The Last Transaction - Barry N[athaniel] Malzberg (b. 1939) (Pinnacle Books, 1977)
Dystopia set in the near future when people gain control of U.S. nuclear reactors and try to force the country to disarm and establish a world government.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Little Knowledge - Michael [Lawson] Bishop (1945-2023) (Berkley/Putnam, 1977)
Dystopia of Christian fundamentalism and religious revivals in a future fragmented United States and the arrival of Aliens.
Rpt. New York: Berkley, 1978. Substantially revised in His The City and the Cygnet: An Alternative History of the Atlanta Urban Nucleus in the 21st Century (Bonney Lake, WA : Kudzu Planet Productions/Fairwood Press, 2019), 228-97.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Logan's World - William F[rancis] Nolan (1928-2021) (Bantam Books, 1977)
Sequel to 1967 Nolan and Johnson in which Logan and the other runners settle a new world. Although there are problems that drive the plot, a nonviolent society is created that operates without a leader. See also 1980 Nolan.
Rpt. in Logan: A Trilogy (Baltimore, MD: Maclay & Associates, 1986), 139-259. Rpt. with the same pagination New York: Dell, 1992.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Nemo - Ron[ald Joseph] Goulart (1933-2022) (Berkley Medallion, 1977)
Standard authoritarian dystopia with a successful revolt.
U.K. ed. London: Robert Hale, 1979.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"No Renewal" - Spider Robinson (b. 1948) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1977)
Dystopia created by a fixed period for life.
Rpt. in his Antinomy (New York: Dell, 1980), 240-45; and in his Melancholy Elephants (Markham, ON, Canada: Penguin, 1984), 125-30. U.S. ed. (New York: Tor, 1985), 135-40.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Outbreak - Marianne Ruuth (1937-2007) (Manor Books, 1977)
Complex future dystopia located in seven domed cities with control through conditioning and drugs. The novel is concerned with the struggle to overthrow the dystopia and undo the conditioning.
Keywords: Female author; Swedish author; US author

Paradise I. A Novel - Alan Harrington (1919-97) (Little, Brown, 1977)
Eutopia and dystopia. Effect of the ability to bring immortality where there is not enough serum available for all and a computer selects who will become immortal plus a few who win immortality through a lottery. The period of transition is violent and confused, but the problems continue into what is expected to be the eutopia of the future in that immortality does not cure the lust for power. See also 1969 Harrington for a different take on immortality.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Please Don't Shoot the Trees" - Patricia Highsmith (1921-95) (A Book of Contemporary Nightmares, 1977)
Horror tale based around a future of extreme pollution in which the cities have been abandoned to the poor. Nature fights back.
Keywords: English author; US author

Police Patrol: 2000 A.D - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Ace Books, 1977)
The novel is set in Reynold’s future where everyone receives a basic income and housing and shows that the police are still needed.
Parts were original published as “Romp.” Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact 78.2 (October 1966): 93-107; “Criminal in Utopia.” Galaxy Science Fiction 27.3 (October 1968): 72-92; rpt. in Tomorrow, Inc. SF Stories About Big Business. Ed. Martin Harry Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander (New York: Taplinger, 1976), 189-207; “Extortion, Inc.” Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact 82.6 (February 1969): 83-99; and “Cry Wolf!” Galaxy Science Fiction 35.12 (December 1974): 6-32.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Scanner Darkly - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Doubleday, 1977)
Near future dystopia focusing on drug use.
U.K. ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1977. Rpt. in Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s. Martian Time-Slip; Dr. Bloodmoney; Now Wait for Last Year; Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; A Scanner Darkly. Ed. Jonathan Lethem (New York: The Library of America, 2008), 859-1098, 1126-27. A film tie-in edition was published London: Victor Gollancz, 2006.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Screwfly Solution” - [Alice Bradley] [Sheldon] (1915-87) (Analog Science Fiction Science Fact, 1977)
The story is about the Sons of Adam, a growing religious movement that kills women.
Rpt. in The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories. Ed. Tom Shippey (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1992), 435-53; Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology. Ed. Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2015), 83-101; in The Way to the End Times: Classic Tales of the Apocalypse. Ed. Robert Silverberg (New York: Three Rooms Press, 2016), 287-310, with an “Editor’s Introduction” on 184-86; and in The Future is Female! More Classic Science Fiction by Women Volume 2: The 1970s. Ed. Lisa Yaszek (New York: Library of America, 2023), 291-320, with a biographical note on 465-467 and a note on the text on 486.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Shadow of a Snowstorm" - John [Patrick] Shirley (b. 1954) (Amazing Science Fiction Stories, 1977)
Dystopia in which there are so few jobs that humans replace mannequins in department stores.
Rpt. in his The Exploded Heart (Asheville, NC: Eyeball Books, 1996), 66-90, with an author's note on 65-66.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Shepherd - J[oan Carol] Hunter Holly (1932-82) (Laser Books, 1977)
Dystopia of Anti-Emotion Conditioners.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Sneak Previews" - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Penthouse, 1977)
The story is set in a future, presented as dystopian, in which marriage is required with a time limit on remaining single.
Rpt. in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley. Book Four (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 77-84.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Strayed Sheep of Charun - John Maddox Roberts (b. 1947) (Doubleday, 1977)
Dystopia of a corrupt Roman planet. A combat trained Jesuit priest and a Franciscan friar are sent from Earth, which is now ruled by the Church of Rome, to try to convert the planet. If they fail, it will be destroyed.
Rev. ed. as Cestus Dei. New York: Tor, 1983.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Time-Swept City - Thomas F[rancis] Monteleone (b. 1946) (Popular Library, 1977)
Dystopia. The connected stories are about the city of Chicago over huge reaches of time into the future. The city becomes more and more automated and the inhabitants less and less necessary until the city becomes an automatic self-repairing system with no inhabitants. Outside the city humanity has regressed to a primitive level.
Parts published originally as "Chicago." Future City. Ed. Roger [Paul] Elwood (New York: Trident Press, 1973), 219-35. Rpt. (New York: Pocket Book, 1974), 203-20; "Good and Faithful Servant." Amazing Science Fiction Stories 49.5 (March 1976): 110-18; "Breath's A Ware That Will Not Keep." Dystopian Visions. Ed. Roger [Paul] Elwood (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1975), 2-19; and "Far From Eve and Morning." Amazing Science Fiction Stories 51.1 (October 1977): 20-29, 91.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Timewaves" - John Bartelt (Janus, 1977)
The story is set in a dystopian, bureaucratic future where no dissent is permitted, with those who do are assigned to menial jobs, and church attendance is required. Two men try to change the past in the hopes of eliminating the dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

[“Utopian Construction”] - Mulford Q[uickert] Sibley (1912-89) (Nature and Civilization: Some Implications for Politics, 1977)
Non-fictional description of a culturally diverse world eutopia. Universal language plus regional and sub-regional languages. Any family form accepted. Neighborhoods are the most important focus socially and politically. Complete free speech. Vegetarian, as was the author.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Work Song 2. A Vision" - Wendell Berry (b. 1934) (Clearing, 1977)
Poem describing an environmental eutopia of the future when the land has recovered.
Rpt. in his The Collected Poems 1957-1982 (San Francisco, CA: North Point Press, 1985), 187-88; and as “A Vision” in The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1998), 102.
Keywords: Male author; US author

YV88; An Eco-Fiction of Tomorrow - Christopher Swan; Chet Roaman (b. 1939) (Sierra Club Books, 1977)
Ecological eutopia set in 1988 focusing on Yosemite National Park beginning with a ride on a new train into the park that replaces the road and runs on a combination of the roadbed and the right of way of an earlier train. Most of the facilities in the park have been removed to return the park to a wilderness. Wildlife is returning. Extensive use of improved solar power. De-damming. There is a chronology showing the changes between 1978 and 1988 (104-05). Presented in a wide variety of ways including letters, postcards, reminiscences, architectural plans, an argument between two people, a TV transcript, detailed plans for the train engine, stations, and rail cars. stories, and stories. The policies that were developed for reversing environmental damage, such as removing asphalt, are slowly being adopted elsewhere in the country.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Age of Libra” - Scott Edelstein (b. 1954) (Science Fiction Discoveries, 1976)
United States Retirement Services is an answer to overpopulation. It has established 1645 retirement villages, each holding 2900 people for one year. Retirement is mandatory at a specified age, which is lowered within the story but can be chosen earlier.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Arslan - M[ary] J[ane] Engh (b. 1933) (Warner Books, 1976)
Future dystopia in which a young Asian tyrant named Arslan conquers the U.S. and establishes his headquarters in a small town in Illinois. The novel focuses on the complex personal relations that develop.
Rpt. New York: Arbor House, 1987; and New York: Tor, 1988. U.K. ed. as A Wind from Bukhara. London: Grafton, 1989.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Beasts - John [Michael] Crowley (b. 1942) (Doubleday, 1976)
Dystopia resulting from genetic experimentation.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Black Roads - J[oe] [Louis] Hensley (1926-2007) (Laser Books, 1976)
Authoritarian dystopia following World Wars III and IV. Survivors rediscover some of the technology of the past and use it to consolidate their power. Violence.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Cinnabar - Edward [Winslow] Bryant [Jr.] (1945-2017) (Macmillan, 1976)
Dystopia. Cinnabar is a city run by a failed computer that provides false images within which both people and simulcra live. Each story is about one individual, and, in the last story, they cooperate to destroy the computer.
Stories originally published as follows: "The Road to Cinnabar." Infinity Two. Ed. Robert Hoskins (New York: Lancer Books, 1971), 73-84 (1-12 here); "Jade Blue." Universe 1. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Ace Books, 1971), 53-69; U.K. ed (London: Dennis Dobson, 1975), 53-69 (13-28 here); "Gray Matters" as "Their Thousandth Season." Clarion II: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction and Criticism. Ed Robin Scott Wilson (New York: Signet, 1972), 127-39; and in his Among the Dead and Other Events Leading Up to the Apocalypse (New York: Macmillan, 1973), 164-79 (29-44 here); "The Legend of Cougar Lou Landis." Universe 3. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Random House, 1973), 135-50 (45-61 here); "Hayes and the Heterogyne." Vertex 2.2 (June 1974): 16-20, 88-97 (62-103 here); "Sharking Down." Vertex 2.6 (February 1975): 16-20, 34-37 in slightly different form (115-56 here); and "Brain Terminal." Vertex 3.4 (August 1975): 2-6, 28 in slightly different form (157-86 here).
Keywords: Male author; US author

