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Hell on Earth: What we can learn from dystopian fiction
1984, Brave New World, and The Handmaid’s Tale are today’s best-known dystopian novels. They represent a fast-growing genre that includes literally thousands of books that portray a future none of us would want to live in. In Hell on Earth, author and book critic Mal Warwick surveys 62 such novels—books that pose difficult questions about the society we are shaping together. Dystopian fiction reflects the world as it is and imagines what the future might hold. In an age of eroding civil liberties, a widening gap between rich and poor, unending conflict abroad, the increasing impact of climate change, and the ever-present threat of pandemic and nuclear holocaust, dystopian novels are relevant as never before.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 19, 2017
4 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Mal Warwick
30 books490 followersMal Warwick has been reviewing books on his blog, www. malwarwickonbooks.com, since January 2010, typically posting three to five reviews per week. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the Northern California Book Reviewers and serves on the board of directors of the Bay Area Book Festival. He is also a member of the Author’s Guild and has been a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America since the 1970s.
Mal’s most recent book is Hell on Earth: What We Can Learn from Dystopian Fiction (July 2017). He is the author, co-author, or editor of 20 other books, including The Business Solution to Poverty: Designing Products and Services for Three Billion New Customers and the best-selling fundraising text, How to Write Successful Fundraising Appeals, Third Edition.
Mal is a principal in two businesses: a fundraising agency for nonprofits named Mal Warwick Donordigital, which he founded in 1979, and the One World Play Project, manufacturers of a virtually indestructible soccer ball that benefits more than 50 million children in 176 countries. The One World Play Project is a B Corporation and a California Benefit Corporation. Mal serves on the board of directors.
For three decades—the 1980s, 90s, and 00s—Mal focused on the nonprofit sector as an author, consultant, and public speaker on marketing and fundraising for nonprofit organizations and on the private sector as an advocate for socially and environmentally responsible business policies and practices. He is the founder of Mal Warwick Donordigital, which maintains offices in Berkeley, California and Washington, DC. The firm has served nonprofit organizations nationwide since 1979. MWD is a Founding B Corporation and a California Benefit Corporation and is now employee-owned. Mal remains as chair of the board.
A serial entrepreneur, Mal has been active in promoting social and environmental responsibility in the business community nationwide for more than two decades. He is the co-author of Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, and Have Fun with Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s. Along with Cohen and others, Mal was a co-founder of Business for Social Responsibility in 1992 and served on its board during its inaugural year. In 2001, after more than a decade as an active member of Social Venture Network, he began a six-year stretch (2001-7) on its board, serving as Chair for four years. He also was a member of the Founding Advisory Board of the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002-3.
Among the hundreds of nonprofits Mal and his colleagues served over the years are many of the nation’s largest and most distinguished charities as well as six Democratic Presidential candidates and scores of small, local, and regional organizations. Collectively, Mal and his associates have been responsible for raising more than one billion dollars in the form of small gifts, all of them from individuals.
From 1965 to 1969, Mal was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Michigan.
Mal’s most recent book is Hell on Earth: What We Can Learn from Dystopian Fiction (July 2017). He is the author, co-author, or editor of 20 other books, including The Business Solution to Poverty: Designing Products and Services for Three Billion New Customers and the best-selling fundraising text, How to Write Successful Fundraising Appeals, Third Edition.
Mal is a principal in two businesses: a fundraising agency for nonprofits named Mal Warwick Donordigital, which he founded in 1979, and the One World Play Project, manufacturers of a virtually indestructible soccer ball that benefits more than 50 million children in 176 countries. The One World Play Project is a B Corporation and a California Benefit Corporation. Mal serves on the board of directors.
For three decades—the 1980s, 90s, and 00s—Mal focused on the nonprofit sector as an author, consultant, and public speaker on marketing and fundraising for nonprofit organizations and on the private sector as an advocate for socially and environmentally responsible business policies and practices. He is the founder of Mal Warwick Donordigital, which maintains offices in Berkeley, California and Washington, DC. The firm has served nonprofit organizations nationwide since 1979. MWD is a Founding B Corporation and a California Benefit Corporation and is now employee-owned. Mal remains as chair of the board.
A serial entrepreneur, Mal has been active in promoting social and environmental responsibility in the business community nationwide for more than two decades. He is the co-author of Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, and Have Fun with Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s. Along with Cohen and others, Mal was a co-founder of Business for Social Responsibility in 1992 and served on its board during its inaugural year. In 2001, after more than a decade as an active member of Social Venture Network, he began a six-year stretch (2001-7) on its board, serving as Chair for four years. He also was a member of the Founding Advisory Board of the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002-3.
Among the hundreds of nonprofits Mal and his colleagues served over the years are many of the nation’s largest and most distinguished charities as well as six Democratic Presidential candidates and scores of small, local, and regional organizations. Collectively, Mal and his associates have been responsible for raising more than one billion dollars in the form of small gifts, all of them from individuals.
From 1965 to 1969, Mal was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 4, 2017
A voracious reader and deep thinker, Mal Warwick has compiled a useful compilation of dystopian fiction right as the genre is re-emerging in prominence. For readers, like myself, who are re-engaging in dystopian themes, this book is a comprehensive survey of the genre, exploring its major themes of totalitarianism, climate change, nuclear war, and the like.
If you’re interested in a quick synopsis of many outstanding novels as a way of finding some you’d like to delve deeper into, Hell on Earth is a great place to start. Warwick also offers some of his own analysis about the likelihood of any particular doomsday scenario coming true, which is interesting and may spark some debate. That is, of course, the whole point of dystopia, so Warwick is doing us a service in offering a thorough study of the field.
If you’re interested in a quick synopsis of many outstanding novels as a way of finding some you’d like to delve deeper into, Hell on Earth is a great place to start. Warwick also offers some of his own analysis about the likelihood of any particular doomsday scenario coming true, which is interesting and may spark some debate. That is, of course, the whole point of dystopia, so Warwick is doing us a service in offering a thorough study of the field.
February 21, 2020
Two and a half stars, rounded up. Ranges from interesting to superficial. Suffers mostly from author's inability to stick to his subject: the lessons of science fiction.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews