"Ado" - Connie [Constance Elaine Trimmer] Willis (b. 1945) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1988)
Dystopia of political correctness and religious oversight gone seriously wrong in a university.
Rpt. in her Impossible Things. New York: Bantam Books, 1993; rpt. (New York: Bantam Books, 1994), 115-24.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Ayemu's Children" - Vivienne Louise (Sinister Wisdom, 1988)
Fantasy story with elements of a lesbian eutopia.
Keywords: Female author

"Backward, Turn Backward." - [Alice Bradley] [Sheldon] (1915-87) (Synergy: New Science Fiction, 1988)
Love story with a background of a future dystopia--a deeply divided society with the middle class and above living in enclaves.
Rpt. in her Crown of Stars (New York: Tor, 1988), 208-70.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Bulldozer Rising - [Anna Livia Julian] [Brawn] (b. 1955) (Onlywomen Press, 1988)
Future authoritarian dystopia where it is difficult and rare to live past forty-one (“the optimum death date” [15]); for example, curbs are two feet high to make wheelchair use impossible. The one positive element in the novel is found in the connections among lesbians, including some with older women.
Keywords: Female author; Irish author; UK author

"Busman's Holiday" - Louise Turner (The Glasgow Herald Weekender, 1988)
Future feudal, depopulated Glasgow in which owners of the bus systems have become the ruling lords.
Rpt. in Starfield: The Anthology of Science Fiction by Scottish Writers. Ed. Duncan Lunan (Kirkwall, Orkney: The Orkney Press, 1989), 89-96. Collection rpt. Edinburgh, Scot.: New Curiosity Shop, 2018.
Keywords: Female author; Scottish author

Carmen Dog - [Agnes] Carol[lyn] [Fries] Emshwiller (1921-2019) (Women's Press, 1988)
Surrealistic. Women turning into animals and animals into women.
U.S. ed. San Francisco, CA: Mercury House, 1990.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Catspaw - Joan [Carol] D[ennison] Vinge (b. 1948) (Warner Books, 1988)
Cyberpunk dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Cityscape - Frances Thomas (b. 1943) (Heinemann, 1988)
A young adult authoritarian dystopia where reading is prohibited.
Keywords: Female author; Welsh author

"Death and Morning" - Candas Jane Dorsey (b. 1952) (Machine Sex. . . and Other Stories, 1988)
Fantastic dystopia in which a person is re-shaped for the purpose of political assassination.
Book rpt. as Machine Sex and Other Stories (London: Women's Press, 1990), 17-26.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

Empire of the Senseless - Kathy [Karen Lehmann] Acker (1948-97) (Grove Press, 1988)
Dystopia set in vaguely described future with a number of loosely connected themes such as Algerian terrorists taking over Paris. Much sex and violence.
U.K. ed. London: Picador, 1988.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Face Lift - Susan Beetlestone (Interzone, 1988)
Future dystopia. People wear masks.
Keywords: Female author; UK author

The First Battle of Morn - Deborah [Stoddard] Moulton (b. 1952) (Dial Books, 1988)
Young adult novel depicting an authoritarian dystopia and the successful struggle against it led by a boy.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Gate to Women's Country - Sheri [Shirley] S[tewart] Tepper (1929-2016) (Foundation Books/Doubleday/Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1988)
Post-catastrophe world divided into a women’s and men’s communities in which the women try to keep alive the best of the post-catastrophe world and the men are warriors. There is a mixed carnival once a year, and boys stay with their mothers until five, when they join their fathers, visiting their mothers twice a year. At fifteen the boys choose to be warriors or live with their mothers with some having been rejected by their fathers. The novel begins with two ceremonies, the first on a boy’s fifteen birthday and the second at a boy’s fifth birthday, both reflecting the pain experienced by the mothers. In fact, the women have been using birth control and selecting the men who father children to try to breed out male violence. There are a number of subplots that make it a quite complicated novel.
Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1989
Keywords: Female author; US author

Handbook of Scientific Utopianism (Utopia 2: Blueprint for Heaven on Earth, 1988)
Contains many statements describing the utopia the community thinks it already is together with some that suggest the wider utopia that will be brought about through its example. Includes an “Introduction. Ruled by Rock: the Party Culture” by Even Eve (1-2); “Origins. Neotribal Roots” (No author) (3-6); Sex & Family Life. Polyfidelity Explained” by Even Eve (7-8), “Nuns and Monks in Love: Polyfidelity as a Religious Practice” by Tip Tye and Paz Now (9); “Sex and Family Life. Coming on the Sleeping Schedule: A Personal Story” by Paz Now (10-12); “Utopian Psychology. Fundamental Principles for Mental Health” by Geo Logical (13-14); “Gestalt-O-Rama™ for Beginners” By Ram Star (15-16); “Children. Multiple Parenting” By Esperanta Rio (17-18); Religion & Mythology. Birth of the Goddess” By Geo Logical (19-21); Religion & Mythology. Eleven Basic Metaphysical Premises & Beliefs” By Bluejay Way (22-24); “Economics. TASK: the Tribal Accounting System by Kerista” By Even Eve (25, 28); “Abacus, Inc.: A Vision with a Business” By Eden Zia (29-30); “Future Vision. The Kerista Planetary Prosperity Plan. As explained by Bro Jud and discussed at a Monday Night service. Tape Transcribed by Esperanto Rio” (31-36); “Future Fantasy” By Even Eve (37-38); “Messiah 2.0” By Tip Tye (39); Decision-Making. Shared Leadership and Direct Democracy” By Even Eve (40); Social Contracts. The Oral and Written Law” By Even Eve (41); Social Contracts. The 88 Basic Standards of the Gestalt-O-Rama™ Growth Process& the Club Utopia Growth Co-Op” (No author) (42-46); “Do-It-With-Friends. Mental Health Techniques 82 Fun Ways to Work on Yourself” By Sym Com (47-50); and “Getting Closer. A Step that will Change Your Life” By Paz Now (51-52). Most articles include sidebars either directly related to the article or concerning material discussed in other articles.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

"House Rules" - Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-99) (Four Moons of Darkover, 1988)
Free Amazon story.
Rpt. in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover (New York: DAW Books, 1993), 61-69.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Inheritors - Jill Dobson (b. 1969) (University of Queensland Press, 1988)
Post-catastrophe (nuclear war) young adult dystopia in which a young woman begins to resist the though control and the rejection of the past of the leaders.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

Jaiyavara - Eleanor Glaze (b. 1930) (St. Luke's Press, 1988)
The novel focuses on the dystopia brought about by ecological collapse and the spread of disease and ends with the beginnings of rebuilding from a communal base.
Keywords: Female author

Kairos - Gwyneth [Ann] Jones (b. 1952) (Unwin Hyman, 1988)
Corporate dystopia--U.K. Ltd. Pollution.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"The Last of the Winnebagoes" - Connie [Constance Elaine Trimmer] Willis (b. 1945) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1988)
Ecological dystopia in which there are severe restrictions on vehicles and travel and most animals have died.
Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989), 182-222 with an editor's note on 181.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Man Plague” - Zama [pseud.] (Sinister Wisdom, 1988)
A plague that eliminates all men creates a rural eutopia for lesbians.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Mundane's World - Judy [Rae] Grahn (b. 1940) (The Crossing Press, 1988)
Feminist eutopia set in a preliterate society in which the people are organized into clans that fill different functions in the society. The people are intimately connected to and communicate with the natural environment. Men and women used to after separate languages, but these have mostly disappeared.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"My Lady Tongue" - Lucy [Jane] Sussex (b. 1957) (Matilda at the Speed of Light, 1988)
A lesbian community as a eutopia in conflict with men. The community is presented as a set of complex interactions among the women within the community, with issues around the degrees of lesbianism. Much of the story is also concerned with a relationship the protagonist had with a man.
Rpt. in The Women Who Walk Through Fire: Women's Fantasy and Science Fiction Vol. 2. Ed. Susanna J. Sturgis (Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1990), 208-55; in her My Lady Tongue and Other Stories (London: Heinemann, 1990/Port Melbourne, VIC, Australia: William Heinemann Australia, 1990), 75-133 [London edition has Stories rather than Tales]; in Mortal Fire: Best Australian SF. Ed. Terry [Terence William] Dowling and Van Ikin (Rydalmere, NSW, Australia: Hodder & Stoughton (Australia), 1993), 274-320; in Centaurus: The Best Australian Science Fiction. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Damien [Francis] Broderick (New York: Tor, 1999), 150-87; and in her Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies: The Essential Lucy Sussex (Greenwood, WA, Australia: Ticonderoga publications, 2011), 71-112.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Australian author; Female author

"My Year With the Aliens." - Lisa Goldstein (b. 1953) (Full Spectrum, 1988)
Satirical take on a world formed by middle-class intellectual radicals after a Communist revolution on Earth. No private property; criticism/self-criticism sessions; children raised communally. The story is told from the point-of-view of a mildly disaffected teenager.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Overshoot - Mona [Ann] Clee (b. 1952) (Ace Books, 1988)
Dystopia of global warming.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Rabelaisian Reprise - [Margery (known as Marj) A.] [Krueger] (1941-2006) (Doubleday & Co, 1988)
Dystopia set on the same planet and with many of the same characters as 1983 Krueger.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Reading Group - Amanda Lohrey (Picador, 1988)
Near future dystopia seen from the perspective of eight people who had been members of a reading group. The core of the novel focuses on an environmental and political crisis and the reactions of the eight people.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

