X Isle - Steve [Andre] Augarde (b. 1950) (David Fickling Books, 2009)
Young adult dystopia in which children are essentially prisoners on an island where they had expected to find a better life. At the end of the novel, they revolt and kill their captors.
U.S. ed. New York: Random House/Fickling, 2010.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Year of the Flood - Margaret [Eleanor] Atwood (b. 1939) (McClelland & Stewart, 2009)
Ecological dystopia with a eutopian enclave set roughly at the same time as 2003 Atwood with some of the same characters. See also 2013 Atwood.
U.S. ed. New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2009. U.K. ed. London: Bloomsbury, 2009.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

“1968: A ShortSpan Snackfood. Valid for Year 7 Student Use. Calories: 231” - Justina [Louise Alice] Robson (b. 1968) (’68: New Stories from Children of the Revolution, 2008)
A “eutopia” where one can take pills to learn or have the information slowly entered into a persons brain. All the information is validated as accurate.
Keywords: English author; Female author

2020 Vision. A Novel - Roy S[alant] Neuberger (b. 1942) (Feldheim Publishers, 2008)
Dystopia brought about by a series of attacks on the US by Islamist terrorists. The novel focuses on the struggle of a couple to travel first from New York to New England and then to Israel, which is presented in eutopian terms.
Keywords: Male author; US author

2084: A Tale of Post America - W. Milton Timmons (b. 1933) (AuthorHouse, 2008)
Dystopia of a U.S. fragmented as a result of the collapse of the environment and with different churches governing different sections and a few free, secular areas.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The 4400: The Vesuvius Prophecy. THE 4400 created by Scott Peters and René Echevarria - Greg Cox (b. 1959); Dayton Ward (b. 1967); Dilmore, Kevin; David [Alan] Mack (Pocket Star Books, 2008)
Four novels based on a CBS TV series that was aired from 2004 to 2007 that focus on the 4400 who disappear and that reappear with unusual powers. The first two volumes are dystopias about the conflicts that occur as a result. The third volume suggests the possibility of a eutopia when a virus kills thousands in Seattle but gives others new powers. They take over the city, rename it Promise City, and intend to build a new civilization. Those in power attempt to destroy Promise City in this and the fourth volume.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Above Empyrean: A Novel of the Final Days of the War Against Islamist Terrorism - Bruce Herschensohn (b. 1932) (Beaufort Books, 2008)
2008 Herschensohn, Bruce (b. 1932). Above Empyrean: A Novel of the Final Days of the War Against Islamist Terrorism. New York: Beaufort Books. DLC Dystopia of the takeover of the U.S. by Islamists.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Accepting the Dream Or Is it the Reality?” - Shaba Barnes (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
A short but detailed lesbian eutopia with New Age elements. Homeopathic medicine. No money. No poverty. Consensual decision making by a “Steering Committee” as needed. Males are cared for in families until puberty, when they are all sent to a boarding school; it appears that their main function is providing sperm. No industry or major commercial activity. Creating art is an important part of life. Mostly vegetarian. Houses made of fabric. Oddly, there is also high tech with flying cars.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Adjudicator--for Peter Straub" - Brian [Keith] Evenson (b. 1966) (Fugue State: Stories, 2008)
Dystopia after a catastrophe (disease/pandemic) with few survivors, who turn against each other.
Rpt. without the subtitle in Apocalypse Now: Poems and Prose from the End of Days. Ed. Andrew McFadyen and Alexander Lumans (Nashville, TN: Upper Rubber Boot, 2012), 12-24.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Adventures of the Cool Seven: A Utopian Novel - Roslynn Webb Cady (AuthorHouse, 2008)
New Age eutopia. See also 1998 Cady. A related work is her The Final Quantum: A New Thought Novel. North Charleston, SC: Create Space Independent Publishing Platform in conjunction with RosTer Publications Cañon City, CO., 2016.
Rev. as Somewhere: A Fantastical Spiritual Adventure. North Charleston, SC: Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future - Thomas Nevins (Ballantine Books, 2008)
Dystopia in which a political party created by the very top financial elite takes over the U.S. economic and political system. The old, known as Coots, are shipped off to “retirement” communities, people were allowed to discard a child, known as Dyscards who live in subway tunnels, and genetic engineering aims at producing the “perfect” child. The novel focuses on one family where the parents who are Coots, an adult daughter who is a Dyscard, and an adult daughter who is a leading genetic engineer and depicts both the complex dystopia and the struggle against it. It ends with the Coots, who have been expelled from the communities they were sent to organizing themselves into a functioning community, and the Dyscards effectively defeating the Conglomerate in the New York City area.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Alone With an Inconvenient Companion" - Jack [Anthony] Skillingstead (b. 1955) (Fast Forward, 2008)
Dystopia. The story is about the way in which humans are replacing their biological parts with mechanical ones, and it is set in a society that is constantly monitoring and correcting everyone.
Keywords: Male author; US author

American Rules - Stephen Gray (b. 1957) (Book Guild, 2008)
The novel is set in a future where England, Scotland, and Wales are affiliated with the United States and what was Northern Ireland is now known as The Counties and is locally ruled “in voluntary association with the United States and Ireland.” There is “Mandatory Information” on the use of certain words on vii that includes the words quoted and a “Limited Dictionary” on 278-79.
Keywords: Male author

Anathem - Neal [Town] Stephenson (b. 1959) (William Morrow, 2008)
The novel is set in a world where there is an enclosed eutopian organization for mathematicians who rarely have contact with the outer world and is concerned with a situation in which such contact is essential.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Army of the Republic - Stuart Archer Cohen (b. 1958) (St. Martin's Press, 2008)
Dystopia of powerful corporations and a corrupt government in which one man tries to control all water in the Pacific Northwest and is opposed by the Army of the Republic, a group trying to fight the system.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Arrowhead - Paul Kane (b. 1973) (Abaddon Books, 2008)
A volume in The Afterblight Chronicles series. In this volume, England is seeing struggles amongst warlords for domination of particular areas. A direct sequel is his Arrowland. Oxford, Eng.: Abaddon Books, 2010. For other volumes, see 2006 Spurrier, 2007 Andrews, 2007 Levene, 2008 Bark, 2009 Andrews, 2009 Ewing, 2009 Kane, 2010 Andrews, and 2010 Kane.
Keywords: Male author

"Arties Aren't Stupid" - Tolbert, Jeremiah (Seeds of Change, 2008)
Dystopia of artists in a society where independent art is punished.
Rpt. in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 401-10; 2nd ed. as Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 401-10.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Attached to the Land" - Donald J. Bingle (b. 1954) (Future Americas, 2008)
Libertarian eutopia. The mountain states of the U.S. plus Alaska and western Canada secede and form a new country, the Western Range and Mountains--known as the Range. The central institution, designed in part to keep population growth under control, is that every person must have a certain minimum amount of land, initially provided by parceling out public lands. Those who fall below the minimum are forced to leave. Since the rest of North America is a poverty-stricken, violent dystopia, this rule is effective.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Baby Store" - Gorman, Ed (Future Americas, 2008)
Dystopia brought about by the ability to create designer babies, who must be perfect.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Bad Faith - Philip, Gillian (Strident Publishing, 2008)
Religious dystopia from the point of view of a teenage girl.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

