"Toward the Sun" - Sydnee Thompson (Fiyah: Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, 2017)
Climate-change dystopia in which the rich shelter in cities, and the poor, who work outside are forced to wear implants that control their bodies and do what they can to survive.
Keywords: African American author; Female author

"Traditions" - Marcos Santiago Gonsalez (Latin@ Rising: An Anthology of Latin@ Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2017)
The story is set in a long-established Mexican American family in a future high-tech New York City and centers on the conflict between generations over familial and cultural traditions.
Keywords: Latino author; Male author

Trans Liberty Riot Brigade. Book 1 - L[indsay] M. Pierce (Ninestar Press, 2017)
Walled dystopia at war with all its neighbors and trying to control its population. Being transgender is illegal and a group transgender people struggle to survive and manage to escape at the end. First volume in a planned series.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Transition - Luke Kennard (b. 1981) (Fourth Estate, 2017)
The novel begins in what is the current dystopia for many couples, spiraling debt, landlords who constantly raise the rent, too many credit cards, all at their limit, loans, and illegality to stay afloat that can’t be paid. The Transition offers a way to avoid jail, get out of debt, and start over. It offers a mentorship in which the couple lives with a Transition couple for six months, supposedly learning how to live differently. It turns out to be just a different dystopia leading to more complete control.
U.S. ed. New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2018
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Transitions" - Eileen [Katherine] Gunn (b. 1945) (Seat 14 C [No longer available online], 2017)
All the stories in the original online anthology are present as if the protagonists had been on a flight that landed twenty years after it took off. A list can be found at https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?673124. In this story, the protagonist is a Black, female, engineer and is primarily concerned with her thoughts about how she will fit in and meeting her husband, who has remarried, her son and his wife and her grandchildren, and her parents. It takes place in a future U.S. that has broken up into nine sections, controlled by oligarchs.
Rpt. in her Night Shift plus Ursula and the Author plus Promised Lands and much more (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2022), 65-76.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Trash Goes in the Ground” - Kelly Rose Pflug-Back (The Future Fire: Social Political & Speculative Cyber-Fiction, 2017)
Flash fiction set in a polluted future.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

"Treasures" - Rebecca McFarland Kyle (More Alternative Truths: Stories From the Resistance, 2017)
Dystopia in which all scientists are imprisoned after being blamed for causing diseases and bringing about natural disasters.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“The Treaty of Empress Park” - Claude Lalumière (b. 1966) (49th Parallels, 2017)
Alternative history set in a fragmented and deeply divided world set during the beginning of negotiations over a treaty as seen through the eyes of some of the negotiators.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Triage - [Tamela] [Larimer] (b. 1968) (Indigo Hour Press, 2017)
The story is set in a future dystopia brought about by the establishment in the U.S. of required, but underfunded, universal health care. Every hospital has a specified number of beds with no hope of more and is required to choose between those who can continue to receive care and those who are ejected to die.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Tricks Are Not For Kids” - Melissa R. Mendelson (Trump: Utopia or Dystopia, 2017)
The violent dystopian future brought about by Trump’s policies, which have led to starvation and food only available for the rich.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Trivalent” - Rivqa Rafael (Ecopunk! Speculative Tales of Radical Futures, 2017)
The story is set in a future Australia beginning to recover from severe environmental damage and the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
Rpt. illus. Little Blue Marble (November 8, 2017) https://littlebluemarble.ca/2019/11/08/trivalent/
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

Tropic of Kansas - Christopher [Tracy] Brown (b. 1964) (Harper Voyager, 2017)
Dystopia in which the middle of the U.S. has become a wasteland and the country has fragmented. The novel is of a road trip through the wasteland. See also 2019 and 2020 Brown.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Trump Brand" - Marleen S[andra] Barr (b. 1953) (Trump: Utopia or Dystopia, 2017)
Dystopia in which Trump puts his brand everywhere, including the moon, which displays an ad for Ivanka Trump’s clothing line and the White, now Trump, House.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“The Trumperor and the Nightingale” - Diana Hauer (Alternative Truths, 2017)
Satire on Donald Trump (b. 1946) as U.S. President.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Truth, From the Heart” - Gustavo Bondoni (Trump: Utopia or Dystopia, 2017)
The dystopian future United States during the civil war caused by Trump’s policies
Keywords: Argentinian author; Male author

Unbreakable - Will[iam D.] McIntosh (b. 1962) ([CreateSpace], 2017)
Dystopia in which some people are kept in a walled town to provide entertainment to those living outside by setting various new world records. The ending of the novel and an author’s note indicate that this is the first volume in a series, but no more appears to have been published
Keywords: Male author; US author

An Uncertain Grace - Krissy Kneen (b. 1968) (Text Publishing, 2017)
The novel is set in a future in which technology allows people to communicate their experiences to others, it is possible to create synthetic humans as test subjects, and people can transform their own bodies. Emphasis on sexual experience.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

"Understanding" - Kelsey M. Young (Tripping the Tale Fantastic: Weird Fiction by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Authors, 2017)
The story is set in Milan, which is named after the Second International Congress on the Education of the Deaf held in Milan in 1880 that concluded that speech rather than signing was the best approach to deaf education. The story is told from the point-of-view of someone hired by a university to help hard-of-hearing students cope. Signing is not permitted, and many teachers deliberately make it hard for hard-of-hearing students to succeed. See also 2013 Young.
Keywords: Deaf author; Female author; US author

"Underworld 101" - Mame Bougouma L. P. Diene (Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine, 2017)
The story is set in a future dystopia in which Earth is almost entirely a desert and people have resorted to cannibalism.
Rpt. in Sunspot Jungle: The Ever-Expanding Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy [the cover adds Volume One]. Ed. Bill Campbell (Greenbelt, MD: Rosarium, 2019), 58-71.
Keywords: French author; Male author; Senegalese author; US author

"University College Hospital” - Aito Osemegbe Joseph (African Diaspora: African Literature. African Stories, 2017)
The story is set in a future Nigeria where a means has been developed to re-set an individual’s brain and is concerned with the way it might be used from changing sexual desire to “reforming” criminals.
Keywords: Male author; Nigerian author

An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon (b. 1989) (Akashic Books, 2017)
Dystopia on a multi-generation star ship organized like a slave ship with the dark-skinned on the lower decks with little support.
Keywords: African American author; English author; Transgender author

“Uno! . . . Dos! One-Two! Tres! Cuatro!” - Ernest Hogan (b. 1955) (Five to the Future: All New Novelettes of Tomorrow and Beyond, 2017)
An odd dystopia set in Phoenix, Arizona, which is divided between the United States and Aztlán, the name adopted by Chicano activists for their new nation.
Keywords: Chicano author; Male author

Unregistered - Megan Lynch (City Owl Press, 2017)
A dystopia with in a one child limit, with each child registered and assigned a life with everything chosen for them. The novel focuses on what happens to the unregistered second children.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“The Useless Citizen Act” - Ellis S. J. Sangster (Shoreline of Infinity, 2017)
A dystopia in which from twenty-five to eighty-five, everyone must prove themselves to be a useful citizen, the criteria for which is set out, or be killed.
Keywords: Female author; Scottish author

“Utopia LOL?” - Jamie Wahls (Strange Horizons, 2017)
Satire on a future where everyone has been uploaded into an AI and can be anything they want.
Rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy: 2018 Edition. Ed. Rich Horton ([New York]: Prime Books, 2018), 394-407; and in The New Voices of Science Fiction. Ed. Hannu Rajaniemi and Jacob Weisman (San Francisco, CA: Tachyon, 2019), 35-56.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Utopian Tetragon - S. C. Smith ([CreateSpace], 2017)
Satire set in Beverly Hummocks in the Former Republic of Sunny Emissions with an author as protagonist named Willing Participant. The story follows his trials and tribulations, mostly caused by a woman who dances all night in the apartment above his.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Vade Retro Santana” - Maurice [Gerald] Broaddus (b. 1970) (Fiyah Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, 2017)
The story is set in a religious dystopia in which missionaries convert the indigenous inhabitants by force as told by a missionary with doubts.
Keywords: African American author; English author; Male author