The Revolution of Saint Jone - Lorna Mitchell (Women's Press, 1988)
Religious dystopia. After a catastrophe, a new religion of reason and order is bringing its truth to the far-flung planets. A newly ordained priest sent to one of the furthest and most primitive planets begins to question what she was taught and was to teach.
Keywords: Female author

"Sleeping in a Box" - Candas Jane Dorsey (b. 1952) (Machine Sex. . . and Other Stories, 1988)
Dystopia of life on the moon with myriad restrictions due to the cost of shipment from earth.
Book rpt. as Machine Sex and Other Stories (London: Women's Press, 1990), 1-8. Story rpt. in Aurora Awards: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Science Fiction & Fantasy [At the head of the title Award-Winning Canadian Fiction]. Ed. Edo van Belkom (Kingston, ON, Canada: Quarry Press, 1999), 11-17; and in her Ice and Other Stories (Hornsea, Eng: PS Publishing, 2018), 25-32, with a note on the story (299).
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

“Stone Hands” - Cheryl Elaine Davis (Sinister Wisdom, 1988)
A religious dystopia that institutionalizes patriarchy, and a woman’s discovery of desire for another woman.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Synthetics - Karen Clark (b. 1960) (Merlin Books, 1988)
Set in 2015. Truants from school are given the equivalent of a lobotomy.
Keywords: Female author; UK author

"A Toast of Babatine" - Donna Allegra (b. 1953) (Sinister Wisdom, 1988)
Lesbian eutopia that has been in existence for six generations. Operates with no rules but selects what they call servants, who appear to be something like overseers, each season.
Keywords: African American author; Female author

Unquenchable Fire - Rachel [Grace] Pollack (b. 1945) (Century Hutchinson, 1988)
A dystopian future United States where magic and ritual are common. See her Temporary Agency. London: Orbit, 1994 for a sequel.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Venus of Shadows - Pamela Sargent (b. 1948) (Doubleday, 1988)
Sequel to 1986 Sargent. This volume follows the next four generations of the Venus project, the society that is emerging, and the conflicts within it.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The War Against Chaos - Anita [Frances] Mason (b. 1942) (Hamish Hamilton, 1988)
Complex dystopia. An authoritarian company in growing conflict with an authoritarian government. There are also Marginals who live outside the system.
Keywords: English author; Female author

The Way to Neutopia. Poems and Woodcuts - [Elizabeth known as Libby] [Hubbard] (b. 1956) (Ken John, 1988)
Poems that describe a eutopia. Each poem begins with "WE HAVE A PROBLEM . . ." and then continues with a statement of what we need. Covers many topics, including leadership, religion, inequality, the nuclear family, poverty, unemployment, prostitution, medical care, among others.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"womanmansion to my sister mourning her mother - Gossett, Hattie (Presenting . . . Sister No Blues, 1988)
Poem describing a feminist heaven.
Rpt. in Memories and Visions. Ed. Susana Sturgis (Freedom, CAL The Crossing Press, 1989), 197-201.
Keywords: Female author

After the Bomb: Week One - Gloria [Dubov] Miklowitz (b. 1927) (Scholastic, 1987)
Dystopia of a military state after an accidental nuclear explosion. See also 1985 Miklowitz.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Beloved. A Novel - Toni Morrison (1931-2019) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1987)
A complex novel based reflecting on the dystopia of American slavery and the way memory reconstructs the past.
Keywords: African American author; Female author

The Book of Mrs. Noah - Michèle [Brigitte] Roberts (b. 1949) (Methuen, 1987)
Feminist eutopian fantasy that also includes a future dystopian chapter. A modern woman brings the Ark into existence and undertakes a voyage in which five sybils each create different worlds for themselves and tell stories about women of the past, and the woman who brought the Ark into existence visits islands that reflect on the human condition. The Ark is also visit by a man who says he is the voice of God and expects the women to listen to him.
Rpt. London: Minerva, 1988.
Keywords: English author; Female author

The Cruise of the Skuld - Marguerite Pedersen (Sovereign Press, 1987)
Individualist anarchist eutopia presented mostly in a discussion on a ship.
Keywords: Female author

“Crying in the Rain” - Tanith Lee (1947-2015) (Other Edens, 1987)
Dystopia in which, as a result of pollution, few people life beyond twenty-five and girls are bred at an early age.
Rpt. in The Big Book of Science Fiction: The Ultimate Collection. Ed. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Vintage Books, 2016), 887-96 with an editors’ note on 886.
Keywords: English author; Female author

Daughters of Khaton - [Merril] [Harris] (b. 1942) (Lace Publications, 1987)
Lesbian feminist eutopia on another planet visited by a spaceship with a mostly male crew and the problems that ensue.
Part originally published as by Merril Harris. "From Sisterworld." Sinister Wisdom (Charlotte, NC), no. 3 (July 1976): 57-59.
Keywords: Female author

Dawn: Xenogenesis - Octavia [Estelle] Butler (1947-2006) (Warner Books, 1987)
Post-catastrophe novel in which the few remaining humans are rescued by aliens. The alien society is presented as eutopian. The aliens restore earth and slightly redesign humans, who deeply resent it. Humans seem apt to recreate the dystopia that had been our civilization. First volume of a trilogy. Dawn is being adapted for a TV series by Ava DuVerney (b. 1972). The other volumes trace the experiences of the humans who have been altered and their relations with both the Oankali and unaltered humans. See her Adulthood Rites. <st1:placetype w:st="on">New York</st1:placetype>: Warner Books, 1988. Rpt. in her Lilith’s Brood (New York: Warner Aspect, 2000), 249-517; and Imago. <st1:placetype w:st="on">New York</st1:placetype>: Warner Books, 1989. Rpt. in her Lilith’s Brood (<st1:placetype w:st="on">New York</st1:placetype>: Warner Aspect, 2000), 519-746.
Rpt. in her Lilith’s Brood (<st1:placetype w:st="on">New York</st1:placetype>: Warner Aspect, 2000), 1-248
Keywords: African American author; Female author

Dawn: Xenogenesis - Octavia [Estelle] Butler (1947-2006) (Warner Books, 1987)
Post-catastrophe novel in which the few remaining humans are rescued by aliens. The alien society is presented as eutopian. The aliens restore earth and slightly redesign humans, who deeply resent it. Humans seem apt to recreate the dystopia that had been our civilization. First volume of a trilogy. Dawn is being adapted for a TV series by Ava DuVerney (b. 1972). The other volumes trace the experiences of the humans who have been altered and their relations with both the Oankali and unaltered humans. see her Adulthood Rites. New York: Warner Books. 1988. Rpt. in her Lilith’s Brood (New York: Warner Aspect, 2000), 249-517; and Imago. New York: Warner Books. 1989. Rpt. in her Lilith’s Brood (New York: Warner Aspect, 2000), 519-746.
Rpt. in her Lilith's Brood (New York: Warner Aspect, 2000), 1-248.
Keywords: African American author; Female author

Different Paths" - Penny Buchanan (Red Sun of Darkover, 1987)
Free Amazon story.
Keywords: Female author

“The Evening and the Morning and the Night” - Octavia E[stelle] Butler (1947-2006) (Omni Magazine, 1987)
Dystopia. The story concerns a disease that causes people to violently kill themselves and the discovery of a way to mitigate the effects through made possible by a genetic abnormality in some women. The dystopia is the way that society treats those with the disease, which is to isolate and exclude them, which can be read as a metaphor for the way society treats various classes of “others”.
Rpt. Pulphouse Short Story Paperback # 38. Eugene, Oregon: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991; in her Bloodchild and Other Stories (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995), 33-84 with an “Afterword” on 85; in Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Ed. Sheree R. Thomas (New York: Warner Books, 2000), 171-95 with the “Afterword” on 195-96; in People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! Ed. Nalo Hopkinson and Kristine Ong Muslin Special Issue of Lightspeed, no. 73 (June 2016): 200-18; and in Kindred, Fledgling, Collected Stories. Ed. Gerry Canavan & Nisi Shawl (New York: Library of America, 2021), 642-667, with a Chronology (743-755), a Note on the Text (758), and Notes (772-773).
Keywords: African American author; Female author

"Falling Free" - Lois McMaster [Joy] Bujold (b. 1949) (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 1987)
Dystopia of an all-controlling galactic corporation which has bread “Quaddies,” humans, although not classified as such, who have an extra pair of arms rather than legs and are ideal for working in zero gravity. The corporation treats them as slaves, and the novel is about an attempt to free them. Included in multi-volume Vorkosigan Saga, but it is set two hundred years before Miles Vokosigan’s birth. Intended to be the first half of the story, but the second half was never written. The author revisited the subject is her Diplomatic Immunity. New York: Baen Books, 2002, but it has little to do with the subject of Falling Free. A “Prologue” that was not published in the volume can be found at http://www.dendarii.com/excerpts/prologue.html.
Rpt. New York: Baen Books, 1988 and Framingham, MA: NESFA Press, 2004 and rpt. 2017.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Flight" - Nina Boal (The Red Sun of Darkover, 1987)
Free Amazon story.
Keywords: Female author

"The Green Man of Knowledge" - Wendy G[ay] Pearson (Tesseracts2, 1987)
In the future capital punishment is replaced by dying the skin of murderers green. Those dyed green live in the world and work in munitions factories but are generally treated as non-persons. The story is about a terrorist and his punishment.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

