"Two Left Feet" - Eric Palicki (All We Ever Wanted: Stories of a Better World, 2018)
A positive future story in comic form in which the military has created cassettes that allows a person to have a particular skill.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Una" - Peterson, Christopher (All We Ever Wanted: Stories of a Better World, 2018)
A positive future story in comic form in which an alien visiting Earth behaves as people know they should, and so they come to do so.
Keywords: Male author

"Under the Grid" - Andrew Dana Hudson (The Weight of Light: A Collection of Solar Futures, 2018)
The story is set in a future Detroit where an extensive solar grid has been built over the city and the surrounding area to provide power and focuses on conflicts over personal space. The story is followed by the essays, Lauren Withycombe Keeler, “All Politics is Glocal;” and Darshan M. W Karwat, “Behind the Grid: Science, Technology, and the Creation of PhoTown.”
Keywords: Male author; US author

Vigilance - Robert Jackson Bennett (Tom Doherty Associates, 2018)
A dystopia in which a reality game show creating active shooter situations is then used to control the population but becomes unmanageable.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"WAlls" - Paul Witcover (b. 1958) (Welcome to Dystopia: Forty-five Visions of What Lies Ahead, 2018)
The dystopia brought about by the Trump administrations immigration policy.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Warm Storage” - Michael H. Hanson (Strange Economics: Economic Speculative Fiction, 2018)
Dystopia in which, in order to deal with overpopulation, everyone over sixty, the infirm, criminals, and, finally, the unemployed are stored for future use, fed minimally, and rendered unaware of their condition.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“We All Have Hearts of Gold®” - Vladimirsky, Leo (Welcome to Dystopia: Forty-five Visions of What Lies Ahead, 2018)
Dystopia in which Trump establishes a Republican security force to ensure his reelection.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Weight of Time” - Jarrett Melendez (All We Ever Wanted: Stories of a Better World, 2018)
A positive future story in comic form in which a gay scientist proposes to go back in time to erase all the anti-gay religious texts but is convinced that he would also erase all the positive experiences that gays would have had.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Welcome to Triumph Band” - Yoon Ha Lee (b. 1979) (Welcome to Dystopia: Forty-five Visions of What Lies Ahead, 2018)
A brief dystopia of the near future of the United States under the policies of the Trump administration.
Keywords: Male author; US author

When the River Ran Dry - William Davies (BHC Press/Indigo, 2018)
Set in 2180 after the collapse of civilization and the development of city states that followed, the novel reveals the dystopian aspects of the future through adventure and a murder mystery.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Whitopia” - Greg Johnson (Counter-Currents Publishing, 2018)
The post asks the question “Is White Nationalism Utopian?” from the point-of-view of a white nationalist. While the answer is “no” because “ethnostates” have existed in the past and, to a degree, still do, the author then describes an ideal one.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“A World to Die for” - Tobias S[amuel] Buckell (b. 1979) (Clarkesworld, 2018)
The story begins in a violent dystopia that is the result of climate change and then moves into alternative futures, in some of which the past inhabitants have protected their environments.
Rpt. in A Year Without Winter. Illus. Ed. Dehlia Hannah, ed. with Brenda Cooper, Joey Eschrich, and Cynthia Selin, Fiction eds. (New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2018), 143-70. PU
Keywords: British Virgin Islands author; Grenadian author; Male author; US author; US Virgin Islands author

“You Could Order Wholesale” - Declan Keen (My Utopia: A Collection of Creative Writing, 2018)
The story takes place in a climate-change dystopia where there the destruction of the environment continues while some people are trying to stop the damage.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

2020 - Kenneth Steven (Saraband, 2017)
A near-future dystopia set in a future England where the right-wing, anti-immigration movement becomes extremely violent, with those targeted fighting back, and the government unable to cope with the problem.
U.S. ed. as 2020: A Novel. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2018
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

2023: A Trilogy - Bill [William Ernest] Drummond (b. 1953); Jimmy [James Francis] Cauty (b. 1956) (Faber & Faber, 2017)
Dystopia than builds on and uses themes from to The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, particularly its libertarianism, and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, with some of the text written as if from 1984.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Scottish author

2084 - Mason Engel ([CreateSpace], 2017)
Dystopia in which everyone is required to wear lenses through which they are fed a false version of the world.
There is also a 76 pp. Short Story Version available on Kindle
Keywords: Male author; US author

“2084 Satoshi AD” - Lavie Tidhar (b. 1976) (2084, 2017)
Dystopia set in a world divided between those who have established a brand for themselves and the no-brand. The key to power is the blockchain.
Keywords: English author; Israeli author; Male author

“51-49” - Glen Cadigan (49th Parallels, 2017)
The story is set in a climate-change future where Newfoundland is an island and independent of Canada but poor and negotiating between the Canada and the USA for support.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

“Adiona Falters” - William Delman (Little Blue Marble, 2017)
Climate-change dystopia
Rpt. in Little Blue Marble 2017: Stories of Our Changing Climate. Ed. Katrina Archer. Np: Ganache Media. EBook.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"After" - John Oughton (Cli-fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change, 2017)
The story is set in Canada after the collapse of civilization where one group is creating a decent life in the woods while threaten by end times Christian groups that want to eliminate all non-believers.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

All Our Wrong Todays. A Novel - Elan Mastai (b. 1945) (Dutton, 2017)
The high tech eutopia imagined by people in the 1950s contrasted with the dystopia that is the current reality.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

All Rights Reserved - Gregory Scott Katsoulis (Harlequin Teen, 2017)
Young adult dystopia in which all words and gestures are parented or trademarked, and at age fifteen they must be paid for. The novel focuses on one girl who choose to remain completely silent and sets off a rebellion. First volume in a series followed by Access Restricted. Toronto, ON, Can: Harlequin Teen, 2018. In this novel, the protagonist leaves her city to try to find her parents who are being held as indentured servants, really slaves for life. She succeeds, and the ending suggests a further volume.
Keywords: Male author; US author

All the Galaxies - Philip Miller (b. 1973) (Freight books, 2017)
After a second failed independence referendum, Scotland has broken up into autonomous states, and a father searches for his son who disappeared after a protest. In parallel, a boy awakens in space in the afterlife where he searches for his dead mother.
Rpt. Crows Nest, NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2017.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Scottish author

“America Once Beautiful” - Brad Cozzens (More Alternative Truths: Stories From the Resistance, 2017)
Poem that describes America as a dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The American” - G[areth] Gray (b. 1972) (Trump: Utopia or Dystopia, 2017)
Dystopia in which all non-whites are incarcerated.
Keywords: Male author; Northern Ireland author

American City - Chris Beckett (b. 1955) (Corvus, 2017)
A climate-change dystopia focusing on the internal refugee crisis in the United States.
Keywords: English author; Male author

American War - Omar El Akkad (b. 1982) (Alfred A. Knopf, 2017)
The Second Civil War from 2074-2095 was followed by a decade-long pandemic/plague that, together, tore the U.S. apart. Southern states had seceded primarily because they objected to an act that outlawed the use of fossil fuels. The story is about a young girl born in a border area who is then forced into a northern refugee camp, with obvious parallels to today’s refugee camps, and is radicalized there.
Keywords: Canadian author; Egyptian author; Male author; Qatari author; US author

Asylum - Marcus Low (Picador Africa, 2017)
The novel is set in South Africa, which is experiencing a rapidly spreading disease with a collapsing healthcare system and is primarily set in an asylum where those with the disease are incarcerated. The background to the novel includes climate change that has led to starvation in the United States.
U.K. ed. London: Legend Books, [2019]. The first version was as “Asylum Story.” MA thesis (Creative Writing). Cape Town, 2009 https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/8237
Keywords: Male author; South African author

“Avoiding Eye Contact on Mainstreet, USA” - Jacob Guyon (Trump: Utopia or Dystopia, 2017)
The dystopia created by Trump’s policies. The rich are richer and the poor poorer, and anyone with any sort of job feels they are lucky. Degraded environment. American citizens of Hispanic ancestry however far back can be deported with small children adopted by the rich. Any dissent punished.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Azotus the Kingdom - Shadreck Chikoti (b. 1979) (Malawi Writers Union, 2017)
In the novel, set in 2559, everyone lives alone in a separate house catered to by technology and with no human contact. One Occupant, as they are known, ventures outside, discovers what he is missing and struggles to escape.
An excerpt, “The Occupant, was published in Africa 39: New Writing from Africa South of the Sahara. Ed. Ellah Wakatama-Allfrey (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014), 76-83.
Keywords: Malawian author; Male author

