Science fiction and fantasy with anarchist themes recomendations wanted

I read Iain Banks' "The Player of Games" (part of the 'Culture' universe you mention above) when I was first getting into anarchism and felt it had a good anti-state/anti-authoritarian critique in it (plus an interesting examination of gender) although not sure if i'd view it the same these days. Lots of people recommend Le Guin's "The Dispossessed", though I've not read it so can't comment.

fight club

The Last of the Masters, a short story by Philip K Dick (wiki) - but I suppose it comes under the definition of 'straw anarchists'.

The Dispossessed, a classic and fantastic. I would also recommend her short story, "The day before the revolution" which is about the character of Odo. Also by Ursula Le Guin, "The left hand of darkness" is also brilliant, involving a planet where everyone has the same sex.
Iron Council by China Mieville, a very moving account of an attempt at revolution involving a runaway train (I'm not giving any more away)
Star Fraction by Ken McLeod, I would say they are "not PROPER anarchists at all!" but it's a great book, especially the uprising just round the corner from my old secondary school.

Some anarchists in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy. Other than that I can't think of much other than the others ones already mentioned (LeGuin, Banks, Mieville and McLeod).

Salt by Adam Roberts.

You might find this group interesting.

http://www.thinkgalactic.org/about/

Fight Club is not about anarchists.

The Dispossessed for sure!

I really liked China Meiville's Perdido Street Station and plan on reading the rest of that trilogy. Meiville is actually a Trot, but his lousy politics don't really get in the way. Perdido is like dickensian, class struggle sci-fi with weird Hegelian science tropes.

For the class-struggle anarchist there is a great scene where alien frog-people workers and human workers unite for a wildcat longshore strike against wage cuts. Check it out!

Meiville's Iron Council, which is part of the Perdido universe, was a pretty fucking sweet read. I highly recommend it.

The Dispossessed - obvious. Maybe Michael Moorcock, too? I'm not over-familiar with his stuff (apart from the Oswald Bastable trilogy) but he's described himself as an anarchist and was closely linked with the 'space-rock' group (with anarchist leanings), Hawkwings (as a Denise Coffey-lookalike in a moon-and-star-patterned robe at a free fest called them).

@ black badger, so tell me something I don't know! I didn't say that fight club was about anarchists, it is however a critique about a certain aspect of capitalism and if you refer to the original list it fits and is a bloody good read!

Woman on the edge of time by Marge Piercy.

Definitely, and City of Glass as well.

Check out: http://benbeck.co.uk/anarchysf/main.htm

Also, http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6573362-mythmakers-and-lawbreakers is a pretty good resource if you want to dig a bit deeper (bib in the back is worth a look).

All of the above.

If you are looking for obviously political, then China's books are the best. (When have you ever heard of familiars going on strike?)

Certainly read all the others for entertainment value. I'm addicted to The Culture Series, which are easily my favourite books. (I just read the latest, The Hydrogen Sonata, which sadly isn't as good as the others.)

Definitely read The Disspossed and Left Hand of Darkness. You can't have a left-wing reading group without at least The Disspossed.

Afaik Moorcock is an anarchist, but I've never read his books. I tried reading one but didn't get very far.

Some links:

This is meant to be THE anarchist sci fi reading list:
http://benbeck.co.uk/anarchysf/main.htm

This one's pretty spot on:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/10642.Left_wing_Science_Fiction_and_Fantasy

This has some of the Moorcock books plus others:
http://anarchist-studies-network.org.uk/ReadingLists_ScienceFictionandFantasy

You could also have a look at this one, keeping in mind the guys a Right wing libertarian:

http://www.nolanchart.com/article4700-essential-science-fiction-and-fantasy-for-libertarians.html
http://io9.com/5254742/10-greatest-libertarian-science-fiction-stories

There are some more books here, including Ursula Le Guin books in the same universe as The Dispossessed that i wasn't aware of

SimonO

Also, if you can, get this:

Margaret Killjoy, ed.: Mythmakers & Lawbreakers. Anarchist writers on fiction (2009)

"A fascinating collection of interviews with anarchist authors, including sf authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Michael Moorcock, with an introduction by Kim Stanley Robinson. It has a series of really useful appendices, too: ‘Anarchist fiction writers’ - potted bios; ‘Also of note’ - other authors worthy of notice, though not necessarily identifying as anarchists themselves; and ‘Lists’ - simple lists categorised as ‘Stories that explore anarchist societies’, ‘Stories that fictionalise anarchist history’, ‘Stories that feature sympathetic anarchist characters’, and ‘Stories that feature anarchists as villains’."

