Noise - Darin Bradley (Ballantine Books, 2010)
Dystopia of a future violent America with a eutopian enclave that holds hope for the future.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Nomansland - Lesley Hauge (Henry Holt, 2010)
Young adult post-catastrophe dystopia of an all female island community where friendship is prohibited.
Keywords: Female author; UK author; US author; Zimbabwean author

"Nostalgia" - Gene O'Neill (b. 1938) (Dark Futures, 2010)
Dystopia of a world where immortality is available and those who fail the screening test become illegal and are hunted.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Of One Mind" - Shane [Michael] Tourtellotte (b. 1968) (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 2010)
Dystopia of a technique to surgically get terrorists to cooperate being used by the government on all those it considers threats. Related stories in Analog Science Fiction and Fact are "A New Man" 123.10 (October 2003): 49-61; "Acts of Conscience" 125.3 (March 2005): 8-29; and "Trial by Fire" 127.4 (April 2007): 8-43.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Osama the Gun - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Wildside Press, 2010)
Dystopia in which descendants of Osama bin Laden (1957-2011), the al-Qaeda leader, have established a Caliphate in Pakistan and have nuclear weapons. The novel follows one such man who becomes a secret agent to escape the Caliphate and see the world.
Originally published as Oussama: Roman. Trans. Niki Copper. Paris: Fayard, 2010. First published in English as an ebook.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Otherworld" - Karina [L.] Fabian (b. 1961) (Infinite Space, Infinite God, 2010)
Roman Catholic cyberpunk in which a Jesuit priest visits dystopian cyberspace in an attempt to find his deceased mother, who had been sent there during his birth but could not be recovered.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Overhead" - Jason Stoddard (Shine: An Anthology of Near-future, Optimistic Science Fiction, 2010)
Earth had established a settlement on the moon but abandons it. The Earth is a corporate dystopia. The moon settlement is a very fragile eutopia with leaders chosen by lottery and everyone working for the community. It survives and manages to set off into space.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Overton Window - Glenn [Edward Lee] Beck (b. 1964); Kevin Balfe; Emily Bestler; Jack Henderson (Threshold Editions--Mercury Radio Arts, 2010)
Dystopia in which liberal attempts to take over the U.S. are thwarted. An “Afterword” (293-321) includes references to buttress the contentions of the novel.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

The Patriot League Civilian Border Patrol - Herman R. Willett (LuLu Publishing, 2010)
Dystopia in which the U.S. is declared an open country with free immigration. The Patriot League, which has been monitoring the U.S.-Mexico border, fights back and keeps those they consider illegal immigrants out. See also 2010 Willett The Patriot League Origins.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Patriot League Origins - Herman R. Willett (LuLu Publishing, 2010)
Dystopia in which patriotic Americans are forced to band together to protect the border between the U.S. and Mexico. See also 2010 Willett, The Patriot League Civilian Border Patrol.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Paul Kishosha's Children" - Edgett, Ken (Shine: An Anthology of Near-future, Optimistic Science Fiction, 2010)
Eutopia brought about by an individual scientist dedicating himself to effectively teaching science to African children. The story traces the transformation of a single African village where the scientist lives as the influence of his teaching gradually spreads throughout African and the rest of the world.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Peacemaker, Peacemaker, Little Bo Peep” - Jason Sanford (Interzone, 2010)
An odd story in which, for unexplained reasons related to dreams, people from churches kill many people including both criminals and police.
Rpt. in Writers for Relief Volume 3. Ed. Davey Beauchamp and Stuart Jaffe (Np: Sapphire City Press, 2013), 75-106.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Personal Jesus" - Pelland, Jennifer (Dark Futures, 2010)
Dystopia. The Ecclesiastical States of America includes all of the former U.S. except California and New England. It enforces its fundamentalist morality by requiring everyone to wear a mechanical "Personal Jesus" that responds to wrong actions with a shock and informs the authorities if the behavior continues.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Pleasure Model - Christopher Rowley (b. 1948) (Tor, 2010)
Dystopia in which some women are created solely for the pleasure of their owners. See also 2010 Rowley, The Bloodstained Man.
Keywords: Male author; US author

PushBack - Alfred Wellnitz (iUniverse, 2010)
Dystopia. In 2033 the US experiences hyperinflation and disintegrates. One of the countries formed out of the former US is a white supremacist state and a black insurgency uses a nuclear bomb against it.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Rivers of Gold. A Novel - Adam Dunn (Bloomsbury, 2010)
Near future dystopia of crime and violence.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Rohan Nation: Reinventing America after the 2020 Collapse - Dr. Drew Miller (b. 1958) (Responsibility Press, 2010)
Post-catastrophe survivalist dystopia. A biological and electro-magnetic attack destroys the US. Libertarian perspective on the attempt to reinvent the country. Rohan means horse land and is an area in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Rut. A Novel - Scott Phillips (b. 1961) (Concord Free Press, 2010)
Post-catastrophe dystopia with extensive damage to the environment and continuing warfare.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Salvation City - Sigrid Nunez (b. 1961) (Riverhead Books, 2010)
Young adult novel set in a post-catastrophe dystopia in which a boy is taken from an orphanage to Salvation City, a small fundamentalist community waiting for the Rapture (see 1 Corinthians 15:52 and 1 Thessalonians 4: 15-17).
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Scheherazade Cast in Starlight" - Jason Andrew (Shine: An Anthology of Near-future, Optimistic Science Fiction, 2010)
Revolution in the dystopia of contemporary Iran brought about through communications technology with the suggestion of the better society to follow.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Ship Breaker - Paolo [Tadini] Bacigalupi (b. 1972) (Little, Brown, 2010)
Young adult post-catastrophe dystopia set in a world with a collapsed economy and environment and with extreme differences between rich and poor. A companion volume is 2012 Bacigalupi.
Keywords: Male author; US author

State of Rebellion: A Pug Conner Novel. Book One - Gordon Ryan (1943-2012) (CreateSpace, 2010)
The first volume in a dystopian series about a future U.S. facing both domestic and foreign terrorism and corporate power with growing restrictions on individual freedom. In this volume, California is considering seceding. See also 2010 Ryan, Uncivil Liberties and 2011 Ryan.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author; US author

Strange Fire. The Anchor & Sophia: Book One - Tommy Wallach (b. 1982) (Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2010)
A post-catastrophe young adult novel in which after an asteroid hits Earth, a religion blames the catastrophe on the science of the past, which is suppressed. In the novel, three young people, adherents to the religion, discover a community bent on rediscovering that science. First volume in a trilogy followed by Slow Burn. The Anchor & Sophia: Book Two. New York Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2018, which is a typical middle volume, complicating everyone’s lives and challenging their beliefs. The third volume is Scorched Earth. The Anchor & Sophia: Book Three. New York Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2020. It continues the many conflicts while coming to a resolution at the end.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Super Sad True Love Story. A Novel - Gary Shteyngart (b. 1972) (Random House, 2010)
Dystopian background to an odd love story. The dystopia is mostly concerned with the way high tech companies control people's lives. A related story is "Lenny Hearts Eunice." The New Yorker 86.17 (June 14 & 21, 2010): 92-103.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Surrogates" - Cat[herine Tigerlily] Rambo (b. 1963) (Clockwork Phoenix 3: New Tales of Beauty and Strangeness, 2010)
Dystopia of a future society in which people can have chips that change their perceptions and "surrogates" create who are both servants and sexual partners.
Rpt. in her Near + Far: Stories of the Near Future and Far (Seattle, WA: Hydra House, 2012), 107-18. Near and Far are bound back-to-back.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Tea Party Patriot: A Tale of American Tyranny. A Novel - J. T. Quintana (Author, 2010)
Dystopia of the near future U.S. from a conservative point-of-view with the government coming to control all aspects of life.
Rpt. as The Last Tea Party. A Political Thriller. 2nd ed. [North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2011.
Keywords: US author