Intervention. A Root Tale to the Galactic Milieu and a Vinculum between it and The Saga of Pliocene Exile - Julian [Clare] May (1931-2017) (Houghton Mifflin Co, 1987)
Complex future history in which an evolutionary change has produced telepathic people and their relationship with the non-telepathic, which has both eutopia and dystopian dimensions. Presented through a family history. See also 1992 May and its sequels.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Isaac Asimov Presents Pennterra - Judith Moffett (b. 1942) (Congdon & Weed, 1987)
Troubled eutopia. Society of Friends (Quaker) society settlement on a planet named after William Penn (1644-1718), the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania. The novel is primarily concerned with relations between the settlers and the indigenous inhabitants, who prohibit settlement outside a small valley and the use of much technology. The society of the indigenes, who are constantly aware of each other and plants and animals, is presented in eutopian terms. A second group of settlers who are not Quakers and refuse to accept the restrictions. The indigenes are called Hrossa, which is the same name use by C.S. Lewis in Out of the Silent Planet (1938).
Rpt. Toronto, ON, Canada: Worldwide, 1988. Often listed as Pennterra, but this is the title on the title page. Rpt. with no reference to an earlier publication as Pennterra. Blacksburg, VA: Fantastic Books, 2009. Advertised as with rev. text, but I can find no differences. The copyright page, which lists the pages on which previously published poems appear, is identical to that in the earlier publication, but since the type sizes are different, these page numbers are wrong. Extracts from her own previously published poem are from “Unicorn” in her Whinny Moor Crossing (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 74-76.
Keywords: Female author

Journey to Zelindar: The Personal Account of Sair of Semasi. Book 986 of the Hadra Archives - Diana Rivers (b. 1931) (Lace Publications, 1987)
Lesbian feminist eutopia continued in her Daughters of the Great Star: Book 57 of the Hadra Archives, as recorded by Tazmirrel of Nemanthi under the guidance of Alyeeta the Witch. Boston, MA: Lace Publications, 1992, which provides the background; The Hadra: Book 57, Part 2, of the Hadra Archives, as recorded by Tazzil of Zelindar for Alyeeta the Witch. Boston, MA: Lace Publications, 1995; Clouds of War. Ferndale, MI: Bella Books, 2002; The Red Line of Yarmald. Ferndale, MI: Bella Books, 2003; and Her Sister’s Keeper. Tallahassee, FL: Bella Books, 2008.
Keywords: Female author

“Just Suppose: An Imagining Exercise” - Shevy Healey (1922-2001) (Sinister Wisdom, 1987)
An egalitarian eutopia focusing on the elimination of ageism. The female author was born in Poland and was brought to the U.S. at age two. She was the founder of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change.
Originally published on page 85 of The Facilitator’s Handbook of the First West Coast Conference and Celebration, Southern California, 1987.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Kindly Ones - Melissa [Elaine] Scott (b. 1960) (Baen Books, 1987)
Authoritarian dystopia based on strict rules of behavior based on kinship facing changed conditions where it becomes essential to peacefully settle differences.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The King Awakes - Janice Elliott (1931-95) (Walker Books, 1987)
Arthurian sword and sorcery set within a post-nuclear war dystopia. A sequel is The Empty Throne. Illus. Grahame Baker. London: Walker Books, 1988 in which the protagonist of the first volume travels, with his family and Arthur, to the Isles of the Blest.
Keywords: English author; Female author

A Mask for the General - Lisa Goldstein (b. 1953) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Future authoritarian dystopia in the United States.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Miamigrad - Jerry [Jerome Morrell] Ahern (1946-2012); Sharon Ahern (b. 1948) (Pocket Books, 1987)
Dystopia. Soviet controlled Miami and the revolt against it.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

Mind Players - Pat[ricia Oren Kearney] Cadigan (b. 1953) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Dystopia in which one can enliven one's life by acquiring neuroses or even a whole new personality but being actually insane requires a license.
Includes her “Variations on a Man.” Omni 6.4 (January 1984): 68-70, 110-12, 114-16. Rpt. in The Big Book of Science Fiction: The Ultimate Collection. Ed. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Vintage Books, 2016), 769-81 with an editors’ note on 768. U.K. edition as Mindplayers. London: Victor Gollancz, 1988. Rpt. London: VGSF, 1989.
Keywords: English author; Female author; US author

Native Tongue II: The Judas Rose - Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015) (DAW Books, 1987)
Sequel to 1984 Elgin in which the women’s plan to teach more women the women’s language is complicated by the presence of aliens on Earth and the infiltration of their movement by a woman at the instigation of the men. The aliens note that Earth women are ready to move onto a higher stage of civilization but that the me are not.
Rpt. as Native Tongue 2: The Judas Rose. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2002 with an “Afterword: Gender, Technology, and Violence” by Susan M. Squier and Julie Vedder on 365-80. 2nd ed. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2019 with a “Foreword: The Veil of Language” by Rebecca Romney on vii-ix and an “Afterword: Gender, Technology, and Violence” by Susan M. Squier and Julie Vedder on 407-25.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Obernewtyn - Isobelle Jane Carmody (b. 1958) (Puffin Books assisted by the Literature Board of the Australia Council, 1987)
The first of a seven-volume series known as the Obernewtyn Chronicles that begins as a post-catastrophe young adult eugenic dystopia in which eugenic regulations are used to control those with advanced mental powers. Obernewtyn is an enclave on this world, and in this novel the Misfits win and bring peace to Obernewtyn. In the second volume, The Farseekers. Book 2 of The Obernewtyn Chronicles. Ringwood, VIC, Australia: Viking, 1990, the authoritarian regime of the Council threatens the peace of Obernewtyn and some of the Misfits and the Farseeker go on a quest that they hope will give them the information necessary to keep the peace. In the third volume, Ashling. Book 3 of The Obernewtyn Chronicles. Ringwood, VIC, Australia: Viking, 1995, the Farseeker travels to the city of the Council to forge an alliance, and she begins a search for the weapons that had almost destroyed the world earlier and might do so again. In the fourth volume, The Keeping Place. Camberwell, VIC, Australia: Penguin Books, 1999. 754 pp., volume the various themes of the previous volumes appear to be brought to a successful resolution, but the series continues. In the fifth volume, The Stone Key. Camberwell, VIC, Australia: Penguin/Viking, 2008. 1000 pp. Published in the U.S. as two volumes, The Stone Key. New York: Random House, 2008; and Wavesong. New York: Random House, 2008, the Farseeker discovers that there is opposition to the reforms brought about in the previous volume, and she must stop a plot against them. In the sixth volume, The Sending. Camberwell, VIC, Australia: Penguin/Viking, 2011. 756 pp., the quest continues with new obstacles to be overcome. And in the seventh volume, The Red Queen. Camberwell, VIC, Australia: Penguin/Viking, 2015. 1108 pp., after many further adventures, the issues are resolved. Related stories are “The Dark Road: An Obernewtyn Story.” Legends of Australian Fantasy. Ed. Jack Dann and Jonathan Strahan (Sydney, NSW, Australia: Harper Voyager Australia, 2010), 131-56, with an author’s “Afterword” on 156-57; and “The Journey.” Trust Me Too. Ed. Paul Collins. Ormond, Vic, Australia: Hybrid Publishers/Ford Street Publishing, 2012. Ebook.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

The Paperchaser - Penny [Jane] Hall (b. 1941) (Walter McVitty Books, 1987)
Young adult dystopia of an authoritarian twenty-first century Sydney. There is danger on the one side from the security services and on the other from violent gangs. An underground of homeless youth live outside the system in various places around the city. See also 1989 Hall.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

"The Promise" - Fenoglio, Mary (Red Sun of Darkover, 1987)
Free Amazon story.
Keywords: Female author

A Recent Martyr - Valerie Martin (b. 1948) (Houghton, Mifflin Co, 1987)
Near future tale set in a dystopia in New Orleans including the bubonic plague and collapsing social services.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Rules of Life - Fay Weldon (1931-2023) (Harper & Row, 1987)
Near future satire. New religion can communicate with the dead.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; English author; Female author

Running Away From Home - Rachel McAlpine (b. 1940) (Penguin Books (N.Z.), 1987)
A dystopia with some eutopian elements in which big government and big business have no concern for the people. Related to 1985 McAlpine in that the dominant world power is the RUSA. Also related in that one of the centers of concern is the environmental destruction caused by government and business and in its antinuclear theme. The eutopian elements are found in the ability of people to work together cooperatively and in a strong feminist current showing women freeing themselves from the dominance of men and then being able to create equal partnerships with men who are also capable of doing so.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Female author

"Sanctity" - R. M. Lamming (Other Edens, 1987)
Authoritarian dystopia controlling all aspects of life that the protagonists believed had stopped enforcing its laws.
Keywords: English author; Female author

The Shelter - Mary Kittredge (b. 1949); Kevin O'Donnell Jr. (1950-2012) (Tor, 1987)
Eutopian city that becomes insane.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

Smiles and the Millennium - Miranda Miller (b. 1950) (Virago, 1987)
Future dystopia featuring the extremely wealthy contrasted with the extremely poor.
Keywords: Female author; UK author

A Sport of Nature - Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1987)
Includes a brief description of a racially inclusive, democratic eutopia in a future Africa called Azania. Azania was the preferred name for South Africa of the Black Consciousness movement.
U.K. ed. London: Jonathan Cape, 1987. Rpt. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1988.
Keywords: Female author; South African author

Torch - Jill Paton Walsh (b. 1939) (Viking Kestrel, 1987)
Young adult post-catastrophe dystopia in which most civilizations have disappeared, and people live in small settlements scratching a living. The novel focuses on two young people forced to marry who are passed on the last Olympic torch and try to return to its home.
Keywords: English author; Female author