"Bass Fishing With the Enemy" - Daniel Hatch (Otherworldly Maine, 2008)
Dystopia in the U.S. brought about by Homeland Security, which has set up detention camps and completely controls information, even prohibiting watching television from Canada.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Birmingham, 35 Miles - James Braziel (b. 1967) (Bantam Books, 2008)
The dystopia produced by global warming. See also 2009 Braziel.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Black Glass - John [Patrick] Shirley (b. 1954) (Elder Signs Press, 2008)
Cyberpunk dystopia constructed as a mystery novel.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Blind Savior, False Prophet - Joseph DeMarco (AuthorHouse, 2008)
Dystopia written partially in honor of Philip K. Dick (1928-82) and depicting his paranoia through a future prophet who thought he was Dick reincarnated.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Blonde Roots - Bernardine [Anne Mobolaji] Evaristo (b. 1959) (Hamish Hamilton, 2008)
The novel is set in an alternative history in which “whyte Europanes” are captured and enslaved by “blak Aphrikans,” with two of the three sections in the voice of Doris Scagglethorpe (given the slave name Omorenomwara) with the middle section in the voice of Chief Kaga Konata Katamba I, who brands his slaves with his initials, KKK.
U.S. ed. New York: Riverhead Books, 2009. 269 pp.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"Book, Theatre, and Wheel" - Karl Schroeder (b. 1962) (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, 2008)
Religious dystopia..
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

"The Brown Revolution: No longer number two" - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Nature, 2008)
Satire. The global warming and oil crises are solved by using the manure produced by all life to replace oil.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Butt: An Exit Strategy - Will[iam Woodward] Self (b. 1961) (Bloomsbury, 2008)
Dystopian satire using an imaginary country to skewer the modern world.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Caliphate - Tom [Thomas P.] Kratman (b. 1956) (Baen, 2008)
A future Islamic dystopia in Europe contrasted with the eutopia of a free-enterprise America. Includes an anti-Europe and anti-Islam “Afterword” (371-82), called an “Authorial editorial,” that has the subtitle “A World Without Europe (except as a geographic expression” and is something of a rant against liberals and Muslims, who will become the majority in Europe and suppress non-Muslims. The author retired from the U.S. Army in 2006.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Carbon Diaries. 2015 - Saci Lloyd (b. 1967) (Hodder Children's Books, 2008)
Dystopia of global warming and the attempt in Britain, and only Britain, to reduce the burning of carbon. See also 2009 Lloyd.
U.S. ed. New York: Holiday House, 2009.
Keywords: English author; Female author; Welsh author

"The Champagne award: Planning for the Future" - Gregory [Albert] Benford (b. 1941) (Nature, 2008)
Dystopia of government control of permits to have children.
Rpt. in The Best of Gregory Benford. Ed. David G. Hartwell (Burton, MI: Subterranean, 2015), 505-07.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Chinese Opera - Ian Wedde (b. 1946) (Victoria University Press, 2008)
Dystopia showing the effects of global warming on Wellington, New Zealand, including the flooding of much of the central city, the massive displacement of people from other countries, extreme poverty, and the rise of gangs and violence to control the new situation. The story is told from the point of view of an elderly man who had once controlled the area.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

“Circles of Women” - Jeane Orjas (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
A poem describing a lesbian eutopia in fairly general terms but stressing the support the women give each other.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The City of Blind Delight" - Catherynne M[organ] Valente (b. 1979) (Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness, 2008)
Fantasy, but the city in which the story is set is a cockaigne with streets made of food and so forth.
Rpt. in Other Worlds Than These: Stories of Parallel Worlds. Ed John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 487-76.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Clementa - Jim Martin (b. 1937) (Lupine Press, 2008)
A future Italy has broken up into small city states. The focus of the novel is on one of these states that is a dystopia in which there is an underclass that revolts. Another of these states, Cosmopolis, is briefly presented positively.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Collateral Damage” - Jaine Fenn (Subterfuge, 2008)
Dystopia of a society with deep divisions between rich and poor with the poor hired and given perks to kill anyone the leader considers to pose a problem.
Rpt. in Digital Dreams: A Decade of Science Fiction by Women. Ed. Ian Whates ([Weston, Eng.]: NewCon Press, 2016). EBook
Keywords: English author; Female author

"Commentary: America's Chilling Future" - Glenn [Edward Lee] Beck (b. 1964) (CNNPolitics.com, 2008)
Brief description of the dystopia that exists in 2076 because people became too partisan and trusted politicians too much. From a conservative, anti-socialist perspective.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Cry Wolf: A Political Fable - Paul Lake (BenBella Books, 2008)
Dystopia on the model of Orwell's 1945 Animal Farm, where an attempt to create a eutopia that extends to animals beyond the farm fails.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Dance Dance Revolution - Les Freres Corbusier Dance Company (2008)
Dystopia where dance is outlawed. Musical based on Japanese music of the title. See the film and play “Footloose” for a treatment of the same subject but limited to a school. See the note in The New York Times (December 24, 2017): Arts & Leisure, 4.
Play first performed in New York City December 3, 2008, directed by Alex Timbers (b. 1978)

Dawn Over Doomsday - Jaspre Bark (b. 1969) (Abaddon Books, 2008)
A volume in The Afterblight Chronicles series. Dystopia of cults in conflict with Native Americans trying to reclaim the U.S. For other volumes, see 2006 Spurrier, 2007 Andrews, 2007 Levene, 2008 Kane, 2009 Ewing, 2009 Andrews, 2009 Kane, 2010 Andrews, and 2010 Kane.
Keywords: Male author

"The Day Out" - Christopher [David Tully] Hope (b. 1944) (The Garden of Bad Dreams, 2008)
Dystopia. The story is particularly concerned with genetic engineering. While the people are healthy and have long lives, they live in a world where food animals have been engineered for less fat and more flavor, the trees are dying, being out in the sun is dangerous, and whole areas have been depopulated by viral infections. Those remaining in such areas could not leave and depended on food drops from China. No medical care for any condition that could conceivably be the fault of the person. All the poets had been shot.
Keywords: Male author; South African author; Ukrainian author

Deadly Verdict - Andrew Neiderman (b. 1940) (Severn House, 2008)
Dystopia. Mystery novel set in a future where the jury system has been replaced by professional jurors trained to make decisions objectively. The jurors and their families are being murdered.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Dee Dee Does Utopia - Deborah Faye Lawrence (b. 1952) (Marquand Books, 2008)
Art book with each page given to a different satirical depiction of a utopia plus two separate pages of comments by others.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Diamond of Darkhold - Jeanne DuPrau (b. 1944) (Random House, 2008)
Fourth book in the Ember series. See also 2003 and 2004 DuPrau. The Prophet of Yonwood. New York: Random House, 2006 is a prequel to the series. In this volume, the protagonists revisit Ember.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Digital Destiny. A Novel - Jeromie Carr (b. 1980); James Dunn (iUniverse, 2008)
Dystopia of violent conflict between those favoring and opposing technology in a high-tech future.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Digital Plague - Jeff Somers (b. 1971) (Orbit, 2008)
Dystopia of a nanotech plague. Sequel to 2007 Somers.
U.K. ed. London: Orbit, 2008.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Dreamer - Paul L. Bates (Five Star, 2008)
Authoritarian dystopia and the resistance movement. Companion to 2005 Bates and is set in roughly the same timeframe. Considerable fantasy.
Keywords: Male author

Dreams of a Lesbian Feminist Utopia” - Tanager [pseud.] (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
A brief lesbian eutopia that stresses what the eutopia no longer has with the end of phallocracy.
Keywords: Female author

Ecumensus: The Next Vision. A Novel - Clifford Lane Mark (iUniverse, 2008)
Spiritual novel developing visions for the period 2010-2019, a period which is expected to include the end of the current Age. Ecumensus means “Hold to and act on a vision of unity for the world.”
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Egg Man - Carlton Mellick III (b. 1977) (Avant Punk, 2008)
Urban, industrial dystopia in the sub-genre known as Bizarro. People reproduce like insects and the corporations own all children.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Enduring Childhood" - Marion Bernard (Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine, 2008)
Dystopia in which children are kept young.
Keywords: Female author

Escape - Manjula Padmanabhan (b. 1953) (Picador, 2008)
Feminist dystopia of a world with no females and the difficulties of the one girl born. See 2015 Padmanabhan for a sequel.
Keywords: Female author; Indian author

Escape from Hell! - Hal Duncan (b. 1971) (MonkeyBrain Books, 2008)
Dystopia. Four damned souls decide to escape from Hell, which is a version of New York City. They defeat both devils and angels and escape, leading all of the rest of the damned out.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

