Spacetime Donuts - Rudy [Rudolf von Bitter] Rucker (b. 1946) (Ace Books, 1981)
Dystopian satire in which readily available drugs and sex and complete support are used to oppress people.
Part originally published as by Rudolf v.B. Rucker in Unearth 2.3 (Summer 1978): 3-42; 2.4 (Winter 1979): 46-82. The third part was to have been published in 2.5, but the journal ceased publication.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Starworld - Harry [Max] Harrison (1925-2012) (Bantam Books, 1981)
Final volume of a trilogy that includes 1980 Harrison and 1981 Harrison, Wheelworld. In this volume the protagonist of the other volumes returns to Earth and leads a rebellion.
U.K. ed. London: Granada, 1981. Rpt. London: Severn House, 1988.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Strength of Stones - Greg[ory Dale] Bear (1951-2022) (Ace Books, 1981)
Dystopia of religious conflict and overprotective cities.
The section entitled “Mandala” appeared in different form in New Dimensions Number 8. Ed. Robert Silverberg (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 149-96. The section entitled “Resurrection” appeared as “Strength of Stones, Flesh of Brass.” Rigel, no. 1 (Summer 1981): 5-18, 53-62, 64-66.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Systemic Shock - Dean Ing (1931-2020) (Ace Books, 1981)
Post-atomic war dystopia. Authoritarian religious government and revolt against it.
Rev. ed. New York: Tor, 1992.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Three Million Dollar Lunch. A Farce in One Act - Fred Carmichael (Samuel French, 1981)
Farce set in a future where food is no longer generally available, people live on pills, and manipulate each other to get the little food that there still is.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Venice Drowned” - Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) (Universe, 1981)
Climate change dystopia in which Venice is underwater and its art treasures are being removed by outsiders.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #11. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Timescape/Pocket Books, 1982), 109-30; Nebula Award Stories 17. Ed. Joe W. Haldeman (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983), 19-43; in his The Planet on the Table (New York: Tor, 1986), 1-25; U.K. ed. (London: Futura, 1987), 1-25; in his Vinland the Dream and Other Stories (London: Harper Collins, 2002), 165-93; and in Drowned Worlds: Tales from the Anthropocene and Beyond. Ed. Jonathan Strahan (Oxford, Eng.: Solaris, 2016), 38-85.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Venus Belt - L[ester] Neil Smith [III] (1946-2021) (Ballantine Books, 1981)
The libertarian eutopia of Smith’s 1980 The Probability Broach is threatened by an authoritarian dystopia. Second in the North American Confederacy series, followed, in publication order, by Their Majesties' Bucketeers. Illus. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981. 182 pp.; The Nagasaki Vector. New York: Ballantine Books, 1983. 242 pp., neither of which have much to do with the main themes in the series; Tom Paine Maru. New York: Ballantine. 273 pp. Rpt. rev. Rockville, MD: Phoenix Pick, 2009. 222 pp. [An author’s note says that the first edition was badly cut by the publisher and that this version reflects his original intent]; The Gallatin Divergence. New York: Ballantine, 1985. 223 pp.; Brightsuit MacBear. New York: Avon, 1988. 212 pp.; and Taflak Lysandra. New York: Avon, 1988. 230 pp. (1989), in all three of which there are clashes between the Confederacy and the authoritarian Federalists; and The American Zone (2001) which is a sequel to The Probability Broach. In the chronology of the series, the volumes are The Probability Broach, The Nagasaki Vector, The American Zone, The Venus Belt, The Gallatin Divergence, Tom Paine Maru, Brightsuit MacBear, Taflak Lysandra, and Their Majesties' Bucketeers. A story set in the same future is his 1989 “The Spirit of Exmas Sideways.”
Rpt. Rockville, MD: Phoenix Pick, 2009. 163 pp.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Walden Three" - Michael [Jürgen] Swanwick (b. 1950) (New Dimensions, 1981)
The dystopia created on a space habitat circling Earth that came about by the “good intention” of changing people so that they all got along. It is seen through the eyes of a visitor from Earth who hates the place and a man on the satellite whose lover died because the good of everybody took away the one thing she most enjoyed doing.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #11. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Timescape/Pocket Books, 1982), 131-54.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Wave Without a Shore - [Carolyn Janice] [Cherry] (b. 1942) (DAW Books, 1981)
Dystopia in which the citizens literally define reality.
U.K. ed. London: VGSF, 1988.
Keywords: US author

Wheelworld - Harry [Max] Harrison (1925-2012) (Granada, 1981)
Middle volume of a trilogy beginning with 1980 Harrison and ending with 1981 Harrison, Starworld. The hero of the first volume is now a prisoner on the planet Wheelworld, which is a high-tech world ruled by an entrenched traditional dictatorship.
Rpt. London: Severn House, 1988. U.S. ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.
Keywords: Male author; US author