"Terra Tango 3" - James Reilly (Dark Futures, 2010)
Dystopia of a collapsed U.S. with most people living in cubicles in huge, orbiting spaceships. The story focuses on a popular extremely violent TV program.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Thank God for the Road" - Nancy Jane Moore (The WisCon Chronicles, 2010)
Brief environmental dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Thinker’s Lure" - Gump, Toianna (The Twin Cities. Cifiscape Vol. 1, 2010)
Dystopia in which Minnesota has instituted Regulations of Uniformity.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Third Foundation Revealed - Dean Auger (James A. Rock & Co, 2010)
Despite the title, the novel is unrelated to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, but has affinities to his Second Foundation. Homo sapiens have conquered the galaxy, which will be destroyed within three hundred years without dramatic changes. Some experimental psychologists discover a way of raising very intelligent children who will have the ability to create a much better future. For Asimov’s Foundation series; see the note at 1982 Asimov Foundation’s Edge.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Type of Favor"; "Playing Against Type"; and "Playing to Type" - Mary Robinette Kowal (b. 1969) (Shareable Futures, 2010)
A trilogy of short stories set after the Oil Wars in which co-operatives work together on the basis of favors which can be traded, which is presented as eutopian.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Uncivil Liberties: A Pug Conner Novel. Book Two - Gordon Ryan (1943-2012) (CreateSpace, 2010)
Second volume in a series. See 2010 Ryan, State of Rebellion and 2011 Ryan. In this volume, Congress gives significant additional powers to both traditional law enforcement agencies and private security firms.
Keywords: Aotearoa New Zealand author; Male author; US author

Under the Harrow. A Novel - Mark Dunn (b. 1956) (Macadam/Cage, 2010)
The novel begins in an isolated community in a valley in Pennsylvania that is a Victorian eutopia based on the Bible, Charles Dickens (1812-70), and an old encyclopedia. It is destroyed by corporate greed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Underground Rising (Writers’ Café Press, 2010)
Dystopian stories set in the future of Creed’s three Underground novels. See 2007, 2010, and 2012 Creed. The stories are Greg Mitchell, “Ex-Communicator” (7-26), Lydia Daffenberg, “The Injection Site” (27-34), Terri Main, “Voices of the Underground” (35-39, 53-55, 72-75, 103-05, 112-15, 135-38), Frank Creed, “Natalia” (40-52), Stephen Leon Rice, “Bear Feat” (56-59), Gavin Patchett and Frank Creed, “Resolutions” (60-71), Karen McSpadden, “Daffodil Season” (76-93), Deborah Cullins Smith, “Solitaire” (94-102), Frank Creed, “The Last Newspaper” (106-11), Timothy Hicks and Frank Creed, “The Sandman Cometh” (116-27), Grace Bridges and Frank Creed, “Underground . . . Undersea” (128-34), and Frank Creed, “Whiskey in the Jar” (139-48).
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

The Unidentified - Rae Mariz (b. 1981) (Balzer + Bray, 2010)
Young adult corporate dystopia with corporations controlling the educational system. The Unidentified are those fighting back against the dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; Swedish author; US author

The Usurper - Cliff Ball (b. 1974) (Author, 2010)
Dystopia in which Russians and Al Qaeda destroy the US and a resistance movement is defeated.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Utopia Revisited - John B. Mooney (PublishAmerica, 2010)
A rewriting of 1516 More with Raphael Hythloday a visitor from a planet in the area of Alpha Centauri that is a eutopia. World government with information on geography. Free enterprise. Competition. Elected representatives and appointed bureaucrats are limited to one six-year term. Includes a constitution (Online 41-49/Book 92-104). The book also includes a “Utopianized Constitution of the State of Wyoming” (104-210) that is intended to “demonstrated the practicality of the utopian concepts” (Back Cover).
A note on the last page calls this the 2nd ed. Part originally published online at http://www.geocities.com/utopiarevisit [2001?].
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Vaults - Toby Ball (St. Martin's Press, 2010)
The first volume of a series alternative history dystopias about the U. S. from the 1930s to the 1960s. The Vaults are the huge depository that holds all the court records of the city for seventy years. The archivist discovers an anomaly which leads him and others to uncover the deep corruption that pervades the city. See also 2011 and 2014 Ball. All three are presented as mystery novels.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Veracity. A Novel - Laura Bynum (b. 1968) (Pocket Books, 2010)
Post-catastrophe dystopia in which half of the U.S. population has been killed and a new government exerts control through sex and drugs.
Keywords: Female author; US author

War of Attrition: Part Two of the Underground - Frank Creed (b. 1966) (Writers' Café Press, 2010)
Sequel to 2007 Creed with much the same themes. The underground Christian group known as The Body of Christ is attacked by the Federal Bureau of Terrorism. See also 2012 Creed and Creed’s 2010 edited collection of stories set in the Underground world, Underground Rising.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Water to Wine" - Mary Robinette Kowal (b. 1969) (Subterranean Press Magazine, 2010)
The dystopia of the conflict over environmental issues in the Northwest after climate change drove most of the wineries of the world out of business.
Expanded from its original publication as  part of a shared world podcast anthology, Metatroplis: Cascadia. Ed. Jay Lake (Audible.com 2010).
Keywords: Female author; US author

Yarn - Jon Armstrong (Night Shade Books, 2010)
Companion to 2010 Armstrong. This novel is from the point og view of someone outside the corporate realm.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Yo, Tyrania - Ric Weiss (Outskirts Press, 2010)
Humorous dystopian satire.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The 2012 Revolution - Herman R. Willett (Lulu Publishing, 2009)
Dystopia of a liberal tyranny with Barack Obama (b. 1961) becoming president-for-life followed by a conservative counter-revolution.
Keywords: Male author; US author

2034 - Robert Renfield (Eloquent Books, 2009)
Mostly adventure but includes a primitive village society in a different world that is clearly better than contemporary society.
Keywords: Male author; US author

2034: The Corporation Post 2012 - Whistler, Mark (Author, 2009)
Dystopia in which the U.S. is failing due to the actions of politicians, and the media and the people vote to get rid of the Constitution and replace it with a Social Enterprise Stock Ownership Country (SEESOC), which builds walls along the borders with Canada and Mexico to keep Americans in and under the corporation and the Security Services. Americans are essentially enslaved and tagged with a barcode.
Keywords: Male author; US author

2045: A Story of Our Future - Peter Seidel (b. 1926) (Prometheus Books, 2009)
Corporate dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

2084 - Combe, Kirk (Mayhaven Publishing, 2009)
High tech corporate dystopia with one corporation controlling the entire world.
Keywords: Male author; US author

2084: Mars, A New World - Robert A. Kaiser (AuthorHouse, 2009)
Dystopia brought about by current liberal policies, which produces a world very similar to that of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four (1949). Successful revolt on Mars in favor of the free market and conservative social policies. Sequel to his Project Yellow Sky: A Korean Conspiracy. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006 in which North Korea uses nuclear weapons against the U.S. in 2009.
Keywords: US author

"After Everything Woke Up" - Rudy [Rudolf von Bitter] Rucker (b. 1946) (Interzone, 2009)
Ecological eutopia in which humans can read the minds of even inanimate material such as rocks. The eutopian elements are a small part of the story.
Also published in his Hylozoic (New York: Tor, 2009), 15-31 where it is the first chapter of the novel.
Keywords: Male author; US author

American Apocalypse: The Beginning - [Steve (Stephen)] [Campbell] (1957-2012) (Flying Turtles of Doom Press, 2009)
Dystopia. Mostly adventure, but the series traces the stages of an American version of the apocalypse brought on by the economic collapse of 2008. The second volume is American Apocalypse II: Refuge. By Nova [pseud.]. Np: Flying Turtles of Doom Press, 2010 [Previously published unedited at http://the americanapocalypse.blogspot.com]; the third volume is American Apocalypse III: Migration. By Nova [pseud]. Np: Flying Turtles of Doom Press, 2010 [Previously published unedited at http://the americanapocalypse.blogspot.com]. In both these volumes a small group of people struggle to survive, and others join them. In the fourth volume American Apocalypse IV: Rescue. By Nova [pseud.]. Np: Flying Turtles of Doom Press, 2011 [Previously published unedited at http://the americanapocalypse.blogspot.com], recovery is beginning. A further volume is American Apocalypse: Wastelands. By Nova [pseud.]. Berkeley CA: Ulysses Press, 2011. This volume, like the others, is mostly adventure with a focus on those trying to survive and salvage something of what was once good in America. Related volumes include his The Chosen. Np: Flying Turtles of Doom Press, 2011 [Previously published unedited at http://the americanapocalypse.blogspot.com], a survivalist novel, Gardener Summer [The cover adds Includes the Short Story, “The Lion.”]. Np: Flying Turtles of Doom Press, 2011 [Originally published as an ebook in 2010], which is concerned with violent conflict in a section of a city in a collapsing U.S. in a world where China is economically dominant; and Gardener Winter. Np: Flying Turtles of Doom Press, 2012, in which the protagonist is an old man and faces one more challenge.
Rev. as American Apocalypse: The Collapse Begins. By Nova [pseud.]. Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press, 2011
Keywords: Male author; US author