"Vanilla Rice" - Angela Yuriko Smith (Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2017)
The story is about the difficulty of choosing the looks of a child before it is born and the effect on the child. It appears to be a set in a society where police must be paid directly for their service.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Vermix" - Matthew Castle (A Practical Guide to the Resurrected: Twenty-One Short Stories of Medicine and Science Fiction, 2017)
The story is set in a future where much knowledge has been lost to those living outside high tech archologies that have completely closed themselves off.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“The Vibrating Mouth” - John Lee Clark (Tripping the Tale Fantastic: Weird Fiction by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Authors, 2017)
The story depicts a world of mutual incomprehensive between those deaf and signing and the speaking as seen from a deaf person who sees the speaking as limited and inferior.
Keywords: Deaf author; Male author; US author

Void Star - Zachery Mason (b. 1990) (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2017)
The novel is set in a climate-change dystopia in which San Francisco is reserved for the rich.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Walkaway - Cory [Efram] Doctorow (b. 1971) (Tor, 2017)
The novel begins in a future authoritarian dystopia with very advanced technology in which much of the U.S. has been destroyed and abandoned and with extreme class divisions. Some people choose to walk away into the abandoned countryside hoping to create a freer society. While they are forcibly opposed by those in power and not all those who walk away are trustworthy, a freer society does emerge. The title resonates with Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Variations on a Theme by William James)” (1973).
Keywords: Canadian author; English author; Male author; US author

“Walks Home Alone at Night” - Wondra Vanian (Alternative Truth, 2017)
The dystopia of the present in which it is dangerous for a hijab wearing woman to walk alone at night. But in the story, the woman and her friends fight back.
Keywords: Female author; US author; Welsh author

“The Wandering Library” - D. K. Mok (Ecopunk! [Cover adds Speculative Tales of Radical Futures], 2017)
The story begins in a dystopia brought about by scientific overreach, particularly, genetic manipulation of animals that produce many dangerous new ones. The story though is mostly about the way people adapted and were creating a good life for themselves within the dystopian surroundings.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

Want - Cindy Pon (b. 1973) (Simon Pulse, 2017)
Young adult dystopia set in a society in which the rich can afford protection against the damaged environment and the poor cannot.
Keywords: Female author; Taiwanese author; US author

“Waving at Trains” - [Noelle] Nalo Hopkinson (b. 1960) (Boston Review, 2017)
Dystopia in which climate change has killed most people.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author; Guyanese author; Jamaican author; Trinidadian author; US author

"The Ways Out" - Sam J[oshua] Miller (b. 1979) (Clarkesworld, 2017)
Surveillance dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“We’re Still Here” - Rebecca McFarland Kyle (Alternative Truths, 2017)
A dystopia in which fake news is put out by the government to implicate illegal Mexican refugees in a riot that destroys a city in Texas. When pictures of the intact town leak out, the government destroys the town.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“What Does It Look Like When 1 Million People Are Deported at Once?” - Héctor Tobar (b. 1963) (Slate Magazine as part of its Trump Story Project. https://slate.com/tag/trump-story-project, 2017)
The story is about the attempt to do just what the title says and the response of the people being deported as seen through the eyes of one of them.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“What Kind of Monster Are You?” - John E. Meredith (American Carnage: Tales of Trumpian Dystopia, 2017)
The dystopia created by Trump’s presidency, including extreme poverty, environmental degradation, racial conflict, and discrimination against anyone not heterosexual.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“‘What Someone Else Does Not Want Printed’: Comforting the comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted” - [Sarah Bear Elizabeth] [Wishnevsky] (b. 1971) (Slate Magazine as part of its Trump Story Project. https://slate.com/tag/trump-story-project, 2017)
The story is set in a future where Trump remains president, is implement his policies while trying to cancel the next election, Florida is under water, but climate-change deniers are in power, and so forth, and the protagonist writes fake news for a living.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“What We Knew Then, Before the Sky Fell Down” - Seanan McGuire (b. 1978) (Catalysts, Explorers & Secret Keepers: Women of Science Fiction, 2017)
Post-catastrophe (disease/pandemic) dystopia set in a collapsed Seattle Pike Place Market. The focus of the story is on a woman who is search for information that will help people recover from the disaster.
Keywords: Female author; US author

When the English Fall. A Novel - David Williams (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2017)
Post-catastrophe dystopia set after a disastrous storm that destroys the power grid. The novel focuses on an Amish community that has always been off the grid must cope with people who are struggling have lost everything.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Where Eagles Dare” - R. Mike Burr (American Carnage: Tales of Trumpian Dystopia, 2017)
Dystopia in which Trump has issued an order giving all police officers the right to immediately kill anyone the suspect of being a terrorist.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Where the Water Meets the Land” - Caitlin Demaris McKenna (49th Parallels, 2017)
Climate-change dystopia.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

Wilders: Project Earth Book One - Brenda Cooper (b. 1951) (Pyr/Prometheus Books, 2017)
The novel is set in the megacity Seacouver (A merged Seattle and Vancouver) and the surrounding ecological disaster zone and focuses on the search by a young woman for her sister, who had left the city some years earlier. First volume in a series followed by Keeper: Project Earth Book Two. Amherst, NY: Pyr/Prometheus Books, 2018. In this volume the woman and her sister work to reintroduce wolves into the wilderness.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“A Wispy Chastening” - D. A. Xiaolin Spires (Reckoning 2: Creative Writing on Environmental Justice, 2017)
In a future with major environmental damage, individuals who contributed to the damage, ranging from littering to dumping poisons in the water, are punished with very realistic bad dreams or extreme nightmares.
Rpt. https://reckoning.press/a-wispy-chastening/ (January 11, 2018).
Keywords: Female author; US author

“A Woman Walks into a Bar” - Jill Zeller (More Alternative Truths: Stories From the Resistance, 2017)
Dystopia in which women are being systematically suppressed.
Keywords: Female author; US author

World Without Work. A Novel - [Treichler, David H.] (Reelization Global Media, 2017)
The novel is set in a future in which corporations are automating, and there is only a minimal Federal Living Wage for support for the growing legions of unemployed. The protagonist is a young woman who is fired for refusing to report the profits her boss wanted rather than the actual earnings of the company.
Rpt. Np: Publisher Services, 2019. 355 pp.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Wretched and the Beautiful” - E. Lily Yu (Terraform, 2017)
Dystopian allegory on alien refugees and their mistreatment on Earth written in response to Executive Order 13769 banning travel to the U.S. In her Contributor’s Note, the author says, “It was as close as I come to pitching a brick through a window.” For a story about refugees that resonates with this story, see 2020 Yu. The author, artist, and editor donated their fees to the International Rescue Committee.
Rpt. without the illus. in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy™ 2018. Ed. N[ora] K. Jemisin (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Mariner, 2018), 258-64, with a contributor’s note on 354; and without the illus. in Terraform Watch Worlds Burn. Ed. Brian Merchant and Claire L. Evans (New York: MCD X FSG Originals/Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Motherboard/Vice, 2022), 349-357; and in her Jewel Box: Stories (New York Erewhon Books/Kensington Publishing, 2023), 105-114.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Year of the Orphan - Daniel Findlay (Bantam, 2017)
Dystopia set in a future Australian outback that is littered with damaged autonomous weapons and various cults. Due to the use of an invented vernacular, it has been compared to Russel Hoban’s Riddley Walker (1980).
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Yesterday’s Savior - Bliss, Keith (EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 2017)
The central focus of the novel is the belief that the second Coming of Christ has occurred, and the dystopia created by the Holy Church of the Second Coming.
Keywords: English author; German author; Male author

“You and Me and the Deep Dark Sea” - Jess[ica] Barber (Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, 2017)
Climate-change dystopia set in an earthquake and flooding ravaged Los Angeles.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“You Need Me At the River” - Linda Rogers (b. 1944) (Cli-fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change, 2017)
The story is set in future impacted by climate change in which, for example, no animals that produce methane are allowed for food.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

"You, Robot" - Melissa Yuan-Innes (49th Parallels, 2017)
The story is set in a future Canada that has largely replaced doctors with expensive robots and effectively limited medical care to the rich.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

“Your Lying Eyes” - Jack [John Charles] McDevitt (Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World, 2017)
The story is about glasses that can detect lies. Whether a eutopia or dystopia is left up to the reader.
Keywords: Male author; US author

100K. Beware: the future may be happening to you right now - S. Ó. Ceallaigh (Lightning Source, 2016)
Flawed utopia which is supposedly democratic (“when possible”), but it is in fact authoritarian.