When We Were Good - David J[ohn] Skal (1952-2024) (Pocket Books, 1981)
Post-catastrophe dystopia. After many years of war, the human genome has been badly damaged and the attempts to produce children go seriously wrong.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Wine of Violence - James [Kenneth] Morrow (b. 1947) (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981)
Eutopia and dystopia seen from the point of view of a future eutopia without any violence. The earlier two societies are one completely non-violent and one completely savage.
Rpt. New York: Ace Books, 1982.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Wolves of Memory - George Alec Effinger (1947-2002) (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981)
Dystopia of computer rule.
Rpt. New York: Berkley Books, 1982.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Worlds: A Novel of the Near Future - Joe [Joseph William] Haldeman (b. 1943) (Viking Press, 1981)
Dystopian political novel set in a polluted, overpopulated 2084 with compulsory promiscuity. Tobacco is illegal. The "Worlds" are asteroids orbiting Earth and being exploited for their mineral resources. Sequels in 1983 and 1992.
Rpt. New York: Pocket Books, 1982.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Abominable" - [Agnes] Carol[lyn] [Fries] Emshwiller (1921-2019) (Orbit 21, 1980)
Dystopia in which men pursue the elusive creature, woman, about whom they have many false ideas.
Rpt. in Feminist Philosophy and Science Fiction: Utopias and Dystopias. Ed. Judith A. Little (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007), 105-11; and in The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller Vol. 1 (New York: Nonstop Press, 2011), 293-96.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Artificial Kid - [Michael] Bruce Sterling (b. 1954) (Harper & Row, 1980)
Cyberpunk eutopia and dystopia. The planet Reverie is initially presented as a somewhat odd plutocratic eutopia containing a violent Decriminalized Zone. The Artificial Kid is a combat artist.
Rpt. New York: Ace Books, 1987; and San Francisco, CA: Hardwired, 1997 with a “Foreword” by William Gibson (1-6).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Assignment on Bleaker Street" - Bettye Caldwell (Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 1980)
Eutopia, although there are elements that suggest problems, focusing on child-rearing. In the future, there is a limit of two children with birth having to be approved and licensed in advance, varied family forms, with varied forms of childcare, all of which have to be regularly inspected and licensed. In the larger facilities, the children tend to live there permanently. Technology is a central part of most childcare.  Surveillance technology is said to make the streets safe.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Beatnik Bayou" - John [Herbert] Varley (b. 1947) (New Voices III: The Campbell Award Nominees, 1980)
A eutopia on the moon focusing on individualized education which also indicates flaws in the system. For example, there are not enough teachers so that contracts are arranged years before the birth of the child. The teachers are physically the same age as the child and age with them and then revert to an earlier age for the next child. Teachers teach sex. Computerized justice. The "Beatnik Bayou" is a small space recreated as a 1950s Louisiana bayou.
Rpt. in his The Barbie Murders (New York: Berkley Books, 1980), 146-81 [Book reissued as Picnic on Nearside (New York: Berkley Books, 1984), 146-81]; and in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #10. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Pocket Books, 1981), 209-45.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Blood Knot - [Thomas] [Dixon] (b. 1930) (St. Martin's Press, 1980)
Dystopia in which a future American Civil War is beginning, and the entire social system is breaking down.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Byte Your Tongue!" - Clifford D[onald] Simak (1904-88) (Stellar Science-Fiction Stories, 1980)
Dystopia of a future in which computers dominate, with the focus here on the U.S. Senate, where Senators are no longer elected but have to pass computer generated tests to remain in office.
Rpt. in The Ghost of a Model T and Other Stories: The Complete Short Stories of Clifford D. Simak Volume Three. New York: Open Road, 2015. EBook.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Child and Family Programs and Concerns in the 21st Century" - Grotberg, Edith H. (Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 1980)
Mostly analysis but includes a brief eutopian description of future childcare in a family center.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Children and Their Schools at the Quadcentennial" - Irwin Hyman; Sherone Sherone Levow Maital (Journal of Clinical Child Psychology 9.2 (Summer 1980):, 1980)
Two scenarios of future education, eutopian and dystopian. The dystopian system is all technology in isolation and is controlled by corporations. The eutopian system focuses on family life and the rights of children, is well-funded, and teachers all hold doctorates and schools have no administrators.
Keywords: Female author; Israeli author; Male author; US author

Circus World - Barry B[rookes] Longyear (b. 1942) (Nelson Doubleday, 1980)
Eutopia depicting the society created by circus performers when their ship crashed on the planet Momus.
This is the Science Fiction Book Club Edition published by arrangement with Berkley Pub. Co., but the first New York: Berkley Books ed. is 1981. U.K. ed. London: Macdonald, 1982. Originally published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine as "The Tryouts." 2.6 (10) (November-December 1978): 22-37; "The Second Law." 3.1 (11) (January 1979): 24-54; "Proud Rider." (February 1979): 102-27, "Dueling Clowns." 3.3 (13) (March 1979): 49-54; "The Quest." 3.5 (May 1979): 154-83; and "Priest of the Baraboo." 3.7 (17) (July 1979): 22-59. One story, "The Magician's Apprentice," was published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Adventure Magazine 1.2 (2) (Spring 1979): 35-54.
Keywords: Male author; US author

