 produced for daytime TV.

An excellent book, apparently overlooked by all, March 27, 1998
By K. Smith "Ken of Brookeville" (Brookeville, md USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

An amazing and chilling tale! Should be classified as Science Fiction and thus, it is unlike any other Sanders book - not a mystery or a sex-fest, though it has those elements in spades.
Obviously, Sanders had fun with his premise, which (I think) is: What would happen if the Government set about to make its citizenry happy? And at any cost, including active manipulation of individual lives. Imagine Brave New World, with an entertaining mystery, modernized, and taken to the next degree.

Sanders cleverly renames common terms, for example: Males are EM's, females are EF's, sex is "using." This extends to the government - the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has evolved into the "Department of Bliss." (Couldn't happen? - remember the Dept. of Defense used to be called the War Department.)

Definitely will make you glad your government is as inept as it is - after reading TF, you will never ask again for a government that knows what it's doing!
Ken


Hard to understand, October 1, 1997
By Chris (williamwatson@sunco.com) (Florida) - See all my reviews
Lawrence Sanders is one of my favorite writers, the book, The Tomorrow File, is not worth TRYING to read. I finally gave up.

A near future when kids get MUCH smarter, much younger.
, March 27, 1997
Reviewer: A reader
Sanders, in a change of pace, chillingly limns a future when fast maturation and blazing intelligence are available to young teens, gradually forcing the older leaders and movers of society into unwanted retirement.
Excellent characterization, pace, and imaginative projections of current trends in computer science, media (think MTV election specials), and sports forcing for the Olympics make this a novel that you will think back on often, and wonder if you'll be replaced by a ten-year-old with a 200 IQ...

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Dystopian Novels: THE TOMORROW FILE by Lawrence Sanders