City of Darkness - Ben[jamin William] Bova (1932-2020) (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976)
Young adult dystopia with a division between poor city-dwellers and the elite who live outside the cities.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Contentment, Satisfaction, Cheer, Well-Being, Gladness, Joy, Comfort, and Not having To Get Up Early Any More" - George Alec Effinger (1947-2002) (Future Power: A Science Fiction Anthology, 1976)
Dystopia in which the world has been entirely homogenized and is ruled by six men, with one of them arranging the retirement of the other five one at a time. He then retires and the computer that has been effectively running the world takes over.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Crack in the Sky - Richard A[llen] Lupoff (1935-2020) (Dell Books, 1976)
Standard post-pollution dystopia. All live under domes, but there is further disaster.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Day After Tomorrow - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Ace Books, 1976)
Conformist corporate dystopia and the revolt against it, which fails.
A shorter version was published earlier as "Status Quo." Analog Science Fact--Fiction 67.6 (August 1961): 4-64.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Day of the Big Test" - Felix C[harles] Gotschalk [Jr.] (1929-2002) (Future Power: A Science Fiction Anthology, 1976)
Testing of children in their seventh year determines family status, income, leisure, etc. Presented generally positively.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Deus Irae - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82); Roger [Joseph] Zelazny (1937-95) (Doubleday, 1976)
Post-catastrophe religious dystopia. Deus Irae is God of Wrath and is the head of a religion sponsored by the Atomic Energy Commission.
Rpt. New York: Dell, 1980; New York: DAW Books, 1983; and New York: Vintage Books, 2003.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Diary of the Rose" - Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin (1929-2018) (Future Power: A Science Fiction Anthology, 1976)
Authoritarian dystopia in which psychiatry is used as a political tool with electroshock for dissent. The story focuses on a young psychiatrist and her growing awareness of the way the system works. Liberalism is considered a political psychosis needing to be treated by electroshock. Intellectualism produces negative thinking that leads to psychosis.
Rpt. in her The Compass Rose: Short Stories (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 99-124; and in her The Real and the Unreal. Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin. Volume One Where on Earth (Easthampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2012), 83-106; and in the one volume edition The Real and the Unreal: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin (New York: Saga Press, 2016), 99-125.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Floating Worlds - Cecelia [Anastasia Holland (b. 1943) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1976)
The novel begins in an anarchist eutopia with some problems on a future, overpopulated, polluted, but high-tech Earth contrasted with Mars, which focuses on law and order. The protagonist of the novel is an anarchist woman in her late twenties living on Earth who can speak Syth, the language of aliens who threaten Earth and Mars. She is hired by the Committee for the Revolution to meet on Mars with Syth leaders to negotiate a truce, which is complicated by the fact that the Syth consider females inferior. The novel begins in Manhattan, which is below the surface of the ocean and is a tourist destination, and then moves to the largely underground, dome-covered, New York, where the woman lives in a commune and looks for temporary jobs to pay her minimal expenses. Men have a “plug” to keep them from impregnating a woman and must have a signed document from a woman to have the plug temporarily removed. The Committee for the Revolution has become a “vestigial government” to which people turn rather than dealing with problems themselves (10/Gollancz 2011, 10/Gollancz 2000, 12). The novel moves quickly to interstellar conflict.
Rpt. as the Collectors’ Edition. London: Gollancz, 2000. 542 pp.; and as SF Masterworks Edition. London: Gollancz, 2011, with an “Introduction” by Graham Sleight (vi-vii). viii + 628 pp.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Getting Away" - Steven [D.] Utley (1948-2013) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1976)
Dystopia of environmental collapse as background to a time travel story.
Rpt. in his When or Where (Hornsea, Eng.: PS Publishing, 2006), 45-54.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Glutt" - Gladden Schrock (Guthrie New Theater, 1976)
Dystopia in which a man is executed for his lack of community feeling and involvement.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Good Society: A Primer of Its Social Practice - John Friedmann (b. 1926) ([School of Architecture and Urban Planning, UCLA], 1976)
Eutopia. Small, person-centered, focusing on dialogue. It appears to be the first version of 1979 Friedmann, The Good Society A personal account of its struggle with the world of social planning and a dialectical inquiry into the roots of radical practice. See also 1979 Friedmann, Communalist Society.
Keywords: Austrian author; Canadian author; Male author; US author

Gulliver's Visit to Walden III; A Report on Values in Education - William Clark Trow (1894-1982) (Kappa Delta Pi Press, 1976)
Detailed eutopia stressing education. A descendant of Lemuel Gulliver visits Walden III, which is described as "a laboratory, not only to introduce intuitive innovations, but to test hypotheses about the nature of a (not the) good society and how it might be built" (x). The book proposes a model of education based on what the author calls "The Seven Worlds" that include the mental, physical, aesthetic, social, political, economic, and ethical aspects of life.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Hail to the Chief" - Lucy [Michaella] Cores (1912-2003) (Beyond Time, 1976)
Authoritarian dystopia that would have developed if the Watergate burglary had succeeded.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Healer - F[rancis] Paul Wilson (b. 1946) (Doubleday & Co, 1976)
The central volume of the author’s series the LaNague Chronicles. Mostly science fiction adventure, but it includes a “neo-anarchist” eutopia, more accurately a libertarian eutopia with “a bare minimum of public institutions: police, judiciary, penal, and administration” (79). In the author’s introduction to The LaNague Chronicles. Ed. and sequenced by the author. New York: Baen Books, 1992, he says that his ideas were inspired by Ludwig Von Mises (1881-1973), the Austrian economist who lived and worked in the U. S. from 1940 and Murray Rothbard (1926-1995), a U. S. member of the Austrian School of economics and one of the founders of the von Mises Institute, or, as Wilson puts it, “a rational anarchist, an advocate of laissez fire, a radical capitalist” (viii). In the introduction, he characterizes the LaNague Federation as encouraging “any type of society, no matter how bizarre or crazy the philosophy at its core. . . . With a single proviso: free egress must exist at all times. Anyone who wants to opt out of that society must be allowed to do so” (viii-ix). Other volumes in the series include: “Wheels Within Wheels.” Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact 88.1 (September 1971): 8-49; rev. as Wheels Within Wheels: A Novel of the LaNague Federation. New York: Doubleday, 1978; U.K. ed. London: Sidgewick and Jackson, 1980; rev. ed. Akron, OH: infrapress, 2005, with the addition of “Preface to Wheels Within Wheels (v-vii) and two stories: “Higher Centers” (187-99) [rev. from its original publication illus. Vincent Di Fate in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact 87.2 (April 1971): 149-60]; and “The Man With the Anteater” (201-11) [rev. from its original publication illus. Kelly Freas in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact 87.5 (July 1971): 57-66]; An Enemy of the State [cover adds the subtitle A Novel of the La Nague Federation]. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980. Rpt. New York: Berkley, 1984; rev. ed. Akron, OH: infrapress, 2001, with a “Preface” (i-iii) and the addition of two stories: “Ratman” (281-98) [originally published illus. Vincent Di Fate. Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact 87.6 (August 1971)]: 149-64; and “Lipidleggin’” (299-307) [originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 2.4 (7) (May-June 1978): 137-145]; and The Tery. New York: Baen Books, 1990. See also is 1989 Dydeetown World, which is connected to the series. The Complete LaNague (Kindle, 2013) contains all the material. The LaNague Chronicles sequences the series as An Enemy of the State, Healer I: Heal Thyself, Healer II: Heal Thy Neighbor, Healer III: Hide Thyself, Wheels Within Wheels, Healer IV: Find They Progeny, Healer V: Heal They Nation, and the text in the book is in this order. “The Complete LaNague Chronology” is provided on page xi. Wheels Within Wheels won the first Prometheus Award from the Libertarian Futurist Society. Both Healer and An Enemy of the State were elected by the Libertarian Futurist Society to the Promethean Hall of Fame.
Rpt. Lancaster, PA: Stealth Press, 2001; and Akron, OH: Infrapress, 2005. U.K. ed. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1977. Part was published as “Pard” Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact 90.4 (December 1972): 137-67. Rpt. in his The Tery (New York: Baen Books, 1990), 191-246.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Hostage for Hinterland - Arsen [Julius] Darnay (b. 1936) (Ballantine Books, 1976)
Post-catastrophe urban versus rural conflict. The urban areas were floating structures that needed helium, that only the rural areas could provide, to stay aloft. The rural people are religious and ecologically oriented. They believe, based on their reading of the Bible, that there is a prophecy that they must destroy the urban areas.
Different version serialized as "Helium." Galaxy Science Fiction 36.4 - 6 (April - July 1975): 18-74, 52-107, 87-145.
Keywords: Hungarian author; Male author; US author

"Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" - [Alice Bradley] [Sheldon] (1915-87) (Aurora: Beyond Equality, 1976)
Feminist eutopia composed only of women, mostly clones but with a few new genotypes still being created, confronts men returning from a long space voyage. The eutopia came because an epidemic caused widespread infertility and no male babies were born. It has a small population and is without hierarchy or government and, while it has space travel, it is based more on agriculture than technology. The three men include an extreme chauvinist, a Christian who believes that God established a patriarchal system, and one man who struggles to understand and accept the situation.
Rpt. in Star Songs of an Old Primate (New York: Ballantine Books, 1978), 164-226; in The Arbor House Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels. Comp. Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg (New York: Arbor House, 1980), 582-632; under the title of the story New York: Tor, 1989 as part of Tor Double Novel # 11 bound with Joanna Russ’s Souls; and in her Her Smoke Rose Up Forever ([Sauk City, WI:] Arkham House, 1990), 168-222.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"I See You" - Damon [Francis] Knight (1922-2002) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1976)
Total surveillance presented positively.
Rpt. in Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World. Ed. [Glen] David Brin and Stephen W. Potts. Sponsored by The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination (UCSD) (New York: Tor, 2017), 91-101.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Islands - Marta Randall (b. 1948) (Pyramid Books, 1976)
Earth has become a world of immortals, but the treatments fail on one woman who leaves Earth but then returns, an old woman in a world of eternal youth.
Rev. ed. New York: Pocket Books, 1980.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"It's a Sunny Day" - Spider Robinson (b. 1948) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1976)
Dystopia and eutopia contrasting two planets, an overpopulated urban society where efficiency is the norm and an agricultural society where enjoying life is the norm.
Rpt. in Axiom 3.6 (November/December 1977): 42-45, 49-51, 57-58; and in Visions From the Edge: An Anthology of Atlantic Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy. Ed. John Bell and Lesley Choyce (Porters Lake, NS, Canada: Pottersfield Press, 1981), 193-202 with an editor's note on 192.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Keeper - J[oan Carol] Hunter Holly (1932-82) (Laser Books, 1976)
Dystopia of a society with no emotion and people programmed not to feel.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Lost Traveller; A Motorcycle Grail Quest Epic and Science Fiction Western - Steve Wilson (b. 1943) (Macmillan, 1976)
Post-catastrophe dystopia centered on biker gangs.
U.S. ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1977.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Millennium: A Novel About People and Politics in the Year 1999 - Ben[jamin William] Bova (1932-2020) (Random House, 1976)
Dystopia. In caverns in the moon Russian and American colonies cooperate to try to save the Earth from mass destruction.
U.K. ed. London: Macdonald and Jane's, 1976. U.K. ed. rpt. without the subtitle London: Methuen, 1988. Rpt. with the non-utopian Kinsman (1979) in The Kinsman Saga (New York: Tor, 1987), 271-566.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Predators" - Steven [D.] Utley (1948-2013) (The Ides of Tomorrow: Original Science Fiction Tales of Horror, 1976)
Dystopia of violence as background to a time travel story.
Rpt. in his When or Where (Hornsea, Eng.: PS Publishing, 2006), 55-64.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Rolltown - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Ace Books, 1976)
Large mobile homes, collectively creating towns, trying to deal with a damaged environment and attempting to escape an authoritarian meritocracy.
Originally published in a shorter version as "The Towns Must Roll." If Worlds of Science Fiction 19.6 - 7 (139 - 40) (July - September 1969): 7-46, 114-48. The copyright page in the book says that the earlier version was in Galaxy; that is wrong.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Section G: United Planets - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Ace Books, 1976)
Part of Reynolds's loosely connected United Planets series. In this novel, secret agents of the United Planets battle against oppressive governments modeled after Earth dictatorships. Other Section G novels include “Beehive.” Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact 76.4 - 76.6 (December 1965 - January 1966): 8-53, 90-142. Rpt. as Dawnman Planet. New York: Ace Books, 1966. An Ace Double bound with Claude Nunes, Inherit the Earth. New York: Ace Books, 1966); Code Duello. New York: Ace Books, 1968. Ace Double bound with John M. Faucette, [Jr.]. The Age of Ruin. New York: Ace Books, 1968); and Brain World. New York: Leisure Books, 1978.
Parts published in Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact as "Fiesta Brava." 80.1 (September 1967): 74-132; and "Psi Assassin." 80.4 (December 1967): 142-159.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Shadow of Alpha - C[harles] L[ewis] Grant (1942-2006) (Berkley Books, 1976)
The background to a catastrophe (plague) thriller is a standard authoritarian dystopia set in 2189. Sequels that follow the same family are 1977 and 1979 Grant. A related story is his "Seven Is a Burning." Analog Science Fiction Science Fact 96.1 (January 1976): 124-35.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Shadrach in the Furnace - Robert Silverberg (b. 1935) (Bobbs-Merrill, 1976)
Post-catastrophe authoritarian dystopia with a leader compulsively concerned with immortality. Most of the novel is concerned with the leader's doctor, Mordecai Shadrach, and the decisions he has to make.
Also published in Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact 96.8 - 10 (August - October 1976): 97-162; 88-162; 88-127; 10-74, 76-91, 129-56.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Shattered Chain - Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-99) (DAW Books, 1976)
Part of her Darkover series concerned with the Free Amazons, a utopian sub-culture. There are a large number of books and stories by Bradley and others that are set in Darkover. Here I have included only those works that are clearly eutopian, and most of the works included focus on the Free Amazons. See 1979, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1991 Bradley; 1979 Breen; 1980 Boal (2), Mathews, Silvestri, Verana, and Verba; 1985 Armistead, Bigelow, Boal, Carter, Holtzer, Jaida nha Sandra, Kramer, Lackey, Paxson, Riggs, Schwartz, Shannon, Mathews (2), Silvestri, Verba, Waters, and Wheeler; 1982 Holdom, 1987 Boal, Buchanan, and Fenoglio; 1990 Lackey; 1991 Alward, Armstrong, Armstrong-Jones, Avery, Carter, Cirone, Fenoglia, Jaggers, Kobylecky, Lamb, Nazarian, Novak, Partridge, Paxson, Rey, Rhodes, Rodriguez, Verba, Waters, and Wheeler; 1993 Heydt and Schimel; 1994 Pierson, Paxson, and Lackey; 2013 Caffrey and Edhghill; 2014 Paxson; 2015 Paxson.
Rpt. Boston: Gregg Press, 1979; and in Oath of the Renunciates (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, 1983), 1-212. U.K. ed. of The Shattered Chain. London: Arrow Books, 1978; rpt. London: Severn House, 1985
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Thanatos" - Vonda N[eel] McIntyre (1948-2019) (Future Power: A Science Fiction Anthology, 1976)
Authoritarian dystopia in a world where all plants and animals have died. Everyone convicted of a crime is kept alive while attached to machines that pump from them all the nutrients needed to sustain others.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Then Beggars Could Ride - R[adell] F[araday] Nelson (1931-2022) (Laser Books, 1976)
The protagonist searches throughout history for his own utopia finding only disillusionment until the end where he finds a low tech community. The author's "Introduction" (5-7) calls the book a utopia and says that it is possible.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Time of the Fourth Horseman - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (b. 1942) (Doubleday, 1976)
Authoritarian dystopia in the U.S. with disease as a means of population control.
Rpt. New York: Ace Books, 1977.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Treasures of Morrow - H[elen] M[ary] Hoover (1935-2018) (Four Winds Press, 1976)
Sequel 1973 Hoover in which the children live in the eutopia but also return to the primitive society to try to assist it.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Triage" - William [Herbert] Walling (b. 1926) (Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact, 1976)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Rpt. in International Relations Through Science Fiction. Ed. Martin Harry Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander (New York: New Viewpoints, 1978), 142-60.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Tricentennial" - John [Patrick] Shirley (b. 1954) (The Exploded Heart, 1976)
Extremely violent, poverty stricken, overpopulated urban dystopia.
Originally published in the Portland Scribe.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Tricentennial" - Joe [Joseph William] Haldeman (b. 1943) (Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact, 1976)
Dystopia set in 2075 in which guilds have come to dominate the political system; only about two percent of the population vote.
Rpt. in his Infinite Dreams (New York: Avon, 1978), 200-19; in Galaxy’s Edge, no. 36 (January 2019): 61-71; and in Shapers of Worlds: Science fiction & fantasy by authors featured on the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worshippers. Ed. Edward Willett (Regina, SK, Canada: Shadowpaw Press, 2020), 317-53.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Turning Place: Stories of a Future Past - Jean E[dna] Karl (1927-2000) (E. P. Dutton, 1976)
Young adult eutopia presented in a series of linked stories beginning with a destroyed Earth and its slow rebirth. In the process of rebirth, human beings come to recognize the ties that bind them all together. They also become more inward looking at the same time that they are in contact with other planets and ultimately with the galaxy, where humans have a role in creating a galactic government. 1981 Karl is a companion volume.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Venus Development - David Bergamini (1928-83) (Popular Library, 1976)
Corporate controlled authoritarian dystopia intent on establishing a colony on Mars and the successful revolt of the first colonists.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Way Out - John [Blair] Vornholt [Jr.] (b. 1951) (Dramatic Publishing Co, 1976)
Humorous play. To escape the overpopulated dystopia of Earth a family rents a planet they think is uninhabited, as has an alien family, with another different alien showing up later.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Woman on the Edge of Time - Marge Piercy (b. 1936) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1976)
Detailed feminist eutopia that is half a realistic novel about the mistreatment of the poor by the police, social workers and the medical/psychiatric profession. Eliminates gendered pronouns; replaced with "per".
Rpt. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1976. U.K. ed. London: Women's Press, 1983. [40th anniversary edition]. London: Gollancz, 2016 with “Introduction to the 2016 Edition” by Piercy (vii-xi).
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light." - [Alice Bradley] [Sheldon] (1915-87) (Aurora: Beyond Equality, 1976)
Future dystopia of violence directed particularly at women.
Rpt. in James Tiptree, Jr. [pseud.], Her Smoke Rose Up Forever: The Great Years of James Tiptree, Jr. (Suak City, WI: Arkham House, 1990), 149-67; and in Feminist Philosophy and Science Fiction: Utopias and Dystopias. Ed. Judith A. Little (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007), 247-63.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Ability Quotient - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Ace Books, 1975)
Pills are given people to increase intelligence and their ability to absorb knowledge. They are then encouraged to marry others who have taken the pills with their abilities passed on to their children. This will lead to a better society. Reynolds uses the idea of an "ability quotient" in other works.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Be Ye Perfect" - M[artha] A[nn] Bartter (1932-2013) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1975)
Dystopia. Population control through forced breeding between two communities.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Breath’s a Ware That Will Not Keep” - Thomas F[rancis] Monteleone (b. 1946) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
Dystopia in which a computer is programmed to produce people for the city of Chicago from a breeder tank.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Civis Lapvtvs Svm" - Gene [Rodman] Wolfe (1931-2019) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
Dystopia describing a community that is isolated on a flying island and the tensions that develop between the dominant groups.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Civis Obit" - Laurence M[ark] Janifer (1933-2002) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
Dystopia of old people being kept technically alive but warehoused.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Come See the Last Man Cry" - Joan [Carol] Hunter Holly (1932-82) (Tomorrow: New Worlds of Science Fiction, 1975)
Dystopia. Emotionless people who need to torment a child into expressing unhappiness for public viewing.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Come Take a Dip With Me in the Genetic Pool" - Rachel Cosgrove Payes (1922-98) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
Dystopia in which an authoritarian genetic council decides who can have children and requires abortions when a relationship is not approved.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Concert: A Short Story of Paradise Found" - [Susan] [Furchgott] (Utopian Eyes, 1975)
Eutopia. Story of the future of the Kerista polyfidelity community.
Rpt. in Kerista; Journal of Utopian Group Living 3.2 (Autumn, 1986): 1-27
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Counter Ecology" - Norman Kagan (b. 1943) (Tomorrow Today, 1975)
Authoritarian, violent dystopia of a destroyed ecology.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Curse of the Ring - Melvin [Ezell] Gorham (1910-94) (Sovereign Press, 1975)
Richard Wagner's (1813-83) opera set in the 21st century. See also 1970 and 1979 Gorham. For other works from the same general perspective, see 1984 von Konen and the note there, 1984 Valoric Fire, and 1987 Pedersen.
Rev. and exp. as Melvin Gorham's Interpretation of Richard Wagner's The Rhinegold [Cover adds side by side with Wagner's Libretto]. Rochester, WA: Sovereign Press, 1990.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Death in Coventry" - Joseph [Lee] Green (b. 1931) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
Dystopia of human alien relations on a developing planet, with the humans entirely at fault.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Doomsday Clock - Elizabeth S. Benoist (1901-99) (Naylor Co, 1975)
A novel about the build-up to nuclear war and the aftermath of the war. A small group of survivors is shown in an almost eutopian underground shelter. Conflicts develop among them, and they work to return to the surface.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Drumble" - [Charles Dodd] [Naylor] (1941-2005) (The New Improved Sun: An Anthology of Utopian S-F, 1975)
Flawed utopia in which an English village is encapsulated and kept forever unchanged as a tourist attraction. Everyone inside, who live forever, is provided with all material needs.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Dybbuk Dolls" - Jack [Mayo] Dann (b. 1945) (New Dimensions Number 5, 1975)
Dystopia of poverty and anti-Semitism. Most groups live in high-rise ghettos. The dybbuk dolls are alien artifacts that reinforce a person's worst characteristics.
Rpt. in Light Years and Dark; Science Fiction and Fantasy Of and For Our Time. Ed. Michael Bishop (New York: Berkley Books, 1984), 78-92.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Ecotopia. The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston - Ernest [William] Callenbach [Jr.] (1929-2012) (Banyan Tree Books, 1975)
Ecological eutopia. See also 1981 Callenbach and his Living Poor With Style. Illus. Judith Clancy Johns. New York: Bantam Books, 1972. A later version which is said to “evolved” from this book and The Ecotopian Encyclopedia (1980) is Living Cheaply With Style. Berkeley, CA: Ronin Publishing, 1993.
Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1977; and the 40th anniversary edition as Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston. Berkeley, CA: Banyan Tree Books in Association with Heyday Books, 2014, with a “Foreword” by Malcolm Margolin (iii-ix) and Callenbach’s “Epistle to the Ecotopians” (173-81) that was found on his computer after his death in 2012. Part first published as “First Days in Ecotopia.” American Review 19 (January 1974): 79-102. Part later published as “Ecotopia.” Oregon Times (October - November 1975): 32-36, 22-23; and as “Journey to Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston.” Harper’s Weekly 65 (May 17, 1976): 11-18.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Exile Waiting - Vonda N[eel] McIntyre (1948-2019) (Nelson Doubleday, 1975)
Post-apocalyptic dystopia set in the Center, a domed city that involves slavery located in a cave system connected to an old missile site. The novel is unusual for the time including disabled characters. For a study of disability in science fiction, see Kathryn Allan, ed. Disability in Science Fiction: Representations of Technology as Cure. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. Her Dreamsnake. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1978 is set in the same universe. Dreamsnake is based on revisions of her “A Broken Dome.” Illus. Janet Aulisio. Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact 98.3 (March 1978): 50-66, 68-72, 74-100; “The Serpent’s Death.” Illus. Janet Aulisio. Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact 98.2 (February 1978): 67-93; and “Of Mist and Grass.” Illus. Leo Summers. Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact 92.2 (October 1973): 73-92.
Rpt. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, [1976]]; and Bath, Eng.: Handheld Press, 2019, with “Cages.” Illus. Olivier Olivier. Quark/4. Ed. Samuel R. Delany and Marilyn Hacker (New York: Paperback Library, 1971), 163-73, which includes characters who then appear in the novel, rpt. on 281-91, a “Note on the text” on 280; an “Afterword” by Una McCormack (293-312); “Further Reading” (313-14) and a “List of [McIntyre’s] works” (315-16).
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Faces Forward" - Jack [Mayo] Dann (b. 1945); George Zebrowski (b. 1945) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
A series of brief and quite varied dystopian vignettes.
Keywords: Male author; US author