City Come A-Walkin' - John [Patrick] Shirley (b. 1954) (Dell, 1980)
Dystopian San Francisco embodied in one man who tries to understand all of himself. In San Francisco government has been displaced by banks, the mob, and the right wing.
Rpt. Eyeball Books, 1996; and New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2000, with a "Foreword" by William Gibson (1-4) saying how much his Neuromancer (1984) was influenced by it.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Demeter Flower - Rochelle Singer (b. 1939) (St. Martin's Press, 1980)
Feminist eutopia in which a successful women-only community has to face a generational conflict and a visit of a couple from a patriarchal community.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Docket, 2028: Supreme Council on Psycho-Ethics" - Gertrude J. Rubin Williams (1927-86) (Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 1980)
Briefly presents a series of cases to come before the Council on Psycho-Ethics that give a picture of the world in 2028, whether it is eutopian or dystopian is up to the reader. The cases include such issues as psychotropic drugs that are required to prevent mental illness, required licenses for parenthood (contraceptives are in the water supply), rights for clones, applications for euthanasia (117), surrogacy (117-18), and the sale of body parts (118).  Half the world’s population had requested exemption from the military on moral grounds (118).
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Dreamers - James E[dwin] Gunn (1923-2020) (Simon & Schuster, 1980)
Flawed utopia which leaves people no challenges.
Rpt. as The Mind Master. New York: Timescape, 1981.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Feast of Saint Janis" - Michael [Jürgen] Swanwick (b. 1950) (New Dimensions, 1980)
Dystopia following a world-wide economic collapse following some sort of nuclear accident with the U.S. particularly hard hit and Africa relatively well off because it practiced corporate social responsibility. Genetic damage. Janis is Janis Joplin (1943-70) who is impersonated and, once a year, the impersonator is killed by the crowd.
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), 295-325; and in The Best of Michael Swanwick (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2008), 13-41.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Fourth Wall - N[ikolas] A[nthony] Diaman (b. 1936) (Persona Press, 1980)
A future U.S. as an authoritarian dystopia from a gay perspective. Knowledge is disappearing and most people are losing the ability to read. See also 1978 and 1997 Diaman.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"From Small Mutations" - Ian [Travis] MacMillan (1941-2008) (TriQuarterly, 1980)
Dystopia brought about by the disappearance of most plant life and the death of a significant part of the world's population. The population has been concentrated and most aspects of life are under governmental control. Violence and betrayal are common.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Future Lost” - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Omni, 1980)
Brief eutopia of a future that in eliminating aggression and ending war produced a society with completely free and open sexuality.
Rpt. in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley. Book Five (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 195-200.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Garden of Winter - Gordon [Stewart] Eklund (b. 1945) (Berkley Books, 1980)
After a war, a new philosophy/religion emerges that is ruled by citizens philosophers known as gentle men. Machines are outlawed. Women are subordinate and not educated. Has been read as an agrarian utopia, but within the text the society is presented as deeply flawed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Good News - Edward [Paul] Abbey (1927-89) (E. P. Dutton, 1980)
Dystopia. Post-catastrophe conflict between collapsed cities and the resurgent countryside.
An excerpt was published under the same title in TriQuarterly, no. 48 (Spring 1980): 273-95.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gordonstown; A New Design for America - Stuart Gordon (b. 1924) (Gordonstown Press, 1980)
Eutopia describing a technologically advanced village.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Green is for Galanx - [Jeanne] [Dixon] (b. 1936) (Atheneum, 1980)
Young adult novel in which a dystopian society puts the gifts of unusually talented children into androids. Social control through entertainment.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Happiness and Utopia - Dale Lee Harris (Privately published by the author to secure copyright, 1980)
Religious eutopia based on an acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity and Jesus Christ as one’s savior. Such acceptance will transform people and make them more cooperative and will lead to world-wide democracy, peace, and prosperity.
Rev. ed. as Jesus Christ's World Utopia. West Chicago, IL: Christian Freedom Press, 1983.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Homeworld - Harry [Max] Harrison (1925-2012) (Granada, 1980)
Flawed utopia in which the elite lead lives of comfort and privilege because the majority of the population lead lives of poverty and degradation. See also 1981 Harrison Starworld and Wheelworld.
Rpt. London: Severn House, 1986. U.S. ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1980.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Humanoid Touch - Jack [John Stewart] Williamson (1908-2006) (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1980)
Following from 1949 Williamson, the robots follow humans to a planet without robots and begin to take over.
An excerpt was published as “The Humanoid Universe.” Illus. Paul Lehr. Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact 100.6 (June1980): 14-56; and rpt. in The Worlds of Jack Williamson: A Centennial Tribute 1908-2008. Ed. Stephen Haffner (Royal Oak, MI: Haffner Press, 2008): 521-66.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“In Bed One Night” - Robert [Lowell] Coover (b. 1932) (Playboy, 1980)
Dystopia in which a man finds two strangers in his bed, who explain that they have been assigned to his bed to alleviate homelessness. It is clear that who is assigned and who people are assigned to depend on class and income.
Rpt. in his In Bed One Night and Other Brief Encounters (Providence, RI: Burning Deck, 1983), 14-18; and in his Going for a Beer: Selected Short Fictions (New York: W. W. Norton, 2018), 161-64.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"In looking-glass castle" - Gene [Rodman] Wolfe (1931-2019) (TriQuarterly, 1980)
A society in which women rule and all men are fugitives, which is generally seen as positive by women and negative by men.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Integrated Man - Michael [Steven] Berlyn (b. 1949) (Bantam Books, 1980)
Dystopia. People controlled by implanted computer chips. Revolt.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The King Is Dead! Long Live--" - [Margery (known as Marj) A.] [Krueger] (1941-2006) (Chrysalis, 1980)
Dystopia of a future in which an electronic chastity belt produces great pain in rapists and is used by women to punish men.
Rpt. (New York: Zebra Books), 60-74.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Last President - Michael [Joseph] Kurland (b. 1938); [Barton Stewart] [Whaley] (1918-2013) (William Morrow & Co, 1980)
The Watergate scandal following the break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic Party national headquarters in June 1972 turns the U.S. into an authoritarian dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Life" - Dennis R. Caro (b. 1944) (Microcosmic Tales: 100 Wondrous Science Fiction Short-Short Stories, 1980)
Brief story set in an overpopulated world.
Rpt. (New York: DAW Books, 1992), 204-06.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Lifekeeper - Mike [Michael Dennis] McQuay (1949-95) (Avon, 1980)
Dystopia of computer perfection and the problems that develop as the computer appears to start wars.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Logan's Search - William F[rancis] Nolan (1928-2021) (Bantam Books, 1980)
Sequel to 1967 Nolan and Johnson and 1977 Nolan. Mostly adventure but some on the eutopia from 1977 Nolan.
Rpt. in Logan: A Trilogy. Baltimore, MD: Maclay and Associates, 1986), 261-384. Rpt. with the same pagination New York: Dell, 1992.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"'Looking Backward' from 2030 (with apologies to Edward Bellamy)" - Jayne Burks; Melvin Rubenstein (Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 1980)
History of the period from the mid-twentieth century to 2030 with a focus on child-rearing and education, both of which change to take individual differences into account. Governmentally supported childcare facilities. Parents are encouraged to raise their children at home and are provided with financial support to do so after taking parenting courses.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

The Love Explosion - Robert H[enry] Rimmer (1917-2001) (New American Library, 1980)
Another of Rimmer's novels of the good life through sex. In this novel two couples have sexual and other revelations while on a vacation on Guadeloupe, which produces a temporary utopia, which is then incorporated into their lives. See also 1966, 1968, 1975, 1978, 1982, and 2000 Rimmer.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Magic Time - Kit [Lilian Craig] Reed (1932-2017) (Berkley Books, 1980)
Eutopian amusement park that is really a dystopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Mind and World in the 21st Century: An Interview with a Future Being" - Gertrude J. Rubin Williams (1927-86) (Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 1980)
Eutopia with the focus on changes in the family and child-rearing. Pluralism in family structure and community childcare. Children have the right to divorce their parents. Technological solutions to disabilities.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Mind Game - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Jove, 1980)
Authoritarian dystopia brought about through mental control.
Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1985.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Mockingbird - Walter [Stone] Tevis (1928-84) (Doubleday & Co., 1980)
Machine dystopia. Humans can no longer read or write and no longer have children (all women had been sterilized). People take drugs, smoke marijuana and watch test patterns on television. Many commit suicide. Everything is breaking down, including the robots that run everything. People are supposed to follow three slogans, "When in doubt, forget it" (20), "Don't ask--relax" (21), and "Alone is best" (23).
Keywords: US author