"A Beautiful Industry" - Stuart Hardy (More Alternative Truths: Stories From the Resistance, 2017)
A dystopian future in which even the robots are having trouble finding work and making ends meet.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

“blinders” - Tyler Keevil (The Sum of Us: Tales of the Bonded and Bound, 2017)
The background of the story is a corporate dystopia trying to defeat a union.
Rpt. in Best of British Science Fiction 2017. Ed. Donna Scott ([Weston, Eng.]: NewCon Press, 2018), 9-32.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; Welsh author

"Bluebird" - Benjamin Cort (Metamorphosis, 2017)
The story is set in a future in which the City is taking over the United States, destroying all buildings outside the City using a huge metallic bird. People are trying to escape to areas rumored to still be safe. The protagonist is the caretaker of the bird.
Rpt. in Best Vegan Science Fiction & Fantasy 2017. Ed. B. Morris Allen (Np: Metamorphosis Books, 2018), 9-25.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Boston Hearth Project” - T. X. Watson (Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, 2017)
The story is set in a climate-change dystopia in which the homeless in Boston are dieing from the conditions, with the story focused on activists taking over a building specially built for the rich and repurposed for the homeless.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Bring Your Own Spoon” - Saad Z. Hossain (b. 1979) (The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories, 2017)
The story is set in a future, severely polluted Dhaka, Bangladesh that also no longer has a middle class, just the very rich and the extremely poor. The protagonist and a djinn decide to establish a restaurant to serve their poor neighbors.
Rpt. in The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction Volume 2. With a Graphic Preface and Afterword by Manjula Padmanabhan. Ed. Tarun K. Saint (Gurugram, India: Hachette India, 2021), 436-447.
Keywords: Bangladeshi author; Male author

“Brother’s Keeper” - Danny Gardner (The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir, 2017)
The dystopia that has resulted by the time of the third Trump administration with little health care, all public services paid for individually as needed, with only the wealthy, for example, able to afford any emergency call at night. Many people escape into virtual reality.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Calexit 1: Secession - Ira Tabankin (b. 1949) (Amazon, 2017)
After the 2016 election, California votes to secede and form The People’s Republic of California. First of three volumes followed by Calexit 2: Politics as Normal. Np: Np, 2017 -[First published on Kindle], in which China recognizes the new country, and, as the title suggests, politicians work enhance their own power; and Calexit 3: If At First You Don’t Succeed. Np: np. 2018 [First published on Kindle], which continues the story. See also, 2017 Curtis, J. L., ed. Calexit: The Anthology. There is an actual Calexit movement with different versions of what a separate California would look like and various positions of the opponents.
First published on  KIndle.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Calexit: The Anthology - J. L. Curtis; Bob Poole; Cedar Sanderson; Tom Rogneby; Alma [T. C.] Boykin; B. Opperman; L. B. Johnson; Eaton Rapids Joe; Lawdog [pseud.]; Kimball O'Hara (JLC&A, 2017)
A collection of stories set in a dystopian future in which part of California, called Cali, secedes from the country in order to establish a socialist state committed to diversity. Northern California and southern Oregon forms a new territory called Jefferson that may become a new state. The stories are “A Matter of Honor” by J. L. Curtis in which the U. S. Navy leaves San Diego and blows up its base as it does with the story continued in his ebook novella The Morning the Earth Shook. 69 pp. (2017). “Last Plane Out” by Bob Poole centers on the last plane to leave Los Angeles airport. “Carpetbaggers” by Cedar Sanderson focuses on carpetbaggers in Jefferson. “Night Passage” by Tom Rogneby begins in Cali, where all people are chipped, and continues with the escape of a couple. “Roll, Colorado, Roll!” by Alma [T. C.] Boykin in which The Colorado River is released into its original channel, cutting off water to Cali. “Final Flight” by B. Opperman is a story of escape from Cali. “Freedom’s Ride” by L. B. Johnson is a story of escape from Cali. “The Farm” by Eaton Rapids Joe describes the authoritarian liberalism of Cali and the damage it does. “By Hook and Crook” by Lawdog [pseud.] is an escape story. In “Fifth Column” by Kimball O’Hara the U. S. Navy returns. A graphic novel covering some of the same themes is Matteo Pizzolo, CALEXIT. Illus. Amancay Nahuelpan. Colorist Tyler Boss. Flatter Dee Cunniffe. Letterer Jim Campbell. Map designer Richard Nisa. Flag Designer Robert Anthony, Jr. Los Angeles, CA: Black Mask Studios, 2018. Originally published as CALEXit 1-3. There is an actual Calexit movement with different versions of what a separate California would look like and various positions of the opponents.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; Maltese author; US author

California 2020 - Zachary Roberts (Liver Shot Press, 2017)
The novel begins with a tsunami about to hit southern California. The rest of the novel follows the protagonist’s struggle to find a meaningful life in the dystopia created by the disaster. The ending suggests a sequel.
Keywords: Male author; US author

City of Virtues - Michael Ladner ([CreateSpace], 2017)
A future in which, in the City of Virtues people have given up their freedoms as well as their sexual identities for security, while surrounding the city the people are free, sexual and have less security.
Keywords: Male author

“The City We Built in Life” - Thomas Broderick (Little Blue Marble, 2017)
The story is set in a climate change future in which travel is restricted and follow a family allowed to visit reproductions in the Arizona desert of the Seven Wonders of the World and monuments from Washington, DC, which is under water, all of which have been built of synthetic carbonized basalt that traps atmospheric carbon. They also visit the city/monument called the Silent City, which is composed of such blocks, each representing some who died due to climate change.
Originally published as “A Monument to Our Greatest Sin.” Scout (2017) [Not Found].  Rpt. without the illus. in Little Blue Marble 2019: Climate in Crisis. Ed. Katrina Archer (Vancouver, BC, Canada: Ganache Media Books, 2020), 44-63.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Cityborn - Edward Willett (b. 1959) (DAW Books, 2017)
Dystopia set in a hierarchical city with the poor at the bottom and the rich and powerful at the top.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

"A Clockwork Barista” - Kevin Cockle (On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic, 2017)
Dystopia of a future where changes in a person’s status is automatically sent out of social media. In the story, the man loses his job, and all his accounts and creditors are informed, and he has only a short time to find another job.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

“Confessions of a Con Girl” - Nick [Nicholas] Wolven (Asimov’s Science Fiction, 2017)
The story is set in an inline world where one’s position in life depends largely on the votes of others.
Rpt. in Clarkesworld, no. 151 (April 2019). http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/wolven_04_19_reprint/; and in The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume Twelve. Ed. Jonathan Strahan (Oxford, Eng.: Solaris, 2018), 309-27.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Contact High - Joseph Eckert; James F. Wright (F.I.M.C (Forget It, Make Comics), 2017)
In the future human contact has become a drug and outlawed with everyone required to wear a protective suit or be arrested and rehabilitated. Queer and interracial themes.
Keywords: African American author; Male author; US author

Crazy House - James [Brendan] Patterson (b. 1947); Gabrielle Charbonnet (b. 1961) (Little Brown/Jimmy Patterson, 2017)
Young adult dystopia in which young girls are imprisoned, supposedly to test them to help overthrow an authoritarian system that divides people and controls information. . A sequel is The Fall of Crazy House. New York: Little Brown/Jimmy Patterson, 2019 in which the protagonists of the first novel fight the government and win.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