U.S.S.A. Book 2 - S[hariann] N. Lewitt (b. 1954) (Avon Books, 1987)
Sequel to 1987 De Haven. In this volume the main protagonist and his girlfriend are trying to escape and help form a teenage underground resistance movement. See also 1987 Sykes and Lewitt, Book 4.
Keywords: Female author; US author

U.S.S.A. Book 3 - S[ondra] C[atharine] Sykes (1943-2005) (Avon Books, 1987)
Sequel to 1987 De Haven and 1987 Lewitt. See also Lewitt, Book 4. In this volume the protagonist’s father is put in a “reorientation camp”.
Keywords: Female author; US author

U.S.S.A. Book 4 - S[hariann] N. Lewitt (b. 1954) (Avon Books, 1987)
Sequel to 1987 De Haven and her Book 2. See also 1987 Sykes. In this volume the teenage underground successfully overthrows the military coup and the U.S.A. is re-established.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Wild Card Run - Sara [Lucinda] Stamey (b. 1953) (Berkley Books, 1987)
Dystopia in which computers are forcing evolutionary changes in humans. Sequels include Win, Lose, Draw. New York: Ace Books, 1988; and Double Blind. New York: Ace Books, 1990.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Wingwomen of Hera - Sandi Hall (b. 1942) (Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1987)
Feminist eutopia. Two planets are described. The feminist eutopia is Hera, which appears to be inhabited only by telepathic, winged women. The other planet, Maladar, exists in caves in the Ice and is dominated by men. The novel deals with a deadly disease found on both planets, with the struggles of one woman on Maladar, and with the spacefaring of the women on Hera.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Female author

After the Fact - Hélène [Papachristides] Holden (Oberon Press, 1986)
Dystopia. Unexplained breakdown of civilization.
Keywords: Female author

Circuit - Melinda M[arilyn] Snodgrass (b. 1951) (Berkley Books, 1986)
Space law and courts in conflict with political power. The protagonist is a judge of space law who believes that justice rather than political power should determine decisions, which leads to an attempt to impeach him. See also her Circuit Breaker. New York: Berkley Books, 1987, which continues the same theme and the same protagonist with the focus on a conflict between the residents of Mars and a wealthy conglomerate; and Final Circuit. New York: Ace Books, 1988, in which the circuit court on which the protagonist sat has been disbanded, and his impeachment is ordered as war breaks out.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Confessions of Madame Psyche: Memoirs and Letters of Mei-li Murrow - Dorothy [Calvetti] Bryant (b. 1930) (Ata Books, 1986)
Primarily an historical novel but includes a description of an intentional community that was designed to be a “Garden of Eden”, and one section of the novel traces its rise and fall. Female author.
Rpt. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1998 with an “Afterword” by J.J. Wilson (377-92).
Keywords: Female author; US author

Cry Wolf - Aileen La Tourette (b. 1946) (Virago, 1986)
Post-catastrophe novel about a controlled dystopia gradually becoming freer.
Keywords: Female author; UK author; US author

A Door Into Ocean - Joan [Lyn] Slonczewski (b. 1956) (Arbor House, 1986)
Complex feminist and ecological eutopia on an ocean planet with no men that practices cooperation and nonviolence in conflict with a male dominated, authoritarian society that wants to take the knowledge that the women have by force and control the planet. Her eutopian Daughter of Elysium (1993) is also part of her Elysium Cycle as are her non-utopia “The Children Star.” Illus. Darryl Elliott in Analog 118. 4 – 7/8 (April – July/August 1998): 10-16, 18-59; 10-54; 58-97; 180-218, 220-222; rpt. without the illus. New York: Tor, 1998; and Brain Plague. New York: Tor, 2000.
Collector's Edition illus. Michael Mariano and with an "Introduction" by Pamela Sargent (v-ix). Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1992.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Double Nocturne - Cynthia [Lindgren] Felice (b. 1942) (Bluejay, 1986)
Background of an authoritarian dystopia in which women suppress men.
Rpt. New York: DAW, 1986
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Dream Catcher - Monica [Mary] Hughes (1925-2003) (Methuen, 1986)
Sequel to 1984 Hughes. Continuing struggle for freedom from a girl's perspective. Young adult.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

Dreams of an Unseen Planet - Teresa [Irene] Plowright (b. 1952) (Arbor House, 1986)
The novel is about the interactions between humans and planet Gaea, which is alive. The novel deals in particular with the responses of women. Canadian female author.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

Escape Plans - Gwyneth [Ann] Jones (b. 1952) (Orion, 1986)
Eutopia for elites; effectively slavery for the rest. See also 1985 Jones.
Keywords: English author; Female author

Ethan of Athos - Lois McMaster [Joy] Bujold (b. 1949) (Baen, 1986)
While the focus of the novel is adventure, it is unusual in presenting a male homosexual society as a eutopia.
U.K. ed. London: Headline, 1989.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Faithful Rebecca - Janice Eidus (b. 1951) (Fiction Collective, 1986)
Feminist eutopia including an Amazon community in South America. Much of the novel is about a complicated relationship between two women and a man.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Freeforall" - Margaret [Eleanor] Atwood (b. 1939) (The Toronto Star, 1986)
After the world is ravaged by sexually transmitted diseases, breeding is controlled to guarantee disease free children. The Freeforalls are where anyone who is outside the breeding program is sent. In these walled compounds, food is dropped in daily by helicopter, and there is no limit on sex, but it is expected that most will die fairly soon.
Rpt. in Tesseracts2. Ed. Phyllis [Fay Bloom] Gotlieb and Douglas Barbour (Victoria, BC: Porcépic Press, 1987), 130-38; and Northern Suns. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Glenn Grant (New York: Tor, 1999), 17-24.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

The Freeman - Jerry [Jerome Morrell] Ahern (1946-2012); Sharon Ahern (b. 1948) (Bantam Books, 1986)
Dystopia in which the United States has become a totalitarian state through the cancellation of the Second Amendment on the right to bear arms and appeasement of the Soviet Union. Survivalists resist.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

"Hush My Mouth" - Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015) (Alternate Histories: Eleven Stories Stories of the World As it Might Have Been, 1986)
Alternate history in which during the U.S. Civil War both North and South refuse to allow Blacks to serve and the war ends in a stalemate with neither side winning. The depleted southern forces return home riddled with disease and all whites die or, in a few cases, are killed. New Africa, the old South, was populated by people divided by their place of origin, without a common language, and unwilling to work together. A sect of Silents, who vow never to speak, arise to remind people of the sin of Pride.
Rpt. in Women of Other Worlds: Excursions Through Fiction and Feminism. Ed. Helen Merrick and Tess Williams (Perth, WA, Australia: University of Western Australia Press, 1999), 311-18.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Man for the Job - Laurie Graham (b. 1947) (Chatto & Windus, 1986)
Humor. Future dystopia of violence and human degeneration as the setting.
Rpt. London: Penguin, 1988.
Keywords: English author; Female author; Irish author

The Others - Alison Prince (Methuen Children's Books, 1986)
Young adult authoritarian dystopia. Designer bred children. Induced mutations to fit people for jobs. Electrodes implanted at birth to condition people to fit their function and education is really continued conditioning. Marriage partners often chosen by the state; free choice possible. Some people without implants mount a struggle against the state, which will ultimately be successful
Keywords: Female author

Outside the Gates - Molly Gloss (b. 1944) (Atheneum/Argo, 1986)
Young adult fantasy novel in which a young boy is expelled from a walled area into the surrounding area, where, he has been told, there are giants and monsters.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Promise of the Rose Stone - Claudia McKay (New Victoria Publishers, 1986)
Feminist eutopia emerges after experience with a dystopia.
Keywords: Female author

"Reichs-Peace" - Sheila [Rosemary] Finch (b. 1935) (Hitler Victorious: Eleven Stories of the German Victory in World War II, 1986)
Germany wins World War II, but Eva Hitler survives and moderates its aggressiveness.
Rpt. in Women of Wonder, The Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s. Ed. Pamela Sargent (San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace, 1995), 172-90.
Keywords: English author; Female author; US author

The Shore of Women - Pamela Sargent (b. 1948) (Crown, 1986)
Separate society for each sex. Women control science and technology.
Rpt. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, 2004.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Triad - Sheila [Rosemary] Finch (b. 1935) (Bantam Books, 1986)
Some elements of a gender-role reversal as background to the novel.
Keywords: English author; Female author; US author

Venus of Dreams - Pamela Sargent (b. 1948) (Bantam Books, 1986)
The first volume of a trilogy about the Venus Project, a proposal to terraform Venus, which will take generations. The first volume lays out the beginnings of the project and some of the key people involved and suggests some of the problems to come. See also 1988, 2000, and 2001 Sargent.
Collectors' Edition. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1990 illus. Ron Miller and with an "Introduction" (v-vii) by Gregory Benford.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Womonseed: A Vision - Sunlight [pseud.] (Tough Dove Books, 1986)
A women-only feminist eutopian community. The novel is told through a “Prologue” (1-7) the stories of sixteen women told at the summer solstice in 1999. After the failure of the U.S. government, local communities gradually became independent. In the pollution-free future, the women tell of their lives before finding the Womonseed community, except for one was born in the community and one who took a journey to the world outside the community, finding both positive experiences with other women and the remains of patriarchy.
Parts were originally published as "Prologue to Womonseed." Common Lives/Lesbian Lives, no. 6 (Winter 1982): 10-13 [A somewhat different version and the cover illustration were rpt. in Sinister Wisdom, no. 72 (Winter 2007-2008): 41-46]; "Manzanita's Story." Woman Spirit, no. 35 (Spring 1983): 4-6; "This Language Without Words." Woman Spirit, no. 40 (Summer 1984): 10; and "Firefly." Common Lives/Lesbian Lives, no 17 (Fall 1985): 71-76.
Keywords: Female author