2084: A Time Capsule Warning from the Future - Dr. T. F. Fieve [pseud.] (Dorrance Publishing Co., 2016)
A depiction of the dystopia brought about by climate-change, war, and other catastrophes and the way a small group of people survived in New Zealand. Includes a “Bibliography’ (197-98), a “Glossary: (199-200), and “MINI--Survival Manual” (201-07).
Keywords: Male author; US author

“2100: A Good Life in a Global Economy” - Erik Schokkaert (‘A Truly Golden Handbook’: The Scholarly Quest for Utopia, 2016)
An essay that presents a better future that has overcome the most important problems of the early twenty-first century, which are identified as the environment, including climate-change, migration from the South to the North, and international inequalities, which are said to be interrelated. The eutopia has a world, but decentralized, governmental structure, with the world government elected through the internet with everyone voting on the same list of candidates. There is a CO2 tax that encouraged local production and stimulated investment in clean technologies. There are no limits on migration and an international open market, international social insurance, and income redistribution. There are multi-generational living arrangements and joint leisure activities and cultural and religious diversity. The essay ends with a brief section on how to achieve these goals.
Keywords: Belgian author; Male author

“2113. Inspired by ‘2112’” - Kevin J[ames] Anderson (b. 1962) (2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush, 2016)
Dystopia in which all creativity has been eliminated under a religious dictatorship.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"2222" - Goldie Locks [pseud?] (Reckoning 1: An Annual Journal of Creative Writing on Environmental Justice, 2016)
The story is told from the viewpoint of a gay couple deciding what to tell their daughter about the dystopia, Russia in 2222, they live in that is anti-gay, has a stringent eugenic policy, and is so poor that it cannot educate good engineers.
Rpt. https://reckoning.press/2222/ (February 6, 2017).
Keywords: Female author; Lesbian author; Russian author

“5AM Saint” - Elaine Gallagher (Thirty Years of Rain, 2016)
The story is set in a religious dystopia set on killing all who they consider deviants.
Keywords: Female author; Scottish author

"75" - Abiola Oni (The Guardian, 2016)
The story is set in a future England where every must die no later than the day they turn 75.
Keywords: English author; Female author; Nigerian author

"Acqua Alta" - Ashley Bevilacqua Anglin (Everything Change: An Anthology of Climate Fiction, 2016)
Climate change dystopia in which Venice is under water, and a Venetian theme park has been created. Acqua Alta is the name given to peak high tides in the Veneto region of Italy.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Advance Man. Part One of The Honeycomb Trilogy - Mac Rogers (Samuel French, 2016)
First volume of a trio of plays followed by Blast Radius. Part Two of The Honeycomb Trilogy. London: Samuel French, 2016; and Sovereign. Part Three of the Honeycomb Trilogy. London: Samuel French, 2016. The three plays were first performed at The Secret Theatre, Long Island City, NY, in January 2012, March-April 2012, and June 2012 directed by Jordana Williams. The plays, with the sequels set eight years after the first and then eight years after the second, are about what happens when a mission returning from Mars introduces aliens to Earth, who then occupy it. The second volume focus on a conflict between a bother, who sides with the aliens, and a sister, who is leading a revolt against them. In the third volume, the revolt has been successful, and the world is trying to rebuild.
Keywords: Male author; US author

After the Red Rain - Barry Lyga (b. 1971); Peter Facinelli (1973); Rob DeFranco (b. 1970) (Little, Brown, 2016)
Post-catastrophe authoritarian dystopia set on an Earth with limited resources.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"After We Walked Away" - Erica L. Satifka (Apex Magazine, 2016)
A response to Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Variations on a Theme by William James)” (1973) in which the world outside is worse in its treatment of its children.
Rpt. in the author's How to Get to Apocalypse and Other Disasters (Bonney Lake, WA: Fairwood Press, 2021), 117-129, with a note on the story on 324-325.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“The Age of Miracles” - Robert Runté (Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts, 2016)
Satire of the internet of things.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

“Ajdenia: Let there be sunlight” - Theodoridou, Natalia (Nature, 2016)
Dystopia in which most people live in tunnels in the Earth and only the elite live in the sun.
Rpt. without the subtitle in Best of British Science Fiction. Ed. Donna Scott ([Weston, Eng.]: NewCon Press, 2017), 211-13.
Keywords: Female author; UK author

"The Algorithms of Value" - Robert [David] Reed (b. 1956) (Clarkesworld, 2016)
Flawed utopia in which everyone has the ability to create the world around them, but someone is still unhappy.
Keywords: Male author; US author

American Fracture. Book One: American Confederation - Roy McElroy ([Create Space], 2016)
First volume of a series in which the United States has fractured into a five-part confederation. The second volume is American Fracture. Book Two: Separation of Power. [North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace], 2018 in which the various parts of the U. S. and what remains of the national government are all fighting each other. No resolution at the end.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"An American Utopia" - Fredric Jameson (b. 1934) (An American Utopia: Dual Power and the Universal Army, 2016)
The author discusses his utopia based on a universal army, similar in some ways to Bellamy’s Industrial Army, as the best way to deal with the current economic situation. The utopia was originally given as a keynote address at the 2013 meeting of the Society of Utopian Studies in Charleston, SC, and the utopia in the address was much more detailed than in the published version. The comments are Robinson, “Mutt and Jeff Push the Button” (97-104), which is fiction (see 2016 Robinson); Jodi Dean, “Dual Power Redux” (105-32); Saroj Giri, “The Happy Accident of a Utopia” (133-45); Agon Hamza, “From the Other Scene to the Other State: Jameson’s Dialectic of Dual Power” (147-68); Kojin Karatani, “A Japanese Utopia” (169-82); Frank Ruda, “ Jameson and Method: On Comic Utopianism” (183-210); Alberto Toscano, “After October, Before February: Figures of Dual Power” (211-41); Kathi Weeks, “Utopian Therapy: Work, Nonwork, and the Political Imagination (243-65); and Slavoj Žižek, “The Seeds of Imagination” (267-308); followed by “An America Utopia: Epilogue” by Jameson (309-17).
Keywords: Male author; US author

Americus: Exscendent, Book 1. High Road Cross - [Tamela] [Larimer] (b. 1968) (Indigo Hour Press, 2016)
Post-apocalyptic dystopia where the U.S. has fragmented. First volume in a multi-volume series, with two more volumes expected in this first sub-series.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Amerita - Martin Medina; Luke Medina (Np, 2016)
The novel is based on a system called Meritism, which is defined as “An economical structure using productivity as the measure of currency. Compensation is based on an individual’s productivity leveled against their emotional quotient and intelligence quotient, measured by factual data, free from emotional bias, prejudice, and subjectivity” (Title page). A ten-point scale is used and any change at an individual’s annual evaluation means a change in where they live and go to school, the clothes they wear, and so forth. Generally presented positively.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“and Still the Forests Grow though we are gone” - A[ndi] C. Buchanan (At the Edge, 2016)
Environmental dystopia.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Transgender author

“Apes and Satellites” - Mame Bougouma L. P. Diene (Brittle Paper: An African Literary Experience, 2016)
The story is told from the point-of-view of an ape whose habitat is being destroyed by satellite mining.
Keywords: French author; Male author; Senegalese author; US author

Apocalypse: An Epic Poem - Frederick Turner (b. 1943) (Ilium Press, 2016)
Climate change dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The Apology of Arthur Tresbit - Robert Thayer (Austin Macauley, 2016)
Satire on the contemporary financial system in which the background, referred to throughout the book, is the dystopia brought about by the collapse of the system. Most of the book is about how it happened.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“As Long as It Takes to Make the World” - Gabriela Santiago (People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction!, 2016)
Climate-change dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“At the Speed of Life” - Alexis Teyie (Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine, 2016)
A story of gender confusion set in a future Allied Lands of Africa
Keywords: Female author; Kenyan author