The Number of the Beast - Robert A[nson] Heinlein (1907-88) (Fawcett Columbine, 1980)
Something of a tour of an imaginary solar system in which the protagonists land in a number of societies drawn from fantasy and science fiction. His The Pursuit of the Pankera: A Parallel Novel About Parallel Universes. Rockville, MD: Caezik SF & Fantasy/Arc Manor, 2020, which was put together from his manuscript and handwritten notes, begins with the same protagonists but then takes them into a parallel universe.
Rpt. as vol. 25 of The Virginia Edition of his works. Houston, TX: The Virginia Edition, 2010. Extract published in Omni 2.1 - 2 (October - November 1979: 66-69, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126, 128, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138; 56-58, 60-64, 112, 114-18, 120, 122, 124-28.
Keywords: Male author; US author

One On Me - Tim[othy Wade] Huntley (b. 1939) (DAW Books, 1980)
Satirical flawed utopia. Having a child is in poor taste but one is born and raised by people who know nothing about children and their needs and did not want this one or for anyone to know of his existence. Raised in a floating habitat on food tabs and without much exercise, he ends up on Earth, discovers those imprisoned for opposing the new system, and begins to bring about change.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Operation Misfit - E[dgar] Hoffman [Trooper] Price (1898-1988) (Ballantine Books, 1980)
Dystopia emphasizing thought control in which the Thought Control Board tries to eliminate a maverick, who appears throughout the series. Much of the novel follows the maverick into space and is mostly adventure. Sequels include Operation Longlife. New York: Ballantine Books, 1982, in which a man who is 186 years old is targeted to obtain the secret of his longevity; Operation Exile. New York: Ballantine Books, 1986, in which the North American empire is under threat and the series protagonist is hired to protect the emperor’s wife with, again, much of the novel mostly adventure; and Operation Isis. New York: Ballantine Books, 1986, in which the man, after more adventures, retires to Mars.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Outside the Solar Village: One Utopian Farm” - Wes Jackson (b. 1936) (New Roots for Agriculture, 1980)
A eutopia set in 2030 when there has been a radical change in population distribution with large cities becoming much smaller with everyone thinking sustainably. The eutopia focuses on sustainable farming using the example of one farm in Kansas. The farming of the twentieth century had badly damaged the land, but by 2030 and new methods of settlement and farming, there had been substantial recovery.
Rev. in new ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985), 116-32.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Paradise Plot - Ed Naha (b. 1950) (Bantam Books, 1980)
Flawed utopia. A space colony designed to be a eutopia with no pollution, controlled weather, sufficient space for population growth, no crime, and little illness turns out to be less than ideal.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Perpetual Migration" - Marge Piercy (b. 1936) (The Moon Is Always Female, 1980)
Short eutopian poem on the joy of life. Part of her "The Lunar Cycle".
Rpt. in her Circles On the Water: Selected Poems of Marge Piercy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982), 273-74.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Probability Broach - L[ester] Neil Smith [III] (1946-2021) (Ballantine Books, 1980)
The novel begins in a U. S. where the government is systematically limiting individual rights, but it then moves into an alternative history eutopia set in a libertarian North American Confederacy and is the first volume of a loosely connected series set in the Confederacy. A story set in the same future is his “The Spirit of Exmas Sideways” (1989). In publication order, the volumes, not all of which are utopian, the series includes The Venus Belt (1980); Their Majesties' Bucketeers. Illus. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981. 182 pp.; The Nagasaki Vector. New York: Ballantine Books, 1983. 242 pp., neither of which have much to do with the main themes in the series; Tom Paine Maru. New York: Ballantine. 273 pp. Rpt. rev. Rockville, MD: Phoenix Pick, 2009. 222 pp. [An author’s note says that the first edition was badly cut by the publisher and that this version reflects his original intent]; The Gallatin Divergence. New York: Ballantine, 1985. 223 pp.; Brightsuit MacBear. New York: Avon, 1988. 212 pp.; Taflak Lysandra. New York: Avon, 1988. 230 pp., in all three of which there are clashes between the Confederacy and the authoritarian Federalists; and The American Zone (2001) which is a sequel to The Probability Broach. In the chronology of the series, the volumes are The Probability Broach, The Nagasaki Vector, The American Zone, The Venus Belt, The Gallatin Divergence, Tom Paine Maru, Brightsuit MacBear, Taflak Lysandra, and Their Majesties' Bucketeers. The novel won the 1982 Prometheus Prize of the Libertarian Futurist Society.
Rev. ed. [the author’s website calls it the “unexpurgated” edition]. New York: Tor, 1996. 305 pp. Rpt. New York: Orb, 2001. 317 pp. See also Smith and Scott Bieser, illustrator. The Probability Broach: The Graphic Novel. Round Rock, TX: Big Head Press, 2004. 185 pp.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Return to Earth: A Novel of the Future - H[elen] M[ary] Hoover (1935-2018) (Viking Press, 1980)
Young adult novel in which corporations own most countries but, although there are radical differences in income, try to create good lives for all their inhabitants. The relatively good societies are contrasted with a charismatic religious leader and his control of his followers.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Riddley Walker - Russell [Conwell] Hoban (1925-2011) (Jonathan Cape, 1980)
Post-catastrophe dystopia describing the society that has developed in England, which is presented as a primitive but complex society. The novel is presented as written by a member of the society, Riddley Walker, and is in the language that is used by the society.
U.S. ed. with the subtitle A Novel. New York: Summit Books, 1980. Exp. ed. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998, with two illus., an “Afterword” (223-27), “Notes” (229-31), and a “Glossary” (233-35) by the author.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