From the Legend of Biel - Mary Staton (b. 1945?) (Ace Books, 1975)
A complex novel focusing on a highly advanced society both technically and socially trying to push human evolution along faster with both positive and negative results. This culture, which is part of a vast federation of worlds, meets a primitive culture on one world and the humans who visit that planet.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Gift" - Laurence M[ark] Janifer (1933-2002) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
A future where all lifestyles are acceptable. The focus is on homosexuality. Parts can be read as dystopian.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Girl Who Owned a City - O. T. Nelson (Lerner Publications, 1975)
Young adult post-catastrophe dystopia in which all adults die, and the children struggle to survive. The novel focuses on a girl who takes over a high school building to provide security for her group.
Adapted by Dan Jolley. Illus. Joëlle Jones. Colored by Jenn Manley Lee. Letters by Grace Lu. Minneapolis, MN: Graphics Universe™, 2012. There are quite a few other editions and reprints.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Going - Sumner Locke Elliott (1917-1991) (Harper & Row, 1975)
Future dystopia of love and patriotism Set in the U.S. People are euthanized at an age not specified in the novel The protagonist is an elderly woman on the day she will be euthanized remembering her life and her family, particularly her husband who committed suicide, her rebellious daughter who had been lobotomized, and her powerful, hated son-in-law who had created the dystopia, and kept her other daughter sedated.
Australian ed. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Macmillan Company of Australia, 1975.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author; US author

"Going Down" - Barry N[athaniel] Malzberg (b. 1939) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
Dystopia of sexual gratification in which an Institute ensures that all fantasies and fetishes are fulfilled with no concern for the other people involved.
Rpt. in Kindred Spirits: An Anthology of Gay and Lesbian Science Fiction Stories. Ed. Jeffrey M. Elliot (Boston, MA: Alyson Publications, 1984), 99-119.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Growing Up in Edge City" - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Epoch, 1975)
Dystopia describing a totally enclosed city where every person is constantly monitored. One boy discovers a way outside and people living there. Punished, he ultimately arranges for the destruction of those outside to advance his career.
Rpt. in his Pohlstars (New York: Ballantine Books, 1984), 126-39.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Growing Up in Tier 3000 - Felix C[harles] Gotschalk [Jr.] (1929-2002) (Ace Books, 1975)
Grotesque dystopia in which children kill parents as part of the rites of passage because constraint on energy resources necessitates a limit on population. People have implants that greatly expand physical powers, and instruments are available to measure all bodily functions. Rule by clones of past leaders.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Heavens Below: Fifteen Utopias" - John [Thomas] Sladek (1937-2000) (The New Improved Sun: An Anthology of Utopian S-F, 1975)
Series of short utopias gone wrong. Some are jokes rather than serious comment.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The Hero as Werwolf - Gene [Rodman] Wolfe (1931-2019) (The New Improved Sun: An Anthology of Utopian S-F, 1975)
Dystopia in which the rebel against the dystopian order is a werewolf.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye of the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, and Leviathan - Robert [Joseph] Shea (1933-94); Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007) (Dell, 1975)
Dystopia that revels in conspiracy theories and secret societies. The novels have significant libertarian themes, and in 1986 the book won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award of the Libertarian Futurist Society. Adapted as a series of five plays, The Eye of the Pyramid, Swift Kick Inc., The Man Who Murdered God, Walpurgisnacht Rock, and Leviathan, with each play consisting of five twenty-three-minute acts and first performed in Liverpool in 1976. It was also adapted as a comic book with three issues formally published and a fourth issue distributed at comic book conventions. Wilson was more identified with the novels than Shea, and he published three autobiographical novels that continued to considered themes of the trilogy, Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati. Grand Junction, CO: Hilaritas Press, 1977; Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth. Las Vegas, NV: New Falcon Publications, 1991; and Cosmic Trigger III: My Life After Death. Las Vegas, NV: New Falcon Publications, 1995. He also published The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, comprised of The Earth Will Shake. A Novel. Los Angeles, CA: J. P. Tarcher, 1982; The Widow’s Son. New York: Bluejay Books, 1985; and Nature’s God. New York: Roc, 1991; and Masks of the Illuminati. New York Dell, 1981. See also 2017 [Drummond and Cauty].
Originally published as Illuminatus, Part I The Eye of the Pyramid. New York: Dell, 1975. 304 pp. Cover as Illuminatus! (1-305); Illuminatus Part II The Golden Apple New York: Dell, 1975. 272 pp. Cover as Illuminatus! (305-562); and Illuminatus Part III Leviathan. New York: Dell, 1975. 253 pp. Cover as Illuminatus! (563-805).
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Karma Machine - [Michael] [Zeik] (Popular Library, 1975)
Dystopia in which ancient Eastern wisdom is wedded with a modern computer.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Life and Times of Multivac" - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (The New York Times Magazine, 1975)
Flawed utopia in which everyone lives well, but all important decisions are made by a large computer, which, for example, decides who can have children and when. Also, people are only allowed to do unimportant work and that only with permission.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Missing Man - Katherine [Anne] MacLean (1925-2019) (Berkley Books, 1975)
Dystopia. Overpopulation leads to break up into small, hostile communities.
Part originally published under this title in Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact 87.1 (March 1971): 8-51. Rpt. in Analog 9. Ed. Ben[jamin William] Bova (London: Dennis Dobson, 1973), 110-66; Nebula Award Stories Seven. Ed. Lloyd Biggle, Jr. (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 206-260, with an editor’s note on 206-07; and in her The Trouble with You Earth People (Norfolk, VA: Donning, 1980), 189-237. Other parts published in Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact as "The Fear Hound" 81.3 (May 1968): 102-24; and "Rescue Squad For Ahmed" 86.2 (October 1970): 72-104.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"A Modest Utopia" - Stuart Chase (1888-1985). (The Futurist, 1975)
Essay presenting an environmentally sound world society. A steady-state society based on world-wide negative population growth would be able to provide food, shelter, education, and health care for all. World energy authority. World police/military in charge of all weapons of war. World administrative body. Not the same as 1928 Chase. See also 1968 Chase.
Rpt. as "Toward a Steady-State Society." Current 179 (January 1976): 3-8.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The New Atlantis" - Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin (1929-2018) (The New Atlantis and Other Novellas of Science Fiction, 1975)
Bureaucratic, authoritarian, and violent dystopia. War is constant; global warming is destroying the planet; the government controls all power sources, which are failing; food and medication are in short supply; marriage and the nuclear family are illegal; women cannot be admitted to medical school; and minor bureaucratic rules are used to keep people in line for fear of being imprisoned.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #5. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Ballantine Books, 1976), 165-92; in Dream’s Edge: Science Fiction Stories About the Future of Planet Earth. Ed. Terry Carr (San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 1980), 185-205; in her The Compass Rose: Short Stories (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 12-40. U.K. ed. (London: Victor Gollancz, 1983), 12-40; in The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction. Ed. Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin and Brian Attebery. Karen Joy Fowler, Consultant (New York: W.W. Norton, 1993), 317-36; and in The Way to the End Times: Classic Tales of the Apocalypse. Ed. Robert Silverberg (New York: Three Rooms Press, 2016), 229-56, with an “Editor’s Introduction” on 228.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Or Little Ducks Each Day" - R[aphael] A[loysius] Lafferty (1914-2002) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
Odd dystopia in which some people are able to foretell individual futures except that there are areas of the city where the future can be changed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Peddler's Apprentice" - Vernor [Steffen] Vinge (1944-2024); Joan [Carol] D[ennison] Vinge (b. 1948) (Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact, 1975)
Dystopia--a small section of the story describes a world government that through drugs and manipulation has kept the world unchanging.
Rpt. in Vernor Vinge, True Names . . . and Other Dangers (New York: Baen Books, 1987), 146-97; and in The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge (New York: Tor, 2001), 55-89. This ed. has notes by Vernor Vinge.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

