The City Inside, a near-future epic by the internationally celebrated Samit Basu, pulls no punches as it comes for your anxieties about society, government, the environment, and our world at large—yet never loses sight of the hopeful potential of the future. A highly anticipated 2022 release for Polygon | The Nerd Daily | BookBub | The Portalist These books challenge ways of thinking, challenge complacency, and for some, may be the catalyst to think about certain topics for the first time. When things seem fictional, there’s a certain kind of freedom in bringing up “what if,” that can allow people to delve into a topic because, after all, it’s just hypothetical. Maybe. And so books that portray a future world that isn’t so great can be the trigger to look at that future, and maybe reexamine the present. But these books are also full of relationships, of survival, of people facing adversity and becoming better versions of themselves. They show resilience, ingenuity, strength, and new ways of thinking and surviving, and in some ways, can also show us what we can be. Can it be a bad thing? Sure. But there are many books that give me hope, and reassure me that even in the darkest of times, there is survival, hope for the future, and people willing to work to make things better. Here’s a list of some books about near-future worlds that might send a shiver down your spine. If you’re looking for more books like this, check out this post about YA dystopian novels and this post on near-future sci-fi books. Are you planning on reading any of these books of a near-future world?