America's Future. A Novel - Dan Mason (Infinity Publishing, 2009)
Dystopia centered around an age-old conspiracy by the Illuminati to establish global rule, which they have succeeded in doing.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Antidote" - Russ Colson (Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine, 2009)
Dystopian fantasy of two very similar peoples at war.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Assignment Yggdrasil. Democracy. . .By Any Means - Chris[topher James] Dubey (Chipmunkapublishing The Mental Health Publisher, 2009)
Dystopia set in 2006 in which a potential terrorist attack is used by the U. S. Department of Defense as an excuse for greater control. Those thought to be mentally ill are used in the plot, Mental illness is a theme throughout the novel. Includes a bibliography (213-217), a glossary (218-219), and a list of sources consulted (219-243). The revised edition focuses more on the development of genetically engineering a virus to create transhumans and the way the government infect many citizens with the same virus by introducing into food, drink, and medicine.
Rev. ed. Luton, Eng.: Andrews UK/Auk Authors, 2014. 205 pp.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Bradbury Report. A Novel - Steven Polansky (Weinstein Books, 2009)
Dystopia. A future U.S. where most people have a clone for use in medical care. The clones are kept in Clearances, areas of the U.S. that have been cleared of their previous residences, such as the Dakotas. The novel is about a man whose clone wanders off a Clearance and his attempts to save it from being captured and killed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Brief History of the Recent Future: A Dystopian Fantasy - David Manning (dhm imPRESSions. LuLu.com, 2009)
Humor and satire on the 1970s, and written then, that projects that period into a dystopian future.
Parts were originally published in The Sun (Chapel Hill, NC), The Guide (Durham, NC), and The Record (Hackensack, NJ)
Keywords: Male author; US author

Buyout - Alex[ander Christian] Irvine (b. 1969) (Ballantine Books, 2009)
Capitalist dystopia in which a murderer can choose death in exchange for a payment to the heirs of a percentage of the estimated cost of life imprisonment.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Candor - Pam Bachorz (b. 1973) (Egmont USA, 2009)
Young adult dystopia in which messages designed to control people are embedded in the music they listen to.
UK ed. London: Egmont, 2010.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Caryatids - [Michael] Bruce Sterling (b. 1954) (Ballantine Books, 2009)
An SF novel with fantasy elements set in an environmental dystopia. China is the only remaining nation state and has a drastically reduced population. The Acquis is a green enclave creating a networked utopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Chosen One - Carol Lynch Williams (St. Martin's Griffin, 2009)
Young Adult communal fiction about a Mormon polygamous sect presented as a dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Contact With Chaos - Michael Z. Williamson (b. 1967) (Baen, 2009)
A newly discovered wealthy planet becomes the focus of a conflict among the authoritarian United Nations forces of Earth, the libertarians of Freehold, and a group of do-gooders saying the people should be left alone.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

Daemon. A Novel - Daniel Suarez (b. 1964) (Dutton, 2009)
Dystopia in which the entire world is run by computers that develop a glitch. See also 2010 Suarez.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Dark Coffee, Bright Light and the Paradoxes of Omnipotence" - Ben Burgis (People of the Book ([In Hebrew]): A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2009)
Dystopia of a future where the Palestinians defeated Israel and now treat Jews the way Israel treat the Palestinians and the way this turns a secular Jew into a suicide bomber.
Originally published in AtomJack Magazine (October 2009), an online journal that is no longer available.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Dobchek, Lost in the Funhouse" - Mike [Michael Diamond] Resnick (1942-2020); Kay Kenyon (b. 1956) (Live Without a Net, 2009)
Dystopia in which computers are DNA based and, in each person, because terrorist viruses had completely destroyed the possibility of silicon-based computers and the Web. The result is extreme isolation and terrorist attacks on any gathering of people.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

"Eighth Wonder” - Chris Bachelder (b. 1971) (McSweeney’s Thirty Two. 2024 A.D., 2009)
A climate change dystopia with people living inside a flooded domed stadium and beginning to build a better life there.
Rpt. in Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction. Ed. John Joseph Adams (New York: Saga Press, 2015), 341-61.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Executioner" - Jennifer Marie Brissett (b. 1969) (Warrior Wisewoman, 2009)
Dystopia in which when a person is to be executed, an individual is chosen by lot to be the executioner. The story is from the point-of-view of a woman who was chosen.
Rpt. in People of Color Take Over Fantastic Stories of the Imagination Magazine. Ed. Nisi Shawl, no. 239 (June/July 2017): 50-57; and in in Sunspot Jungle: The Ever-Expanding Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy [the cover adds Volume One]. Ed. Bill Campbell (Greenbelt, MD: Rosarium, 2019), 296-302.
Keywords: English author; Female author; US author

"For the love of mechanical minds: Survival of the fittest?" - Brenda Cooper (b. 1951) (Nature, 2009)
Dystopia. Artificial Intelligences raise most children and continue to work with them throughout life. While this produces superbly intelligent people and much innovative work, no one chooses to reproduce.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan (b. 1978) (Delacorte Press, 2009)
Young adult religious dystopia with zombies. A small group of people dominated by a religious cult live in a compound surrounded by a forest inhabited by zombies. Sequels include The Dead-Tossed Waves. New York: Delacorte Press, 2010, focuses on the protagonist of the previous volume escaping from her town and the zombies; and The Dark and Hollow Places. New York: Delacorte Press, 2011.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Forever Pleasure: A Utopian Novel - Theodore [R.] Eastman (iUniverse, 2009)
Eutopia. A man from the 1980s travels to 2076 where he finds a technological eutopia, which is described in some detail. But the novel begins with a being who had been downloaded into a machine many millennia ago who is chasing the last remaining intelligent beings in the nearby galaxies to force them to become part of the Hedonistic Expansion Crusade. The two ultimately come into conflict, a conflict that is resolved with the machine intelligences, posthuman, and transhumans all cooperating.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Forgive Them Their Trespasses” - J. Alan Erwine (b. 1969) (J Alan Erwine’s Tales of Dystopia, 2009)
Theocratic dystopia.
Originally published online in Afterburn SF (March 2009). No longer available.  Also published as a twelve-page online Chapbook. [Np: J. Alan Erwine, 2015]. No longer available.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Freedom" - Amy Waldman (b. 1969) (Boston Review, 2009)
Dystopia. The story is about an island designed for the terrorists who no country would take and the society that develops there as told by the first overseer.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Galatea’s Stepchildren” - Sam S. Kepfield (b. 1963) (The Future Fire: Social Political & Speculative Cyber-Fiction, 2009)
In a post-plague U.S. where everything has disintegrated, android women are created, officially for work but mostly used sexually. It is illegal to educated them, but a man allows one to read.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Goldstein - Troy [J.] Grice (Trafford Publishing, 2009)
Dystopia of a future fascist U.S. controlled by twelve corporate cartels. The free state of Goldstein, using advanced Chinese technology, overthrows the cartels by disabling their technology.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Grasses of a Thousand Colors - William Shawn (b. 1943) (Theatre Communications Group, 2009)
Post-catastrophe (pandemic) dystopia background to a play the focuses on the sexual fantasies and memories of the main character, who caused the pandemic. Play that opened at the Royal Court Theatre, London, May 18, 2009.
Rpt. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2014. U.K. ed. London: Nick Hern Books, 2009.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Heart for the Assassin. A Novel - Robert Ferrigno (b. 1948) (Scribner, 2009)
Dystopia. Sequel to 2006 and 2008 Ferrigno. This volume continues most of the themes of the earlier ones with only partial resolutions of the conflicts.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Hope - Aaron [S.] Zelman (1946-2010); L[ester] Neil Smith [III] (1946-2021) (Phoenix Pick/Arc Manor, 2009)
Libertarian dystopian political thriller where a President of the U.S. tries to uphold the libertarian version of the Second Amendment to the Constitution on the right to carry weapons.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"In the Forests of the Night" - Jay [Joseph Edward] Lake [Jr.] (1964-2014) (Metatropolis. Original Stories by Jay Lake; Tobias S. Buckell; Elizabeth Bear; John Scalzi, [II]; Karl Schroeder, 2009)
A story in a collaborative volume describing meta-cities of the future; see also 2009 Buckell, Scalzi, Schroeder, and Wishnevsky. This story is set in a city in Northern California based on sharing that is mostly underground to protect it from its predatory, capitalist neighbors.
Rpt. (New York: Tor, 2010), 13-77.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America - Robert Charles Wilson (b. 1953) (Tor, 2009)
Young adult dystopia. Sequel to and expansion of his Julian: A Christmas Story (2006). Julian Comstock is a secularist who believes in evolution in a society that rejects both.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

