Subterranean Gallery - Richard Paul Russo (b. 1954) (Tor, 1989)
Near future dystopia set in a collapsing San Francisco.
U.K. ed. London: Grafton, 1991.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Svaha - Charles [Henri Diederick Hoefsmit] de Lint (b. 1951) (Ace Books, 1989)
A high tech North American Indian eutopia that exists in enclaves completely cut off from a destroyed United States. The novel follows one Indian as he explores the white world and discovers that not all whites are evil. He decides to create a decent place to build a society in which Indians and whites can work together. Uses myths from a number of indigenous peoples. Svaha is said to be “Amerindian; the time between seeing the lightning and hearing the thunder; a waiting for promises to be fulfilled.”
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Tangled Webs - Steve Mudd (Popular Library, 1989)
Authoritarian dystopia. The protagonist thinks he lives in a law-based universe but discovers that he lives in a universe at war with itself.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Terrible Threes - Ishmael [Scott] Reed (b. 1938) (Atheneum, 1989)
Sequel to 1982 Reed. Dystopian satire on U.S. politics emphasizing religion. See also his 2021 The Terrible Twos.
Keywords: African American author; Male author

The Transfer Station - Russell Haley (1934-2016) (Nagare Press, 1989)
A connected series of short stories presenting an ecological dystopia. A part of the coast has been destroyed for the convenience of a refuse station, which pumps waste into the sea, which has killed all marine life, and the fumes from the station have killed most of the plant life in the area. France controls New Zealand, and New Zealanders are expected to speak French. Youth despair and the suicide rate is high.
Rpt. with minor corrections in A Spider-Web Season & The Transfer Station: Two Story Sequences (Christchurch: Hazard Press, 2000), 126-86. Three of the stories were previously published--“Ash.” Landfall 167 42.3 (September 1988): 232-33; “Out on the Coast.” Metro 9.91 (January 1989): 106-07, 109; and “The Preacher.” Landfall 167 42.3 (September 1988): 228-32.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Australian author; English author; Male author

Undermining the Central Line - Ruth Rendell (1930-2015); Colin Ward (1924-2010) (Chatto and Windus, 1989)
The first chapter (1-8) is a decentralized eutopia set in 2051 emphasizing the revival of village life. The other chapters reinforce the eutopia by looking at various examples of successful decentralization with considerable discussion of the bad examples of centralism that currently exist.
Keywords: English author; Female author; Male author

The Utopian - Michael Westlake (b. 1942) (Carcanet Press, 1989)
Future tale of a new age, sexually free eutopia. The novel presents the eutopia through the point-of-view of someone living in the eutopia and the point-of-view of his psychotherapist, who sees the eutopia as a reflection of mental illness.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"We See Things Differently." - [Michael] Bruce Sterling (b. 1954) (Semiotext[e] SF, 1989)
Dystopia of a collapsed U.S. and dominant Islamic Middle East, which, in the name of jihad, is killing individuals who might assist U.S. recovery.
Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991), 130-46 with an editor's note on 129; and in The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction. Ed. Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin and Brian Attebery. Karen Joy Fowler, Consultant (New York: W.W. Norton, 1993), 762-79.
Keywords: Male author; US author

WHOM - Matthew Francis (b. 1956) (Bloomsbury, 1989)
WHOM is the gigantic computer system that dominates and completely controls the activities of the White House. Surreal dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Why Weeps the Brogan? - Hugh Scott (Walker Books, 1989)
Dystopia of children surviving in the British Museum after a nuclear war. Published as a children's book.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

Winter Vision - Geoff Page (b. 1940) (University of Queensland Press, 1989)
Dystopia set in the late 1990s. The novel is primarily concerned with the difficulties of a middle-aged schoolteacher, who gets caught up in the machinations of various people who use government policy for their own ends. He becomes involved with protests against nuclear brinksmanship and the novel ends with nuclear war.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

1998 - Richard Turner; William Osborne (b. 1960) (Sphere, 1988)
Humor. Future focusing on instant stardom for cash. Based on a radio series.
Keywords: Male author

1999: Customised for the Digital - Audio Age - Michael J[ohn] Weller (ITMA, 1988)
Eutopia. History is traced from 1988, which is presented in dystopian terms, to 1999. The youth culture begins to create a new consciousness which leads to political changes with the Labour Party ultimately becoming the Democratic Socialist Party with policies that encourage local democracy and environmental improment.
Keywords: Male author

Abandonati - Garry [Douglas] Kilworth (b. 1941) (Unwin Hyman, 1988)
Near future tale of cities given over to the homeless.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Adventures of Mr. Snozzlefozzle and the Golden Planet - W[illiam] E. Drake (Author, 1988)
A planet, the Golden Planet with a parallel history to that of Earth, destroys its entire population in a war, but a far-sighted scientist has saved sperm and eggs and is able to repopulate the planet. In its new life, the population creates a eutopia based on education and a sense of community.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Alternities - [Michael Paul] [McDowell] (b. 1954) (Ace Books, 1988)
Dystopia. Alternate universes that can be reached from Earth are used by the powerful of Earth to play out their fantasies of even greater power, although one man sees them as a chance to start over.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Anti Body Positive - Mike Johnson (b. 1947) (Hard Echo Press, 1988)
A complex, humorous novel satirizing science fiction while presenting an authoritarian dystopia that includes elements of science fiction and refers to specific science fiction texts.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Atlantis: Centre international culturel, scientifique, politique et économique a Tenerife Islas Canarias/International Centre for Culture, the Sciences, Politics and Economics at Tenerife Islas Canarias - Léon Krier (b. 1946) (Archives d'Architecture Moderne, 1988)
Architectural eutopia which includes designs and commentary plus essays by Maurice Culot, "Une ile/An Island" (5-14); Demetri Porphyrios, "The Meaning of Atlantis et sa signification" (15-16, 20-22); and Frank Werner, "Atlantis une nouvelle culture en gestation/Atlantis a new Urban Culture in Gestation" (87-90, 91).
Keywords: English author; Male author

Barking Dogs - Terence M[ichael] Green (b. 1947) (St. Martin's Press, 1988)
Dystopia of violence in near future Toronto. His Blue Limbo. New York: Tor, 1997 is a sequel.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Being - Michael Redfinn (Leisure Books, 1988)
Apocalyptic novel set in the days before Armageddon (See Revelation 16). Presents world utopia as inspired by the Devil.
Keywords: Male author

Between the Stars - [Yoji] [Kondo] (1933-2017); John Maddox Roberts (b. 1947) (Baen, 1988)
Sequel to 1987 [Kondo] and Roberts. In this volume, the discovery of alien artifacts that provide a major source of power are used to free the solar system from the repressive regimes that have developed there,
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Company Man - Joe Clifford Faust (b. 1957) (del Rey, 1988)
Future world run by huge corporations.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Dance of the Warriors - Kevin Esser (b. 1953) (Acolyte Press, 1988)
Story of man-boy love and sexual relations set in a future dystopia.
Keywords: Male author

Dreams of Flesh & Sand - W[illiam] T[homas] Quick (b. 1946) (New American Library, 1988)
Mostly a technological adventure story, but as background the world is totally dominated by private corporations. 1989 Quick Dreams of Gods and Men. New York: New American Library, 1989, in which an artificial intelligence is taking over all the corporations and 1990 Quick, Singularities. <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>: ROC, 1990, are sequels.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Emerald Eyes - Daniel Keys Moran (b. 1962) (Bantam Spectra, 1988)
An attempt to genetically engineer super soldiers goes wrong and creates a telepath instead. More were created designed to be completely obedient soldiers, but they thought otherwise. See also 1989 and 1993 Moran
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Energy Island" - G[arvin] R[obert] Gilbert (b. 1917) (G. R. Gilbert Papers, Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury. MB 957, Boxes 8-9, items 33-59., 1988)
Dystopia. In order to create the fuels necessary for the country, the government decides that much of the South Island of New Zealand should be used for the production of ethanol and methanol from beets and trees. It authorizes the South Island Office (SIO) of the Department of Internal Affairs to undertake the project, and it quickly effectively establishes itself as the ruler of the South Island, which becomes an authoritarian dystopia with all aspects of life controlled. A resistance movement develops, first bombing electricity pylons and ultimately setting off a small nuclear bomb in central Christchurch. The SIO is disbanded and initially leaderless self-help groups spring up, order is quickly restored throughout the South Island, and the self-help groups become small cooperative communities. A new religious community in the mountains begins to raid the plains and a war breaks out. The religious community wins the war and establishes control over much of the South Island. See the note at 1952 Gilbert.
Parts were published; see 1985, 1986, and 1992 Gilbert, Acts of Terror and Delight; and there is a privately published version of the first 628 pages, ending in mid-sentence. Energy Island. Lincoln, New Zealand: Clear Light & Self Revelation Institute, 1988, which says "This edition is not for sale. Privately printed and produced it is limited to five copies autographed by the author." G.R. Gilbert Papers, Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury. MB 957, Box 5, item 16, and there are other manuscripts of parts of the text--Box 3, item 7; Box 4, item 10; and Box 6, item 17.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