“Day 3658” - Dylan Siegler (Biketopia: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction in Extreme Futures, 2017)
Dystopia in which what appears to be a successful community after most plants and animals have died breed children for meat.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Day the Earth Turned Day-Glo” - Rick Shingler (American Carnage: Tales of Trumpian Dystopia, 2017)
Dystopia in which a colony is established on the moon and then simply abandoned leaving the people there to die while pretending that they had been brought back. This is followed by the launch of an immense satellite with moveable panels that can block the sun’s rays from reaching Earth, or, for an extortionate price, allow the sun’s rays to reach some part of the Earth.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Decelerate Blue - Adam Rapp (b. 1968); Mike Cavallaro (Roaring Brook Press, 2017)
A graphic novel dystopia in which everyone believes in speed and efficiency. The novel follows one young girl who doesn’t fit in and who discovers that there are others who believe that slower is better.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Desert, Blooming” - Lev Mirov (Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, 2017)
Dystopia set on a planet, which may be Earth, that is toxic, with people living in domes. Some are learning to terraform the planet by planting trees and others are searching abandoned cities for any seeds or other things that might help.
Keywords: Filipino-American author; Male author

"Desperate Resolve" - John A. Pitts (More Alternative Truths: Stories From the Resistance, 2017)
The story is set in West Virginia, which has been destroyed by current policies on the environment.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Destination - Jack [Anthony] Skillingstead (b. 1955) (Asimov's Science Fiction, 2017)
Dystopia in which the U.S. is divided physically been the powerful and those without power with the latter fighting back by taking control of the web.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Detour in Space" - Emad El-Din Marei Aysha (Reconnecting Arts, 2017)
A brief dystopia in which Mars has been settled by countries from the middle east, bring with them all the same issues as on Earth. For an interview with the author that discusses the origins of the story, see https://the-levant.com/egyptian-science-fiction-criticises-arabs/
Keywords: Egyptian author; Male author; Palestinian author; UK author

“Diaspora Electronica” - Blaize [M.] Kaye (Migrations: New Short Fiction from Africa, 2017)
The story is set in a future in which an Institute for the Future of Humanity is established as a solution to “exponential population growth” (59). It uploads people into a computer in exchange for all their worldly goods. The protagonist is a man who wants to be uploaded to join his wife but because has one of the flaws the system cannot handle, he is regularly turned down.
Keywords: Male author; South African author

“The Disconnected” - Ramez Naam (Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World, 2017)
The flawed utopia of the completely connected world and, very briefly, choosing to disconnect.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine” - Greg[ory Mark] Egan (b. 1961) (Asimov’s Science Fiction, 2017)
Dystopia in which all jobs are being replaced by automation as seen through the eyes of one family.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

"Drafting the President" - Lou J Berger (More Alternative Truths: Stories From the Resistance, 2017)
After the impeachment and arrest of President Trump, the procedure for electing the President of the United States is completely changed. Five candidates are vetted and put through a series of complex tests to ensure their ability to handle the issues, and the most successful becomes the only candidate.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Easy" - Liam Hogan (Little Blue Marble, 2017)
A successful environmental movement is undermined and defeated by corporate opposition.
Rpt. without the illus. Little Blue Marble 2017: Stories of Our Changing Climate. Ed. Katrina Archer. Np: Ganache Media. EBook.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Eating the Moon - Mark David Campbell (DSP Publications, 2017)
A complex novel that includes a period in a gay male flawed utopia.
Keywords: Italian author; Male author

"Elderjoy" - Gregory [Albert] Benford (b. 1941) (Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World, 2017)
Humorous dystopia in which governmental implants register unhealthy activities and tax them. In the story, the “unhealthy” activity is sex over a certain age.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Eminence" - Karl Schroeder (b. 1962) (Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World, 2017)
The story is set in a future Vancouver that has been returned to First Nation peoples, who are technologically advanced but tension remaining with Canadian authorities and can be seen as an emerging eutopia with problems. Much of the focus is on a new currency that, by being given away, gains “eminence” for the giver, which, in the society, is more important than the money.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume Twelve. Ed. Jonathan Strahan (Oxford, Eng.: Solaris, 2018), 113-30.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

“Eyejacked” - David Walton (b. 1975) (Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World, 2017)
The story is set in a future in which an implant in the eye can be used to connect tom others and create followers, which produces income. Within the story a husband and wife disagree over the effect on their family is positive or negative.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Festival of the Cull” - Steve Carr (Dystopia Utopia Short Stories: An Anthology of New & Classic Tales, 2017)
Dystopia of a society where each year everyone must choose a person to be culled, and those getting the most votes will be killed. The system can be rigged. Resonates with Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (1948).
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Fifteen Minutes: Turn On, Tune In, Log Off” - Alex Shvartsman (b. 1975) (Nature, 2017)
Dystopia in which AIs have taken over from humans, who had been destroying the planet and killing each other. The AIs keep the humans just barely alive.
Keywords: Male author; Ukrainian author; US author

“‘Fifth Avenue’: Trump keeps his campaign promises” - Ben[jamin Allen] H. Winters (b. 1976) (Slate Magazine as part of its Trump Story Project. https://slate.com/tag/trump-story-project, 2017)
The story is told from the point-of-view of a reporter convicted of treason for revealing that the Trump administration had arranged with Russia to have another U.S. reporter poisoned.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Fly Away, Peter" - Ian Hocking (b. 1976) (2084, 2017)
Dystopia in which Germany has become isolated from the rest of Europe and rejects all outsiders.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“Flying Under the Texas Radar with Paco and Los Freetails” - Ernest Hogan (b. 1955) (Latin@ Rising: An Anthology of Latin@ Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2017)
The story is told from a settlement on Mars, and is about what happens when, under the U.S. second amendment, a rich Texan gets nuclear weapons and declares Texas free, at least for conservative, white, heterosexuals. Paco first appeared in the author’s Cortez on Jupiter. New York: Tor, 1990.
Keywords: Chicano author; Male author

Freefall - Joshua David Bellin (b. 1965) (Margaret K. McElderry, 2017)
Young adult dystopia that begins in 2151 where the 1% rule and the 99% live horrible lives seen through the eyes of a young man from the 1% who falls for a girl from the 99%. From there, the novel shifts, after some humans are sent into space, to a struggle for survival on a different planet in 3151 with the same protagonist.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Frozen" - Liam Hogan (Alternative Truths, 2017)
In the future each election determines who will be frozen until the next election. This, while apparently eutopian, eliminates unemployment and helps the environment to recover.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“Glitterati” - Oliver Langmead (2084, 2017)
Dystopia of a future divided between those devoted to fashion and those who are not.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

Gnomon - [Nicholas] [Cornwall] (b. 1972) (William Heinemann, 2017)
A very complex novel depicting what appears to be a flawed utopia in which constant surveillance and a police force that is able to stop crimes before they happen produces a good life for everyone, but it turns out that there are flaws in the system and unaccountable holders of power.
U.S. ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2018
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Great Wall of Denver" - David Ira Cleary (Persistent Visions, 2017)
Dystopia in which the U.S. has broken up, and Denver must deal with pollution from nuclear waste and winds that can destroy the city, hence the wall around the city.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Happy Hunting Ground” - Corey J. White (Ecopunk! [Cover adds Speculative Tales of Radical Futures], 2017)
Dystopia set in a future in which food is short and controlled by a corporation with the support of the police. The story focuses on an intentional community that resists the system.
Keywords: Austrian author; Male author

Havergey - John Burnside (b. 1955) (Little Toller Books, 2017)
While in the book the people of Havergey say that the island is not a utopia, in the context of a world decimated by disease, it is the best community in existence. The story is told through the eyes of a time traveler from 2017 before The Collapse, also known as The Dark Time, that began in 2024 who arrives at Havergey in 2041 and is quarantined and given materials from the history of Havergey to read before he can be accepted or rejected by the community, which is composed of nomads, survivors who gradually found their way there over the years following The Collapse.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

“He Was So Old” - Lee Widener (Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine, 2017)
Dystopia of the struggle for existence after civilization collapsed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Heat Was Unbearable” - Frank Westcott (Cli-fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change, 2017)
Climate change dystopia.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

“The Hermit of Houston” - Samuel R[ay] Delany (b. 1942) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 2017)
A same-sex love story told by one of the individuals after the other has died, although the man’s memory is not reliable. It is set in an overpopulated future where same-sex relationships are encouraged, men and women are, to some degree, kept separate, and, as the story puts it, “mixed up the genders,” although the story does not include any of the last.
Rpt. in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy™ 2018. Ed. N[ora] K. Jemisin (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Mariner, 2018), 63-91; in The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year: Volume Twelve. Ed. Jonathan Strahan (Oxford, Eng.: Solaris, 2018), 591-619; and in The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy: 2018 Edition. Ed. Rich Horton ([New York]: Prime Books, 2018), 62-85.
Keywords: African American author; Male author

