The Last War - Martyn Godfrey (1949-2000) (Collier Macmillan, 1986)
Young adult dystopia set after a nuclear war.
US ed. Illus. Greg Ruhl. New York: Collier Books/Macmillan, 1989. 91. pp.
Keywords: Canadian author; English author; Male author

Lear - Mike Johnson (b. 1947) (Hard Echo Press, 1986)
Post-catastrophe dystopia in which a group of individuals travel around a devastated New Zealand performing Lear and taking on the roles they play. The author also wrote an environmental political novel aimed at Monsanto's herbicide Roundup--Lethal Dose. Onehunga, Auckland, New Zealand: Hard Echo Press, 1991.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Less Than Human - [Charles] [Platt] (b. 1945) (Avon Books, 1986)
Humor set in a future New York City dystopia. The main character is a flawed robot.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The Megastructures of Earth - J. Richard Williams (Millennium Publishers, 1986)
Technological eutopia focusing on the engineering of immense structures that allowed a massive increase of the human population and the technology that makes a good life in these structures possible. The author says that the technology described is currently available or in development.
Keywords: Male author

Milwaukee The Beautiful - [Bernard] [John] James (b. 1922) (Donald I. Fine, 1986)
Small is beautiful eutopia plus various dystopias.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Nature's End: The Consequences of the Twentieth Century - James [William] Kunetka (b. 1944); [Louis] Whitley Strieber (b. 1945) (Grafton Books, 1986)
Ecological dystopia of an overpopulated, polluted world set in 2025.
Keywords: Male author; US author

New Jerusalem - Len Jenkin (Sun & Moon Press, 1986)
Two dystopias. One is the future United States in which the story focuses on journalism that is all fiction of sex and violence. The second is an ex-penal colony called New Jerusalem that is to be evacuated. Violence, drugs, consumerism.
Keywords: Male author

"The News From D Street" - Andrew [Simon] Weiner (1949-2019) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1986)
Authoritarian dystopia in which people are unable to remember.
Rpt. in his Distant Signals and Other Stories (Victoria, BC, Canada: Porcépic Books, 1989), 9-38.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Nineteen Ninety-Four - William Osborne (b. 1960); Richard Turner (Arrow Books, 1986)
Satire on Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four complete with an appendix on Adspeak.
Keywords: Male author

"Not in Front of the Children" - George [Reginald] Turner (1916-97) (Aphelion (Adelaide, SA, Australia), 1986)
Dystopia. Generational conflict in a society with eight generations alive at the same time. Presents the radical separation between the generations of the extremely wealthy who could afford longevity treatments and between them and the majority who could not.
Rpt. in Matilda at the Speed of Light. Ed. Damien [Francis] Broderick (North Ryde, NSW, Australia: Angus & Robertson, 1988), 152-74; and in his A Pursuit of Miracles (North Adelaide, SA, Australia: Aphelion Publications, 1990), 37-60.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

"Orgy" - Gary Kern (Orgy & Other Things, 1986)
Dystopia of the Sovietization of the United States.
Keywords: Male author

"Our Town" - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (Omni 9.2, 1986)
Dystopia of class divisions.
Rpt. in his Remaking History (New York: Tor, 1991), 216-23; and in Lightspeed Magazine, no. 23 (April 2012).
Keywords: Male author; US author

O-Zone - Paul [Edward] Theroux (b. 1941) (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1986)
Complex dystopia set in the early 21st century. The O-Zone or Outer Zone is what used to be called the Ozarks and is an area that was contaminated with nuclear waste. The novel focuses on New York City and the idle rich, known as Owners, who inhabit it in contrast with the poor, who are the overwhelming majority and are kept in check by the Owners.
A limited first edition signed by the author, with a frontispiece by Douglas Smith, and a lengthy “A Special message for the first edition from Paul Theroux” for the members of The Signed First Edition Society. Franklin Center, PA: The Franklin Library, 1987.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Partnership - Graeme Doel (b. 1940) (Hexagon Press, 1986)
Detailed Christian eutopia following a nuclear war with specific plans on how to achieve it. The eutopia is based on a Christian commercial enterprise, specifically manufacturing. Pacifist.
Keywords: Male author