The Entangled World - H[erb] Deesen (Book Services Partnership, 1988)
Poem on the founding and foundering of a commune.
Keywords: Male author

Fire on the Mountain - Terry [Ballantine] Bisson (1942-2024) (Arbor House, 1988)
According to Bisson, the basis of the novel is thinking about what would happen if the abolitionist John Brown (1800-59) had been successful, with most of the novel on the history of the successful revolt and its effects. There is a prosperous, independent black state, Nova Africa, in the U.S. South and the North, now the United Socialist States of America or U.S.S.A., is also becoming prosperous. For John Brown’s own eutopia, see 1858 Brown.
Rpt. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2009 with an "Introduction" by Mumia Abu-Jamal (b. Wesley Cook in 1954) from Death Row, where he has been since 1995. An excerpt from the 2009 ed. was published in Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. Ed. Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown (Oakland, CA: AK Press and the Institute for Anarchist Studies, 2015), 225-38.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Flies of a Summer - Peter [Raymond] Kocan (b. 1947) (Angus & Robertson, 1988)
A cruel dystopia that has developed after some unnamed catastrophe. The two groups, who are presented as if they were two species, are violent warriors and their slaves. The slaves, who are the focus of the novel, are kept in small villages under the control of local groups of warriors. The village presented is a "breeding" village of teenagers who are raised until they are old enough to have children, and, once the girls give birth, sent off to work elsewhere. The novel ends with a revolt and escape.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

"From Homogenous to Honey." - Neil [Richard] Gaiman (b. 1960) (AARGH (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia), 1988)
Dystopia. Graphic story depicting the destruction of difference, particularly differences in sexual preference, and the creation of sameness, with all people alike.
Rpt. in The Future Is Queer. Ed. Richard Labonté and Lawrence Schimel (Vancouver, BC, Canada: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2006), 112-15; and in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 107-11.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The General's President - [John Robert] [Jones] (b. 1926) (Baen, 1988)
Political novel set in a future dystopia in which, after a depression and rioting, the President and Vice President resign, and the Join Chiefs of Staff chooses the next President. He establishes a dictatorship but is also independent minded.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Genesis: An Epic Poem - Frederick Turner (b. 1943) (Saybrook Publishing Co, 1988)
Poem about the terraforming of Mars and the conflicts it engenders with a mild dystopia as background.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

Genocide The Anthology - Tim[othy Patrick] Barrus (b. 1950) (Knights Press, 1988)
Dystopia in which all gays are suppressed. The author presents this as actually expected in the future.
Keywords: Male author

The Gold Coast - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (St. Martin's Press, 1988)
An affluent future that could be read as a eutopia or as a dystopia depicting the effects of the military-industrial complex, but the discontent of the main characters suggests the latter. See also 1984 Robinson, The Wild Shore, 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: Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, 1988; and in Three Californias (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2020), 293-653, with an introduction “Triptych, with Softball” by Francis Spufford (7-12). U.K. ed. London: Futura, 1989.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Greenland - Howard [John] Brenton (b. 1942) (Methuen in association with the Royal Court Theatre, 1988)
Two act play. The first act presents contemporary Britain almost as a dystopia. The second act is set seven hundred years in the future in an apparently anarchist eutopia. The author describes it as the culmination of his attempts to create a utopia on the stage, preceded by Sore Throats (first performed in 1978 at the Royal Shakespear Company's Warehouse Theatre in London), available in his Sore Throats & Sonnets of Love and Opposition (London: Eyre Methuen, 1979), 5-31; and with the subtitle "An Intimate Play in Two Acts" in his Plays: One (London: Methuen, 1986), 337-90; and Bloody Poetry. London: Methuen, 1985 (first performed in 1984 at the Foco Novo Theatre in Hampstead, England).
Keywords: English author; Male author

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

Happiness - Theodore Zeldin (b. 1933) (Collins Harvill, 1988)
A satirical tour of a modern Heaven by a young woman, her dog, and her pet cockroach, who immediately escapes. Heaven is overcrowded and full of people who had hoped for more from Heaven. The young woman, Sumdy (Somebody) interviews many of the occupants in search of her guardian angel. Includes extended satires of universities and other institutions and social practices.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Henceforward. . . - Alan Ayckbourn (b. 1939) (Faber & Faber, 1988)
Offstage in the background is a near-future dystopia of violence. Most of London is dangerous and people live with armed security guards and some of London are "no-go" areas controlled by local gangs.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Home Front" - James Patrick Kelly (b. 1951) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1988)
Dystopia presented through the eyes of a teenager in a society that arbitrarily drafts young people into the military. See also 1988 Kelly, “Pogrom”.
Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989), 52-61 with an editor's note on 51.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Isaac Asimov Presents Antibodies - David J[ohn] Skal (1952-2024) (Congdon & Weed, 1988)
Dystopia of people replacing their bodies with machines a bit at a time.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Islands in the Net - [Michael] Bruce Sterling (b. 1954) (Arbor House, 1988)
A future high tech, networked eutopia that has access to data tightly controlled is being undermined by those trying to control people through the net. One woman manages to defeat them.
Rpt. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1994 with an unpaged “Introduction” by James E. Gunn, which was rpt. in his Paratexts: Introductions to Science Fiction and Fantasy (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2013), 73-76. . U.K. ed. London: Century, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Johnny Zed - John Gregory Betancourt (b. 1963) (Popular Library, 1988)
Dystopia of a corrupt, authoritarian future U.S.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Journals of the Plague Years." - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Full Spectrum, 1988)
Dystopia. An AIDS-like pandemic/plague spreads throughout the world and anyone with it is put into a quarantine zone. Written from the point of view of both those with the plague and those fighting it. At the end a virus defeats the plague, and an introductory statement written fron Luna City in 2143 suggests a eutopian outcome.
Rpt. as Journals of the Plague Years. New York: Bantam Books, 1995.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Krono - Charles [Leonard] Harness (1915-2005) (Franklin Watts, 1988)
Includes an overpopulation dystopia. Corruption.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"La Vie Continue" - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Other Americas, 1988)
Dystopia of a future America that tries to co-opt or, if that fails, kill authors who oppose the current regime.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Last Bank on Earth - Michael S. Cummings (b. 1943) (Play performed by the Pepperdine University Mini-theatre, April 5, 1988., 1988)
Dystopian satire of a bank after a nucear war.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Laws of the Micro Giants. An Odyssean Classic - J[ohn] B[ernard] Ball (b. 1911) (Ballmark Publications, 1988)
Detailed eutopia following on his 1961 Cosmocracy, which he here spells “CosMocRacy.” This volume also includes a theory of creation first described in his The Cosmic Laws of the Spectrum: Evolution and Government as well as some more personal material. 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; 1980 Ball, The Cosmic Laws of the Spectrum: Evolution and Government. By Barney Ballmark [pseud.]. [Foremost, AB: Ballmark Publications];1982 Ball, Technomics. A Better Economy. International. By Barney Ballmark [pseud.]. [Foremost, AB: Ballmark Publications]; and 1986 Ball, Beyond Capitalism. Foremost, AB: Ballmark Publications. Other versions include Technomics in one corporate world. By Barney Ballmark [pseud.]. [Foremost, AB: Author], [1983]; 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.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

