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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Worlds Apart - Joe [Joseph William] Haldeman (b. 1943) (Viking, 1983)
Middle volume of a trilogy (sequel to 1981 Haldeman and followed by 1992 Haldeman) set a year after the first volume. Earth has been largely destroyed after a fourth nuclear war and the asteroid Worlds hold the hope of a future for humanity. The novel concerns a woman's visits back to Earth and then into space.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Yesterday's Men - George [Reginald] Turner (1916-97) (Faber and Faber, 1983)
Final volume of a trilogy. In this volume conflict develops between earth and the Lagrangists, who live in satellites and plan to begin exploring space. See 1978 and 1981 Turner.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

All Our Tomorrows - Ted [Theodore Edward le Bourthillier] Allbeury (1917-2005) (Granada, 1982)
Authoritarian dystopia of a Russian occupied Britain. People choose the system to correct the faults of the current situation, which includes daily violence, and to avoid the collapse of the country. Some resistance.
U.S. ed. New York: Mysterious Press, 1989.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Avoiding 1984: Moving Toward Interdependence - Robert Theobald (1929-99) (Swallow Press--Ohio University Press, 1982)
The book includes a number of scenarios of the future with the emphasis on the positive. The book begins with brief life histories of five people with one of them Teg from 1969 Theobald. It then presents five scenarios from different perspectives set in 2000. The future is politically and economically troubled but moving in the right direction, but the emphasis of the book is on ecology and improvements in interpersonal relations and life patterns, with an emphasis of variety and significant changes in lifestyle throughout life. See also 1968 Theobald and 1969 Theobald and Scott. In addition, Theobald published many other books outlining his proposals. See, in particular, his Free Men and Free Markets. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1963; Beyond Despair: Directions for America’s Third Century. Washington, DC: The New Republic Book Co., 1976; rev. as Beyond Despair: A Policy Guide to the Communications Era. Cabin John, MD: Seven Locks Press, 1981; An Alternative Future for America’s Third Century. Chicago, IL: Swallow Press, 1976; and Reworking Success: New Communities at the Millennium. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers, 1997.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Ayes of Texas - Daniel da Cruz [Jr.] (1921-1991) (Ballantine Books, 1982)
Anti-Communist dystopia in which the United States overrun by Russians. First in a series. See 1986 and 1987 da Cruz.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Be Fruitful and Multiply" - F[rancis] Paul Wilson (b. 1946) (Perpetual Light, 1982)
Satirical religious dystopia centered on the only church, the Church of the Divine Imperative, which is the title of the story.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Birthplace; Moving into Nearness - William S. Wilson (b. 1932) (North Point Press, 1982)
Expostulatory novel about a future isolated Caribbean island and the growth of something like a eutopia over four generations.
Keywords: Male author

Birthright: The Book of Man - Mike [Michael Diamond] Resnick (1942-2020) (New American Library, 1982)
Future history of the next 18,000 years in which the human race goes through many permutations, many eutopias and dystopias, until finally destroyed. The ending has the whole process starting over again.
Rpt. Alexander, NC: Farthest Star, 1997.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Boylan Briggs Salutes the New Cause" - Lesley [Willis] Choyce (b. 1951) (The Lunatic Gazette, 1982)
Reduced sperm count as a result of pollution leads to constantly required orgies to try to raise the birth rate. Fails.
Rpt. in his Dream Auditor (Charlottetown, PE, Canada: Indivisible Books, 1986), 63-72.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

The Byrdwhistle Option - Robert H[enry] Rimmer (1917-2001) (Prometheus Books, 1982)
Another of Rimmer's depiction of the good life through sex, although here, as in some of his other works, he includes economic equality. In this novel a corporation only employs married couples, with each person paid the same salary, but it encourages them to explore all the sexual options available. Refers to the Oneida Community, but it is not a reflection of its practices. See also 1966, 1968, 1975, 1978, 1982, and 2000 Rimmer.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Carnifex Mardi Gras - John F[rancis] Carr (b. 1944) (Pequod Press, 1982)
Dystopia where wealth and power has produced a corrupt society.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Cloud of Desolation - Sam Baneham (b. 1947) (Wolfhound Press, 1982)
Detailed dystopia. Complex conditioned underground society after the next war.
Keywords: Irish author; Male author

The Concordance of the High Monarchists of Ireland: The Pattern of the Future - John Michell (Author, 1982)
Detailed eutopia based on ancient Irish institutions and designed for a united Ireland. Ireland will be composed of four independent provinces, Connacht, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster, each of which, in turn, will elect a High King or Queen by whatever means they choose. The High King or Queen serves for life but may abdicate or be asked to abdicate by the High Council. No national religion. There will be a 1440-acre capital with equal representation of the four provinces on all its bodies.
Keywords: Male author

Corrigan's Light - Gregory Marlow (Vantage Press, 1982)
Flawed utopia set in 2142 where everyone lives underground, and everything is provided. Fictitious battles between computers representing different underground complexes provide entertainment. Synthetic food. People work six hours three days a week. Computerized fantasies available. It is all run by a computer. At the end people begin to return to the surface.
Keywords: Male author

"Dogsworld" - Felix C[harles] Gotschalk [Jr.] (1929-2002) (Pig Iron (Youngstown, OH), 1982)
The story is told from the point of a dog, with much of it satire aimed at human behavior. But then aliens arrive and ask it about humans, and, in response, they apparently improve the behavior of some of the people and provide a massive infusion of material goods, which initially produces a eutopia but then corrupts them.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Dreams in a Wasteland - Franklin Camuti (Dorrance & Co, 1982)
Future feudal world ruled by a man using science from the past.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Easter 2016" - Graham Reid ([BBC TV's] Play for Tomorrow series, 1982)
Dystopia set in a school on the anniversary of the Easter uprising in Ireland.
Keywords: Male author

Elysium - William K. Carlson (b. 1937) (Doubleday & Co, 1982)
Flawed utopia in which a eutopian seeming world is revealed as an authoritarian dictatorship.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Eye of the Queen - [Anthony] Phillip Mann (1942-2022) (Victor Gollancz, 1982)
Describes a very complex, truly alien society that is in some ways eutopian. The residents of Pe-Ellia are asexual, telepathic, and live in a world in which the whole planet is alive. They go through seven stages of development, each of which produces new markings on their skin. The goal is to achieve symmetry in the last stage. They reproduce through the Queen, who appears to be an alien from a different world, and they also return to her in death.
Rpt. London: Victor Gollancz, 2001.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; English author; Male author

Fast Fiddling; The Comic Adventures of 3 Radical Collectives in New England - Robert [Molise Boyer] Nichols (1919-2010) (Penny Each Press, 1982)
Four issues each about three communal eutopias: Bottom Luck Farm--homesteaders in Northern Vermont, El Bohio--urban activist collective in Hartford, and Nickelodeon--folk rock band in Wendell, Mass. In each case the issues follow the community from the first days through troubled times to either a degree of success, failure, or simply moving on to something else.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (Doubleday & Co, 1982)
Fourth vol. of the famous series. While the focus of the novel is on the sweep of historical change that was the focus of the trilogy, none of which were eutopian and are best characterized as early social science fiction, this volume includes a eutopia called Gaia, where the world is itself sentient. The entire planet including flora and fauna as well as the people have a group consciousness. Everything does what is needed for itself and the planet and no more. See also 1986 and 1988 Asimov.
Excerpts published as “Foundation’s Edge.” Omni 5.1 (October 1982): 64-68, 70, 156-58; and, under the same title, in Asimov’s Science Fiction 6.12 (59) (December 1982): 44-49, 50-52, 54-61, 63-65, 67-71, 73-74, 76-77, 79, 81-82, 84-85, 87, with comments on the Foundation series by various authors on the intervening pages.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Friday - Robert A[nson] Heinlein (1907-88) (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1982)
Dystopia in which North America has disintegrated into numerous independent countries.
Rpt. as vol. 24 of The Virginia Edition of his works. Houston, TX: The Virginia Edition, 2010. Excerpt published in Science Fiction Digest 1.4 (September-October 1982): 28-51 with "On Heinlein's Friday" by Jack [John Stewart] Williamson (26-27).
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Great Divide - Frank M[alcolm] Robinson (1926-2014); John Levin (Rawson, Wade, 1982)
Dystopia. Near future U.S. divided into rich and poor based on access to energy resources.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Green Hill Far Away" - [Michael Paul] [McDowell] (b. 1954) (Perpetual Light, 1982)
Whether it is eutopian or dystopian is an open question. A new religious order, the Rule of St. Abbenew the Galactic, designed for life enforces morality and act as both police (the Benedictine Infantry) and the judicial system. The story is about a monk whose faith is tested.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Halfmen of O - Maurice [Gough] Gee (b. 1931) (Oxford University Press, 1982)
First volume in a young adult trilogy. This volume describes an authoritarian dystopia with fantasy elements set on the Planet O where good and evil have become separated and a young girl from Earth brings them back together to free those who were dominated by evil. In addition to the humans who are evil, the planet has a number of sentient life forms, such as bird people and seafolk, who help her and two others from Earth. See also 1984 and 1985 Gee.
Rpt. Auckland, New Zealand: Puffin Books, 1984. Extract rpt. in Monsters in the Garden: An Anthology of Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy. Ed. Elizabeth Knox and David Larsen (Wellington, New Zealand: Victoria University of Wellington Press, 2020), 67-92.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Havoc in Islandia - Mark Saxton (1914-88) (Houghton Mifflin, 1982)
A novel of romance and adventure set in the history of Islandia from 1942 Wright. See also 1969 and 1979 Saxton.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Jenny Ewing - [Frank] Yorick Blumenfeld (1932) (Centaur, 1982)
Atomic war and shelter dystopia.
Rpt. as Jenny, My Diary. Boston: Little, Brown, 1982. Rpt. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1983.
Keywords: Dutch author; English author; Male author; US author