Perfect People - Robert [Howard] Lieberman (b. 1941) (Dell, 1986)
Flawed utopia presenting supposedly perfect people who aren't.
Keywords: Male author

Politicana - Julian Lloyd (Grosz & Lloyd Newsprint Novels, 1986)
Authoritarian dystopia set in an unnamed city which has fallen into poverty and violence. A dictator emerges, but as people work against him, apathy disappears, and political life re-emerges.
Keywords: Male author

"Prologue to Freedom" - A[lfred] E[lton] van Vogt (1912-2000) (Worlds of If, 1986)
Satire. California divided between a capitalist South and a communist North.
Rpt. in Lamps on the Brow. Ed. James Cahill (Aliso Viejo, CA: James Cahill Publishing, 1998), 169-200.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Rankin: Enemy of the State - John Osier (b. 1938) (St. Luke's Press, 1986)
Post-World War 3 U.S. authoritarian dystopia ruled by the Secret Police. The novel is about one man's struggle against the state.
Rpt. New York: Penguin, 1988.
Keywords: Male author

"Renaissance Man" - Lesley [Willis] Choyce (b. 1951) (Dream Auditor, 1986)
Authoritarian dystopia. A world in which people are regularly re-made physically and mentally to fill social needs and to correct perceived psychological or physical problems.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

The Settlement - Russell Haley (1934-2016) (Hodder and Stoughton, 1986)
Dystopia. New Zealand being taken over by its military. The novel focuses on an old man living in a hospital complex and observing the activities around him; thus, the developing dystopia is largely in the background except for times when it directly affects his life.
Part originally published as "The Middle of the Mere." Landfall, no. 155 (39.3) (September 1985): 269-88.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Australian author; English author; Male author

Shining Steel - Lawrence Watt-Evans (b. 1954) (Avon, 1986)
Religious planet known as Godsworld in conflict with traders from Earth.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Shut the Door When You Go Out" - George [Reginald] Turner (1916-97) (Aphelion (Adelaide, SA, Australia), 1986)
Development of the hypothesis that the earth is a living entity. All of humanity has become a part of the Nexus, which, together with the earth, acts as one being.
Rpt. in his A Pursuit of Miracles (North Adelaide, SA, Australia: Aphelion Publications, 1990), 85-91; in Glass Reptile Breakout and Other Australian Speculative Fiction. Ed. Van Ikin ([Perth, WA, Australia]: The Centre for the Study of Australian Literature, University of Western Australia, 1990), 139-43; and in Eidolon: The Journal of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy (Perth, WA, Australia), no. 25/26 (October 1997): 53-57.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