"Evidence of Love In a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter's Account" - M[ary Beth] Rickert (b. 1959) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 2008)
Dystopia in which all women who ever had an abortion are being systematically publicly executed.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 3. Ed. Jonathan Strahan (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2009), 409-16; in her Holiday (Urbana, IL: Golden Gryphon Press, 2010), 65-74; and in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 39-46; 2nd ed. as Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 39-46.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Eyes of God" - Peter [Francis] Watts (b. 1958) (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction Volume Two, 2008)
Technology that reads the brain can detect possible deviance and at least temporarily correct it. The story focuses of a potential pedophile who sees the technology negatively, but it could also be read positively.
Rpt. in his Beyond the Rift (San Francisco, CA: Tachyon, 2013), 107-16.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

"The Fifth Star in the Southern Cross" - Margo Lanagan (b. 1960) (Dreaming Again, 2008)
Dystopia created by genetic damage and global warming. Strict control on those few who can have genetically clean children, with females who can produce such children kept as breeders. Different women are mothers. Men have almost no sexual outlets.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

Fifty-First State - Hilary [Denham] Bailey (1936-2017) (Severn House, 2008)
Dystopia. Near future poor Britain controlled by the U.S.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"Filling the Isles" - Tim Jones (b. 1959) (Transported: Short Stories, 2008)
Very brief dystopia of extreme overpopulation with standing room only.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

"Forever Mommy" - David Grace (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 2008)
Flawed utopia in which everyone wears an "Advisor" from about seven on that instructs them in correct behavior but which most people find very irritating.

“Full Moon in the Park” - Sonia [Ann] Johnson (b. 1936) (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
Brief eutopia in which femaleness unites all creatures.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Gambler" - Paolo [Tadini] Bacigalupi (b. 1972) (Fast Forward, 2008)
Dystopia of instant communication with over-reliance on the internet. A sub-theme is environmental collapse.
Rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twentieth-Sixth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner Dozois (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2009), 32-49 with an editor’s introduction on 32; and in Twenty-First Century Science Fiction. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden (New York: Tor, 2013), 51-72.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gasoline - [Darcy Megan] [Stanger] (b. 1971) (Merrell, 2008)
Post-apocalyptic graphic novel in which one family searches for gasoline and must confront violent nihilists. The family develops a new, better life that is more in touch with nature.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Gather" - Christopher Rowe (b. 1969) (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Sixteen Original Works by Speculative Fiction's Finest Voices, 2008)
Religious dystopia in which God lives on one side of a river and the people live on the other. Only clergy are allowed to go to God’s side of the river where the only fertile soil is found. It is unclear just who or what God is, but when the protagonist, Gather, and a friend find an image of God, the decide to return it to God’s side.
Rpt. in his Telling the Map: Stories Easthampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2017), 83-95.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Geriatric Ward" - Orson Scott Card (b. 1951) (Keeper of Dreams, 2008)
Dystopia of a short intense life.
Rpt. Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 385-99; 2nd ed. as Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 385-99.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Ghost Jail" - Kaaron Warren (b. 1965) (2012, 2008)
Largely a horror story, but it is set in an authoritarian dystopia aiming to control all speech.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

Glister - John Burnside (b. 1955) (Jonathan Cape, 2008)
Ecological and authoritarian dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse - Victor Gischler (b. 1969) (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 2008)
Post-catastrophe dystopia in which the only "civilization" left in the U.S. appears to be a chain of strip clubs.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gone - Michael Grant (Harper Teen, 2008)
The first volume in a long. young adult dystopian series in which everyone over fifteen disappears. Sequels are Hunger. A Gone Novel. New York: Harper Teen, 2009; Lies: A Gone Novel. New York: HarperCollins/Katherine Tegan Books, 2010; Plague. A Gone Novel. New York: HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2011; Fear. A Gone Novel. New York: HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2012; Light: A Gone Novel. New York: HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2013. An additional trilogy set a few years later includes Monster. New York: HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2017; Villain. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2018; and Hero. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2019.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Gone-Away World - [Nicholas] [Cornwall] (b. 1972) (William Heinemann, 2008)
Dystopia of a postwar world divided between a livable zone and the rest.
U.S. ed. New York: Alfred K. Knopf, 2008.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Gool - Maurice [Gough] Gee (b. 1931) (Puffin Books, 2008)
Sequel to 2007 Gee. Young adult fantasy adventure set in a post-catastrophe dystopia where young people must defeat a being from outside nature that is destroying what is left of New Zealand. See also 2010 Gee.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

"Greenland" - Chris Beckett (b. 1955) (Interzone, 2008)
Global warming dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Grid - Jeremy Reed (b. 1951) (Peter Owen, 2008)
Dystopia in which London has merged with Tokyo under a Commissar. Background to a novel about the Elizabethans and the murder of Christopher Marlowe (1564-93).
Keywords: English author; Male author

Half a Crown - Jo Walton (b. 1964) (Tor, 2008)
Sequel to 2006 and 2007 Walton. In this volume, the conspiracy to free England begins to succeed. A story set in the same future is her “Escape to Other Worlds With Science Fiction.” Tor.com Posted February 6, 2009. https://www.tor.com/2009/02/06/escape-to-other-worlds-with-science-fiction/ Rpt. in Twenty-First Century Science Fiction. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden (New York: Tor, 2013), 523-30; and in her Starlings (San Francisco, CA: Tachyon, 2018), 102-13, which depicts alternative future dystopia in which, among other things, the depression continues, the New Deal had failed, Jews are being hunted in the U.S., and an atomic bomb has been dropped on Miami.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author; Welsh author

The Half Healed - Michael Symmons Roberts (b. 1969) (Cape Poetry, 2008)
A sequence of poems, many previously published or broadcast, depicting the dystopia of contemporary violence. “Last Words” which appears twelve different poems throughout the text, are abbreviated telephone calls on 9/11 and were commission by BBC Radio 4 to mark the anniversary of the attacks.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Horse Racing" - Mary Rosenblum (1952-2018) (Asimov's Science Fiction, 2008)
The story describes a future in which people purchase the opportunity to direct the lives of potentially talented or talented people without their knowledge. While it appears clearly dystopian most of the people get better lives than they would have otherwise.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The House Left Empty" - Robert [David] Reed (b. 1956) (Asimov's Science Fiction, 2008)
Post-catastrophe eutopia of decentralized areas, called Self-Governing Districts.
Rpt. in Year's Best SF 14. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (New York: Eos, 2009), 274-93 with an editors' note on 273.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"How Community Values Conquered Climate Change. A Future History" - Malcolm Hollick (COMMUNITIES: Life in Cooperative Culture, 2008)
Written as if from 2050 when, after some major problems caused by climate change, there was a shift in values that allowed the world to deal with the issue and begin the process of building a good society.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (b. 1962) (Scholastic Press, 2008)
First volume in a young adult dystopian series set in a future North American dictatorship where people are kept on the edge of starvation. The Hunger Games are an annual contest in which each community must send a boy and a girl to fight in an arena until only one survives. In the second volume, Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic Press, 2009, having won the games by breaking the rules, the protagonists become the focus of resentment. In the third volume, Mockingjay. New York: Scholastic Press, 2010, a rebellion unfolds. A prequel is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. New York: Scholastic Press, 2020. The first in a film series was released in 2012, directed by Gary Ross (b. 1956) from a screenplay by Collins, Ross, and Billy Ray. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was released in 2013, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 in 2014, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 in 2015. All three were directed by Francis Lawrence (b. 1971). The screenplay for Catching Fire was written by Simon Beaufoy (b. 1967) and Michael Arndt and screenplays for the two Mockingjay films by [Daniel W.] Danny Strong (b. 1974) and Peter Craig (1969). A film, also directed by Lawrence, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes with a screenplay by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt was released November 5, 2923 in Berlin and November 17, 2023 in the United States. For a parody, see [Aaron Geary and John Bailey Owen], The Hunger but Mainly Death Games. A Parody. By Bratniss Everclean [pseud.] London: Gollancz, 2012.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Hydraulic" - Ekaterina Sedia (b. 1970) (Spicy Slipstream Stories, 2008)
Environmental dystopia. Power is produced from rain, and it rains constantly. Almost everything has been privatized, and even recharging batteries is illegal.
Rpt. in Dark Futures [Subtitle on the cover Tales of SF Dystopia]. Ed. Jason Sizemore (Howell, NJ: Dark Quest Books, 2010), 226-37.
Keywords: Female author; Russian author; US author

