"Ado" - Connie [Constance Elaine Trimmer] Willis (b. 1945) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1988)
Dystopia of political correctness and religious oversight gone seriously wrong in a university.
Rpt. in her Impossible Things. New York: Bantam Books, 1993; rpt. (New York: Bantam Books, 1994), 115-24.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Adventures of Mr. Snozzlefozzle and the Golden Planet - W[illiam] E. Drake (Author, 1988)
A planet, the Golden Planet with a parallel history to that of Earth, destroys its entire population in a war, but a far-sighted scientist has saved sperm and eggs and is able to repopulate the planet. In its new life, the population creates a eutopia based on education and a sense of community.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Alternities - [Michael Paul] [McDowell] (b. 1954) (Ace Books, 1988)
Dystopia. Alternate universes that can be reached from Earth are used by the powerful of Earth to play out their fantasies of even greater power, although one man sees them as a chance to start over.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Backward, Turn Backward." - [Alice Bradley] [Sheldon] (1915-87) (Synergy: New Science Fiction, 1988)
Love story with a background of a future dystopia--a deeply divided society with the middle class and above living in enclaves.
Rpt. in her Crown of Stars (New York: Tor, 1988), 208-70.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Between the Stars - [Yoji] [Kondo] (1933-2017); John Maddox Roberts (b. 1947) (Baen, 1988)
Sequel to 1987 [Kondo] and Roberts. In this volume, the discovery of alien artifacts that provide a major source of power are used to free the solar system from the repressive regimes that have developed there,
Keywords: Male author; US author

Carmen Dog - [Agnes] Carol[lyn] [Fries] Emshwiller (1921-2019) (Women's Press, 1988)
Surrealistic. Women turning into animals and animals into women.
U.S. ed. San Francisco, CA: Mercury House, 1990.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Catspaw - Joan [Carol] D[ennison] Vinge (b. 1948) (Warner Books, 1988)
Cyberpunk dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Company Man - Joe Clifford Faust (b. 1957) (del Rey, 1988)
Future world run by huge corporations.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Dreams of Flesh & Sand - W[illiam] T[homas] Quick (b. 1946) (New American Library, 1988)
Mostly a technological adventure story, but as background the world is totally dominated by private corporations. 1989 Quick Dreams of Gods and Men. New York: New American Library, 1989, in which an artificial intelligence is taking over all the corporations and 1990 Quick, Singularities. <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>: ROC, 1990, are sequels.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Emerald Eyes - Daniel Keys Moran (b. 1962) (Bantam Spectra, 1988)
An attempt to genetically engineer super soldiers goes wrong and creates a telepath instead. More were created designed to be completely obedient soldiers, but they thought otherwise. See also 1989 and 1993 Moran
Keywords: Male author; US author

Empire of the Senseless - Kathy [Karen Lehmann] Acker (1948-97) (Grove Press, 1988)
Dystopia set in vaguely described future with a number of loosely connected themes such as Algerian terrorists taking over Paris. Much sex and violence.
U.K. ed. London: Picador, 1988.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Fire on the Mountain - Terry [Ballantine] Bisson (1942-2024) (Arbor House, 1988)
According to Bisson, the basis of the novel is thinking about what would happen if the abolitionist John Brown (1800-59) had been successful, with most of the novel on the history of the successful revolt and its effects. There is a prosperous, independent black state, Nova Africa, in the U.S. South and the North, now the United Socialist States of America or U.S.S.A., is also becoming prosperous. For John Brown’s own eutopia, see 1858 Brown.
Rpt. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2009 with an "Introduction" by Mumia Abu-Jamal (b. Wesley Cook in 1954) from Death Row, where he has been since 1995. An excerpt from the 2009 ed. was published in Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. Ed. Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown (Oakland, CA: AK Press and the Institute for Anarchist Studies, 2015), 225-38.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The First Battle of Morn - Deborah [Stoddard] Moulton (b. 1952) (Dial Books, 1988)
Young adult novel depicting an authoritarian dystopia and the successful struggle against it led by a boy.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"From Homogenous to Honey." - Neil [Richard] Gaiman (b. 1960) (AARGH (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia), 1988)
Dystopia. Graphic story depicting the destruction of difference, particularly differences in sexual preference, and the creation of sameness, with all people alike.
Rpt. in The Future Is Queer. Ed. Richard Labonté and Lawrence Schimel (Vancouver, BC, Canada: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2006), 112-15; and in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 107-11.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The Gate to Women's Country - Sheri [Shirley] S[tewart] Tepper (1929-2016) (Foundation Books/Doubleday/Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1988)
Post-catastrophe world divided into a women’s and men’s communities in which the women try to keep alive the best of the post-catastrophe world and the men are warriors. There is a mixed carnival once a year, and boys stay with their mothers until five, when they join their fathers, visiting their mothers twice a year. At fifteen the boys choose to be warriors or live with their mothers with some having been rejected by their fathers. The novel begins with two ceremonies, the first on a boy’s fifteen birthday and the second at a boy’s fifth birthday, both reflecting the pain experienced by the mothers. In fact, the women have been using birth control and selecting the men who father children to try to breed out male violence. There are a number of subplots that make it a quite complicated novel.
Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1989
Keywords: Female author; US author

The General's President - [John Robert] [Jones] (b. 1926) (Baen, 1988)
Political novel set in a future dystopia in which, after a depression and rioting, the President and Vice President resign, and the Join Chiefs of Staff chooses the next President. He establishes a dictatorship but is also independent minded.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Genesis: An Epic Poem - Frederick Turner (b. 1943) (Saybrook Publishing Co, 1988)
Poem about the terraforming of Mars and the conflicts it engenders with a mild dystopia as background.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The Gold Coast - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (St. Martin's Press, 1988)
An affluent future that could be read as a eutopia or as a dystopia depicting the effects of the military-industrial complex, but the discontent of the main characters suggests the latter. See also 1984 Robinson, The Wild Shore, and 1990 Robinson, Pacific Edge, which are reprinted in Three Californias. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2020, with an introduction “Triptych, with Softball” by Francis Spufford (7-12), The Wild Shore (13-292), The Gold Coast (293-653), and Pacific Edge (655-895). The three volumes have the same physical location, but the futures presented are different.
Rpt. New York: Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, 1988; and in Three Californias (New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2020), 293-653, with an introduction “Triptych, with Softball” by Francis Spufford (7-12). U.K. ed. London: Futura, 1989.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Handbook of Scientific Utopianism (Utopia 2: Blueprint for Heaven on Earth, 1988)
Contains many statements describing the utopia the community thinks it already is together with some that suggest the wider utopia that will be brought about through its example. Includes an “Introduction. Ruled by Rock: the Party Culture” by Even Eve (1-2); “Origins. Neotribal Roots” (No author) (3-6); Sex & Family Life. Polyfidelity Explained” by Even Eve (7-8), “Nuns and Monks in Love: Polyfidelity as a Religious Practice” by Tip Tye and Paz Now (9); “Sex and Family Life. Coming on the Sleeping Schedule: A Personal Story” by Paz Now (10-12); “Utopian Psychology. Fundamental Principles for Mental Health” by Geo Logical (13-14); “Gestalt-O-Rama™ for Beginners” By Ram Star (15-16); “Children. Multiple Parenting” By Esperanta Rio (17-18); Religion & Mythology. Birth of the Goddess” By Geo Logical (19-21); Religion & Mythology. Eleven Basic Metaphysical Premises & Beliefs” By Bluejay Way (22-24); “Economics. TASK: the Tribal Accounting System by Kerista” By Even Eve (25, 28); “Abacus, Inc.: A Vision with a Business” By Eden Zia (29-30); “Future Vision. The Kerista Planetary Prosperity Plan. As explained by Bro Jud and discussed at a Monday Night service. Tape Transcribed by Esperanto Rio” (31-36); “Future Fantasy” By Even Eve (37-38); “Messiah 2.0” By Tip Tye (39); Decision-Making. Shared Leadership and Direct Democracy” By Even Eve (40); Social Contracts. The Oral and Written Law” By Even Eve (41); Social Contracts. The 88 Basic Standards of the Gestalt-O-Rama™ Growth Process& the Club Utopia Growth Co-Op” (No author) (42-46); “Do-It-With-Friends. Mental Health Techniques 82 Fun Ways to Work on Yourself” By Sym Com (47-50); and “Getting Closer. A Step that will Change Your Life” By Paz Now (51-52). Most articles include sidebars either directly related to the article or concerning material discussed in other articles.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

