"The Sanctuary Tree" - John Playford (Strange Attractors: Original Australian Speculative Fiction, 1985)
Dystopia of National Socialism continued into the future.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Schismatrix - [Michael] Bruce Sterling (b. 1954) (Arbor House, 1985)
Cyberpunk that presents two groups of future posthumans, one of which, the Shapers, develop themselves with genetic engineering and the other, the Mechanists, who use cybernetic enhancements. These groups are regularly in conflict and the presentation is essentially dystopian.
Rpt. New York: Ace 1986; and in Schismatrix Plus: Includes Schismatrix and Selected Stories from Crystal Express (New York: Ace, 1996), 1-236. Developed from a series of stories, including "Swarm." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 62.4 (April 1982): 4-24; rpt. in his Crystal Express (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1989), 3-26; rpt. (New York: Ace Books, 1990), 3-28; in The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories. Ed. Tom Shippey (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1992), 472-95; and in Schismatrix Plus (239-57); "Spider Rose." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 63.2 (375) (August 1982): 4-19; rpt. in his Crystal Express (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1989), 27-44; rpt. (New York: Ace Books, 1990), 29-46; and in Schismatrix Plus (258-71); "Cicada Queen." Universe 13. Ed. Terry Carr. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1985), 145-81; rpt. in his Crystal Express (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1989), 45-79; rpt. (New York: Ace Books, 1990), 47-84; and in Schismatrix Plus (272-300); "Sunken Gardens." Omni 6.9 (June 1984): 58-, 62, 64, 67, 136, 138; rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Bluejay Books, 1985), 351-64 with an editor's note on 350; in his Crystal Express (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1989), 80-96; rpt. in (New York: Ace Books, 1990), 85-101;and in Schismatrix Plus (301-12); and "Life in the Mechanist/Shaper Era: 20 Evocations." Interzone, no. 7 (Spring 1984): 24-26; rpt. as "Twenty Evocations." In his Crystal Express (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1989), 97-104; rpt. (New York: Ace Books, 1990), 102-09; as "20 Evocations." Mississippi Review, no. 47/48 (16.2/3) (1988): 122-29; and in Schismatrix Plus (313-19).
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

"Streets on Fire--An Urban Fantasy" - Arthur Goldstuck (The Best of South African Science Fiction, 1985)
Dystopia in which books and water are major elements of trade.
Keywords: Male author; South African author

Sudanna, Sudanna - Brian [Patrick] Herbert (b. 1947) (Arbor House, 1985)
Humorous dystopia in which music, which is outlawed, is the weapon to defeat the dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

Terrarium - Scott Russell Sanders (b. 1945) (Tor, 1985)
Two future societies with both good and bad elements.
Rpt. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Third Millennium: A History of the World: AD 2000-3000 - Brian [Michael] Stableford (1948-2024); David [Rowland] Langford (b. 1953) (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985)
History of the future that reads as a technological eutopia after the period of crisis between 2000 and 2180.
U.S. ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Welsh author

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

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

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

The Transing Syndrome - Kurt [Oscar Eugene] von Trojan (b. 1937) (Rigby Publishers, 1985)
Authoritarian dystopia in which matter transference or "transing" has been established and private transport has been outlawed. A lone rebel against the power of the corporation controlling "transing" brings about its overthrow.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Trojan Orbit - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83); Dean Ing (1931-2020) (Baen Books, 1985)
Continues the Lagrange series.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Ungoverned" - Vernor [Steffen] Vinge (1944-2024) (Far Frontiers, 1985)
Libertarian eutopia. Mostly about war. Discusses protective associations like those found in 1974 Nozick. Vinge says that his The Peace War (1984) can be thought of as a prequel and his Marooned in Realtime. New York: Bluejay, 1986 as a sequel.
Rpt. in his True Names . . . and Other Dangers (New York: Baen Books, 1987), 200-54; in his Across Realtime (New York: Baen, 1991), 257-300; in The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge (New York: Tor, 2001), 91-127 [This ed. has notes by the author]; in Give Me Liberty. Ed. Martin Harry Greenberg and Mark Tier (New York: Baen, 2003), 85-139; and in Freedom! Ed. Martin Harry Greenberg and Mark Tier (New York: Baen, 2006), 71-113.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Visit Port Watson!" (Semiotext[e] SF, 1985)
Libertarian eutopia.

"Visitors" - John Cranna (b. 1954) (Stand Magazine (U.K.), 1985)
Dystopia. Story set in a world where an old man is being given regular electroshock treatments to take away his memories. The torturers, described as "Pale Suits," are part of a movement suppressing the poor throughout the world. A revolt takes place but appears to fail. The point-of-view character, the grandson of the man being tortured, leaves to join the opposition.
Rpt. in Best Short Stories 1987. Ed. Giles Gordon and David Hughes (London: William Heinemann, 1987), 27-41; and in his Visitors (Auckland, New Zealand: Heinemann Reed, 1989), 1-15.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

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

The War Plays. A Trilogy - Edward Bond (1934-2024) (Methuen, 1985)
Dystopia following a nuclear war in which, in the first two plays, life becomes violent and dangerous with people generally isolated. In the third play a small beginning is made toward rebuilding human contact.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Wild Country - Dean Ing (1931-2020) (Tor, 1985)
Post-catastrophe religious dictatorship.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

"1997" - David Edgar (b. 1948) (Marxism Today, 1984)
Future dystopia brought about by the policies of Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013 PM 1979-1990) designed to memorialize Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Keywords: Male author

"2016" - [Henry] Francis [Montgomery] Stuart (1902-2000) (States of Mind: Selected Short Prose 1936-1983, 1984)
Consumerist dystopia. Over 100 indistinguishable TV channels. Constant package holidays. Literary production for the masses. Tranquillizers in the water.
Keywords: Australian author; Irish author; Male author

"2020 and Beyond" - Sterling E. Alam (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Discusses the effects of radically increased longevity (700 years) and life in space habitats. These changes will produce a general slower pace in life, and a lower population growth. Education and re-education will be life-long, and the pattern of life will change a number of times. Children are likely to be raised in child-care communities by adults who, at that stage of their life, are particularly attuned to children.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The 2024 Report; A Concise History of the Future 1974-2024 - Norman [Alastair Duncan] Macrae (1923-2010) (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984)
Detailed Christian, libertarian, technological eutopia that traces the process of change from the present to the eutopia. The changes and the impact of the eutopia is shown through biographies.
U.S. ed. as The 2025 Report: A Concise History of the Future 1974-2025. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1985. x + 258 pp.
Keywords: English author; Male author

After the Bomb: Flight to Utopia - Vernon [Francis] Wilkinson (b. 1916) (Interface Press, 1984)
Detailed flawed eutopia. Two hundred years after the bomb a spaceship returns to earth and finds a transformed world. Stress on eliminating human aggression, and the flaw is in the extent to which they are willing to go to do so.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

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

The Branch - Mike [Michael Diamond] Resnick (1942-2020) (New American Library, 1984)
Authoritarian, corporate dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Brother in the Land - Robert [Edward] Swindells (b. 1939) (Oxford University Press, 1984)
A young adult post-nuclear war dystopia designed to demonstrate to the readers that such circumstances will be truly horrifying.
Rpt. with an "Afterword" by the author. Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1986. U.S. ed. New York: Holiday, 1985.
Keywords: English author; Male author