I'd be pretty keen to get this myself!

SimonO

[EDIT: Apologies writing on an eink ereader so I missed the previous post also linking to this book. Best to go through her website though.]

Glory of glory!!

Margaret Killjoy's book can be downloaded on the authors page here: http://www.tangledwilderness.org/pdfs/mmlb-zines-web.zip

The lists of anarchist related books, in sections, as referred to in my previous post can be downloaded here:
http://www.tangledwilderness.org/pdfs/mmlb15-appendices-web.pdf

Now I know what I'm going to read next!

SimonO

fingers malone wrote:
Iron Council by China Mieville, a very moving account of an attempt at revolution involving a runaway train (I'm not giving any more away

Please tell me that's a sequel to thomas the tank? :) Do Thomas, Gordon and Percy et al. wildcat and kidnap the fat controller? Do they kneecap Diesel for scabbing?

I enjoyed H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, First Men in the Moon, and Island of Doctor Moreau. I found a pattern in Wells in which the protagonist lives in bourgeois society taking it for granted, but after an incredible journey, comes back to that same society with critical eyes. In the above three books, short and easy reads, the class system is exposed as alienating and destructive to human beings, who are made less human due to its effects.

There is an interesting article by Michael Moorcock (I've not read his books yet) here: http://flag.blackened.net/liberty/moorcock.html

He deals with reactionary strains in sci-fi and sci-fi fans.

Comrade Motopu

I enjoyed H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, First Men in the Moon, and Island of Doctor Moreau. I found a pattern in Wells in which the protagonist lives in bourgeois society taking it for granted, but after an incredible journey, comes back to that same society with critical eyes. In the above three books, short and easy reads, the class system is exposed as alienating and destructive to human beings, who are made less human due to its effects.

There is an interesting article by Michael Moorcock (I've not read his books yet) here: http://flag.blackened.net/liberty/moorcock.html

He deals with reactionary strains in sci-fi and sci-fi fans.

Dunno why I said Moorcock 'described' himself as an anarchist. Good article from an anarchist perspective.

Rank

Maybe Michael Moorcock, too? I'm not over-familiar with his stuff (apart from the Oswald Bastable trilogy) but he's described himself as an anarchist and was closely linked with the 'space-rock' group (with anarchist leanings), Hawkwings (as a Denise Coffey-lookalike in a moon-and-star-patterned robe at a free fest called them).

I presume you mean Hawkwind. Would have been great with two space rock groups with almost identical names.

Saying that I'm no space rocker and only know of hawkwind due to Lemmy. That guy to the right is a gread advert for FULL BEARD though.

The Dispossessed is pretty decent. Only downside as anarchy prop is that the anarchist planet is so miserably poor and set on by natural forces :(

(Comment withdrawn)

Thanks for the tip, Ted.

That sounds awful.
Obviously libcom is important enough to be spammed by the author!

Jef, you're getting to be a right curmudgeon. Mind you, I can't imagine the heroes winning many friends by interrupting the Super Bowl.

Counting the seconds before nization jumps in to rail against all things sport related.

wojtek

fingers malone wrote:
Iron Council by China Mieville, a very moving account of an attempt at revolution involving a runaway train (I'm not giving any more away

Please tell me that's a sequel to thomas the tank? :) Do Thomas, Gordon and Percy et al. wildcat and kidnap the fat controller? Do they kneecap Diesel for scabbing?

lol I don't think the train is actually a sentient character. The rail road is being built by prison labour and they mutiny and seize the train and head out into the wilderness with it.

Serge Forward

Jef, you're getting to be a right curmudgeon. Mind you, I can't imagine the heroes winning many friends by interrupting the Super Bowl.

Counting the seconds before nization jumps in to rail against all things sport related.

Serge, sports is bad. Ok?

"Fantastic"

As Ninth Doctor would say. A chance to use a relevant Doctor Who reference in a Libcom post.

There was a Doctor Who episode called The Long Game (2005) where was an undercover Anarchist posing as a journalist from a group called Freedom 15 200,000 years into the future on a space station above Earth.

My impression was the while the episode did not go into any depth into the political philosophy of Anarchism the anarchist was portrayed in a positive anti-straw man like way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Game

Woman On The Edge Of Timmmmmmmmme

Octavia's Brood is a great newer collection of radical scifi

Also "He She And It" depicts a number of conflicting societies, including some that started off anarchosyndicalist but got beaten down by surrounding corporatism over time, and, without too many spoilers, a number of cells and formations started by people who chose to go underground to get away from that.