“At the Village Vanguard (Reflections on Blacktopia)” - Maurice [Gerald] Broaddus (b. 1970) (Mothership Zeta, 2016)
The story focuses by white supremacists on an attack on the Blacktopia that has been created on the moon twenty-five years after the attack. Only a brief description of the Blacktopia.
Keywords: African American author; English author; Male author; US author

Azanian Bridges - Nick [Nicholas] Wood (1961-2023) (New Con Press, 2016)
Alternative history dystopia of South Africa in which Apartheid survives. A related story is “Azania.” AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers. Ed. Ivor W. Hartmann (Np: StoryTime Press, 2012), 80-99.
Keywords: English author; Male author; South African author; Zambian author

“Because Change Was the Ocean and We Lived by Her Mercy” - Charlie Jane Anders (b. 1969) (Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond, 2016)
Climate change dystopia in which the west coast of California is under water, much of North America is a wasteland, and Fairbanks, Alaska, is the only U.S. metropolis. Gender is flexible and varied.
Rpt. Who Will Speak for America? Ed. Stephanie Feldman and Nathaniel Popkin (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2018), 213-26.
Keywords: Transgender author; US author

“The Bees of Kiribati” - Warren Hammond (Cyber World: Tales of Humanity’s Tomorrow, 2016)
The background to the story is a climate change dystopia in which some island states have disappeared underwater, and the refugees are essentially slaves.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Big Sheep - Robert Kroese (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press., 2016)
The novel is set in 2039 in a dystopian future Los Angeles where a part of the city, the Disincorporated Zone or DZ has been disowned by the rest of the city and become a very poor, lawless area.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Black, Their Regalia” - Darcie Little Badger (b. 1987) (People of Colo(u)r Destroy Fantasy!, 2016)
Fantasy story set in a racist dystopia.
Rpt. in Wastelands: The New Apocalypse. Ed. John Josephs Adams (London: Titan Books, 2019), 176-189.
Keywords: Female author; Native American author

"Blood" - Tania Carter (Mitêwâcimowina: Indigenous Science Fiction and Speculative Storytelling, 2016)
Post-nuclear war dystopia.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author; First Nations author

"Blood Farm" - Gill, Michael (The Speculative Book, 2016)
Future dystopia in which parents sell their children’s blood so that the wealthy can live longer.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

Bluescreen: A Mirador Novel - Dan Wells (b. 1977) (Balzer + Bray, 2016)
Young adult dystopia set in a future Los Angeles where, through a device implanted in the brain, everyone is online at all times. First volume of a series. Sequels include Ones and Zeroes: A Mirador Novel. New York: Balzer + Bray., 2017; and Active Memory: A Mirador Novel. New York: Balzer + Bray, 2018.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Bombs That Brought Us Together - Brian Conaghan (b. 1971) (Bloomsbury, 2016)
Young adult dystopia in which Little Town is controlled by gangs and at war with Old Country.
Keywords: Irish author; Male author; Scottish author

"The Bone-Runner" - Jennifer Campbell-Hicks (Galaxy’s Edge, 2016)
The story is set in a future where much of the western U.S. is desolate with the remains cities composed of the steel of buildings that haven’t yet collapsed. The protagonist is a scavenger hoping to find something in the nearest city valuable enough to pay her way to the east, where life was easier. Some fantasy.
Rpt. in The Best of Galaxy’s Edge 2015-2017. Ed. Mike Resnick  (Rockville, MD: Arc/Manor/Phoenix Pick, 2018), 34-50.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Braveheart’s Homecoming” - Dilman Dila (b. 1977) (Mithila Review, 2016)
A future high-tech India that holds to traditional practices, including a form of slavery.
Keywords: Male author; Ugandan author

“Brownsville Station” - Christopher Rowe (b. 1969) (Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond, 2016)
Climate change dystopia in which the elaborate technology that has protected civilization is defeated by the rising water.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Browsing: Security Issue” - Ian [George] Whates (b. 1959) (Nature, 2016)
Surveillance dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“The Camille Stories: Children of Compost” - Donna Haraway (b. 1944) (Duke University Press, 2016)
The stories trace five Camilles from 2025 to 2425, a period in which the human population, having at first risen from eight billion to ten billion, has dropped to three billion and only half of the species alive in 2015 still exist. Many humans have been modified to take on aspects of other species; in the case of the Camilles, the monarch butterfly.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Career Day" - Nisha VyasMyall (Holdfast Magazine, 2016)
The story is set in a future in which projections are made on what occupations will be needed in the future, and each child has a chip inserted at birth designating their future career. Until year seven, they are given a broad general education, then their chip is read, and from then on their education is narrowly occupational.
Keywords: English author; Female author

“The Charge and the Storm” - An Owomoyela (Asimov’s Science Fiction, 2016)
The story raises issues about the morality of choices made, whether rights should be absolute, and the problem of scarcity.
Keywords: Transgender author; US author

The Children - Lucy Kirkwood (b. 1984) (Nick Hern Books, 2016)
A dystopian play based on the Fukushima disaster that takes place in a future England where a similar disaster has occurred.
Keywords: English author; Female author

Children of Eden. A Novel - Joey [Joseph Michael] Graceffa (b. 1991); Laura L. Sullivan (b. 1974) (Keywords Press/Atria, 2016)
Young adult dystopia about a girl who is the second child in a society that restricts families to one child. First volume of a trilogy followed by Elites of Eden. A Novel. Keywords Press/Atria, 2017 in which the protagonist of the first volumes finds an entire city of second children but also forms an alliance with one of the girls of the elite. The third volume is Rebels of Eden. A Novel. Keywords Press/Atria, 2018 in which the protagonist temporarily settles in a sustainable community called Harmonia that belies its name by being rule-bound. She then returns to Eden, finds it worse than before, and leads the revolution.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

Children of Exile - Margaret Peterson Haddix (b. 1964) (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2016)
Young adult dystopia. The novel opens in a village where children have been sent at birth to be raised by others. Suddenly they are all sent to be reunited with their parents who live in extreme poverty with a continuing war. First volume of a trilogy. The second volume is Children of Refuge. Children of Exile Book 2. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2017 is a typical middle volume where things get worse. The third volume is Children of Jubilee. Children of Exile Book Three. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2018. In this volume, the children are made slave labor on another planet and must cooperate with aliens in order to free themselves.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Children of Icarus - Caighlan Smith (Curious Fox, 2016)
First volume in a planned series. This volume is a dystopian derived from the story of the labyrinth and the Minotaur from Greek mythology. The story continues in Children of Daedala. Oxford, Eng.: Curious Fox, 2018 in which a woman struggles to survive and escape after six months in the labyrinth.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

Cities at Sea - Martin Simons (b. 1930) (XLibris, 2016)
The novel is set in a future where, due to global warming, much of the land has flooded, and cities have abandoned the land for huge rafts that float the seas. The cities are strictly hierarchical, there is completely free sexuality, and children are conceived and born outside the body, and are generally presented positively. But the young woman who is the protagonist is bored and chooses to move to another city to undergo changes that will give her gills that will allow her to live underwater for long periods. At the end, new cities are planned that can move both on and in the water.
Keywords: English author; Male author

City Ash and Desert Bones - Laurel Myler (Dog Star Books, 2016)
Dystopia with elements of a horror novel set in a future in which most of the U.S. is desert, with Alaska the center of civilization, and a theocracy ruling the country.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The City of Woven Streets - Emmi [Elina] Itäranta (b. 1976) (Harper Voyager, 2016)
The novel is set in a patriarchal dystopia where most women are not permitted to read or write, and dreaming is forbidden. The female protagonist can read and write and dreams. It is set on an island that is divided into sections based on crafts, with the novel focusing on the weavers. The island is slowly being submerged as the surrounding waters rise, and by the end of the novel has mostly been abandoned.
North American ed. as The Weaver. A Novel. New York: Harper Voyager, 2016. Published in Finnish as Kudottujen kujien kaupunki (2015).
Keywords: English author; Female author; Finnish author