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

Chaos in Lagrangia - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Tor, 1984)
Continuation of his Lagrangia series. See also 1979, 1983, and 1985 Reynolds.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

Cliftonia - Carroll Clifton (Ye Galleon Press, 1984)
Detailed eutopia with brief chapters on Government (6-7); Legal System-Crime and Punishment (8-12); Economic System (13-15); Education and the Family (16-18); Health & Science--Mental Health--Religion (19-21); In-Out Immigration Policy (22-23); Roles: Male, Female, Child (24-27); Housing--Concentric Zone (28-29); Transportation--Auto--Trains--Truck--Mass Transit (30-32); Agriculture and Rural Land Use (33-34); Manufacturing Production (35-36); The Military (37-40); Air Force (41); Navy (42-43); Military Bases (44); Military Intelligence (45-46); Family Living Styles (47); The Arts (48); Parks and Outdoor Recreation (49). Generally traditional gender roles.

The Common - Gill Edmonds (Blond & Briggs, 1984)
Dystopian background. A near future that is run down, violent, and authoritarian.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

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

The Continent of Lies - James [Kenneth] Morrow (b. 1947) (Holt Rinehart and Winston, 1984)
Dystopia of a drug obsessed future.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Courage of Sisters" - Cris Newport (Test-Tube Women: What future for Motherhood?, 1984)
Dystopia set after a limited nuclear war. No explanation is given but many more girls are being born than boys and the state requires that girls be aborted. The story focuses on a woman pregnant with a girl who chooses to leave to find women who live in the Barrens so that they can have their children.
Keywords: US author

The Course of Instruction - David Wheldon (b. 1950) (The Bodley Head, 1984)
Kafkaesque dystopia in which a man becomes embroiled with a complex organization.
Keywords: Male author

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

The Dawnwatchers - Hiram Anthony Bingham (1935-2008) (Triune Books, 1984)
A behaviorist, secular humanist dystopia rules in 2004, but the Dawnwatchers, a group of spiritually aware individuals, is beginning to provide an alternative. The author was influenced by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the Austrian founder of Anthroposophy.
2nd ed. Greenwich, CT: Triune Books, 1999. 342 pp.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

"The Descent Into Silence" - G[arvin] R[obert] Gilbert (b. 1917) (G. R. Gilbert Papers, 1984)
Dystopian novel set after a nuclear war. Set in the 1940s with New Zealand collapsing, reverting to savagery. Initially the government establishes an Office of Public Co-ordination (OPC) with powers equivalent to the government to ensure the continued functioning of New Zealand, but it fails and moves to a military base where military dictatorship is established in the surrounding area. The protagonist leaves the military area and ends up joining a group of religious tribes which is also presented in dystopian terms. The manuscript is accompanied by correspondence with Wren Green, the project leader and principal author of the New Zealand Planning Council report "New Zealand After Nuclear War". Green agreed to read the novel and reported back to Gilbert in 1987 that it was an accurate reflection of the issues New Zealanders would face. See the note at 1952 Gilbert.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

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

Doomsday Plus Twelve - James D[ouglas] Forman (b. 1932) (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1984)
Young adult post-catastrophe novel in which teenagers living where a simple, peaceful life has been created cooperate to defeat a new group of militarists.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Dr. Adder - K[evin] W[ayne] Jeter (b. 1950) (Bluejay Books, 1984)
Dystopia of violence.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Electric Harvest - Tom [Thomas] Davies (b. 1941) (New English Library, 1984)
Dystopia of London in the near future with poverty, violence, and racial conflict.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

Elleander Morning - Jerry (Jerome] Yulsman (1924-99) (St. Martin's Press, 1984)
Eutopia and dystopia. Alternative history in which World War 2 did not happen because Hitler was killed by a time traveler. But National Socialism develops anyway, and the future that develops has both good and not so good elements. Technologically advanced. Eleanor Roosevelt is Vice President of the U.S.
U.K. ed. London: Macdonald, 1985
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Evolution of Sex Roles: The Transformation of Masculine and Feminine Values" - Warren Farrell (b. 1943) (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Discusses the effects of changing sex roles that brings about greater gender equality.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

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

“Family Life in the Twenty-First Century” - Clanton, Gordon (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Plural forms of marriage and the family, all of which are considered acceptable. Having children is considered a choice that some will not make, and children born later in life. Emphasizes the pluralistic nature of the future with many options open to all.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Family Options, Governments, and the Social Milieu: Viewed from the Twenty-First Century" - Lester A. Kirkendall (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Discusses the effects of government involvement in improving health, education, and living standards designed to enhance personal and family life, together with improved environment, population control, the end of war, and greater cross-cultural contact.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

The Frozen City - David Arscott; David J. Marl (George Allen & Unwin, 1984)
Includes both an authoritarian dystopia of violence and a vaguely described eutopia. The eutopia is completely non-violent and appears to be anarchist.
Keywords: Male author

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

The Golden People - Fred [Thomas] Saberhagen (1930-2007) (Baen, 1984)
Genetically superior people in conflict with humanity.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

Greenhouse: It Will Happen in 1997 - [Bernard] [John] James (b. 1922) (Donald I. Fine, 1984)
Satire/dystopia about the greenhouse effect in a high-tech world of the future and on postmodernism and higher education.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Greening of Mars - Michael Allaby (b. 1933); James [Ephraim] Lovelock (1919-2022) (André Deutsch, 1984)
The novel is mostly about the terraforming of Mars, the trip to Mars by immigrants, and their initial adjustment to the new planet, but the main protagonist,  briefly presents Mars in eutopian terms. All manual work performed by robots. Everyone is vegetarian. Every book and article ever published on Earth is available electronically. Growing social diversity. No guns. Very limited crime. Lovelock was the founder of the Gaia theory that Earth is a living entity.
U.S. ed. New York: St. Martin’s/Marek, 1984.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Growing Up Slowly: Another Century of Childhood" - Larry L. Constantine (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Discusses childhood in the future with an emphasis on the variety that will be available and the technology that will help make that variety possible.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Higher Education 2004: A Fable" - David L. Travis (Phi Delta Kappan, 1984)
Short educational dystopia in which students skip classes, don't read, and still graduate with high grades.
Keywords: Male author

Home Sweet Home: 2010 A.D - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83); Dean Ing (1931-2020) (Dell/Emerald, 1984)
The novel is set in a version of Reynold’s future U.S. where corrupt politicians are trying to revise the Constitution to their own benefit, a future version of the F.B.I (the Inter-American Bureau of Investigations), has a Division of Clandestine Services that supports the dominant parties and sends out a hitman to kill the theoretician of a group challenging that dominance, and American Indians are mounting a revolt. Many people in the now almost entirely automated country live on what is here called GAS or the Guaranteed Annual Stipend and some life in unrelated extended families. This is called the Ultra-Welfare State or Peoples’ Capitalism. While much of the novel is satirical or dystopian, the extended family that is one focus of the novel is eutopian, but with much satire also.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Homecoming - [John Robert] [Jones] (b. 1926) (Tor, 1984)
A eutopian agrarian, cooperative colony faces a future barbaric earth.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Houses on the Site - [Edwin] Stuart [Gomer] Evans (1934-94) (Hutchinson, 1984)
Novel about a contemporary intentional community. In a series which includes his Centres of Ritual. London: Hutchinson, 1978; Occupational Debris. London: Hutchinson, 1979; and Temporary Hearths.  London: Hutchinson, 1984.
Keywords: Male author; Welsh author