The Long Orbit - Mick [Michael Anthony] Farren (1943-2013) (Ballantine Books, 1988)
Complex future dystopia where many people lived fantasy lives and robots did their work for them. The novel focuses on a man who lived the fantasy of being a detective in the 1940s but is hired to be a detective in the real world of corporate conflict.
U.K. ed. as Exit Funtopia. London: Sphere, 1989.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Lunatics" - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (Terry's Universe, 1988)
Dystopia of mining on the moon which is the equivalent of slavery.
Rpt. in his Remaking History (New York: Tor, 1991), 236-63; and in Infinity Plus one. Ed. Keith Brooke and Nick Gevers (Leeds, Eng.: PS Publishing, 2001), 255-81; in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 293-313; 2nd ed. as Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 293-313; and in Alaya Dawn Johnson and Kim Stanley Robinson. Metamorphosis (Seattle, WA: Aqueduct Press, 2015), 59-91.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Maiden Flight - Eric Vinicoff (b. 1951) (Baen Books, 1988)
Post-catastrophe novel about building a new, better society where non-violent societies must fight the remains of previous military.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Marching Through Georgia - S[tephen] M[ichael] Stirling (b. 1954) (Baen, 1988)
Alternative history in which the losers in the American Revolution establish The Domination based on slavery, initially, in this volume, in Africa but, in Under the Yoke. New York: Tor, 1989, spreading to Asia and continental Europe. In the final volume, The Stone Dogs. New York: Tor, 1990, The Alliance and The Dominion have a final confrontation.
His Domination. New York: Tor, 1999 is an abridged and revised single volume edition of his Draka series, Marching through Georgia (1988), Under the Yoke (1989), and The Stone Dogs (1990).
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

"Metaphysica" - Daniel John Zutter (M.Arch. thesis. Minnesota., 1988)
Architectural utopia.
Keywords: Male author

Metrophage (A Romance of the Future) - Richard [Albert] Kadrey (b. 1957) (Ace Books, 1988)
Dystopia of a future Los Angeles ravaged by poverty and disease.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Mona Lisa Overdrive - William [Ford] Gibson (b. 1948) (Victor Gollancz, 1988)
Future cyberpunk dystopia.
U.S. ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Moon of Ice - Brad[ford Swain] Linaweaver (1952-2019) (Arbor House, 1988)
Alternative history. Nazi's win World War II and control Europe. America is libertarian.
Rpt. New York: Tor, 1993. U.K. ed. London: Grafton, 1989. A novella with the same title was published in Amazing Science Fiction Stories 28.5 (March 1982): 42-73. Rpt. in Hitler Victorious: Eleven Stories of the German Victory in World War II. Ed. Gregory [Albert] Benford and Martin H[arry] Greenberg (New York: Garland, 1986), 147-201; and in The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century. Ed. Harry [Norman] Turtledove with Martin H[arry] Greenberg (New York: Ballantine Books, 2001), 357-415.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Moses in the Promised Land - R. Howard Bloch (Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 1988)
Complex satire. Sixties people grown older but with the same fads and reforms with the satire suggesting that there were dystopian elements. There is conflict corrupt politicians and large developers, which, when the developers and politicians win, produces a dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

NEO Party Politics - Raymond B[arry] Mehlhopt (b. 1954) (Seagull Press, 1988)
Detailed eutopia non-fiction for New Zealand with a stress on political organization, in particular the restructuring of New Zealand into two state governments representing the North and South Islands. NEO = Newness with Equality and Organisation. See 1987 Mehlhopt for a set of detailed economic proposals. See also 1997 and 1999 Mehlhopt.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Nick and the Glimmung - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Gollancz, 1988)
Humorous children's story that begins on an overpopulated Earth with an anti-pet policy and moves to a planet with various sentient beings under threat of one powerful one. A young boy defeats the threat, and all will be able to live happily.
U.S. ed. Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2009.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Peaches for Mad Molly" - Steven [Charles] Gould (b. 1955) (Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, 1988)
Dystopia in which the homeless live hanging on the outsides of buildings.
Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989), 82-100 with an editor's note on 81.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Player of Games - Iain M[enzies] Banks (1954-2013) (Macmillan, 1988)
One of his Culture novels presenting a complex future society where everyone appears to live in complete luxury with both eutopian and dystopian elements. See 1987 and 2008 Banks.
U.S. ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1989.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

Prelude to Foundation - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (Doubleday, 1988)
Prequel to the Foundation series. See note at 1982 Asimov. See also 1986 Asimov. Includes a description of a society presented as dystopian that is similar to a traditional religious commune.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Resurrection, Inc - Kevin J[ames] Anderson (b. 1962) (New American Library, 1988)
Dystopia--dead revived to be used as slaves. They revolt.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Saga of Filster Stein - Gary Lovesi (Gryphon Publications, 1988)
A bit of a sendup of SF but in the process depicts some dystopias.
Parts originally published as “The Saga of Filster Stein” [In the book the title is given as “Why Do These Things Always Happen To Me”]. Heart of Dixie Comics 1.3 (August/September 1983): 14-18; “Set Adrift Like An Old Piece of Baggage.” Heart of Dixie Comics, no. 4 (January 1984); and “When the Warlord Comes To Town” as “The Warlord Wonder.” Galaxy Times, no. 5 (July 1977).
Keywords: Male author

Scudder's Game - D[avid] G[uy] Compton (1930-2023) (Kerosina Books, 1988)
Radical reduction in population based on a device that weakened sperm while giving control over one’s orgasm. Behind the eutopia created is a dystopia that controls the social system.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Sideshow - W[illiam] R[och] Thompson (b. 1955) (Baen, 1988)
Future United States during a new Great Depression. Three extremist groups fight for power: The Iron Guard, who are Neo-Nazis; the New Redeemers, who are religious fanatics; Sere, who believe that civilization must be destroyed to save the planet. In addition, there are telepaths who are treated as witches and being hunted.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Stairs" - Neal [Patrick] Barrett Jr. (1929-2014) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1988)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Rpt. in his Slightly Off Center: Eleven Extraordinarily Exhilarating Tales (Austin, TX: Swan Press, 1992), 114-27; and in his Other Seasons: The Best of Neal Barrett, Jr. (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2012), 229-80.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Sykaos Papers: Being An Account of the Voyages of the Poet Oi Paz to the System of Strim in the Seventeenth Galaxy; of his Mission to the Planet Sykaos; of his First Cruel Captivity; of his Travels about its Surface; of the Manners and Customs of its Beastly People; of his Second Captivity; and of his Return to Oitar. To which are added many passages from the Poet's Journal, documents in Sykotic script, and other curious matters. Selected and Edited by Q, Vice-Provost of the College of Adjusters - E[dward] P[almer] Thompson (1924-93) (Bloomsbury, 1988)
Rational dystopia contrasted to dystopian earth. While the latter is generally preferable, it destroys itself.
U.S. ed. New York: Pantheon, 1988.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Taking From the Top" - Daniel [David] Pearlman (1935-2013) (Synergy: New Science Fiction, 1988)
Future tale in which death is required after eighty except for those who have made or are making a major contribution to society.
Rpt. in his The Final Dream and Other Fictions (San Francisco, CA: Permeable Press, 1995), 45-80.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Terraplane - Jack [Wylie] Womack [Jr.] (b. 1956) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988)
A volume in the DryCo series. This volume is an alternative history dystopia in which some characters in the first volume are sent to the period of the Great Depression. For other volumes in the series see his 1987 Ambient, 1990 Heathern, 1993 Elvissey, 1993 Random Acts of Senseless Violence, and 2000 Going, Going, Gone. Although there are multiple alternative histories in the series, in timeline order, the volumes are 1993 Random Acts of Senseless Violence, 1990 Heathern, 1987 Ambient, 1988 Terraplane, 1993 Elivissey, and 2000 Going, Going, Gone.
U.K. ed. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"This Is the Year Zero" - Andrew [Simon] Weiner (1949-2019) (Full Spectrum, 1988)
Alien invasion followed by authoritarian dystopia in which humans become slaves working in fields with no machines. Most familiar things are abolished--no money, no meat or green vegetables, no TV, no cars, no cities, no schools, no telephones, no sex. Old and ill disappear. Children run things for the aliens and appear content but say that there is now no past and no future, just the present.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