Joy - James [Henry Peter] McNeish (1931-2016) (Hodder and Stoughton, 1982)
Novel about an isolated and withdrawn community in New Zealand named Joy that is additionally cut off by a quarantine and the relations among its citizens. The community has conflicts but is generally presented positively.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Light on the Sound - Somtow [Papinian] Sucharitkul (b. 1952) (Timescape, 1982)
Religious dystopia that destroys all utopias because of its belief that due to the Fall all utopias are necessarily false. But after the destruction of the twelfth utopia, a thirteenth is discovered that causes those assigned to destroy it to try to save it. The book discusses the nature of utopia. First volume in a series; see also 1983, 1984 and 1985 Sucharitkul.
Rev. as The Dawning Shadow: The Light On the Sound. New York: Bantam Books, 1986. Part previously published as "The Thirteenth Utopia." Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact [99].4 (April 1979): 144-60, 162-64; which was rpt. in The Annual World's Best SF 1980. Ed. Donald A. Wollheim (New York: DAW Books, 1980), 20-42; and in his Fire from the Wine Dark Sea (Norfolk, VA: Donning, 1983), 17-38; and "Light on the Sound." Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine 4.8 (August 1980): 84-169. Described as the first volume of a trilogy, the series was later extended to four volumes.
Keywords: Male author; Thai author; US author

"The Man Who Walks Away Behind the Eyes" - Terry [Terence William] Dowling (b. 1947) (Omega Science Digest (Sydney, NSW, Australia), 1982)
Flawed utopia. Operation and failure of a supposedly perfect legal system.
Rpt. in his Wormwood (Adelaide, SA, Australia: Aphelion Publications, 1991), 79-97; in Wonder Years: The Ten Best Australian Stories of a Decade Past. Ed. Peter McNamara (Parramatta, NSW, Australia: Aphelion Publications/MirrorDanse Books, 2003), 55-71; and in his Make Believe: A Terry Dowling Reader (Greenwood, WA, Australia: Ticonderoga Publications, 2009), 91-107.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Manshape - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (DAW Books, 1982)
An Interstellar Bridge connects all the human worlds that had up to that point been isolated, but one world, Azrael, initially refuses to be connected. It has a unique social organization that does not value existence, and when connected it tries to export its beliefs to other worlds.
Shorter version originally published as "Bridge to Azrael." Amazing Stories 38.2 (February 1964): 6-78. Rpt. as Endless Shadow. New York: Ace Books, 1964. Ace Double bound with Gardner F. Fox, The Arsenal of Miracles (1964).
Keywords: English author; Male author

Maurai & Kith - Poul [William] Anderson (1926-2001) (Tor, 1982)
Post-catastrophe eutopia of sea people based on conservation contrasted with a technological space faring civilization and the problems when they meet. The Maurai are based on the New Zealand/Aotearoa Maori.
Parts originally published as "The Sky People." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 16.3 (March 1959): 85-124; "Progress." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 22.1 (January 1962): 90-129; "Windmill" [See 1973 Anderson]; "Ghetto." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 6.5 (May 1954): 94-119; and "The Horn of Time the Hunter" as "Homo Aquaticus." Amazing Stories 37.9 (September 1963): 6-22.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Meat Box." - Daniel Gilbert (Perpetual Light, 1982)
Dystopia of religious fanaticism set in a orbital mental hospital.
Keywords: Male author

Mindkiller: A Novel of the Near Future - Spider Robinson (b. 1948) (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1982)
​Technological dystopia in which Wireheads are addicted to stimulation of the pleasure centers of the brain. The first volume of what comes to be called the Lifehouse Trilogy, which includes his 1987 Time Pressure and 1997 Life House.
Rpt. in The Lifehouse Trilogy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007), 1-229.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

The Mosquito Coast. A Novel - Paul [Edward] Theroux (b. 1941) (Houghton Mifflin, 1982)
The novel begins in the dystopia of migrant labor in the U.S. and follows a Yankee family to Honduras, where they attempt to create as eutopia in the jungle.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Plains - Gerald Murnane (b. 1939) (Nostrilia Press, 1982)
The interior of Australia as an imaginary country separate from and better than the coasts, with the narrator speaking of leaving Australia to get there. The area is dominated by incredibly wealthy landowners.
Rpt. Ringwood, VIC, Australia: Penguin, 1984; and Melbourne, VIC, Australia: McPhee Gribble, 1990.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

The Prometheus Man; a nrobook - Ray [Radell] Faraday Nelson (1931-2022) (Donning, 1982)
Dystopia. Anyone who fails academically becomes permanently a member of the unemployables living in camps. The men are sterilized. A second plot line concerns a man who intends to create a world eutopia using people of high intelligence. The two lines converge around a man, one of the unemployables, and his divorced wife, one of the super intelligent. Separately they lead changes in the two groups and end up back together. Some of the characters, plot, and text are repeated from 1978 Nelson.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Puzzling amendment approved" - Tony White (Veridian, 1982)
Short future authoritarian dystopia. New York is the capitol of the U.S. Capitalism has brought worldwide poverty, and the U.S. President says that starvation is simply normal economic adjustment. The amendment prohibits any words in English or Spanish that suggests that there are any "political prisoners" in the Western Hemisphere.
Rpt. in Veridian 4.1 (February 1984): 2.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Retaliation - Richard [Heath] Rohmer (b. 1924) (General Publishing, 1982)
Canadian takeover of the U.S.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

"Root... and Branch" - Michael [Robert] Collings (b. 1947) (LDSF: Science Fiction by Mormons, 1982)
Dystopia based on genetic testing that judges the worth of a person on the sorts of descendents they will have. People are mated to produce the best results. People who believe in such outmoded ideas as love and family are ostracized.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Rose for Armageddon - Hilbert [Van Nydeck] Schenck [Jr.] (1926-2014) (Timescape, 1982)
Collapsing Western civilization and an attempt to create a eutopia by developing a huge new computing system.
U.K. ed. London: Allison & Busby, 1984. Rpt. London: Sphere, 1984.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Running Man - [Stephen Edwin] [King] (b. 1947) (New American Library, 1982)
Dystopia in which a TV contest called "The Running Man" promises rich rewards for a man who can elude those hunting him and who will kill him if they find him.
Rpt. in The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels by Stephen King. Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man (New York: New American Library, 1985), 521- 692 with "Why I Was Bachman" (v-x). U.K. ed. London: New English Library, 1983.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Science Fiction Sequence" - Bill Sewell (1951-2003) (Solo Flight, 1982)
Poem containing a section "Utopia" (50-51), which contrasts life in an ideal society with the complications of life in this world.
“Utopia” is rpt. in Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand. Ed. Mark Pirie and Tim Jones (Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Interactive Press, 2009), 9.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Seven Tomorrows: Toward a Voluntary History - Paul Hawken; James Ogilvy; Peter Schwartz (Bantam Books, 1982)
Futurism with seven alternative futures for the U.S. with both eutopian and dystopia scenarios.
Keywords: Male author

The Shaving of Karl Marx; An Instant Novel of Ideas, After the Manner of Thomas Love Peacock, in which Lenin and H.G. Wells talk about the Political Meaning of the Scientific Romances - Leon [Eugene] Stover (1929-2006) (The Chiron Press, 1982)
Novel presenting perceived similarities between H.G. Wells (1866-1946) and Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924). Discusses Wells's dystopias The Time Machine (1895) and The First Men in the Moon (1901) among others.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Starburst - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Ballantine Books, 1982)
The novel presents a dystopia of the near future in a U. S. that is marked by violent protests and widespread disorder. It also presents a eutopia brought about on another planet through the unexplained development of new powers by a group of people sent on a supposedly meaningless trip to a nonexistent planet. They bring a degree of healing to the Earth. Some satire.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Stroka Prospekt - Richard [Allen] Lupoff (1935-2020) (The Toothpaste Press, 1982)
A somewhat dystopian future with Russia leading in space exploration and mining and on Earth Russia and other "progressive" countries like the U.S. are opposed by an expansive China. The story takes places on a vacation planetoid where miners go to relax and involves alien contact.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Survival Solution. A New "Common Sense" For Americans and the World: Now All Interdependent. Inspired By Edward Bellamy's Equality Including All Main Chapters Complete. Implementing Our Founding Fathers' Democratic Principles and Spiritual Ideals. This: The Only Solution In This World Today Both Practical and Worthy of American Idealism: Giving A Complete Solution for Changing Present Chaotic Non-Survival System Through Renewal of American Principles To Build Peace and Survival on True Democracy - [James L.] [Black] (Harmony Books, 1982)
Eutopia with a world-wide cooperative economic system, religion, democracy, and equality. Chapters IV-VI (pp. 21-317) reprint or summarize Bellamy's Equality with the original pagination, and much of the rest of the book is quotations from a wide range of authors. Many references to the New Age.
Keywords: Male author