Imagining America in 2033: How the Country Put Itself Together after Bush - Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927) (University of Michigan Press, 2008)
Designed to be a "realistic utopia" written from the perspective of a liberal. Imagines four presidential administrations and their policies. Depicts a fairer more egalitarian America.
Keywords: German author; Male author; US author

"In From the Snow" - Len Battersby (b. 1970 (Dreaming Again, 2008)
Dystopia based on the stories of Sawney Bean, the legendary fifteenth-sixteenth century Scottish cannibal.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

“In Unison” - Nicole M. (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
Lesbian eutopia with an emphasis on community. Acceptance of difference. A lesbian language has developed, but it is not described. Satisfying work in good conditions. Many work cooperatives. Lots of festivals. Men are castrated.
Keywords: African American author; Female author

Irreconcilable Differences - James R. Strickland (Flying Pen, 2008)
Corporate dystopia in a disintegrated U.S. The corporations are active both on the ground and in cyberspace to keep their power.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Jemma 7729 - Pheobe Wray (Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2008)
Authoritarian dystopia in which most of the population live in domed cities and believe that the outside is uninhabitable. Each person must publicly choose their future life. Lone rebel. A sequel is J2. Howell, NJ: DTF Publications, 2012.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Jesus Runs" - George Zebrowski (b. 1945) (Future Americas, 2008)
Religious dystopia in which a clone of Jesus plans to run for President of the United States, which had fragmented as power had shifted to the states. The Supreme Court had become irrelevant as a result of partisan decisions, but since there were a dozen clones, it got involved.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Jigsaw Chronicles - Kevin Ireland (Cape Catley Ltd, 2008)
Dystopia. A man finds himself in an alternative world where the idea of a "permanent revolution" of Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) has succeeded and produced a repressive society.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Juno of Taris - Fleur Beale (b. 1945) (Random House New Zealand, 2008)
Young adult dystopia. Taris is an experiment in survival in which an island has been domed and provided with flora and fauna and 500 people when much of the world is destroyed in conflicts. Over time it has developed an authoritarian and conformist ethos. The novel is about a girl who does not fit and who is interested in what has happened Outside. Much of the novel is concerned with growing internal struggles and ends with contact with the Outside being reestablished. See also 2010 and 2011 Beale.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Female author

"Kemistry" - Terry Grimwood (The Future Fire: Social Political & Speculative Cyber-Fiction, 2008)
In the story a woman and her husband return to the UK and discover that while they were gone, divorce was made illegal and applied retroactively. The woman, thus, is still married to her abusive husband, and her children by her second husband are considered illegitimate and will be put into care.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

Kilimanjaro: A Fable of Utopia - Mike [Michael Diamond] Resnick (1942-2020) (Subterranean Press, 2008)
In 2122 the Eutopian worlds were terraformed in orbit around the Earth and seventy-three groups were allowed to create their utopia. The Prologue (7-9) refers to the failures of a few and mentions that some flourished and others failed for a variety of reasons. Here the focus is on the evolution of a Maasai utopia  that they call Kilimanjaro showing a series of decisions that had to be made to reconcile Maasai traditions to current conditions. A companion to 1998 Resnick, Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia, and the Maasai had studied the mistakes made by the Kikuyu as described in that volume. At the time of this work, Kirinyaga still functions but no longer with a utopian vision.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Killing Fields" - Lakin-Smith, Kim (Celebration: An anthology of original short stories commemorating the 50th anniversary of the British Science Fiction Association, 2008)
Post-catastrophe dystopia of violence.
Rpt. in Digital Dreams: A Decade of Science Fiction by Women. Ed. Ian Whates ([Weston], Eng.: NewCon Press, 2016). EBook
Keywords: Female author; UK author

The Knife of Never Letting Go. Chaos Walking: Book One - Patrick Ness (b. 1971) (Walker Books, 2008)
First volume of a dystopian series. People had settled on a new planet and lost a war with the indigenous inhabitants, who had released a germ that made the thoughts of all humans and animals constantly audible. Quiet is discovered, but at the end of this volume, the world is taken over by the authoritarian leaders of the remaining humans. The Ask and the Answer. Chaos Walking: Book Two. London: Walker Books, 2009, the second volume, stresses the struggle against the authoritarian leaders who gained power at the end of the previous volume. In the third volume, Monsters of Men. Chaos Walking: Book Three. London: Walker Books, 2010. U.S. ed. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, [2011], the two protagonists are forced to choose sides.
U.S. ed. New York: Candlewick Press, 2009.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

"The Last Actor" - Mike [Michael Diamond] Resnick (1942-2020); Linda L. Donahue (Future Americas, 2008)
Dystopia brought about by poor quality education and the growth of mass culture.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

Leaving Fortusa: A Novel in Ten Episodes - [Paul le Page] [Barnett] (1949-2020) (Norilana Books, 2008)
Dystopia in ten loosely related chapters. The epigrams to each chapter suggest a connection to the presidency of George W. Bush (2001-09), but much of the action is set in a variety of futures of growing violence and authoritarian governance. There is some suggestion that in the future of the future a better society will be reestablished.
Parts originally published as "The Hard Stuff." Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction. Ed. Neil Williamson and Andrew J. Wilson (Edinburgh, Scot.: Crescent Press, 2005), 229-70; "Q." Sci-Fiction (2004) [No longer available online]; "The Unforbidden Playground." Postscripts, no. 9 (Winter 2006): 54-87; and "The Most Marvelous Story in the Whole Wide World." Whispers of Wickedness [No longer available online].
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

"Let Their People Go: The Left Left Behind" - Terry [Ballantine] Bisson (1942-2024) (Postscripts, 2008)
Satire on the Left Behind series (see 1995 LaHaye and Jenkins) in which the capitalists, conservatives, and religious bigots  are removed, which allows the remaining people to begin to create a cooperative, world-wide eutopia.
Rpt. as “The Left Left Behind: ‘Let Their People Go!’” In his The Left Left Behind: ‘Let Their People Go!’ plus Special Relativity and ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ Outspoken Interview (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2009), 11-48.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Letter From Utopia” - Nick Bostrom (b. 1973) (Studies in Ethics, Law and Technology [An online journal], 2008)
A letter from a posthuman future. Very general and mostly on the problems of the present.
Keywords: Male author; Swedish author; UK author

Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America - Brian Francis Slattery (b. 1975) (Tor, 2008)
Humorous dystopia of the economic collapse of the U.S.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Life Without Crows” - Gerri Leen (Life Without Crows and Other Stories, 2008)
Post-catastrophe (disease/pandemic) dystopia as seen through the eyes of one of a group of survivors who have lived an isolated life in the mountains for hundreds of years and perceive it as a good life.
Originally published in Fusion Fragment. Ed. Cavan Terrill (2008), an on line journal that is no longer available.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Little Brother - Cory [Efram] Doctorow (b. 1971) (Tor Teen, 2008)
Young adult dystopia of U.S. Home Security targeting San Francisco because the administration sees it as too liberal. Home Security is fought by a group of teenage hackers with some success and ends with the administration freeing those responsible and the hackers continuing their opposition. The title refers to “Big Brother” in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. First volume in a loosely connected series; see also his Homeland (2013) and Attack Surface (2020). A related novella is his “Lawful Interception.” Illus. Yuko Shimizu. Tor.com. http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/08/lawful-interception.
Rpt. in Little Brother & Homeland (New York: Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, 2020), 11-317, with an “Introduction” by Edward Snowden (7-9).
Keywords: Canadian author; English author; Male author

