9 Eerie Books that Predicted the Future

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Books have the power of transporting us to different places and times. Most often, we read books that to get a taste of life in the past. But some authors venture into the unknown of the future, and end up with uncannily accurate predictions!

Books with settings in the future fall under the science fiction or fantasy genre. Sadly, many of those who hit the mark are actually dystopian novels. Whether it was pure coincidence or these authors had their very own crystal balls, reading the predictions that people in the past made about our lives today can be very interesting, but also incredibly eerie.

9 Books That Accurately Predicted the Future

If you want to check out some of the books that boldly and almost accurately describe the future, here is a list we curated for you:

**1. 1984 by George Orwell**

This dystopian novel usually tops any list for predicting a time when technology takes over society in a scary way. The book first coined the term “Big Brother” to refer to the abuse of power in government, particularly in terms of privacy issues. Published back in 1949, Orwell details several technological developments that are now part of our reality in some way. One example is the use of surveillance tools, albeit wielded in a way for controlling the general populace. CCTV anyone?

**2. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler**

Octavia Butler intended for this to be the first book in a trilogy, but she died before finishing the third book. With its sequel Parable of the Talents, Parable of the Sower features a dystopian world with a rising populist demagogue.

During its publication, the books were well accepted, but our current reality reflects a greater similarity to its dynamics of social inequality, unhealthily influential business entities, and even global warming!

**3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury**

Published in 1953, this sci-fi novel explored the response of humans to technology through the story of fireman Guy Montag, who is assigned to destroy printed books, considered the most illegal commodity of the time. It’s eerily reminiscent of the issue of censorship that’s become rampant in our modern lives.

**4. When the Sleeper Wakes by H.G. Wells**

In this 1899 sci-fi novel, Wells predicts the importance of airpower in war, way before the first aerial mission for military purposes, which began in 1911. Surprisingly, this book was also published four years before the Wright brothers successfully flew a manned plane.

**5. The World Set Free by H.G. Wells**

When H.G. Wells published this novel in 1914, he predicted that humans would figure out how to extract energy from the atom in 1933. In the same year, someone did think up the concept of a nuclear chain reaction! Surprisingly, Wells also predicted the use of radioactive elements in atomic bombs that would leave battlefields in a radioactive state in the aftermath of the bombing.

**6. The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster**

In this science fiction novel published in 1909, E.M. Forster describes humans living and working exclusively from their own rooms, only communicating with one another through electronic methods. They communicate and form “friendships,” “teams,” or “groups” electronically, and even become fearful about meeting people outside of the virtual world.

**7. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift**

Written originally as a satire, Jonathan Swift described two moons that had short orbits around Mars. One hundred and fifty years later, scientists did discover two moons with strange behavior that matched Swift’s description!

**8. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner**

John Brunner wrote this book in the late 1960s, with the setting in 2010. In it, he describes a popular politician named President Obomi, a union of European countries, mass shootings, and people connecting to an encyclopedia using the phone.

**9. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe**

In Edgar Allan Poe’s only full-length novel, which was published in 1838, Richard Parker is aboard a whaling vessel that gets hit by a storm. As the sailors starve, they draw lots, and the lot falls on Richard as the one whom the other sailors get to eat. About fifty years later, a real-life person also named Richard Parker lost his life to his fellow sailors’ cannibalism after they got shipwrecked in a storm.

Sci-Fi Books with Eerie Predictions of the Future

The world of literature contains several sci-fi books that made an almost eerily-accurate prediction of future events and circumstances.

Although not every detail may match up, the uncanny similarities that some of them have to today’s world is enough to make us shake our heads in disbelief.

What do you think about books that seem to have predicted the future? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Yen Cabag

Yen Cabag is the Blog Writer of TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music. She has also written several books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her passion is to see the next generation of children become lovers of reading and learning in the midst of short attention spans.