The Songs of Distant Earth - Arthur C[harles] Clarke (1917-2008) (Ballantine, 1986)
Includes a description of a eutopia of abundance.
The first version of what became the novel was published as “The Songs of Distant Earth.” If. Worlds of Science Fiction 8.4 (June 1958): 6-29. This was rpt. in Science Fantasy 12.35 (June 1959): 99-128; in his The Other Side of the Sky (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1958), 207-45; and in his From the Ocean, From the Stars (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962), 295-320. A second version was published as a short movie outline in Omni 12.3 (September 1981): 77-79, 132; and rpt. exp. with an introduction (291-93) in his The Sentinel: Masterworks of Science Fiction and Fantasy Illus. Lebbeus Woods (New York: Berkley Books, 1984), 295-99 and illus. on 294.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Star Country - Michael [Joseph] Cassutt (b. 1954) (Doubleday & Co, 1986)
Dystopia of a post-catastrophe America that has disintegrated into warring regions. Visiting aliens have supposedly brought a plan to rejuvenate Earth but one of the aliens flees with the plans. The rest of the novel is mostly set in the areas occupied by outlaws, well-protected communes, and other warring factions.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Staring at the Sun - Julian [Patrick] Barnes (b. 1946) (Jonathan Cape, 1986)
The novel traces the life of a woman from her childhood to old age (99), much of it in her own voice. The last section (139-97) is set in a future that has seen a revolt of old people demanding respect after a spate of Old People’s Suicides taking place outside the official voluntary euthanasia system. This is a very small part of the novel, with most of the third section reflections on death and religion through the eyes of her son, who is in conversation with the General Purpose Computer, then the supposedly more advanced, The Absolute Truth computer.
U.S. ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987. 197 pp.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Strangers on Paradise" - Damon [Francis] Knight (1922-2002) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1986)
Eutopia built upon the suffering of the previous inhabitants of a planet.
Rpt. in his One Side Laughing: Stories Unlike Other Stories (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991), 1-19.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Sweet Dreams, Sweet Princes - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83); [Alan] [Gould] (b. 1951) (Baen Books, 1986)
A Universal Disarmament Treaty has supposedly eliminated war by banning all weapons developed after 1900, but gladiatorial contests using pre-1900 weapons have become the means of settling disputes between both corporations and governments. But nuclear weapons still exist, and a situation arises in which they might be used, but in the end the three main power-blocs, the Western bloc, the Soviet bloc, and Common Europe agree to cooperate.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Symmes Hole - Ian Wedde (b. 1946) (Penguin Books, 1986)
A complex novel that weaves together the history of whaling and contemporary New Zealand among other threads. One of the threads is a near future dystopia of the Americanization of New Zealand.
U.K. ed. London: Faber and Faber, 1986.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Taronga - Victor [Michael Kitchener] Kelleher (b. 1939) (Viking Kestral, 1986)
Young adult post-catastrophe dystopia set in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The catastrophe, which is not described, has left people fighting to survive and turning to cannibalism. Taronga, which is the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sydney</st1:place></st1:city> zoo, looks like a food source to some but others protect the animals. At the end, after an epic battle, the animals are freed and move out into the countryside as do the central characters, a girl and a boy.
U.K. ed. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1988.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author; South African author

Texas On the Rocks - Daniel da Cruz [Jr.] (1921-1991) (Ballantine Books, 1986)
Dystopia. Soviet dominated world of 2008 as background. See also 1982 and 1987 da Cruz.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Time-Slip - Graham Dunston Martin (b. 1932) (Unwin Paperbacks, 1986)
Post-catastrophe religious dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Scottish author

To Stand Beneath the Sun - [William] Brad[ley] Strickland (b. 1947) (Signet, 1986)
Gender-role reversal dystopia on a planet with no technology. The women rule and are warriors, the men kept married to multiple women. A lone man from Earth rejects being part of such a system and brings about change.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Transect" - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1986)
The dystopia of apartheid.
Rpt. in his Remaking History (New York: Tor, 1991), 224-35; and in Future Earths: Under African Skies. Ed. Mike [Michael Diamond] Resnick and Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: DAW Books, 1993), 160-73.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Utopia II: An Investigation into the Kingdom of God - John Schmidt (Sun Books, 1986)
Detailed Christian eutopia centered on the Second Coming of Christ in 3000, who will rule until 4000. Ideal, efficient city and architecture. Gender equality. Technologically advanced. Reincarnation. Said to be “for practical idealists” (2).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Utopia of Fido T. Farnsworth" - Randy Maxson (The Geek Book: Cartoons and Stories, 1986)
Cartoon strip that begins in an authoritarian dystopia but moves to a cockaigne-like eutopia.
Keywords: Male author