"The History Book" - Voss Foster (Alternative Truths, 2017)
A dystopia in which history has been rewritten to reflect the biases of the current administration, books burned, and those with good memories killed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Hold Dear the Lamp Light: When We Were Young, Before the Tides Rose Up, and the Power Went Out” - Jay Ruben Dayrit (Wired, 2017)
Climate-change dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Home is Where My Mother’s Heart is Buried” - Wole Talabi (b. 1986) (Fiyah Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, 2017)
The story is set on a Mars inhabited by humans and aliens and reflects on human prejudice, gender identity, and the dystopia that was the Nigeria the protagonist had left.
Rpt. in his Incomplete Solutions. Edinburgh, Scot.: Luna Press, 2019), 189-200, with an author’s note on 262.
Keywords: Malaysian author; Male author; Nigerian author

"Humanity" - Michael Ben-Zvi (Infinite Dimensions: Crossroads, 2017)
The story is about the intersection of an authoritarian dystopia controlling its people through technology and, less fleshed out in the story, a eutopia that uses technology to build a free, green society.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Humans, Bow Down - James [Brendan] Patterson (b. 1947); Emily Raymond (b. 1972); Jill Dombowski (Little, Brown, 2017)
A dystopia set in a future in which a war between humans and robots has been won by the robots and focuses on those who do not accept defeat.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

“The Hunger After You’re Fed: Who is Héctor Prima?” - [Daniel James] [Abraham] (b. 1969); [Tyler Corey] [Franck] (b. 1969) (Wired, 2017)
The story is concerned with the functioning of a future with a guaranteed income and the needs that will still remain.
Rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner Dozois (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2018), 180-87 with an editor’s note on 180.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“In the Night of the Comet: A Sequel to H. G. Wells’ In the Days of the Comet” - Adam [Charles] Roberts (b. 1965) (Best of British Science Fiction 2017, 2017)
Sequel to 1905-06 Wells in which the comet in Wells that brings a eutopia is followed some years by a second comet that produces a dystopia.
Originally published in the author’s blog in May 2017 (http://www.adamroberts.com/2017/05/), but it appears to be no longer accessible.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"The Infinite Eye" - J[ames] P. Smythe (b. 1980) (2084, 2017)
Dystopia of a surveillance society exploiting the poor and undocumented.
Keywords: English author; Male author

"Invasion" - Phil Dwyer (Cli-fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change, 2017)
Climate-change dystopia in which the U.S. invades Canada to gain usable territory.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

"It Takes a Village" - Kevin C[hristopher] Jesse (Futurescapes Volume One: Cities of Empowerment, 2017)
The story is about the beginnings of a eutopia based on unarmed community policing told from the point of view of a policeman used to the old ways. An Unconditional Basic Income with additional amounts is linked to voting on the referenda that are part of what is called nanodemocracy or nanodem and appear regularly on individual eyepieces. One paragraph suggests that the military is also using some of the same tactics.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Last Chance" - Tyler Young (Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, 2017)
The story set on a planet called Last Chance settled after the Earth’s ecosystem had been destroyed. At a young age, children are separated from their parents and live in an underground school, under a desert, where they are taught that the settlers had done the same thing to the new planet, but what they are taught is not true. Last Chance is like Earth once was, and the children are being taught what could happen again and must not.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Last Dog on Earth - Adrian J. Walker (Del Rey/Ebury Publishing, 2017)
Post-apocalyptic dystopia (bomb) told from the points-of-view of a dog and his master.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Leila - Prayaag Akbar (b. 1982) (Simon & Schuster India, 2017)
In a future India that is a dictatorship and dealing with climate change, a woman’s husband is killed, her daughter is abducted, and she is sent to a prison camp. Escaping, she searches for her daughter.
Rpt. London: Faber & Faber, 2018. 265 pp.
Keywords: Indian author; Male author

The Link Boy. A Free World Novel - Michael J. Martineck (b. 1965) (Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2017)
Sequel to 2014 Martineck that follows the lives of three people as they navigated life in a world controlled by competing corporations.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Looking Back, Looking Ahead” - Maverick Smith (49th Parallels, 2017)
A future Toronto dealing with climate change through high rise gardening on what remains of its building. Much of the story gives the feel of a highly structured, perhaps even authoritarian society, but it ends with it also being a radically egalitarian society recognize the value of all people, with, for example, everyone using sign language.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Lost in Arcadia - Sean Gandert (47North, 2017)
Dystopia in which most people in the U.S. are addicted to Arcadia, an immersive virtual-reality system. The effect is to cut people off from each other, and the novel follows one family whose matriarch tries to hold them together.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"March, April, May" - [Vince] [Haig] (b. 1976) (2084, 2017)
Dystopia in which The Space, rather like Facebook, controls the news and most human interaction.
Keywords: English author; Male author

The Memoirist - Neil Williamson (b. 1968) (NewCon Press, 2017)
Surveillance dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

“Mercury Teardrops” - Jeff Noon (b. 1957) (Haunted Futures, 2017)
The dystopia brought about by the end of the digital age when all the enhanced bodies fail.
Rpt. in Best of British Science Fiction 2017. Ed. Donna Scott ([Weston, Eng.]: NewCon Press, 2018), 139-59.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Met-Chron Sanctuary: Metamorphosis Chronicles. Book 1 - Ron[ald] S[cott] Nolan (Planetropolis Publishing, 2017)
First volume of a trilogy set in a future devastated by global warming in which a young woman scientist has discovered how to extend life but realizes that the damaged planet could not support such life extension. The second volume, Met-Chron New-Humans: Metamorphosis Chronicles. Book 2. Aptos, CA: Planetropolis Publishing, 2019 is an obvious middle volume in which there is much conflict [A rev. ed. was published in 2020]. A third volume is projected.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Milk Island - Rhydian W[ynn] Thomas (Lawrence and Gibson, 2017)
Humorous dystopia with a genetically modified cow, Milky Moo, on Milk Island, formerly the South Island, which has been privatized after devastating earthquakes required terraforming the entire island. Christchurch is a dairying prison, and there are other agricultural prisons. Told in four parts, one of which is the thoughts of one worker and one a mixture of forms.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

“Mine, Yours, Ours” - Jack [Anthony] Skillingstead (b. 1955) (Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World, 2017)
Whether the story describes a eutopia or a dystopia is left up to the reader. The I.O.E. (International Organ Exchange) is symbolic of a society that sees everyone connected to everyone else. When you sign up for the I.O.E., you agree to give an organ when requested, and the protagonist is struggling over whether she should have a lung removed. If she doesn’t, she will be expelled from the I.O.E. and ineligible for a future transplant.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Monkey Cage Rules” - Larry Hodges (Alternative Truths, 2017)
Dystopian satire on the ungovernability of the human race.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Moon and the Other - John [Joseph Vincent] Kessel (b. 1950) (Saga Press/Simon & Schuster, 2017)
The Society of Cousins, in which women are the leaders, contrasted with the other societies on the moon, which are mostly patriarchal, that see the Society of Cousins as a threat. See also 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2006 for other works regarding the Society of Cousins.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Mozart of the Kalahari” - Steven [Emory] Barnes (b. 1952) (Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities: A Collection of Space Futures, 2017)
The story is set in an environmentally devasted future where the rich live off planet and the poor struggle to survive
Keywords: African American author; Male author

“The Museum of Near Misses: A writer gets trapped by what might have been” - J[ohn] Robert Lennon (b. 1979) (Slate Magazine as part of its Trump Story Project. https://slate.com/tag/trump-story-project., 2017)
The story takes place in a world where Trump lost the 2016 election, was arrested for fraud, and died in jail after all the allegations against him were demonstrated to be true.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A New World Coming: Experiencing a Radically Different Future in the Kingdom of God - John [R.] Claeys (289Design, 2017)
Biblical exposition from the premillennial perspective including details of life during the millennium with Biblical references. There will be physical bodies (147-58). Quite a bit on what might loosely be called the politics of the millennium with Christ ruling, and the Mosaic Law enforced (159-89). Refers to the feasts of the Old Testament (199-213). Harmony between animals and humans (216). No fear (216). Parenting based on the Old Testament, with serious punishment, including death, for misbehavior (217-19). Significant population growth (219-20). Earth will have no waste spaces (220-21). Manual work will be done by “mortal-bodied unbelievers,” while the “glorified” will be administrators (224). See also his The Impending Apocalypse. Sisters, OR: Deep River Books, 2014.
Keywords: Male author; US author