"Home Front" - James Patrick Kelly (b. 1951) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1988)
Dystopia presented through the eyes of a teenager in a society that arbitrarily drafts young people into the military. See also 1988 Kelly, “Pogrom”.
Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989), 52-61 with an editor's note on 51.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"House Rules" - Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-99) (Four Moons of Darkover, 1988)
Free Amazon story.
Rpt. in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover (New York: DAW Books, 1993), 61-69.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Hustler" - Pat[rick] Califia[-Rice] (b. 1954) (Macho Sluts: Erotic Fiction, 1988)
Dystopia set after a very long war followed by a struggle for power between men and women. While the women win and establish a women-oriented society, it requires women to spend a period of time caring for babies and has a very narrow range of acceptable sexual behavior.
Keywords: Transgender author; US author

Isaac Asimov Presents Antibodies - David J[ohn] Skal (1952-2024) (Congdon & Weed, 1988)
Dystopia of people replacing their bodies with machines a bit at a time.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Islands in the Net - [Michael] Bruce Sterling (b. 1954) (Arbor House, 1988)
A future high tech, networked eutopia that has access to data tightly controlled is being undermined by those trying to control people through the net. One woman manages to defeat them.
Rpt. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1994 with an unpaged “Introduction” by James E. Gunn, which was rpt. in his Paratexts: Introductions to Science Fiction and Fantasy (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2013), 73-76. . U.K. ed. London: Century, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Johnny Zed - John Gregory Betancourt (b. 1963) (Popular Library, 1988)
Dystopia of a corrupt, authoritarian future U.S.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Journals of the Plague Years." - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Full Spectrum, 1988)
Dystopia. An AIDS-like pandemic/plague spreads throughout the world and anyone with it is put into a quarantine zone. Written from the point of view of both those with the plague and those fighting it. At the end a virus defeats the plague, and an introductory statement written fron Luna City in 2143 suggests a eutopian outcome.
Rpt. as Journals of the Plague Years. New York: Bantam Books, 1995.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Krono - Charles [Leonard] Harness (1915-2005) (Franklin Watts, 1988)
Includes an overpopulation dystopia. Corruption.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"La Vie Continue" - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Other Americas, 1988)
Dystopia of a future America that tries to co-opt or, if that fails, kill authors who oppose the current regime.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Last Bank on Earth - Michael S. Cummings (b. 1943) (Play performed by the Pepperdine University Mini-theatre, April 5, 1988., 1988)
Dystopian satire of a bank after a nucear war.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Last of the Winnebagoes" - Connie [Constance Elaine Trimmer] Willis (b. 1945) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1988)
Ecological dystopia in which there are severe restrictions on vehicles and travel and most animals have died.
Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989), 182-222 with an editor's note on 181.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Lunatics" - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (Terry's Universe, 1988)
Dystopia of mining on the moon which is the equivalent of slavery.
Rpt. in his Remaking History (New York: Tor, 1991), 236-63; and in Infinity Plus one. Ed. Keith Brooke and Nick Gevers (Leeds, Eng.: PS Publishing, 2001), 255-81; in Brave New Worlds. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2011), 293-313; 2nd ed. as Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories. Ed. John Joseph Adams (San Francisco, CA: Night Shade Books, 2012), 293-313; and in Alaya Dawn Johnson and Kim Stanley Robinson. Metamorphosis (Seattle, WA: Aqueduct Press, 2015), 59-91.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Maiden Flight - Eric Vinicoff (b. 1951) (Baen Books, 1988)
Post-catastrophe novel about building a new, better society where non-violent societies must fight the remains of previous military.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Man Plague” - Zama [pseud.] (Sinister Wisdom, 1988)
A plague that eliminates all men creates a rural eutopia for lesbians.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Metrophage (A Romance of the Future) - Richard [Albert] Kadrey (b. 1957) (Ace Books, 1988)
Dystopia of a future Los Angeles ravaged by poverty and disease.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Mona Lisa Overdrive - William [Ford] Gibson (b. 1948) (Victor Gollancz, 1988)
Future cyberpunk dystopia.
U.S. ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Moon of Ice - Brad[ford Swain] Linaweaver (1952-2019) (Arbor House, 1988)
Alternative history. Nazi's win World War II and control Europe. America is libertarian.
Rpt. New York: Tor, 1993. U.K. ed. London: Grafton, 1989. A novella with the same title was published in Amazing Science Fiction Stories 28.5 (March 1982): 42-73. Rpt. in Hitler Victorious: Eleven Stories of the German Victory in World War II. Ed. Gregory [Albert] Benford and Martin H[arry] Greenberg (New York: Garland, 1986), 147-201; and in The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century. Ed. Harry [Norman] Turtledove with Martin H[arry] Greenberg (New York: Ballantine Books, 2001), 357-415.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Moses in the Promised Land - R. Howard Bloch (Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 1988)
Complex satire. Sixties people grown older but with the same fads and reforms with the satire suggesting that there were dystopian elements. There is conflict corrupt politicians and large developers, which, when the developers and politicians win, produces a dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Mundane's World - Judy [Rae] Grahn (b. 1940) (The Crossing Press, 1988)
Feminist eutopia set in a preliterate society in which the people are organized into clans that fill different functions in the society. The people are intimately connected to and communicate with the natural environment. Men and women used to after separate languages, but these have mostly disappeared.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"My Year With the Aliens." - Lisa Goldstein (b. 1953) (Full Spectrum, 1988)
Satirical take on a world formed by middle-class intellectual radicals after a Communist revolution on Earth. No private property; criticism/self-criticism sessions; children raised communally. The story is told from the point-of-view of a mildly disaffected teenager.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Nick and the Glimmung - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Gollancz, 1988)
Humorous children's story that begins on an overpopulated Earth with an anti-pet policy and moves to a planet with various sentient beings under threat of one powerful one. A young boy defeats the threat, and all will be able to live happily.
U.S. ed. Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2009.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Overshoot - Mona [Ann] Clee (b. 1952) (Ace Books, 1988)
Dystopia of global warming.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Peaches for Mad Molly" - Steven [Charles] Gould (b. 1955) (Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, 1988)
Dystopia in which the homeless live hanging on the outsides of buildings.
Rpt. in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989), 82-100 with an editor's note on 81.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Prelude to Foundation - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (Doubleday, 1988)