Yonder Comes the Other End of Time - Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015) (DAW Books, 1986)
Libertarian eutopia in conflict with a bureaucratic eutopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

After the Bomb - Gloria [Dubov] Miklowitz (b. 1927) (Scholastic, 1985)
Young adult post-catastrophe dystopia with a young survivor struggling to help his family and friends. See also 1987 Miklowitz.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"All This and Heaven Too" - [Alice Bradley] [Sheldon] (1915-87) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1985)
A humorous story set in an ecological eutopia, Ecologia-Bella, that is contrasted with an environmental dystopia, Pluvia-Acida. The eutopia uses clean electric power, has full employment, and the people care for the land, the flora and fauna, and each other. The dystopia is capitalist with a high rate of industrial accidents, extreme pollution, no trees, little vegetation, and a good supply, of rats and cockroaches but few other animals.
Rpt. in her Crown of Stars (New York: Tor, 1988), 96-129. U.K. ed. (London: Sphere, 1990), 96-129.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Altogether Elsewhere - Anna Wilson (b. 1954) (Onlywomen Press, 1985)
The novel is set in a dystopian world in which a variety of women act as vigilantes to protect other women.
Keywords: Female author; UK author; US author

Always Coming Home - Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin (1929-2018) (Harper & Row, 1985)
Complex utopia described from inside the utopia but with, in The Back of the Book” (409-525), the sort of detail about the society that might be part of an anthropological report. One focus of the novel is the life story of a woman known as “Stone Telling” that illustrates both the positive and negative aspects of life produced by the many-faceted interactions among the people.
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.K.</st1:place></st1:country-region> ed. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>: Victor Gollancz, 1986. Rpt. without the cassette. London: Gollancz, 2016, with an “Introduction” by John Scalzi (ix-xi). The Author’s Expanded Edition without the cassette. Ed. Brian Attebery. New York: The Library of America, 2019 includes “Pandora Revisits the Kesh and Comes Back with New Texts” (619-87) [Dangerous People (621-68), which was first published as Dangerous People. Ed. Brian Attebury. New York: Library of America eBook Classic, 2019, was completed by Le Guin in December 2019 from material she had drafted in 1983 or 1984. Rpt. in her The Space Crone. Ed. So Mayer and Sarah Shin (Np: Silver Press, 2023), 195-224. The book includes extensive notes by the editor and a very detailed chronology of Le Guin’s life and works; “Some Kesh Meditations: Sitting in the Ninth House” (669-71); “Blood Lodge Songs” (672-81), and “Kesh Syntax” (682-85)], “Other Writings Related to Always Coming Home” (689-702) [May’s Lion” (691-98); Navna: The River-running by Intrumo of Sinshan” (699)], “Essays” (703-89) [“World-Making” (700-02); “A Non-Euclidian View of California as a Cold Place to Be” (703-24); “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” (725-30); “Text, Silence, Performance” (731-40); “Legends for a New Land” (741-57); “The Making of Always Coming Home” (758-80); and “Indian Uncles” (781-89), a Chronology (793-807), a Note on the Texts (808-11), and Notes (812-26). Parts published previously as “Time in the Valley.” Hudson Review 37.4 (Winter 1984-5): 536-48; “The Trouble with the Cotton People.” The Missouri Review 7.2 (1984): 86-95; rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Bluejay Books, 1985), 410-19 with an editor’s note on 409 “The Visionary.” Omni 7.1 (1984): 100-02, 104, 106-07, 154, 157-60, 162-63 [Rpt. in The Visionary: The Life Story of Flicker of the Serpentine. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1984. Vol. 1 of Capra Back-to-Back; and in The Sixth Omni Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Ellen [Sue] Datlow (New York: Zebra Books, 1989), 19-53]; “Dira.” Parabola 9 (Winter 1984): 53-55; and four poems--”It Was Never Really Different. Given to the Red Adobe heyimas of Wakwaha by Ninepoint of Chumo”; “A Song Used in Chumo When Daming a Creek or Diverting Water to a Holding Tank for Irrigation”; “A Bay Laurel Song”; and “An Exhortation From the Second and Third Houses of Earth. A calligraphed poster-scroll from the Serpentine heyimas of Wakwaha-na.” Whole Earth Review (July 1985): 20-23.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Awakening" - [Julia] [McNeill] (b. 1939) (Despatches From the Frontiers of the Female Mind; An Anthology of Original Stories, 1985)
Authoritarian dystopia. Breeding program instituted with children cared for by multiple "parents." Restricted movement. Pollution.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author; UK author

"The Camel's Nose" - Susan Holtzer (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A story about technology in the anti-technology Darkover culture.
Keywords: Female author

"Child of the Heart" - Elisabeth Waters (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A Free Amazon story about the difficulties of giving up a child.
Keywords: Female author

Children of the Dust - [Elizabeth Rhoda Wintle] [Holden] (1943-2013) (John Lane The Bodley Head Children's Books, 1985)
Young adult post-nuclear war novel and the revival of human communities.
Keywords: English author; Female author; Irish author

Children of the Light - Susan B[rown] Weston (b. 1943) (St. Martin's Press, 1985)
Young adult post-nuclear war dystopia in which a boy from the past brings hope.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Chrono's Christmas" - Rhea Rose (Tesseracts, 1985)
Dystopia. Most people are immortal, and aliens want the secret. The few female children are not immortal and are sold to the aliens. A dystopian daycare center tries to develop survival characteristics in children. At the end of the story the center is closed by the computer system that runs it, and the children will have to survive in the outside world.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

A Creed for the Third Millennium - Colleen McCullough [Robinson] (1937-2015) (Harper & Row, 1985)
Satire. Set in a future trying to adjust to a radically changed weather pattern that has disrupted the economic system. The U.S. is in the process of relocating its entire northern population, and it decides to create a new messiah who will give people a positive message.
U.K. ed. London: Macdonald, 1985. Australian ed. Artarmon, NSW, Australia: Harper & Row, 1985.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

"A Different Kind of Courage" - Mercedes Lackey (b. 1950) (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A Free Amazon story about a healer.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Eye of the Child - Ruth Mueller (New Society Publishers, 1985)
Described as ecological speculative fiction. Contains a vaguely described eutopia and an even more vaguely described dystopia that could be contemporary reality.
Keywords: Female author

“A Fairy Tale for the Year 2004. A Story” - Helen Lucas (Canadian Woman Studies/Les cahiers de la femme, 1985)
Brief story of the eutopia created when everyone becomes a flower.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

Fort Privilege - Kit [Lilian Craig] Reed (1932-2017) (Doubleday & Co, 1985)
Future New York as a dystopia in which most of the middle-class has fled the city. A conflict erupts between the remaining well-off, who occupy a large building (the Fort Privilege of the title) and the have-nots.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Future Talk: Or the Visions of Chicken Little. A Story” - Donna L. Smyth (Canadian Woman Studies/Les cahiers de la femme, 1985)
Satire on capitalism in which products have lives.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

"Girls Will Be Girls" - Patricia Shaw-Mathews (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A story about adjusting to life among the Free Amazons.
Keywords: Female author

"Growing Pains" - Susan Schwartz (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A story about a young woman having difficulties adjusting to the ways of the Free Amazons.
Keywords: Female author

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret [Eleanor] Atwood (b. 1939) (McClelland and Stewart, 1985)
Dystopia of the  right in power set in the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, a theocracy that sees all women as inferior, whose primary purpose is to produce children, and fertile women are a valuable commodity. The novel ends with Historical Notes from “The Twelfth Symposium on Gilead Studies.” 2019 Atwood, The Testaments is a sequel that begins early in the history of Gilead. Canadian female author.
U.S. ed. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1986.  Rpt. New York: Anchor Books/Penguin, 2017, with a new “Introduction” by the author (xiii-xix). There is a graphic novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. The Graphic Novel. Art & Adaptation by Renée Nault. New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2019. An audible book is available as The Handmaid’s Tale: Special Edition. Np: Audible Studios, 2017 narrated by Claire Danes and others and with addition material by Atwood.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

Heavenly Deception - Maggie Brooks (b. 1954) (Chatto & Windus, 1985)
Dystopia about an intentional community affiliated with the Unification Church, popularly known as the Moonies. The novel follows a young woman who visits the community to find a friend and is converted.
U.S. ed. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1987.
Keywords: Female author

"Her Own Blood" - Margaret Carter (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A story inspired by the Free Amazons about women in a male dominated society.
Keywords: Female author

Infinity's Web - Sheila [Rosemary] Finch (b. 1935) (Bantam Books, 1985)
One woman at different times and places including the present world, a world of apparent sexual freedom, a dystopian world of great scarcity, and a dystopia in which the Third Reich rules where the woman is a sorceress.
Keywords: English author; Female author; US author