“The Time of No Troubles” - W[alter] Warren Wagar (1932-2004) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1988)
Third in a dystopian series following 1986 and 1987 Wagar. In this story, initially the world appears to be divided between altros, or slaves, and egos, or bosses, a division includes animals. The system breaks down with altros killing themselves for no known reason.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Tower to the Sky - Phillip C[harles] Jennings (b. 1946) (Baen, 1988)
Background of a largely destroyed future earth. Complex political novel with some dystopian elements.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Turbo Cowboys 1. Jump Start - [Cunningham, Chet] (Ballantine Books, 1988)
The first volume of the ten volume young adult post-catastrophe Turbo Cowboys series in which five of young men fight for freedom on their motorcycles. Other volumes include three more written by Cunningham, Turbo Cowboys 2 Spin Out (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), Turbo Cowboys 3 Full Throttle (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), and Turbo Cowboys 4 Spark Fire (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989). The other six volumes were written by Paul Bagdon, Turbo Cowboys 5 Super Charge (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), Turbo Cowboys 6 Rat Trap (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), Turbo Cowboys 7 Night Riders (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), Turbo Cowboys 8 Speed Shift (New York: Ballantine Books, 1990), Turbo Cowboys 9 Duster Trouble (New York: Ballantine Books, 1990), and Turbo Cowboys 10 City of Glass (New York: Ballantine Books, 1990). The Science Fiction Encyclopedia attributes Rat Trap to John Read.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Usurper - [Simon] [Michael] (b. 1955); [Peter] [Rosenberg] (Grafton Books, 1988)
Future dystopia with deep division between the employed and the unemployed. Usurping is killing someone for their job.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

Vic and Blood: The Chronicles of a Boy and His Dog - Harlan [Jay] Ellison (1934-2018); Richard [Vance] Corben (1940-2020) (Donning, 1988)
Graphic novel. Post-nuclear war dystopia. Underground there is an authoritarian dystopia trying to maintain a conservative way of life. On the surface is a violent dystopia of male loners and small groups.
Rpt. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989; and with the subtitle The Continuing Adventures of a Boy and His Dog. New York: iBooks, 2003. The novel is composed of three stories: “Eggsucker.” Illus. Richard Corben. Ariel: The Book of Fantasy Vol. 2. Ed. Richard Durwood (Leawood, KS: Morning Star Press, 1977), 6-13; “A Boy and His Dog.” In his The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World (New York: Avon, 1969), 208-45. Rpt. in New Worlds Science Fiction, no. 189 (April 1979): 4-16; rpt. in Beyond Armageddon: Twenty-One Sermons to the Dead. Walter M. Miller, Jr. and Martin H[arry] Greenberg (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1985), 332-73; and in The Best of the Nebulas (New York: Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, 1989), 359-89, with an “Author’s Foreword” on 358; “Run, Spot, Run.” Mediascene Prevue (September/October 1980) [not found]; rpt. Illus. Richard [Vance] Corben. Amazing Science Fiction Stories Combined With Fantastic 27.10 (January 1981): 15-25.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Walden Three - Jack Catran (1918-2001) (Pygmalion Books, 1988)
Future technological eutopia designed and controlled by scientists with all the “work not fit for humans” done by robots. The author presents the society as the solution to ethnic, gender, and racial discrimination and as a means of eliminating poverty without creating a welfare state. One character is based on Jacque Fresco (1916-2017); see 1969, 1995, 2002, and 2007 Fresco and https://www.thevenusproject.com/the-venus-project/jacque-fresco/.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Where We’ll Never Grow Old” - Tom De Haven (b. 1949) (Sunburn Lake, 1988)
The story is set in a post-catastrophe (pandemic) in 2028.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Woman of the Aeroplanes - [Bernard] Kojo Laing (b. 1946) (Heinemann, 1988)
Something of a comic novel where time and causality completely askew. Tukwan is the utopia where everybody in the town was a reincarnation of someone from the town, and this would continue until all problems solved.
Keywords: Ghanaian author; Male author

The Woman Who Was God - Francis [Henry] King (1923-2011) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988)
Fiction about a religious intentional community depicting the conflicts taking place within it.
Keywords: English author; Male author

World of One - Charles [Bardley] Templeton (1915-2001) (Doubleday Canada, 1988)
Novel about a future corrupt cult.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller - Neal [Town] Stephenson (b. 1959) (Bloomsbury, 1988)
Environmental dystopia seen through the eyes of an environmental activist.
Keywords: Male author; US author

1984 Here and Now - Thuan Chye Kee (b. 1954) (K. Das Ink, 1987)
Dystopia. Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four adapted to contemporary Malaysia.
Keywords: Malaysian author; Male author

Ambient - Jack [Wylie] Womack [Jr.] (b. 1956) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987)
The first volume in the DryCo series. DryCo refers to the Dryden Corporation, and the connections among the volumes in the series are tenuous, but all refer to DryCo. This volume is set in a future New York City, a future violent corporate, cyberpunk dystopia. Considerable use of invented language. The Ambients are people who have been badly disfigured survivors of a nuclear accident. For other volumes in the series see his 1988 Terraplane, 1990 Heathern, 1993 Elvissey, 1993 Random Acts of Senseless Violence, and 2000 Going, Going, Gone. Although there are multiple alternative histories in the series, in timeline order, the volumes are 1993 Random Acts of Senseless Violence, 1990 Heathern, 1987 Ambient, 1988 Terraplane, 1993 Elivissey, and 2000 Going, Going, Gone.
U.K. ed. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988
Keywords: Male author; US author

Amerika - Brauna E. Pouns [pseud.]; Donald Wrye (1934-2015) (Pocket Books, 1987)
Dystopia of the United States dominated by the U.S.S.R.
Keywords: Male author

And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice - Derrick [Albert] Bell [Jr.] (1930-2011) (Basic Books, 1987)
The “Prologue to Part I” introduces the fictional African American legal scholar Geneva Crenshaw (13-25) who then time travels to ten key points in U.S. history when decisions were made regarding racial justice where she argues for a different approach and then discusses the resulting situation with Bell. Other stories using Geneva Crenshaw can be found throughout his Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism. New York: Basic Books, 1992 and in Afrolantica Legacies. Chicago, IL: Third World Press, 1998. See also 1991 Bell.
Keywords: African American author; Male author

Anthills of the Savannah - Chinua [Chinụalụmọgụ] Achebe (1930-2013) (William Heinemann, 1987)
Dystopia. An imaginary country based on Nigeria describing a military dictatorship.
Rpt. with an "Introduction" by Maya Jaggi (vii-xiv). London: Penguin Books, 2001. U.S. ed. New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; Nigerian author

Apocalypse 2000: Economic Breakdown and the Suicide of Democracy 1989-2000 - Peter Jay (b. 1937); Michael [James] Stewart (b. 1933) (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1987)
Dystopian future history showing the effects of poor policy choices made in all the major countries into the collapsing world that they produce. There is an index..
Rpt. London: Sphere, 1988.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Archer in the Marrow: The Applewood Cycles of 1967-1987 - Peter [Robert Edwin] Viereck (1916-2006) (W. W. Norton, 1987)
Epic poem. Alternative history from Adan and Eve to the present with both eutopian and dystopian periods.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Armageddon Outtahere” - Paul Mavrides (b. 1952); Jay Kinney (b. 1950) (Anarchy Comics, 1987)
Satire on Armageddon in which the gods of many different religions arrive all at once to punish the human race.
Rpt. in Anarchy Comics. The Complete Collection. Ed. Jay Kinney (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2013), 149-58.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Balmoral - Michael Frayn (b. 1933) (Methuen, 1987)
Dystopia. The 1917 revolution had taken place in Britain rather than Russia and now, in 1937, Britain is a Soviet Republic. The play is set in Balmoral Castle, which is now a State Home for Writers.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Bats" - Leon Rooke (b. 1934) (Tesseracts2, 1987)
Dystopia in which all the old people are moved to a huge domed area where they wait to die. Gin keeps people content. Everyone lives in large domes in a controlled environment and appear to be hurried along to death. Some touches of fantasy.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Bedmates - Kurt [Oscar Eugene] von Trojan (b. 1937) (Petala, 1987)
Future, poor, authoritarian Australian dystopia. Artificial sexual partners provided by the state.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