The Peter Plan; A Proposal for Survival - Laurence J[ohnston] Peter (1919-90) (William Morrow, 1975)
A future eutopia based on political participation. An emphasis on ecology.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

The Premar Experiments - Robert H[enry] Rimmer (1917-2001) (Crown, 1975)
A sequel to 1966 Rimmer. Premar = premarital. In this novel, Harrad College expands its experiment as described in 1966 Rimmer to include an ethnically, financially, and racially diverse population living communally. In the earlier novel all the people were white, extremely intelligent, and of similar ethnicity. Here the sexual relations cross all those borders. A part of the plan is to rejuvenate the generally poor areas within which the communes are established. See 1966, 1968, 1978, 1982, and 2000 Rimmer.
Rpt. New York: Signet, 1976
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Prologue to Utopia: The Six Days of its Creation (out of the conditions of the now-existing world)" - Barbara Gibbs (1912-93); Francis Golffing (1910-2012) (Northern New England Review, 1975)
Short description of the beginnings of a eutopia based on "a psychological revolution" which allows human beings to see themselves as one world-wide society. See also 1962 and 1991 Golffing and Gibbs.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

"Risk" - Joanna [Ruth] Russ (1937-2011) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1975)
A man resurrected from the past hates the future eutopia in which technology keeps people from being injured.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Satellite City - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Ace Books, 1975)
Dystopia of a satellite free from government control that serves as a pleasure ground for the rich and powerful where anything goes. It is actually mostly run by the Mafia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“A Scenario for a New Medicine” - Rick J. Carlson (b. 1940) (The End of Medicine, 1975)
This section brings together the argument of the book describing medicine in the year 2000 saying that the medical care system “will be smaller than at present and will consume far fewer resources” (238). There will be neighborhood hospitals and learning centers with emergency services, regional health centers, and residential complexes for the elderly that “will stress self-care and responsibility but will provide all necessary medical care on site” (239). Hospital based medical teams will replace independent office practices. Overseeing the system will be a Department of Health Affairs with the mission of ensuring that the environment is “as conducive to health as possible” (239).
Keywords: Male author; US author

“A Scenario: Religion 2101: The Monkey Rite or Whatever Happened to the Pewsitters and Sunday-Dress-Up People” - Hiley H. Ward (d. 2009) (Religion 2101 A.D., 1975)
Dystopia of a future authoritarian system using religion as one of its control mechanisms.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Scraping at the Bones" - Algis [Algirdas Jonas] Budrys (1931-2008) (Blood and Burning, 1975)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Seeds of Change - Thomas F[rancis] Monteleone (b. 1946) (Laser Books, 1975)
Authoritarian dystopia set in Denver 200 years in the future. The society is technologically far advanced, and computers are used to identify possible deviations from the genetic norm. Escapees have established an underground complex outside the city, and they ultimately defeat and destroy the city.
Keywords: Male author; US author

She Would Have Been a Taxi Dancer, but He Couldn’t Hail a Cab. A Novel - David Manning (Loom Press, 1975)
A dystopian novel that follows a couple called the Typewriter and the Road Map in their constantly frustrated attempts to leave New York City.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Showboat World - Jack [John Holbrook] Vance (1916-2013) (Pyramid, 1975)
Set in same world as 1952 Vance but presenting a different aspect of the planet focusing on the eccentrics inhabiting Big Planet and the showboats that provide entertainment.
U.K. ed. London: Coronet, 1977. Rpt. London: VGSF, 1990. Rpt. as The Magnificent Showboats of the Lower Vissel River Lune XXIII South, Big Planet. San Francisco, CA:/Columbia, PA: Underwood-Miller, 1983; and as vol. 19 of The Complete Works of Jack Vance. Oakland, CA: Vance Integral Editions, 2005.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Sierra Maestra" - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact, 1975)
The revolutionaries of the New Left abandon revolution and infiltrate the economic and political system until they can take over and institute their policies. The story ends just as they succeed. The policies mentioned include 100 per cent tax on profits, forgiveness of all government debt, and prohibition of private ownership of all cars.
Rpt. in his The Star-Spangled Future (New York: Ace Books, 1979), 293-305 with an "Introduction to Sierra Maestra" (291-92).
Keywords: Male author; US author

Starcrossed - Ben[jamin William] Bova (1932-2020) (Chilton, 1975)
Background of a future polluted dystopia.
Rpt. New York: Jove/HBJ, 1979.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Stork Factor - [Hugh] [Zachary] (1928-2016) (Berkley Books, 1975)
Religious dystopia with advancement only within the religious hierarchy and medical care reserved for the powerful.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Tomorrow File - Lawrence [A.] Sanders (1920-98) (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1975)
Authoritarian dystopia in the form of a mystery novel set in a complex future U.S. Drugs, biological advances. Power has moved to the bureaucracy, which is primarily concerned with itself rather than the country. The Department of Bliss replaces the Department of Health and Human Services and other, similar changes have taken place in U.S. government. The U.S. has added states from throughout the world. Language has changed: Love means money, Objects means people, Obso. means old referring to both people and artifacts, Profit means benefit or enjoying, Service means work, and Using means sex.
Rpt. New York: Berkley Books, 1976. U.K. ed. London: Corgi, 1977.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Tomorrow Might Be Different - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Ace Books, 1975)
Dystopias of a future in which the world is dominated by a Soviet Union that is successful, hedonistic, and consumer-oriented.
Shorter version as "Russkies Go Home!" The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 19.5 (November 1960): 94-130.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Towers of Utopia - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Bantam Books, 1975)
Eutopia based on the Negative Income Tax but with reflections on possible problems. Life in a huge, almost self-contained apartment complex.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Uncoupling" - Barry N[athaniel] Malzberg (b. 1939) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
Overpopulation dystopia with regulated access to sexual fulfillment of all one's desires.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Unpopular Planet - Evelyn E. Smith (1927-2000) (Dell, 1975)
Authoritarian dystopia. No violence. Sex only with permission.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Unto the Last Generation - Juanita [Ruth Welllons] Coulson (b. 1933) (Lancer, 1975)
Dystopia in which people have lost the ability to breed.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Walls Within Walls - Arthur [Reginald] Tofte (1908-80) (Laser Books, 1975)
Authoritarian dystopia concerned with controlling mutants. The mutant society is also described.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Warriors of Dawn - M[ichael] A[nthony] Foster (b. 1939) (DAW Books, 1975)
The novel is mostly adventure and romance, but it includes some description of an apparently eutopian society of advanced aliens that had been created by humans on an overpopulated Earth trying to speed up human evolution. The aliens, called Ler, have a long adolescence (until about thirty), a short period of fertility (about 30 to 40), and a low birthrate. Families (braids) include an original couple, added mates for each, the children produced, their mates, and their children, at which point the original couple leaves singly or together and are free to do as they like. Each braid has a defined occupational role. Related novels are The Gameplayers of Zan. New York: DAW Books, 1977, which is set before The Warriors of Dawn, and The Day of the Klesh. New York: DAW Books, 1979, which is a sequel, are mostly adventure. The three volumes are rpt. in his The Book of Ler: The Gameplayers of Zan The Warriors of Dawn The Day of the Klesh. New York: DAW Books, 2006, with The Gameplayers on 1-432, The Warriors on 433-692, and The Day on 693-923.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Weapons" - Pamela Sargent (b. 1948); George Zebrowski (b. 1945) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
Dystopia that violently enforces racial and class discrimination.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