"Instructions for Exiting This Building in Case of Fire" - Pamela [Lifton] Zoline (b. 1941) (Interzone, 1985)
Non-voluntary exchange of children to ensure peace. Children are selected by computer.
Rpt. in Despatches From the Frontiers of the Female Mind. Ed. Jen Green and Sarah Lefanu (London: Women's Press, 1985), 93-110. Rpt. in her Busy About the Tree of Life and Other Stories (London: The Women's Press, 1988), 107-23; U.S. ed. as The Heat Death of the Universe and other stories (Kingston, NY: McPherson & Co., 1988), 71-88.
Keywords: Female author; UK author; US author

"The Intersection" - Gwyneth [Ann] Jones (b. 1952) (Despatches From the Frontiers of the Female Mind; An Anthology of Original Stories, 1985)
Authoritarian dystopia which the protagonist sees as an ideal world. The author calls this story a preview of her 1986 Jones.
Keywords: English author; Female author

It's Time: A Nuclear Novel - [Terry] [Woodrow] (Tough Dove Books, 1985)
Agrarian feminist eutopia. Some dystopian background.
Keywords: Female author

Jerusalem Fire - R[ebecca] M. Meluch (b. 1956) (Signet, 1985)
Includes an intentional community that can be considered eutopian.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Just Passing Through - Sandi Hall (b. 1942) (Tejana Films & E.E. McAllister Productions, 1985)
Video. Includes a Maori eutopia after death presented visually.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Female author

"Knives" - Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-99) (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A story about an abused woman finding refuge with the Free Amazons.
Rpt. in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover (New York: DAW Books, 1993), 70-85.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Limits of Green - Rachel McAlpine (b. 1940) (Viking Penguin Books (N.Z.), 1985)
An environmental dystopia with elements of a feminist eutopia in which New Zealand, called the "Sleeping Islands," is the site of nuclear and chemical plants that are destroying the environment. In addition, a missile base and warheads for the missiles have been placed in New Zealand. All are under the control of a world power, the RUSA, which has a policy of "voluntary colonization" in which small countries agree to be effectively but clandestinely controlled in exchange for investment. A group of people, but one woman and man in particular, learn to communicate with nature, which destroys both the chemical and nuclear power plants and the weapons. Presented as a memoir "The Harmony of Snails" with additional material from the RUSA embassy. See also 1987 McAlpine.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Female author

"The Lipton Village Society" - Lucy [Jane] Sussex (b. 1957) (Strange Attractors: Original Australian Speculative Fiction, 1985)
This story is tangential to Sussex's utopianism in that it posits a group of young people on the margins of society in the process of willing a utopia into existence, one that they have created collectively in their imaginations. Only brief indications of what the utopia will be like.
Rpt. in her My Lady Tongue and Other Stories (London: Heinemann, 1990/Port Melbourne, VIC, Australia: William Heinemann Australia, 1990), 213-36; and in her Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies: The Essential Lucy Sussex (Greenwood, WA, Australia: Ticonderoga publications, 2011), 135-50.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Australian author; Female author

"Lover from Beyond the Dawn of Time" - Josephine [Mary Howard] Saxton (b. 1935) (The Power of Time, 1985)
Begins with a highly organized eutopia,but shifts to a horror story.
Keywords: English author; Female author

Married Alive - Marilyn Duckworth (b. 1935) (Hodder and Stoughton, 1985)
Dystopian setting. A future New Zealand with 20% of the population violently insane due to a faulty flu vaccine. Growing isolation through fear.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Female author

"Midwife" - [Deborah Jean] [Ross] (b. 1947) (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A Free Amazon story about a Free Amazon in danger.
Keywords: Female author

"The Mother Quest" - Diana L. Paxson (b. 1943) (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A Free Amazon story about a mother searching for her lost child.
Keywords: Female author

"'No One Seems To Go To Work Anymore': Women Redesignating and Redesigning the City" - Suzanne Mackenzie (Canadian Woman Studies/Les cahiers de la femme, 1985)
Feminist eutopia presenting the way women responded to a long, very deep economic collapse by creating new communities based on sharing and redesigning the physical layout of those communities.
Keywords: Female author

"The Oath of the Free Amazons: Terra, Techno Period" - Jaida nha Sandra (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
Modification of Free Amazon oath found in 1979 Breen.
Keywords: Female author

“The Queendom of Moths. A Story” - Giovanna Peel (Canadian Woman Studies/Les cahiers de la femme, 1985)
A feminist utopia destroyed by atomic war.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

"Recruits" - Maureen Shannon (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A story about joining the Free Amazons.
Keywords: Female author

Robot Romance - Ellen W. Leroe (b. 1949) (Harper & Row, 1985)
Mostly humor but includes a satire on future mechanized education.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Silence in Having Words: Purple" - Josephine [Mary Howard] Saxton (b. 1935) (The Power of Time, 1985)
Authoritarian dystopia that tries to control all aspects of life.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"Tactics" - Jane M. H. Bigelow (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A story of independent women in the spirit of the Free Amazons.
Keywords: Female author

The Time-Keeper - Barbara Bartholomew (b. 1941) (New American Library, 1985)
The first volume of a young adult trilogy in which two teenagers are transported to various dystopian futures. The second volume Child of Tomorrow. New York: New American Library, 1985. U.K. ed. London: Grafton Books, 1986 is mostly adventure. The third volume When Dreamers Cease to Dream. New York: New American Library, 1985. U.K. ed. London: Grafton Books, 1986 with the subtitle Book 3 of The Time Keeper Trilogy continues the adventures in the dystopian futures and brings the various themes to a resolution.
U.K. ed. London: Grafton Books, 1986.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"To Open a Door" - P. Alexandra Riggs (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A Free Amazon story about the awakening of a young woman's telepathic abilities, called laran.
Keywords: Female author

"On the Trail" - Barbara Armistead (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
Free Amazon story.
Keywords: Female author

"The War of the Roses" - Karen Joy Fowler (b. 1950) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1985)
Two societies are described, an anarchist eutopia and an authoritarian dystopia. The latter destroys the former.
Rpt. in her Artificial Things (New York: Bantam Books, 1986), 71-96.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The World Ends in Hickory Hollow - Ardath [Frances Hurst] Mayhar (1930-2012) (Doubleday, 1985)
Post-catastrophe dystopia in which an East Texas family must choose between killing others or being killed.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Alien Trace - [Sharon] [Jarvis] (b. 1943); [Kathleen] [Buckley] (New American Library, 1984)
Eutopia based on empathy as the setting for the problems when humans arrive.
Keywords: Female author

Camp 38 - Jill von Konen (Sovereign Press, 1984)
Eutopia in which the basic position is that of individualist anarchism.
Keywords: Female author; US author

City of Sorcery - Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-99) (DAW Books, 1984)
Sequel to 1983 Bradley concerned with relations between Terrans and the Free Amazons.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Conscience Place. A Novel - Joyce [Marie] Thompson (b. 1948) (Doubleday, 1984)
A hidden community where the mutant children of those damaged by a nuclear accident live with no awareness of the outside world. For the children the community is eutopian, but the so-called Fathers who fund and control the community decide to use the children in experiments and turn the community into a dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Daughters of a Coral Dawn - Katherine [V.] Forrest (b. 1939) (Naiad Press, 1984)
Lesbian eutopia on another planet, called Maternas, with a women-only society. See also 2002 and 2005 Forrest.
U.K. ed. London: Women's Press, 1993. 10th anniversary ed. [Tallahassee, FL]: Naiad Press, 1994.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author; US author

Deep Breathing - Lora Mountjoy (b. 1942) (New Women's Press, 1984)
A novel set after a nuclear catastrophe that includes a number of eutopias. Survivors in Antarctica have created a society centered on survival, including eugenic controls. A woman from that society visits New Zealand and finds a number of surviving groups. Rainy Springs tribe, a community based loosely on the commune combined with traditional Maori practices, includes sexual freedom and the recognition that some of the mutations are positive. The Roadwomen travel around the country dealing in herbs and healing and include no males over puberty. Redemption is a Christian community dominated by one preacher. The Healing Centre at Rotorua is a community built around healing. Taramatatuhi is a Maori settlement practicing the old ways. She also encounters other individuals, groups, and settlements with both negative and positive experiences.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Female author

Devil on my Back - Monica [Mary] Hughes (1925-2003) (Julia MacRae Books, 1984)
A young adult post-catastrophe computer dystopia. The story focuses on the rigid class divisions that developed, based on the ability to interface with the computer and the struggle of some people to free themselves from the computer. See also 1986 Hughes.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