Watchmen - Alan [Oswald] Moore (b. 1953); Dave [David Chester] Gibbons (b. 1949) (DC Comics, 1986)
Dystopia based around the actual events of the period but with superheroes being suppressed by the government but also used by the it. A film, Watchmen: The End Is Nigh, directed by Zach Snyder, was released in 2009. An HBO series  created by Damon Lindelof (b. 1973) was broadcast in nine episodes beginning October 20, 2019.
Rpt. in one vol. New York: DC Comics, 1987; and as Watchman. The Deluxe Edition. New York: DC Comics, 2013.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“The Whore of Babylon” - Leon [Léon] Zeldis (The Penguin World Omnibus of Science Fiction. An Anthology, 1986)
The story is set in an extremely authoritarian dystopia in Israel, with one of the first things learned in school is “I am free to obey, and I am happy to be free.” In the story his father takes him to the slums for his first visit to a prostitute, which has almost nothing to do with sex.
Keywords: Chilean author; Israeli author; Male author

Wickwyn: A Vision of the Future - Robert Van de Weyer (SPCK, 1986)
A religious eutopia based on revived village life. The book presents the history of England up to the 1980s and then projects a future in which, while technology made it possible to eliminate economic insecurity, automation put people out of work. This led to a movement to the countryside and the revitalization of village life.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Wrack & Roll - Bradley [Clayton] Denton (b. 1958) (Popular Library, 1986)
Alternate history dystopia in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in 1933 and the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. cooperate against China and the U.K. Fans of rock save the world.
U.K. ed. London: Headline, 1987.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Annimar: Recent Unearthed Artifacts from An Imaginary North American Pre-Columbian Culture Department of Art Gallery, West Georgia College March 31-April 17, 1985 - Bruce Bobick (West Georgia College, 1985)
Exhibit catalog describing an early “white-skinned”, peaceful, vegetarian culture.
Keywords: Male author

Baaa - David Macaulay (b. 1946) (Houghton Mifflin, 1985)
A picture book that describes the world after all humans have disappeared and sheep wander into town and gradually take on all the characteristics of humans with dystopian results.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

Beast: A Novel of the Future World Dictator - Dan Betzer (Prescott Press, 1985)
Apocalyptic novel with the Devil as dictator.
Keywords: Male author

Between the Strokes of Night - Charles [A.] Sheffield (1935-2002) (Baen, 1985)
In 2010 the human race on Earth has been killed off in nuclear war and survives only in small colonies in space, but these humans expand further into space. The second part of the novel is set in 27,698 and deals with the colonized planets, particularly Pentecost, which comes into contact with a race of space-faring immortals with a faster than light drive, and much of the novel is hard SF concerned with the technology.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

Black Star Rising - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Del Rey, 1985)
Begins with a dystopia in which China rules the United States.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Broad Sunlit Uplands" - Craig Harrison (b. 1942) (New Outlook (New Zealand), 1985)
Dystopia. Technological advances make it easier for the government to control people, but there is also a culture of violence that attracts people and requires a large police and private security presence.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; English author; Male author

Brother Jonathan - Crawford Kilian (b. 1941) (Ace Books, 1985)
Future divided between disenfranchised poor and powerful corporations.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

The Cat Who Walks Through Walls; A Comedy of Manners - Robert A[nson] Heinlein (1907-88) (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1985)
A number of societies on the moon, some of which were planned to be more free than Earth, that are succumbing to struggles for power presented from a libertarian perspective.
Rpt. as vol. 27 of The Virginia Edition of his works. Houston, TX: The Virginia Edition, 2010.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Centrifugal Rickshaw Dancer - William Jon Watkins (b. 1942) (Popular Library, 1985)
Authoritarian dystopia that provides pleasure for the elite.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Child of Fortune - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Bantam Books, 1985)
Describes a number of different eutopias as seen through the eyes of a young woman on her wanderjahr, her period of wandering the galaxy, at the end of which each person chooses their "freenom". The novel is set in the same time frame as his non-utopian The Void Captain's Tale. New York: Timescape, 1983.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Cybernetic Samurai - Victor [Woodward] Milán (1954-2018) (Arbor House, 1985)
Dystopia. The focus of the novel is the development of a sentient artificial intelligence in Japan. It is set against a background in which most countries have fallen apart and are at war. See also the non-utopian sequel, The Cybernetc Shōgun. New York: William Morrow, 1990.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Dad's Nuke - Marc Laidlaw (b. 1960) (Donald I. Fine, 1985)
Future armed U.S. suburbia.
U.K. ed. London: Victor Gollancz. Rpt. London: Grafton, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Darkling Wind - Somtow [Papinian] Sucharitkul (b. 1952) (Tiger Eyes Press, 1985)
Last volume of a series. This volume sees the defeat of the dystopia. See also 1982, 1983, and 1984 Sucharitkul.
Rpt. as The Darkling Wind: Chronicles of the High Inquest. New York: Bantam Books, 1985.
Keywords: Male author; Thai author; US author