“Coca-Cola Birds Sing Sweetest in the Morning” - Elizabeth Tan (Overland, 2016)
A dystopian future Australia where all the bees, birds, and insects have died and been replaced by corporate sponsored mechanical equivalents.
Rpt. in The Best Australian Stories 2016. Ed. Charlotte Wood (Carlton, VIC, Australia: Black Inc., 2016), 155-63.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

"Cold Comfort" - Pat[rice Anne] Murphy (b. 1955); Paul Doherty (1948-2017) (Bridging Infinity, 2016)
Climate change story with most of the focus on an elaborate, and ultimately successful, plan to stop the release of the vast reservoirs of methane in the arctic. The story ends with an apparent eutopia, but with the caveat that billions died before people came to their senses.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

“The Common Tongue, the Present Tense, the Known” - Nina Allan (b. 1966) (Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond, 2016)
The story is set after most of the world is drowned and is the protagonist is a marine biologist reflecting on the past and trying to understand the present and how both humans and the oceans and their inhabitants are responding to the new situation.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"The Company" - Sanya Noel (Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine, 2016)
The detailed rules and regulations of a dystopian company.
Keywords: Kenyan author; Male author

Company Town - Madeline Ashby (b. 1983) (Tor, 2016)
The background to the novel is a climate-change dystopia and is set on an oil rig that is now a complete town owned by one company, but the focus of the novel is a young woman hired to protect the heir to the company from those who want to inherit instead.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

The Corporation Wars: Dissidence - Ken[nth Macrae] MacLeod (b. 1954) (Orbit, 2016)
Dystopia. The novel is set in the distant future where there is a war between humans and artificial intelligences and among corporations. First volume in a series. The Other volumes are The Corporation Wars: Insurgence. London: Orbit, 2016; and The Corporation Wars: Emergence. London: Orbit, 2017. The three volumes are collected in The Corporation Wars Trilogy. London: Orbit, 2018 with Dissidence (1-295), Insurgence (297-581) and Emergence (583-879).
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

“The Culling” - Kelley Armstrong (b. 1948) (Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts, 2016)
The lack of water and, as a result, food, led to the systematic reduction of the population with more and more categories added as the crisis got worse. The story focuses on a girl who hears voices who is chosen for culling.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

Cumulus - Eliot Peper ([CreateSpace], 2016)
A dystopian future of corporate power and pervasive surveillance.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Darkout" - E. Lily Yu (Cyber World: Tales of Humanity’s Tomorrow, 2016)
Dystopia in which everyone can see what anyone else is doing at any time, which was justified as a way of reducing violence, which it did. The story focuses on a man compulsively viewing one woman. At the end of the story, the system goes down.
Rpt. in People of Color Take Over Fantastic Stories of the Imagination Magazine. Ed. Nisi Shawl, no. 239 (June/July 2017): 32-49.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“On Darwin Tides” - Shauna O’Meara (Everything Change: An Anthology of Climate Fiction, 2016)
Environmental dystopia set in Malaysia in which indigenous people and immigrants are not allowed to work unless they have enough money for bribes and the technology that is required.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

“The Day No One Died” - Gwen Bellinger (Islamicates Volume 1: Anthology of Science Fiction short stories inspired from Muslim Cultures, 2016)
The story is set in a future where people who left Earth to avoid its conflicts have returned and religion is outlawed because it is believed to have brought about the last nuclear war, and the protagonist is a believer.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Dayworld: A Hole in Wednesday - Philip José Farmer (1918-2009); Danny Adams (Meteor House, 2016)
A volume in Farmer’s Dayworld universe (See 1971 and 1985 Farmer) that he had not completed that has been finished by his great nephew based on manuscript and notes. This volume is set before 1985 Farmer and sets the stage for it and the following volumes.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Delight®” - Allegra Hyde (Black Warrior Review, 2016)
Satire on planned communities. In this one absolutely everything is trademarked and is supposedly the ideal 1950s community. At the end, it seals itself off from the rest of the world.
Rpt. in her Of This New World (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2016), 104-09. The collection won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“The Department of Correction: A lesson learned” - Ninian Tan (Nature, 2016)
Future punishment in which the offender must relive the crime from the point-of-view of the offender for as many times as determined by the court.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Depot 256" - Lisa Allen-Agostini (People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction!, 2016)
Dystopia of extreme poverty.
Keywords: Female author; Trinidadian author

The Destructives - Matthew De Abaitua (b. 1971) (Angry Robot, 2016)
Artificial Intelligence has developed and has made humanity passive The novel follows a number of individuals who struggle to learn about the pre-AI past and their own humanity. Connected with 2007 and 2015 De Abaitua and the ending suggests there will be a sequel, but there hasn't been.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“Did We Break the End of the World?” - Tansy Rayner Roberts (b. 1978) (Defying Doomsday, 2016)
Young adult dystopia inhabited only by teenagers in which an electrical pulse has destroyed all equipment that runs on electricity, including the “foster mothers,” the robots that have cared for the teenagers. The protagonist is deaf and gay.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

“Dispatches from the Cradle; The Hermit—Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts” - Ken Liu (b. 1976) (Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond, 2016)
Climate change story set when most people live either in space or on submersible rafts on Earth. Mars is being terraformed and plans are underway to try to dry out Earth. Whether this is a good or bad idea is left up the reader.
Rpt. in his The Hidden Girl and Other Stories (New York: Saga Press/Simon & Schuster, 2020), 254-271.
Keywords: Chinese-American author; Male author; US author

“A Distant Glimpse” - Kewin, Simon (The Future Fire: Social Political & Speculative Cyber-Fiction, 2016)
The story is primarily told from the viewpoint of a young girl who is the leader of a group of children living on and making their living from trash dumps by providing useable scrap to men who whip them if they fail to find enough. Her discovery of a telescope, which she keeps, leads her to dream of escape. Given that we know that such conditions exist in many places, it could be read as a straightforwardly realistic story.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

“The Drowned City” - Bo[ukje] Balder (SciFutures presents The City of the Future, 2016)
Climate-change dystopia in which half of The Netherlands has disappeared and the Dutch are building a New Amsterdam on an island they have built on the Australian coast.
Keywords: Dutch author; Female author

Dynamo Island: The Cultural History and Geography of a Utopia - David [Henry Tudor] Scott (b. 1948) (Zero Books, 2016)
Ecological eutopia set on an island in the middle of the Atlantic that is roughly the size of England. Human scale; no cars and excellent public transport with much use of bicycles; no extremely large machinery. Zero-growth economy. Stress on energy conservation using water, wind, and tidal power.
Keywords: English author; Irish author; Male author

Earth's Awakening - Stephen Tiley (Xlibris, 2016)
Young Adult New Age eutopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"THe Eaters" - Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm (Mitêwâcimowina: Indigenous Science Fiction and Speculative Storytelling, 2016)
Aliens who had earlier visited Earth to other isolate evil aliens return to begin to repair the damage the descendants of those aliens have done by removing all who have retained the characteristics of those evil aliens. The sudden removal of millions upon millions of people, including almost all political and corporate leaders, opens the way for the indigenous peoples of the earth, some of whom were taken, to undertake the process of renewal.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author; First Nations author

Ecotopia 2121: A Vision For Our Future Green Utopia--In 100 Cities. - Dr. Alan Marshall (b. 1969) (Arcade Publishing/Skyhorse Publishing, 2016)
The book consists of one hundred colored illustrations of futuristic cities, all but a few intended to be what could be done to actual cities plus a few fictional ones combined with a description of the evolution of the city. Published to honor the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s Utopia.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

On the Edge of Gone - Corinne Duyvis (Amulet Books/Abrams, 2016)
Young adult novel about the dystopia brought about by an impending catastrophe and its aftermath. The protagonist is an autistic, mixed race Dutch-Surinamese girl. A related story is her “And the Rest of Us Wait.” In Defying Doomsday. Ed. Tsana Dolichava and Holly Kench [Yokine, WA, Australia]: Twelfth Planet Press, 2016), 1-47.
Keywords: Dutch author; Female author