Exile on Vlahil - Ardath [Frances Hurst] Mayhar (1930-2012) (Doubleday & Co, 1984)
Dystopia of mental conditioning on earth contrasted with a disintegrating golden age of an alien culture.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Extra(ordinary) People - Joanna [Ruth] Russ (1937-2011) (St. Martin's Press, 1984)
Primarily dystopian with the five stories moving from medieval Scandinavia to the future with some set versions of the nineteenth century. Two themes suggest the possibility of a better world, telepathic people, and the end of sexual differentiation. But the connecting material both supports and undercuts the eutopian interpretation.
Rpt. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985. U.K. ed. London: The Women’s Press, 1985. The reprinted stories are: “Souls” (1-59). Rpt. from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 62.1 (368) (January 1982): 7-46; and as part of a Tor Double with [Alice Bradley Sheldon], Houston, Houston, Do You Read? By James Tiptree, Jr. [pseud.]. New York: Tor, 1989; 14002204330021210423140032403333 [pseud.]; “The Mystery of the Young Gentlemen” (63-92). Rpt. from Speculations. Ed. Isaac Asimov and Alice Laurence (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1982), 245-75; and “What Did You Do During the Revolution, Grandma?” (117-44). Rpt. from The Seattle Review 6.1 (Spring 1983): 5-24.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Fears" - Pamela Sargent (b. 1948) (Light Years and Dark; Science Fiction and Fantasy Of and For Our Time, 1984)
Dystopia of extreme male chauvinism in which very few girls are born, and all women are treated as inferior.
Rpt. in The Best of Pamela Sargent. Ed. Martin H[arry] Greenberg (Chicago, IL: Academy Chicago, 1987), 306-22; in New Eves: Science Fiction About Extraordinary Women of Today and Tomorrow. Ed. Janrae Frank, Jean Stine, and Forrest J. Ackerman (Stamford, CT: Longmeadow Press, 1994), 281-90 with an editors’ note on 280; in Women of Wonder, The Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s. Ed. Pamela Sargent (San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace, 1995), 141-51; in her The Mountain Cage and Other Stories (Atlanta, GA: Meisha Merlin, 2002), 189-201 with an “Afterword to ‘Fears’” (202); in Feminist Philosophy and Science Fiction: Utopias and Dystopias. Ed. Judith A. Little (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007), 277-88, which gives the wrong date of the original publication; and in Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology. Ed. Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2015), 299-309.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Further Adventures of Mrs. 'Megamon' Tomko and Steve - Molly Ceigh (Orion's Child, 1984)
Future dystopia that is over organized and everything, including food, is synthetic.
Keywords: Female author

“A Government of India undertaking . . .” - Manjula Padmanabhan (b. 1953) (Imprint (Bombay, India), 1984)
Dystopian Kafkaesque satire focusing on the “Bureau of Reincarnation and Transmigration of Souls--A Government of India Undertaking.”
Rpt. in In Other Words: New Writing by Indian Women. Ed. Urvashi Butalia and Ritu Menon (Delhi, India: Kali for Women, 1992), 1-24.  U.K. ed. (London: The Women’s Press, 1993), 1-24; U.S. ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), 1-24. Rpt. in Critical Quarterly 35.4 (December 1993): 66-79; in her Hot Death, Cold Soup: Twelve Short Stories (Delhi, India: Kali for Women, 1996), 111-32. Rpt. (Reading, Eng.: Garnet Publishing, 1997), 99-117; and in her Three Virgins and Other Stories (New Delhi, India: Zubaan, 2013), 17-38.
Keywords: Female author; Indian author

The Ladies - Doris Grumbach (1918-2022) (E. P. Dutton, 1984)
Three women live an isolated life on an estate in Wales with that life presented as idyllic. Based on a real group called the Ladies of Llangollan, on which see May Gordon, Chase the Wild Goose. London: Hogarth Press, 1937.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Land of Ordinary People. For John Lennon" - Eleanor [Atwood] Arnason (b. 1942) (Women in Search of Utopia; Mavericks and Mythmakers, 1984)
Poem that gives the sense of an anarchist eutopia.
Rpt. in her Ordinary People: A Collection (Seattle, WA: Aqueduct Press, 2005), 3-5.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Marianna and the Graduation" - Caroline Forbes (b. 1952) (The Reach and other stories; lesbian feminist fiction, 1984)
Dystopia. Past wars led to the complete loss of memory. In the story a few women, but no men, have begun to remember. Those women, known as the Guardians, educate girls and are always on the lookout for others with memories. The story is about one girl who begins to remember.
Rpt. in her The Needle on Full [Cover adds the subtitle Lesbian Feminist Science Fiction] (London: Onlywomen Press, 1985), 45-63.
Keywords: Female author; UK author

Native Tongue - Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015) (DAW Books, 1984)
The first volume of a trilogy that traces the development of a women’s language that will allow them to function in a dystopia of male domination. This volume depicts the dystopia in which women are barely considered to be human. Women no longer have the vote, and the 25th amendment to the U.S. Constitution takes all civil rights away from women. See also her “An Update on Láaden.” Aurora Speculative Feminism, no. 23 (8.3) (Winter 1983-84): 10-13. 23-Vol-8-No-3.pdf (sf3.org), 1987 and 1994 Elgin and her A First Dictionary and Grammar of Láadan. Madison, WI: Society for the Furtherance and Study of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1985. Rev. as A First Dictionary and Grammar of Láadan. 2nd ed. Ed. Diane Martin. Madison, WI: Society for the Furtherance and Study of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1988.
Rpt. New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 2000 with an “Afterword: Encoding a Woman’s Language” by Susan M. Squier and Julie Vedder on 305-37. 2nd. ed. New York: The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 2019 with a “Foreword: Giving Name to the Nameless” by Leni Zumas on v-ix, an Appendix From A First Dictionary and Grammar of Láadan” on 332-35, and an “Afterword: Encoding a Woman’s Language” by Susan M. Squier and Julie Vedder on 337-62.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Paper Wraps Stone" - Charlotte Ellis (Architectural Review, 1984)
Selection of illustrations, with accompanying text, from a series of books entitled L'Ivre de Pierres (chronicles of a major French architectural competition). The visions are largely fantasy, architecture of pure invention.
Keywords: Female author

“Passing as a Flower in the City of the Dead” - Sharon N. Farber (Universe, 1984)
Dystopia in which those with incurable or infectious diseases are exiled to a space habitat.
Rpt. as by S.N. Dyer [pseud.] in The Big Book of Science Fiction: The Ultimate Collection. Ed. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Vintage Books, 2016), 783-93 with an editors’ note on 782.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Paz - [Marian] [Grace] (b. 1941) (Blazon Books, 1984)
A lesbian adventure story with dystopian and eutopian elements. In the story, a woman, living an ordinary life in the contemporary world that is dystopian for women, can suddenly implant ideas into people minds, which ultimately produces something like a lesbian eutopia.
Rpt. Tallahassee, FL: Naiad Press, 1986
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Personal and Social Attitudes Toward Parenting" - Marcia [E.] Lasswell (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Discusses the effects of changed attitudes toward parenting and child-care. Gender equality in parenting. Children will stay home longer.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Physical Settings for Families in 2020 In Space, On Earth" - Ann Sloan Devlin (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Discusses the effects of space colonies, underground housing, and underwater living and gives details about the flexible interiors of the new housing as well as discussing some alternative family arrangements. Stress on technology and the variety of living arrangements that will be available, including communal living.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Pursuit of Excellence" - Rena Yount (The Clarion Awards, 1984)
Dystopia of a future in which, if the parents can afford it, children can be engineered for appearance, higher intelligence, and specific skills. The story focuses on a mother wants her ideal daughter and is willing to give up her normal husband and son to be able to pay for her engineering.
Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Bluejay Books, 1985), 302-18 with an editor's note on 301.
Keywords: Female author

"School Days" - Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015) (Light Years and Dark; Science Fiction and Fantasy Of and For Our Time, 1984)
Eutopian computer-based education of the future compared to the failed education of our day.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Sharing Air” - Manjula Padmanabhan (b. 1953) (Kleptomania. Ten Stories, 1984)
Dystopia in the future in which everyone has to breathe air from tanks, and all the trees are gone.
Originally published in the Sunday Express (New Delhi). Rpt. in The Pioneer (New Delhi) (February 28, 1997); and in The Big Book of Science Fiction: The Ultimate Collection. Ed. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Vintage Books, 2016), 925-27 with an editors’ note on 924 giving the date of publication as 1984 but without any indication of where.
Keywords: Female author; Indian author

"Sophie, 1990" - Marian [Passmore] Engel (1933-85) (Room of One's Own, 1984)
Overpopulation dystopia. People live one room to a family; women seldom leave the room. No books but books presented on TV. Children tend to be weak and die very young.
Rpt. Tesseracts. Ed. Judith Merril. Victoria, BC: Press Porcépic, 1985. 173-76.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

"Therrillium" - Mischa [Benson] Adams (Women in Search of Utopia; Mavericks and Mythmakers, 1984)
Excerpt from a novel-in-progress entitled A Season of Song. A utopia is to be described, but there is very little in this excerpt, and the novel does not appear to have been published.
Keywords: Female author

Utopia - Bernadette [Francis Catherine] Mayer (1945-2022) (United Artists Books, 1984)
Detailed eutopia with no profit or exploitation, no fences, money, rent, or useless work, and no military. From 18 to 25 people travel rather than go to university. All the older people are active and involved.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Work/Family Connection in the Year 2020" - Joyce Portner; Larry Etkin (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
See the note at 1984 Alam. Discusses the effects of changed work patterns based on revolutions in computing, robotics, increased life expectancy, and the colonization of space.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

2084 - Davida Gaida (Ringa Press, 1983)
Feminist novel depicting a future dystopia in which men are dominant and women are enslaved.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Astral Sanctuaries" - Alexandra Lind (Pathfinder (New Zealand), 1983)
New age eutopia.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Female author

Canopus in Argos: Archives. Documents Relating to the Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire - Doris [May] Lessing (1919-2013) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1983)
The last of the five volumes in her Canopus in Argos: Archives series. See also 1979, 1980 (2) and 1982 Lessing. This volume is a satire on the power of emotion, particularly as reflected in speech, to overwhelm reason. A Canopean is infected with "undulant Rhetoric" and treated in the Hospital for Rhetorical Diseases.
U.K. ed. London: Jonathan Cape, 1983.
Keywords: English author; Female author