Looking for Mr Piggy-Wig - Andy [Andrew] Secombe (b. 1953) (Macmillan, 2008)
Dystopia as background to a detective story. After the Second Battle of Britain, Britain is poor and has rationing, and the world is experiencing the effects of severe global warming.
Keywords: Male author; Welsh author

"Lost Arts" - Stephen Dedman (b. 1959) (Dreaming Again, 2008)
Technological eutopia on a planet colony of Earth that is benevolently controlled by Artificial Intelligences. The focus of the story is how to deal with aberrant behavior in a eutopia.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

The Lost Colours of the Chameleon - Mandla Langa (b. 1950) (Picador Africa, 2008)
The novel is set in the fictitious country, Bangula, which was supposed to become a eutopia but is faced with all the usual problems of an ex-colony. Satire on the politics of developing nations set on an island after the founder, who had a vision of transforming the lives of the inhabitants, dies.
Keywords: Male author; South African author

"Lost Continent" - Greg[ory Mark] Egan (b. 1961) (The Starry Rift: Tales of New Tomorrows. An Original Science Fiction Anthology, 2008)
Dystopia of the then current situation in Iraq and the refugee crisis it caused projected into the future.
Rpt. in his Crystal Nights and Other Stories Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2009), 11-37.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Love in the Time of Fridges - Tim Scott (b. 1962) (Bantam Spectra, 2008)
Dystopia of a future Seattle, Washington, a walled city, that has become obsessed with health and safety. Considerable humor. There are refrigerators hoping to escape to Mexico where electric goods have rights, and they help the protagonist to bring freedom to Seattle. See also 2007 Scott.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

Man in the Dark - Paul Auster (b. 1947) (Holt, 2008)
Dystopia. A story told by the central character is set in a parallel America in which the 2000 Presidential election led to secession and civil war.
UK ed. London: Faber and Faber, 2008.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Man of the Strong Arm" - Adam [Charles] Roberts (b. 1965) (Celebration: An anthology of original short stories commemorating the 50th anniversary of the British Science Fiction Association, 2008)
Dystopia with elements of satire on SF. The dystopia is a male chauvinist society that honors the strongest man and keeps most men in ignorance. Women are essentially slaves, but there is a strong women's underground.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Manumission" - Tobias S[amuel] Buckell (b. 1979) (Lightspeed, 2008)
Dystopia of a future where individuals are enslaved by corporations.
Originally published online in Jim Baen's Universe 2.6 (12) (April 2008) but no longer available online. Rpt. in Lightspeed: Year One. Ed. John Joseph Adams ([New York]: Prime Books, 2011), 70-85.
Keywords: British Virgin Islands author; Grenadian author; Male author; US author; US Virgin Islands author

Marseguro - Edward Willett (b. 1959) (DAW Books, 2008)
First volume of a duology of a eutopia and dystopia in conflict. The dystopia is a theocratic Earth. The eutopia is the planet Marseguro, where unmodified humans and the water dwelling Selkies live in peaceful harmony. The second volume is Terra Insegura. New York: DAW Books, 2009 Marseguro becomes essential to Earth’s survival. Marseguro won the 2015 Aurora Award for Best Novel. They were published together in The Helix War New York: DAW Books, 2012.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Martin Martin's on the Other Side - Mark Wernham (Jonathan Cape, 2008)
Dystopia. Most people are employed by the state and spend their lives paying off their student loans. Pornography and recreational drugs are freely available.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Matter - Iain M[enzies] Banks (1954-2013) (Orbit, 2008)
Large novel set in Banks's Culture that includes a small amount of explicitly eutopian description of the Culture. See 1987 and 1988 Banks.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

“The Mauvety” - Ida VSA Red (b. 1933) (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
Lesbian eutopia where the elderly meet the young, who will take on their burdens.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Mitigation" - Karl Schroeder (b. 1962); Tobias S[amuel] Buckell (b. 1979) (Fast Forward 2, 2008)
Environmental dystopia designed to keep people ignorant.
Rpt. in Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction. Ed. John Joseph Adams (New York: Saga Press, 2015), 527-55.
Keywords: Canadian author; Grenadian author; Male author; US author

Mother Puncher - Gina Ranalli (Afterbirth Books, 2008)
Dystopia of an authoritarian government in an overpopulated world. The focus of the novel is a man working in a hospital fulfilling the role of the title.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Moxyland - Lauren [Ann] Beukes (b. 1976) (Jacana Media, 2008)
Dystopia of corporate control set in Cape Town, South Africa in 2018. In an interview published in Locus 74.1 (648) (January 2015): 48, the author has called it an “apartheid allegory”.
Rpt. London: Angry Robot, 2009.
Keywords: Female author; South African author

"Murder in Geektopia" - Paul [Gerard] Di Filippo (b. 1954) (Sideways in Crime: An Alternative Mystery Anthology, 2008)
A eutopia for Geeks with a stress on technology and popular culture in an alternative future of world peace.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"My Utopia" - Ruth Mountaingrove (1923-2016) (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
The author describes her Arcadian utopia as having no men with, as in 1915 Gilman, parthenogenesis; no money, which is replaced by barter; and no private property. Women would be able to have work they loved. All children would be welcomed and cared for. There would be peace and harmony with a council deciding any “small disputes.” No lawyers. Healing wise women instead of doctors. No religion.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Nelson Gregory's 2084 - Nelson Gregory [pseud.] (Frequent Flyer Books & Music, 2008)
Dystopia in which all power has been concentrated in the presidency and, in an anti-terrorist move, the president orders U.S. forces to attack and kill Muslims living in the U.S., including U.S. citizens.
Keywords: US author

Neptune's Children - Bonnie Dobkin (Walker, 2008)
Post-catastrophe dystopia with only children surviving on an island theme park.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Night Children - Kit [Lilian Craig] Reed (1932-2017) (Starscape/Tor, 2008)
Young adult dystopia of children living in a huge mall and coming out only at night.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Night Sessions - Ken[nth Macrae] MacLeod (b. 1954) (Orbit, 2008)
Conflict over religion in which Christians had used nuclear weapons on the U.S. Partially set in New Zealand, which is presented generally positively.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

"Nightship" - Kim Westwood (Dreaming Again, 2008)
Post-catastrophe dystopia set in an environmentally devastated Australia where the different groups are at constant war and slavery and violence are standard. Very few women are born, and they are used for breeding.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

"No Other Country" - Shaun [Chi Yeong] Tan (b. 1974) (Tales From Outer Suburbia, 2008)
Eutopia in words and illustrations describing an "inner courtyard" hidden in all the homes of an otherwise dreary country. The "inner courtyard" is an enclosed garden with seasons opposite to those of the country.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

“Novel Excerpt: And the Women Take Over Jerusalem” - [Betty Susan] Weinbaum (b. 1952) (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
Pretty much what the title says.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Other Side of the Island - Allegra Goodman (b. 1967) (Razorbill, 2008)
Young adult dystopia where having more than one child merits punishment.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Our Flag Was Still There" - Steven Mohan Jr. (Future Americas, 2008)
Dystopia in which each antagonistic ethnic, ideological, political, or religious group was isolated in separate virtual "Habitats".
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Pacification of Earth - Dean Warren (Xlibris, 2008)
Dystopia. Mostly a future war story, but it begins in a future overpopulation dystopia and proceeds through the war to the suggestion of a better future.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The pair-bond imperative: What's Love Got to do with it?" - Jennifer Rohn (b. 1967) (Nature, 2008)
A space colony establishes a rigid procreation system, and the story is about love interfering with it.
Keywords: Female author; UK author; US author