The Killswitch Review - Steven-Elliot Altman (b. 1968); Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse (Yard Dog Press, 2009)
Dystopia set in 2156 when it is possible to live as long as one wants. Since overpopulation is a threat, contraception is compulsory, and the U.S. has closed its borders. The focus of the novel is technologically assisted suicide, and the Killswitch is a handheld suicide device that is officially called the Kevorkian Unit, named after Jack Kevorkian (1928-2011) who was found guilty of second-degree murder for his work in assisting people to kill themselves and spent 1999-2007 in prison. Given the lack of opportunity, young people are illegally killing themselves.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

The Last Wild Witch - [Miriam] [Simos] (b. 1951) (Mother Tongue Ink, 2009)
Children's book describing a "perfect" over-organized town improved by a bit of natural wildness.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Mariposa - Greg[ory Dale] Bear (1951-2022) (Vanguard Press, 2009)
Primarily a thriller but with dystopian elements describing a near future U.S. in economic decline.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Material Proof of the Failure of Everything" - Heidi [Suzanne] Julavits (b. 1968) (McSweeney's Thirty Two. 2024 A.D., 2009)
Dystopian of a failing future Hungary that is also bringing down the European Union as the background to a story of intrigue.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Memory Wall" - Anthony Doerr (b. 1973) (McSweeney’s Thirty Two. 2024 A.D., 2009)
Dystopia in a future South Africa in which people’s memories are harvested, taped, and sold to the wealthy.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Mercury Station - Mark A. von Schlegell (b. 1957) (Semiotext(e), 2009)
Loosely a prequel to 2005 von Schlegell and called the second volume in his “System Series.” This volume begins in a juvenile detention center on Mercury run mostly by out-of-date robots and focuses on time travel. See also 2015 von Schlegell. In addition, see 2011 von Schlegell.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Mere Future - Sarah Schulman (b. 1958) (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009)
Flawed utopia in which an apparently eutopian New York City (no ads, no franchises, cheap and available housing, high minimum wage) is still controlled by the same rich people as before. There is one large corporation, THE MEDIA HUB. The court system takes lifestyle into account and the rich are presumed innocent and the poor presumed guilty.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Metamorphosis of Samuel Freeman: A Prophetic Look at the Prospects for the Human Race in the Year 2000 in a World of Ten Billion - Kent H. Wilcoxson (Trafford, 2009)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Mind Over Ship - David Marusek (b. 1951) (Tor, 2009)
Sequel to 2005 Marusek. This volume includes struggles among clones, artificial intelligences, and wealthy immortals. See also 1999 Marusek.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Minnesota Cold. A Novel - Cynthia Kraack (North Star Press of St. Cloud, 2009)
Dystopia. After a nuclear war, Minnesota becomes independent under the rule of the old politicians and business leaders, who controlled both the political system and the economy and undermined education to make it serve their purposes. They set up a program using Minnesota’s biomedical expertise to provide the world with medicine, breeding people with genetic enhancements, and establishing a means of judging whether a person is worth keeping alive and killing those judged not. The novel’s protagonist is a healthy older woman judged not worth keeping alive and her successful resistance that uncovers the breeding program and overthrows the dystopia. The novel ends with the difficult transition from authoritarian rule, a normal economy, the re-establishment of the education system, the problems raised by integrating the “breeders” produced by the genetics program. Female author.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Mohammed's Angel" - Jack [Mayo] Dann (b. 1945) (Overland, 2009)
Dystopia of religious conflict.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author; US author

"The Netherlands Lives With Water" - Jim Shepard (b. 1956) (McSweeney's Thirty Two. 2024 A.D., 2009)
Dystopia of global warming with Holland struggling to stay above the sea.
Rpt. in Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction. Ed. John Joseph Adams (New York: Saga Press, 2015), 143-71.
Keywords: Male author; US author

New Terra and Beyond: The Expanding Human Universe - Richard Michael (Xlibris, 2009)
Religious dystopia set on a colony planet which is provided with advanced technology but where the people are afraid to use it. A religious leader who opposes its use targets those who use it.
Keywords: Male author; US author

One Second After - William R. Forstchen (b. 1950) (Tor/Forge, 2009)
Dystopia in which one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war in one second, a war based upon an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon that will send America back to the Dark Ages. First volume of a trilogy. His One Year After. New York: Forge Books, 2015, is set in one small community as it begins to recover from the events of the earlier novel, but it has to face the forces of a supposed national government that wants to take control of their lives. In The Final Day. New York: Tor/Forge. 2016, a push by a new, authoritarian government tries to bring the group into line, but they manage to stay relatively free. The author is a professor of History at Montreat College in North Carolina.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" - Ralph Nader (b. 1934) (Seven Stories Press, 2009)
The author calls it a "practical utopia" in which the "super-rich", led by the billionaire Warren Buffett (b. 1930) and others he recruits organize a program to reform America.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Perfect Union - Goodfellow, Cody (Swallowdown Press, 2009)
Dystopia of an intentional community as a human hive.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Pop Apocalypse: A Possible Satire - Lee Konstantinou (b. 1978) (Harper Perennial, 2009)
Dystopian satire. The "Freedom Coalition" is attacking all anti-capitalists, and the fundamentalist right is growing in strength.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The President's Book Tour" - M[ary Beth] Rickert (b. 1959) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 2009)
Post-catastrophe dystopia with extensive mutations.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Promise of the Flame - Sylvia [Louise] Engdahl (b. 1933) (Ad Stellae, 2009)
Sequel to 2007 Engdahl. In this volume, the small group of people with "psi powers" settle a new planet and develop a new and better culture based on those powers. See also 2013 Engdahl.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Ragged Claws" - Lisa Tuttle (b. 1952) (Edison's Frankenstein, 2009)
Dystopia of a disintegrating society in which people have the dream of going to the planet Eden and starting over on a pristine world. But it is a fake; all that exists is a virtual reality Eden and the myth serves to make money for its sellers.
Keywords: Female author; Scottish author; UK author; US author

"Raw Water" - Wells Tower (b. 1973) (McSweeney’s Thirty Two. 2024 A.D., 2009)
The story is set in a dystopian future U.S. southwest where an attempt to mitigate climate change has gone badly wrong.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Red in the Sky Is Our Blood." - [Sarah Bear Elizabeth] [Wishnevsky] (b. 1971) (Metatropolis. Original Stories by Jay Lake; Tobias S. Buckell; Elizabeth Bear; John Scalzi, [II]; Karl Schroeder, 2009)
A story in a collaborative volume describing meta-cities of the future; see also 2009 Buckell, Lake, Scalzi, and Schroeder. This story is about a Detroit dystopia with the beginnings of a eutopia based on dispersing people throughout a connected system hidden in the ruins, farming abandoned areas, and gradually developing connections to all the services people can provide.
Rpt. (New York: Tor, 2010), 133-73.
Keywords: Female author; US author