"In the Olden Days" - Spider Robinson (b. 1948) (Melancholy Elephants, 1984)
Future energy depleted America. Some see it as a eutopia, and some see it as a dystopia.
U.S. ed. (New York: Tor, 1985), 101-08.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Jitterbug - Mike [Michael Dennis] McQuay (1949-95) (Bantam Books, 1984)
Authoritarian dystopia presenting an Arab dictatorship.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Kindly Isle" - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1984)
A man visits a Caribbean island where all the people seem to be particularly nice and discovers that a scientist has developed a virus which he is intent on spreading around the world, creating a eutopia.
Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Bluejay Books, 1985), 320-40 with an editor's note on 318.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Kruger's Alp - Christopher [David Tully] Hope (b. 1944) (Heinemann, 1984)
The novel depicts a future South Africa as a dystopia that is little different from the South Africa of the time. Included is a myth of a refuge in Switzerland.
Rpt. London: Sphere, 1985.
Keywords: Male author; South African author; UK author

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

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

The Last Amazon - A[rthur] Bertram Chandler (1912-84) (DAW Books, 1984)
Sequel to 1968 Chandler in which women are born and Amazons emerge on the planet New Sparta that was originally all men. John Grimes is instrumental in defeating the Amazons. Graham Stone in his Australian Science Fiction Bibliography (Sydney, NSW, Australia: Graham Stone, 2004), 11 says that its working title was Find the Lady.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

The Last Patriot - James N[orbert] Frey (b. 1943) (Zebra Books/Kensington Publications, 1984)
Dystopia with one man trying to save the U.S.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Man Who Melted - Jack [Mayo] Dann (b. 1945) (Bluejay Books, 1984)
Dystopia of psychic collapse.
Rpt. Sydney, NSW, Australia: HarperCollins, 1998.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

“Marriage and Family: Styles and Forms” - Lester A. Kirkendall; Arthur E. Gravatt (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
One section, “Bonding Styles in 2020” (53-56) discusses the effects of changed attitudes to the institutional character of marriage. People will live together before or as an alternative to marriage. Technologically sophisticated people. The rest of the essays discusses the history and future of the family and the forces that affect it. Treats parenting as a phase in family life and says that late in life people will cohabit with one or more partners. Few will be buried with most being cremated after usable body parts are removed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"'Mate' Selection in the Year 2020" - Bernard I. Murstein II (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Discusses the effects of changed attitudes toward love including the effect of cloning.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Merchants' War - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (St. Martin's Press, 1984)
Satire on an Earth that is run by ad agencies. See 1952 Pohl and Kornbluth.
Rpt. in Venus, Inc. (New York: Nelson Doubleday, 1985), 159-346.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Mists of Time - Margaret J[ean] Anderson (b. 1931) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1984)
Third volume of a young adult trilogy following 1977 and 1979 Anderson. In this volume the children help an enslaved people to meet violence with nonviolence. . The female author was born in Scotland and lives in the U.S.
Keywords: Scottish author; US author

A Modest Proposal For Peace Prosperity and Happiness - Franky Schaeffer; Harold Fickett (Thomas Nelson, 1984)
Satire against secular humanism which is presented as supporting totalitarianism and human bioengineering.
Keywords: Male author

"Moral Concepts in the Year 2020: The Individual, the Family, and Society" - Robert T[homas] Francoeur (1931-2012) (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Discusses the effects of longevity, including euthanasia or "rational suicide," radically improved sex education, which eliminates abortion, and improved moral education. The changed moral climate includes decriminalizing certain behaviors, sex outside marriage, reduced gender role separation, the separation of sex and reproduction, and greater physical and emotional contact with others.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Mutants are Coming - Isidore Haiblum (1935-2012) (del Rey, 1984)
Technological eutopia that turns out to be a dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Natfact 7 - John [Kimberley] Tully (b. 1923) (Methuen Children's Books, 1984)
Although originally published as for young adults, this is a fairly standard dystopia and revolt. In this case the dystopia turns out to be better than the goal of the revolt.
Rpt. [London]: Magnet, 1987.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Native Speech - Eric [Ellis] Overmyer (b. 1951) (Broadway Play Publishing, 1984)
Post-catastrophe dystopia set in the ruins of a city.
Rpt. New York: Broadway Play Publishing, 1984; and in Word Plays 3: An Anthology of New American Drama. New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1984. Rev. version in his Collected Plays ([Newbury, VT]: Smith and Kraus, 1993), 1-53.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

Neuromancer - William [Ford] Gibson (b. 1948) (Ace Books, 1984)
An early cyberpunk dystopia in which corporations, governments, individuals, and artificial intelligences struggle to control and use each other and what comes to be called virtual reality.
U.K. ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1984. Illus. ed. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1990. The 10th anniversary ed. London: HarperCollins, 1994 has a short afterword by the author. The 20th anniversary ed. New York: Ace Books, 2004 has a new introduction (vii-xi) by the author and an afterword (355-71) by Jack Womack.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Ora:Cle - Kevin O'Donnell Jr. (1950-2012) (Berkley Books, 1984)
A computer dystopia is one theme in a novel about a future world being attacked by aliens. Much satire.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

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

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

"The Peace War" - Vernor [Steffen] Vinge (1944-2024) (Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, 1984)
Dystopia in which advanced technology is used to take over the world and control it. The Peace Authority was supposed to create a better world, but it simply maintained its own power by suppressing all opposition. Individuals successfully resist, and an area of northern Mexico called Aztlán has maintained a degree of independence. Vinge writes that The Peace War can be thought of as a prequel to his 1985 “The Ungoverned,” which describes a libertarian eutopia.
Rpt. [New York]: Bluejay. Rpt. with his non-utopian “Marooned in Realtime.” Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact 106.5 -8 (May - August 1986): 10-14, 16-18, 20-22, 24-26, 28-30, 32-34, 36-38, 40-42, 44-46, 48-54, 56-62; 128-80; 130-76; 108-59 with a “Correction” to pages 52-53 in the May issue. Rpt. New York: Bluejay, 1986 in his Across Realtime: The Peace War Marooned in Realtime. [Book Club ed.] (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, [1986]), 1-277. This material plus “The Ungoverned” rpt. in Across Realtime (New York: Baen Books, 1991), with The Peace War 1-255; “The Ungoverned” 257-300; and Marooned in Realtime 301-545.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Permit - Bob [Robert Edward] Jones (Collins, 1984)
A dystopia created by the New Zealand government through over-regulation. One man tries to resist by refusing to sign the permit to change residences. In an "Epilogue", the government introduces legislation requiring everyone to carry identity cards. The author, who is a self-made millionaire, says that the book "is a reiteration of the ultimate truth that people do know best how to run their lives. . . (12).
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