Pandemonium in 2012 - Lee [Leland W.] Cross (Virginia City Publishing, 2008)
Dystopia of a future U.S. under the usual politicians is challenged by patriots.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Payback” - Margaret [Eleanor] Atwood (b. 1939) (Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, 2008)
In the book Atwood reflects on the nature of debt and the debtor creditor relationship from a number of different perspectives, primarily in literature and myth. In the last chapter, “Payback” (163-203), she presents a twenty-first century Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (). This “Scrooge Nouveau,” as she calls him, owns multiple corporations, and is only concerned with more and more money and has no interest in the damage his actions inflict on other people or the planet. The first spirit is the Spirit of Earth Day Past who shows him how Earth was nurtured in various cultures but also shows him the Black Death and other ways humans negatively impacted the Earth. The Spirit of Earth Day Present shows him various contemporary disasters-in-the making. Finally, the Spirit of Earth Day Future multiple possible futures. In one, the human race is extinct. Finally, alternative futures are present, one in which the Earth is recovering and the other in which there is a food shortage, inflation has destroyed Scrooge’s wealth, and he is in danger of starvation.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

"Peculiar Bone, Unimaginable Key" - Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (Celebration: An anthology of original short stories commemorating the 50th anniversary of the British Science Fiction Association, 2008)
Dystopia in which Europe and the Islamic countries have agreed to end conflict with Europe agreeing to ban alcohol and the Islamic countries agree to end honor killing.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Perfect Choice - John W. Herbert (Vantage Press, 2008)
A couple is taken into space by a UFO and spends time on a eutopian planet where people are still improving mentally by accepting the love of God. It is hoped that the couple can bring that message back to Earth.
Keywords: Male author

The Philosopher's Apprentice - James [Kenneth] Morrow (b. 1947) (William Morrow, 2008)
Near future dystopias created by both sides in struggles over genetic engineering. One dystopia is an extrapolation of the growing political power of fundamentalist Christians in the U.S. The other dystopia is brought about by a genetic experiment by women trying to create a eutopia.
Rpt. with an added, separately paged section "P.S. Insights, Interviews & More. . ." at the end. New York: Harper Perennial, 2009.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Pisstown Chaos. A Novel - David Ohle (b. 1941) (Soft Skull Press, 2008)
Religious dystopia. Sequel to 2004 Ohle.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Plague of Doves - [Karen] Louise Erdrich (b. 1954) (HarperCollins, 2008)
Includes a section on a dystopian religious intentional community.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Plan C" - Tricia Sullivan (b. 1968) (’68: New Stories from Children of the Revolution, 2008)
A story of a girl escaping an authoritarian dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; UK author; US author

"The Protocol: Your children deserve the best" - Ralph Greco [Jr.] (Nature, 2008)
Dystopia. Children are genetically manipulated after birth to produce what their parents want.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Publicani - Zak Maymin (CreateSpace Publishing, 2008)
Dystopia focusing on one family's response to an authoritarian government that wants to take even one's intellect.
Keywords: Male author; Russian author; US author

"Pump Six" - Paolo [Tadini] Bacigalupi (b. 1972) (Pump Six and Other Stories, 2008)
Dystopia. General environmental collapse which has led to a biological and intellectual collapse among humans.
Rpt. in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 115.3 (676) (September 2008): 9-43; and in Year's Best SF 14. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (New York: Eos, 2009), 106-43 with an editors' note on 105 .
Keywords: Male author; US author

Reality Crash - Lou Grantt; Cyd Ropp (Authors, 2008)
Dystopia in which most people subscribe to a virtual reality network that hides the horrors of the real world.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Reaver's Ransom - Emily Diamand (b. 1971) (Chicken House UK, 2008)
Post-apocalyptic young adult dystopia set in twenty-third century England experiencing the effects of global warming. See also 2010 Diamand.
Rpt. as Flood Child. Frome, Eng.: Chicken House, 2009. U.S. ed. as Raider's Ransom. New York: Chicken House Scholastic, 2009.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"Remembering" - Jody Jewdyke (Sinister Wison, 2008)
The eutopia that developed after all the males and their destructiveness disappeared. Direct communication with animals. Telepathy and telekinesis. Simple life in tune with the Earth. Acceptance of difference.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

"Resistance" - Tobias S[amuel] Buckell (b. 1979) (Seeds of Change, 2008)
The problems faced by those resisting a technological solution to decision making where neither approach is particularly good.
Keywords: British Virgin Islands author; Grenadian author; Male author; US author

The Resistance - Gemma Malley (Bloomsbury, 2008)
Sequel to 2007 Malley in which the young protagonists of that novel continue to fight the authoritarian dystopia. See also 2010 Malley, The Legacy and The Returners.
Keywords: English author; Female author

"Revolt of the Ultraists!" - Richard A. Becker (Spicy Slipstream Stories, 2008)
Dystopia of a collapsed city. Violence, new drugs, intrusive advertising.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Roar - Emma Clayton (b. 1968) (Chicken House, 2008)
Young adult overpopulation dystopia. See also 2012 Clayton.
U.S. ed. New York: Chicken House/Scholastic, 2009.
Keywords: Female author; UK author

"Rooftops of Manila" - Crystal Gail Shangkuan Koo (Philippine Speculative Fiction. Volume 4: Literature of the Fantastic, 2008)
Dystopia of extreme rich/poor divisions.
Repub. as an ebook. Quezon City, Philippines: Flipside Digital Content Co. and Kestrel IMC, 2017.
Keywords: Female author; Filipina author

Rx for Chaos - [Harry C.] [Crosby] [Jr.] (1925-2009) (Baen Books, 2008)
Satire on the problems that arise from a drug that makes everyone happy all the time.
A collection of related stories published previously as "Rx for Chaos." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 72.6 (February 1964): 72-80; "Cinderella, Inc." Imagination 3.7 (December 1952): 72-75 as Crosby; "Roll Out the Rolov!" Imagination 4.10 (November 1953): 96-103 as Crosby; "The New Boccaccio." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 64.5 (January 1965): 74-77; "Is Everybody Happy?" Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction Science Fact--Science Fiction 81.2 (April 1968): 67-85; "A Handheld Primer." Amazing Science Fiction Stories 51.2 (January 1978): 32-39; "The Great Intellect Boom." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction Science Fact--Science Fiction 83.5 (July 1969): 38-55; "Interesting Times." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 107.12 (December 1987): 104-16; "Superbiometalemon." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 63.1 (374) (July 1982): 37-43; "Speed-Up!" Amazing Stories 38.1 (January 1964): 6-32; "Rags from Riches." Amazing Stories 62.4 (537) (November 1987): 122-27; "Bugs." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 106.6 (June 1986): 90-113; "Positive Feedback." 75.6 Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction (August 1965): 47-63; "Two-Way Communication." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 77.3 (May 1966): 72-83; "High G." Worlds of If Science Fiction 15.6 (91) (June 1965): 76-100; "Doc's Legacy." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 108.2 (February 1988): 158-83; "Negative Feedback." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 114.4 (March 1994): 58-73; "The New Way." Beyond Infinity 1.1 (November/December 1967): 150-60; "Identification." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 57.3 (May 1961): 8-32; "The Golden Years." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 107.3 (March 1977): 110-20; "No Small Enemy." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 68.3 (November 1961): 7-51; and "Not in the Literature." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 71.1 (March 1963): 60-66.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Santa Fe in 2028” - Pelican Lee (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
A eutopian Santa Fe with no patriarchy, no racism, no gender discrimination in a world at peace. No poverty. Corporations broken up and replaced by small businesses.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Sapphique - Catherine Fisher (b. 1957) (Hodder Children's Books, 2008)
Sequel to 2007 Fisher in which one boy escapes from the prison but his brother is still imprisoned.
Keywords: Female author; Welsh author