Dayworld - Philip José Farmer (1918-2009) (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1985)
First volume of series set in the conditions of 1971 Farmer, “Sliced Crosswise Only-on-Tuesday World” in which individuals only live one day a week. This novel focuses on those who are capable of defeating the system and living seven different lives in a week. In Dayworld Rebel.  New York : Ace/Putnam, 1987 the protagonist of the first volume flees across the country with others who can live seven days a week. And in Dayworld Breakup. New York: Tor, 1990 it is revealed that the population has fallen and that the only reason for keeping people in suspended animation is so that those in power can stay in power. See also 2016 Farmer and Adams.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Diasporah - W[illiam] R[olla] Yates (b. 1950) (Baen, 1985)
Future dystopia of an Arab-Israeli conflict in space.
Keywords: Male author

Dinner at Deviant's Palace - Tim[othy Thomas] Powers (b. 1952) (Ace Books, 1985)
Dystopia a generation after a nuclear war focusing on a religious cult.
U.K. ed. London: Chatto & Windus, 1986.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Dogfight" - Michael [Jürgen] Swanwick (b. 1950); William [Ford] Gibson (b. 1948) (Omni, 1985)
Dystopia. Society divided into the employed and unemployed. Drugs. Cyber-based control of individuals.
Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Bluejay Books, 1986), 51-68 with an editor's note on 50; and in William [Ford] Gibson, Burning Chrome (London: Victor Gollancz, 1986), 150-75. Rpt. (London: Grafton, 1988), 167-94. U.S. ed. (New York: Arbor House, 1987), 150-75; in The Sixth Omni Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Ellen [Sue] Datlow (New York: Zebra Books, 1989), 85-115; and in The Ultimate Cyberpunk. Ed. Pat Cadigan (New York: ibooks, 2002), 249-75.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Dream Games - Karl Hansen (b. 1950) (Ace Books, 1985)
Future pleasure oriented dystopia controlled by computers and a rebellion that overthrows the system.
The section entitled "Dreams Unwind" (119-87) was originally published in Omni 7.8 (May 1985): 62-64, 66, 98, 100, 102, 105-06, 108, 112.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Duende Meadow - Paul [Harlin] Cook (b. 1950) (Bantam Books, 1985)
After centuries underground following a war, some humans emerge to find that the Soviet Union had conquered the United States but that a spiritual awakening was occurring that might lead to a better society.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Each Prisoner Pent" - Damon [Francis] Knight (1922-2002) (Stardate, 1985)
Satire on the costs of incarceration in which criminals are given minor punishments together with degrees of support depending on their crime because it is cheaper to provide a lavish life outside jail than to imprison people. Jails are turned over to artists, authors, and poets.
Rpt. in his One Side Laughing: Stories Unlike Other Stories (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991), 76-80.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Eclipse - John [Patrick] Shirley (b. 1954) (Bluejay, 1985)
Neo-fascist dystopia and the revolt against it. Sequels are Eclipse Penumbra. A Song Called Youth—Book Two. New York: Popular Library. Rev. ed. Northridge, CA: Babbage Press, 2000; and Eclipse Corona. A Song Called Youth--Book Three. New York: Popular Library, 1990. Rev. and updated ed. Northridge, CA: Babbage Press, 2000.
U.K. ed. London: Methuen, 1986. Rev. & updated ed. Northridge, CA: Babbage Press, 1999. Part published as "Freezone." in Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology. Ed. [Michael] Bruce Sterling (New York: Arbor House, 1986), 138-77; and in The Ultimate Cyberpunk. Ed. Pat Cadigan (New York: ibooks, 2002), 200-48.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Effect of Terminal Cancer on Potential Astronauts" - Kirkpatrick, David (Tesseracts, 1985)
Flawed utopia. A future eutopia maintained by dystopian conditioning. Cities have become radically decentralized and groups of houses connected to make small communities. James Joyce (1882-1941) is worshiped by some and is an honored icon for others. Terminal refers to a computer terminal and terminal cancer refers to those who spend all their time in front of their terminals.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Emprise: Book One of the Trigon Disunity - [Michael Paul] [McDowell] (b. 1954) (Berkley Books, 1985)
Dystopia. First volume of trilogy. In this volume wars over food and fuel have left the world as isolated farming communities with a hatred of the scientists who are blamed for the situation. But one scientist makes contact with aliens. In the sequels, humanity searches for other civilizations and has to deal with aliens who have destroyed other civilizations. See his Enigma: Book Two of the Trigon Disunity. New York: Berkley Books, 1986; and Empery: Book Three of the Trigon Disunity. New York: Berkley Books, 1987.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Faillandia - [Henry] Francis [Montgomery] Stuart (1902-2000) (Raven Arts Press, 1985)
Dystopia called Failland, which is Ireland. Faillandia is a magazine founded by the protagonist and his friends to fight the government and church. The novel follows the attempts of the government and the military to use the magazine for their own benefit.
Part originally published as “The Water Garden.” The Cork Review 1.3 (March-April 1980): 22-23; rpt. in Firebird 2: New Writing. Ed. T. J. Binding (Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin Books, 1983), 211-16. Rpt. in his States of Mind: Selected Short Prose 1936-1983 (Dublin: The Raven Arts Press/London: Martin Brien & O'Keeffe, 1984), 95-101.
Keywords: Irish author; Male author