Prequel to the Foundation series. See note at 1982 Asimov. See also 1986 Asimov. Includes a description of a society presented as dystopian that is similar to a traditional religious commune.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Rabelaisian Reprise - [Margery (known as Marj) A.] [Krueger] (1941-2006) (Doubleday & Co, 1988)
Dystopia set on the same planet and with many of the same characters as 1983 Krueger.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Resurrection, Inc - Kevin J[ames] Anderson (b. 1962) (New American Library, 1988)
Dystopia--dead revived to be used as slaves. They revolt.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Sideshow - W[illiam] R[och] Thompson (b. 1955) (Baen, 1988)
Future United States during a new Great Depression. Three extremist groups fight for power: The Iron Guard, who are Neo-Nazis; the New Redeemers, who are religious fanatics; Sere, who believe that civilization must be destroyed to save the planet. In addition, there are telepaths who are treated as witches and being hunted.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Stairs" - Neal [Patrick] Barrett Jr. (1929-2014) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1988)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Rpt. in his Slightly Off Center: Eleven Extraordinarily Exhilarating Tales (Austin, TX: Swan Press, 1992), 114-27; and in his Other Seasons: The Best of Neal Barrett, Jr. (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2012), 229-80.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Stone Hands” - Cheryl Elaine Davis (Sinister Wisdom, 1988)
A religious dystopia that institutionalizes patriarchy, and a woman’s discovery of desire for another woman.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Taking From the Top" - Daniel [David] Pearlman (1935-2013) (Synergy: New Science Fiction, 1988)
Future tale in which death is required after eighty except for those who have made or are making a major contribution to society.
Rpt. in his The Final Dream and Other Fictions (San Francisco, CA: Permeable Press, 1995), 45-80.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Terraplane - Jack [Wylie] Womack [Jr.] (b. 1956) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988)
A volume in the DryCo series. This volume is an alternative history dystopia in which some characters in the first volume are sent to the period of the Great Depression. For other volumes in the series see his 1987 Ambient, 1990 Heathern, 1993 Elvissey, 1993 Random Acts of Senseless Violence, and 2000 Going, Going, Gone. Although there are multiple alternative histories in the series, in timeline order, the volumes are 1993 Random Acts of Senseless Violence, 1990 Heathern, 1987 Ambient, 1988 Terraplane, 1993 Elivissey, and 2000 Going, Going, Gone.
U.K. ed. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Time of No Troubles” - W[alter] Warren Wagar (1932-2004) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1988)
Third in a dystopian series following 1986 and 1987 Wagar. In this story, initially the world appears to be divided between altros, or slaves, and egos, or bosses, a division includes animals. The system breaks down with altros killing themselves for no known reason.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Tower to the Sky - Phillip C[harles] Jennings (b. 1946) (Baen, 1988)
Background of a largely destroyed future earth. Complex political novel with some dystopian elements.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Turbo Cowboys 1. Jump Start - [Cunningham, Chet] (Ballantine Books, 1988)
The first volume of the ten volume young adult post-catastrophe Turbo Cowboys series in which five of young men fight for freedom on their motorcycles. Other volumes include three more written by Cunningham, Turbo Cowboys 2 Spin Out (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), Turbo Cowboys 3 Full Throttle (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), and Turbo Cowboys 4 Spark Fire (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989). The other six volumes were written by Paul Bagdon, Turbo Cowboys 5 Super Charge (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), Turbo Cowboys 6 Rat Trap (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), Turbo Cowboys 7 Night Riders (New York: Ballantine Books, 1989), Turbo Cowboys 8 Speed Shift (New York: Ballantine Books, 1990), Turbo Cowboys 9 Duster Trouble (New York: Ballantine Books, 1990), and Turbo Cowboys 10 City of Glass (New York: Ballantine Books, 1990). The Science Fiction Encyclopedia attributes Rat Trap to John Read.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Unquenchable Fire - Rachel [Grace] Pollack (b. 1945) (Century Hutchinson, 1988)
A dystopian future United States where magic and ritual are common. See her Temporary Agency. London: Orbit, 1994 for a sequel.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Venus of Shadows - Pamela Sargent (b. 1948) (Doubleday, 1988)
Sequel to 1986 Sargent. This volume follows the next four generations of the Venus project, the society that is emerging, and the conflicts within it.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Vic and Blood: The Chronicles of a Boy and His Dog - Harlan [Jay] Ellison (1934-2018); Richard [Vance] Corben (1940-2020) (Donning, 1988)
Graphic novel. Post-nuclear war dystopia. Underground there is an authoritarian dystopia trying to maintain a conservative way of life. On the surface is a violent dystopia of male loners and small groups.
Rpt. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989; and with the subtitle The Continuing Adventures of a Boy and His Dog. New York: iBooks, 2003. The novel is composed of three stories: “Eggsucker.” Illus. Richard Corben. Ariel: The Book of Fantasy Vol. 2. Ed. Richard Durwood (Leawood, KS: Morning Star Press, 1977), 6-13; “A Boy and His Dog.” In his The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World (New York: Avon, 1969), 208-45. Rpt. in New Worlds Science Fiction, no. 189 (April 1979): 4-16; rpt. in Beyond Armageddon: Twenty-One Sermons to the Dead. Walter M. Miller, Jr. and Martin H[arry] Greenberg (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1985), 332-73; and in The Best of the Nebulas (New York: Tor/Tom Doherty Associates, 1989), 359-89, with an “Author’s Foreword” on 358; “Run, Spot, Run.” Mediascene Prevue (September/October 1980) [not found]; rpt. Illus. Richard [Vance] Corben. Amazing Science Fiction Stories Combined With Fantastic 27.10 (January 1981): 15-25.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Walden Three - Jack Catran (1918-2001) (Pygmalion Books, 1988)
Future technological eutopia designed and controlled by scientists with all the “work not fit for humans” done by robots. The author presents the society as the solution to ethnic, gender, and racial discrimination and as a means of eliminating poverty without creating a welfare state. One character is based on Jacque Fresco (1916-2017); see 1969, 1995, 2002, and 2007 Fresco and https://www.thevenusproject.com/the-venus-project/jacque-fresco/.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Way to Neutopia. Poems and Woodcuts - [Elizabeth known as Libby] [Hubbard] (b. 1956) (Ken John, 1988)
Poems that describe a eutopia. Each poem begins with "WE HAVE A PROBLEM . . ." and then continues with a statement of what we need. Covers many topics, including leadership, religion, inequality, the nuclear family, poverty, unemployment, prostitution, medical care, among others.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Where We’ll Never Grow Old” - Tom De Haven (b. 1949) (Sunburn Lake, 1988)
The story is set in a post-catastrophe (pandemic) in 2028.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller - Neal [Town] Stephenson (b. 1959) (Bloomsbury, 1988)
Environmental dystopia seen through the eyes of an environmental activist.
Keywords: Male author; US author