The City of Hermits. A Novel - Gina Covina (b. 1952) (Barn Owl Books, 1983)
The novel begins with the stories of a number of women who end up in the same area of California and includes a lesbian intentional community. Following each of the women, it then leads up to a coming great earthquake that effects all of California. In the aftermath of the earthquake, which is seen as the revolt of the Earth to how it has been treated, the women and their female and male partners begins to establish of a good society.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Course Notes" - Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015) (Aurora Speculative Feminism, 1983)
The future of computer-based learning through the description of a clearly biased course on its history.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Dear God" - Gayle N. Netzer (Aurora Speculative Feminism, 1983)
Satire on and critique of religious homeschooling.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"A Feminist Utopia" - Deborah Fink (The Voice of the Prophet, 1983)
Feminist eutopia in essay form. There is a world government, but the focus is on neighborhoods, where there are community buildings, and the family.
Keywords: Female author

Golden Witchbreed - Mary [Rosalyn] Gentle (b. 1956) (Victor Gollancz, 1983)
Although mostly an adventure novel, it includes one society that can be called eutopian that lives in telestre or a group of 50 to 500 living together on the land and supporting themselves.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"The Harvest of Wolves" - Mary [Rosalyn] Gentle (b. 1956) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1983)
A dystopia of fundamentalist religious suppression that chooses whether someone can live with limited government support or is transferred to a Welfare Camp, where they are unlikely to live long.
Rpt. in Women of Wonder, The Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s. Ed. Pamela Sargent (San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace, 1995), 114-22.
Keywords: English author; Female author

Hyacinths - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (b. 1942) (Doubleday, 1983)
Authoritarian dystopia ruling through the control of dreams.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Navigator's Sindrome - [Margery (known as Marj) A.] [Krueger] (1941-2006) (Doubleday, 1983)
Authoritarian, violent, cruel dystopia on the planet Rabelais that is based on contracts that are manipulated for the personal benefit of the rulers. Her Rabelaisian Reprise. By Jayge Carr [pseud.]. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1988 is a sequel set in the same planet and with many of the same characters. Her The Treasure in the Heart of the Maze. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1985 is described as a companion piece. Female author.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Not by Bread Alone - Naomi [Margaret] Mitchison (1897-1999) (Marion Boyars, 1983)
Scientists develop a way of manipulating plants that makes it possible to produce a food called Freefood. A large corporation supports the development and distribution of Freefood while making immense profits. Various problems arise with the plants, and with the fact that feeding the entire world adequately is not enough to make everyone happy. Much of the novel is set in Australia, where the Aboriginals are establishing a new state in in northern Australia carved out of Queensland called Murngin, where they practice the old ways without the Freefood or alcohol. It is presented as a eutopia.
Keywords: Female author; Scottish author

The Rape of Shavi - [Florence Onye] Buchi Emechta (1944-2017) (Ogwugwu Afor Co., Ltd./Umuezeokolo, 1983)
The novel portrays the conflict between a eutopian tribal society and the first white people they come into contact with. The eutopia is destroyed.
U.S. ed. New York: George Braziller, 1985.
Keywords: English author; Female author; Nigerian author

"Should Men Be Ordained: A Theological Challenge" - Gracia Fay Ellwood (Daughters of Sarah: The Magazine for Christian Feminists, 1983)
Gender-role reversal. Men cannot be ordained because they hold and use power in non-Christian ways. In this version of Christianity, the Apostles were women. The essay argues that men might slowly be considered for ordination.
Rpt. in LDSF-3: Latter-Day Science Fiction. Ed. Benjamin Urrutia (Ludlow, MA: Parables, 1987), 129-31.
Keywords: Female author

"Speech Sounds" - Octavia E[stelle] Butler (1947-2006) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1983)
Dystopia of the loss of the ability to communicate and the resulting violence. Those who can speak and write must keep it secret. African American female author.
Rpt. in The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Fiction 1960-1990. Ed. Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery (New York: W.W. Norton, 1993), 513-24; in New Eves: Science Fiction About the Extraordinary Women of Today and Tomorrow. Ed. Janrae Frank, Jean Stine, & Forrest J. Ackerman (Stamford, CT: Longmeadow Press, 1994), 337-47 with an editors’ note on 336; in her Bloodchild and Other Stories (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995), 87-110 with an “Afterword” on 109-10; in A Woman’s Liberation: A Choice of Futures By and About Women. Ed. Connie Willis and Sheila Williams (New York: Warner Books, 2001), 185-200; in Feminist Philosophy and Science Fiction: Utopias and Dystopias. Ed. Judith A. Little (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007), 185-97; in Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2008), 245-55; in The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction. Ed. Arthur B. Evans, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr., Joan Gordon, Veronica Hollinger, Rob Latham, and Carol McGuirk (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2010), 566-79 with an editors’ note on 566-67; and in Kindred, Fledgling, Collected Stories. Ed. Gerry Canavan & Nisi Shawl (New York: Library of America, 2021), 604-619, with a Chronology (743-755), a Note on the Text (758), and Notes (772).
Keywords: African American author; Female author

Thendara House - Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-99) (DAW Books, 1983)
Novel of the Free Amazons of Darkover. An egalitarian eutopia versus a patriarchal society. 1984 Bradley is set about seven years later.
Rpt. in Oath of the Renunciates (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, 1983), 213-593.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Albion - Brenda Vale (Spindlewood, 1982)
A post-catastrophe eutopia focusing on village life with limited power sources, the revival of crafts, a rebuilt and extended canal system, and community decision-making. Not romanticized, but generally a good life. One emphasis is the sustainable architecture.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; English author; Female author

Canopus in Argos: Archives. The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 - Doris [May] Lessing (1919-2013) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982)
The fourth of the five volumes in her Canopus in Argos: Archives series. See also, 1979, 1980 (2) and 1983 Lessing. This novel presents the coming destruction of Planet 8 as it enters a terminal ice age and the positive way the people respond to the crisis. An opera with music by Philip Glass was created based on the novel and premiered in Houston, TX in July 1988. The libretto was published as Philip Glass and Doris Lessing, The Making of the Representative for Planet 8. An Opera in Three Acts. Based on the Novel by Doris Lessing. [Bryn Mawr, PA]: Dunvagen Music Publishers, 1988.
U.K. ed. London: Jonathan Cape, 1982.
Keywords: English author; Female author

Dreamrider - Sandra [Louise] Miesel (b. 1941) (Ace Books, 1982)
Eutopia and dystopia. The dystopia is a future authoritarian United States in which those found violating any of the many rules have their minds wiped. The eutopia is a fantasy world where humans and animals like otters have a complex society in which some of the inhabitants find people on various timelines capable of using their mental powers for good. The novel includes quite a bit on life in both the eutopia and the dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Duncan's Colony - Natalie L[evin] M[aines] Petesch (b.1924) (Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1982)
Dystopian future set in a small intentional community where four people come together in hopes of surviving an expected nuclear war.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Elf Hill" - Joanna [Ruth] Russ (1937-2011) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1982)
Overpopulation dystopia depicting the Sunset Estates retirement home that has twenty million retirees who each get a huge apartment with all the amenities, but there is only one apartment that is shared by all twenty million. This is achieved through the manipulation of space and time, and the home is actually run down and dirty. Other retirement homes, like Happihomes, only provide a bunk. Another is named Endfun, which makes the point. Female author.
Rpt. in her The Hidden Side of the Moon. Stories (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), 112-23.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Games of the Strong - Glenda [Emilie] Adams (1939-2007) (Angus and Robertson, 1982)
Complex dystopia--partially Orwell and partially Kafka. The main character, a young woman who identifies with the rebels, wends her way, seemingly almost by accident, through the bureaucracy and society of the Complex, an authoritarian dystopia. The Games of the Strong, which are barely mentioned, are games designed to distract the population from their miserable lives.
Rpt. North Ryde, NSW, Australia: Sirius, 1987. U.S. ed. New York: Cane Hill Press, 1989.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Australian author; Female author

The Godmothers - Sandi Hall (b. 1942) (The Women's Press, 1982)
Feminist novel with a stress on struggle but that includes eutopian and dystopian elements. The novel is set on four timelines: the witch-burning past, the present in which a group of feminists are targeted by anti-feminists, a feminist eutopian future which is threatened by those who worship mathematics, and the period of the Godmothers, a period in which the ties among women are affirmed.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Female author

The Golden Space - Pamela Sargent (b. 1948) (Timescape, 1982)
Dystopia that develops as a result of the discovery of immortality.
Parts published earlier as "The Summer's Dust." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 61.1 (362) (July 1981): 68-97; Rpt. in The Best of Pamela Sargent. Ed. Martin H[arry] Greenberg (Chicago, IL: Academy Chicago, 1987), 148-96; and in her The Mountain Cage and Other Stories (Atlanta, GA: Meisha Merlin, 2002), 283-322. "Afterword to 'The Summer's Dust'" (323); and "The Renewal" which was originally published in slightly different form in Immortal: Short Novels of the Transhuman Future. Ed. Jack Dann (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 13-147.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Helen, Whose Face Launched Twenty-eight Conestoga Hovercraft" - Leigh Kennedy (b. 1951) (Universe, 1982)
Conflicts in a small space station with two communities that were trying to create better lives for their people and how the conflicts were solved.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Lady of Light - Diana L. Paxson (b. 1943) (Timescape, 1982)
Mostly fantasy but includes a future post-catastrophe eutopian kingdom.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Sybil" - Elizabeth Petty Bentley (LDSF: Science Fiction by Mormons, 1982)
Life after the Second Coming from a Mormon perspective. Mortals work at their temples assisting those who are to be resurrected, while the resurrected do all the work needed.
Keywords: Female author; US author