A Tapestry of Time - [John Middleton] [Murry] [Jr.] (1926-2002) (Victor Gollancz, 1982)
Final volume of a trilogy called The White Bird of Kinship. See also 1978 and 1981 Murry. This volume resolves issues of the previous two and leads to the recognition of interdependence.
Rpt. London: Futura, 1986.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Technomics. A Better Economy. International - [John Bernard] [Ball] (b. 1911) ([Ballmark Publications], 1982)
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. 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 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 Terrible Twos - Ishmael [Scott] Reed (b. 1938) (St. Martin's/Marek, 1982)
Satiric dystopia based on contemporary U.S. politics in which economic and political leaders behave like a spoiled two year old. See also his 1989 The Terrible Threes, and his 2021 The Terrible Fours.
Rpt. New York: Atheneum, 1988. An excerpt, “Future Christmas (excerpt from the novel The Terrible Twos,” was rpt. in Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Ed. Sheree R. Thomas (New York: Warner Books, 2000), 275-89.
Keywords: African American author; Male author

Tomorrow's Men - Michael [Sinclair MacAuslan] Shea (1938-2009) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982)
Dystopia of a violent future England.
Rpt. as Break Point. Sutton, Surrey, Eng.: Severn House, 2001.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

Travels to the Enu: Story of a Shipwreck - [Heinz Jakov] [Landwirth] (1927-2007) (Eyre Methuen, 1982)
The novel presents a satire on the present in the form of a weird, fantastic, imaginary country. It begins on a dystopian ship crewed by murderers and psychopaths where the passengers are required to do all the work and are robbed and murdered. Then the ship sinks, and the protagonist makes it to the island of the Enu, who seem to be half human and half baboon in apparently separate species and have a odd affinity for birds that occupy nests on men's heads.
Keywords: Austrian author; English author; Male author

The Twofold Vibration - Raymond Federman (1928-2009) (Indiana University Press/Harvester Press, 1982)
The novel is set on New Year's Eve 1999 on an overpopulated Earth that annually sends its undesirables, including artists who do not conform to the current style, to colonies in space.
Keywords: Male author; US author

V for Vendetta - Alan [Oswald] Moore (b. 1953); David Lloyd (b. 1950) (DC Comics, 1982)
Dystopia. Graphic novel depicting a corrupt, totalitarian regime in England being resisted by a superhero.
Books 1 and 2 “Vertigo” and “Vincent” published in the U.K. in Warrior in 1982 and 1983. Published in U.S. as V for Vendetta, nos. 1-10 (1987-1988). Collected ed. New York: DC Comics, 1989. Rev. exp. ed. New York: DC Comics, 1990. Rpt. New York: DC Comics, 2005.
Keywords: English author; Male author

A Very British Coup - Chris[topher John] Mullin (b. 1947) (Hodder and Stoughton, 1982)
The left wins an election, and the establishment works to overthrow it. A sequel is The Friends of Harry Perkins. London: Scribner, 2019 that is primarily a political novel set in the dystopia that Brexit has produced with a potential war between China and the U. S. in the background.
Rpt. London: Corgi, 1988; and London: Politicos, 2001.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Voyage From Yesteryear - James P[atrick] Hogan (1941-2010) (Del Rey/Ballantine Books, 1982)
Earth had established colonies of children in the Alpha Centuri system and decades later sent adult colonists and an army to take control. The first group and established a libertarian eutopia and had no intention of being taken over by the new one. The book won the Prometheus Award of the Libertarian Futurist Society.
Rpt. New York: Baen, 1999. U.K. ed. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1984.
Keywords: English author; Irish author; Male author; US author

War of Omission - Kevin O'Donnell Jr. (1950-2012) (Bantam Books, 1982)
A bureaucratic dystopia and a revolution of the middle class.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The White Plague - Frank [Patrick] Herbert (1920-86) (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1982)
Dystopian set in a near future Ireland using Irish myth to explore the conflicts.
U.K. ed. London: Gollancz, 1983.
Keywords: Male author; US author

2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future - Gerard K[itchen] O'Neill (1927-92) (Simon and Schuster, 1981)
Technological eutopia presented as a non-fictional prediction but the description of life in 2081 combines fiction and non-fiction. Space colonies and some colonies much further out in space.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Anarch Lords - A[rthur] Bertram Chandler (1912-84) (DAW Books, 1981)
The novel shows the attempt to bring law and order to an anarchist (in its negative sense) world.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

Black Pudden Republic - Ken Bell (Frank Graham, 1981)
A dystopia said to have been written in 1975 and not updated. A “Black Pudden Republic” is defined as a Banana Republic with oil, and the novel is about an attempt to establish a corporate state.
Keywords: Male author

The Castaways of Tanagar - Brian [Michael] Stableford (1948-2024) (DAW Books, 1981)
A planetary eutopia that freezes its outcasts (criminals and dissidents). With the rediscovery of Earth and the plan to explore it, the outcasts become necessary and so some are brought back to life. The eutopia, Tanager, is composed of Intellectuals, who dominate, Hedonists, and Pragmatists, who occupy a middle ground between the other two.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Century's End - Russell M[organ] Griffin (1943-86) (Bantam Books, 1981)
Wide-ranging dystopia with a collapsing economy in which brokers consult witches, a TV evangelist is running for President of the U.S., and riots and political violence are common.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Cities of the Red Night - William S[eward] Burroughs (1914-97) (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981)
Unusually for Burroughs, this novel includes a eutopia as well as a dystopia. The eutopia is based on the Libertalia community possibly founded by the pirate Captain Misson (ca 1660-ca 1690s) on Madagascar and is set in the eighteenth century. The dystopian material is typical Burroughs and is set in the twentieth century. Similar to 1991 Burroughs, which also uses the settlement. First volume of a trilogy that includes his 1983 The Place of Dead Roads and his 1987 The Western Lands.
U.K. ed. London: John Calder, 1981.
Keywords: Male author; US author

City of Women - David [Neil] Ireland (b. 1927) (Allen Lane, 1981)
Picture of a city inhabited almost exclusively by women with a description of the life there. The city is beleaguered by men from outside. It turns out to be a fantasy of one woman.
Rpt. Ringwood, VIC, Australia: Penguin Books Australia, 1986.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

"Control of Violence by mass tranquillisation 1981-2001" - Paul Western (b. 1963) (New Scientist, 1981)
Mass tranquillization is used by the Riot Protection Squad to control and prevent violence. Presented positively. At the end it is suggested that the next step will be introducing mood improving drugs into the water to reduce tension, and specifically to improve race relations. Won the British Association of Young Scientists/New Scientist essay competition for 1981.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Cool War - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Ballantine Books, 1981)
Humorous dystopia set in the 2020s. The "Cool War" has replaced the Cold War and consists of world-wide sabotage.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Co-operative Self-Sufficient Village" - Peter D[avid] Stanley (Research Essay. Bachelor of Town Planning, 1981)
A detailed plan for a self-sufficient, environmentally sound cooperative community autonomous in energy, food, and water. Mostly on the physical setting and the support structure, but it includes a discussion of social arrangements and the difficulties of setting it up.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

A Dream of Kinship - [John Middleton] [Murry] [Jr.] (1926-2002) (Victor Gollancz, 1981)
Middle volume of a trilogy called The White Bird of Kinship. See also 1978 and 1982 Murry. In this volume, the secular power tries to destroy the religious heresy known as Kinship, but a new age is developing.
U. S. New York Pocket Books, 1981.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Ecotopia Emerging - Ernest [William] Callenbach [Jr.] (1929-2012) (Banyan Tree Books, 1981)
Early development of Ecotopia as described in 1975 Callenbach. Callenbach's political ideas are developed in Callenbach and Michael Phillips, A Citizen Legislature. Berkeley/Bodega, CA: Banyan Tree Books/Clear Glass, 1985. Rpt. Exeter, England: Imprint Academic, 2008 with an "Introduction" by Peter Stone (9-16).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Entertainment" - M[ichael] A[nthony] Foster (b. 1939) (New Voices 4. The John W. Campbell Award Nominees, 1981)
Flawed in which the human race is cut off from reality.
Rpt. in his Owl Time; A Collection of Fictions (New York: DAW Books, 1985), 151-251.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Entropy Tango: A Comic Romance - Michael [John] Moorcock (b. 1939) (New English Library, 1981)
Dystopia and suggestions of eutopia. Alternative history using some characters from the Russian Revolution, like Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronstein 1879-1940) and Nestor Makhno (1889-1935).
Keywords: English author; Male author

Firebird - Charles L[eonard] Harness (1915-2005) (Pocket Books, 1981)
Dystopia of telepathic computers, known collectively as Control, that rule the galaxy and plans to give itself immortality by destroying all life.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Forever" - Damon [Francis] Knight (1922-2002) (Omni, 1981)
Scientists in the nineteenth century invent an elixir for a very long life, which is followed by a cure for all diseases. This leads to a eutopia of peace and prosperity, and, later, a fall in the birth rate and the end of the human race.
Rpt. In The Second Omni Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Ellen [Sue] Datlow (New York: Zebra Books, nd), 345-53.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Green Futures of Tycho - William [Warner] Sleator [III] (1945-2011) (E. P. Dutton, 1981)
Children's time travel book that includes a future authoritarian dystopia.
Rpt. New York: Puffin, 1991; and New York: Starscape, 2005. This ed. includes a "Reader's Guide" (115-21). U.K. ed. London: Macdonald, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Hello America - J[ames] G[raham] Ballard (1930-2009) (Jonathan Cape, 1981)
Dystopia. The United States had collapsed in the past and an expedition of rediscovery finds it inhabited with a wide variety of dystopian societies.
U.S. ed. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1988.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Insider - Christopher [D.] Evans (b. 1951) (Faber and Faber, 1981)
The background to the novel is an extrapolated near future dystopia of the anti-immigration and anti-international right wing in a future Britain.
Keywords: Male author; Welsh author

