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[Addy]

A few of my favourites:

Yevgeny Zamyatin: We The book 1984 was based on, and took enormous chunks from, and is inferior in pretty much every way to. We is a diary, from the point of view of the builder of a gigantic ship called The Integral. Society is a land much like the one in the film Equilibrium (which I've always considered the film version of We, such are the similarities) and it is the intention to convert other planets to the glory of OneState. To do this, people submit things like books, poems, thoughts, reflections - diaries - pretty much anything which shows how wonderful OneState is. These will be sent to far off lands on the Integral - in other words we are one of the targeted lands. The diary shows the last 30 days before the launch date, when of course problems happen. A lot of reading between the lines is needed, but it's truly wonderful stuff.

Max Barry: Jennifer Government Not a deep or complex book in any way whatsoever, I just really enjoyed it. It portrays anarcho-capitalism in the extreme, where even the police and the government are corporations, and your surname is the business you work for - if you're unemployed you don't have one. The title is actually one of the lead character's names. The book basically shows how half a dozen or so people from totally different backgrounds come into contact with one another, while ostensibly looking at a grandiose extortion/world domination plot by one which ends up affecting everybody (it's better than it sounds) The characters are clearly tiered - you can tell the first, second and third tiers, and the messages are obvious, but for an afternoon read you can do a lot worse.

Koushun Takami: Battle Royale Obviously. It's a premise that truly needs all 600 pages, and it doesn't actually waffle - it could be double the length and still seem plausible. 42 kids on a deserted island forced to kill each other in an AU where Japan won WWII, you can ignore the dodgy politics and enjoy a socio-cultural satire, exploring the question of whether or not you could kill your best friend. Really makes you think, but see the film first so you appreciate both - if you read the book first, you probably won't like the film.

Alisdair Gray: Lanark A life in four books, showing the decaying cities of Unthank and Glasgow, and a wanderer trapped in each. It's long, and it's complex, but it's brilliant all the same.