The Boiled Frog Syndrome: A Novel of Love, Sex and Politics - Marty Rubin (d. 1994) (Alyson Publications, 1987)
Anti-gay dystopia in the United States, including concentration camps for gays, and the revolt against it. The “boiled frog syndrome” refers to the fact that if a frog is put it hot water, it will leap out, but if put in cold water that is slowly heated, it will be not but will be boiled to death. In the novel this refers to the slow, insidious destruction of the rights of gays.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

"Brazil" - Terry Gilliam (b. 1940); Tom Stoppard (b. 1937); Charles McKeown (b. 1946) (The Battle of Brazil, 1987)
Screenplay of the famous 1985 dystopian film directed by Terry Gilliam.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

Budspy - David Dvorkin (b. 1943) (Franklin Watts, 1987)
Alternate future in which the Nazis won World War 2.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The Child In Time - Ian [Russell] McEwan (b. 1948) (Jonathan Cape, 1987)
Near future dystopia as a background.
U.S. ed. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1987.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Consider Philebas - Iain M[enzies] Banks (1954-2013) (Macmillan, 1987)
Conflict between two dystopian cultures, one Islamic, the other communist. First of his novels of the Culture, few of which have explicitly utopian content but can collectively be seen as utopian. . See also 1988 and 2008 Banks. Other Culture novels include The State of the Art. Willimantec, CT: Mark V. Ziesing, 1989; rpt. in his The State of the Art (London: Orbit, 1991), 83-172; rpt. (London: Orbit, 1993), 99-205 [First contact of The Culture with Earth]; Use of Weapons. London: Macmillan, 1990; Excession. London: Macmillan, 1996; Inversions. London: Orbit, 1998; Look to Windward. London: Orbit, 2000; Surface Detail. London: Orbit, 2010; and The Hydrogen Sonata. New York: Orbit, 2012. Other Culture material includes “A Gift from the Culture.” Interzone, no. 20 (Summer 1987): 44-51. Rpt. in his The State of the Art (London: Orbit, 1991), 7-22. Rpt. (London: Orbit, 1993): 8-28; 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), 865-74 with an editors’ note on 964.
Rpt. London: Orbit, 1991
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

Copernick's Rebellion - Leo A. Frankowski (1943-2008) (Ballantine Books, 1987)
Satirical novel about the advantages and disadvantages of genetic engineering. On the positive side, it can be used to create housing, food, and many other things and the inventors plan to give it all away free, which obvious creates conflict. On the negative side, it can be used to create whatever oddities people want to make of themselves.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Cry In the Desert - Jed A. Bryan (Banned Books, 1987)
Dystopia from the gay male perspective focusing on the initial response to the AIDS epidemic.
Keywords: Male author

Death Arms - K[evin] W[ayne] Jeter (b. 1950) (Morrigan Publications, 1987)
Future dystopia of a Los Angeles abandoned to criminals.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Death of Honor - Joe Clifford Faust (b. 1957) (Ballantine Books, 1987)
A mystery set in an overpopulation dystopia that encourages people to have more children, which are then taken and raised by the state with payment to the parents.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Dream Wall - Graham Dunston Martin (b. 1932) (Unwin Paperbacks, 1987)
Soviet controlled Britain as a dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Scottish author

Dreams of Leaving - Rupert [William Farquhar] Thomson (b. 1955) (Macmillan, 1987)
Authoritarian, isolated small town as a dystopia.
U.S. ed. New York: Atheneum, 1988.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Endgame Enigma - James P[atrick] Hogan (1941-2010) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Soviet space colony seemingly a utopian experiment.
Keywords: English author; Irish author; Male author; US author

Expecting Someone Taller - Tom [Thomas Charles Louis] Holt (b. 1961) (St. Martin's Press, 1987)
An innocent Englishman gets the ring and the Tarnhelm of the Niebelung (the magic helmet in Wagner’s Ring) and controls the world. He produces a eutopia.
Rpt. London: Macmillan, 1988.
Keywords: English author; Male author

First Citizen - Thomas T[hurston] Thomas (b. 1948) (Baen Books, 1987)
After the U.S. repudiated its national debt and a nuclear attack on the capitol, the country collapses into regions, each with a private army. One man takes advantage of the situation to build a huge fortune and ultimately reunited the country under his leadership.
Keywords: Male author; US author

God Help the Queen - Geoffrey Cush (b. 1956) (Abacus, 1987)
Britain as an authoritarian dystopia. All people are shareholders but are poor.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author; UK author

Goodstuff Any Moment - Mike Paterson (b. 1946) (Hard Echo Press, 1987)
A dystopia based on the usual corruption and cruelties with the emergence of a eutopia based on people helping each other. People create a cooperative system of both education and exchange that allows those living on the margins to improve their lives. Religious overtones with the emergence near the end of an Antichrist figure and the possibility of the Second Coming.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

“Harry Protagonist, Inseminator General” - Richard Wilson (1920-1987) (The Kid from Ozone Park and Other Stories, 1987)
Satire on gender relations in which men and women choose to separate and men lose the ability to impregnate.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Her Story - Dan Jacobson (1929-2014) (André Deutsch, 1987)
The bulk of the novel is set in Biblical times, but the frame is set in a future Britain that is a conservative Islamic country presented as not particularly good or bad. There is also a section on a future dystopian religious intentional community.
Keywords: English author; Male author; South African author; US author

The Hormone Jungle - Robert [David] Reed (b. 1956) (Donald I. Fine, 1987)
Dystopia set two thousand years in the future where female cyborgs are created solely to give pleasure and powerful criminal figures are still powerful. Much of the novel is adventure and romance with the dystopia as its setting.
Rpt. New York: Warner Books, 1987. UK ed. London: Futura, 1989.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Hub - Chris Beebee (Macdonald, 1987)
Future black humor. Some eutopia, some dystopia. See also the sequel The Main Event. Book 2 of the Cipola Sequence. London: Futura, 1989.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

Hunter and Victim or The Invisible Her Is the Whore - Steven Fuson ([Author], 1987)
Dystopia. Anti-feminist. Reflects the position of the Padanaram Community located in Indiana..
Keywords: Male author; US author

In the Country of Last Things - Paul Auster (b. 1947) (Viking, 1987)
Dystopia of a collapsing city and a degenerating civilization. A film directed by Alejandro Chomski with a screenplay by the director was released in Spanish in 2020 and in English in 2022.
U.K. ed. London: Faber & Faber, 1988
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Island Worlds - [Yoji] [Kondo] (1933-2017); John Maddox Roberts (b. 1947) (Baen, 1987)
The novel is set in the twenty-first century when there is a right-left conflict on Earth and a war for independence by the asteroid belt. See also their 1988 Between the Stars and their non-utopian Act of God. New York: Baen, 1985 that sets the stage for the other novels by introducing the technologies that make space exploration possible.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Jacob's Ladder. A Novel - John A[lfred] Williams (1925-2015) (Thunder's Mouth Press, 1987)
The novel is about a fictitious African country that has won its freedom and has a leader who is struggling, with some success,  to bring a better life to the people while avoiding the dystopia that corruption and neocolonialism that had undermined such efforts in most actual African countries at the time.
Keywords: African American author; Male author

Kayo: The Authentic and Annotated Autobiographical Novel from Outer Space - James [Rodney] McConkey (b. 1921) (E. P. Dutton, 1987)
Satire on human foibles as seen on a parallel, similar world.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Kisses of the Enemy - Rodney Hall (b. 1935) (Penguin Australia, 1987)
Near future dystopia. Much of the novel follows the political career of the first President of the Republic of Australia, who seems to be primarily interested in power for its own sake. Wealth dominates Australia. Corruption. Drugs. Other strands follow individuals, including the President's wife and child, those political dependent on him, a growing opposition movement, and figures from Australia's past.
U.S. ed. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1988. U.K. ed. London: Faber and Faber, 1989.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

