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If one may compare neo-dystopias (new anti-utopias) to classical dystopias (Voigts/Boller 2015, Matz 2015, Matz 2017), 21st century dystopias can rely on the increasing popularity of dystopian fiction and film, comprise more young-adult fiction catering for younger audiences, show the protagonists at least partially triumph over the oppressive regime, and frequently deal with themes like the destruction of individuality, the enslavement and silencing of citizens, environmental threats, and post-apocalyptic events, in which the civilization of the Earth is collapsing or has already collapsed. They present “a non-existent society […] that the author intended a contemporaneous reader to view as considerably worse than the society in which that reader lived” (Sargent 1994, in Booker 2013: 6). The growing number of dystopian books in young adult fiction like Susan Collins’ The Hunger Games (2008-2010), Scott Westerfield’s Uglies (2005) and Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005) promises to “reenergize the genre for new generations” (Booker 2013: 11) and sustain its aesthetical value. (Post-)Apocalyptic Fiction is usually centred around the following five types:

 climatic apocalypse (CliFi, climate fiction), e.g. Solar by Ian McEwan (2010)

 natural apocalypse (impact event etc.), e.g. Remnants by K. A. Applegate (2001–2003)

 man-made apocalypse (nuclear holocaust, resource depletion etc.), e.g. The Road by Cormack McCarthy (2006)

 medical apocalypse (plague, virus etc.), e.g. A Lovely Way to Burn by Louise Welsh (2014)

 imaginative apocalypse (zombies, alien invasion etc.), e.g. The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman (2003 ff.)