Fiskadoro - Denis Johnson (b. 1949) (Alfred A. Knopf/Chatto & Windus, 1985)
Post-catastrophe dystopia set in Florida with surrealistic elements.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"From Energy Island" - G[arvin] R[obert] Gilbert (b. 1917) (Untold (Christchurch, New Zealand), 1985)
Dystopia. Extract from his unpublished 839 page novel, which describes a New Zealand degenerated into military rule surrounded by savagery; see 1988 Gilbert. See also 1986 and 1992 Gilbert, Acts of Terror and Delight.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

The Garbage Chronicles; Being an account of the adventures of Tom Javik and Wizzy Malloy in the faraway land of catapulted garbage - Brian [Patrick] Herbert (b. 1947) (Berkley Books, 1985)
Humor on the consumer society of the future. Sequel to his non-utopian Sydney’s Comet: Being an Account of the Remarkable Events Which Occurred During the Approach of the Great Garbage Comet. New York: Berkley Books, 1983.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Glass Hammer - K[evin] W[ayne] Jeter (b. 1950) (Bluejay Books, 1985)
A dystopia set in a violent future.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Golden Age - Louis Nowra (b. 1950) (Currency Press in association with Playbox Theatre Company, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 1985)
A play, based on an apparently true story, about the discovery in 1939 of a lost community founded by convicts in Tasmania. The community had been established to create a good life for its original inhabitants. It has degenerated over time due, among other things, to interbreeding, but there is still a system of mutual support. The speech of the descendants of the convicts is based on 1840s lower class language and slang and a glossary is provided.
Rpt. in Australia Plays: New Australian Drama (London: Nick Hern Books, 1989), 89-178. 2nd ed. of the play Sydney, NSW, Australia: Currency Press, 1989. U.S. [Rev. ed.] Woodstock, IL: Dramatic Publishing Co., 1988.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