"Where Summer Song Rings Hollow" - Gail Kimberly [Francis] (1927-2011) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
Eternally renewable youth seen as a eutopia by some and a dystopia by others.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Xenofreak/Xenophobe" - Edward [Winslow] Bryant [Jr.] (1945-2017) (Dystopian Visions, 1975)
Dystopia brought on by contact with aliens far in advance of humans.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Year of the Spiatnik - Robert Betchov (1919-96) (CPRI Press, 1975)
Overwhelmingly about war and the preparations for war, but it ends with world peace and the establishment of a World Authority. The Pact for the World Authority is provided in an appendix.
Keywords: Male author; US author

All Times Possible - Gordon [Stewart] Eklund (b. 1945) (DAW Books, 1974)
Alternative futures centering on authoritarian dystopias.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Anarchy, State, and Utopia - Robert Nozick (1938-2002) (Basic Books, 1974)
A treatise in political theory, but Part III "Utopia" (297-334 with footnotes on 351-53) describes in detail an anarcho-capitalist eutopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Android Armageddon - [Sandor] Robert Tralins (1926-2010) (Pinnacle Books, 1974)
Authoritarian dystopia in which a machine, called Justivac, creates a "perfect" society where humans no longer need to make decisions.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Battle of Disneyland - Thom[as Francis] Keyes (1943?-95?) (W. H. Allen, 1974)
Future destruction of the U.S. with California an island floating toward Hawaii.
Keywords: Male author; UK author; US author

The Bladerunner - Alan E[dward] Nourse (1928-92) (David McKay, 1974)
Medical dystopia. Bladerunners are those who secure black market medical supplies for the underground medical system. See also 1979 Burroughs, Blade Runner.
Rpt. New York: Ballantine Books, 1975.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Blood Sport: A Journey Up the Hassayampa - Robert F[rancis] Jones (1934-2002) (Simon & Schuster, 1974)
Dystopia of a overpopulated, polluted future compared to a dystopia/eutopia of violent but integrated outlaw community.
Rpt. New York: Lyons & Burford, [1997]. U.K. ed. as Ratnose: A Journey Up the Hassayampa. London: London Magazine Editions, 1975.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Born Free: A Feminist Fable" - Letty Cottin Pogrebin (b. 1939) (Woman in the Year 2000, 1974)
Feminist eutopia. The story follows the first thirteen years of the life of a girl born into an egalitarian society at midnight on January 1, 2000. Each person works twenty-five hours a week with an additional six hours a month of volunteer work, although they can arrange their hours as they choose (11-12). Much of the story concerns childbirth, day-care, which is available everywhere, and education, all with many alternative arrangements. People are completely free to arrange their relationships (6). Male and female contraception is freely available, and abortion is a woman’s right (7). Cooperative housekeeping (9). All sport, including professional sport is mixed sex (18). Gay people are now completely accepted (22-23). The U.S. is now a parliamentary system rather than a presidential one (4). The female author was an editor of Ms. Magazine.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Brown Pelican - George Sklar (1908-88) (Dramatists Play Service, 1974)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Catman" - Harlan [Jay] Ellison (1934-2018) (Final Stage: The Ultimate Science Fiction Anthology, 1974)
A dystopia of corrupt capitalism is the background to the story.
The author's original version was published in the U.K. ed. Final Stage: The Ultimate Science Fiction Anthology. Ed. Edward L. Ferman and Barry N[athaniel] Malzberg (Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1975), 134-70. "Afterword" (170-75). Rpt. in Ellison, Approaching Oblivion: Road Signs on the Treadmill Toward Tomorrow. Eleven Uncollected Stories (New York: Walker & Co., 1974), 141-77; and in Cybersex. Ed. Richard Glyn Jones (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1996), 126-59.
Keywords: Male author; US author

CenterForce - T[homas] A[llen] Waters (1938-98) (Dell Books, 1974)
Authoritarian dystopia in which a group called CenterForce rules the U.S. through violent suppression of all opposition.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Chief Justice Wore a Red Dress" - Doris L[ipson] Sassower (1932-2019) (Woman In the Year 2000, 1974)
Eutopia of gender equality with a focus on the legal profession presented partially fictionally and partially in an historical essay. In the eutopia, the Equal Rights Amendment had passed. A Parental Responsibility Act limited the hours of work of parents with pre-school-age children to twenty-five hours a week, and there was free federally funded day care for twenty-five hours per week.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Chocolate War. A Novel - Robert [Edmund] Cormier (1925-2000) (Pantheon Books, 1974)
Young adult dystopia set in a Catholic boys’ school with the temporary head trying to be appointed permanently by encouraging the usual bullying and competition. Among the books most banned in schools. A film written and directed by Keith Gordon (b. 1961) was released in 1988. A sequel, Beyond the Chocolate War. A Novel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985, is set a few months later with the temporary head now Headmaster and the corruption and conflicts continuing.
Keywords: Male author; US author

City in the Sky - Curt Siodmak (1902-2000) (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974)
Mostly adventure but depicts both a dystopian prison in a satellite in space and a large space satellite community that is described positively.
Keywords: German author; Male author; US author

Commune 2000 A.D - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Bantam Books, 1974)
Flawed utopia with a Universal Guaranteed Income and sexual freedom but with people growing bored and disaffected and establishing many different intentional communities.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Day Before the Revolution" - Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin (1929-2018) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1974)
The story of Odo, theorist of the revolution in 1974 Le Guin, The Dispossessed, as an old woman just before the revolution. The Galaxy version is dedicated “in memoriam Paul Goodman 1911-1972”. Although the story takes place before the novel, it was written after it. See the note on the story in The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, where she also says, “This story is about one of the ones who walked away from Omelas” [1973 Le Guin] (232).
Rpt. in her The Wind’s Twelve Quarters: Short Stories (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 232-46; in Nebula Award Stories Ten. Ed. James Gunn (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 129-45; in More Women of Wonder: Science Fiction Novelettes By Women About Women. Ed. Pamela Sargent (New York: Vintage, 1976), 279-301; in The Best of the Nebulas (New York: Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, 1989), 391-401, with an “Author’s Foreword” on 390; in Women of Wonder: The Classic Years. Science Fiction by Women from the 1940s to the 1970s. Ed. Pamela Sargent (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1995), 344-57; in The Utopia Reader. Ed. Gregory Claeys and Lyman Tower Sargent (New York: New York University Press, 1999), 407-22; 2nd ed. (New York: New York University Press, 2017), 483-96; in Hainish Novels & Stories Volume One. Rocannon’s World Planet of Exile City of Illusions The Left Hand of Darkness The Dispossessed Stories. Ed. Brian Attebery (New York: Library of America, 2017), 975-89 with a “Note on the Text” (1084); and in The Future is Female! More Classic Science Fiction by Women Volume 2: The 1970s. Ed. Lisa Yaszek (New York: Library of America, 2023), 218-237, with a biographical note on 454-456 and notes on the text on 485-486.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Depression or Bust - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Ace Books, 1974)
Satire on economic cycles. One man decides he can't afford the new freezer he bought and sends it back; the seller of the freezer cancels the new car he had ordered; the car dealer cancels the house he was to have built; and so forth. The economic downswing becomes a full-blown depression until the government gives money to the first man to start buying and the cycle is reversed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia - Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin (1929-2018) (Harper & Row, 1974)
Detailed anarchist eutopia with problems.
Rpt. without the subtitle New York: Avon, 1975; and with the subtitle as the Collector's Edition. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1986 illus. Pat Morrissey and with an "Introduction" (unpaged) by Frederik [George] Pohl, [Jr.]; New York: Harper, 1991. U.K. ed. without the subtitle and with a brief introduction, "Welcome (back) to Anarres" by Richard Morgan (ix-xii). London: Gollancz, 2006; and, with the subtitle, in Hainish Novels & Stories Volume One. Rocannon’s World Planet of Exile City of Illusions The Left Hand of Darkness The Dispossessed Stories. Ed. Brian Attebery (New York: Library of America, 2017), 613-919 with a “Note on the Text” (1083), and “Notes” (1091-92).  An extract was published as “News from Anarres.” Social Revolution: Paper of the Social Revolution Group (Aberdeen, Scot.), no. 4 ([1977]): 12.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Eggs of Eden" - M[artha] A[nn] Bartter (1932-2013) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1974)
Satire on progressive education.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Femininity: 2000" - Carol [Gene Eisen] Rinzler (1941-90) (Woman In the Year 2000, 1974)
Short story of the future for women. Some technological eutopia, some dystopia, some unchanged, which can be read as part of the dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Flow my tears, the policeman said - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Doubleday, 1974)
Authoritarian dystopia in the U.S. following a "Second Civil War". A police state is established under the National Guard and a U.S. police force with forced labor camps. Communities of former university students exist underground where they are barely surviving. Over the course of the novel the situation gradually improves.
Rpt. New York: DAW Books, 1975; and in Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s. Martian Time-Slip; Dr. Bloodmoney; Now Wait for Last Year; Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; A Scanner Darkly. Ed. Jonathan Lethem (New York: The Library of America, 2008), 669-858, 1125-26.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Forever War - Joe [Joseph William] Haldeman (b. 1943) (St. Martin's Press, 1974)
Most of the novel is a war novel set in space, but there are sections that show the effects of the war on Earth. Elements of both eutopia and dystopia. Poverty and unemployment. Homosexuality encouraged as a means of birth control. People are highly educated. Most crime down. Strict limits on private property. Huge cities. Seas are farmed so that everyone is fed. At 70 people are rated for medical coverage; zero rating means no coverage. Sequels include “A Separate War.” Far Horizons. Ed. Robert Silverberg (New York: Avon Eos, 1999), 55-87 with an author’s note on 53-54; and Forever Free. New York: Ace Books, 1999; U.K. ed. London: Millennium, 1997; rpt. from the U.K. ed. in his Peace and War [Cover adds The Omnibus Edition] (London: Gollancz, 2006), 232-427. A graphic novel edition was published London: Titan Comics, 2018. His Forever Peace. New York: Ace Books, 1997; U.K. ed. London: Millennium, 1999; rpt. in his Peace and War [Cover adds The Omnibus Edition] (London: Gollancz, 2006), 428-697 is considered a companion piece.
U.K. ed. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1975. U.S. ed. rpt. New York: Ballantine Books, 1976; London: Gollancz, 2001; and London: Gollancz, 2006 with an “Introduction” by Peter F. Hamilton (ix-xi). An “Author’s Note” (unpaged in 2001 and vii-viii in 2006) says this is “the definitive edition” and explains the history of the various versions. Rpt. from the U.K. ed. in his Peace and War [Cover adds The Omnibus Edition] (London: Gollancz, 2006), 1-231. Parts originally published in Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact as follows: “Here” 89.4 (June 1972): 8-59; “We Are Very Happy Here” 92.3 (November 1973): 104-147; “A Mind of His Own.” 92.6 (February 1974): 80-96; “The Mazel Tov.” 94.1 (September 1974): 77-92; “Truth To Tell” 94.2 (October 1974): 12-24; and “The Best of All Possible Worlds” 94.3 (November 1974): 137-49. “You Can Never Go Back” was originally intended to be the middle part of the series but was rejected. It was published in Amazing Science Fiction 49.3 (November 1975): 6-61 and included in later versions of the book.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Godwhale - [Thomas J.] [Bassler] [M.D.] (1932-2011) (Ballantine Books, 1974)
The novel includes societies that are very advanced in biology, societies that are degenerating, and authoritarian dystopias. On the whole, the human race and its societies are presented as first improving and then degenerating.
U.K. ed. London: Eyre Methuen, 1975. Part originally published as "Rorqual Maru." Illus. Galaxy Science Fiction 32.4 (January-February 1972): 58-86, 88-91.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gomorrah - Marvin Karlins (b. 1941); Lewis M. Andrews (b. 1946) (Doubleday, 1974)
Dystopia of violence.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Hot Ice" - Charles [Braun] Ludlam (1943-97) (The Drama Review, 1974)
Dystopian satire in which all illness, deformity, and obesity is illegal and the Euthanasia Police control population by arresting such people and putting them to death and encouraging suicide. The play is primarily concerned with those trying to prolong life through freezing themselves to be resuscitated later.
Keywords: Male author; US author