Knights of God - Richard [Fairhurst] Cooper (1930-98) (Lions, 1987)
Authoritarian dystopia in a failed Britain where the economy has ground to a halt. There is a dictator whose rule is enforced by the Knights of God. There is a growing movement against the dictatorship and much of the novel is concerned with that.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Legend - Barry Maher (Freedeeds Library, 1987)
Complex dystopia on a future Earth after some unidentified catastrophe had destroyed much of the Earth and left the people deeply divided into those few with jobs (the bureaurers), majority of people (the folkers), and the disciples of new, authoritarian religions. At the end no one is left on Earth.
Rpt. Great Barrington, MA: Lindisfarne Books, 2002.
Keywords: Male author

Little Heroes - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Complex novel depicting a future U.S. dystopia. Commercial control; drugs; financial depression. Reality Liberation Front and rock and roll will provide a touch of hope, but they will probably lose out to commercialization.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Makers - Victor [Michael Kitchener] Kelleher (b. 1939) (Viking Kestrel assisted by the Literature Board of the Australia Council, 1987)
Young adult dystopia in which children are taken to a castle, called the Keep, and trained as warriors.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author; South African author

Memory Wire - Robert Charles Wilson (b. 1953) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Authoritarian dystopia in which individuals are wired to be cameras and operate solely as machines recording what happens.
U.K. ed. London: Futura, 1990.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Mercedes Nights - Michael D[avid] Weaver (1961-98) (St. Martin's Press, 1987)
Dystopia with a black market in clones.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

The Movement of Mountains - Michael [John] Blumlein (1948-2019) (St. Martin's Press, 1987)
Dystopia as a background. Rich-poor division. Genetically manufactured humans designed for a specific job and a short life.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A New World" - Alasdair [James] Gray (1934-2019) (Fiction Magazine, 1987)
A dystopia in which everyone is under corporate control and limited to one room. People are promised a new world where they are promised they will have more room, which is achieved by shrinking them.
Rpt. illus. by the author in his Ten Tales Tall and True (Edinburgh, Scot.: Canongate, 1993), 97-101. U.S. ed. (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1993), 97-101; and in his Every Short Story, 1952-2012 (Edinburgh, Scot.: Canongate, 2012), 621-24.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

"The Night of No Joy" - W[alter] Warren Wagar (1932-2004) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1987)
The second of three dystopian stories set in a world in which reality is unravelling and nothing rational appears to remain and violence erupts everywhere. See also 1986 and 1988 Wagar.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Night Walk" - Edward [Falaise] Upward (1903-2009) (The Night Walk and Other Stories, 1987)
Capitalist dystopia in an England occupied by an unidentified foreign power with reactionary policies. Some discussion of resistance/revolutionary tactics.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Penal Colony - Richard Herley (Grafton, 1987)
Dystopia. Britain has island prison colonies for the worst offenders, and they are run by the prisoners.
Keywords: Male author

Project Millennium - Curtis H[oward] Hoffmann (b. 1956) (Ace Books, 1987)
War as entertainment on a peaceful planet.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Rain" - Michael Skeet (b. 1955) (Tesseracts2, 1987)
Class-based dystopia. The poor living deepest underground.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Reparations - Gordon Wardman (b. 1947) (Secker & Warburg, 1987)
Dystopia of a future Britain generally in collapse.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Return to Shangri-La - [Robert James] Leslie Halliwell (1929-89) (Grafton, 1987)
A sequel to 1933 Hilton that is mostly adventure but with a search for and discovery of Shangri-la, which is presented as a eutopia in much the same terms as in the original.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Revolutionary Politics - Raymond B[arry] Mehlhopt (b. 1954) (Seagull Press, 1987)
Detailed non-fiction eutopia for New Zealand with a stress on economic issues. See 1988 Mehlhopt for a detailed set of political proposals. See also 1997 and 1999 Mehlhopt.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Revolutionizing Reform - Jerome Shuchter (Dorrance & Co, 1987)
Non-fiction socialist eutopia with suggestions for the period of transition.
Keywords: Male author

Running on Empty - Heifner, Jack (Dramatists Play Service, 1987)
Environmental dystopia set in a U.S. that has depleted its resources.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Sea and Summer - George [Reginald] Turner (1916-97) (Faber and Faber, 1987)
Class divided future dystopia.
Rpt. London: Grafton, 1989. U.S. ed. as Drowning Towers. New York: Arbor House/William Morrow, 1988. Part originally published as "The Fittest." Urban Fantasies. Ed. David King and Russell Blackford (Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Ebony Books, 1985), 105-31. Story rpt. in his A Pursuit of Miracles (North Adelaide, SA, Australia: Aphelion Publications, 1990), 175-207; and in Mortal Fire: Best Australian SF. Ed. Terry Dowling and Van Ikin (Rydalmere, NSW, Australia: Hodder & Stoughton (Australia), 1993), 229-62.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Sea of Glass - Barry B[rookes] Longyear (b. 1942) (St. Martin's Press, 1987)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Second Third of C" - Neil Ferguson (b. 1947) (Interzone, 1987)
Authoritarian dystopia. A society with extreme rich-poor divisions, books largely gone, government in the poor areas collapsed but remaining strong and ruthless in the rich areas.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

The Secret Ascension: Philip K. Dick Is Dead, Alas - Michael [Lawson] Bishop (1945-2023) (Tor, 1987)
Alternative history. The United States won the war in Vietnam and President Nixon is in his fourth term.
U.K. ed. as Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas. London: Grafton, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Sexual Chemistry" - Brian [Michael] Stableford (1948-2024) (Interzone, 1987)
Developments in biochemistry aimed at sexual prowess result in a vaguely described eutopia.
Rpt. as “A Career in Sexual Chemistry.” In his Sexual Chemistry: Sardonic Tales of the Genetic Revolution (London: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 21-41.
Keywords: English author; Male author

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

Spiral of Fire - Michael Cope (b. 1941) (David Philip, 1987)
Set in 1986 and thus contemporary but depicts Cape Town, South Africa as a dystopia of violence.
Keywords: Male author; South African author

The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted - Harry [Max] Harrison (1925-2012) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Primarily an adventure novel, but part of the adventure is set in an egalitarian eutopia with no crime.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Star Griffin - Michael [Joseph] Kurland (b. 1938) (Doubleday & Co., 1987)
Dystopia of overpopulation and violence.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Stepfather Bank - D[avid] C[harles] Poyer (b. 1949) (St. Martin's Press, 1987)
Authoritarian dystopia set in 2110 under the control of a single monopolistic, fully automated bank that owns the entire world and employs everyone except one man who defies and undermines the system.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Sylviron - Joel David Welty (1927-2012) (Sylviron Foundation, 1987)
Dystopia of bigness contrasted with a small cooperative village. The dystopia is a hierarchical, authoritarian system that uses social welfare as a means of control. All citizens are required to visit their case worker every week, and in return they get a wide range of benefits tailored to their status. The eutopia is an ecologically designed cooperative village called Sylviron where everyone lives outside the control of the dystopia, and the plot of the novel focuses on the attempts of the dystopia to control Sylviron and the successful resistance.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Temporary King” - Paul J[ames] McAuley (b. 1955) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1987)
In the story a mother is telling her child about growing up in an enclave established by the Marginal Cultures Council (MCC) which was a traditional agricultural community with traditional gender roles and no technology. None of the inhabitants (three generations are depicted) know that there is an advanced technological society nearby. After it is revealed, many leave for the city.
Rev. in his A Very British History: The Best Science Fiction Stories of Paul McAuley, 1985-2011 (Hornsea, Eng.: PS Publishing, 2013), 23-49 with an author’s note on 425.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Texas Triumphant - Daniel da Cruz [Jr.] (1921-1991) (Ballantine Books, 1987)
Third in a series. See 1982 and 1986 da Cruz. In this volume a libertarian eutopia is established with local independence. Anti-Communist novel.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Thanatos Syndrome - Walker Percy (1916-90) (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1987)
Dystopia of the very near future United States in which scientists chemically suppress human individuality. The protagonist's name, Dr. Tom More, continues the connection with the author of Utopia mentioned in 1971 Percy.
A limited first edition signed by the author and with a frontispiece by Jim Spanfeller and “A Special message for the first edition from Walker Percy” for the members of The Signed First Edition Society. Franklin Center, PA: The Franklin Library, 1987.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Three Fingers in Utopia" - Philip Sidney Jennings (Dream Magazine, 1987)
Flawed utopia. Eutopia of love and ease is maintained by individuals experiencing a dream of past ugliness.
Rpt. in A Book of Dreams: An Anthology of the best SF from ‘DREAM’ and ‘NEW MOON’ 1985-1987. Ed. Trevor Jones and George P. Townsend (Godmanchester, Huntingdon, Cambs., Eng.: Weller Publications, 1990), 38-44.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Time Pressure - Spider Robinson (b. 1948) (Ace Books, 1987)
Prequel to his 1982 Mindkiller in which a woman has travelled to the past to bring about changes that will make it possible to avoid the conditions described in Mindkiller. It includes a description of communal life in Nova Scotia that could be construed as eutopian. The second volume of what comes to be called the Lifehouse Trilogy, which includes his 1982 Mindkiller and 1997 Life House.
Rpt. in The Lifehouse Trilogy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007), 231-437
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