New York 2140 - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (Orbit, 2017)
Climate-change dystopia. Includes the characters Mutt and Jeff from 2016 Robinson, “Mutt and Jeff Push the Button.”
Keywords: Male author; US author

NK3 - Michael Tolkin (b. 1950) (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2017)
Post-catastrophe dystopia in which a microbe used as a weapon has deleted people’s memory.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Noise and the Silence” - Christien Gholson (Interzone, 2017)
Dystopia in which there is constant loud noise and silence is consider opposition.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“None But the Brave” - Dan Lee (American Carnage: Tales of Trumpian Dystopia, 2017)
Dystopia brought about by the policies of the Trump administration. The story focuses on terrorism and anti-terrorism.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Numbercaste - Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (b. 1992) ([Author], 2017)
The main protagonist is recruited by a start-up that is developing a way to rate every individual in the world based and assign them a number that fluctuates depending on their actions is will be available for everyone else.
Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India: HarperCollins India, 2019. It was first published on Kindle and then, a day later, as a paperback, and then in India.
Keywords: Male author; Sri Lankan author

“An Oasis of Amends” - Floris M. Kleijne (b. 1970) (Reckoning 2: Creative Writing on Environmental Justice, 2017)
A climate-change dystopia in which The Netherlands has been completely destroyed and icebergs are being harvest in the hope of creating an oasis in the Sahara.
Rpt. in Little Blue Marble 2019: Climate in Crisis. Ed. Katrina Archer (Vancouver, BC, Canada: Ganache Media Books, 2020), 177-81.
Keywords: Dutch author; Male author

"Once Upon a Trump" - Timothy Carter (Trump: Utopia or Dystopia, 2017)
The future Emperor Trump visits the current president to try to get him to fight the effects of climate change that has produced a dystopia.
Keywords: Canadian author; English author; Male author

The One. A Novel - John Marrs (Del Rey, 2017)
A dystopia in which it is said to be possible to genetically identify each person’s perfect partner.
Canadian ed. Toronto, ON, Canada: Hanover Square Press, 2017.
Keywords: Male author; UK author

Only a Ten Hour Week: Architecture for a Sustainable Society of Plenty - Eli Berniker PhD ([CreateSpace], 2017)
Extremely detailed non-fiction description of the basis for a eutopia with a ten-hour work week that produces plenty for everyone. Detailed analysis of waste in the current system that, once eliminated, would make the ten-hour week possible. Throughout to book, the author repeats that “We live in a world of plenty that must be experience as scarcity for the economy to function. Scarcity is unsustainable. Plenty is sustainable” (339). Includes a “Glossary” (342-50) and an Index (351-77). Under the author’s name, the cover adds “Practical Utopian.”
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Parametrization of Complex Weather Patterns for Two Variables” - Alex Shvartsman (b. 1975) (Daily Science Fiction, 2017)
The story is set in a climate-change future in which weather control first produced conflict among nations using it against each other, then was internationalized, and, at the time of the story, has been taken over by hackers.
Rpt. in Little Blue Marble 2017: Stories of Our Changing Climate. Ed. Katrina Archer. Np: Ganache Media. EBook
Keywords: Male author; Ukrainian author; US author

Perfect Little World - Kevin Wilson (b. 1978) (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2017)
A child psychologist tries to create the ideal family made up of several individuals and couples and orphaned children. It works for a while but then disintegrates. The novel focuses one young woman participant.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Pink Life (La Vie En Rose)” - Nathan Susnik (Shoreline of Infinity, 2017)
The story is set in a dystopia future that is hidden because most people live entirely in virtual reality. The protagonist is forced to see the world as it is when a glitch occurs.
Keywords: German author; Male author; US author

"Pinwheel Party" - Victor D. Phillips (Alternative Truths, 2017)
The beginning and the end of the story are brief depictions of the dystopia inflicted on the poor and immigrants by current policies. The middle is a drug-induced dream of a eutopia in which everyone works together to improve the U.S.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Pop and the CFT" - Brandon Crilly (Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, 2017)
The story is set in a future trying to deal with climate-change and focuses on one of the policies, the CFT, put in place to help. CFT refers to the Carbon Footprint Tax that is levied after an individual’s death based on their consumption pattern during life.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

The Powers of Earth - Travis J. I. Corcoran (Morlock Publishing, 2017)
First volume in a series in which a libertarian moon struggles to maintain its freedom against an authoritarian Earth. Won the 2018 Prometheus Award for Best Novel from the Libertarian Futurist Society. The next volume in the series is Causes of Separation. Np: Morlock Publishing, 2018. 706 pp. It is a typical second volume in a series in which the situation worsens. Two further volumes, Right and Duty and Absolute Tyranny are planned.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Practical Utopia: Strategies for a Desirable Society - Michael Albert (b. 1947) (Kairos/PM Press, 2017)
Albert is one of the theorists with the economist Robin [Eric] Hahnel (b. 1946) of Parecon (Participatory Economics); see 2003 Albert. The book deals with Parecon, Parpolity, feminism, race, environmentalism, and internationalism plus the strategy needed to achieve the goals.
Originated in the three volumes, Occupy Theory, Occupy Vision, and Occupy Strategy of his Fanfare for Democracy. Woods Hole, MA: Z Communications, 2012.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Questions with the First” - Jim Warrenfeltz (Biketopia: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction in Extreme Futures, 2017)
Dystopia presented through an interview with the dictator as he discovers a threat to his rule.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Raid at 817 Maple Street” - Ken Staley (Alternative Truths, 2017)
Dystopia in which the U.S. government’s surveillance of everyone’s internet activity leads it to conclude that a teenager involved in a video game is the leader of a terrorist cell.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Rangers - Blaze Ward (Knotted Road Press, 2017)
The stories are set in a dystopia brought about by the disintegration of the United States into warring sections. The Park Rangers from the part of the United States that is still democratic is the only effective force protecting citizens.
The first story, “The Last Ranger,” was originally published as “The Last Ranger (ANPS-1, CE 2053).” Alternative Truths. Ed. Phyllis Irene Radford and Bob Brown (Benton City, WA: B. Cubed Press, 2017), 160-80.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Report on the Outbreaks: Excerpts from the Draft Short Report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Continuing Emergency Ad Hoc Planetary Governing Council Concerning the Events of January 2060 and After)” - Timmerman, Peter (Cli-fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change, 2017)
Climate-change dystopia in which much of the United States has been abandoned.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Resist Them: A Dystopian Thriller - Scott King ([CreateSpace], 2017)
A dystopia in which the government broadcasts into everyone’s mind each morning.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Retroactivist - Nate Ragolia (Spaceboy Books, 2017)
A technological eutopia, called the United Sociocracy of the Americas that the protagonist finds flawed. In the future, technology has replaced all necessary work leaving everyone able to follow whatever personal passions they choose. Everyone is provided with a basic income on which it is possible to live comfortably. Sexual expression is completely free. Replicators produce material goods, including food. Robotic health checks constantly available. Much extended lifespan. All religious faiths combined into the Universal Combined Church of Faiths. The protagonist comes to believe that the twentieth century is a better time, and much of the novel is concerned with his struggles to recreate the twentieth century.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Road to the Sea” - Lavie Tidhar (b. 1976) (Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, 2017)
Climate-change dystopia.
Rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fifth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner Dozois (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2018), 252-57 with an editor’s note on 252; in Best of British Science Fiction 2017. Ed. Donna Scott ([Weston, Eng.]: NewCon Press, 2018), 175-81; and in Stories of Hope and Wonder in Support of the UK’S Healthcare Workers. Ed. Ian [George] Whates (Weston, Eng.: NewCon Press, 2020), 608-14. EBook.
Keywords: English author; Israeli author; Male author