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

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

The Priests of Ferris - Maurice [Gough] Gee (b. 1931) (Oxford University Press, 1984)
Second volume in a trilogy. In this volume the girl returns to the planet O. On Earth a year had passed, while on O a hundred years had passed and an authoritarian religion using her name controlled all the humans. With the help of the others, she defeats the religious leaders. Sequel to 1982 Gee. See also 1985 Gee.
Rpt. Auckland, New Zealand: Puffin Books, 1987.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Protectorate - Mick [Michael Anthony] Farren (1943-2013) (New English Library, 1984)
Authoritarian dystopia with a deep division between the rich and the poor but with all under aliens.
Keywords: English author; Male author

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

"A Race" - Ping Chong (b. 1946) (1984)
Dystopia depicting a graduation ceremony in which the students are indoctrinated for their programmed future.
Keywords: Canadian author; Chinese American author; Male author

"Rem the Rememberer" - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Pohlstars, 1984)
The story begins in a eutopian future of low technology and ecological balance, but this is the recurring dream of a boy living in the badly polluted present.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Resurrection" - Damien [Francis] Broderick (b. 1944) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1984)
Machine eutopia/dystopia. Conflict between a man from the present day and a machine intelligence of the far future.
Rpt. in his The Dark Between the Stars (Port Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Mandarin Australia, 1991), 46-69.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Scapescope - John E[dward] Stith (b. 1947) (Ace Science Fiction Books, 1984)
Future authoritarian dystopia set in 2150 in which most people are employed by the government. The "Scapescope" is a device through which it is possible to see the future and much of the novel is a quest story finding a way to change a future.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

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

"The Sonic Boom of 1994" - Melvin D. Garretsen (Another Handful of Stories: Thirty-Seven Stories by Deaf Storytellers Transliterated from the Deaf Storytellers Video Tape Series, 1984)
A brief story in which the United States develops a supersonic passenger plane that can fly between the US and Europe in an hour that produces a sonic boom that deafens the entire country and advantaging those who known sign language.
Keywords: Deaf author; Male author; US author

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

Spaceache - [Andrew James] Wilson (1948-2013) (Chatto & Windus. The Hogarth Press, 1984)
Humor describing the dystopia of a collapsing economy and corruption brought about by the technology for freezing people. See also 1985 Wilson.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand - Samuel R[ay] Delany (b. 1942) (Bantam Books, 1984)
Complex far future novel depicting various societies including eutopias and dystopias. The novel begins with a description of a dystopia from the point-of-view of a slave who remains a character throughout the novel. This was expected to be the first of two volumes, to be followed by The Splendor and Misery of Bodies, of Cities, which remains unpublished. An excerpt was published as “From The Splendor and Misery of Bodies, of Cities.” Review of Contemporary Fiction 16.3 (Fall 1996): 103-15; rpt. without the From in Out of the Ruins. Ed. Preston Grassman (London: Titan Books, 2021), 117-36. One of the characters, Vondramach Okk, appears in his “Omegahelm.” Distant Stars (New York: Bantam Books, 1981). Rpt. illus. John Coffey (New York: ibooks, 2004), 263-78; rpt. in his Driftglass/Starshards (London: Grafton, 1993), 312-26; and in his Aye and Gomorrah. Stories (New York: Vintage Books, 2003), 260-72
Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1990 with an “Afterword” by the author (376-85); Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004 with the “Afterword” (349-56) and a “Foreword” by Carl Freedman (xi-xiv). An extract was originally published under the same title in Beyond This Horizon: An Anthology of Science Fact and Science Fiction. Ed. Christopher Carrell (Sunderland, Eng.: Ceolfrith Arts, 1973), 71-75; and a more substantial part was published as “from Stars in my pockets like grains of sand.” TriQuarterly, no. 49 (Fall 1980): 131-61.
Keywords: African American author; Male author

A Theatre of Timesmiths - Garry [Douglas] Kilworth (b. 1941) (Victor Gollancz, 1984)
Authoritarian dystopia. City frozen in ice controlled by a small group of authoritarian leaders. The novel is about the ultimately successful struggle to escape.
Keywords: English author; Male author

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

"Till Human Voices Wake Us" - Lewis [Gordon] Shiner (b. 1950) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1984)
A corporation is modifying humans and animals to produce eutopia with the eutopian ends justifying the dystopian means.
Rpt. in Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology. Ed. [Michael] Bruce Sterling (New York: Arbor House, 1986), 125-38.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Tooth and Claw - Greg McGee (b. 1950) (Victoria University Press, 1984)
The play, set in the near future, focuses on questions of the relationship between law and morality, but offstage a dystopia of violence and social disintegration is emerging with a military dictatorship the response.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

“The Toynbee Convector” - Ray[mond Douglas] Bradbury (1920-2012) (Playboy, 1984)
In a U.S. with all the problems of inequality, international political conflicts, a damaged environment, and so forth, a man fakes a trip to the future and on his return he announces that the human race has solved all its problems, which gives people the will to actually do so.
Rpt. in his The Toynbee Convector. Stories (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 3-15. Rpt. (New York: Bantam Books, 1989), 1-11
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Transformations in Human Reproduction" - Robert T[homas] Francoeur (1931-2012) (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Discusses the effects of new reproductive technologies, which includes a new eroticism.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Transition (1996-2020)" - Gordon Clanton (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Discusses the effects of lower population growth and the development of neighborhood associations. Emphasizes the pluralistic nature of the future with many options open to all. Four-day work week. Government the employer of last resort but pays only 75% of the minimum wage. National Health Insurance in exchange for two years of national service.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Transition from Sex to Sensuality and Intimacy" - Lester A. Kirkendall; Michael E. Perry (Marriage and the Family in the Year 2020, 1984)
Discusses the effects of changed attitudes towards sex and sexuality, with the title making the point.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Trauma 2020: Book 1 Urban Prey - Peter Beere (b. 1951) (Arrow Books, 1984)
Dystopia of violence with constant war in Europe. The second volume Trauma 2020: Book 2 The Crucifixion Squad. London: Arrow Books, 1984 is a dystopia of violence in a collapsed future Britain. The third volume Trauma 2020: Book 3 Silent Slaughter. London: Arrow, 1985 continues the same themes.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The True Story of Lilli Stubeck - James [Harold Edward] Aldridge (1918-2015) (Hyland House, 1984)
Young adult novel that discusses a character's belief in utopia and its effects on him and his friends.
Rpt. Ringwood, VIC, Australia: Puffin, 1985.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

"Twilight Time" - Lewis [Gordon] Shiner (b. 1950) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1984)
A time travel story with dystopias both in the present and the past. In the past, aliens are taking control; in the present, the U.S. has voted to give complete power to a group promising security. Actions in the past change the dystopian present.
Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Bluejay Books, 1985), 421-39 with an editor's note on 420.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