Run, Come See Jerusalem - Richard C[arleton] Meredith (1937-79) (Ballantine Books, 1980)
Authoritarian religious dystopia and revolt in which a time traveler tries to prevent the birth of the founder of the dystopia.
U.K. ed. London: Hamlyn, 1985.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Scorched Supper on New Niger" - Suzy McKee Charnas (1939-2023) (New Voices III; The Campbell Award Nominees, 1980)
A story of corporate conflict in space that includes a feminist eutopia based on African traditions.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #10. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Pocket Books, 1981), 23-61; and in The Mammoth Book of Modern Science Fiction: Short Novels of the 1980s. Presented by Isaac Asimov. Ed. Charles G. Waugh and Martin H. Greenberg (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1993), 90-125. U.K. ed. (London: Robinson Publishing, 1993), 90-125.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Shadowman - Geo[rge] W. Proctor (1946-2008) (Fawcett Gold Medal, 1980)
Flawed utopia in which an emotionless society without crime or violence produces an assassin.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Songs from the Stars - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Simon & Schuster, 1980)
Ecological eutopia that develops initially as a conflict between those practicing the old science of physics and those who have rejected that science. By the end of the novel, the two groups are forced to work together.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Splendid Freedom - Arsen [Julius] Darnay (b. 1936) (Ace Books, 1980)
Three alternative future dystopias. They are "The Splendid Freedom" Galaxy Science Fiction 35.9 (September 1974): 6-33 (1-45) about an Earth that pretends to provide all the experiences unavailable on other planets, "The Eastcoast Confinement." Galaxy Science Fiction 35.10 (October 1974): 6-54 (47-132) about the New Puritan Secular Order in the U.S. that imprisons all dissidents, and "Plutonium" Galaxy Science Fiction 37.3 (March 1976): 5- 61 (133-244) about a religious cult worshipping atomic waste.
Keywords: Hungarian author; Male author; US author

Split Infinity - [Piers Anthony Dillingham] [Jacob] (b. 1934) (Ballantine Books, 1980)
Two worlds are described. One is a dystopia based on science and rigid class distinctions, and the other is a fantasy in which only magic works. One individual moves between the two worlds. The story is continued in his Blue Adept. New York: Ballantine Books, 1981. Rpt. New York: Ballantine Books, 1982; and in his Double Exposure (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, [1982]), 261-514; and in his Juxtaposition. By Piers Anthony [pseud.]. New York: Ballantine Books, 1982. Rpt. New York: Ballantine Books, 1983; and in his Double Exposure (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, [1982]), 515-790.
Rpt. in his Double Exposure (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, [1982]), 1-259.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Stepfather Bank" - [David Charles] [Poyer] (b. 1949) (The Berkley Showcase; New Writings in Science Fiction and Fantasy, 1980)
Dystopia set in 2110 in which the "Bank," having gradually gained control of all corporations, owns everything. It employs everyone except one poet.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Still Forms on Foxfield - Joan [Lyn] Slonczewski (b. 1956) (Ballantine Books, 1980)
Eutopia based on Quaker (Society of Friends) beliefs. The novel is concerned with how the society deals with potential conflict with more technologically advanced later settlers.
Keywords: Female author; US author

This Time of Darkness - H[elen] M[ary] Hoover (1935-2018) (Viking, 1980)
Children's dystopia set in an extensive, class-ridden city. Outside the city is a village presented as a contrasting eutopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Timescape - Gregory [Albert] Benford (b. 1941) (Simon and Schuster, 1980)
The novel is set in three times. In 1998, which has experienced a worsening environmental collapse, scientists are trying to contact 1962 in hopes of correcting the problem. The paradox created by this activity produces an alternative future 1974. A related novel is his Rewrite: Loops in the Timescape. New York: Saga Press, 2018. The book is copyrighted by Benford and Michael Rose with a brief explanation in the “Afterword.”
Keywords: Male author; US author

Unisave - Axel Madsen (1930-2007) (Ace Books, 1980)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Keywords: Danish author; Male author; US author

Valhalla - Newton [Kendall] Thornburg (1929-2011) (Little, Brown, 1980)
Near future post-catastrophe dystopia brought about by the collapse of the U.S. dollar. Government and jobs disappear and gangs control cities. Valhalla is an ex-monastery now the fortress compound of one man, and the novel focuses on the attacks on it and its defense.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Watchstar - Pamela Sargent (b. 1948) (Pocket Books, 1980)
First volume in a young adult trilogy followed by her Eye of the Comet. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></st1:place>: Harper & Row, 1984; and Homesmind. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. This volume takes place in a future that has rejected technology or, to their way of thinking, outgrown it. People live in small villages, communicate only by telepathy, are telekinetic, and can fly. Those born without these abilities are killed. Each person must go through an individual rite of passage, and the protagonist is going through hers when she meets a boy who has descended to Earth from a comet in which he lives. He is from the without telepathic powers who were people left behind and fled Earth to live on comets in space. Eye of the Comet focuses on a young woman who is set the task by Homesmind, a cybernetic mind, of reconciling the two societies. Homesmind concludes with the conflict between the two worldviews and its impact on the various protagonists.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“What I Did During My Park Vacation” - Ruth Berman (b. 1942) (Microcosmic Tales: 100 Wondrous Science Fiction Short-Short Stories, 1980)
The brief story is about a high-tech society where most of the natural world is gone, and a park travels from roof top to roof top so that people can be temporarily exposed to it.
Rpt. (New York: DAW Books, 1992), 267-68.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Who Killed Utopia - Paul Walker (1942-2007) (Carlyle, 1980)
Standard flawed utopia with a computer that has gone wrong.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Wishes of Maidens" - Felix C[harles] Gotschalk [Jr.] (1929-2002) (New Voices III; The Campbell Award Nominees, 1980)
Dystopia with very few fertile men and many women wanting to become pregnant.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Zero Weather, A Future Fantasy - [Ramón Sender] [Barayón] (b. 1934) (Family Publishing Co, 1980)
New Age conflict between good and evil, with the followers of evil plotting to, among other things, drive the U.S. president insane and the followers of good, led by a man named Zero, fighting back against the various plots. Good wins.
Keywords: Male author; Spanish author; US author