ReGenesis: An Alternative Future - Benjamin Lightfoot (Xlibris, 2009)
An authoritarian society in the thirty-fourth century that has solved most problems and appears to be utopian in that there is no war, little poverty, and a cleaned-up environment. The United States rules the entire planet, and all the improvements are at the expense of freedom. People designated as Unfit for Society--defined as evil and cannot be rehabilitated--are executed after 36 hours. A sequel with some of the same protagonists that is primarily space opera concerning a struggle between two alien races, one freedom-loving and the other statist, is Scions: Aliens from Earth. A ReGenesis Adventure. [Bloomington, IN]: Xlibris, 2014. 258 pp.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Requiem of the Human Soul - Jeremy R. Lent (b. 1960) (Libros Libertad Publishing, 2009)
Dystopia of a future in which all unaltered humans are being considered for elimination.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The Sheriff of Yrnameer - Michael Rubens (Pantheon Books, 2009)
Satire on capitalism in which all worlds are branded except Yrnameer or Your Name Here, which is a pastoral eutopia that is under threat for its independence.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Sin of Addison Hall - Jeffrey A. Onorato (Bryant Park, 2009)
Dystopia in which the unattractive are lower class citizens slated for elimination.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Sky City" - Sesshu Foster (b. 1957) (McSweeney’s Thirty Two. 2024 A.D., 2009)
The story is set in a future dystopian Los Angeles with much violence.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Snakeskin Road - James Braziel (b. 1967) (Bantam Books, 2009)
Sequel to 2008 Braziel. This novel elaborates on the dystopia brought about by climate change and focuses on a woman's attempt to escape the slavery that is the fate of most of the inhabitants of the Southwest of the US.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Stochasti-city" - Tobias S[amuel] Buckell (b. 1979) (Metatropolis. Original Stories by Jay Lake; Tobias S. Buckell; Elizabeth Bear; John Scalzi, [II]; Karl Schroeder, 2009)
A story in a collaborative volume describing meta-cities of the future; see also 2009 Lake, Scalzi, Schroeder, and Wishnevsky. This story is set in a dystopian Detroit and deals with the beginnings of an attempt to reclaim it.
Rpt. (New York: Tor, 2010), 78-152. PSt, PTU
Keywords: British Virgin Islands author; Grenadian author; Male author; US author; US Virgin Islands author

Things We Didn't See Coming - Steven Amsterdam (b. 1966) (Sleepers Publishing, 2009)
Post-catastrophe dystopia that follows a man as a copes with floods, plague, and other disasters beginning when he and his parents flee in fear of the collapse of civilization expected to be brought about the Y2K problem in 2000.
Parts originally published  as and “The Theft That Got Me Here.” The Sleepers Almanac 2007: The Family Affair. Ed. Zoe Dattner and Louise Swinn [(Collingwood, Vic, Australia: Sleepers Publishing, 2007]), 73-84 and “Best Medicine.” The Sleepers Almanac No. 4 (Collingwood, Vic, Australia: Sleepers Publishing, 2008): 224-32.
Keywords: Australian author; Male author; US author

"Is This Your Day To Join the Revolution?" - Genevieve Valentine (b. 1981) (Futurismic, 2009)
Dystopia in which people are controlled through a fake scare about a disease.
Rpt. in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 267-74; 2nd ed. as Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 267-74.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Timed release: Clean Thoughts" - David Marusek (b. 1951) (Nature, 2009)
Satire on a society in which it is possible to purchase time release housecleaning capsules that require one to clean until they are finished.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Unincorporated Man - Dani Kollin (b. 1964); Eytan Kollin (b. 1964) (Tor, 2009)
Dystopia. In the far future every person is a legal corporation and spends most of their life trying to get ownership of all of their shares. A man from the 21st century is revived as the only unincorporated man. The Unicorporated War. New York: Tor, 2010 and The Unincorporated Woman. New York: Tor, 2011 are sequels that are mostly space opera. The fourth and final volume is The Unincorporated Future. New York: Tor, 2012, in which the war ends, and a treaty is signed that is designed to bring peace and freedom.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Unplugging Philco - Jim Knipfel (b. 1965) (Simon & Schuster, 2009)
Dystopian satire set in the near future after an unexplained catastrophe where everyone is expected to spy on their neighbors.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Utere Nihil Non Extra Quiritationem Suis" - John [Michael] Scalzi [II] (b. 1969) (Metatropolis. Original Stories by Jay Lake; Tobias S. Buckell; Elizabeth Bear; John Scalzi, [II]; Karl Schroeder, 2009)
A story in a collaborative volume describing meta-cities of the future; see also 2009 Buckell, Lake, Schroeder, and Wishnevsky. This story is set in New St. Louis, a walled eutopian community with occupations assigned by aptitude. There is a group outside the walls that has refused to conform.
Rpt. (New York: Tor, 2010), 174-230.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Walls Have Eyes - Clare B[unkalew] Dunkle (b. 1964) (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2009)
Dystopia in sequel to 2008 Dunkle in which the young protagonist, having rescued his parents, discovers that his sister and the other genetically engineered children are in trouble.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"White Fungus" - [Michael] Bruce Sterling (b. 1954) (Beyond: Scenarios and Speculations, 2009)
The story takes place in a future in which the economy and all political systems have collapsed, and people are left to their own devices. White fungus refers to the suburbs around European cities, and the protagonist is a male architect raising his son and repurposing areas and buildings to provide food, housing, education, and all their and the community’s needs.
Rpt. at https://bruces.medium.com/white-fungus-by-bruce-sterling-2009-b737317c965a; in Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution. Ed. Ann VanderMeer (San Francisco, CA: Tachyon, 2012), 377-87; and in his Gothic High-Tech: Stories (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2011), 63-74.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Windup Girl - Paolo [Tadini] Bacigalupi (b. 1972) (Night Shade Books, 2009)
Dystopia of genetic engineering. Set in the same future as 2005 and 2006 "Yellow Card Man" Bacigalupi.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Witch and the Wizard - James [Brendan] Patterson (b. 1947); Gabrielle Charbonnet (b. 1961) (Little Brown, 2009)
Young adult dystopia of a modern-day witch hunt. Sequels include Patterson and Ned Rust. Witch & Wizard: The Gift. New York: Little, Brown, 2010 which focuses on the resistance to the dystopia; Patterson and Jill Dembowski. Witch & Wizard: The Fire. Little, Brown, 2011, which focuses on the dystopia; Patterson and Jill Dembowski. Witch & Wizard: The Kiss. New York: Little, Brown, 2013; and Patterson and Emily Raymond. Witch & Wizard: The Lost. New York: Little, Brown, 2014.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

2020 Vision. A Novel - Roy S[alant] Neuberger (b. 1942) (Feldheim Publishers, 2008)
Dystopia brought about by a series of attacks on the US by Islamist terrorists. The novel focuses on the struggle of a couple to travel first from New York to New England and then to Israel, which is presented in eutopian terms.
Keywords: Male author; US author