Utopia Hunters: Chronicles of the High Inquest - Somtow [Papinian] Sucharitkul (b. 1952) (Bantam, 1984)
Third volume in a series with this volume focusing on a young woman artist struggling for understanding within the dystopia. See also 1982, 1983, and 1985 Sucharitkul.
Parts were originally published in slightly different form in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine as "Rainbow King." 5.2 (February 16, 1981): 136-66; "The Web Dancer." 3.12 (December 1979): 56-80; "The Dust." 5.8 (August 3, 1981): 110-35; "Remembrances." 6.4 (March 15, 1982): 54-80; and "Scarlet Snow." 6.5 (May 1982): 80-99; and as "The Comet That Cried for Its Mother." Amazing Stories 58.3 (September 1984): 30-49. A story that is an early version of part of this volume is "Darktouch." Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine 4.1(23) (January 1980): 18-41. Rpt. in his Fire from the Wine Dark Sea (Virginia Beach, VA: Donning, 1983), 221-44.
Keywords: Male author; Thai author; US author

Utopia . . . or Bust! Products For the Perfect World - Philip Garner (Delilah, 1984)
Humor. Surrealistic look at consumer society through photographs, mostly doctored, with captions.
Keywords: Male author

Vail - Trevor Hoyle (b. 1940) (John Calder/Riverrun Press, 1984)
Near future dystopia in which toxic waste is deliberately dumped by the government on the overpopulated areas of England. London is an enclave for the rich and powerful.
Rpt. London: Abacus, 1989.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Valoric Fire and a Working Plan for Individual Sovereignty from the Valorian Society (Sovereign Press, 1984)
Individualist eutopia in which a group work out the outlines of their eutopia.

Waiting for Einstein - Nigel Cox (1951-2006) (Benton Ross, 1984)
A novel set in contemporary New Zealand in which one of the main characters is writing a dystopian story set in the far future. The entire story is given in the novel and describes a society trying to break an artist to its will because artists acting freely are inherently subversive and destabilizing. The story is written from the point of view of the artist, who is offered privileges if he agrees to cooperate and is severely punished when he doesn't. The ending is unclear in that the artist is moved to an isolated island where he can work as he wishes but where, because of his isolation, he will not pose problems for the regime. The dystopia has a religious basis.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Warday and the Journey Onward - [Louis] Whitley Strieber (b. 1945); James W[illiam] Kunetka (b. 1944) (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984)
Post-nuclear war dystopia with a largely ruined U.S., an authoritarian dystopia in California, and a Hispanic/Native American state called Atzlán in what was Texas and New Mexico that presents itself as independent but is a vassal state of Japan. The U.S.S.R. was also destroyed, and Japan and the U.K. now dominate the world.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Way It Was" - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Pohlstars, 1984)
Overpopulation dystopia in which most people are on welfare, which means just barely able to get by living in large dormitories. The story focuses on the sale of body parts to be able to live better, at least briefly.
Keywords: Male author; US author

What To Do When the Russians Come: A Survivor’s Guide - [George] Robert [Acworth] Conquest (1917-2015); Jon Manchip White (1925-2013) (Stein and Day, 1984)
Cataloged in libraries as non-fiction, and while that is clearly what the authors intend, it depicts the dystopia that would ensue after a successful Soviet invasion of the United States as it would impact the day-to day-lives of Americans. The last bit of advice is that such an invasion occurs is BURN THIS BOOK.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author; Welsh author

Wild Shore - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (Ace Science Fiction Books/Berkley Publishing Co., 1984)
Post-atomic war dystopia set in 2047 in which people are trying to survive and maintain what knowledge of the past they can. First in a series variously called the Orange County trilogy and the Three Californias trilogy, with the latter being Robinson’s name for it. See also 1988, The Gold Coast, and 1990 Robinson, Pacific Edge, which are reprinted in Three Californias. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2020, with an introduction “Triptych, with Softball” by Francis Spufford (7-12), The Wild Shore (13-292), The Gold Coast (293-653), and Pacific Edge (655-895). The three volumes have the same physical location, but the futures presented are different.
Rpt. New York: Orb/Tom Doherty Associates, 1995; and in Three Californias (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2020), 13-292 with an introduction “Triptych, with Softball” by Francis Spufford (7-12). U.K. ed. London: Futura, 1985.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

"The Year 2020" - Thomas [Michael] Keneally (b. 1935) (Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW, Australia), 1984)
Dystopia in sequel to Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four in which Big Brother has been replaced with Big Betty, who comes from the Proles. Superspeak has replace Newspeak. Quite similar to Orwell in the restrictions on sex, the role of the inner party, and the extreme forms of punishment.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

The Years of the City - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Simon & Schuster, 1984)
Five pictures of a future New York beginning with a dystopia (but with a depiction of some techniques for reform including a Universal Town Meeting) and ending with two near eutopias. The second and third futures are presented as transitional.
Rpt. New York: Pocket Books, 1985.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

Alliance - Gerald N[iels] Lund (b. 1939) (Deseret Book Co, 1983)
Post-catastrophe dystopia in which the Alliance presents itself as reviving the social order and creating a utopia, but it does so through planting a computer chip into its citizens and forcing outsiders to join.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Anvil of the Heart - Bruce T[odd] Holmes (b. 1946) (The Haven Corporation, 1983)
Dystopia. Geneticly engineered people become the norm and parents are no longer able to have children who are not modified. Complete automation means that most of the people who are not modified are unemployed, in overcrowded housing, taking drugs, and watching TV. The novel focuses on one unmodified man and how he makes a relatively good life in these circumstances.
Evanston, IL The Haven Corporation_
Keywords: US author

“An Artist of Hunger” - Scott Russell Sanders (b. 1945) (Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, 1983)
Dystopia in which life is centered on corporate-controlled malls.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica - John Calvin Batchelor (b. 1948) (Dial Press, 1983)
Complex dystopia that originates in the U.S. draft resistance community in Sweden. The original protagonists, together with various friends and relatives and others picked up along the way, travel to the Falkland Islands with some going further south to an island off Antarctica. At every point there is conflict and the attempt, sometimes successful, to impose a particular, though varying, view of the good life on others, thus creating a series of dystopias.
Keywords: US author

"The Byrds" - Michael G[reatrex] Coney (1932-2005) (Changes: Stories of Metamorphosis. An Anthology of Speculative Fiction About Startling Metamorphoses, Both Psychological and Physical, 1983)
The story, which is about people who use technology, such as anti-gravity belts, to emulate birds, is set in a future with restrictions on population size that encourages the elderly to be euthanized. The Department of Rest establishes how much the population has to fall and sends out a monthly brochure Your Choice for Peace to senior citizens with a form in which that are asked to “describe all that is good about their life, and a few of the things which bug them. At the end of the form is a box in which the oldster indicates his preference for Life or Peace. If he does not check the box, or if he fails to complete the form, it is assumed that he has chosen Peace, and the send the Wagon for him” (189). This is a very small part of the story.
Rpt. in Northern Stars. The Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Glenn Grant (New York: Tor, 1994), 188-99.
Keywords: Canadian author; English author; Male author

"Calling all Gumdrops" - John [Thomas] Sladek (1937-2000) (Interzone, 1983)
Sixties adults become children while Seventies and Eighties children and advanced computers take on adult roles. Presented generally positively.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

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

A Century of Progress - Fred [Thomas] Saberhagen (1930-2007) (Tom Doherty Associates, 1983)
Dystopia of the Third Reich in the future.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

Computerworld - A[lfred] E[lton] van Vogt (1912-2000) (DAW Books, 1983)
Dystopia controlled by computers and the revolt designed to change the computer system from ruler to servant.
Rpt. as Computer Eye. New York: DAW Books, [1985]. U.K. ed. under the original title London: New English Library, 1986.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

The Constructive Manifesto - Alberto Cernuschi (Philosophical Library, 1983)
The preface suggests that this is a eutopia, but most of the text is a critique of Karl Marx. The final chapter (87-103) outlines elements of the intended eutopia. It suggests the needed for an attitudinal change, and specifies the need for an enforceable international law, help for minorities, an experimental approach to change, and shifting money from armaments to constructive uses. Women must have the right to control their own bodies.