Edge of Heaven - R[achael] B. Kelly (Liberties Press, 2016)
An overpopulation dystopia set in 2119 in a bi-level city called Creo in France where the dispossessed of the world have been sent to provide more space. The worst conditions at the bottom, where much of the action takes place.
Keywords: Female author; Irish author

“Eel of the Lake” - J. R. McConvey (Reckoning 1: Creative Writing on Environmental Justice, 2016)
Dystopia in which the environment is being destroyed by corporations. Native American/First Nations (Ojibwe) protagonist.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

“Elves of Antarctica” - Paul J[ames] McAuley (b. 1955) (Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond, 2016)
The story is set in a climate change dystopia in which the coastal areas of most countries are under water and many islands have disappeared. There are major engineering projects to try to save what is left and to provide places for the displaced to live. The project in Antarctica, where the story takes place, is to try to keep the Antarctic ice sheet from melting and inundating more land.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“The End of Occidentalism” - Robin Wyatt Dunn (b. 1979) (Reckoning 1: Creative Writing on Environmental Justice, 2016)
Dystopia set in a U.S. that has fragmented into areas under corporate control.
Rpt. https://reckoning.press/the-end-of-occidentalism/ (May 15, 2017).
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The End of the World” - Nora Salem (Islamicates Volume 1: Anthology of Science Fiction short stories inspired from Muslim Cultures, 2016)
The story is set in a future where a drought has destroyed most plant life and there are few human survivors.
Keywords: Arab-American; Female author

Enjoyment: A Comedy - Alan Brownjohn (b. 1931) (Shoestring Press, 2016)
Dystopia where pleasure is required.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Escaped Alone - Caryl Churchill (b. 1938) (Nick Hern Books, 2016)
Dystopian play in which four old women, “They are all at least seventy,” sit in an apparently peaceful garden and discuss the horrors of the world outside the garden.
U.S. ed. in her Here We Go and Escaped Alone. Two Plays. (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2016), 31-74.
Keywords: English author; Female author

Escapology - Ren Warom (Titan Books, 2016)
Post-catastrophe cyberpunk dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Female author

“Even Paradise Needs Maintenance” - Bo[ukje] Balder (Futuristica Volume 1, 2016)
After most countries become uninhabitable due to climate change and global warming, Australia becomes a high-tech paradise where the few people have little to do.
Keywords: Dutch author; Female author

Everfair - Nisi [Denise Angela] Shawl (b. 1955) (Tor, 2016)
Alternative history with a flawed utopia, multiracial country established by a combination of British Fabian socialists and African American missionaries within The Congo at its worst in the nineteenth century. Stories set in Everfair are “The Colors of Money.” Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation. Ed. Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Christopher Wieland (Nashville, TN: Upper Rubber Boot, 2017), 198-217; “Sun River.” Illus. Clockwork Cairo: Steampunk Tales of Egypt. Ed. Matthew Bright ([UK]: Twopenny Books, 2017), 169-87; and “Promised.” Steampunk World. Ed. Sarah Hans (Dayton, OH: Alliteration Ink, 2017), 53-75. A related story is “Vulcanization.” Nightmare, no. 40 (January 2016). http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/vulcanization/ Rpt. as “Vulcanization From Nightmare Magazine.” In The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017. Ed. Charles Yu and John Joseph Adams (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), 128-40.
Keywords: African American author; Female author

Everything Belongs to the Future - Laurie Penny (b. 1986) (Tor, 2016)
Dystopia of a world where the rich can get treatment that extends their lives while the poor die young.
Keywords: English author; Female author

Everything That Isn’t Winter - Margaret Killjoy (b. 1982) (Tor.com, 2016)
The story is set in a post-apocalypse future Cascade mountains in what used to be the state of Washington. It focuses on a self-organized community growing tea that is attacked by a group trying to establish an authoritarian government to rebuild the old, bad system.
Rpt. in her We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories (Chico, CA/Edinburgh, Scot.: AK Press, 2022), 88-105.
Keywords: Female author; Transgender author; US author

“The Final Path” - Genevieve Cogman (Now We Are Ten: Celebrating the First Ten Years of NewCon Press, 2016)
Post-catastrophe (general collapse) young adult dystopia in which the young woman protagonist escapes to join other young people who have run away to an island.
Keywords: English author; Female author

“The Finkelstein 5” - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Friday Black, 2016)
A dystopia in which an all-white jury acquits a man who had behead five black children.
Originally published in a slightly different form in Printer’s Row (2016), which appears to be no longer available online
Keywords: African American author; Male author

“Five Thousand Squares” - Maree Kimberley (Defying Doomsday, 2016)
Climate-change dystopia in which the protagonist, who has rheumatoid arthritis, as does the Australian female author, struggles to save herself and her children.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

Flawed - Cecelia Ahern (Feiwel and Friends, 2016)
Young adult dystopia in which perfection is the standard and anyone flawed is branded with an “F”. The novel focuses on a young woman who risks being labelled flawed by helping someone in trouble. First of two volumes followed by Perfect. New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2017 in which, after many more problems, the dystopia is defeated.
Keywords: Female author; Irish author

“Floating in My Tin Can: Lullaby for life” - Gerri Leen (Nature, 2016)
The background to the story is a dystopia that will not allow people to sing.
Keywords: Female author

"Flyover Country" - Tim Maughan (b. 1973) (Terraform, 2016)
A future showing the result of Trump era policies, with cellphones made in America, mostly by illegal aliens and “voluntary” labor in camps connected to the factories.
Rpt. without the illus. in Terraform Watch Worlds Burn. Ed. Brian Merchant and Claire L. Evans (New York: MCD X FSG Originals/Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Motherboard/Vice, 2022), 27-33.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Folding the Red into the Black or Developing a Viable UNtopia for Human Survival in the 21st Century - Walter [Ellis] Mosley (b. 1952) (OR Books, 2016)
Nonfiction presentation of a better society. The title refers to the melding of capitalism and socialism that is at the heart of the work. Change is basic to human society. Respect for all ideas and ideals is fundamental (59). Happiness before profit (65). Equality among all people, which he equates with freedom (65). There must be a fundamental right to those things that a twenty-first century person needs to survive, including clean water, healthy food, a safe housing, free access to “education though six years of college or technical school,” and medical care (89-90).
Keywords: African American author; Male author