Zion in Our Time - James A. Christenson (Center for Zionic Studies, 1980)
How to build a new Zion of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, now known as the Christian Community. The five principles of the law of the celestial kingdom are Assistance, Cooperation, Providence, Equality, and Endowment (129-29). Includes a “Concordance of Scriptures on Zion--Bible” (150-55), “Scriptures re Sion” (155-56), “Scriptures on Zion--Book of Mormon” (156-57), and “Scriptures on Zion--Doctrine and Covenants” (157-61).
Keywords: Male author; US author

Alongside Night - J[oseph] Neil Schulman (1953-2019) (Crown, 1979)
Dystopia based on an extrapolation of a continuing economic downturn.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Avatar - Poul [William] Anderson (1926-2001) (Berkley Publishing, 1979)
One part of the novel is a typical Anderson dystopia in which the authoritarian Social Welfare Party takes over of Earth.
Parts of Chapters II and XXIII were published in slightly different form as parts of his “Joelle.” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 1.3 (Fall 1977): 148-86.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Bander Snatch - Kevin O'Donnell Jr. (1950-2012) (Bantam Books, 1979)
Future bureaucratic dystopia with a deep rich-poor division. Bander Snatch is the name of a streetwise leader of one of the poor areas.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Blade Runner (A Movie) - William S[eward] Burroughs (1914-97) (Blue Wind, 1979)
Dystopia based on 1974 Nourse and using the same situation and characters. Unrelated to the Ridley Scott movie Blade Runner (1982).
Rpt. London: The Tangerine Press, 2019, with an introduction by Oliver Harris (ix-xxiii, 81-83)
Keywords: Male author; US author

Catacomb Years - Michael [Lawson] Bishop (1945-2023) (Berkley/Putnam, 1979)
Satire. Future domed city and the inhabitants. Includes, in "Old Folks at Home," a communal utopia for senior citizens and, in "The Windows in Dante's Hell," an overpopulation, class-based dystopia.
Parts were originally published as “If a Flower Could Eclipse.” Worlds of Fantasy 1.3 (Winter 1970-71): 152-83; rpt. in his The City and the Cygnet: An Alternative History of the Atlanta Urban Nucleus in the 21st Century (Bonney Lake, WA : Kudzu Planet Productions/Fairwood Press, 2019), 25-49, together with the “Interlude: The Testimony of Leland Tanner” (50-53); “Old Folks at Home.” Universe 8. Ed. Terry Carr (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978), 1-48. Rpt. (New York: Popular Library, [1978]), 7-63; in The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year #1. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979), 54-109; and in his The City and the Cygnet: An Alternative History of the Atlanta Urban Nucleus in the 21st Century (Bonney Lake, WA : Kudzu Planet Productions/Fairwood Press, 2019), 54-98, together with the “Interlude: The City Takes Care of Its Own” (99-100); “The Windows in Dante’s Hell.” Orbit 12. Ed. Damon [Francis] Knight (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1973): 28-45; rpt. in his The City and the Cygnet: An Alternative History of the Atlanta Urban Nucleus in the 21st Century (Bonney Lake, WA : Kudzu Planet Productions/Fairwood Press, 2019), 101-14, together with the “Interlude: Volplaning Heroes” (115-16); “The Samurai and the Willows.” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 52.2 (297) (February 1976): 5-45; rpt. in his The City and the Cygnet: An Alternative History of the Atlanta Urban Nucleus in the 21st Century (Bonney Lake, WA : Kudzu Planet Productions/Fairwood Press, 2019), 117-55, together with the “Interlude: First Councilor Jarboe” (156-60); “Allegiances.” Galaxy Science Fiction 36.2 (February 1975): 20-62; rpt. in his The City and the Cygnet: An Alternative History of the Atlanta Urban Nucleus in the 21st Century (Bonney Lake, WA : Kudzu Planet Productions/Fairwood Press, 2019), 161-203, together with the “Interlude: The Cradle Begins to Rock” (204-05); and “At the Dixie-Apple with the Shoofly-Pie Kid.” Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy 1.4 (November 1977): 18-21, 23-25; rpt. in his The City and the Cygnet: An Alternative History of the Atlanta Urban Nucleus in the 21st Century (Bonney Lake, WA : Kudzu Planet Productions/Fairwood Press, 2019), 206-20, together with the “Interlude: The Introduction to Out and Back Again” (221-27).
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Charlottesville: A Fictional Account” - Nan Randall (The Effects of Nuclear War, 1979)
A day-by-day account of the effects of nuclear war on Charlottesville, Virginia. The story provided the basis for the television film The Day After (1983) written by Edward Hume (b. 1936) and directed by Nicholas Meyer (b. 1945).The author had written with William Kincade (1939-2017), the executive director of the Arms Control Association, a series describing the effect of two nuclear bombs dropped on the Tampa Bay area. See “Doomsday.” St. Petersburg Times (February 25-28, 1979): 1A, 20A; 1A, 13A-14A; 1A, 7A; 12A.  For background to the story, see Alexis C. Madrigal, “The People Who Would Survive Nuclear War.” The Atlantic.com (January 25, 2018). https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/01/that-time-the-government-commission-fiction-about-nuclear-war/551303/
Keywords: Female author; US author

Communalist Society: Some Principles for a Possible Future - John Friedmann (b. 1926) (School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles, 1979)
Eutopia of a decentralized society. See also 1976 Friedmann and 1979 Friedmann, The Good Society: A personal account of its struggle with the world of social planning and a dialectical inquiry into the roots of radical practice.
Keywords: Austrian author; Canadian author; Male author; US author

Dark Wing - Carl West; Katherine [Anne] MacLean (1925-2019) (Atheneum, 1979)
Young adult dystopia in which medical care is illegal and the ill are put to death. Corporate power.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