USSA. A Novel - James N[orbert] Frey (b. 1943) (Zebra Books/Kensington Publishing, 1987)
Dystopia about an American capitalist about to become head of the Federal Reserve who is in fact an agent of the Soviet KGB planning to create a Soviet U.S.
Keywords: Male author; US author

U.S.S.A. Book 1 - Tom De Haven (b. 1949) (Avon Books, 1987)
Young adult dystopia about a military coup in the U.S. that produced the United Secure States of America.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Utopia 3200: A Political, Social, and Economic Fantasy - Levin Wilson Foster (b. 1907) (Vantage Press, 1987)
After a nuclear war, the U.S. emerges and the sole power, and it establishes one-world government that eliminates all opposition throughout the world. While the government the successfully improves the lot of the remaining people, anyone who dissents is imprisoned.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Vacuum Flowers - Michael [Jürgen] Swanwick (b. 1950) (Arbor House, 1987)
Complex novel of various worlds--mostly dystopian--based on the ability to program people with different personae. Earth has been taken over by the Comprise--linked minds in many human bodies.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Veritas" - James [Kenneth] Morrow (b. 1947) (Synergy: New Science Fiction, 1987)
Dystopia that uses technological means to kill fantasy.
Rpt. in The Savage Humanists. Ed. Fiona Kelleghan (Calgary, AL, Canada: Robert J. Sawyer Books, 2008), 235-56 with an editor's note on 233-34.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Voyage to Inishneefa: A First-hand Account of the Fifth Voyage of Lemuel Gulliver (First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships) - John Paul Brady (John Daniel, Publisher, 1987)
Satire on contemporary Ireland.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Western Lands - William S[eward] Burroughs (1914-97) (Viking, 1987)
The final volume of a trilogy that also includes 1981 Cities of the Red Night and his 1983 The Place of Dead Roads. The title refers to the ancient Egyptian land of the dead west of the Nile. The novel, taking place in the past and the present includes the typical Burroughs’s dystopian themes.
Keywords: Male author; US author

When Gravity Fails - George Alec Effinger (1947-2002) (Arbor House, 1987)
Future dystopia of adventure and violence written as a mystery novel set in a future Middle East, which is the dominant area in a world where both the Western countries and the Soviet Union have broken up into smaller units. The novel has been called cyberpunk because people plug modules, known as "moddies", into their brains to become whoever they want. The sequels A Fire in the Sun. New York: Doubleday, 1989, The Exile Kiss. New York: Doubleday, 1991 have the same setting, as do some of the stories in a posthumous collection Budayeen Nights. Urbana, IL: Golden Gryphon, 2003.
Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1988. Collector's Edition illus. Mark Maxwell and with an "Introduction" by James Gunn (v-ix). Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1993.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Winston Three Three Three - Dennis [Malcolm] Barker (1929-2015) (Grafton, 1987)
Dystopia set in 2089. The Imperial Russian Empire rules Britain.
Keywords: English author; Male author

A World for the Meek: A Fantasy Novel - Harry Willson (Amador Publishers, 1987)
Post-catastrophe novel that is something of a Robinsonade and something of a last man novel. The eutopia develops as a community among a lone human survivor and advanced dolphins and octopi.
Keywords: Male author

The Year Before Yesterday - Brian W[ilson] Aldiss (1925-2017) (Franklin Watts, 1987)
Alternative history including a fascist Britain.
Rpt. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988. Contains his “The Impossible Smile” first published in a different form under the pseudonym Jael Craken in Science Fantasy 23 - 24.72 - 73 (May – June 1965): 5-43, 5-44. Rpt. in SF Reprise 6 (1966): 5-43, 5-44; and “Equator” first published in New Worlds Science Fiction 25.75 - 76 (September - October 1958): 4-41; 80-121; and as Vanguard from Alpha. New York: Ace Books, 1959. Ace Double bound with Kenneth Bulmer’s The Changeling Worlds.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Aiki - John Gilbert (b. 1926) (Donald I. Fine, 1986)
Future dystopia. Rigid division between rich and poor. Drugs and television used to control the masses. Rebellion.
Rpt. New York: Pocket Books, 1986.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"And He Not Busy Being Born. . . ." - Brian [Michael] Stableford (1948-2024) (Interzone, 1986)
Eutopian/dystopian society of the future. Virtually immortal people remain children physically, know no difficulties. Story is about a man from the past who is revived.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Arthur C. Clarke's July 20, 2019. A Day In the Life of the 21st Century - Arthur C[harles] Clarke ed. [written by] (1917-2008) (Grafton Books, 1986)
Although Clarke gives credit to a number of people for their contributions, this is not an edited collection. Presented as a series of predictions, but the general effect is so positive that it can be called a eutopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"As Big As the Ritz" - Gregory [Albert] Benford (b. 1941) (Interzone, 1986)
Social science fiction depicting three societies, one of them at some length. This one is presented as a eutopia based on cloning and conditioning. Low tech world based, in part, on high tech.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Ballad of Halo Jones - Alan [Oswald] Moore (b. 1953); Ian Gibson (Titan Books, 1986)
Cartoon series. Includes a dystopia near New York where all the unemployed are sent.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Band of Angels - Julian F. Thompson (Scholastic, 1986)
Young adult quest novel with a dystopian background. A group of anti-nuclear teenagers set off across the U.S. followed by government agents intending to kill them.
Keywords: Male author

Beyond Capitalism - J[ohn] B[ernard] Ball (b. 1911) (Ballmark Publications, 1986)
Detailed eutopia similar to his early works but more fictionalized in that it is presented as an explanation to emissaries from a nation that has chosen not to join the Technomic Alliance. Automation used only where it does not take jobs away from people or in hazardous situations (49). The indigenous population has been fully integrated into the new system (86). All religious officials are now elected by church members on a national basis and are completely self-funded (49). 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. Another fictionalized version is Technomics in one corporate world. By Barney Ballmark [pseud.]. [Foremost, AB: Author], [1983]. 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; 1980 Ball, The Cosmic Laws of the Spectrum: Evolution and Government. By Barney Ballmark [pseud.]. [Foremost, AB: Ballmark Publications];1982 Ball, Technomics. A Better Economy. International. By Barney Ballmark [pseud.]. [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.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Beyond Tomorrow, A Rational Utopia - Burnham P[utnam] Beckwith Ph.D. (b. 1904) (B. P. Beckwith, 1986)
Detailed eutopia set in Los Angeles 500 years in the future. World federal government of thirteen countries. New language. Government by experts, no government worker can earn more than twice as much as the average worker. Monetary incentives to perform better or take on certain jobs common.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Bones of God - Stephen [Walter] Leigh (b. 1951) (Avon, 1986)
A theocracy faces a new Messiah.
U.K. ed. London: Headline, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Captive Planet - Gregory J[on] Smith (Bethany House Publishers, 1986)
Christian science fiction. Authoritarian dystopia and the battle of good and evil. Good wins.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Children of Arable - David [Corderoy] Belden (b. 1949) (New American Library, 1986)
The novel is about a future genderless society when a woman is born, and the woman becomes an advocate for revolutionary change. The second volume and final volume in the series is To Warm the Earth. New York: New American Library, 1988. Rev. with the subtitle Book II of the Gendering Series. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vivisphere Publishing, 2002 is set in a future frozen Earth and a woman from that Earth finds a man from another world who can help Earth. In this volume, the author says that he was at work on the third volume, which does not appear to have been published, and had revised both previous volumes in light of that work.
Rev. ed. as Children of Arable. Book 1 of the Gendering Series. Revised version of the formerly published novel. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vivisphere Publishing, 2001.
Keywords: Male author; UK author; US author

