Good Low Tech Sci-Fi

[JD]

One my favorite genres I've gotten into in the last few years is what I like to refer to as low tech sci-fi. I'm not sure if it's really it's own separate genre, but I tend to think of it as one. These are usually stories that take place in a future where society has regressed instead of progressing.
My favorite example of this are the TV series Revolution. It technically takes place in the future, but people are mostly back to using swords and horses, with some guns coming in as the series goes on. The Mad Max movies are kind of borderline for me here, because they do use cars and guns, but other than that things seem fairly primiitve. The far future sequences in the movie version of Cloud Atlas are a good example, although they do bring in some futuristic technology as it goes on. The Under The Never Sky book series is also kind of borderline, we see high tech domed cities, but all of the people living outside of them are back to an almost medieval level of technology.
I've got a couple other book series I plan on checking out, the Defiance/Courier's Daughter series by CJ Redwine, and The Dust Lands trilogy by Moira Young.
Do you guys have any recommendations for this kind of low tech sci-fi? I know The Change novels by SM Sterling might be along these lines, but I've read some stuff that makes it sound like those might lean more towards fantasy than sci-fi.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Hothouse and Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss.

The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven.

The Inverted World by Christopher Priest.

The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke is a loose fit as well as is Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon.

Or for a lark, Zardoz by John Boorman and Bill Stair -- nearly as bad as the movie, which really needs the MST3K treatment.

 

[Greg Cox]

Check out AMC's upcoming "Into the Badlands"--coming up in a few weeks.

 

[JD]

Yeah, I forgot to mention Into The Badlands in my first post, I'm eagerly anticipating it. It was actually what inspired me to start this thread in the first place.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

the Dragon-Riders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey

 

[sojourner]

The Change novels are a Society for Creative Anachronisms wet dream. Lots of wish fulfillment there. I got sick of them after about the third book.

 

[Taylirious]

Did anyone like Jake 2.0? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_2.0

 

[sojourner]

Did anyone like Jake 2.0? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_2.0

Yes, but it has no relation to the OP's request.

 

[Taylirious]

My apologies.

 

[sojourner]

I liked the show, especially the 6 Million Dollar man homage with Lee majors.

 

[JD]

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Hothouse and Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss.

The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring by Larry Niven.

The Inverted World by Christopher Priest.

The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke is a loose fit as well as is Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon.

Or for a lark, Zardoz by John Boorman and Bill Stair -- nearly as bad as the movie, which really needs the MST3K treatment.

I added Hothouse, The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring, and The Inverted World to my wishlist.
I was just looking around on Google Books and stumbled across the Jaran books by Kate Elliot. It sounds like they might kind of fit here too. They do deal with aliens and an interstellar empire, but it seems that the main part of the story appears to focus on primitive nomads. Some of the covers do show people riding horses, and one shows the characters in medieval style clothes.

 

[atlantalliance]

there's a ton of it depending on your definition of 'low-tech'

Outlander
Wayward Pines
Jeremiah
Revolution
Survivors
Into the Badlands
Firefly
Alpha Ville
2046
X-Files
Book of Eli
Journeyman
Planet of the Apes
Beyond the Black Rainbow
Brazil
Daredevil
Dante 01
Gattaca
Earth 2
The 100
Twin Peaks
The Handmaid's Tale
La Jetee
The Omega Man
Jericho
Solyaris
District 9

 

[atlantalliance]

One my favorite genres I've gotten into in the last few years is what I like to refer to as low tech sci-fi. I'm not sure if it's really it's own separate genre, but I tend to think of it as one. These are usually stories that take place in a future where society has regressed instead of progressing.
My favorite example of this are the TV series Revolution..

Would you consider the 90s Batman cartoon low-tech scifi?

 

[Silvercrest]

Empire of the East by Fred Saberhagen.

 

[Triskelion]

MOVIES

Worth Watching:
Nightfall
The Time Machine (I like the 2002 version)
Slipstream (Mark Hamill)!
Planet of the Apes
Tank Girl

More barbarous high tech/dystopia:
A Clockwork Orange
AI
Brazil
Blade Runner
Johnny Mnemonic
New Rose Hotel (Wm Gibson + Chris Walken = Win)
Westworld, Futureworld
Soldier (Kurt Russell)
Escape from New York
Escape from L.A.
Metropolis
Strange Days
Oblivion - Tom Cruise
The Running Man
Lawnmower Man
Freejack
V for Vendetta
The Handmaid's Tale
Fahrenheit 451
THX-1138

Middling Ones:
Judge Dredd (Stallone's anyway; I didn't catch the remake)
A Boy and His Dog
City Limits
Waterworld, The Postman
I Am Legend
Damnation Alley
Megaforce


BOOKS:

The Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison.
The Stand - Stephen King

And if you like dystopia, the prescient 1984 by George Orwell. And if you like that:
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
Sprawl Trilogy - William Gibson



TELEVISION:

Ark II
MST3K Outlaw of Gor

Dystopia:
Max Headroom
Brave New World (with Nimoy)!
Wild Palms



MISCELLANEOUS:

Duel - Spielberg
The Big Empty

- plus a slew of 1950's radiation-scare flicks.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Under The Skin.

 

[JD]

I really appreciate all of the recommendations, but I was looking more for stuff where the future, or at least parts of it, are more primitive than today. Now that I've seen all of it I'd say that Into The Badlands is a perfect example of the kind of thing I'm looking for.
The original Planet of the Apes is another great example, and I haven't seen the movie or read the book, but from what I know of it The Postman would be one too.
I don't remember it real clearly, but I think Dawn of the Planet was closing in on what I'm looking for. I'm OK with guns, and maybe cars, but that's about as far as I'm looking for the tech to go. I'm OK with computers, but mainly just as mysterious remnants of the past, not a part of every day life.
I know this is weirdly specific, but sometimes I get in the mood for a certain thing and it has to hit just the right spot for me.

 

[Leroy]

I recommend Turn A Gundam it's and anime from the franchise of the same name. The setting is that a war during the "dark history" (as the characters call it) causes all civilization on earth to be destroyed. At the beginning of the series humans on earth are at a Victorian / WWI era of tech development. The conflict begins when humans from a moon colony (who weren't affected by the super weapon that destroyed civilization and are technologically advanced) want to land and re-colonize the earth, this starts the conflict of the series. The series is in Japanese and is only subtitled it was released last year on DVD by Right Stuf intl.

 

[sojourner]

Look up the series Revolution. It only lasted a couple of seasons but fits pretty close to what you're looking for.

To be honest, most of the lists of stuff people have put in this thread are dystopian futures or just plain old sci-fi. Not the post apocalyptic regressed settings you're looking for.

The new Shannara series sort of fits, but it has magic added in, so that may turn you away from it.

The Book of Eli may appeal to you. It's Fahrenheit 451 by way of Mad Max.

Integral Trees and Smoke Ring are about humans living in a star system that has a giant habitable ring of breathable gas around the star instead of planets. Don't think that's really what you want.

 

[JD]

I loved Revolution, and I really enjoyed Book of Eli.
I'm actually really enjoying the Shannara TV series too. I don't have a problem with post-apocalyptic fantasy, one of my current favorite book series is Ilona Andrew's Kate Daniels series, which is post-apocalyptic urban fantasy.
I'm just having trouble finding more stuff that fits what I was looking for in the thread.