House of Stairs - William [Warner] Sleator [III] (1945-2011) (E. P. Dutton, 1974)
Young adult dystopia in which a doctor tries to condition five orphans to become perfect tools of the state. He succeeds with three of them. A group of talented children are run through a maze ("This book is dedicated to all the rats and pigeons who have already been here.") in an attempt to create an elite. Authoritarian dystopia in the background.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“I Bought a Little City” - Donald Barthelme [Jr.] (1931-1989) (The New Yorker, 1974)
The story of a man who bought Galveston, Texas and set out to change it into the city he wanted.
Rpt. in his Amateurs (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976), 50-58; in his Sixty Stories (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1981), 295-301;  and in Collected Stories. (New York: Library of America, 2021), 474-79, with a Chronology (929-935). a Note on the Text (940), and Notes (964).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Impact of the Mid-Twentieth Century Movement for Sex Equality in Employment On Three Contemporary Economic Institutions" - Caroline Bird (1915-2011) (Woman In the Year 2000, 1974)
Eutopia. “A paper presented at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association” illustrating the effect of gender equality on the National Employment Exchange (115-18), the Neighborhood Play Group System (118-21), and the Minimum Income Security System (121-25). The Equal Rights Amendment had passed.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Inheritors of Earth - Gordon [Stewart] Eklund (b. 1945); Poul [William] Anderson (1926-2001) (Chilton Book Co, 1974)
Future dystopia. Authoritarian. Religious revival. Telepathy leads to ability to control minds.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Juryrigged" - Joe [Joseph William] Haldeman (b. 1943) (Vertex, 1974)
Dystopia. One person wired into a computer as a jury.
Rpt. in his Infinite Dreams (New York: Avon, 1978), 126-40.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Love Conquers All" - Fred [Thomas] Saberhagen (1930-2007) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1974)
Dystopia based on Zero Population Growth.
Repub. New York: Ace Books, 1979. Rev. ed. New York: Baen, 1985.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Messengers Will Come No More - Leslie A[aron] Fiedler (1917-2003) (Stein and Day, 1974)
Set in the twenty-fifth century with a variety of societies after a future catastrophe. The main society described has black women at the top of hierarchy with white men at the bottom and is an authoritarian dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Mother Earth Revisited: When Women in Politics Are Old Hat" - Bella [Savitsky] Abzug (1920-1998) (Woman In the Year 2000, 1974)
An interview that is presented as having taken place in 2000 set in a world where Earth is primarily female and the moon and satellites in space are primarily male, a situation brought about by negotiation and political compromise. There had been a nuclear war, Earth had been made largely uninhabitable and people on Earth lived underground. Traditional gender roles have disappeared.
Keywords: Female author; US author

My Petition for More Space - John [Richard] Hersey (1914-93) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1974)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Pale Hands" - Doris Piserchia (1928-2021) (Orbit, 1974)
The story is set in a future New York City where sex is prohibited to control population and Fifth Avenue is lined with masturbation booths.
Rpt. in The Future is Female! More Classic Science Fiction by Women Volume 2: The 1970s. Ed. Lisa Yaszek (New York: Library of America, 2023), 202-217, with a biographical note on 458-460 and a note on the text on 485.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Picnic on Nearside” - John [Herbert] Varley (b. 1947) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1974)
The story takes place on the moon in a world where it is possible to change body type, gender, and so forth many times and many other technological changes, generally presented favorably. The protagonist, a boy, and a friend, who has recently had the change from male to female, visit to an undeveloped part of the moon, called Nearside, where they find an old man living, the last human on Nearside, and even though undeveloped and abandoned, Nearside is also presented mostly positively.
Rpt. in his The Barbie Murders (New York: Berkley Books, 1980), 236-60; book reissued as Picnic on Nearside (New York: Berkley, 1984), 236-60; and in Humanity 2.0. Ed. Alex Shvartsman (Rockville, MD: Phoenix Pick/Arc Manor, 2016), 111-35.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Power - Laurence M[ark] Janifer (1933-2002) (Dell Books, 1974)
A future Earth and its space empire is an autocratic system with an elected but all-powerful Emperor. It is faced with a mutiny led by the son of one of the Emperor's advisors, and much of the novel is about the struggle between father and son and about the uses of power for good and ill.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Pre-Persons" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1974)
Dystopia in which abortion is available until the child is 12.
Rpt. in his The Golden Man. Ed. Mark Hurst (New York: Berkley, 1980), 303-31; and in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 5 The Little Black Box (Los Angeles, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1987), 275-96. The paperback edition has it in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 5 The Eye of the Sibyl (New York: Citadel Twilight, 1992), 275-96.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Prognosis: Terminal" - Dave [David Edward] McDaniel (2020 Vision, 1974)
The future society is generally presented positively, but there is still significant inequality and violence. Domed cities; light drugs readily available.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Proposed Constitutional Model for the Newstates of Americas" - Rexford G[uy] Tugwell (1891-1979) (The Emerging Constitution, 1974)
A proposed new constitution for the U.S. designed for a reconfigured United States and to correct flaws in the original document. Includes a section of rights and responsibilities, a single presidential term of nine years, an appointed Senate with life terms, a House of Representatives with some at-large members representing regions rather than the fifty states, a Electoral Branch to oversee elections, a Planning Branch to coordinate income and expenses over time, a Regulatory Branch to charter and regulate corporations, and a reformed judiciary designed to be more efficient. One underlying principle, particularly influencing the changes to Congress is to create a strong national government with lesser regional power.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Pyramids for Minnesota--A Serious Proposal" - Thomas M[ichael] Disch (1940-2008) (Harper's Magazine, 1974)
A proposal to build pyramids in Minnesota that includes a brief suggestion of a voluntary corps reminiscent of 1905 Wells's samurai.
Rpt. in The New Improved Sun: An Anthology of Utopian S-F. Ed. Thomas M[ichael] Disch (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 167-69 with editor's notes on 167 and 170.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Sodom and Gomorrah Business - Barry N[athaniel] Malzberg (b. 1939) (Pocket Books, 1974)
Future dystopia of violence.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Songs of War" - Kit [Lilian Craig] Reed (1932-2017) (Nova, 1974)
Satire on radical feminism in which an anti-male movement and solidarity among women fails.
Rpt. in her The Killer Mice (London: Victor Gollancz, 1976), 53-95; her Other Stories and The Attack of The Giant Baby (New York: Berkley, 1981), 50-95; and her Weird Women, Wired Women (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1998), 56-91.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Sunrise West" - William K. Carlson (b. 1937) (Vertex, 1974)
Post catastrophe dystopia focusing on something very like a Hippie commune that is composed of people and highly developed animals that is the beginning of a better future.
Repub. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Teacher As World Citizen - Theodore [Burghard Hurt] Brameld (1904-87) ([Kappa Delta Pi Press], 1974)
Eutopia set in 2000 stressing world government, socialist humanism, and ecology. The book is dedicated to his friend Marion Bellamy Earnshaw (1886-1978), daughter of Edward Bellamy, and he stresses the connection between his book and Bellamy's Looking Backward. The book begins December 26, 2000, which is the date of the "Preface" to Looking Backward.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Transhumans--2000" - F[ereidoun] M. Esfandiary (1930-2000) (Woman In the Year 2000, 1974)
Future eutopia in which human differentiation is overcome.
Keywords: Iranian author; Male author; US author