The Secret Files of The Donald - Leland Howell (Np, 2017)
A collection of stories all of which satirize the dystopian presidency of The Donald. The author notes that in 2019 he was banned from Twitter for calling Trump a “whiney little bitch” (2).
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Severed Land - Maurice [Gough] Gee (b. 1931) (Puffin/Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2017)
A country is divided in two by the arrival of conquerors looking for gold and other valuable resources and then for land. The “Old People” create a wall between the violent South and the peaceful North.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

"Shooting an Episode" - Christopher [McKenzie] Priest (1943-2024) (Unsung Stories/Red Squirrel Publishing, 2017)
Dystopia depicting a “reality” game that has taken over the entire society as seen through the eyes of someone working for the company producing the show. The stories are supposed to be predictions regarding the world fifty years after Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Priest took his title from Orwell’s “Shooting the Elephant,” a work that greatly influenced his own work.
Rpt. in his Episodes: Short Stories (London: Gollancz, 2019), 292-320, with notes “Before” on what led him to write the story (289-91) and “After” on its publication and some reflections on it (321-22).
Keywords: English author; Male author

Sourdough. A Novel - Robin Sloan (b. 1979) (MCD/Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2017)
The novel focuses a woman working in Silicon Valley who is given an unusual sourdough starter that transforms her life. It is difficult to classify in that it is neither a eutopia or dystopia as such but has episodes or fragments of each throughout. For an article on the novel and utopia, see Justin Nordstrom, “‘Food Is History of the Deepest Kind’: Eating and Utopia in Sloan’s Sourdough and Sargent’s ‘The American Cockaigne’.” Utopian Studies 31.2 (2020): 303-13.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Sparrowfall: The City Never Sleeps” - Robert Dawson (Naure, 2017)
Brief description of an automated eutopian city and a person who didn’t fit in to the new order.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

“A Spider Queen in Every Home” - Mike Morgan (More Alternative Truths: Stories From the Resistance, 2017)
2017 Morgan, Mike. “A Spider Queen in Every Home.” More Alternative Truths: Stories From the Resistance. Ed. Phyllis Irene Radford, Rebecca McFarland Kyle, Lou J Berger, and Bob Brown (Benton City, WA: B Cubed Press, 2017), 370-96. PSt The story takes place in the dystopia created by current policies. The protagonist is a statistician whose work has to be checked to the data fits policy and is not accepted if it doesn’t, even though it is accurate.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Spring Break" - John [Michael] Crowley (b. 1942) (New Haven Noir, 2017)
The story, an example of noir crime fiction, is set mostly on the Yale University campus in a future where books are no longer used, and the only functioning part of the university are the sciences. The story won the 2018 Edgar Award for best short story.
Rpt. in his And Go Like This: Stories (Easthampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2019), 73-88.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Star Sailors - James McNaughton (b. 1968) (Victoria University Press, 2017)
The novel is set in a climate-change dystopia and with a deep rich/poor division which is mostly in the background. Much of the novel centers on an alien washed up on the shore and how his presence is manipulated by a powerful corporation.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

The Store - James [Brendan] Patterson (b. 1947); Richard DiLallo (Little, Brown, 2017)
In the novel, one store takes over a country with surveillance cameras and tracking not just in the store but in the streets, buildings, and private homes, all reinforced but what is essentially a private army. The protagonist is struggling to reveal the truth about the store.In the novel, one store takes over a country with surveillance cameras and tracking not just in the store but in the streets, buildings, and private homes, all reinforced but what is essentially a private army. The protagonist is struggling to reveal the truth about the store.
U.K. ed. London: Random House Century, 2017. 259 pp. + 26 pp. excerpt from a forthcoming novel.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Sub Migratio” - Stephen Embleton (Enkare Review, 2017)
The setting of the story is the dystopia brought about by a pan-African war, with the protagonists trying to escape through a network on underground railroad tunnels.
Keywords: Male author; South African author

“Taming the Beast” - Bose, Robert (Biketopia: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction in Extreme Futures, 2017)
Satire set in a high-tech world where all cars are being replaced by bicycles, and the protagonist struggles to manage the features of his new bicycle.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Targets" - Eric Brown (1960-2023) (Shoreline of Infinity, 2017)
Overpopulation dystopia set in Los Angeles in which people are chosen, supposedly randomly, as targets for killing by the police. Such people are not eligible for higher education, cannot venture out after dark, and can only get low-level jobs. The protagonist and his family are colored, and they are all chosen.
Rpt. in Best of British Science Fiction 2017. Ed. Donna Scott ([Weston, Eng.]: NewCon Press, 2018), 201-205; and in Shoreline of Infinity, no. 35 (Summer 2023): 47-52.
Keywords: English author; Male author; Scottish author

Technocracy in America: Rise of the Info-State - Parag Khanna (b. 1977) (CreateSpace, 2017)
Mostly critique but includes a eutopia for the U.S. based on what the author calls “direct technocracy,” or a system of experts “perpetually consulting the people” (Back Cover), There will be a collective presidency, a strong civil service, a multi-party legislature, a Senate replaced by a “Governors Assembly,” “and a judicial branch that monitors international benchmarks and standards and proposes constitutional amendments. . . ” (5). Many of the institutions are drawn from the author’s analysis of institutions currently in existence around the world.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Teleport - Kevin Berry ([CreateSpace], 2017)
The novel is set in a future dictatorship where the protagonist is being pressured to create a teleportation device, and, if she fails to do so, her daughters future is in danger.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author

Tell Me How This Ends Well. A Novel - David Samuel Levinson (b. 1969) (Hogarth, 2017)
The background to the novel is a dystopia set in 2022 when Israel has been eliminated in a war that the U. S. ignored. This led to millions of refugees moving to the U. S. and the rise of a virulent anti-Semitism that has become the norm.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Thirstlands” - Nick [Nicholas] Wood (1961-2023) (Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, 2017)
Climate-change dystopia set in a drought-stricken Africa.
Rpt. in his Learning Monkey and Crocodile (Edinburgh, Scot.: Luna Press, 2019), 129-42, with a note on the story on 177.
Keywords: English author; Male author; South African author; Zambian author

Three Degrees. A Novel - Jim Wurst (Author, 2017)
A dystopia set in 2052 with many different plot lines including devasting climate-change, a satellite war twenty years in the past orchestrated by apocalyptic Christians in the U. S. military which left junk throughout the space around the Earth and badly damaged the world’s communication network, extreme rich-poor divisions, a plan by the current president to again steal the election by hacking the vote counting, and a “Chinese device” that may be a weapon that is activated at the end of the novel. The concluding sentence is “End of Book One.”
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Tinker's Damn" - Edward Ahern (b. 1942) (More Alternative Truths: Stories From the Resistance, 2017)
A brief dystopia in which a conman becomes a political leader until the women in the community organize and drive him out.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“To the Place of Skulls” - Innocent [Chizarram] Ilo (Reckoning 2: Creative Writing on Environmental Justice, 2017)
Climate-change dystopia with widespread environmental damage from pollution set in Nigeria with non-Nigerian corporations exploiting Nigeria’s resources.
Rpt. https://reckoning.press/to-the-place-of-skulls/ (February 15, 2018).
Keywords: Male author; Nigerian author

“The Today Home” - Jason Nahrung (Ecopunk! [Cover adds Speculative Tales of Radical Futures], 2017)
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Tomorrow - Jack Lothian; Garry Mac Artist (BHP Comics, 2017)
Dystopia in comic book form about what appears to be an alien invasion, the disappearance of the human population, and the loneliness of one old woman who remained.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author; UK author

“Too Big to See” - Karl Schroeder (b. 1962) (Overview: Stories of the Stratosphere., 2017)
Brief story in which climate change has created a major refugee crisis in the Americas, and a trip by representatives of the antagonists to the stratosphere may solve the conflict.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Tool of War - Paolo [Tadini] Bacigalupi (b. 1972) (Little, Brown, 2017)
Dystopia brought about by climate change, resources running out, and the resulting constant wars, civil and between countries.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Traditions" - Marcos Santiago Gonsalez (Latin@ Rising: An Anthology of Latin@ Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2017)
The story is set in a long-established Mexican American family in a future high-tech New York City and centers on the conflict between generations over familial and cultural traditions.
Keywords: Latino author; Male author