The Islanders - John Rowe Townsend (1922-2014) (Oxford University Press, 1981)
Young adult dystopia in which an isolated island with a rule that no outsiders will be allowed has to deal with the disruption caused by two young people saving the lives of two other young people from outside.
U.S. ed. New York: J.P. Lippincott, 1981.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Johnny Mnemonic" - William [Ford] Gibson (b. 1948) (Omni, 1981)
Early cyberpunk dystopia. See 1995 Bisson for a novel based on the story.
Rpt. in The Best of Omni No. 6 (New York: Omni Publications, 1983), 16-22; The Second Omni Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Ellen [Sue] Datlow (New York: Zebra Books, nd), 355-79; in his Burning Chrome (London: Victor Gollancz, 1986), 6-27. Rpt. London: Grafton, 1988), 14-36. U.S. ed. (New York: Arbor House, 1987), 6-27; and in Cyberpunk: Stories of Hardware, Software, Wetware, Revolution and Evolution. Ed. Victoria Blake (Portland, OR: Underhand Press, 2013), 015-032.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

"Journey's End" - Paul Fussell (1924-2012) (Harper's, 1981)
Short article on the author's ideal city (food, culture, courtesies, etc.) inspired by a bout of illness in Israel.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Lanark; A Life in Four Books - Alasdair [James] Gray (1934-2019) (Canongate Publishing/Harper & Row, 1981)
Complex dystopia that follows the character Lanark through the surrealistic city of Unthank, which has severe economic and political problems and is threatened environmentally. Includes a side trip to a version of Hell.
Rev. ed. Edinburgh, Scot: Canongate Publishing, 1985. Rpt. London: Picador, 1994. Parts published as "From the World of Lanark." Scottish International, no. 12 (November-December 1970): 30-40 (Chapters 6 and 7); "Extract from Lanark." Words, [no. 1] (Autumn 1976): 3-6; "Alexander Comes (an extract from Lanark)." Words 6 [1978]: 5-9 (Chapter 41); "Prologue to Lanark." GUM: Glasgow University Magazine (1974) [Not held by the Glasgow University Library or the Glasgow University Archives]; and "From Lanark." Words (1979) (Chapter 35). See "Lanark Storyboard" [A Projected film of Lanark]. Scottish Book Collector 2.1 - 2.6, 2.8 - 2.12, 3.2 - 3.6, 3.9, 3.11, 3.12, 4.3 - 5.1, 5.3, 5.5 - 5.7. 5.9 - 5.10 (August/September 1989 - August/September 1990, December 1990/January 1991 - August/September 1991, December 1991/January 1992 - August/September 1992, February/March 1993, June/July 1993, February/March 1994 - Winter 1996/97, Summer 1997, Autumn 1997): 16-17; 16-17; 16-17; 16-17; 24-25; 28; 31; 19; 32; 30-31; 26-27; 14; 13; 29; 14; 17; 20; 13; 25; 10; 26; 21; 21; 21; 21; 21; 19; 23; 23; 19; 8; 23; 30; 30; 27. The last gives the authors as Gray and Ms. Fairlie Fox; all the others are by Gray.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

Land's End - Peter Francis Browne (Secker & Warburg, 1981)
Near future dystopia focusing on a dictator for life gaining control through a combination of rewards for behavior he approves and violence. Book burnings. Dissenters and anyone not white is considered a terrorist and can be killed by the police. The novel follows an average school teacher most of whose books had burned who tries to save a wounded Pakistani man whose wife and child had been killed.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

The Last Crime - John Domatilla (b. 1936) (Heinemann, 1981)
Computer dystopia with the ultimate elimination of all humans. The last crime is one of the last two humans murdering the other.
U.S. ed. New York: Atheneum, 1980.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

"The Last Piece of Trade in America" - John Mitzel (On the Line: New Gay Fiction, 1981)
Future in which gay men dominate generally presented positively.
Keywords: Male author

Mallworld - Somtow [Papinian] Sucharitkul (b. 1952) (Donning, 1981)
A collection of related stories about Mallworld, which is a mall thirty kilometers long with some 20,000 shops that was sent into an alternate universe by aliens who are studying the human race.
Rev. ed. without the illus. [New York]: Tor, 1984. Later editions were published as The Ultimate Mallworld. Atlanta, GA: Meisha Merlin Press, 2000; and The Ultimate, Ultimate Mallworld. Illus. Karl Kofoed. Bangkok, Thailand/Los Angeles, CA: Diplodocus Press, 2013 with “Ultimate, Ultimate, Ultimate” by Somtow (unpaged). Parts were originally published as “A Day in Mallworld.” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 3.10 (20) (October 1979): 74-95 (1-22). Rpt. in the 1984 Mallworld (15-44); rpt. in The Ultimate Mallworld (15-42); rpt. in The Ultimate, Ultimate Mallworld (15-41); “Sing a Song of Mallworld.” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 4.7 (29) (July 1980): 28-53 (23-50). Rpt. in the 1984 Mallworld (46-81); rpt. in The Ultimate Mallworld (43-78); rpt. in The Ultimate, Ultimate Mallworld (43-74); “The Vampire of Mallworld.” Amazing Science Fiction Stories Combined with Fantastic 27.12 (May 1981): 22-? (51-77). Rpt. in the 1984 Mallworld (83-118); rpt. in The Ultimate Mallworld (79-113); rpt. in The Ultimate, Ultimate Mallworld (79-110); “Rabid in Mallworld.” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 4.6 (29) (June 1980): 20-44 (78-102). Rpt. in the 1984 Mallworld (119-51); rpt. in The Ultimate Mallworld (115-45); rpt. in The Ultimate, Ultimate Mallworld (115-43); “Mallworld Graffiti.” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 5.9 (43) (August 31, 1981): 130-65 (103-36). Rpt. in the 1984 Mallworld (153-204); rpt. in The Ultimate Mallworld (147-91); rpt. in The Ultimate, Ultimate Mallworld (147-89); “The Dark Side of Mallworld.” Illus Stephen Fabian. Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 5.11 (45) (October 26, 1981): 138-68 (139-71). Rpt. in the 1984 Mallworld (205-48); rpt. in The Ultimate Mallworld (193-230); rpt. in The Ultimate, Ultimate Mallworld (193-30). “The Jaws of Mallworld” is original to the first version (172-94). Rpt. in the 1984 Mallworld (249-84); in The Ultimate Mallworld (235-64 with pages 281-84/rev. on 263-64); rpt. in The Ultimate, Ultimate Mallworld (235-64). The Ultimate Mall World adds “A Mall and the Gneiss Visitors.” Rpt. in The Ultimate Mallworld (269-92); rpt. in The Ultimate, Ultimate Mallworld (269-92); “Bug-eyed in Mallworld” (297-330); rpt. in The Ultimate, Ultimate Mallworld (297-330). See also “The Mallworld Falcon.” In The Ultimate Alien. Ed. Byron Preiss, John Betancourt, and Keith R. A. DeCandido (New York: Dell/A Byron Preiss Book, 1995), 41-73.
Keywords: Male author; Thai author; US author

The Man Who Loved Morlocks: A Sequel to 'The Time Machine' As Narrated By the Time Traveller - David J[ohn] Lake (1929-2016) (Hyland Press, 1981)
H.G. Wells's time traveler returns to the future and discovers a people descended from the Morlocks. They have created a society similar to ancient Sparta, where he chooses to stay. On his first trip he had inadvertently killed most of the Eloi and the original Morlocks, who had no immunity to diseases he carried. Includes a report by the Morlocks on the first trip.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Indian author; Male author

The Morphodite - M[ichael] A[nthony] Foster (b. 1939) (DAW Books, 1981)
Authoritarian dystopia that designs a human being to be able to detect conspiracies, but the Morphodite was able to think for himself. Two sequels follow the Morphodite's further adventures; see 1983 Foster, Transformer and 1985 Foster, Preserver.
Rpt. in his The Transformer Trilogy (New York: DAW Books, 2006), 1-209.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Musical Utopia: A dream? Not entirely . . ." - Paul Fromm (1906-87) (High Fidelity, 1981)
Brief discussion of Hector Berlioz's (1803-69) Euphonia together the author's own musical eutopia, which he also calls Euphonia, which stresses composers and performers working together.
Keywords: German author; Male author; US author

“No Exit” - Paul Mavrides (b. 1952); Jay Kinney (b. 1950) (Anarchy Comics, 1981)
Satire on both punk rock and the anarchist eutopia. A punk rocker is frozen and revived thousands of years in the future in an anarchist eutopia, where his violence gets him sent back to the past, where he arrives at the corner of Haight and Ashbury during the “summer of love.” The eutopia is also satirized in that everyone lives on a commune; there is only healthy food, clothes and most other things are made from worms; Dolphins run an L 5 space colony and communicate with Earth by telepathy; and so forth.
Rpt. in Anarchy Comics. The Complete Collection. Ed. Jay Kinney (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2013), 97-104.
Keywords: Male author; US author