After the Bomb: Week One - Gloria [Dubov] Miklowitz (b. 1927) (Scholastic, 1987)
Dystopia of a military state after an accidental nuclear explosion. See also 1985 Miklowitz.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Ambient - Jack [Wylie] Womack [Jr.] (b. 1956) (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987)
The first volume in the DryCo series. DryCo refers to the Dryden Corporation, and the connections among the volumes in the series are tenuous, but all refer to DryCo. This volume is set in a future New York City, a future violent corporate, cyberpunk dystopia. Considerable use of invented language. The Ambients are people who have been badly disfigured survivors of a nuclear accident. For other volumes in the series see his 1988 Terraplane, 1990 Heathern, 1993 Elvissey, 1993 Random Acts of Senseless Violence, and 2000 Going, Going, Gone. Although there are multiple alternative histories in the series, in timeline order, the volumes are 1993 Random Acts of Senseless Violence, 1990 Heathern, 1987 Ambient, 1988 Terraplane, 1993 Elivissey, and 2000 Going, Going, Gone.
U.K. ed. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988
Keywords: Male author; US author

Archer in the Marrow: The Applewood Cycles of 1967-1987 - Peter [Robert Edwin] Viereck (1916-2006) (W. W. Norton, 1987)
Epic poem. Alternative history from Adan and Eve to the present with both eutopian and dystopian periods.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Armageddon Outtahere” - Paul Mavrides (b. 1952); Jay Kinney (b. 1950) (Anarchy Comics, 1987)
Satire on Armageddon in which the gods of many different religions arrive all at once to punish the human race.
Rpt. in Anarchy Comics. The Complete Collection. Ed. Jay Kinney (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2013), 149-58.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Boiled Frog Syndrome: A Novel of Love, Sex and Politics - Marty Rubin (d. 1994) (Alyson Publications, 1987)
Anti-gay dystopia in the United States, including concentration camps for gays, and the revolt against it. The “boiled frog syndrome” refers to the fact that if a frog is put it hot water, it will leap out, but if put in cold water that is slowly heated, it will be not but will be boiled to death. In the novel this refers to the slow, insidious destruction of the rights of gays.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

"Brazil" - Terry Gilliam (b. 1940); Tom Stoppard (b. 1937); Charles McKeown (b. 1946) (The Battle of Brazil, 1987)
Screenplay of the famous 1985 dystopian film directed by Terry Gilliam.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

Budspy - David Dvorkin (b. 1943) (Franklin Watts, 1987)
Alternate future in which the Nazis won World War 2.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

Copernick's Rebellion - Leo A. Frankowski (1943-2008) (Ballantine Books, 1987)
Satirical novel about the advantages and disadvantages of genetic engineering. On the positive side, it can be used to create housing, food, and many other things and the inventors plan to give it all away free, which obvious creates conflict. On the negative side, it can be used to create whatever oddities people want to make of themselves.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Death Arms - K[evin] W[ayne] Jeter (b. 1950) (Morrigan Publications, 1987)
Future dystopia of a Los Angeles abandoned to criminals.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Death of Honor - Joe Clifford Faust (b. 1957) (Ballantine Books, 1987)
A mystery set in an overpopulation dystopia that encourages people to have more children, which are then taken and raised by the state with payment to the parents.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Endgame Enigma - James P[atrick] Hogan (1941-2010) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Soviet space colony seemingly a utopian experiment.
Keywords: English author; Irish author; Male author; US author

"Falling Free" - Lois McMaster [Joy] Bujold (b. 1949) (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, 1987)
Dystopia of an all-controlling galactic corporation which has bread “Quaddies,” humans, although not classified as such, who have an extra pair of arms rather than legs and are ideal for working in zero gravity. The corporation treats them as slaves, and the novel is about an attempt to free them. Included in multi-volume Vorkosigan Saga, but it is set two hundred years before Miles Vokosigan’s birth. Intended to be the first half of the story, but the second half was never written. The author revisited the subject is her Diplomatic Immunity. New York: Baen Books, 2002, but it has little to do with the subject of Falling Free. A “Prologue” that was not published in the volume can be found at http://www.dendarii.com/excerpts/prologue.html.
Rpt. New York: Baen Books, 1988 and Framingham, MA: NESFA Press, 2004 and rpt. 2017.
Keywords: Female author; US author

First Citizen - Thomas T[hurston] Thomas (b. 1948) (Baen Books, 1987)
After the U.S. repudiated its national debt and a nuclear attack on the capitol, the country collapses into regions, each with a private army. One man takes advantage of the situation to build a huge fortune and ultimately reunited the country under his leadership.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Harry Protagonist, Inseminator General” - Richard Wilson (1920-1987) (The Kid from Ozone Park and Other Stories, 1987)
Satire on gender relations in which men and women choose to separate and men lose the ability to impregnate.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Her Story - Dan Jacobson (1929-2014) (André Deutsch, 1987)
The bulk of the novel is set in Biblical times, but the frame is set in a future Britain that is a conservative Islamic country presented as not particularly good or bad. There is also a section on a future dystopian religious intentional community.
Keywords: English author; Male author; South African author; US author

The Hormone Jungle - Robert [David] Reed (b. 1956) (Donald I. Fine, 1987)
Dystopia set two thousand years in the future where female cyborgs are created solely to give pleasure and powerful criminal figures are still powerful. Much of the novel is adventure and romance with the dystopia as its setting.
Rpt. New York: Warner Books, 1987. UK ed. London: Futura, 1989.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Hunter and Victim or The Invisible Her Is the Whore - Steven Fuson ([Author], 1987)
Dystopia. Anti-feminist. Reflects the position of the Padanaram Community located in Indiana..
Keywords: Male author; US author

In the Country of Last Things - Paul Auster (b. 1947) (Viking, 1987)
Dystopia of a collapsing city and a degenerating civilization. A film directed by Alejandro Chomski with a screenplay by the director was released in Spanish in 2020 and in English in 2022.
U.K. ed. London: Faber & Faber, 1988
Keywords: Male author; US author