Engine Summer - John [Michael] Crowley (b. 1942) (Doubleday, 1979)
Post-catastrophe novel focusing on two surviving societies, one of which can be considered eutopian and is based on occupational/generational ties and is non-competitive. The novel includes the detailed description of a game in which there is no winner.
Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1980. U.K. ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1980.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Exile. Book IV of Daily Lives in Nghsi-Altai - Robert [Molise Boyer] Nichols (1919-2010) (New Directions, 1979)
This volume gives the history of Nghsi-Altai (29-39) and focuses on the "population lottery" which uses a lottery to reduce the population by choosing a family to exile. The family chosen is the family at the center of Book III. See 1977 Nichols, the note there, and 1978 and 1979 Nichols, The Harditts of Sawna.
Parts originally published as "The Meaning of Festivals." New Directions in Prose and Poetry No. 26. Ed. J[ames] Laughlin. (New York: New Directions, 1973), 70-75; and "Nghsi-Altai: An excerpt from the novel Daily Lives in Nghsi-Altai." New Directions in Prose and Poetry No. 33. Ed. J[ames] Laughlin (New York: New Directions, 1976), 117-25.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Exit Door Leads In" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Rolling Stone College Papers, 1979)
Dystopia of a society controlled by robots and an attempt to reform it through a college that is trying to encourage rebellion against all authority.
Rpt. in Robots, Androids, and Mechanical Oddities: The Science Fiction of Philip K. Dick. Ed. Patricia S. Warrick and Martin H[arry] Greenberg (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984), 229-45; and in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 5 The Little Black Box (Los Angeles, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1987), 315-31. The paperback edition has it in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 5 The Eye of the Sibyl (New York: Citadel Twilight, 1992), 315-31.
Keywords: Male author; US author

From Blight to Height - Marinelli, Jean (Vantage Press, 1979)
Eutopia in which a new form of society, called a Region, is established with sixty thousand people. Most decision-making is by a computer known as Comp-U, which is said to know what is best for everyone. The first is successful in eliminating poverty, unemployment, and discrimination, and its people are able to reach their full potential. People wore the same clothing and housing was identical. Standardized names plus a number. Contraceptives required and sexual activity limited to Friday nights. People ate together. No tobacco but marijuana was used. No children initially. As a result, more such Regions are established. Female author.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Gallagher's Glacier - Walt[er R.] Richmond (1922-77); Leigh [Tucker] Richmond (1911-95) (Ace Books, 1979)
Authoritarian dystopia in which the universe is ruled by giant corporations. Rebellion.
Part originally published as "Gallagher's Glacier." Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction 74.3 (November 1964): 37-42. Short version published New York: Ace Books, 1970.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

The Good Society; A personal account of its struggle with the world of social planning and a dialectical inquiry into the roots of radical practice - John Friedmann (b. 1926) (MIT Press, 1979)
Eutopia. Between fiction and non-fiction. See also 1976 Friedmann and 1979 Friedmann, Communalist Society.
Keywords: Austrian author; Canadian author; Male author; US author

The Granville Hypothesis - Ted Mancuso (b. 1950) (Manor Books, 1979)
Flawed utopia. Computer perfect world under attack.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Great Change - Jack Wagner (Trinidad Press, 1979)
Detailed socialist eutopia using a version of the “sleeper wakes” in which a labor leader in the mid-twentieth century comes back to San Francisco in 2012. Quite a bit on the transition. Much is provided free or inexpensively. Much more on the details of the workplace and production than in many comparable works. Partnership between management and unions. Annual turnover in many leadership positions. A lot of bureaucracy but working the way it should.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Harditts of Sawna. Book III of Daily Lives in Nghsi-Altai - Robert [Molise Boyer] Nichols (1919-2010) (New Directions, 1979)
Third volume of four about eutopia in a Southeast Asian country that has a fairly simple, agricultural life but a complex mythology. This volume focuses on village life through a single family, the Harditts. See 1977 Nichols, the note there, and 1978 and 1979 Nichols, Exile.
Part originally published as "Harvesting the Wind: An excerpt from the novel Daily Lives in Nghsi-Altai." New Directions in Prose and Poetry No. 31. Ed. J[ames] Laughlin (New York: New Directions, 1975), 26-46.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Iceback Invasion" - Hayford Pierce (b. 1942) (Omni, 1979)
Dystopian satire on multiculturalism.
Rpt. in The Best of Omni Science Fiction. Ed. Ben Bova and Don Myrus (New York: Omni Society, 1980), 52-59.
Keywords: Male author; US author

In the Circle of Time - Margaret J[ean] Anderson (b. 1931) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1979)
Young adult novel in sequel to 1977 Anderson. This novel is set in 2179 in which two children from our time assist a eutopian society in its struggle against a mechanized dystopia. See also 1984 Anderson.  The female author was born in Scotland and lives in the U.S.
Keywords: Female author; Scottish author; US author