No Lasting City - Gordon [Thomas] Kerins (Dunmore Press, 1981)
An attempt by priests to set up an agricultural commune to help Maori youth in the Taranaki region of New Zealand.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

"Not Responsible! Park and Lock It" - John [Joseph Vincent] Kessel (b. 1950) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1981)
Dystopia in which all people live on a westbound highway with support services from, and it becomes clear, control by robots. Men are the drivers; women appear to be almost entirely in traditional roles. The story follows one boy from birth to getting his own car. Although the family has been travelling all the years in between, both events take place at the same mile marker. The Eastbound lanes appear to be a religious myth enforced by robots.
Rpt. in his The Pure Product. Stories (New York: Tor, 1997), 303-328; and in his The Dark Ride: The Best Short Fiction of John Kessel (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2022), 11-33, with a note on the story on 563-565.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Notes In Passing" - Freundlich, Paul (Communities: Journal of Cooperative Living, 1981)
An odd story where the Second Coming requires everyone to examine their consciences, which leads to mass suicide. Ultimately the entire human race disappears and the planet and its flora and fauna flourish.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Oath of Fealty - Larry [Lawrence van Cott] Niven (b. 1938); Jerry [Eugene] Pournelle (1933-2017) (Phantasia Press, 1981)
Dystopia and eutopia presenting the ideas of the Italian architect Paolo Soleri (b. 1919).  An arcology is built in the middle of Los Angeles that is home to 250,000 people and provides for all their needs with security of high priority. Conflict with the rest of the city develops, and the strengths and weaknesses of the arcology as a way of life are revealed. For Soleri's ideas, see, for example, his Arcology: The City in the Image of Man. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1969. The community Arcosanti in Arizona was built using his ideas.
Also published New York: Timescape, 1981. An excerpt was published in Niven’s Playgrounds of the Mind (New York: Tor, 1991), 436-48.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Pilgrimage - Drew Mendelson (b. 1945) (DAW Books, 1981)
Dystopia. An immense moving society is decaying and the social systems that have been in place for generations are breaking down.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Planet of No Return - Harry [Max] Harrison (1925-2012) (Simon & Schuster, 1981)
Dystopia of violence and constant war.
U.K. ed. London: Severn House, 1983.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Please Insert ID-Card" - Tex Cooper (The Best of South African Science Fiction, 1981)
Four-page story on the problems created in a society totally dependent on ID-cards when a computer decides a person is dead.
Keywords: Male author; South African author

Queer Free - Alabama Birdstone (Calamus Books, 1981)
Dystopia from a gay male perspective.
Keywords: Male author

Resurrection Days - [Arthur] Wilson Tucker (1914-2006) (Timescape, 1981)
Dystopia of a world of women with one man from the past who disrupts the women's world.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Resurrection of Aristocracy - Rudolph C. Evans (Theo. Gaus, Ltd, 1981)
Essay that includes a eutopia of a revitalized aristocracy.
Keywords: Male author

The Revolution from Rosinante - Alexis [Arnaldus] Gilliland (b. 1931) (Ballantine Books, 1981)
Dystopia in which a failing Earth affects the attempts of those building a space colony to survive. Non-utopian sequels include Long Shot for Rosinante. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981; and The Pirates of Rosinante. New York: Ballantine Books, 1982.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Rule Britannia: A Progress report for Domesday 1986 - James Bellini (Jonathan Cape, 1981)
Post-industrial Britain of the future. The book begins with a description of the negative effects of the policies of the 1980s, which produces Prutopia, or Britain run by the Prudential Assurance Corporation. A neat symbol is that the city of Milton Keynes is changed to Milton Friedman. It ends with Protopia when the concern has changed to benefiting people.
Keywords: Male author

Schrödinger's Cat Two: The Trick Top Hat - Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007) (Pocket Books, 1981)
Dystopia and eutopia. Various alternative histories of past, present, and future. The dystopian future describes a future United States called Unistat, which is authoritarian. But there is also a period in which Unistad is a eutopia in which all poverty is ended through automation and awards both for all those who invented better machines and those replaced by the new machines. All prisons abolished and crime almost eliminated. Middle volume of a trilogy. The trilogy is a sequel to another trilogy, Robert [Joseph] Shea (1933-94) and Robert Anton Wilson. The Illuminatus! New York: Dell, 1975; Rpt. as The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple and Leviathan. New York: Dell, [1984] [All three originally published separately New York: Dell, 1975]. See also, Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati. Berkeley, CA: And/Or Press, 1977; rpt. Tempe, AZ: New Falcon, 1993; The Illuminati Papers. Berkeley, California: And/Or, 1980; Masks of the Illuminati. New York: Timescape Pocket Books, 1981; and Right Where You Are Sitting Now: Further Tales of the Illuminati. 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: Ronin Publishing, 1992. All this material could be described as dystopian, but except for the explicit eutopia and the vague dystopia, there is little social detail.
Rpt. in Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy: The Universe Next Door, The Trick Top Hat, The Homing Pigeons (New York: Dell, 1988), 190-347. The other volumes were originally published as Schrödinger's Cat: The Universe Next Door. New York: Pocket Books, 1979; and Schrödinger's Cat III: The Homing Pigeons. New York: Pocket Books, 1981.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Shiloh Project - David C[harles] Poyer (b. 1949) (Avon, 1981)
Alternative history in which the Confederacy won the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, but all that was achieved was a century-long standoff between the North and the South, which is a police state. In the novel, the North has developed the atomic bomb, and it dropped it on Japan. The South is desperate to get its own, and, at the end of the novel, uses it.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Smile on the Void: The Mythhistory of Ralph M'Botu Kitaj - Stuart [Richard Alexander Steuart] Gordon (1947-2009) (Berkley Books, 1981)
Dystopia concerned with religious questions with a Christ figure who may be an alien.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

The Song of Phaid the Gambler - Mick [Michael Anthony] Farren (1943-2013) (New English Library, 1981)
Complex future fantasy with dystopian elements.
U.S. edition in two vols. as Phaid the Gambler. New York: Ace Books, 1986; and Citizen Phaid. New York: Ace Books, 1987.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Sons of Light - [James] David Rudkin (b. 1936) (Eyre Methuen, 1981)
Dystopian play set on an isolated island in the Atlantic where there have been experiments on humans.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Spacetime Donuts - Rudy [Rudolf von Bitter] Rucker (b. 1946) (Ace Books, 1981)
Dystopian satire in which readily available drugs and sex and complete support are used to oppress people.
Part originally published as by Rudolf v.B. Rucker in Unearth 2.3 (Summer 1978): 3-42; 2.4 (Winter 1979): 46-82. The third part was to have been published in 2.5, but the journal ceased publication.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Starworld - Harry [Max] Harrison (1925-2012) (Bantam Books, 1981)
Final volume of a trilogy that includes 1980 Harrison and 1981 Harrison, Wheelworld. In this volume the protagonist of the other volumes returns to Earth and leads a rebellion.
U.K. ed. London: Granada, 1981. Rpt. London: Severn House, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Strength of Stones - Greg[ory Dale] Bear (1951-2022) (Ace Books, 1981)
Dystopia of religious conflict and overprotective cities.
The section entitled “Mandala” appeared in different form in New Dimensions Number 8. Ed. Robert Silverberg (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 149-96. The section entitled “Resurrection” appeared as “Strength of Stones, Flesh of Brass.” Rigel, no. 1 (Summer 1981): 5-18, 53-62, 64-66.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Systemic Shock - Dean Ing (1931-2020) (Ace Books, 1981)
Post-atomic war dystopia. Authoritarian religious government and revolt against it.
Rev. ed. New York: Tor, 1992.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"That Was the Year That Was" - Brian Strong (WARP: The Magazine of the [New Zealand] National Association for Science Fiction, 1981)
A report on New Zealand in 2100 in which it has become mostly agricultural, with the workers housed underground. Wellington is gone; the North and South Islands have separate governments with the South the stronger; and huge areas, including Otago and the Bay of Plenty are solar fields.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

"There is no depression in New Zealand" - Richard von Sturmer (b. 1957) (There is no depression in New Zealand, 1981)
Song. Satire on the New Zealand image of itself as a eutopia.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

The Three Million Dollar Lunch. A Farce in One Act - Fred Carmichael (Samuel French, 1981)
Farce set in a future where food is no longer generally available, people live on pills, and manipulate each other to get the little food that there still is.
Keywords: Male author; US author

To Every Birth Its Blood - Mongane [Wally] Serote (b. 1944) (Ravan Press, 1981)
The novel depicts contemporary South Africa with strong images of the Black dystopia contrasted with the white eutopia (from the black perspective). Beginnings of the future violent revolution with some hope of improvement.
Rpt. London: William Heinemann, 1983.
Keywords: Male author; South African author

Vaneglory: A Science Fiction Novel - George [Reginald] Turner (1916-97) (Faber and Faber, 1981)
Middle volume of a trilogy set in a future dystopia. In this volume the society evolving at the end of the previous volume has to deal with the discovery of a group of humans who do not die. See also 1978 and 1983 Turner.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