Cod Streuth - Bamber Gascoigne (b. 1935) (Jonathan Cape, 1986)
Humor. A Puritan minister equipped with sections of Rabelais leads a tribe who take to Rabelais with great enthusiasm.
Rpt. London: Paladin, 1987.
Keywords: Male author

The Coming of the Prophet Bird - Ted Sheasby (b. 1920) (Author, 1986)
Catastrophe story with survivors in which those most in touch with nature do best.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

The Coming of the Quantum Cats - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Bantam Books, 1986)
Presents a number of alternative societies, mostly dystopian. A central one has the United States dominated by Islam with the F.B.I. [Federal Bureau of Investigation] a major political force.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Corpse - Mick [Michael Anthony] Farren (1943-2013) (New English Library, 1986)
Future dystopia. Corporate control with corporations fiercely competitive, to the extent of putting arranging to have competitors killed. Large scale permanent unemployment. Lots of violence, conflict among groups struggling for power.
U.S. ed. as Vickers. New York: Ace Books, 1988.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Count Zero" - William [Ford] Gibson (b. 1948) (Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, 1986)
Future surreal dystopia of huge corporations. See also his 1984 Neuromancer.
Repub. London Victor Gollancz, 1986.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Crisis! - James E[dwin] Gunn (1923-2020) (Tor, 1986)
The novel is about a man from a dysfunctional future sent to the past to try to change enough to create a better future, but every change changes both past and future, with little positive change.
Sections originally in Analog as “Child of the Sun” 97.3 (March 1977): 74-90, 92-98; “End of the World” 101.1 (January 1984): 70-88; “Man of the Hour” 104.10 (October 1984): 106-28; “Touch of the Hour” 105.2 (February 1985): 106-29; “Mother of the Year” 105.4 (April 1985): 138-58; and “Will of the Wisp” 105.5 (May 1985): 54-76.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Day of No-Judgement” - W[alter] Warren Wagar (1932-2004) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1986)
The first of three dystopian stories in which an unexplained “effect” unravels reality. Seen through the eyes of a professor who appears to be immune to whatever is causing the problem who is trying to understand the changes in things and people, including one of his female students who seems to both hate and love him, and with whom he falls in love. See 1987 and 1988 Wagar for the other stories.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Deathwish World - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83); Dean Ing (1931-2020) (Baen Books, 1986)
Authoritarian dystopia. Story of the ultimate gamble where one becomes the target for hired killers in exchange for great wealth for life, albeit usually a short one. One who survives and, as a result, is targeted by the government, plots, successfully to overthrow it.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Down and Out in the Year 2000" - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1986)
Dystopia of being poor in a future failing <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
Rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), 530-43 with an editor’s note on 529; in Robinson’s Remaking History (New York: Tor, 1991), 198-215; and in Cyberpunk: Stories of Hardware, Software, Wetware, Revolution and Evolution. Ed. Victoria Blake (Portland, OR: Underhand Press, 2013), 089-106.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Eye of the Earth (Poems) - Niyi Osundare (b. 1947) (Heinemann Educational Books, 1986)
Poems that present the African past and environment in eutopan terms. While the poetry can be read in non-eutopian terms, the author makes this reading clear in the "Preface" (xi-xiv).
Keywords: Male author; Nigerian author

Foundation and Earth - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (Doubleday & Co, 1986)
Continuation of the Foundation series that continues the eutopia of the sentient planet Gaia in 1982 Asimov. See also 1988 Asimov.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

Ghost - [Piers Anthony Dillingham] [Jacob] (b. 1934) (Tor, 1986)
Dystopia of an energy-depleted earth as a background.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gilpin's Space - Reginald Bretnor (1911-92) (Ace Science Fiction Books, 1986)
Earth is a dystopia with three factions, corporations, the Soviets, and a group forcing conformity that calls itself the Individualist People’s Party. A group of people manage to leave Earth and find another Earth-like planet to settle where they begin to create a better world.
Book I “Owl’s Flight Geoffrey Cormac” (1-77) was originally published as “Gilpin’s Space.” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 64.2 (February 1983): 4-60.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Goodman 2020 - [John] Fred[erick] Pfeil (1949-2005) (Indiana University Press, 1986)
Future dystopia of corporate power, drugs, and friendship as a commodity for sale. Some hope is held out at the end.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Hard Wired - Walter Jon Williams (b. 1953) (Tor, 1986)
Cyberpunk dystopia. See also his Voice of the Whirlwind. New York: Tor, 1987; and Solip:System. Eugene, OR: Axolotl Press, 1989.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Hard Work or, The Secrets of Success" - Thomas M[ichael] Disch (1940-2008) (Interzone, 1986)
Corporate dystopia.
Rpt. in Mississippi Review, no. 47/48 (16.2 & 3) (1988): 170-93.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Heir - John Preston (Caliente Press, 1986)
Sadomasochistic eutopia.
An earlier version appeared as an issue of Drummer, no. 82 (1985).
Keywords: Male author

Isaac Asimov Presents The Man Who Pulled Down the Sky - John [Allen] Barnes (b. 1957) (Congdon & Weed, 1986)
Conflict between the Orbital Republics, created by Earth but now dominating it, free colonies from around Jupiter and Saturn, and Earth, which has to be provoked to rebel. At the end the possibility of cooperation among all three groups exists.
U.K. ed. as The Man Who Pulled Down the Sky. An Isaac Asimov Recommendation. London: New English Library 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Isaac Asimov Presents Through Darkest America - Neal [Patrick] Barrett Jr. (1929-2014) (Congdon & Weed, 1986)
Dystopia of a post-catastrophe America. The sequel Dawn’s Uncertain Light. New York: New American Library, 1989 is about a young man trying to find his sister in the devastation.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Islay. A Novel - Douglas Bullard (1937-2005) (T. J. Publishers, 1986)
Humorous utopia written by a Deaf American about the establishment of a homeland for the deaf in which the protagonists are mostly deaf
Rpt. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2013, with a “Foreword” by Cynthia Pettie (ix-xvii). The reprint is a volume in Gallaudet Classics in Deaf Studies.
Keywords: Deaf author; Male author; US author

The Keeper - Barry Faville (b. 1939) (Oxford University Press, 1986)
Young adult post-catastrophe novel. Authoritarian dystopia focused on the continuing dangers of radiation sickness. The people are sliding into ignorance even though they assign one person, known as "the Keeper," to be a teacher and oversea the copying of past writing, in the hope that they will be understood again in the future.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Lacey and His Friends - David [Allen] Drake (1945-2023) (Baen Books, 1986)
Dystopia of constant surveillance and ruthless police.
Originally published as “Nation Without Walls.” Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 97.7 (July 1977): 10-14, 16, 18-38; rpt. in his Grimmer Than Hell (New York: Baen, 2003), 268-98; “The Predators.” Destinies 1.5 (October-December 1979): 254-94; rpt. in his Grimmer Than Hell (New York: Baen, 2003), 299-328; “Underground.” Destinies 2.1 (February-March 1980): 218-72; “Travellers.” Destinies 3.1 (Winter 1981): 234-86; rpt. in his Grimmer Than Hell (New York: Baen, 2003), 329-73; and “Time Safari.” Destinies 3.2 (1981): 182-270.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Last Election - Pete Davies (b. 1959) (André Deutsch, 1986)
Dystopia of a future Britain under the policies of Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013; Prime Minister 1979-90).
U.S. ed. New York: Vintage, 1987.
Keywords: Male author; Welsh author

The Last Ranger - [Jan] [Stacy] (1948-89) (Popular Library, 1986)
Post-nuclear war survivalist dystopia. A single heavily armed man fights against a different evil force in each volume as he single-handedly saves America. At the end of the last volume the Earth is completely destroyed.
Keywords: Male author; US author