Intervention. A Root Tale to the Galactic Milieu and a Vinculum between it and The Saga of Pliocene Exile - Julian [Clare] May (1931-2017) (Houghton Mifflin Co, 1987)
Complex future history in which an evolutionary change has produced telepathic people and their relationship with the non-telepathic, which has both eutopia and dystopian dimensions. Presented through a family history. See also 1992 May and its sequels.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Island Worlds - [Yoji] [Kondo] (1933-2017); John Maddox Roberts (b. 1947) (Baen, 1987)
The novel is set in the twenty-first century when there is a right-left conflict on Earth and a war for independence by the asteroid belt. See also their 1988 Between the Stars and their non-utopian Act of God. New York: Baen, 1985 that sets the stage for the other novels by introducing the technologies that make space exploration possible.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Just Suppose: An Imagining Exercise” - Shevy Healey (1922-2001) (Sinister Wisdom, 1987)
An egalitarian eutopia focusing on the elimination of ageism. The female author was born in Poland and was brought to the U.S. at age two. She was the founder of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change.
Originally published on page 85 of The Facilitator’s Handbook of the First West Coast Conference and Celebration, Southern California, 1987.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Kayo: The Authentic and Annotated Autobiographical Novel from Outer Space - James [Rodney] McConkey (b. 1921) (E. P. Dutton, 1987)
Satire on human foibles as seen on a parallel, similar world.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Kindly Ones - Melissa [Elaine] Scott (b. 1960) (Baen Books, 1987)
Authoritarian dystopia based on strict rules of behavior based on kinship facing changed conditions where it becomes essential to peacefully settle differences.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Little Heroes - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Complex novel depicting a future U.S. dystopia. Commercial control; drugs; financial depression. Reality Liberation Front and rock and roll will provide a touch of hope, but they will probably lose out to commercialization.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Mask for the General - Lisa Goldstein (b. 1953) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Future authoritarian dystopia in the United States.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Memory Wire - Robert Charles Wilson (b. 1953) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Authoritarian dystopia in which individuals are wired to be cameras and operate solely as machines recording what happens.
U.K. ed. London: Futura, 1990.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Mercedes Nights - Michael D[avid] Weaver (1961-98) (St. Martin's Press, 1987)
Dystopia with a black market in clones.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Miamigrad - Jerry [Jerome Morrell] Ahern (1946-2012); Sharon Ahern (b. 1948) (Pocket Books, 1987)
Dystopia. Soviet controlled Miami and the revolt against it.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

Mind Players - Pat[ricia Oren Kearney] Cadigan (b. 1953) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Dystopia in which one can enliven one's life by acquiring neuroses or even a whole new personality but being actually insane requires a license.
Includes her “Variations on a Man.” Omni 6.4 (January 1984): 68-70, 110-12, 114-16. Rpt. in The Big Book of Science Fiction: The Ultimate Collection. Ed. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Vintage Books, 2016), 769-81 with an editors’ note on 768. U.K. edition as Mindplayers. London: Victor Gollancz, 1988. Rpt. London: VGSF, 1989.
Keywords: English author; Female author; US author

The Movement of Mountains - Michael [John] Blumlein (1948-2019) (St. Martin's Press, 1987)
Dystopia as a background. Rich-poor division. Genetically manufactured humans designed for a specific job and a short life.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Native Tongue II: The Judas Rose - Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015) (DAW Books, 1987)
Sequel to 1984 Elgin in which the women’s plan to teach more women the women’s language is complicated by the presence of aliens on Earth and the infiltration of their movement by a woman at the instigation of the men. The aliens note that Earth women are ready to move onto a higher stage of civilization but that the me are not.
Rpt. as Native Tongue 2: The Judas Rose. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2002 with an “Afterword: Gender, Technology, and Violence” by Susan M. Squier and Julie Vedder on 365-80. 2nd ed. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2019 with a “Foreword: The Veil of Language” by Rebecca Romney on vii-ix and an “Afterword: Gender, Technology, and Violence” by Susan M. Squier and Julie Vedder on 407-25.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Night of No Joy" - W[alter] Warren Wagar (1932-2004) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1987)
The second of three dystopian stories set in a world in which reality is unravelling and nothing rational appears to remain and violence erupts everywhere. See also 1986 and 1988 Wagar.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Project Millennium - Curtis H[oward] Hoffmann (b. 1956) (Ace Books, 1987)
War as entertainment on a peaceful planet.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Recent Martyr - Valerie Martin (b. 1948) (Houghton, Mifflin Co, 1987)
Near future tale set in a dystopia in New Orleans including the bubonic plague and collapsing social services.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Running on Empty - Heifner, Jack (Dramatists Play Service, 1987)
Environmental dystopia set in a U.S. that has depleted its resources.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Sea of Glass - Barry B[rookes] Longyear (b. 1942) (St. Martin's Press, 1987)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Secret Ascension: Philip K. Dick Is Dead, Alas - Michael [Lawson] Bishop (1945-2023) (Tor, 1987)
Alternative history. The United States won the war in Vietnam and President Nixon is in his fourth term.
U.K. ed. as Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas. London: Grafton, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Shelter - Mary Kittredge (b. 1949); Kevin O'Donnell Jr. (1950-2012) (Tor, 1987)
Eutopian city that becomes insane.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted - Harry [Max] Harrison (1925-2012) (Bantam Books, 1987)
Primarily an adventure novel, but part of the adventure is set in an egalitarian eutopia with no crime.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Star Griffin - Michael [Joseph] Kurland (b. 1938) (Doubleday & Co., 1987)
Dystopia of overpopulation and violence.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Stepfather Bank - D[avid] C[harles] Poyer (b. 1949) (St. Martin's Press, 1987)
Authoritarian dystopia set in 2110 under the control of a single monopolistic, fully automated bank that owns the entire world and employs everyone except one man who defies and undermines the system.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Sylviron - Joel David Welty (1927-2012) (Sylviron Foundation, 1987)
Dystopia of bigness contrasted with a small cooperative village. The dystopia is a hierarchical, authoritarian system that uses social welfare as a means of control. All citizens are required to visit their case worker every week, and in return they get a wide range of benefits tailored to their status. The eutopia is an ecologically designed cooperative village called Sylviron where everyone lives outside the control of the dystopia, and the plot of the novel focuses on the attempts of the dystopia to control Sylviron and the successful resistance.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Texas Triumphant - Daniel da Cruz [Jr.] (1921-1991) (Ballantine Books, 1987)
Third in a series. See 1982 and 1986 da Cruz. In this volume a libertarian eutopia is established with local independence. Anti-Communist novel.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Thanatos Syndrome - Walker Percy (1916-90) (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1987)
Dystopia of the very near future United States in which scientists chemically suppress human individuality. The protagonist's name, Dr. Tom More, continues the connection with the author of Utopia mentioned in 1971 Percy.
A limited first edition signed by the author and with a frontispiece by Jim Spanfeller and “A Special message for the first edition from Walker Percy” for the members of The Signed First Edition Society. Franklin Center, PA: The Franklin Library, 1987.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Time Pressure - Spider Robinson (b. 1948) (Ace Books, 1987)
Prequel to his 1982 Mindkiller in which a woman has travelled to the past to bring about changes that will make it possible to avoid the conditions described in Mindkiller. It includes a description of communal life in Nova Scotia that could be construed as eutopian. The second volume of what comes to be called the Lifehouse Trilogy, which includes his 1982 Mindkiller and 1997 Life House.
Rpt. in The Lifehouse Trilogy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007), 231-437
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

USSA. A Novel - James N[orbert] Frey (b. 1943) (Zebra Books/Kensington Publishing, 1987)
Dystopia about an American capitalist about to become head of the Federal Reserve who is in fact an agent of the Soviet KGB planning to create a Soviet U.S.
Keywords: Male author; US author

U.S.S.A. Book 1 - Tom De Haven (b. 1949) (Avon Books, 1987)
Young adult dystopia about a military coup in the U.S. that produced the United Secure States of America.
Keywords: Male author; US author