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

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

"The Diary of Ian Frank: A Ghost Story for Refuge Children" - Jon Kalina (b. 1948) (The Anglo Guide to Survival in Québec, 1983)
Satire. An Anglo is arrested by the Language Police and re-educated. Most Anglos have tried to flee Québec but have not been accepted elsewhere. Toronto is inaccessible. Anglo boat people sail permanently on Lake Champlain, having been turned back from the U.S.
Keywords: Canadian author

Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the End of the World - Colin Johnson (b. 1938) (Hyland House, 1983)
Australian treatment of the Aborigines described as a dystopia. Includes the description of a racist commune designed to civilize the Aborigines.
Rpt. with the author given as Mudrooroo. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Hyland House, 1987.
Keywords: Australian author

Duluth - Gore Vidal (1925-2012) (Random House, 1983)
Humorous, rather surrealistic dystopia, which ends with an insect writing a new story of Duluth. None of the stories have any relation to the real Duluth, Minnesota, which is described on the back endpaper. Vidal's Duluth is a corrupt city with a deep division between the rich and the poor, which includes a large Spanish-speaking barrio.
Rpt. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The End Of Axletree" - Alasdair [James] Gray (1934-2019) (Unlikely Stories, Mostly, 1983)
Dystopia. Sequel to 1979 Gray in which the Axletree reaches heaven. The process of building it had destroyed civilization. An attempt to enter heaven destroys the Axletree.
Rpt. (London: Penguin, 1984), 233-71; and in his Every Short Story, 1952-2012 (Edinburgh, Scot.: Canongate, 2012), 217-51.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

An Extraterrestrial Message to the Nations - Frank Howard (b. 1910?) (Stellar Books, 1983)
New Age eutopia.  See also [1976], [1976?], and [1978?] Howard.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

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

Futuretrack 5 - Robert Westall (1929-93) (Kestrel, 1983)
Dystopia of a highly computerized system run by an elite. The dystopia is controlled by the Techs with a middle class desperate to avoid even the slightest hint of dissent, and a lower class living in extreme poverty and violence. The novel ends with the computer discovering ethics and morality.
Rpt. London: Collins Voyager, 2002. U.S. ed. New York: Greenwillow Books, [1983?].
Keywords: English author

"The Game" - Barry Rosenberg (Pathfinder (New Zealand), 1983)
Eutopia/dystopia with similarities to James Hilton's Lost Horizon (1933).
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author

Gifts from Eykis - Dr. Wayne [Walter] Dyer (b. 1940) (Simon and Schuster, 1983)
New age eutopia. While Uranus and its the inhabitants appear to be identical to Earth and its inhabitants, they differ profoundly. Uranians have no concepts of danger or harm, are incapable of lying, and while they know a future exists, they live entirely in the present. Anxiety is a phenomenon caused by airborne particles, the arrival of which can be forecast, and neuroses and guilt also have known physical causes and treatments. The book described many other similar differences from Earth.
Keywords: US author

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

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

"Hunting Season" - Edward William Ludwig (1920-90) (The 7 Shapes of Solomon Bean and 14 Other Marvelous Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy, 1983)
Dystopia of population control through controlled killing.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

The Ice Belt - [Stephen] [Gallagher] (b. 1954) (Sphere, 1983)
Sequel to his 1978 Dying of Paradise. This novel continues the dystopia of the previous one, but it focuses on an alien invasion.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Islandia Revisited - Richard N. Farmer (d. 1987) (Cedarwood Press, 1983)
Presented as a sequel to 1942 Wright. In this novel, set mostly during World War II, a man who had become fascinated by Islandia after reading Wright is sent to Islandia as the U.S. military attaché, and while he gets involved in a plot to fake a German invasion to force Islandia to drop its neutrality, he remains in Islandia as a professor of economics. At the end he and his Islandia wife are leaving on a spaceship developed by and Islandia that has become a world industrial power. See also 1969, 1979, and 1982 Saxton.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Kelly Country - A[rthur] Bertram Chandler (1912-84) (Penguin Books with the assistance of the Literature Board of the Australia Council, 1983)
Alternative history describing an Australian war of independence that followed from the Australian icon Ned Kelly not being killed. Eutopia and dystopia with Australian ending up being successfully invaded by various countries.
The stories “Kelly Country.” Void Science Fiction and Fantasy (Melbourne, VIC, Australia), [no. 3 (1976)]: 63-73; and “The Way It Was.” Omega Science Digest (Sydney, NSW, Australia), [no. 2] (March/April 1981): 54-57; 125-27 are the basis of the novel. “Kelly Country” has been rpt. in Australian Science Fiction. Ed. Van Ikin (St. Lucia, Qld, Australia: Queensland University Press, 1982), 166-80. Book rpt. (Chicago, IL: Academy Chicago, 1984), 166-180. “The Way It Was” has been rpt. as “A New Dimension.” In his Up to the Sky in Ships (Cambridge, MA: The NESFA Press, 1982), 69-86, which is bound with Lee Hoffman, In and Out of Quandry (1982).
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

The Lagrangists - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Tom Doherty Associates, 1983)
The Space/colony station described in 1979 is threatened by various forces from Earth. See also 1984 Reynolds and 1985 Reynolds with Ing.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Lessons Learned" - Peter Fuller (WARP: The Magazine of the [New Zealand] National Association for Science Fiction, 1983)
Six excerpts from "A Documentary History of the State of New Zealand, 1982-1998" published by the Trevor Richards Foundation for Legal Studies, 2004, Hong Kong illustrating the rise of a police state and its ultimate defeat.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author

Ma Windsor - Lorin Peterson (The Hillside Press, 1983)
Mostly a political novel, but a woman is elected President of the United States, and she solves the economic and international problems of the country. Includes her political platform.