The Transition - Luke Kennard (b. 1981) (Fourth Estate, 2017)
The novel begins in what is the current dystopia for many couples, spiraling debt, landlords who constantly raise the rent, too many credit cards, all at their limit, loans, and illegality to stay afloat that can’t be paid. The Transition offers a way to avoid jail, get out of debt, and start over. It offers a mentorship in which the couple lives with a Transition couple for six months, supposedly learning how to live differently. It turns out to be just a different dystopia leading to more complete control.
U.S. ed. New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2018
Keywords: English author; Male author

“The Treaty of Empress Park” - Claude Lalumière (b. 1966) (49th Parallels, 2017)
Alternative history set in a fragmented and deeply divided world set during the beginning of negotiations over a treaty as seen through the eyes of some of the negotiators.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

Tropic of Kansas - Christopher [Tracy] Brown (b. 1964) (Harper Voyager, 2017)
Dystopia in which the middle of the U.S. has become a wasteland and the country has fragmented. The novel is of a road trip through the wasteland. See also 2019 and 2020 Brown.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Truth, From the Heart” - Gustavo Bondoni (Trump: Utopia or Dystopia, 2017)
The dystopian future United States during the civil war caused by Trump’s policies
Keywords: Argentinian author; Male author

Unbreakable - Will[iam D.] McIntosh (b. 1962) ([CreateSpace], 2017)
Dystopia in which some people are kept in a walled town to provide entertainment to those living outside by setting various new world records. The ending of the novel and an author’s note indicate that this is the first volume in a series, but no more appears to have been published
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Underworld 101" - Mame Bougouma L. P. Diene (Omenana Speculative Fiction Magazine, 2017)
The story is set in a future dystopia in which Earth is almost entirely a desert and people have resorted to cannibalism.
Rpt. in Sunspot Jungle: The Ever-Expanding Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy [the cover adds Volume One]. Ed. Bill Campbell (Greenbelt, MD: Rosarium, 2019), 58-71.
Keywords: French author; Male author; Senegalese author; US author

"University College Hospital” - Aito Osemegbe Joseph (African Diaspora: African Literature. African Stories, 2017)
The story is set in a future Nigeria where a means has been developed to re-set an individual’s brain and is concerned with the way it might be used from changing sexual desire to “reforming” criminals.
Keywords: Male author; Nigerian author

“Uno! . . . Dos! One-Two! Tres! Cuatro!” - Ernest Hogan (b. 1955) (Five to the Future: All New Novelettes of Tomorrow and Beyond, 2017)
An odd dystopia set in Phoenix, Arizona, which is divided between the United States and Aztlán, the name adopted by Chicano activists for their new nation.
Keywords: Chicano author; Male author

“Utopia LOL?” - Jamie Wahls (Strange Horizons, 2017)
Satire on a future where everyone has been uploaded into an AI and can be anything they want.
Rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy: 2018 Edition. Ed. Rich Horton ([New York]: Prime Books, 2018), 394-407; and in The New Voices of Science Fiction. Ed. Hannu Rajaniemi and Jacob Weisman (San Francisco, CA: Tachyon, 2019), 35-56.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Utopian Tetragon - S. C. Smith ([CreateSpace], 2017)
Satire set in Beverly Hummocks in the Former Republic of Sunny Emissions with an author as protagonist named Willing Participant. The story follows his trials and tribulations, mostly caused by a woman who dances all night in the apartment above his.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Vade Retro Santana” - Maurice [Gerald] Broaddus (b. 1970) (Fiyah Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, 2017)
The story is set in a religious dystopia in which missionaries convert the indigenous inhabitants by force as told by a missionary with doubts.
Keywords: African American author; English author; Male author

"The Vermix" - Matthew Castle (A Practical Guide to the Resurrected: Twenty-One Short Stories of Medicine and Science Fiction, 2017)
The story is set in a future where much knowledge has been lost to those living outside high tech archologies that have completely closed themselves off.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“The Vibrating Mouth” - John Lee Clark (Tripping the Tale Fantastic: Weird Fiction by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Authors, 2017)
The story depicts a world of mutual incomprehensive between those deaf and signing and the speaking as seen from a deaf person who sees the speaking as limited and inferior.
Keywords: Deaf author; Male author; US author

Void Star - Zachery Mason (b. 1990) (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2017)
The novel is set in a climate-change dystopia in which San Francisco is reserved for the rich.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Walkaway - Cory [Efram] Doctorow (b. 1971) (Tor, 2017)
The novel begins in a future authoritarian dystopia with very advanced technology in which much of the U.S. has been destroyed and abandoned and with extreme class divisions. Some people choose to walk away into the abandoned countryside hoping to create a freer society. While they are forcibly opposed by those in power and not all those who walk away are trustworthy, a freer society does emerge. The title resonates with Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Variations on a Theme by William James)” (1973).
Keywords: Canadian author; English author; Male author; US author

"The Ways Out" - Sam J[oshua] Miller (b. 1979) (Clarkesworld, 2017)
Surveillance dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“What Does It Look Like When 1 Million People Are Deported at Once?” - Héctor Tobar (b. 1963) (Slate Magazine as part of its Trump Story Project. https://slate.com/tag/trump-story-project, 2017)
The story is about the attempt to do just what the title says and the response of the people being deported as seen through the eyes of one of them.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“What Kind of Monster Are You?” - John E. Meredith (American Carnage: Tales of Trumpian Dystopia, 2017)
The dystopia created by Trump’s presidency, including extreme poverty, environmental degradation, racial conflict, and discrimination against anyone not heterosexual.
Keywords: Male author; US author

When the English Fall. A Novel - David Williams (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2017)
Post-catastrophe dystopia set after a disastrous storm that destroys the power grid. The novel focuses on an Amish community that has always been off the grid must cope with people who are struggling have lost everything.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Where Eagles Dare” - R. Mike Burr (American Carnage: Tales of Trumpian Dystopia, 2017)
Dystopia in which Trump has issued an order giving all police officers the right to immediately kill anyone the suspect of being a terrorist.
Keywords: Male author; US author

World Without Work. A Novel - [Treichler, David H.] (Reelization Global Media, 2017)
The novel is set in a future in which corporations are automating, and there is only a minimal Federal Living Wage for support for the growing legions of unemployed. The protagonist is a young woman who is fired for refusing to report the profits her boss wanted rather than the actual earnings of the company.
Rpt. Np: Publisher Services, 2019. 355 pp.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Year of the Orphan - Daniel Findlay (Bantam, 2017)
Dystopia set in a future Australian outback that is littered with damaged autonomous weapons and various cults. Due to the use of an invented vernacular, it has been compared to Russel Hoban’s Riddley Walker (1980).
Keywords: Australian author; Male author

Yesterday’s Savior - Bliss, Keith (EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 2017)
The central focus of the novel is the belief that the second Coming of Christ has occurred, and the dystopia created by the Holy Church of the Second Coming.
Keywords: English author; German author; Male author

“Your Lying Eyes” - Jack [John Charles] McDevitt (Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World, 2017)
The story is about glasses that can detect lies. Whether a eutopia or dystopia is left up to the reader.
Keywords: Male author; US author

2084: A Time Capsule Warning from the Future - Dr. T. F. Fieve [pseud.] (Dorrance Publishing Co., 2016)
A depiction of the dystopia brought about by climate-change, war, and other catastrophes and the way a small group of people survived in New Zealand. Includes a “Bibliography’ (197-98), a “Glossary: (199-200), and “MINI--Survival Manual” (201-07).
Keywords: Male author; US author

“2100: A Good Life in a Global Economy” - Erik Schokkaert (‘A Truly Golden Handbook’: The Scholarly Quest for Utopia, 2016)
An essay that presents a better future that has overcome the most important problems of the early twenty-first century, which are identified as the environment, including climate-change, migration from the South to the North, and international inequalities, which are said to be interrelated. The eutopia has a world, but decentralized, governmental structure, with the world government elected through the internet with everyone voting on the same list of candidates. There is a CO2 tax that encouraged local production and stimulated investment in clean technologies. There are no limits on migration and an international open market, international social insurance, and income redistribution. There are multi-generational living arrangements and joint leisure activities and cultural and religious diversity. The essay ends with a brief section on how to achieve these goals.
Keywords: Belgian author; Male author