“Venice Drowned” - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (Universe, 1981)
Climate change dystopia in which Venice is underwater and its art treasures are being removed by outsiders.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #11. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Timescape/Pocket Books, 1982), 109-30; Nebula Award Stories 17. Ed. Joe W. Haldeman (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983), 19-43; in his The Planet on the Table (New York: Tor, 1986), 1-25; U.K. ed. (London: Futura, 1987), 1-25; in his Vinland the Dream and Other Stories (London: Harper Collins, 2002), 165-93; and in Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond. Ed. Jonathan Strahan (Oxford, Eng.: Solaris, 2016), 38-85.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Venus Belt - L[ester] Neil Smith [III] (1946-2021) (Ballantine Books, 1981)
The libertarian eutopia of Smith’s 1980 The Probability Broach is threatened by an authoritarian dystopia. Second in the North American Confederacy series, followed, in publication order, by Their Majesties' Bucketeers. Illus. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981. 182 pp.; The Nagasaki Vector. New York: Ballantine Books, 1983. 242 pp., neither of which have much to do with the main themes in the series; Tom Paine Maru. New York: Ballantine. 273 pp. Rpt. rev. Rockville, MD: Phoenix Pick, 2009. 222 pp. [An author’s note says that the first edition was badly cut by the publisher and that this version reflects his original intent]; The Gallatin Divergence. New York: Ballantine, 1985. 223 pp.; Brightsuit MacBear. New York: Avon, 1988. 212 pp.; and Taflak Lysandra. New York: Avon, 1988. 230 pp. (1989), in all three of which there are clashes between the Confederacy and the authoritarian Federalists; and The American Zone (2001) which is a sequel to The Probability Broach. In the chronology of the series, the volumes are The Probability Broach, The Nagasaki Vector, The American Zone, The Venus Belt, The Gallatin Divergence, Tom Paine Maru, Brightsuit MacBear, Taflak Lysandra, and Their Majesties' Bucketeers. A story set in the same future is his 1989 “The Spirit of Exmas Sideways.”
Rpt. Rockville, MD: Phoenix Pick, 2009. 163 pp.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Vision Tomorrow - Harold, Edmund (The Spiritual Venturers Associations, distributed by Arthur H. Stockwell, 1981)
New Age spiritualism. Great sweep of time from Atlantis to the 23rd century. Ends in a dystopia of constant war, but the author holds out hope.
Rpt. Auckland, New Zealand: Spiritual Venturers' Educational Trust, 1986; and Richmond, VIC, Australia: Greenhouse Publications, 1988.
Keywords: Male author

"Walden Three" - Michael [Jürgen] Swanwick (b. 1950) (New Dimensions, 1981)
The dystopia created on a space habitat circling Earth that came about by the “good intention” of changing people so that they all got along. It is seen through the eyes of a visitor from Earth who hates the place and a man on the satellite whose lover died because the good of everybody took away the one thing she most enjoyed doing.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #11. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Timescape/Pocket Books, 1982), 131-54.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Wheelworld - Harry [Max] Harrison (1925-2012) (Granada, 1981)
Middle volume of a trilogy beginning with 1980 Harrison and ending with 1981 Harrison, Starworld. The hero of the first volume is now a prisoner on the planet Wheelworld, which is a high-tech world ruled by an entrenched traditional dictatorship.
Rpt. London: Severn House, 1988. U.S. ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.
Keywords: Male author; US author

When We Were Good - David J[ohn] Skal (1952-2024) (Pocket Books, 1981)
Post-catastrophe dystopia. After many years of war, the human genome has been badly damaged and the attempts to produce children go seriously wrong.
Keywords: Male author; US author

While there's HOPE - John [Kilian Houston] Brunner (1934-95) (Keepsake Press, 1981)
Plan to achieve world peace through the voluntary exchange of hostages.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Wine of Violence - James [Kenneth] Morrow (b. 1947) (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981)
Eutopia and dystopia seen from the point of view of a future eutopia without any violence. The earlier two societies are one completely non-violent and one completely savage.
Rpt. New York: Ace Books, 1982.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Winterflight - Joseph [T.] Bayly (Word Books, 1981)
Dystopia of an anti-religious, liberal social order. Genetic perfection legislated and enforced. Death required at 75.
Keywords: Male author

The Wolves of Memory - George Alec Effinger (1947-2002) (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981)
Dystopia of computer rule.
Rpt. New York: Berkley Books, 1982.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Worlds: A Novel of the Near Future - Joe [Joseph William] Haldeman (b. 1943) (Viking Press, 1981)
Dystopian political novel set in a polluted, overpopulated 2084 with compulsory promiscuity. Tobacco is illegal. The "Worlds" are asteroids orbiting Earth and being exploited for their mineral resources. Sequels in 1983 and 1992.
Rpt. New York: Pocket Books, 1982.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"2010: Thirty Years On the Fast Track" - Steve[n] Maharey (b. 1953); Roy Shuker (b. 1948) (Comment (Palmerston North, New Zealand), 1980)
Satire with multinational corporations the dominant force worldwide. New Zealand, which is presented as a utopia, has a core, highly technical economy that employs few people and a fringe economy produces little but gives people something to do. Trade unions tied to the central government and representing the unemployed, the vast majority of the population. “Maoristans” established so that Māori could return to the land. Alternative lifestyles encouraged. All groups agree to not interfere with the core economy.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

¡Abracadabra! - [Cyril] Wolf Mankowitz (1924-98) (Gill and Macmillan, 1980)
The dystopia of a depressing welfare state and its mistreatment of the elderly as background to a novel about alchemy and magic.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Anchor Tree - Emyr Humphreys (1919)-2020) (Jonathan Cape, 1980)
Novel about an eighteenth century Pennsylvania intentional community, the twentieth-century town in the area, and an attempt to resurrect the community.
Keywords: Male author; Welsh author

"Apocalypse 1989" - Peter Wilkins (Pictures of the Future, 1980)
Nuclear war with New Zealand left relatively unscathed, although Australia is destroyed. A better society is created that stresses economic independence rather than trade in that initially there was no one left with whom to trade, but some other Southern Hemisphere areas survived and trade with Africa slowly develops. Decentralization and the regeneration of rural life.
Rpt. in Future Contingencies 4: Nuclear Disaster. A Report of the Commission for the Future by a Study Group on Nuclear Disaster (Wellington, New Zealand: Commission for the Future, 1982), 171-79.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

The Artificial Kid - [Michael] Bruce Sterling (b. 1954) (Harper & Row, 1980)
Cyberpunk eutopia and dystopia. The planet Reverie is initially presented as a somewhat odd plutocratic eutopia containing a violent Decriminalized Zone. The Artificial Kid is a combat artist.
Rpt. New York: Ace Books, 1987; and San Francisco, CA: Hardwired, 1997 with a “Foreword” by William Gibson (1-6).
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Ashkenazia” - Clive [John]] Sinclair (Encounter, 1980)
Satire on culture and politics. Yiddish is the national language of Ashkenazia, but all the authors are desperate to be translated into English, The point-of-view character is one of those authors. Corrupt politics, and the Prime Minister is desperate to conclude a deal with Hitler for Ashkenazia’s uranium deposits. Much of the action takes place at a writers’ conference.
Rpt. in his Bedbugs (London: Alison & Busby, 1982), 113-22; rpt. (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005), 113-22. and in his For Good or Evil: Collected Stories (London: Penguin, 1991, 238-248.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Beatnik Bayou" - John [Herbert] Varley (b. 1947) (New Voices III: The Campbell Award Nominees, 1980)
A eutopia on the moon focusing on individualized education which also indicates flaws in the system. For example, there are not enough teachers so that contracts are arranged years before the birth of the child. The teachers are physically the same age as the child and age with them and then revert to an earlier age for the next child. Teachers teach sex. Computerized justice. The "Beatnik Bayou" is a small space recreated as a 1950s Louisiana bayou.
Rpt. in his The Barbie Murders (New York: Berkley Books, 1980), 146-81 [Book reissued as Picnic on Nearside (New York: Berkley Books, 1984), 146-81]; and in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #10. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Pocket Books, 1981), 209-45.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Bender, Fenugreek, Slatterman and Mupp" - D[avid] G[uy] Compton (1930-2023) (Interfaces, 1980)
Dystopia of a technological world which tries and fails to make humans feel useful.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Black Sunlight - Dambudzo Marechera (1952-87) (Hainemann, 1980)
Dystopia set in a future of constant war. A play, Black Sunlight, by the Zimbabwean author and playwright Petina Gappah (b. 1971) based on Marechera’s life, premiered in Harare, Zimbabwe, in November 2020. The first act can be found in The Johannesburg Review of Books 4.7 (August 2020). [The JRB Exclusive] Read the first act of Petina Gappah’s new Dambudzo Marechera play, Black Sunlight – The Johannesburg Review of Books.
Originated in part from a manuscript published as “Black Insider.” In his Black Insider. Comp. and ed. Flora Veit-Wild. Harare, Zimbabwe: Baobab Books, 1990), 23-115.  Rpt. (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1992), 33-154. U.S. ed. (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Books, 1999), 23-115.
Keywords: Male author; Zimbabwean author

Blood Knot - [Thomas] [Dixon] (b. 1930) (St. Martin's Press, 1980)
Dystopia in which a future American Civil War is beginning, and the entire social system is breaking down.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Byte Your Tongue!" - Clifford D[onald] Simak (1904-88) (Stellar Science-Fiction Stories, 1980)
Dystopia of a future in which computers dominate, with the focus here on the U.S. Senate, where Senators are no longer elected but have to pass computer generated tests to remain in office.
Rpt. in The Ghost of a Model T and Other Stories: The Complete Short Stories of Clifford D. Simak Volume Three. New York: Open Road, 2015. EBook.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Capella's Golden Eyes - C[hristopher] D. Evans (b. 1951) (Faber & Faber, 1980)
The novel begins with three teenagers experiencing conflict in a highly organized city with some on their life in a rural commune, which has elements of a flawed utopia from the point of view of the protagonist. Children grow up in a series of supervised dormitories doing farm work until they are twenty. The novel then follows the protagonist to a period of study in the city and his encounter with aliens who had also settled on the planet. The novel ends with contact with a dystopian Earth and no resolution of the issues involved with either Earth or the aliens.
Keywords: Male author; Welsh author