The Forgetting - Sharon Cameron (b. 1970) (Scholastic Press, 2016)
Young adult dystopia in which annually everyone, except for one girl. in an enclosed city loses their memories unless they have been written down. The girl then explores the basis of the dystopia and escapes with a boy. The Knowing. New York: Scholastic Press, 2017 is described as a companion volume and focuses on a woman who cannot forget anything and searches for the lost city of Canaan and a man from space who is also searching for it.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Four Futures: Vision of the World After Capitalism - Peter Frase (Verso, 2016)
Eutopia and dystopia. Projects four scenarios of what might follow capitalism: “Communism: Equality and Abundance” (35-68), “Rentism: Hierarchy and Abundance” (69-90), “Socialism: Equality and Scarcity” (91-119), “Exterminism: Hierarchy and Scarcity.” The two equalities are primarily presented positively. The hierarchies are presented wholly or primarily negatively.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Fractured State - Steven Konkoly (Thomas & Mercer, 2016)
The novel is mostly adventure following an attempted coup in California. A sequel is Rogue State. Seattle, WA: Thomas & Mercer, 2017 in which California is a dictatorship and the rest of the U.S. is near collapse.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Freefare: Welcome to the Age of Enlightenment - Mark A. Kovel Sr. (iUniverse, 2016)
Much of the book is an attack on welfare seen as a mechanism for politicians to get and keep the people’s support. The author then argues that the next step is a comprehensive entitlement program called Freefare for those who don’t want to work in which everything is provided with the detailed, personal supervision of bureaucrats. While the structure of the book suggests that this is intended as satire and the ending calls for the reestablishment of free enterprise, the results as described in case studies are wholly positive.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“On the Fringes of the Fractal. Inspired by ‘Subdivisions’” - Greg[ory John] van Eekhout (b. 1967) (2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush, 2016)
Dystopia in which each subdivision is controlled by a different corporation, which also controls the individual livs of the inhabitants.
Rpt. without the subtitle in The Best American Science Fiction and FantasyTM 2017. Ed. Charles Yu (Boston, MA: Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), 194-205.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Future Is Blue" - Catherynne M[organ] Valente (b. 1979) (Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond, 2016)
Climate change dystopia in which so few children survive their first years that they do not get a name until they are ten. The story is continued in her The Past Is Red (2021).
Rpt. in The Best American Science Fiction and FantasyTM 2017. Ed. Charles Yu (Boston, MA: Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), 167-197; in Wastelands: The New Apocalypse. Ed. John Josephs Adams (London: Titan Books, 2019), 489-511; and in her The Future Is Blue (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2018), 7-28.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Gender Game - Bella Forrest (Nightlight Press, 2016)
The novel is set in a world divided between men’s and women’s lands (Patrus and Matrus). In Patrus, women are completely subservient, but the novel focuses on a young woman who is not subservient who leaves Matrus for Patrus on a quest. First volume of a seven-volume series, followed by The Gender Secret. Np: Nightlight Press, 2016; The Gender Lie. Np: Nightlight Press, 2017; The Gender War. Np: Nightlight Press, 2017; The Gender Fall, 2017; The Gender Plan. Np: Nightlight Press, 2017; The Gender End. Np: Nightlight Press, 2017.
Keywords: Female author

Gifted - H[eather] A. Swain (b. 1969) (Feiwel and Friends, 2016)
Young adult dystopia in which exceptional talents can be purchased by the privileged, but some talents still occur naturally, and one focus of the novel is a young woman who is from the underclass and is musically gifted in a society that outlaws music making.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Girl, Blue Eyes, Boy” - Marvel Chukwudi Pephel (African Writer, 2016)
The story is set in Lagos, Nigeria in 3096, which is a high-tech city with Lagoonborg robots designed to help the elderly but becoming ubiquitous. Mars has been settled, and people are being Marsinalized so that they more easily adapt to conditions there. The story ends abruptly, and the author says he is considering a sequel.
Rpt. in The Naked Convos - Original African Stories (March 6, 2017). http://thenakedconvos.com/girl-blue-eyes-boy/
Keywords: Male author; Nigerian author

"Give Your All" - Leena Litkitalo (Galaxy’s Edge, 2016)
Dystopia in which people are expected to donate body parts to gain status.
Rpt. in The Best of Galaxy’s Edge 2015-2017. Ed. Mike Resnick (Rockville, MD: Arc/Manor/Phoenix Pick, 2018), 197-208.
Keywords: Female author; Finnish author

"Glass" - Megan Dorei (Dystopia Utopia Short Stories: An Anthology of New & Classic Tales, 2016)
Dystopia that focuses on the need for girls to be thin.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Good Place - Michael Schur (b. 1975) (2016)
A comedy and fantasy series set in an afterlife, a eutopian Heaven created by an individual as a reward for a righteous life. The initial focus is on a woman who realizes that she does not belong in Heaven and to stay hides her failings. In the second series, everyone’s memories are erased with the intent of starting over.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Goodnight New York, New York” - Victoria Zelvin (Shoreline of Infinity, 2016)
Climate-change story in which the government has consistently lied about conditions in New York, where even some of the tallest buildings are completely submerged.
Rpt. in the Edinburgh International Science Festival Special Edition of Shoreline of Infinity, no. 11½ (Spring 2018): 91-97.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Grandchild Paradox" - Daniel Thron (Everything Change: An Anthology of Climate Fiction, 2016)
Climate change dystopia in which flooding has created a society deeply divided between those who live above the water and those who live on boats.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Great Chasm” - Hildy Silverman; David Silverman (Altered States of the Union, 2016)
In the future, the U.S. has divided into two separate countries, the liberal Blue States in the East that enforce a narrow view of liberalism and the absolutist Red States to the West.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

"Hard Rains" - S. J. Sabri (The Future Fire: Social Political & Speculative Cyber-Fiction, 2016)
The story is set after the devastation brought about by climate change and concerns a woman determined to reclaim drought-stricken land. Elements of fantasy/magic realism.

Hillary Goes to Washington, A Liberals Dream - Kate Griffin ([CreateSpace], 2016)
The novel is about the election of Hillary Clinton to the presidency and her first term, during which the basics of the liberal agenda are passed.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Hiroto’s Legacy” - Lisa M. Collins (Coming Around Again [At the head of the title The Central Arkansas Speculative Fiction Writers’ Group Presents], 2016)
The story is set in a future eutopian Japan that had been achieved through generations of technological innovation, particularly in horticulture. Prequel to her story “The Tree of Life.” Holdfast Magazine, no. 4 (2014). Rpt. in Holdfast Magazine Anthology 2013-2014. Ed. Laurel Still and Lucy Smee (Np: np, 2014); and on Kindle, 2015. 16 pp. in which the culture, now on a generation starship searching for new planets are passing the knowledge to the next generations.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Holy Many-Minds Home” - Miguel Díaz Feito (The Future Fire: Social Political & Speculative Cyber-Fiction, 2016)
Climate change dystopia. Miami has been raised on pillars above the water and sealed from radiation and the storms. The story concerns a search for terrorists threatening the shields in unincorporated areas, also shielded, but inadequately, and built on pillars, outside the city. Includes a new religion for the new circumstances. Much fantasy. Some of the text is in Spanish.
Keywords: Cuban-American author; Male author

Hope. A Going Home Novel - A[ngery] American [pseud.]; G. Michael Hopf ([CreateSpace], 2016)
Related to 2012 American. In the novel, a man who has survived finds meaning in helping others.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“How Not To Lose the Girl” - Dare Segun Falowo (Brittle Paper: An African Literary Experience, 2016)
The story is set in Africa in a future in which a world government has been established in the United States and appears to provide food, housing, and advanced technology, but most people seem to be losing themselves in different forms of virtual reality.
Keywords: Male author; Nigerian author

Human Animals - Stef Smith (Nick Hern Books, 2016)
In an unidentified future, the balance of nature has been so upset that animals have overrun parts of London, and the play concerns the way some people respond to the slaughter of the animals. It opened at the Royal Court Theatre May 18, 2016.
Keywords: Female author; Scottish author

Hystopia - David Means (b. 1961) (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016)
The novel includes a novel-within-the novel set in a future dystopia with an alternative history in which the war in Vietnam continues with John F. Kennedy serving his third term as President and a Psych Corps to wipe the memories of returning soldiers.
Keywords: Male author; US author

I Love You*: *Subject to the Following Terms and Conditions. A Contract Killers Novel - Erin Lyon (Forge, 2016)
In the future, all marriages are specific time-limited contracts, and the novel follows the trials and tribulations of one woman’s search for love.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“I Will Remember You” - Janet Edwards (b. 1958) (Defying Doomsday, 2016)
Dystopia brought about by an alien invasion with the aliens killing off all humans over thirteen days with a few survivors who will rebuild the human race.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"The Immaterial" - Dan Grace (The Future Fire: Social Political & Speculative Cyber-Fiction, 2016)
In a future world divided between the rich and poor, a poor girl who lives in a decrepit city cleaning up after others and searching for her lost sister. She also discovers a nealthier natural world outside the city.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“Imposter Syndrome” - Mari Kurisato [pseud.] (Love Beyond the Body, Space and Time: An Indigenous LGBT Sci-Fi Anthology, 2016)
The story is set in a future where all “Non-Citizens” are banned from leaving the failing Earth and travelling to newly discovered inhabitable planets. In the story, the Non-Citizen is an alien, but she carries the memories of a First Nations woman who was among those torn from her family and sent to schools designed to strip them of their identity.
Keywords: Female author; First Nations author; US author

"In Equity" - Sarah Gallian (Asimov’s Science Fiction, 2016)
A dystopian future in which teenagers are “fostered” for commercial uses.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