“2113. Inspired by ‘2112’” - Kevin J[ames] Anderson (b. 1962) (2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush, 2016)
Dystopia in which all creativity has been eliminated under a religious dictatorship.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Advance Man. Part One of The Honeycomb Trilogy - Mac Rogers (Samuel French, 2016)
First volume of a trio of plays followed by Blast Radius. Part Two of The Honeycomb Trilogy. London: Samuel French, 2016; and Sovereign. Part Three of the Honeycomb Trilogy. London: Samuel French, 2016. The three plays were first performed at The Secret Theatre, Long Island City, NY, in January 2012, March-April 2012, and June 2012 directed by Jordana Williams. The plays, with the sequels set eight years after the first and then eight years after the second, are about what happens when a mission returning from Mars introduces aliens to Earth, who then occupy it. The second volume focus on a conflict between a bother, who sides with the aliens, and a sister, who is leading a revolt against them. In the third volume, the revolt has been successful, and the world is trying to rebuild.
Keywords: Male author; US author

After the Red Rain - Barry Lyga (b. 1971); Peter Facinelli (1973); Rob DeFranco (b. 1970) (Little, Brown, 2016)
Post-catastrophe authoritarian dystopia set on an Earth with limited resources.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Age of Miracles” - Robert Runté (Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts, 2016)
Satire of the internet of things.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author

"The Algorithms of Value" - Robert [David] Reed (b. 1956) (Clarkesworld, 2016)
Flawed utopia in which everyone has the ability to create the world around them, but someone is still unhappy.
Keywords: Male author; US author

American Fracture. Book One: American Confederation - Roy McElroy ([Create Space], 2016)
First volume of a series in which the United States has fractured into a five-part confederation. The second volume is American Fracture. Book Two: Separation of Power. [North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace], 2018 in which the various parts of the U. S. and what remains of the national government are all fighting each other. No resolution at the end.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"An American Utopia" - Fredric Jameson (b. 1934) (An American Utopia: Dual Power and the Universal Army, 2016)
The author discusses his utopia based on a universal army, similar in some ways to Bellamy’s Industrial Army, as the best way to deal with the current economic situation. The utopia was originally given as a keynote address at the 2013 meeting of the Society of Utopian Studies in Charleston, SC, and the utopia in the address was much more detailed than in the published version. The comments are Robinson, “Mutt and Jeff Push the Button” (97-104), which is fiction (see 2016 Robinson); Jodi Dean, “Dual Power Redux” (105-32); Saroj Giri, “The Happy Accident of a Utopia” (133-45); Agon Hamza, “From the Other Scene to the Other State: Jameson’s Dialectic of Dual Power” (147-68); Kojin Karatani, “A Japanese Utopia” (169-82); Frank Ruda, “ Jameson and Method: On Comic Utopianism” (183-210); Alberto Toscano, “After October, Before February: Figures of Dual Power” (211-41); Kathi Weeks, “Utopian Therapy: Work, Nonwork, and the Political Imagination (243-65); and Slavoj Žižek, “The Seeds of Imagination” (267-308); followed by “An America Utopia: Epilogue” by Jameson (309-17).
Keywords: Male author; US author

Amerita - Martin Medina; Luke Medina (Np, 2016)
The novel is based on a system called Meritism, which is defined as “An economical structure using productivity as the measure of currency. Compensation is based on an individual’s productivity leveled against their emotional quotient and intelligence quotient, measured by factual data, free from emotional bias, prejudice, and subjectivity” (Title page). A ten-point scale is used and any change at an individual’s annual evaluation means a change in where they live and go to school, the clothes they wear, and so forth. Generally presented positively.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Apes and Satellites” - Mame Bougouma L. P. Diene (Brittle Paper: An African Literary Experience, 2016)
The story is told from the point-of-view of an ape whose habitat is being destroyed by satellite mining.
Keywords: French author; Male author; Senegalese author; US author

Apocalypse: An Epic Poem - Frederick Turner (b. 1943) (Ilium Press, 2016)
Climate change dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The Apology of Arthur Tresbit - Robert Thayer (Austin Macauley, 2016)
Satire on the contemporary financial system in which the background, referred to throughout the book, is the dystopia brought about by the collapse of the system. Most of the book is about how it happened.
Keywords: English author; Male author

“At the Village Vanguard (Reflections on Blacktopia)” - Maurice [Gerald] Broaddus (b. 1970) (Mothership Zeta, 2016)
The story focuses by white supremacists on an attack on the Blacktopia that has been created on the moon twenty-five years after the attack. Only a brief description of the Blacktopia.
Keywords: African American author; English author; Male author; US author

Azanian Bridges - Nick [Nicholas] Wood (1961-2023) (New Con Press, 2016)
Alternative history dystopia of South Africa in which Apartheid survives. A related story is “Azania.” AfroSF: Science Fiction by African Writers. Ed. Ivor W. Hartmann (Np: StoryTime Press, 2012), 80-99.
Keywords: English author; Male author; South African author; Zambian author

“The Bees of Kiribati” - Warren Hammond (Cyber World: Tales of Humanity’s Tomorrow, 2016)
The background to the story is a climate change dystopia in which some island states have disappeared underwater, and the refugees are essentially slaves.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Big Sheep - Robert Kroese (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press., 2016)
The novel is set in 2039 in a dystopian future Los Angeles where a part of the city, the Disincorporated Zone or DZ has been disowned by the rest of the city and become a very poor, lawless area.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Blood Farm" - Gill, Michael (The Speculative Book, 2016)
Future dystopia in which parents sell their children’s blood so that the wealthy can live longer.
Keywords: Male author; Scottish author

Bluescreen: A Mirador Novel - Dan Wells (b. 1977) (Balzer + Bray, 2016)
Young adult dystopia set in a future Los Angeles where, through a device implanted in the brain, everyone is online at all times. First volume of a series. Sequels include Ones and Zeroes: A Mirador Novel. New York: Balzer + Bray., 2017; and Active Memory: A Mirador Novel. New York: Balzer + Bray, 2018.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Bombs That Brought Us Together - Brian Conaghan (b. 1971) (Bloomsbury, 2016)
Young adult dystopia in which Little Town is controlled by gangs and at war with Old Country.
Keywords: Irish author; Male author; Scottish author

“Braveheart’s Homecoming” - Dilman Dila (b. 1977) (Mithila Review, 2016)
A future high-tech India that holds to traditional practices, including a form of slavery.
Keywords: Male author; Ugandan author

“Brownsville Station” - Christopher Rowe (b. 1969) (Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond, 2016)
Climate change dystopia in which the elaborate technology that has protected civilization is defeated by the rising water.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Browsing: Security Issue” - Ian [George] Whates (b. 1959) (Nature, 2016)
Surveillance dystopia.
Keywords: English author; Male author

Children of Eden. A Novel - Joey [Joseph Michael] Graceffa (b. 1991); Laura L. Sullivan (b. 1974) (Keywords Press/Atria, 2016)
Young adult dystopia about a girl who is the second child in a society that restricts families to one child. First volume of a trilogy followed by Elites of Eden. A Novel. Keywords Press/Atria, 2017 in which the protagonist of the first volumes finds an entire city of second children but also forms an alliance with one of the girls of the elite. The third volume is Rebels of Eden. A Novel. Keywords Press/Atria, 2018 in which the protagonist temporarily settles in a sustainable community called Harmonia that belies its name by being rule-bound. She then returns to Eden, finds it worse than before, and leads the revolution.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

Cities at Sea - Martin Simons (b. 1930) (XLibris, 2016)
The novel is set in a future where, due to global warming, much of the land has flooded, and cities have abandoned the land for huge rafts that float the seas. The cities are strictly hierarchical, there is completely free sexuality, and children are conceived and born outside the body, and are generally presented positively. But the young woman who is the protagonist is bored and chooses to move to another city to undergo changes that will give her gills that will allow her to live underwater for long periods. At the end, new cities are planned that can move both on and in the water.
Keywords: English author; Male author