"Seniorsource" - Kristine Kathryn Rusch (b. 1960) (Fast Forward, 2008)
SF story with a dystopian background. Generational conflict has placed many old people in orbiting satellites or on the moon with settlement of Mars in process. This has impoverished Earth. “The old were warehoused with the  terminally ill, and depending on how much money they had, they either got personal care or they didn’t” (275).
Keywords: Female author; US author

Shadow Web - N[icola] M[athews] Browne (b. 1960) (Bloomsbury, 2008)
Alternative history set in London in which the Cold War produced an authoritarian dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Female author

Shark Hunting in Paradise Garden - Cameron Pierce (b. 1988) (Eraserhead Press, 2008)
Satire in the Bizarro mode on the Garden of Eden, which is visited by religious fanatics from the future who find that it is nothing like they expected.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Shift - Charlotte Agell (b. 1959) (Henry Holt, 2008)
Young adult religious dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; Swedish author; US author

Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat: An Epic Cycle of Short Plays - Mark Ravenhill (b. 1966) (Methuen Drama, 2008)
Dystopia. Sixteen very short plays plus an Appendix that publishes the revised radio version of one of the plays. Many of the plays are explicitly dystopian focusing on violence and war; others depict authoritarian dystopias.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Sideways (Excerpt from forthcoming novel, Compostable)" - Sharon Wachsler (b. 1969) (Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures, 2008)
Dystopia extrapolated from current political and social conditions, particularly a projection of extreme discrimination against the disabled.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Sins of the Assassin. A Novel - Robert Ferrigno (b. 1948) (Scribner, 2008)
Dystopia. Sequel to 2006 Ferrigno. See also 2009 Ferrigno. In this volume, the U.S. disintegrates further, and factions fight each other in all of its segments.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Sky Inside - Clare B[unkalew] Dunkle (b. 1964) (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008)
Flawed utopia of genetically engineered children living in a suburban dome, which is supposed to be eutopian, and the need for one of the children to venture outside. See also 2009 Dunkle.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Soft Viscosity" - David Conyers (b. 1971) (2012, 2008)
Dystopia that oil companies and the U.S. create to be able to build pipelines in the indigenous areas of Ecuador.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

“Spider the Artist” - Nnedi[mma Nkemdili]] Okorafor-Mbachu (b. 1974) (Seeds of Change, 2008)
The story is set in a near future Nigeria where the oil copies have developed AIs to protect their pipelines from people breaching them by killing the people. Only the government and the wealthy get any benefit from the oil, and the land is badly polluted.
Rpt. as by Nnedi[mma Nkemdili] Okorafor in The Mammoth Book of SF Stories By Women. Ed. Alex Dally Macfarlane (London: Robinson/Philadelphia, PA: Running Press. 2014), 57-70; and in Lightspeed Magazine, no. 122 (July 2020). https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/spider-the-artist/
Keywords: African American author; Female author

Sputnik Caledonia - Andrew Crumey (b. 1961) (Picador, 2008)
Alternative history dystopia in which, after World War II, Scotland is Communist and has its own space program. Part of the novel focuses on the Installation, a dystopia within the dystopia which is a military controlled space center.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

Stretto: Book Five of the Marq'ssan Cycle - L[inda] Timmel Duchamp (b. 1950) (Aqueduct Press, 2008)
Final volume. See also 2005, 2006, and 2007 (2) Duchamp. This volume stresses the utopian elements, basically feminist and liberal, but the various political struggles continue, and there is no clear resolution at the end.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Suffer the Children" - Barbara Nickless (Future Americas, 2008)
Dystopia in which children are kept as slaves in mines.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Switching to Goddess: Humanity’s Ticket into the Future - Jeri Lyn Studebaker (b. 1948) (O Books, 2008)
Mostly a non-fiction exposition of the author’s views on the good society of Neolithic times that she argues was based on goddesses and the problems related to losing the goddess, but the section “The Fix” (238-70) lays out the eutopia she sees arising from “switching to goddess.” It is “peaceful and fiercely environmentally conscious” with communities organized around particular local goddesses who encourage societies that are “playful, risk-taking, sensual, peaceful, and exhilarating.”
Keywords: Female author; US author

"They Came From Next Door" - Kristyn Dunnion (b. 1969) (Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures, 2008)
Dystopia of gay and lesbian capitalism and the revolt against it.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author

They Is Us: A Cautionary Horror Story. Including special supplementary material 'Lonely Bob' by Willow Hunt - Tama Janowitz (b. 1957) (The Friday Project, 2008)
Odd dystopia of extreme pollution, violence, and general decay set in U.S.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away" - Cory [Efram] Doctorow (b. 1971) (2008)
Dystopia seen through the eyes of someone who has been a secular monk living inside a walled compound for sixteen years who has to go out into the world of an authoritarian dystopia where everyone must conform to unstated rules.
Rpt. in Year's Best SF 14. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (New York: Eos, 2009), 202-46 with an editors' note on 201; in Unplugged: The Web's Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy: 2008 Download. Ed. Rich Horton ([Stirling, NJ]: Wyrm Publishing, 2009), 256-95; and in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 197-228.
Keywords: Canadian author; English author; Male author

Tinderbox - Lucy Kirkwood (b. 1984) (Nick Hern Books in association with the Bush Theatre, London, 2008)
Dystopia set in Bradford in a future England that has become separated from Scotland by rising tides. The focus is on a butcher shop in which the butcher grinds up anyone he can get his hands on to keep the supply of meat coming. Play first performed April 23, 2008, at the Bush Theatre directed by Josie Rourke.
Keywords: English author; Female author

The Tomorrow Code - Brian Falkner (b. 1962) (Random House, 2008)
Young adult dystopia in which the future selves of two contemporary teens ask for help in averting the environmental catastrophe that has devastated their world.
Australian ed. Newtown, NSW, Australia: Walker Books Australia, 2008.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Truancy - Isamu Fukui (b. 1990) (Tor, 2008)
School as dystopia. The authoritarian mayor of a city rules the school system and its teachers and students. Revolt by the students. His Truancy Origins. New York: Tor, 2009, is a prequel in which two children are raised by the authoritarian mayor of a city dedicated to a harsh educational system. Truancy City. New York: Tor Teen, 2012, focuses on the struggle between the truants and those controlling the city with the city ultimately abandoned and destroyed. The author was fifteen when he wrote the first novel, and it was published in Italian and Spanish translations before being published in English.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Under the Amoral Bridge. A Cyberpunk Novel Originally told in Serial Blog Form - Gary A. Ballard ([CreateSpace], 2008)
Corporate dystopia. The Know Circuit. The Bridge Chronicles, Book 2. [Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace], 2010 is a sequel. More material can be found at http://www.bridgechronicles.info.
Originally published serially between January and August 2008 on line at http://amoralbridge.blogspot.com.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Unholy Domain - Dan Ronco (Kunati, 2008)
Dystopia. Cyberterrorism produces a world-wide economic collapse and results in conflict between supporters and opponents of technology, with the latter developing into a religion. Preceded by his PeaceMaker. Waterville, OH: Winter Wolf, 2004, which sets the stage for this novel, and followed by 2010 Ronco.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Unnameables - Ellen Booraem (Harcourt, 2008)
Young adult dystopia with fantasy elements about a strict community that only gives names to acceptable things.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Valley of Day-Glo - Nick DiChario (Robert J. Sawyer Books, 2008)
Humorous dystopia set on a future desolate Earth where the protagonist searches for a legendary valley that still has plants and animals.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Valley-Westside War - Harry [Norman] Turtledove (b. 1949) (Tor, 2008)
Young adult dystopia in a series in which travel between parallel timelines, for the purpose of harvesting resources, has become possible in the late 21st century. This volume is set in a post-nuclear war future, Los Angeles is divided into small enclaves that at are at war with.  Other volumes in the series include 2004, 2006, and 2007 Turtledove and two non-utopian volumes, Gunpowder Empire: Crosstime Traffic--Book One. New York: Tor, 2003; and In High Places: Crosstime Traffic--Book Three. New York: Tor, 2006.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Wimmin of Our Dreams” - Jae Haggard (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
Lesbian eutopia. Extract/summary of her book The Wimmin of Our Dreams. Outland, NM: Author, [1995].
Keywords: Female author; US author