U.S.S.A. Book 2 - S[hariann] N. Lewitt (b. 1954) (Avon Books, 1987)
Sequel to 1987 De Haven. In this volume the main protagonist and his girlfriend are trying to escape and help form a teenage underground resistance movement. See also 1987 Sykes and Lewitt, Book 4.
Keywords: Female author; US author

U.S.S.A. Book 3 - S[ondra] C[atharine] Sykes (1943-2005) (Avon Books, 1987)
Sequel to 1987 De Haven and 1987 Lewitt. See also Lewitt, Book 4. In this volume the protagonist’s father is put in a “reorientation camp”.
Keywords: Female author; US author

U.S.S.A. Book 4 - S[hariann] N. Lewitt (b. 1954) (Avon Books, 1987)
Sequel to 1987 De Haven and her Book 2. See also 1987 Sykes. In this volume the teenage underground successfully overthrows the military coup and the U.S.A. is re-established.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Utopia 3200: A Political, Social, and Economic Fantasy - Levin Wilson Foster (b. 1907) (Vantage Press, 1987)
After a nuclear war, the U.S. emerges and the sole power, and it establishes one-world government that eliminates all opposition throughout the world. While the government the successfully improves the lot of the remaining people, anyone who dissents is imprisoned.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Vacuum Flowers - Michael [Jürgen] Swanwick (b. 1950) (Arbor House, 1987)
Complex novel of various worlds--mostly dystopian--based on the ability to program people with different personae. Earth has been taken over by the Comprise--linked minds in many human bodies.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Veritas" - James [Kenneth] Morrow (b. 1947) (Synergy: New Science Fiction, 1987)
Dystopia that uses technological means to kill fantasy.
Rpt. in The Savage Humanists. Ed. Fiona Kelleghan (Calgary, AL, Canada: Robert J. Sawyer Books, 2008), 235-56 with an editor's note on 233-34.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Voyage to Inishneefa: A First-hand Account of the Fifth Voyage of Lemuel Gulliver (First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships) - John Paul Brady (John Daniel, Publisher, 1987)
Satire on contemporary Ireland.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Western Lands - William S[eward] Burroughs (1914-97) (Viking, 1987)
The final volume of a trilogy that also includes 1981 Cities of the Red Night and his 1983 The Place of Dead Roads. The title refers to the ancient Egyptian land of the dead west of the Nile. The novel, taking place in the past and the present includes the typical Burroughs’s dystopian themes.
Keywords: Male author; US author

When Gravity Fails - George Alec Effinger (1947-2002) (Arbor House, 1987)
Future dystopia of adventure and violence written as a mystery novel set in a future Middle East, which is the dominant area in a world where both the Western countries and the Soviet Union have broken up into smaller units. The novel has been called cyberpunk because people plug modules, known as "moddies", into their brains to become whoever they want. The sequels A Fire in the Sun. New York: Doubleday, 1989, The Exile Kiss. New York: Doubleday, 1991 have the same setting, as do some of the stories in a posthumous collection Budayeen Nights. Urbana, IL: Golden Gryphon, 2003.
Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1988. Collector's Edition illus. Mark Maxwell and with an "Introduction" by James Gunn (v-ix). Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1993.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Wild Card Run - Sara [Lucinda] Stamey (b. 1953) (Berkley Books, 1987)
Dystopia in which computers are forcing evolutionary changes in humans. Sequels include Win, Lose, Draw. New York: Ace Books, 1988; and Double Blind. New York: Ace Books, 1990.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Aiki - John Gilbert (b. 1926) (Donald I. Fine, 1986)
Future dystopia. Rigid division between rich and poor. Drugs and television used to control the masses. Rebellion.
Rpt. New York: Pocket Books, 1986.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"As Big As the Ritz" - Gregory [Albert] Benford (b. 1941) (Interzone, 1986)
Social science fiction depicting three societies, one of them at some length. This one is presented as a eutopia based on cloning and conditioning. Low tech world based, in part, on high tech.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Beyond Tomorrow, A Rational Utopia - Burnham P[utnam] Beckwith Ph.D. (b. 1904) (B. P. Beckwith, 1986)
Detailed eutopia set in Los Angeles 500 years in the future. World federal government of thirteen countries. New language. Government by experts, no government worker can earn more than twice as much as the average worker. Monetary incentives to perform better or take on certain jobs common.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Bones of God - Stephen [Walter] Leigh (b. 1951) (Avon, 1986)
A theocracy faces a new Messiah.
U.K. ed. London: Headline, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Captive Planet - Gregory J[on] Smith (Bethany House Publishers, 1986)
Christian science fiction. Authoritarian dystopia and the battle of good and evil. Good wins.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Children of Arable - David [Corderoy] Belden (b. 1949) (New American Library, 1986)
The novel is about a future genderless society when a woman is born, and the woman becomes an advocate for revolutionary change. The second volume and final volume in the series is To Warm the Earth. New York: New American Library, 1988. Rev. with the subtitle Book II of the Gendering Series. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vivisphere Publishing, 2002 is set in a future frozen Earth and a woman from that Earth finds a man from another world who can help Earth. In this volume, the author says that he was at work on the third volume, which does not appear to have been published, and had revised both previous volumes in light of that work.
Rev. ed. as Children of Arable. Book 1 of the Gendering Series. Revised version of the formerly published novel. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vivisphere Publishing, 2001.
Keywords: Male author; UK author; US author

Circuit - Melinda M[arilyn] Snodgrass (b. 1951) (Berkley Books, 1986)
Space law and courts in conflict with political power. The protagonist is a judge of space law who believes that justice rather than political power should determine decisions, which leads to an attempt to impeach him. See also her Circuit Breaker. New York: Berkley Books, 1987, which continues the same theme and the same protagonist with the focus on a conflict between the residents of Mars and a wealthy conglomerate; and Final Circuit. New York: Ace Books, 1988, in which the circuit court on which the protagonist sat has been disbanded, and his impeachment is ordered as war breaks out.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Coming of the Quantum Cats - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Bantam Books, 1986)
Presents a number of alternative societies, mostly dystopian. A central one has the United States dominated by Islam with the F.B.I. [Federal Bureau of Investigation] a major political force.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Confessions of Madame Psyche: Memoirs and Letters of Mei-li Murrow - Dorothy [Calvetti] Bryant (b. 1930) (Ata Books, 1986)
Primarily an historical novel but includes a description of an intentional community that was designed to be a “Garden of Eden”, and one section of the novel traces its rise and fall. Female author.
Rpt. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1998 with an “Afterword” by J.J. Wilson (377-92).
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Count Zero" - William [Ford] Gibson (b. 1948) (Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, 1986)
Future surreal dystopia of huge corporations. See also his 1984 Neuromancer.
Repub. London Victor Gollancz, 1986.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Crisis! - James E[dwin] Gunn (1923-2020) (Tor, 1986)
The novel is about a man from a dysfunctional future sent to the past to try to change enough to create a better future, but every change changes both past and future, with little positive change.
Sections originally in Analog as “Child of the Sun” 97.3 (March 1977): 74-90, 92-98; “End of the World” 101.1 (January 1984): 70-88; “Man of the Hour” 104.10 (October 1984): 106-28; “Touch of the Hour” 105.2 (February 1985): 106-29; “Mother of the Year” 105.4 (April 1985): 138-58; and “Will of the Wisp” 105.5 (May 1985): 54-76.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Cry Wolf - Aileen La Tourette (b. 1946) (Virago, 1986)
Post-catastrophe novel about a controlled dystopia gradually becoming freer.
Keywords: Female author; UK author; US author