2084: A Tale of Post America - W. Milton Timmons (b. 1933) (AuthorHouse, 2008)
Dystopia of a U.S. fragmented as a result of the collapse of the environment and with different churches governing different sections and a few free, secular areas.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The 4400: The Vesuvius Prophecy. THE 4400 created by Scott Peters and René Echevarria - Greg Cox (b. 1959); Dayton Ward (b. 1967); Dilmore, Kevin; David [Alan] Mack (Pocket Star Books, 2008)
Four novels based on a CBS TV series that was aired from 2004 to 2007 that focus on the 4400 who disappear and that reappear with unusual powers. The first two volumes are dystopias about the conflicts that occur as a result. The third volume suggests the possibility of a eutopia when a virus kills thousands in Seattle but gives others new powers. They take over the city, rename it Promise City, and intend to build a new civilization. Those in power attempt to destroy Promise City in this and the fourth volume.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Above Empyrean: A Novel of the Final Days of the War Against Islamist Terrorism - Bruce Herschensohn (b. 1932) (Beaufort Books, 2008)
2008 Herschensohn, Bruce (b. 1932). Above Empyrean: A Novel of the Final Days of the War Against Islamist Terrorism. New York: Beaufort Books. DLC Dystopia of the takeover of the U.S. by Islamists.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Accepting the Dream Or Is it the Reality?” - Shaba Barnes (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
A short but detailed lesbian eutopia with New Age elements. Homeopathic medicine. No money. No poverty. Consensual decision making by a “Steering Committee” as needed. Males are cared for in families until puberty, when they are all sent to a boarding school; it appears that their main function is providing sperm. No industry or major commercial activity. Creating art is an important part of life. Mostly vegetarian. Houses made of fabric. Oddly, there is also high tech with flying cars.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Adjudicator--for Peter Straub" - Brian [Keith] Evenson (b. 1966) (Fugue State: Stories, 2008)
Dystopia after a catastrophe (disease/pandemic) with few survivors, who turn against each other.
Rpt. without the subtitle in Apocalypse Now: Poems and Prose from the End of Days. Ed. Andrew McFadyen and Alexander Lumans (Nashville, TN: Upper Rubber Boot, 2012), 12-24.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Adventures of the Cool Seven: A Utopian Novel - Roslynn Webb Cady (AuthorHouse, 2008)
New Age eutopia. See also 1998 Cady. A related work is her The Final Quantum: A New Thought Novel. North Charleston, SC: Create Space Independent Publishing Platform in conjunction with RosTer Publications Cañon City, CO., 2016.
Rev. as Somewhere: A Fantastical Spiritual Adventure. North Charleston, SC: Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Age of the Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future - Thomas Nevins (Ballantine Books, 2008)
Dystopia in which a political party created by the very top financial elite takes over the U.S. economic and political system. The old, known as Coots, are shipped off to “retirement” communities, people were allowed to discard a child, known as Dyscards who live in subway tunnels, and genetic engineering aims at producing the “perfect” child. The novel focuses on one family where the parents who are Coots, an adult daughter who is a Dyscard, and an adult daughter who is a leading genetic engineer and depicts both the complex dystopia and the struggle against it. It ends with the Coots, who have been expelled from the communities they were sent to organizing themselves into a functioning community, and the Dyscards effectively defeating the Conglomerate in the New York City area.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Alone With an Inconvenient Companion" - Jack [Anthony] Skillingstead (b. 1955) (Fast Forward, 2008)
Dystopia. The story is about the way in which humans are replacing their biological parts with mechanical ones, and it is set in a society that is constantly monitoring and correcting everyone.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Anathem - Neal [Town] Stephenson (b. 1959) (William Morrow, 2008)
The novel is set in a world where there is an enclosed eutopian organization for mathematicians who rarely have contact with the outer world and is concerned with a situation in which such contact is essential.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Army of the Republic - Stuart Archer Cohen (b. 1958) (St. Martin's Press, 2008)
Dystopia of powerful corporations and a corrupt government in which one man tries to control all water in the Pacific Northwest and is opposed by the Army of the Republic, a group trying to fight the system.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Arties Aren't Stupid" - Tolbert, Jeremiah (Seeds of Change, 2008)
Dystopia of artists in a society where independent art is punished.
Rpt. in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 401-10; 2nd ed. as Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 401-10.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Attached to the Land" - Donald J. Bingle (b. 1954) (Future Americas, 2008)
Libertarian eutopia. The mountain states of the U.S. plus Alaska and western Canada secede and form a new country, the Western Range and Mountains--known as the Range. The central institution, designed in part to keep population growth under control, is that every person must have a certain minimum amount of land, initially provided by parceling out public lands. Those who fall below the minimum are forced to leave. Since the rest of North America is a poverty-stricken, violent dystopia, this rule is effective.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Baby Store" - Gorman, Ed (Future Americas, 2008)
Dystopia brought about by the ability to create designer babies, who must be perfect.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Bass Fishing With the Enemy" - Daniel Hatch (Otherworldly Maine, 2008)
Dystopia in the U.S. brought about by Homeland Security, which has set up detention camps and completely controls information, even prohibiting watching television from Canada.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Birmingham, 35 Miles - James Braziel (b. 1967) (Bantam Books, 2008)
The dystopia produced by global warming. See also 2009 Braziel.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Black Glass - John [Patrick] Shirley (b. 1954) (Elder Signs Press, 2008)
Cyberpunk dystopia constructed as a mystery novel.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Blind Savior, False Prophet - Joseph DeMarco (AuthorHouse, 2008)
Dystopia written partially in honor of Philip K. Dick (1928-82) and depicting his paranoia through a future prophet who thought he was Dick reincarnated.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Brown Revolution: No longer number two" - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Nature, 2008)
Satire. The global warming and oil crises are solved by using the manure produced by all life to replace oil.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Caliphate - Tom [Thomas P.] Kratman (b. 1956) (Baen, 2008)
A future Islamic dystopia in Europe contrasted with the eutopia of a free-enterprise America. Includes an anti-Europe and anti-Islam “Afterword” (371-82), called an “Authorial editorial,” that has the subtitle “A World Without Europe (except as a geographic expression” and is something of a rant against liberals and Muslims, who will become the majority in Europe and suppress non-Muslims. The author retired from the U.S. Army in 2006.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Champagne award: Planning for the Future" - Gregory [Albert] Benford (b. 1941) (Nature, 2008)
Dystopia of government control of permits to have children.
Rpt. in The Best of Gregory Benford. Ed. David G. Hartwell (Burton, MI: Subterranean, 2015), 505-07.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Circles of Women” - Jeane Orjas (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
A poem describing a lesbian eutopia in fairly general terms but stressing the support the women give each other.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The City of Blind Delight" - Catherynne M[organ] Valente (b. 1979) (Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness, 2008)
Fantasy, but the city in which the story is set is a cockaigne with streets made of food and so forth.
Rpt. in Other Worlds Than These: Stories of Parallel Worlds. Ed John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 487-76.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Clementa - Jim Martin (b. 1937) (Lupine Press, 2008)
A future Italy has broken up into small city states. The focus of the novel is on one of these states that is a dystopia in which there is an underclass that revolts. Another of these states, Cosmopolis, is briefly presented positively.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Commentary: America's Chilling Future" - Glenn [Edward Lee] Beck (b. 1964) (CNNPolitics.com, 2008)
Brief description of the dystopia that exists in 2076 because people became too partisan and trusted politicians too much. From a conservative, anti-socialist perspective.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Cry Wolf: A Political Fable - Paul Lake (BenBella Books, 2008)
Dystopia on the model of Orwell's 1945 Animal Farm, where an attempt to create a eutopia that extends to animals beyond the farm fails.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Deadly Verdict - Andrew Neiderman (b. 1940) (Severn House, 2008)
Dystopia. Mystery novel set in a future where the jury system has been replaced by professional jurors trained to make decisions objectively. The jurors and their families are being murdered.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Dee Dee Does Utopia - Deborah Faye Lawrence (b. 1952) (Marquand Books, 2008)
Art book with each page given to a different satirical depiction of a utopia plus two separate pages of comments by others.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Diamond of Darkhold - Jeanne DuPrau (b. 1944) (Random House, 2008)
Fourth book in the Ember series. See also 2003 and 2004 DuPrau. The Prophet of Yonwood. New York: Random House, 2006 is a prequel to the series. In this volume, the protagonists revisit Ember.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Digital Destiny. A Novel - Jeromie Carr (b. 1980); James Dunn (iUniverse, 2008)
Dystopia of violent conflict between those favoring and opposing technology in a high-tech future.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Digital Plague - Jeff Somers (b. 1971) (Orbit, 2008)
Dystopia of a nanotech plague. Sequel to 2007 Somers.
U.K. ed. London: Orbit, 2008.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Ecumensus: The Next Vision. A Novel - Clifford Lane Mark (iUniverse, 2008)
Spiritual novel developing visions for the period 2010-2019, a period which is expected to include the end of the current Age. Ecumensus means “Hold to and act on a vision of unity for the world.”
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Egg Man - Carlton Mellick III (b. 1977) (Avant Punk, 2008)
Urban, industrial dystopia in the sub-genre known as Bizarro. People reproduce like insects and the corporations own all children.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Evidence of Love In a Case of Abandonment: One Daughter's Account" - M[ary Beth] Rickert (b. 1959) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 2008)
Dystopia in which all women who ever had an abortion are being systematically publicly executed.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 3. Ed. Jonathan Strahan (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2009), 409-16; in her Holiday (Urbana, IL: Golden Gryphon Press, 2010), 65-74; and in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 39-46; 2nd ed. as Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 39-46.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Full Moon in the Park” - Sonia [Ann] Johnson (b. 1936) (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
Brief eutopia in which femaleness unites all creatures.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Gambler" - Paolo [Tadini] Bacigalupi (b. 1972) (Fast Forward, 2008)
Dystopia of instant communication with over-reliance on the internet. A sub-theme is environmental collapse.
Rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twentieth-Sixth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner Dozois (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2009), 32-49 with an editor’s introduction on 32; and in Twenty-First Century Science Fiction. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Patrick Nielsen Hayden (New York: Tor, 2013), 51-72.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gasoline - [Darcy Megan] [Stanger] (b. 1971) (Merrell, 2008)
Post-apocalyptic graphic novel in which one family searches for gasoline and must confront violent nihilists. The family develops a new, better life that is more in touch with nature.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Gather" - Christopher Rowe (b. 1969) (The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Sixteen Original Works by Speculative Fiction's Finest Voices, 2008)
Religious dystopia in which God lives on one side of a river and the people live on the other. Only clergy are allowed to go to God’s side of the river where the only fertile soil is found. It is unclear just who or what God is, but when the protagonist, Gather, and a friend find an image of God, the decide to return it to God’s side.
Rpt. in his Telling the Map: Stories Easthampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2017), 83-95.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Geriatric Ward" - Orson Scott Card (b. 1951) (Keeper of Dreams, 2008)
Dystopia of a short intense life.
Rpt. Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 385-99; 2nd ed. as Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 385-99.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse - Victor Gischler (b. 1969) (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 2008)
Post-catastrophe dystopia in which the only "civilization" left in the U.S. appears to be a chain of strip clubs.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gone - Michael Grant (Harper Teen, 2008)
The first volume in a long. young adult dystopian series in which everyone over fifteen disappears. Sequels are Hunger. A Gone Novel. New York: Harper Teen, 2009; Lies: A Gone Novel. New York: HarperCollins/Katherine Tegan Books, 2010; Plague. A Gone Novel. New York: HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2011; Fear. A Gone Novel. New York: HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2012; Light: A Gone Novel. New York: HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2013. An additional trilogy set a few years later includes Monster. New York: HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2017; Villain. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2018; and Hero. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, 2019.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Horse Racing" - Mary Rosenblum (1952-2018) (Asimov's Science Fiction, 2008)
The story describes a future in which people purchase the opportunity to direct the lives of potentially talented or talented people without their knowledge. While it appears clearly dystopian most of the people get better lives than they would have otherwise.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The House Left Empty" - Robert [David] Reed (b. 1956) (Asimov's Science Fiction, 2008)
Post-catastrophe eutopia of decentralized areas, called Self-Governing Districts.
Rpt. in Year's Best SF 14. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (New York: Eos, 2009), 274-93 with an editors' note on 273.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (b. 1962) (Scholastic Press, 2008)
First volume in a young adult dystopian series set in a future North American dictatorship where people are kept on the edge of starvation. The Hunger Games are an annual contest in which each community must send a boy and a girl to fight in an arena until only one survives. In the second volume, Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic Press, 2009, having won the games by breaking the rules, the protagonists become the focus of resentment. In the third volume, Mockingjay. New York: Scholastic Press, 2010, a rebellion unfolds. A prequel is The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. New York: Scholastic Press, 2020. The first in a film series was released in 2012, directed by Gary Ross (b. 1956) from a screenplay by Collins, Ross, and Billy Ray. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was released in 2013, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 in 2014, and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 in 2015. All three were directed by Francis Lawrence (b. 1971). The screenplay for Catching Fire was written by Simon Beaufoy (b. 1967) and Michael Arndt and screenplays for the two Mockingjay films by [Daniel W.] Danny Strong (b. 1974) and Peter Craig (1969). A film, also directed by Lawrence, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes with a screenplay by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt was released November 5, 2923 in Berlin and November 17, 2023 in the United States. For a parody, see [Aaron Geary and John Bailey Owen], The Hunger but Mainly Death Games. A Parody. By Bratniss Everclean [pseud.] London: Gollancz, 2012.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Hydraulic" - Ekaterina Sedia (b. 1970) (Spicy Slipstream Stories, 2008)
Environmental dystopia. Power is produced from rain, and it rains constantly. Almost everything has been privatized, and even recharging batteries is illegal.
Rpt. in Dark Futures [Subtitle on the cover Tales of SF Dystopia]. Ed. Jason Sizemore (Howell, NJ: Dark Quest Books, 2010), 226-37.
Keywords: Female author; Russian author; US author