"The Government in Exile" - Paul [A.] Collins (b. 1954) (Urban Fantasies, 1985)
Dystopia of violence and class division. A completely collapsed system in which everyone has quit trying, and the unemployed are killed for sport and food.
Rpt. in his The Government in Exile and other stories (Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Sumeria, 1994), 25-36; and in The Best Australian Science Fiction Writing: A Fifty Year Collection. Ed. Rob Gerrand (Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Black Inc., 2004), 326-34.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Australian author; English author; Male author

"Green Days in Brunei" - [Michael] Bruce Sterling (b. 1954) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1985)
A dystopian future where Brunei has run out of oil.
Rpt. Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Bluejay Books, 1986), 85-128 with an editor's note on 84; in his in Crystal Express (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1989), 107-54; rpt. (New York: Ace Books, 1990), 113-64; and in The Ultimate Cyberpunk. Ed. Pat Cadigan (New York: ibooks, 2002), 276-340.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Incorporated" - John [Patrick] Shirley (b. 1954) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1985)
Corporate dystopia.
Rpt. in Future Crime: An Anthology of the Shape of Crime to Come. Ed. Cynthia Manson and Charles Ardai (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1992), 11-26; and in his The Exploded Heart (Asheville, NC: Eyeball Books, 1996), 155-76, with an author's note on 155.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Inside Babel - [Andrew James] Wilson (1948-2013) (Chatto & Windus. The Hogarth Press, 1985)
Sequel to 1984 Wilson with the emphasis on the humor and various failed projects to control people and technology.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Knight Moves - Walter Jon Williams (b. 1953) (Tor, 1985)
Eutopia becomes boring.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Kool Running" - Paul [A.] Collins (b. 1954) (Omega Science Digest (Sydney, NSW, Australia), 1985)
Revolt against a world dominated by computers. See the note at 1980 Collins.
Rpt. in SF International (also called International Science Fiction) (Los Angeles, CA), no. 1 (January 1987): 47-54; and in his The Government in Exile and other stories (Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Sumeria, 1994), 39-48.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Australian author; English author; Male author

A Maggot - John [Robert] Fowles (1926-2005) (Jonathan Cape, 1985)
Mostly a fictional background of the parentage of Ann Lee (1736-84) of the Shakers but includes a short description of heaven as a eutopia.
U.S. ed. Boston, MA: Little, Brown. Rpt. New York: New American Library, 1986.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Masters of the Board. A Novel - Christopher Abani (b. 1966) (Delta of Nigeria, 1985)
Dystopia. Neo-Nazis take over Nigeria to use as a base to re-establish the Third Reich.
Keywords: Male author; Nigerian author; US author

Motherstone - Maurice [Gough] Gee (b. 1931) (Oxford University Press, 1985)
Third volume of a trilogy. In this volume the girl from Earth is kidnapped as she tries to leave O. On O evil has defeated good in the humans, and they can only be freed from it by starting over with no knowledge. This is achieved, and the girl is finally able to leave. The other inhabitants of O will help the humans. Sequel to 1982 and 1984 Gee.
Rpt. Auckland, New Zealand: Puffin Books, 1988.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

The New World: An Epic Poem - Frederick Turner (b. 1943) (Princeton University Press, 1985)
Post-catastrophe eutopia/dystopia set 400 years in the future in which both fossil and nuclear fuels have been exhausted, many people have been killed in pogroms aimed at the middle class and others have left Earth altogether. The U.S. has divided into old cities that dominate the remaining suburbs, whose inhabitants are slaves, fundamentalist religious areas, and the Free Counties, which are under attack.
An excerpt was published in Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias. Ed. Kim Stanley Robinson (New York: Tor, 1994), 215-28.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