“The Day of No-Judgement” - W[alter] Warren Wagar (1932-2004) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1986)
The first of three dystopian stories in which an unexplained “effect” unravels reality. Seen through the eyes of a professor who appears to be immune to whatever is causing the problem who is trying to understand the changes in things and people, including one of his female students who seems to both hate and love him, and with whom he falls in love. See 1987 and 1988 Wagar for the other stories.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Deathwish World - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83); Dean Ing (1931-2020) (Baen Books, 1986)
Authoritarian dystopia. Story of the ultimate gamble where one becomes the target for hired killers in exchange for great wealth for life, albeit usually a short one. One who survives and, as a result, is targeted by the government, plots, successfully to overthrow it.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Door Into Ocean - Joan [Lyn] Slonczewski (b. 1956) (Arbor House, 1986)
Complex feminist and ecological eutopia on an ocean planet with no men that practices cooperation and nonviolence in conflict with a male dominated, authoritarian society that wants to take the knowledge that the women have by force and control the planet. Her eutopian Daughter of Elysium (1993) is also part of her Elysium Cycle as are her non-utopia “The Children Star.” Illus. Darryl Elliott in Analog 118. 4 – 7/8 (April – July/August 1998): 10-16, 18-59; 10-54; 58-97; 180-218, 220-222; rpt. without the illus. New York: Tor, 1998; and Brain Plague. New York: Tor, 2000.
Collector's Edition illus. Michael Mariano and with an "Introduction" by Pamela Sargent (v-ix). Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1992.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Double Nocturne - Cynthia [Lindgren] Felice (b. 1942) (Bluejay, 1986)
Background of an authoritarian dystopia in which women suppress men.
Rpt. New York: DAW, 1986
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Down and Out in the Year 2000" - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1986)
Dystopia of being poor in a future failing <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
Rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), 530-43 with an editor’s note on 529; in Robinson’s Remaking History (New York: Tor, 1991), 198-215; and in Cyberpunk: Stories of Hardware, Software, Wetware, Revolution and Evolution. Ed. Victoria Blake (Portland, OR: Underhand Press, 2013), 089-106.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Ethan of Athos - Lois McMaster [Joy] Bujold (b. 1949) (Baen, 1986)
While the focus of the novel is adventure, it is unusual in presenting a male homosexual society as a eutopia.
U.K. ed. London: Headline, 1989.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Faithful Rebecca - Janice Eidus (b. 1951) (Fiction Collective, 1986)
Feminist eutopia including an Amazon community in South America. Much of the novel is about a complicated relationship between two women and a man.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Foundation and Earth - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (Doubleday & Co, 1986)
Continuation of the Foundation series that continues the eutopia of the sentient planet Gaia in 1982 Asimov. See also 1988 Asimov.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Freeman - Jerry [Jerome Morrell] Ahern (1946-2012); Sharon Ahern (b. 1948) (Bantam Books, 1986)
Dystopia in which the United States has become a totalitarian state through the cancellation of the Second Amendment on the right to bear arms and appeasement of the Soviet Union. Survivalists resist.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

Ghost - [Piers Anthony Dillingham] [Jacob] (b. 1934) (Tor, 1986)
Dystopia of an energy-depleted earth as a background.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gilpin's Space - Reginald Bretnor (1911-92) (Ace Science Fiction Books, 1986)
Earth is a dystopia with three factions, corporations, the Soviets, and a group forcing conformity that calls itself the Individualist People’s Party. A group of people manage to leave Earth and find another Earth-like planet to settle where they begin to create a better world.
Book I “Owl’s Flight Geoffrey Cormac” (1-77) was originally published as “Gilpin’s Space.” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 64.2 (February 1983): 4-60.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Goodman 2020 - [John] Fred[erick] Pfeil (1949-2005) (Indiana University Press, 1986)
Future dystopia of corporate power, drugs, and friendship as a commodity for sale. Some hope is held out at the end.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Hard Wired - Walter Jon Williams (b. 1953) (Tor, 1986)
Cyberpunk dystopia. See also his Voice of the Whirlwind. New York: Tor, 1987; and Solip:System. Eugene, OR: Axolotl Press, 1989.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Hard Work or, The Secrets of Success" - Thomas M[ichael] Disch (1940-2008) (Interzone, 1986)
Corporate dystopia.
Rpt. in Mississippi Review, no. 47/48 (16.2 & 3) (1988): 170-93.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Hush My Mouth" - Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015) (Alternate Histories: Eleven Stories Stories of the World As it Might Have Been, 1986)
Alternate history in which during the U.S. Civil War both North and South refuse to allow Blacks to serve and the war ends in a stalemate with neither side winning. The depleted southern forces return home riddled with disease and all whites die or, in a few cases, are killed. New Africa, the old South, was populated by people divided by their place of origin, without a common language, and unwilling to work together. A sect of Silents, who vow never to speak, arise to remind people of the sin of Pride.
Rpt. in Women of Other Worlds: Excursions Through Fiction and Feminism. Ed. Helen Merrick and Tess Williams (Perth, WA, Australia: University of Western Australia Press, 1999), 311-18.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Isaac Asimov Presents The Man Who Pulled Down the Sky - John [Allen] Barnes (b. 1957) (Congdon & Weed, 1986)
Conflict between the Orbital Republics, created by Earth but now dominating it, free colonies from around Jupiter and Saturn, and Earth, which has to be provoked to rebel. At the end the possibility of cooperation among all three groups exists.
U.K. ed. as The Man Who Pulled Down the Sky. An Isaac Asimov Recommendation. London: New English Library 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Isaac Asimov Presents Through Darkest America - Neal [Patrick] Barrett Jr. (1929-2014) (Congdon & Weed, 1986)
Dystopia of a post-catastrophe America. The sequel Dawn’s Uncertain Light. New York: New American Library, 1989 is about a young man trying to find his sister in the devastation.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Islay. A Novel - Douglas Bullard (1937-2005) (T. J. Publishers, 1986)
Humorous utopia written by a Deaf American about the establishment of a homeland for the deaf in which the protagonists are mostly deaf
Rpt. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2013, with a “Foreword” by Cynthia Pettie (ix-xvii). The reprint is a volume in Gallaudet Classics in Deaf Studies.
Keywords: Deaf author; Male author; US author