In Hambach Forst” - George F. (Reckoning 1: Creative Writing on Environmental Justice, 2016)
Environmental dystopia about the destruction by corporations of the old growth forests in Germany, with the story focusing on the resistance but with a sense of the futility of the resistance.
Rpt. https://reckoning.press/in-hambach-forst/ (June 12, 2017).
Keywords: English author; Male author

“An Industrial Growth” - David L. Clements (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 2016)
Post-catastrophe dystopia of the future U.S. destroyed by scientific experiments that government encouraged to be done with no concern for safety.
Rpt. in his Disturbed Universes ([Weston], Eng.: NewCon Press, 2016), 125-61.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Inferno" - Caldon Mull (Fragments: The Anthology of Short Stories, 2016)
The story is set on the planet Claudius where humans had settled after destroying Earth, and where the matriarchy, the Mothers of Claudius, are making the same mistakes has had been made on Earth.
Keywords: Male author; South African author

Infomocracy - Malka [Ann] Older (b. 1977) (Tom Doherty Associates, 2016)
First volume of a trilogy that illustrates the problems of establishing and maintaining eutopia based on a world-wide electoral system that fosters micro-democracies. Among the problems are corruption and political maneuvering among the groups vying for electoral success at the level of global government. The title suggests a central theme, the importance of the control of information. In the second volume is Null States: The Centenal Cycle, Book 2. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2017, three different plots, in Darfur, Geneva, and Central Asia, pose challenges to the system. As the title suggests, in the final volume, State Tectonics: The Centenal Cycle, Book 3. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2018, the various groups vying for power produce something of an earthquake, and, at the end, there is many more sources of information. Whether this is good or not is left unclear.
An excerpt was published in People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! Ed. Nalo Hopkinson and Kristine Ong Muslim. Special Issue of Lightspeed, no. 73 (June 2016): 304-10.
Keywords: Female author; Latinx author; US author

The Island Will Sink - Briohny Doyle (Lifted Brow, 2016)
Climate change dystopia in which the world is watching Pitcairn Island sinking below the surface. The novel focuses on a man who makes completely immersive films and puts everything about his life online, which means losing his memories.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

"Islets of the Blessed" - Nidhi Singh (Flash Fiction Press, 2016)
Dystopia set in a rigidly structured society where someone can sell their body to be taken over by one of the wealthy needing a new one.
Rpt. in Dystopia Utopia Short Stories: An Anthology of New & Classic Tales (London: Flame Tree Publishing, 2016), 372-80.
Keywords: Female author; Indian author

“Jericho Blush” - Cat[riona] Sparks (b. 1965) (Dark Harvest, 2016)
The story is set in a future Australia devastated by climate change in an area the has been used for unregulated weapons testing controlled by a foreign company. It takes place in the post-apocalyptic future of her 2017 Lotus Blue. A related story is her 2015 “Hot Rods.”
Originally published in Cyclopean, no. 2 (2016), which is no longer available.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

Join - Toutonghi, Steve (New York, 2016)
Flawed utopia. The novel is set in a future dealing with major impacts of climate change. In becomes possible for people to form small permanent communities by merging their minds into one. Raises questions about the advantages and disadvantages of losing the body to gain a collective identity and immortality.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Judenstaat - Simone Zelitch (Tor, 2016)
Alternative history covering 1945-87 in which, following World War 2, a homeland for the Jews, Judenstaat, was established in Saxony in the eastern part of Germany.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“The Keepers of Madleen” - Sarah Lyn Eaton (Dystopia Utopia Short Stories: An Anthology of New & Classic Tales, 2016)
An apparent eutopia in a future in which every village has walled themselves off from every other village to protect themselves from an unidentified threat. The village that is the focus of the story must face the fact of a rape, and the story is concerned with how they deal with it.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Knocking on Heaven’s Door. A Novel - Sharman Apt Russell (b. 1954) (Yucca Publishing, 2016)
Post-catastrophe novel (epidemic/pandemic) in which the survivors have created a Paleolithic culture that they describe as a utopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“A Lack of Congenial Solutions” - Kenneth Schneyer (Humanity 2.0, 2016)
Future dystopia in which after killing off the peaceful on Earth, the remaining humans expand into the galaxy killing or enslaving all the multitude of others that they meet, all of human had evolved into extremely varied, but peaceful cultures. Finally, the various cultures cooperate to eliminate humanity but find that doing so has unfortunate effects on their cultures.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Last Girl. Book One of the Dominion Trilogy - Joe Hart (Thomas & Mercer, 2016)
Dystopia set in a world in which the birth of girls has dropped to near zero. The novel focuses on a young woman who has been kept in a U.S. research facility for twenty years, having been told that there are no survivors outside. She escapes and discovers that there are survivors, some of whom help her. The Final Trade: Book Two of the Desolation Trilogy. [Seattle, WA]: Thomas & Mercer, 2016 is a sequel in which the protagonist of the first volume discovers, with the help of her friends, the records on who she and the other captive girls are. In The First City: Book Three of the Dominion Trilogy. [Seattle, WA]: Thomas & Mercer, 2017, the protagonist manages to get the Seattle, the last city in the country, to find answers.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Last Lagosian" - Wole Talabi (b. 1986) (Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine, 2016)
Post-catastrophe (unexplained) dystopia.
Rpt. in his Incomplete Solutions. Edinburgh, Scot.: Luna Press, 2019), 100-10, with an author’s note on 258.
Keywords: Malaysian author; Male author; Nigerian author

"Lawman" - Caldon Mull (Fragments: The Anthology of Short Stories, 2016)
The story is set in a future violent, corrupt South Africa with deep rich/poor divisions. Some fantasy.
Keywords: Male author; South African author

“Le Carré rouge” - Claudie Arseneault (Solarpunk Press, 2016)
Dystopian depiction of the future of Québec under a repressive government and powerful corporations, particularly one that, with the cooperation of the government, controls all food production and distribution. The story focuses on the resistance to the dystopia over the lifetime of the protagonist.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

Learning to Speak Tiger" - Trina Marie Phillips (SciFutures presents The City of the Future, 2016)
The story is set in a very high-tech future Hanoi with strong eutopian elements but with the technology largely integrated into daily life. The story is about a poor, young girl struggle to find her place.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“The Leaves No Longer Fall” - Jodi Cleghorn (At the Edge, 2016)
Environmental dystopia.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

Legacy of Shadow - Gallant, Craig (Zmok Books, 2016)
The novel is mostly adventure, but it is set in a future where there is a multi-species Galactic Council with the goal of the betterment of all species.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Let Your Light Shine Before Men” - Christopher Caldwell (Obsidian, 2016)
The story is set in a future where climate change led to the abandonment of New Orleans while saving white areas of the country.
Keywords: African American author; Male author; Queer author; Scottish author

"Light Times" - Ari Popper (SciFutures presents The City of the Future, 2016)
The story is set in Nigeria, which, after a devastating war, is recovering using high-tech and the help of the United Nations.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Love in a Lonely City 2050" - Deborah Walker (SciFutures presents The City of the Future, 2016)
The story is set in a very high-tech future London with strong eutopian elements and is about how hard it still can be to find love.
Keywords: English author; Female author

“Lutopia: An Ideal City in an Ideal World” - Hilde Heynen (b. 1959) (‘A Truly Golden Handbook’: The Scholarly Quest for Utopia, 2016)
An essay describing a eutopian 2116 Leuven, then known as Lutopia, with an emphasis of blending heritage an ecology. World-wide people have been concentrated into cities to radically reduce the negative impact of humans on the environment. The essay is an expansion of the ideal city tradition, with in addition to the usual architectural and city-layout details, material on the organization of housing, schooling from elementary through university, energy use, transportation, the economy, labor, the social life, and governance. It ends with a brief comment on the remaining problems.
Keywords: Belgian author; Female author

“Luv Story” - Kim Westwood (Dreaming in the Dark, 2016)
A retelling of the story of the Garden of Eden by a girl in a post-catastrophe (climate-change, loss of civilization) dystopia.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author