The Man Who Could Make Things Vanish - Jack [Andrew] Cady (1932-2004) (Arbor House, 1983)
Near future technological dystopia and those who fight against it.
Keywords: US author

Manna - [George Harry] [Stine] (1928-97) (DAW Books, 1983)
Eutopia designed to be a free state neither communist nor capitalist. Mostly adventure.
Keywords: US author

Midas World - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (St. Martin's Press, 1983)
Series of loosely connected stories stemming from his 1954 "The Midas Plague." The only previously unpublished story, "The Fire-Bringer" (1-4), serves as an introduction This is followed by 1954 Pohl, "The Midas Plague" (5-74). The other stories then depict aspects of the future of the world created in that story. "The Servant of the People" (75-97) is about a Congressman (Congress hold interactive electronic meetings with no one physically present) running against a robot. "The Man Who Ate the World" (98-137) is about a compulsive consumer when the need to consume is long past. "The Farmer on the Dole" (138-75) is about giving redundant robots new jobs, in this case as a mugger who can only mug other robots. "The Lord of the Skies" (176-244) is about life in orbital habitats that draw their power from Earth, whose ecology has been destroyed by the need to send power to the habitats. "The New Neighbors" (245-76) is about the future destroyed world now inhabited almost entirely by robots.
Parts published previously as 1954 Pohl, "The Midas Plague"; "The Servant of the People." Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact 103.2 (February 1983): 90-105; "The Man Who Ate the World." Galaxy Science Fiction 13.1 (November 1956): 6-35; "The Farmer on the Dole." Omni 5.1 (1982): 118-22, 124, 126-27, 164-68; "The Lord of the Skies." Amazing Science Fiction 57.2 (July 1983): 114-62; and "The New Neighbors." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 64.5 (May 1983): 137-58.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Musichor” - Albert Russo (Aurora Speculative Feminism, 1983)
In what was published of the story, conflicts over language had led to wars and the use of nuclear weapons, after which humanity came to its senses and replaced words with music, available through an implant at birth.
Keywords: French author; Male author

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

New America - Poul [William] Anderson (1926-2001) (Tom Doherty Associates, 1983)
Eutopia depicting the settlement and development of a planet by a group of individualists who make laissez-faire capitalism work. "A Fair Exchange" is the story most concerned with economic questions.
A linked series of stories. Four of them were originally published in the Continuum series ed. Roger [Paul] Elwood as “My Own, My Native Land.” Continuum 1 (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974), 42-75; “Passing the Love of Women.” Continuum 2 (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974), 51-81; “A Fair Exchange.” Continuum 3 (New York: Berkley, 1974), 29-53; and “To Promote the General Welfare.” Continuum 4 (New York: Berkley, 1975), 31-62. U.K. editions published as Continuum I, II, III, IV. First two vols. published London: W.H. Allen, 1975, 1976 with the Anderson stories on 38-62 and 43-65 respectively. Second two vols. published London: Star, 1977 with the same pagination as the U.S. ed. The others are “The Queen of Air and Darkness.” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 40.4 (239) (April 1971): 5-45; “Home,” which was originally published as “The Disinherited.” Orbit 1: A Science Fiction Anthology. Ed. Damon Knight (New York: Berkley Medallion, 1966), 65-81; and the essay “Our Many Roads to the Stars.” Galaxy 36.8 (September 1975): 73-87.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Night Operation - [Arthur] Owen Barfield (1898-1997) (Towards, 1983)
Dystopia set in the 22nd century in which people have fled underground into the sewer system to escape from terrorist attacks. Rock is played constantly over loudspeakers. The people have forgotten history and focus almost entirely on their biological lives with the Three Rs replaced with the Three Es (ejaculation, defecation, and eructation). Language has lost many words. No marriage or the family.
Rpt. in A Barfield Sampler: Poetry and Fiction. Ed. Jeanne Clayton Hunter and Thomas Kranidas with an afterword by Owen Barfield (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993), 129-72; and separately as Night Operation. [Shinfield, Eng.]: Barfield Press UK, 2008. 2nd ed. [San Raphael, CA: Barfield Press, 2009. The book has a hagiographic “Introduction” by Jane Hipolito (ix-xii).
Keywords: English author

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

"The October Suit" - Edward William Ludwig (1920-90) (The 7 Shapes of Solomon Bean and 14 Other Marvelous Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy, 1983)
Flawed utopia in which there is no war, and everyone is well fed, clothed, and housed but which requires absolute conformity.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Orbitsville Departure - Bob [Robert] Shaw (1931-96) (DAW Books, 1983)
Flawed utopia about the negative effects of the good life on a huge artificial world. Earth is mostly a museum. Sequel to 1974 Shaw. Followed by his 1990 Orbitsville Judgement.
U.K. ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1983.
Keywords: Male author; Northern Ireland author

Orion Shall Rise - Poul [William] Anderson (1926-2001) (Timescape Books, 1983)
Variety of future societies with Anderson's usual emphasis on libertarianism versus authoritarianism.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Out of the Ashes - William W[allace] Johnstone (1938-2004) (Zebra Books, 1983)
The first volume of a of dystopian post-nuclear/biological war survivalist series with war between the survivalist faction, who are the good guys, and the remnants of the U.S. government.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Peacemaker" - Gardner R[aymond] Dozois (1947-2018) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1983)
Post-catastrophe religious dystopia in which a child is sacrificed to ensure a good harvest.
Rpt. in Writers for Relief: An Anthology to Benefit the Survivors of Katrina. Ed. Davey Beauchamp (Wilmington, NC: Davey Beauchamp, 2005), 7-52; in his When the Great Days Come ([Canton, OH]: Prime Books, 2011), 68-82; and in Asimov’s Science Fiction 43.3/4 (March/April 2019): 26-35.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Piecing It Together: Feminism and Nonviolence - Feminism and Nonviolence Study Group (Feminism and Nonviolence Study Group, 1983)
Generally, an argument on the importance of nonviolence to bringing about social change but includes a brief eutopia (52-53) based on decentralization.

The Place of Dead Roads - William S[eward] Burroughs (1914-97) (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983)
The middle volume of a trilogy that includes his 1981 Cities of the Red Night and his 1987 The Western Lands. This novel is concerned with a gay gunfighter in the western U. S. in the nineteenth century and is typical of the dystopian themes in Burroughs’s works.
U. K. ed. London: John Calder, 1984.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Plan B - Chester [Bomar] Himes (1908-84) (University of Mississippi Press, 1983)
Near future Black revolution.
Keywords: African American author

The Rainbow Cadenza; A Novel in Logosata Form - J[oseph] Neil Schulman (1953-2019) (Simon and Schuster, 1983)
Dystopia. After various wars that destroyed New York (rebuilt as Newer York), cheap power supports a luxury lifestyle for some and what might appear to be a technological eutopia. But there are "touchables", an underclass who can be hunted, technology allows gender choice in children and there is a seven to one male unbalance, rape is common, and women are required to serve sexually in the military, among other aspects of a dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

Rates of Exchange - Malcolm [Stanley] Bradbury (1932-2000) (Secker & Warburg, 1983)
Satire on contemporary Eastern Europe through the imaginary country of Slaka. Continued in his Why Come to Slaka? London: Martin Secker & Warburg, 1986; rpt. London: Arena, 1987, which is a guidebook to Slaka.
Rpt. London: Arena, 1984.
Keywords: English author

A Road to Life and Sanity: A Challenge to the Social Systems of Capitalism and Communism - Mike Milan (1911-85) ([Mike Milan], 1983)
Narrowly political non-fiction eutopia focusing on citizen involvement through "Electoral Associations". Required voting.
Keywords: Canadian author