Lacey and His Friends - David [Allen] Drake (1945-2023) (Baen Books, 1986)
Dystopia of constant surveillance and ruthless police.
Originally published as “Nation Without Walls.” Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 97.7 (July 1977): 10-14, 16, 18-38; rpt. in his Grimmer Than Hell (New York: Baen, 2003), 268-98; “The Predators.” Destinies 1.5 (October-December 1979): 254-94; rpt. in his Grimmer Than Hell (New York: Baen, 2003), 299-328; “Underground.” Destinies 2.1 (February-March 1980): 218-72; “Travellers.” Destinies 3.1 (Winter 1981): 234-86; rpt. in his Grimmer Than Hell (New York: Baen, 2003), 329-73; and “Time Safari.” Destinies 3.2 (1981): 182-270.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Last Ranger - [Jan] [Stacy] (1948-89) (Popular Library, 1986)
Post-nuclear war survivalist dystopia. A single heavily armed man fights against a different evil force in each volume as he single-handedly saves America. At the end of the last volume the Earth is completely destroyed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

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

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

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

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

Outside the Gates - Molly Gloss (b. 1944) (Atheneum/Argo, 1986)
Young adult fantasy novel in which a young boy is expelled from a walled area into the surrounding area, where, he has been told, there are giants and monsters.
Keywords: Female author; US author

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

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

"Reichs-Peace" - Sheila [Rosemary] Finch (b. 1935) (Hitler Victorious: Eleven Stories of the German Victory in World War II, 1986)
Germany wins World War II, but Eva Hitler survives and moderates its aggressiveness.
Rpt. in Women of Wonder, The Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s. Ed. Pamela Sargent (San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace, 1995), 172-90.
Keywords: English author; Female author; US author

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

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

The Shore of Women - Pamela Sargent (b. 1948) (Crown, 1986)
Separate society for each sex. Women control science and technology.
Rpt. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, 2004.
Keywords: Female author; US author

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

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

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

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

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

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

Triad - Sheila [Rosemary] Finch (b. 1935) (Bantam Books, 1986)
Some elements of a gender-role reversal as background to the novel.
Keywords: English author; Female author; US author

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

Venus of Dreams - Pamela Sargent (b. 1948) (Bantam Books, 1986)
The first volume of a trilogy about the Venus Project, a proposal to terraform Venus, which will take generations. The first volume lays out the beginnings of the project and some of the key people involved and suggests some of the problems to come. See also 1988, 2000, and 2001 Sargent.
Collectors' Edition. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1990 illus. Ron Miller and with an "Introduction" (v-vii) by Gregory Benford.
Keywords: Female author; US author

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

Yonder Comes the Other End of Time - Suzette Haden Elgin (1936-2015) (DAW Books, 1986)
Libertarian eutopia in conflict with a bureaucratic eutopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

After the Bomb - Gloria [Dubov] Miklowitz (b. 1927) (Scholastic, 1985)
Young adult post-catastrophe dystopia with a young survivor struggling to help his family and friends. See also 1987 Miklowitz.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"All This and Heaven Too" - [Alice Bradley] [Sheldon] (1915-87) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1985)
A humorous story set in an ecological eutopia, Ecologia-Bella, that is contrasted with an environmental dystopia, Pluvia-Acida. The eutopia uses clean electric power, has full employment, and the people care for the land, the flora and fauna, and each other. The dystopia is capitalist with a high rate of industrial accidents, extreme pollution, no trees, little vegetation, and a good supply, of rats and cockroaches but few other animals.
Rpt. in her Crown of Stars (New York: Tor, 1988), 96-129. U.K. ed. (London: Sphere, 1990), 96-129.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Altogether Elsewhere - Anna Wilson (b. 1954) (Onlywomen Press, 1985)
The novel is set in a dystopian world in which a variety of women act as vigilantes to protect other women.
Keywords: Female author; UK author; US author

Always Coming Home - Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin (1929-2018) (Harper & Row, 1985)
Complex utopia described from inside the utopia but with, in The Back of the Book” (409-525), the sort of detail about the society that might be part of an anthropological report. One focus of the novel is the life story of a woman known as “Stone Telling” that illustrates both the positive and negative aspects of life produced by the many-faceted interactions among the people.
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.K.</st1:place></st1:country-region> ed. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>: Victor Gollancz, 1986. Rpt. without the cassette. London: Gollancz, 2016, with an “Introduction” by John Scalzi (ix-xi). The Author’s Expanded Edition without the cassette. Ed. Brian Attebery. New York: The Library of America, 2019 includes “Pandora Revisits the Kesh and Comes Back with New Texts” (619-87) [Dangerous People (621-68), which was first published as Dangerous People. Ed. Brian Attebury. New York: Library of America eBook Classic, 2019, was completed by Le Guin in December 2019 from material she had drafted in 1983 or 1984. Rpt. in her The Space Crone. Ed. So Mayer and Sarah Shin (Np: Silver Press, 2023), 195-224. The book includes extensive notes by the editor and a very detailed chronology of Le Guin’s life and works; “Some Kesh Meditations: Sitting in the Ninth House” (669-71); “Blood Lodge Songs” (672-81), and “Kesh Syntax” (682-85)], “Other Writings Related to Always Coming Home” (689-702) [May’s Lion” (691-98); Navna: The River-running by Intrumo of Sinshan” (699)], “Essays” (703-89) [“World-Making” (700-02); “A Non-Euclidian View of California as a Cold Place to Be” (703-24); “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” (725-30); “Text, Silence, Performance” (731-40); “Legends for a New Land” (741-57); “The Making of Always Coming Home” (758-80); and “Indian Uncles” (781-89), a Chronology (793-807), a Note on the Texts (808-11), and Notes (812-26). Parts published previously as “Time in the Valley.” Hudson Review 37.4 (Winter 1984-5): 536-48; “The Trouble with the Cotton People.” The Missouri Review 7.2 (1984): 86-95; rpt. in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection. Ed. Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Bluejay Books, 1985), 410-19 with an editor’s note on 409 “The Visionary.” Omni 7.1 (1984): 100-02, 104, 106-07, 154, 157-60, 162-63 [Rpt. in The Visionary: The Life Story of Flicker of the Serpentine. Santa Barbara, CA: Capra Press, 1984. Vol. 1 of Capra Back-to-Back; and in The Sixth Omni Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Ellen [Sue] Datlow (New York: Zebra Books, 1989), 19-53]; “Dira.” Parabola 9 (Winter 1984): 53-55; and four poems--”It Was Never Really Different. Given to the Red Adobe heyimas of Wakwaha by Ninepoint of Chumo”; “A Song Used in Chumo When Daming a Creek or Diverting Water to a Holding Tank for Irrigation”; “A Bay Laurel Song”; and “An Exhortation From the Second and Third Houses of Earth. A calligraphed poster-scroll from the Serpentine heyimas of Wakwaha-na.” Whole Earth Review (July 1985): 20-23.
Keywords: Female author; US author

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Children of the Light - Susan B[rown] Weston (b. 1943) (St. Martin's Press, 1985)
Young adult post-nuclear war dystopia in which a boy from the past brings hope.
Keywords: Female author; US author

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

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

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

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

"A Different Kind of Courage" - Mercedes Lackey (b. 1950) (Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology, 1985)
A Free Amazon story about a healer.
Keywords: Female author; US author

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fort Privilege - Kit [Lilian Craig] Reed (1932-2017) (Doubleday & Co, 1985)
Future New York as a dystopia in which most of the middle-class has fled the city. A conflict erupts between the remaining well-off, who occupy a large building (the Fort Privilege of the title) and the have-nots.
Keywords: Female author; US author

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

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

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