"Children and Their Schools at the Quadcentennial" - Irwin Hyman; Sherone Sherone Levow Maital (Journal of Clinical Child Psychology 9.2 (Summer 1980):, 1980)
Two scenarios of future education, eutopian and dystopian. The dystopian system is all technology in isolation and is controlled by corporations. The eutopian system focuses on family life and the rights of children, is well-funded, and teachers all hold doctorates and schools have no administrators.
Keywords: Female author; Israeli author; Male author; US author

Circus World - Barry B[rookes] Longyear (b. 1942) (Nelson Doubleday, 1980)
Eutopia depicting the society created by circus performers when their ship crashed on the planet Momus.
This is the Science Fiction Book Club Edition published by arrangement with Berkley Pub. Co., but the first New York: Berkley Books ed. is 1981. U.K. ed. London: Macdonald, 1982. Originally published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine as "The Tryouts." 2.6 (10) (November-December 1978): 22-37; "The Second Law." 3.1 (11) (January 1979): 24-54; "Proud Rider." (February 1979): 102-27, "Dueling Clowns." 3.3 (13) (March 1979): 49-54; "The Quest." 3.5 (May 1979): 154-83; and "Priest of the Baraboo." 3.7 (17) (July 1979): 22-59. One story, "The Magician's Apprentice," was published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Adventure Magazine 1.2 (2) (Spring 1979): 35-54.
Keywords: Male author; US author

City Come A-Walkin' - John [Patrick] Shirley (b. 1954) (Dell, 1980)
Dystopian San Francisco embodied in one man who tries to understand all of himself. In San Francisco government has been displaced by banks, the mob, and the right wing.
Rpt. Eyeball Books, 1996; and New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2000, with a "Foreword" by William Gibson (1-4) saying how much his Neuromancer (1984) was influenced by it.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Cosmic Laws of the Spectrum: Evolution and Government - [John Bernard] [Ball] (b. 1911) ([Ballmark Publications], 1980)
Detailed eutopia based on the same “Universal Law of Economics” in 1978 Ball, but here he adds to it, saying that “Conversely, Losses generated by government and industry must be returned to the price structure of consumer buying in the next fiscal period” (23) and adds substantially to the topics he covers. 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 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

"Cosmos" - [Friedrich Georg Maria Theodor] [Strewe] (1910-86) (Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. MS-Papers-5921-083, 1980)
Begins in a dystopian city called the Total Society composed of humans, clones, and robots intended to produce an authoritarian but good society. The system breaks down and everyone who can flees the city. Outside there were already various groups. Near the city were youth gangs, expelled city dwellers, and malformed clones. Further out there was The Alternative, fortified intentional communities. New Age, healthy, no disease. The best of these is called Cosmos Commune and is a eutopia.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Australian author; German author; Male author

Daymare - [Sir] [Thomas Willes] [Chitty] [3rd Baronet] (1926-2014) (Macmillan, 1980)
Britain collapses and produces a dystopia, which the novel shows in its effect on a village.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Dreamers - James E[dwin] Gunn (1923-2020) (Simon & Schuster, 1980)
Flawed utopia which leaves people no challenges.
Rpt. as The Mind Master. New York: Timescape, 1981.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Feast of Saint Janis" - Michael [Jürgen] Swanwick (b. 1950) (New Dimensions, 1980)
Dystopia following a world-wide economic collapse following some sort of nuclear accident with the U.S. particularly hard hit and Africa relatively well off because it practiced corporate social responsibility. Genetic damage. Janis is Janis Joplin (1943-70) who is impersonated and, once a year, the impersonator is killed by the crowd.
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), 295-325; and in The Best of Michael Swanwick (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2008), 13-41.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Fourth Wall - N[ikolas] A[nthony] Diaman (b. 1936) (Persona Press, 1980)
A future U.S. as an authoritarian dystopia from a gay perspective. Knowledge is disappearing and most people are losing the ability to read. See also 1978 and 1997 Diaman.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"From Small Mutations" - Ian [Travis] MacMillan (1941-2008) (TriQuarterly, 1980)
Dystopia brought about by the disappearance of most plant life and the death of a significant part of the world's population. The population has been concentrated and most aspects of life are under governmental control. Violence and betrayal are common.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Future Lost” - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Omni, 1980)
Brief eutopia of a future that in eliminating aggression and ending war produced a society with completely free and open sexuality.
Rpt. in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley. Book Five (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 195-200.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Garden of Winter - Gordon [Stewart] Eklund (b. 1945) (Berkley Books, 1980)
After a war, a new philosophy/religion emerges that is ruled by citizens philosophers known as gentle men. Machines are outlawed. Women are subordinate and not educated. Has been read as an agrarian utopia, but within the text the society is presented as deeply flawed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Gardens of Delight - Ian Watson (b. 1943) (Victor Gollancz, 1980)
Eutopia and dystopia based on the Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1516) painting, The Gardens of Earthly Delights, which is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The novel has three sections similar to the triptych, the Gardens, which open and close the novel. Hell, and Eden.
U.S. ed. New York: Timescape, 1982.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Good News - Edward [Paul] Abbey (1927-89) (E. P. Dutton, 1980)
Dystopia. Post-catastrophe conflict between collapsed cities and the resurgent countryside.
An excerpt was published under the same title in TriQuarterly, no. 48 (Spring 1980): 273-95.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gordonstown; A New Design for America - Stuart Gordon (b. 1924) (Gordonstown Press, 1980)
Eutopia describing a technologically advanced village.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Happiness and Utopia - Dale Lee Harris (Privately published by the author to secure copyright, 1980)
Religious eutopia based on an acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity and Jesus Christ as one’s savior. Such acceptance will transform people and make them more cooperative and will lead to world-wide democracy, peace, and prosperity.
Rev. ed. as Jesus Christ's World Utopia. West Chicago, IL: Christian Freedom Press, 1983.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Homeworld - Harry [Max] Harrison (1925-2012) (Granada, 1980)
Flawed utopia in which the elite lead lives of comfort and privilege because the majority of the population lead lives of poverty and degradation. See also 1981 Harrison Starworld and Wheelworld.
Rpt. London: Severn House, 1986. U.S. ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1980.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Humanoid Touch - Jack [John Stewart] Williamson (1908-2006) (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1980)
Following from 1949 Williamson, the robots follow humans to a planet without robots and begin to take over.
An excerpt was published as “The Humanoid Universe.” Illus. Paul Lehr. Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact 100.6 (June1980): 14-56; and rpt. in The Worlds of Jack Williamson: A Centennial Tribute 1908-2008. Ed. Stephen Haffner (Royal Oak, MI: Haffner Press, 2008): 521-66.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“In Bed One Night” - Robert [Lowell] Coover (b. 1932) (Playboy, 1980)
Dystopia in which a man finds two strangers in his bed, who explain that they have been assigned to his bed to alleviate homelessness. It is clear that who is assigned and who people are assigned to depend on class and income.
Rpt. in his In Bed One Night and Other Brief Encounters (Providence, RI: Burning Deck, 1983), 14-18; and in his Going for a Beer: Selected Short Fictions (New York: W. W. Norton, 2018), 161-64.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"In looking-glass castle" - Gene [Rodman] Wolfe (1931-2019) (TriQuarterly, 1980)
A society in which women rule and all men are fugitives, which is generally seen as positive by women and negative by men.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Integrated Man - Michael [Steven] Berlyn (b. 1949) (Bantam Books, 1980)
Dystopia. People controlled by implanted computer chips. Revolt.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Island. A Male Chauvinist Comedy" - James Saunders (1925-2004) (Bye Bye Blues and Other Plays, 1980)
Satire. Men seemed to have died out and women reproduce without them. Three young sisters have been placed on an idyllic isolated island to live a new and better life. They long for something they can't identify, and then some men show up.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Last President - Michael [Joseph] Kurland (b. 1938); [Barton Stewart] [Whaley] (1918-2013) (William Morrow & Co, 1980)
The Watergate scandal following the break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic Party national headquarters in June 1972 turns the U.S. into an authoritarian dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Life" - Dennis R. Caro (b. 1944) (Microcosmic Tales: 100 Wondrous Science Fiction Short-Short Stories, 1980)
Brief story set in an overpopulated world.
Rpt. (New York: DAW Books, 1992), 204-06.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Lifekeeper - Mike [Michael Dennis] McQuay (1949-95) (Avon, 1980)
Dystopia of computer perfection and the problems that develop as the computer appears to start wars.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Logan's Search - William F[rancis] Nolan (1928-2021) (Bantam Books, 1980)
Sequel to 1967 Nolan and Johnson and 1977 Nolan. Mostly adventure but some on the eutopia from 1977 Nolan.
Rpt. in Logan: A Trilogy. Baltimore, MD: Maclay and Associates, 1986), 261-384. Rpt. with the same pagination New York: Dell, 1992.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"'Looking Backward' from 2030 (with apologies to Edward Bellamy)" - Jayne Burks; Melvin Rubenstein (Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 1980)
History of the period from the mid-twentieth century to 2030 with a focus on child-rearing and education, both of which change to take individual differences into account. Governmentally supported childcare facilities. Parents are encouraged to raise their children at home and are provided with financial support to do so after taking parenting courses.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