Savage Tomorrow - Trevor Donohue (b. 1939) (Cory & Collins, 1983)
Post catastrophe dystopia of biker gangs.
Keywords: Australian author

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

Single Combat - Dean Ing (1931-2020) (Tom Doherty Associates, 1983)
Post-catastrophe Mormon dictatorship.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Songs to the Judges with Music by William Dart - Mervyn Thompson (1936-92) (Playmarket New Zealand Theatrescipts, 1983)
Ends with a brief "vision of justice and unity" based in part on the Maori prophet Te Whiti Rogomaii III (1815?-1907), the pacifist Maori leader at Parihaka, a Maori village that tried to stand against the theft of land by peaceful means.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author

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

The Steps of the Sun - Walter [Stone] Tevis (1928-84) (Doubleday & Co, 1983)
Dystopian setting with a future U.S. without energy sources. China is the dominant world power.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Street Meat" - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1983)
Dystopia. A future of extreme poverty versus great wealth. The poor are fed "people kibble" and can buy cooked rats on the street for meat.
Rpt. in his Other Americas (New York: Bantam Books, 1988), 1-43.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Streetlethal - Steven [Emory] Barnes (b. 1952) (Ace Books, 1983)
Dystopia of organized crime, drugs, and violence. See also 1989 and 1993 Barnes.
Keywords: African American author; Male author

“Suffern’ Succotash” - Rudy [Rudolf von Bitter] Rucker (b. 1946) (The 57th Franz Kafka, 1983)
The story is set in a future that as a result of environmental collapse is completely vegetarian and no animals survive.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Sweetwaters 1984: The Final Refuge" - Barry Rosenberg (Pathfinder (New Zealand), 1983)
Eutopia. New Age community created out of a festival after the rest of the world is destroyed in a nuclear war.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author

Technomics in one corporate world - [John Bernard] [Ball] (b. 1911) ([Author], 1983)
Detailed eutopia based on the same “Universal Law of Economics” in 1978 Ball. In 1957 the author ran in the Canadian federal election as a candidate in Regina, Saskatchewan for the National Credit Control Party, a party of his own creation. His purpose was to publicize the monetary system he developed. See “J.B. Ball National Credit Control” within “Six Candidates Offer Final Election Message.” The Leader-Post (Regina, SK, Canada) 48.132 (June 8, 1957): 3. See also 1956 Ball Ahoy for Eternity and National Credit, The Handbook of the Universal Monetary System, and Universal Monetary System of National Credit Control, and The Universal Monetary System of National Credit Control: A Financial Revolution With Nationalized Accounting Merchandising at Cost; 1961 Ball, Cosmocracy: The Universal Monetary System. Regina, SK, Canada: J.B. Ball; 1978 Ball, Permacredit. Universal Finance for Government & Industry. World Government without Trade Deficits. A Cash System of Accounting without Debt in Industry or Government or Taxes Against Industry or Credit Cards. Foremost, AB: Author; 1982 Ball, Technomics. A Better Economy. International. By Barney Ballmark [pseud.]. [Foremost, AB: Ballmark Publications]; 1986 Ball, Beyond Capitalism. Foremost, AB: Ballmark Publications; and 1988 Ball, The Laws of the Micro Giants. An Odyssean Classic. Foremost, AB: Ballmark Publications. Other versions include The Technomic Alliance [subtitle on the cover No Taxes on property or income, the obvious solution, total employment]. 3rd ed. By Barney Ballmark [pseud.]. Foremost, AB: Ballmark Publications, 1984; Pathway to the Stars: Industrial Democracy Beyond Democracy and Christianity Plus the Photon Theory of Creation. Foremost, AB: Ballmark Publications, 1986. [New ed.] as The Pathway to the Stars. The Photon theory of Creation. Poetry. Foremost, AB, Canada: Ballmark Publications, 1987. Rpt. as Pathway to the Stars. Industrial Democracy Beyond Capitalism and Christianity Plus the Photon Theory of Creation. Includes Poetry Selections. Foremost, AB, Canada: Ballmark Publications, 1989. Another ed. as The Pathway to the Stars. By The Hobo Poet [pseud.]. Foremost, AB, Canada: Ballmark Publications, 1990 in four sections, [“Memoirs, Poetry, and Stories] (1-164),” “Industrial Capitalism--Beyond Capitalism” (165-213), “Gleaning from Prairie Art Shows” (214-29), and “Radiation Properties of Creation” (230-51); Technomics International. Perpetual Payroll Financing for Government and Industry. Rev. October 1986. [Foremost, AB, Canada: Ballmark Publications, 1986; Industrial Democracy. Beyond Capitalism and Christianity. Includes the Photon Laws of Creation. Foremost, AB, Canada: Ballmark Publications, 1989; and Industrial Democracy. Beyond Capitalism. This concept of world marketing explains how nations can finance total employment, without international debt, or taxation on property and income. New Economic System. Foremost, AB, Canada: Ballmark Publications, 1990. 53 pp. Canadian author.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

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

The Throne of Madness: Volume II of the Inquestor Trilogy - Somtow [Papinian] Sucharitkul (b. 1952) (Timescape, 1983)
Second volume in a series with this volume focusing on one man's struggle for meaning within the dystopia. See 1982, 1984, and 1985 Sucharitkul.
Repub. as The Dawning Shadow: The Throne of Madness. New York: Bantam Books, 1986.
Keywords: Male author; Thai author; US author

Tolerable Levels of Violence - Robert G[eorge] Collins (Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1983)
Future dystopia of daily violence with violence level reports on the news.
Rpt. Toronto, ON, Canada: Totem Books, 1985.
Keywords: Canadian author

Transformer - M[ichael] A[nthony] Foster (b. 1939) (DAW Books, 1983)
Second volume of his Morphodite trilogy. See also 1981 Foster and 1985 Foster, Preserver. In this volume the Morphodite seems to have defeated the dystopia, but it returns from space and attacks. The Morphodite, now a woman, must find and defeat it in space.
Rpt. in his The Transformer Trilogy (New York: DAW Books, 2006), 211-459.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Valencies - [Keith] Rory Barnes (b. 1946); Damien [Francis] Broderick (b. 1944) (University of Queensland Press, 1983)
A novel set in 4004 A.D. with significant scientific advances and with both the negative and positive results of the changes shown. Immortality has been conferred but people continue to have children and all Earth-type planets have been colonized. Effortless learning is possible. People are still playing power games.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Walg - B. Wongar (b. 1932) (Dodd, Mead, 1983)
Presents the white treatment of the Aborigines of Australia as a vicious dystopia. Hints of an Aboriginal eutopia. Also includes a white model of Aboriginal life as a new dystopia. "Walg" means "womb." His Karan (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1985) and Gabo Djara (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1987) are part of the trilogy. Walg was adapted for German radio and also for a film.
Australian edition with the subtitle A Novel of Australia. South Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Macmillan, 1986. U.K. ed. London: Macmillan, 1986.
Keywords: Aboriginal author; Australian author; Serbian author