Imagining America in 2033: How the Country Put Itself Together after Bush - Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927) (University of Michigan Press, 2008)
Designed to be a "realistic utopia" written from the perspective of a liberal. Imagines four presidential administrations and their policies. Depicts a fairer more egalitarian America.
Keywords: German author; Male author; US author

Irreconcilable Differences - James R. Strickland (Flying Pen, 2008)
Corporate dystopia in a disintegrated U.S. The corporations are active both on the ground and in cyberspace to keep their power.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Jemma 7729 - Pheobe Wray (Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2008)
Authoritarian dystopia in which most of the population live in domed cities and believe that the outside is uninhabitable. Each person must publicly choose their future life. Lone rebel. A sequel is J2. Howell, NJ: DTF Publications, 2012.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Jesus Runs" - George Zebrowski (b. 1945) (Future Americas, 2008)
Religious dystopia in which a clone of Jesus plans to run for President of the United States, which had fragmented as power had shifted to the states. The Supreme Court had become irrelevant as a result of partisan decisions, but since there were a dozen clones, it got involved.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Kilimanjaro: A Fable of Utopia - Mike [Michael Diamond] Resnick (1942-2020) (Subterranean Press, 2008)
In 2122 the Eutopian worlds were terraformed in orbit around the Earth and seventy-three groups were allowed to create their utopia. The Prologue (7-9) refers to the failures of a few and mentions that some flourished and others failed for a variety of reasons. Here the focus is on the evolution of a Maasai utopia  that they call Kilimanjaro showing a series of decisions that had to be made to reconcile Maasai traditions to current conditions. A companion to 1998 Resnick, Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia, and the Maasai had studied the mistakes made by the Kikuyu as described in that volume. At the time of this work, Kirinyaga still functions but no longer with a utopian vision.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Knife of Never Letting Go. Chaos Walking: Book One - Patrick Ness (b. 1971) (Walker Books, 2008)
First volume of a dystopian series. People had settled on a new planet and lost a war with the indigenous inhabitants, who had released a germ that made the thoughts of all humans and animals constantly audible. Quiet is discovered, but at the end of this volume, the world is taken over by the authoritarian leaders of the remaining humans. The Ask and the Answer. Chaos Walking: Book Two. London: Walker Books, 2009, the second volume, stresses the struggle against the authoritarian leaders who gained power at the end of the previous volume. In the third volume, Monsters of Men. Chaos Walking: Book Three. London: Walker Books, 2010. U.S. ed. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, [2011], the two protagonists are forced to choose sides.
U.S. ed. New York: Candlewick Press, 2009.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

"The Last Actor" - Mike [Michael Diamond] Resnick (1942-2020); Linda L. Donahue (Future Americas, 2008)
Dystopia brought about by poor quality education and the growth of mass culture.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

"Let Their People Go: The Left Left Behind" - Terry [Ballantine] Bisson (1942-2024) (Postscripts, 2008)
Satire on the Left Behind series (see 1995 LaHaye and Jenkins) in which the capitalists, conservatives, and religious bigots  are removed, which allows the remaining people to begin to create a cooperative, world-wide eutopia.
Rpt. as “The Left Left Behind: ‘Let Their People Go!’” In his The Left Left Behind: ‘Let Their People Go!’ plus Special Relativity and ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ Outspoken Interview (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2009), 11-48.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America - Brian Francis Slattery (b. 1975) (Tor, 2008)
Humorous dystopia of the economic collapse of the U.S.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Life Without Crows” - Gerri Leen (Life Without Crows and Other Stories, 2008)
Post-catastrophe (disease/pandemic) dystopia as seen through the eyes of one of a group of survivors who have lived an isolated life in the mountains for hundreds of years and perceive it as a good life.
Originally published in Fusion Fragment. Ed. Cavan Terrill (2008), an on line journal that is no longer available.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Man in the Dark - Paul Auster (b. 1947) (Holt, 2008)
Dystopia. A story told by the central character is set in a parallel America in which the 2000 Presidential election led to secession and civil war.
UK ed. London: Faber and Faber, 2008.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Manumission" - Tobias S[amuel] Buckell (b. 1979) (Lightspeed, 2008)
Dystopia of a future where individuals are enslaved by corporations.
Originally published online in Jim Baen's Universe 2.6 (12) (April 2008) but no longer available online. Rpt. in Lightspeed: Year One. Ed. John Joseph Adams ([New York]: Prime Books, 2011), 70-85.
Keywords: British Virgin Islands author; Grenadian author; Male author; US author; US Virgin Islands author