The Lost Philosophy of Love - [Roy Victor] [Wallace] (1927-1917) (Author, 1980)
Eutopia called Many Waters of about 2,000 people based on agriculture and light industry. Calls it a commune. Common meals. Has its own school. A lot of New Age healing. The second edition is illustrated. The author says that an alternative title could be The Way to Utopia.
Rev. ed. illus. Fold-out map. Brisbane, QLD: Love Publications, 1982. 61 pp.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

The Love Explosion - Robert H[enry] Rimmer (1917-2001) (New American Library, 1980)
Another of Rimmer's novels of the good life through sex. In this novel two couples have sexual and other revelations while on a vacation on Guadeloupe, which produces a temporary utopia, which is then incorporated into their lives. See also 1966, 1968, 1975, 1978, 1982, and 2000 Rimmer.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Mind Game - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Jove, 1980)
Authoritarian dystopia brought about through mental control.
Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1985.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Number of the Beast - Robert A[nson] Heinlein (1907-88) (Fawcett Columbine, 1980)
Something of a tour of an imaginary solar system in which the protagonists land in a number of societies drawn from fantasy and science fiction. His The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel About Parallel Universes. Rockville, MD: Caezik SF & Fantasy/Arc Manor, 2020, which was put together from his manuscript and handwritten notes, begins with the same protagonists but then takes them into a parallel universe.
Rpt. as vol. 25 of The Virginia Edition of his works. Houston, TX: The Virginia Edition, 2010. Extract published in Omni 2.1 - 2 (October - November 1979: 66-69, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126, 128, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138; 56-58, 60-64, 112, 114-18, 120, 122, 124-28.
Keywords: Male author; US author

One On Me - Tim[othy Wade] Huntley (b. 1939) (DAW Books, 1980)
Satirical flawed utopia. Having a child is in poor taste but one is born and raised by people who know nothing about children and their needs and did not want this one or for anyone to know of his existence. Raised in a floating habitat on food tabs and without much exercise, he ends up on Earth, discovers those imprisoned for opposing the new system, and begins to bring about change.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Operation Misfit - E[dgar] Hoffman [Trooper] Price (1898-1988) (Ballantine Books, 1980)
Dystopia emphasizing thought control in which the Thought Control Board tries to eliminate a maverick, who appears throughout the series. Much of the novel follows the maverick into space and is mostly adventure. Sequels include Operation Longlife. New York: Ballantine Books, 1982, in which a man who is 186 years old is targeted to obtain the secret of his longevity; Operation Exile. New York: Ballantine Books, 1986, in which the North American empire is under threat and the series protagonist is hired to protect the emperor’s wife with, again, much of the novel mostly adventure; and Operation Isis. New York: Ballantine Books, 1986, in which the man, after more adventures, retires to Mars.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Outside the Solar Village: One Utopian Farm” - Wes Jackson (b. 1936) (New Roots for Agriculture, 1980)
A eutopia set in 2030 when there has been a radical change in population distribution with large cities becoming much smaller with everyone thinking sustainably. The eutopia focuses on sustainable farming using the example of one farm in Kansas. The farming of the twentieth century had badly damaged the land, but by 2030 and new methods of settlement and farming, there had been substantial recovery.
Rev. in new ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985), 116-32.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Overworld - Michael Vyse (Faber and Faber, 1980)
Authoritarian dystopia with technology in conflict with a more natural life. Both are destroyed.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

The Paradise Plot - Ed Naha (b. 1950) (Bantam Books, 1980)
Flawed utopia. A space colony designed to be a eutopia with no pollution, controlled weather, sufficient space for population growth, no crime, and little illness turns out to be less than ideal.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Path We Tread" - Nick Zepke (b. 1940) (Pictures of the Future, 1980)
Eutopia or dystopia depending on your outlook. Two tier economy. Small enterprises for local markets with a few large exporters with monopolies for selected corporations. Stress on the market. Welfare cut and a growth in inequality. Privatization of education and local government. Retire at 45 but then work in small shops and family businesses. Revised constitution requires people to work, live in stable families, and participate in corporate and community affairs. The rights specified are free access to information, joining voluntary associations, and stand for office. Prisons closed. Young offenders are sent to the military, and older ones are sent to mental hospitals.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

"People Come First" - Nick Zepke (b. 1940) (Pictures of the Future, 1980)
Eutopia presented as a debate in the New Zealand legislature in 2004 over a proposed Social Justice Commission, which will oversee all social services. It is part of a Labour government plan to focus on small scale industries and limited growth and the rejection of multinational corporations. The last line of the Prime Minister's speech indicates that all legislation has to be approved by the people voting yes or no on home terminals.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

The Probability Broach - L[ester] Neil Smith [III] (1946-2021) (Ballantine Books, 1980)
The novel begins in a U. S. where the government is systematically limiting individual rights, but it then moves into an alternative history eutopia set in a libertarian North American Confederacy and is the first volume of a loosely connected series set in the Confederacy. A story set in the same future is his “The Spirit of Exmas Sideways” (1989). In publication order, the volumes, not all of which are utopian, the series includes The Venus Belt (1980); Their Majesties' Bucketeers. Illus. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981. 182 pp.; The Nagasaki Vector. New York: Ballantine Books, 1983. 242 pp., neither of which have much to do with the main themes in the series; Tom Paine Maru. New York: Ballantine. 273 pp. Rpt. rev. Rockville, MD: Phoenix Pick, 2009. 222 pp. [An author’s note says that the first edition was badly cut by the publisher and that this version reflects his original intent]; The Gallatin Divergence. New York: Ballantine, 1985. 223 pp.; Brightsuit MacBear. New York: Avon, 1988. 212 pp.; Taflak Lysandra. New York: Avon, 1988. 230 pp., in all three of which there are clashes between the Confederacy and the authoritarian Federalists; and The American Zone (2001) which is a sequel to The Probability Broach. In the chronology of the series, the volumes are The Probability Broach, The Nagasaki Vector, The American Zone, The Venus Belt, The Gallatin Divergence, Tom Paine Maru, Brightsuit MacBear, Taflak Lysandra, and Their Majesties' Bucketeers. The novel won the 1982 Prometheus Prize of the Libertarian Futurist Society.
Rev. ed. [the author’s website calls it the “unexpurgated” edition]. New York: Tor, 1996. 305 pp. Rpt. New York: Orb, 2001. 317 pp. See also Smith and Scott Bieser, illustrator. The Probability Broach: The Graphic Novel. Round Rock, TX: Big Head Press, 2004. 185 pp.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Rag, a Bone, and a Hank of Hair - [David] [Higginbottom] (1923-2016) (Kestrel, 1980)
Young adult flawed utopia. A future population bred to be peaceful cannot themselves have children and a breeding program using people stolen from the past is started.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Red Zone - Tom Browne (Topliner Tridents/Macmillan Children’s Books., 1980)
Young adult dystopia where a girl from the privileged classes meets a boy from the Red Zone, the least privileged in a highly structure society that was killing the poorest to control population.
Keywords: Male author

Riddley Walker - Russell [Conwell] Hoban (1925-2011) (Jonathan Cape, 1980)
Post-catastrophe dystopia describing the society that has developed in England, which is presented as a primitive but complex society. The novel is presented as written by a member of the society, Riddley Walker, and is in the language that is used by the society.
U.S. ed. with the subtitle A Novel. New York: Summit Books, 1980. Exp. ed. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998, with two illus., an “Afterword” (223-27), “Notes” (229-31), and a “Glossary” (233-35) by the author.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

Run, Come See Jerusalem - Richard C[arleton] Meredith (1937-79) (Ballantine Books, 1980)
Authoritarian religious dystopia and revolt in which a time traveler tries to prevent the birth of the founder of the dystopia.
U.K. ed. London: Hamlyn, 1985.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Russian Hide-and-Seek; A Melodrama - Kingsley [William] Amis (1922-95) (Hutchinson, 1980)
Dystopia of the U.K. overrun by the U.S.S.R.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Shadowman - Geo[rge] W. Proctor (1946-2008) (Fawcett Gold Medal, 1980)
Flawed utopia in which an emotionless society without crime or violence produces an assassin.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Songs from the Stars - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Simon & Schuster, 1980)
Ecological eutopia that develops initially as a conflict between those practicing the old science of physics and those who have rejected that science. By the end of the novel, the two groups are forced to work together.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Splendid Freedom - Arsen [Julius] Darnay (b. 1936) (Ace Books, 1980)
Three alternative future dystopias. They are "The Splendid Freedom" Galaxy Science Fiction 35.9 (September 1974): 6-33 (1-45) about an Earth that pretends to provide all the experiences unavailable on other planets, "The Eastcoast Confinement." Galaxy Science Fiction 35.10 (October 1974): 6-54 (47-132) about the New Puritan Secular Order in the U.S. that imprisons all dissidents, and "Plutonium" Galaxy Science Fiction 37.3 (March 1976): 5- 61 (133-244) about a religious cult worshipping atomic waste.
Keywords: Hungarian author; Male author; US author