"News from Nowhere, 1984" - B[urrhus] F[rederick] Skinner (1904-90) (The Behavior Analyst, 1985)
Addition to his 1948 Walden Two in which George Orwell joins the community, and most of the story is in the form of conversations between Frazier, the main character in Walden Two, and Orwell.
Rpt. in his Upon Further Reflection (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1987), 33-50.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Night of Power - Spider Robinson (b. 1948) (Baen, 1985)
Dystopia of a race war in New York City.
Rpt. New York: Berkley Books, 1986.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Nowhere - Thomas [Louis] Berger (1924-2014) (Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, 1985)
Satire using the trope of a spy novel set in Sebastian, a dysfunctional country between Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany that has spawned the terrorist group the Sebastiani Liberation Front.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"O Happy Day!" - Geoff[rey Charles] Ryman (b. 1951) (Interzone. The First Anthology: New Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing, 1985)
Dystopia very similar to the concentration camps in Germany under National Socialism. Heterosexual men are in the camp and systematically killed. Gay men run the camp under the direction of women who give electronically.
U.S. ed. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985), 1-35. Rpt. in his Unconquered Countries: Four Novellas (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994), 153-90. U.K. ed. (London: HarperCollins, 1999), 153-90; and in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 69-95; 2nd ed. ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 69-95; and in Queers Destroy Science Fiction. Ed. Seanan McGuire. Lightspeed, no. 61 (June 2015): 228-57. Not in his The Unconquered Country: A Life History. London: Allen & Unwin, 1986.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; UK author; US author

"Outlines for Urban Fantasies" - Michael Wilding (b. 1942) (Urban Fantasies, 1985)
Surrealistic dystopia presented in a series of vignettes about a future of fear and violence.
Keywords: Australian author; English author; Male author

"The Place of Circular Enigmas" - Clive Poole (The Best of South African Science Fiction, 1985)
A dystopia that pits a rural Nazi group awaiting the Second Coming of Hitler against native traditions.
Keywords: Male author; South African author

"On the Planet Grafool" - Benjamin Freedman (Tesseracts, 1985)
Satire. The people of Grafool lead happy lives based on a naïve certainty regarding their odd social customs, which are spelled out in short paragraphs.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

The Postman - [Glen] David Brin (b. 1950) (Bantam Books, 1985)
Post-catastrophe dystopia in which a man assumes the role of a postman and, in that role, helps to knit together the communities that are struggling to survive.
Rpt. illus. Kent Bash and with an “Introduction” by James Gunn [Rpt. in Gunn, Paratexts: Introductions to Science Fiction and Fantasy (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2013), 76-78]. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1993. Parts originally published in different form in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine as “The Postman” 6.11 (58) (November 1982): 120-69; rpt. in Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse. Ed. John Joseph Adams (London: Titan Books, 2015), 236-305 and “Cyclops” 8.3 (76) (March 1984): 112-67.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Preserver - M[ichael] A[nthony] Foster (b. 1939) (DAW Books, 1985)
Third volume of the Morphodite trilogy that includes 1981 The Morphodite and 1983 Transformer. In this volume the Morphodite, again a man, wins.
Rpt. in his The Transformer Trilogy (New York: DAW Books, 2006), 461-618.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Privateers - Ben[jamin William] Bova (1932-2020) (Tor, 1985)
Begins with a mild dystopia of Soviet domination of the world through domination of space. The emphasis is on the struggle for freedom which, of course, succeeds. Empire Builders. New York: Tor, 1993 is a sequel.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Radio Free Albemuth - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Arbor House, 1985)
Dystopia in which anti-Communists rule the U.S.
Rpt. New York: Avon, 1987.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Red Hills of Home - Chenjerai Hove (1956-2015) (Mambo Press, 1985)
Poems that collectively present contemporary Zimbabwe as a dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; Zimbabwean author

Road Lines - Chris Ould (b. 1959?) (André Deutsch, 1985)
Future dystopia of violence. The urban poor are locked up in "containment zones."
Rpt. London: Grafton, 1987.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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