“The Mauvety” - Ida VSA Red (b. 1933) (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
Lesbian eutopia where the elderly meet the young, who will take on their burdens.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Mitigation" - Karl Schroeder (b. 1962); Tobias S[amuel] Buckell (b. 1979) (Fast Forward 2, 2008)
Environmental dystopia designed to keep people ignorant.
Rpt. in Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction. Ed. John Joseph Adams (New York: Saga Press, 2015), 527-55.
Keywords: Canadian author; Grenadian author; Male author; US author

Mother Puncher - Gina Ranalli (Afterbirth Books, 2008)
Dystopia of an authoritarian government in an overpopulated world. The focus of the novel is a man working in a hospital fulfilling the role of the title.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Murder in Geektopia" - Paul [Gerard] Di Filippo (b. 1954) (Sideways in Crime: An Alternative Mystery Anthology, 2008)
A eutopia for Geeks with a stress on technology and popular culture in an alternative future of world peace.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"My Utopia" - Ruth Mountaingrove (1923-2016) (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
The author describes her Arcadian utopia as having no men with, as in 1915 Gilman, parthenogenesis; no money, which is replaced by barter; and no private property. Women would be able to have work they loved. All children would be welcomed and cared for. There would be peace and harmony with a council deciding any “small disputes.” No lawyers. Healing wise women instead of doctors. No religion.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Nelson Gregory's 2084 - Nelson Gregory [pseud.] (Frequent Flyer Books & Music, 2008)
Dystopia in which all power has been concentrated in the presidency and, in an anti-terrorist move, the president orders U.S. forces to attack and kill Muslims living in the U.S., including U.S. citizens.
Keywords: US author

Neptune's Children - Bonnie Dobkin (Walker, 2008)
Post-catastrophe dystopia with only children surviving on an island theme park.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Night Children - Kit [Lilian Craig] Reed (1932-2017) (Starscape/Tor, 2008)
Young adult dystopia of children living in a huge mall and coming out only at night.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Novel Excerpt: And the Women Take Over Jerusalem” - [Betty Susan] Weinbaum (b. 1952) (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
Pretty much what the title says.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Other Side of the Island - Allegra Goodman (b. 1967) (Razorbill, 2008)
Young adult dystopia where having more than one child merits punishment.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Our Flag Was Still There" - Steven Mohan Jr. (Future Americas, 2008)
Dystopia in which each antagonistic ethnic, ideological, political, or religious group was isolated in separate virtual "Habitats".
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Pacification of Earth - Dean Warren (Xlibris, 2008)
Dystopia. Mostly a future war story, but it begins in a future overpopulation dystopia and proceeds through the war to the suggestion of a better future.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The pair-bond imperative: What's Love Got to do with it?" - Jennifer Rohn (b. 1967) (Nature, 2008)
A space colony establishes a rigid procreation system, and the story is about love interfering with it.
Keywords: Female author; UK author; US author

Pandemonium in 2012 - Lee [Leland W.] Cross (Virginia City Publishing, 2008)
Dystopia of a future U.S. under the usual politicians is challenged by patriots.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Philosopher's Apprentice - James [Kenneth] Morrow (b. 1947) (William Morrow, 2008)
Near future dystopias created by both sides in struggles over genetic engineering. One dystopia is an extrapolation of the growing political power of fundamentalist Christians in the U.S. The other dystopia is brought about by a genetic experiment by women trying to create a eutopia.
Rpt. with an added, separately paged section "P.S. Insights, Interviews & More. . ." at the end. New York: Harper Perennial, 2009.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Pisstown Chaos. A Novel - David Ohle (b. 1941) (Soft Skull Press, 2008)
Religious dystopia. Sequel to 2004 Ohle.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Plague of Doves - [Karen] Louise Erdrich (b. 1954) (HarperCollins, 2008)
Includes a section on a dystopian religious intentional community.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Plan C" - Tricia Sullivan (b. 1968) (’68: New Stories from Children of the Revolution, 2008)
A story of a girl escaping an authoritarian dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; UK author; US author

"The Protocol: Your children deserve the best" - Ralph Greco [Jr.] (Nature, 2008)
Dystopia. Children are genetically manipulated after birth to produce what their parents want.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Publicani - Zak Maymin (CreateSpace Publishing, 2008)
Dystopia focusing on one family's response to an authoritarian government that wants to take even one's intellect.
Keywords: Male author; Russian author; US author

"Pump Six" - Paolo [Tadini] Bacigalupi (b. 1972) (Pump Six and Other Stories, 2008)
Dystopia. General environmental collapse which has led to a biological and intellectual collapse among humans.
Rpt. in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 115.3 (676) (September 2008): 9-43; and in Year's Best SF 14. Ed. David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (New York: Eos, 2009), 106-43 with an editors' note on 105 .
Keywords: Male author; US author

Reality Crash - Lou Grantt; Cyd Ropp (Authors, 2008)
Dystopia in which most people subscribe to a virtual reality network that hides the horrors of the real world.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Resistance" - Tobias S[amuel] Buckell (b. 1979) (Seeds of Change, 2008)
The problems faced by those resisting a technological solution to decision making where neither approach is particularly good.
Keywords: British Virgin Islands author; Grenadian author; Male author; US author

"Revolt of the Ultraists!" - Richard A. Becker (Spicy Slipstream Stories, 2008)
Dystopia of a collapsed city. Violence, new drugs, intrusive advertising.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Rx for Chaos - [Harry C.] [Crosby] [Jr.] (1925-2009) (Baen Books, 2008)
Satire on the problems that arise from a drug that makes everyone happy all the time.
A collection of related stories published previously as "Rx for Chaos." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 72.6 (February 1964): 72-80; "Cinderella, Inc." Imagination 3.7 (December 1952): 72-75 as Crosby; "Roll Out the Rolov!" Imagination 4.10 (November 1953): 96-103 as Crosby; "The New Boccaccio." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 64.5 (January 1965): 74-77; "Is Everybody Happy?" Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction Science Fact--Science Fiction 81.2 (April 1968): 67-85; "A Handheld Primer." Amazing Science Fiction Stories 51.2 (January 1978): 32-39; "The Great Intellect Boom." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction Science Fact--Science Fiction 83.5 (July 1969): 38-55; "Interesting Times." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 107.12 (December 1987): 104-16; "Superbiometalemon." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 63.1 (374) (July 1982): 37-43; "Speed-Up!" Amazing Stories 38.1 (January 1964): 6-32; "Rags from Riches." Amazing Stories 62.4 (537) (November 1987): 122-27; "Bugs." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 106.6 (June 1986): 90-113; "Positive Feedback." 75.6 Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction (August 1965): 47-63; "Two-Way Communication." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 77.3 (May 1966): 72-83; "High G." Worlds of If Science Fiction 15.6 (91) (June 1965): 76-100; "Doc's Legacy." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 108.2 (February 1988): 158-83; "Negative Feedback." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 114.4 (March 1994): 58-73; "The New Way." Beyond Infinity 1.1 (November/December 1967): 150-60; "Identification." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 57.3 (May 1961): 8-32; "The Golden Years." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 107.3 (March 1977): 110-20; "No Small Enemy." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 68.3 (November 1961): 7-51; and "Not in the Literature." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 71.1 (March 1963): 60-66.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Santa Fe in 2028” - Pelican Lee (Sinister Wisdom, 2008)
A eutopian Santa Fe with no patriarchy, no racism, no gender discrimination in a world at peace. No poverty. Corporations broken up and replaced by small businesses.
Keywords: Female author; US author