"The Utopian States of America" - Wilmot Robertson (Ventilations, 1974)
Racist utopia proposing separation of the racial and ethnic groups. This would result in “a colorful mosaic of small nation states and free municipalities, each with a differentiated gene pool, a differentiated way of life and differentiated styles of art, literature and music. . .” (54). Specifically, the “Yellow Races,” African Americans, Southern Europeans, and Jews will be put in separate enclaves, as will Native Americans, Latin Americans, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans. The enclaves will have no contact with the white majority except as needed for defense and economic policies, which will be controlled by the whites. There is also some brief analysis of earlier utopias. His The Dispossessed Majority. Cape Canaveral, FL: Howard Allen Enterprises, 1973 (586 pp.) is described by the publisher as “A spirited defense of Americans of Northern European descent and a scholarly confutation of those who write wishfully of the Wasp’s demise.”
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Vision - David [R.] Wilkerson (1931-2011) (Spire Books Fleming H. Revell, 1974)
Prediction, some of which the author says occurred between writing and publication but others of which may take place generations in the future, culminating in Armageddon (See Revelation 16).
Rpt. New York: Pillar Books, 1975; and as The vision and beyond: prophecies fulfilled and still to come. Lindale, TX : World Challenge Publications, 2003. © David Wilkerson Youth Crusades.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Walk to the End of the World - Suzy McKee Charnas (1939-2023) (Ballantine Books, 1974)
Post-catastrophe dystopia where almost all past knowledge has been lost and civilization, such as it is, is restricted to a small area called the Holdfast. Women are called Fems, are effectively slaves, and are believed by the men to be animals with no intelligence. The men have a rigid hierarchy based on age. The novel ends with Alldera, a Fem, escaping the Holdfast in hopes of finding the rumored Free Fems. See also 1978, 1994, and 1999 Charnas.
Rpt. in Radical Utopias (New York: Book-of-the-Month Club, 1990), separately paged; and in her The Slave and the Free (New York: Tor, 1999), 1-215.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Waves of Ecology" - Leonard Tushnet (1908-73) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1974)
Satire on a temporarily successful attempt to eliminate cars and improve the ecology.
Rpt. in Car Sinister. Ed. Robert Silverberg, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Joseph Olander (New York: Avon Books, 1979), 145-56.
Keywords: Male author; US author

What in the World Will Happen Next? - Salem Kirban (1925-2010) (Salem Kirban, Inc, 1974)
Heaven as eutopia. See also 1968 and 1970 Kirban; his I Predict Huntington Valley, PA: Salem Kirban, Inc., 1973 (with many later editions with updated predictions); and his New Age Secret Plan for World Conquest. Rev. ed. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1992.
Rpt. with the subtitle Answers to Life’s Four Most Important Questions What Is Life! Rapture! Hell! Heaven! Huntington Valley, PA: Salem Kirban, Inc., 1994.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Women in Motion" - Lucinda [Laura] Franks (b. 1946) (Woman In the Year 2000, 1974)
Eutopia stressing physical fitness for both men and women with schools no longer having boys' teams and girls' teams.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“The Wonderful All-Purpose Transmogrifier” - Barry N[athaniel] Malzberg (b. 1939) (Final Stage: The Ultimate Science Fiction Anthology, 1974)
Dystopia about a machine that can provide all experience and is addictive.
U.K. ed. Final Stage: The Ultimate Science Fiction Anthology. Ed. Edward L. Ferman and Barry N[athaniel] Malzberg (Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1975), 227-35. “Afterword” (235-36).
Keywords: Male author; US author

World Peace? Will women succeed where men consistently failed? - Dr. Charlotte M. Steiner (Author, 1974)
An odd pamphlet that argues “Prenatal Education” can produce children with specific characteristics, good or bad. The pamphlet outlines what the mother should do regarding diet, exercise, and “purposeful activities,” during pregnancy to bring about the only vaguely described eutopia. The author says that this is based on the writings of Dr. O. Z. Hanish (1844/56?-1936), whose writings on Prenatal Education were brought together in two collections published in Amsterdam in 1976. The book ends by mentioning a forthcoming novel, It All Starts in the Womb by Frank D. Steiner, which will illustrate Prenatal Education but does not appear to have even been published.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Young Love" - Grania [Eve] Davis (1943-2017) (Orbit 13, 1974)
Overpopulation dystopia. Sexless love in a disintegrating society where most people live in communities with all their activities regulated. From age 12 boys and girls live in separate communities. Chemical food. Large numbers are homeless. Generally unintelligent and uneducated. The Army does work like street cleaning that robots are not able to do.
Rpt. in Dream's Edge: Science Fiction Stories About the Future of Planet Earth. Ed. Terry Carr (San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 1980), 206-22.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Your Time, Your Station" - David [Allan] Saperstein (b. 1937) (Woman In the Year 2000, 1974)
The present day presented from the point-of-view of a future eutopia that stresses great variety rather than the uniformity seen in the present.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"1984" - [Ed] [Bereal] (b. 1937) (Guerrilla Theatre, 1973)
Dystopia of a race war in 1984.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Beachhead in Utopia" - Lloyd Biggle Jr. (1923-2002) (Omega, 1973)
Dystopia. International Poverty Control Agency--if, after retraining, a person cannot find a job, they and their family are executed. Successfully eliminates welfare.
Rpt. (Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Gold Medal, 1974), 143-54.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Beast in View" - Miriam Allen deFord (1888-1975) (Omega, 1973)
A eutopian society (peaceful, vegetarian) tries to deal with a throwback.
Rpt. (Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Gold Medal, 1973), 70-82.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains - Sylvia [Louise] Engdahl (b. 1933) (Atheneum, 1973)
Continuation of 1972 Engdahl. In this novel most of story is concerned with a villager who had earned the right to become a Scholar and his despair over what he learns. But at the end he reinterprets the Prophecy on which the civilization is built in a way that will bring about change in the future. See also 1981 Engdahl.
Rpt. with minor revisions in Children of the Star (Atlanta, GA: Meisha Merlin, 2000), 217-421 together with 1972 and 1981 Engdahl, with an “Afterword” to the Collection (719-21), in which she notes that this volume was intended for teenagers, whereas the first was intended for children, and “Sylvia Engdahl Biography” ([723-24]). Public US
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Breakout in Ecol 2." - David [Roosevelt] Bunch (1925-2000) (Nova, 1973)
Overpopulation dystopia.
U.K. ed. (London: Sphere, 1975), 40-44
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Bridge - D. Keith Mano (b. 1942) (Doubleday, 1973)
Post-catastrophe religious dysytopia. The novel consists of a "Prologue" and "Epilogue" that depict the dystopia, but the bulk of it is the true story of the man who is worshipped, a story that does not match the later beliefs.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Changing of the Gods" - Terry [Gene] Carr (1937-87) (Infinity Five, 1973)
Dystopia of violence with youth against age.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Children of Morrow - H[elen] M[ary] Hoover (1935-2018) (Four Winds Press, 1973)
Two telepathic children born into a primitive post-nuclear war society that they flee to join a telepathic and technologically advanced eutopia. See also 1976 Hoover.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"A Clear Day in Motor City" - Eleanor [Atwood] Arnason (b. 1942) (New Worlds 6. The Science Fiction Quarterly, 1973)
Flawed utopia. The story begins in a future eutopian Detroit, Michigan, where everyone gets the day off on a clear day. But the eutopia exists only for those who take drugs, and there are human sacrifices to the old gods.
Rpt. in The New Improved Sun: An Anthology of Utopian S-F. Ed. Thomas M[ichael] Disch (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 109-16 with an editor's note on 108-09.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Cold War ... Continued" - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Nova, 1973)
While the U.S. and U.S.S.R. are supposedly in détente, they both want to control the resources of the developing world. This story focus on a conflict between them over the resources of one North Africa country, with Japan also trying to gain control of them.
U.K. ed. (London: Sphere, 1975), 45-72.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Complex Man - Marie C. Farca (b. 1935) (Doubleday, 1973)
The protagonist from 1972 Farca twenty-five years later in his advanced but troubled technological society as it undergoes change by trying to incorporate some of the principles of the society in the first novel.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Conservations at Lothar's" - Barry N[athaniel] Malzberg (b. 1939) (Children of Infinity; Original Science Fiction Stories for Young Readers, 1973)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Rpt. in The Liberated Future. Ed. Robert Hoskins (Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, 1974), 229-34.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Culture Lock" - Barry N[athaniel] Malzberg (b. 1939) (Future City, 1973)
Future society in which homosexual men are given a walled enclave in which to live, but it is unclear whether this is a place to live freely or effectively a prison. The picture of homosexuality is highly ambivalent. 1977 Malzberg is a sequel.
Rpt. (New York: Pocket Books, 1974), 21-27.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Desirable Lakeside Residence" - André Norton (1912-2005) (Saving Worlds: A Collection of Original Science Fiction Stories, 1973)
Ecological dystopia.
Book repub. as The Wounded Planet (New York: Bantam Books, 1974), 69-88.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Disneyland Man" - Gustav Hasford (1947-93) (Edge, 1973)
Dystopia--poverty, conflict. Unfit humans used for food.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Don't Hold Your Breath" - A[lfred] E[lton] van Vogt (1912-2000) (Saving Worlds: A Collection of Original Science Fiction Stories, 1973)
Ecological dystopia.
Book repub. as The Wounded Planet (New York: Bantam Books, 1974), 203-24. Story rpt. in Transfinite: The Essential A.E. van Vogt. Ed. Joe Rico and Rick Katze (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2002), 523-39.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

The Doomsday Gene - [Boyd Bradfield] [Upchurch] (1919-2013) (Weybright & Talley, 1973)
A gene for short, intense life to help control population growth creates a dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Examination Day" - Gordon [Stewart] Eklund (b. 1945) (The Other Side of Tomorrow, 1973)
Authoritarian dystopia with machine-teaching to control action.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Exhibition." - Scott Edelstein (b. 1954) (Nova, 1973)
Overpopulation dystopia focusing on the arts.
U.K. ed. (London: Sphere, 1975), 141-49.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Fall and Rise of Man, If . . - Robert L[eonard] Evans (1917-2003) (Lund Press, 1973)
Mostly a detailed criticism of society but includes a set of proposals and a brief (231-33) outline of a eutopian society based on the ideas of Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). The eutopia is to be democratic, socialist, well-educated, protected from central power, and creative.
Keywords: Male author; US author