“The Womelia of Estesusa” - Ellen Williams (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
A lesbian eutopia with New Age elements that contrasts the over-busy, over-populated, polluted Earth with an alternative peaceful eutopia in which the world is cared for and produces plenty for all.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Wonjjang and the Madman of Pyongyang" - Sellar, Gord (Tesseracts Twelve, 2008)
Korea, North and South, as dystopias but with North Korea especially dystopian, with genetic engineering to meet the leader's whims.
Keywords: Canadian author; Malawian author; Male author; South Korean author

World Made by Hand - James Howard Kunstler (b. 1948) (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008)
Post-catastrophe dystopia of a post-oil America set in Union Grove, NY, with no electricity, few resources, terrorism, bandits, and cults. First of four volumes. The second volume is The Witch of Hebron. A World Made by Hand Novel. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010, which is set a few months in the future. The third volume is A History of the Future: A World Made By Hand Novel. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2014, in which the situation in the United States, which has broken up into three independent countries, is described together with the re-emergence of the traditional American small-town, which is present very positively, albeit with problems. The final volume is The Harrows of Spring: A World Made by Hand Novel. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2016 in which the town is cut off further by a landowner with feudal aspirations and a radical group wants to establish the Berkshire Peoples Republic.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Wylde's Kingdom" - David Nickle (b. 1964) (Tesseracts Twelve, 2008)
Dystopia brought about by climate change.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

2050. A Novel - Dave Borland (Red Anvil Press, 2007)
In 2050, the United States has broken up into seven new countries, all facing drought. The Pittsburgh aquifer, controlled by Atlantica, is a source of contention and of possible reunification.
Keywords: Male author; US author

2050 Volume One: Gods of Little Earth. A Novel - J[oseph] Zornado (SpeculativeFictionReview, 2007)
First volume in a trilogy set in a post-apocalyptic 2050 that is primarily concerned with a struggle between good and evil. Continued in his 2050: A Future History Volume II: The Power at the Bottom of the World. A Novel. Np: Iron Diesel Press, 2012; and 2050 When Immortals Reign. A Future History Volume 3. West Warwick, RI: Merry Blacksmith Press, 2015.
[Rev. ed.] as 2050: A Future History, Volume I: Gods of Little Earth. Np: Iron Diesel Press, 2011. There is no reference to the earlier publication in the 2011 version.
Keywords: Male author; US author

2060: A Love Story in a Utopian Future - Janette Rainwater (iUniverse, 2007)
A virus has killed most men, but women have used sperm banks to create a multi-racial society and produce a group of boys. As the boys grow up, they question the system, but by 2072 and the end of the novel the issues have been resolved and a good, well-integrated society exists.
Keywords: Female author; US author

2236 A Novel - Milton McGriff (AMM Publishing, 2007)
A dystopia in which race relations have degenerated and African Americans fight back against their systematic mistreatment. The work originated as a one-act play entitled The Nigger Killer that the author wrote in the 1970s.
Keywords: African American author; Male author

29 Inches - Mark Amerika (Chiasmus Press, 2007)
Dystopian cyberpunk poem.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Accidental Time Machine - Joe [Joseph William] Haldeman (b. 1943) (Ace Books, 2007)
A doctoral student at MIT accidentally invents a time machine and travels into the future. At his first stop, people are aware of his invention, although they cannot replicate it, and he is honored. His second stop is a dystopian theocracy that has rejected all knowledge of the past. The third stop is highly developed technologically with an economy based on barter in which everyone is rich. It is said to be boring. Various other stops are treated briefly.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Adjudication" - Simon Brown (b. 1956) (The Workers' Paradise, 2007)
Dystopia. Extrapolation of working conditions in private prisons as the prison companies go into business with criminals to keep prisons full.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Adolf in Wonderland - Carlton Mellick III (b. 1977) (Avant Punk Books, 2007)
Alternative future dystopia in which Germany won World War II and established the National Socialist version of a utopia. A search for imperfect humans reveals a weird isolated society. Part of a literary movement called Bizarro, which refers to fiction with a stress on weirdness and absurdism.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"After the Choice" - Robin Hillard (b. 1939) (The Workers' Paradise, 2007)
Dystopia of the erosion of labor laws in Australia, but when people become aware of the horrible conditions, there is the beginning of a change back.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author

"After the Patriarchy" - Jay [John Barrett] McInerney (b. 1955) (2033: The Future of Misbehavior. Interplanetary Dating, Madame President, Socialized Plastic Surgery, and Other Good News from the Future, 2007)
Sex role reversal satire with the emphasis on sex.
Keywords: Male author; US author

AmericA, Inc. In Corporation We Trust. A Novel in Stream of Voice - David [B.] Lentz (Wordsworth Greenwich Press, 2007)
Corporate dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

and what remains - Miria George (Tawata, 2007)
Dystopian play in which all Māori leave New Zealand. Official policies included that after a certain date Māori could no longer be known as Māori and compulsory birth control for young Māori women. All references to Māori were removed from New Zealand law.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Female author; Māori author

Anti-Christ: A Satirical End of Days - Matthew Moses (Booklocker.com, 2007)
Dystopia of a war between Heaven and Hell with Earth a neutral zone. Armageddon (See Revelation 16).
Keywords: Male author; US author

Arapeta: A Futuristic Ethnic Adventure - Peter Tashkoff (Artemis Associates Ltd, 2007)
The conflict between Māori and Pākehā replayed in science fictional form in the future with the Māori ultimately winning after initial defeat.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

The Atlanteans: A Contemporary Novel. An adventure romance, in an unusual setting, leading to a story of mystery and suspense - Dorothy Cora Moore (iUniverse, 2007)
New Age eutopia. Although much of the novel is concerned with Atlanteans in the contemporary U.S., it includes a description of a eutopian Atlantis at the time of its collapse.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Best of Your Life" - Benjamin Stoddard (Interzone, 2007)
Satire and dystopia in which it is possible to purchase a better life, but everything goes wrong.
Keywords: Male author

"Black and Bitter, Thanks" - Nathan Burrage (The Workers' Paradise, 2007)
Dystopia. Australia has too few working young to support the pensions of the old and introduces a system in which people vote on those who should lose their pensions and be placed in what are essentially prisons.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Black Man - Richard [Kingsley] Morgan (b. 1965) (Gollancz, 2007)
Adventure story set against an Earth that has finally achieved a decent balance.
U.S. ed. as Thirteen. New York: Del Rey, 2007.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Scottish author

Black Sheep. 'A Dystopian Novel' - Ben [Michael] Peek (b. 1976) (Prime Books, 2007)
Dystopia of ethnic separation set in Sydney, Australia, where the African, Asian, and Caucasian communities are physically separated, and multiculturalism is a crime.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Blind Faith - Ben[jamin Charles] Elton (b. 1959) (Bantam Press, 2007)
Dystopia in which climate-change has produced immense flooding, a backlash against science, and a religious revival in which everyone is expected to share everything about themselves online all the time. The protagonist values his privacy.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Blood in the Fruit: Book Four of the Marq’ssan Cycle - L[inda] Timmel Duchamp (b. 1950) (Aqueduct Press, 2007)
Sequel to 2005, 2006, and 2007 Duchamp, Tsunami. See also 2008 Duchamp. In this volume the aliens return to see whether or not Earth should be quarantined.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Blood Kin - Ceridwen Dovey (b. 1980) (Penguin Books (South Africa), 2007)
Dystopia in which two authoritarian leaders struggle for power as seen through the eyes of aids to one of them, who has been captured by the other.
U.K. ed. London: Atlantic, 2007. U.S. ed. New York: Viking, 2008.
Keywords: Australian author; Female author; South Korean author; US author