The Island - Peter [Bradford] Benchley (1940-2006) (Doubleday & Co, 1979)
Description of an island dystopia created by modern day pirates.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Jem: The Making of a Utopia - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (St. Martin's Press, 1979)
A novel about the discovery of a planet inhabited by three different species, the attempt to exploit it by three different groups from Earth, and the ultimate coming together of all six groups with a very brief depiction of the better society that resulted.
Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1980. U.K. ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1979.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Juniper Time - Kate [Katie Gertrude Meredith] Wilhelm (1928-2018) (Harper & Row, 1979)
Background of a post-disaster (drought) dystopia where the western part of the U.S. is abandoned, and people move east to settle in what are in effect concentration camps. The novel follows the experience of one woman who flees west and is taught survival skills by the Indians who have reclaimed the land.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Lagrange Five - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Bantam Books, 1979)
A space colony/station is a eutopia of great beauty, but the eutopia is undermined by what seems to be almost an illness that strikes from time to time in which people become claustrophobic. See also 1983 and 1984 Reynolds and 1985 Reynolds with Ing.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Land - [Mary Vigliante] [Szydlowski] (b. 1946) (Manor, 1979)
Women are rulers and men are "Beasts" not considered human. One woman starts a movement to free the Beasts, who almost enslave the women, until a balance is achieved with hope of turning the dystopia into a eutopia.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Land of the Possible: A Report of the First Visit to Prire - Mary Alice White Ph.D. (1920-2000) (Warner Books, 1979)
A very detailed eutopia depicting Prire, a long established, isolated country that welcomes its first visitor in many years. Variety of ways of life, with the novel depicting Capital City, Blue Lake Village, which is a cooperative, Mountgate, a village of artists, Ponyo City, which has a university, and Shin, a factory town. There is also an area set aside for those who simply want to be left alone. Experiments are being constantly run to provide the evidence for policy choices. Stress on the small, local face-to-face community using appropriate technology that was available in the late 1970s. Every person from age twelve has two jobs, a community service job as well as an occupation. Life-long education. Gender and age equality.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Legend of Lady Bruna" - Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-99) (Legends of Hastur and Cassilda, 1979)
This is a story of a strong woman who fought to keep her people free and is one of the legends of the Free Amazons.
Rpt. in Marion Zimmer Bradley and The Friends of Darkover. Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology. Ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (New York: DAW Books, 1985), 24-32 with an introductory note on 23. No copy of the Legends appears to be held in any library. Information from Catherine Coker, “The Friends of Darkover: An Annotated Bibliography and History.” Foundation 37.104 (Winter 2008): 52.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Legion - Charles L[ewis] Grant (1942-2006) (Berkley Books, 1979)
Post-catastrophe authoritarian dystopia set in 2257 as background. Part of a series that follows the same family from 1976 and 1977 Grant.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Leviathan's Deep - [Margery (known as Marj) A.] [Krueger] (1941-2006) (Doubleday, 1979)
Conflict within a world dominated by women over how to respond to contact and growing conflict with Earth. Part of the solution is to educate the men on the woman-dominated world.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Long Talking Bad Conditions Blues - Ronald Sukenick (1932-2004) (Fiction Collective, 1979)
Dystopia of modern life with some elements of science fiction.
Parts originally published under the same title in Granta, [no. 1] (Spring 1979): 181-90; Luna Park; and Ploughshares, no. 18 (5.3) (Fall 1979): 165-76.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Long Walk - [Stephen Edwin] [King] (b. 1947) (Signet, 1979)
Authoritarian dystopia in which one hundred teenage boys participate in an annual ritual of walking until only one is left alive, most of the rest having been shot for infractions of the rules.
Rpt. in The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels by Stephen King. Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man (New York: New American Library, 1985), 133-322 with "Why I Was Bachman" (v-x); and separately New York: Signet, 1996 with "The Importance of Being Bachman" (v-xiii).
Keywords: Male author; US author

Macrolife - George Zebrowski (b. 1945) (Harper & Row, 1979)
A utopia that ranges into the future in a way similar to the utopias of Olaf Stapledon. In this work, “macrolife” or a “macroworld” is mobile space habitat (see the design and description on 114-16). They spread throughout the galaxy, producing a wide variety of social systems, and, at times, come into conflict with natural worlds. His 1999 Cave of Stars is described as a companion piece.
Rpt. with the subtitle A Mobile Utopia. Amherst, NY: Pyr, 2006.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Mindsong - Joan [Irene] Cox (1942-2009) (Avon, 1979)
.Science fiction novel that includes a description of a terraformed planet called Eden that exists in an age similar to Earth’s Hellenic age and is presented in eutopian terms.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Morlock Night - K[evin] W[ayne] Jeter (b. 1950) (DAW Books, 1979)
Dystopia in which the Morlocks from 1895 Wells, The Time Machine use the time machine to attack England. The English, led by Merlin, and others from various time periods, successfully fight back.
Rpt. Oxford, Eng.: Angry Robot, 2011 with an “Introduction” by Tim Powers (7-11) and an afterword, “K W Jeter, Morlock Night” by Adam Roberts (295-301).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"No More Pencils, No More Books" - John Morressy (1930-2006) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1979)
Dystopia of future inner-city schools with constant violence, heavily medicated students, and no learning.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #9. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Ballantine Books, 1980), 269-81.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Oath of the Comhi-Letzii or 'Order of Renunciates' Commonly Called the 'Free Amazons' with Explanatory Commentary" - Walter [H.] Breen (1928-93) (The Darkover Concordance: A Reader's Guide, 1979)
Oath of a utopian order that asserts the freedom of the women joining it from all social ties except those she freely chooses.
Rpt. as “The Oath of the Free Amazons.” In Marion Zimmer Bradley and The Friends of Darkover, Free Amazons of Darkover: An Anthology. Ed. Marion Zimmer Bradley (New York: DAW Books, 1985), 16-22 with an introductory note on 15.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Options" - John [Herbert] Varley (b. 1947) (Universe, 1979)
Impact of easy sex change operations on a society that had strived for gender equality but still had significant inequalities. Experiencing both genders from the inside improves things.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year #9. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Ballantine Books, 1980), 192-225; in his Blue Champagne. Illus. Todd Cameron Hamilton (Nile, IL: Dark Harvest, 1986), 223-62;  and in Feminist Philosophy and Science Fiction: Utopias and Dystopias. Ed. Judith A. Little (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007), 363-90.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Planet Masters - Allen [Lester] Wold (b. 1943) (St. Martin's Press, 1979)
Dystopia set in a society based on a caste system that includes killing as a means of improving one's position.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Praise All the Moons of Morning - [Jeanne] [Dixon] (b. 1936) (Atheneum, 1979)
Young adult dystopia in which the inhabitants are kept passive with a drug. A young girl in the dystopia and a woman from the past help free the people.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Renaissance - A[lfred] E[lton] van Vogt (1912-2000) (Pocket Books, 1979)
Dystopia of women dominating men who have been emasculated by alien technology.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Retreat: As It Was! A Fantasy - Donna J. Young (Naiad Press, 1979)
Lesbian eutopia. After a war that killed everyone, women were given a second chance. Since then, they have learned parthenogenesis and spread around the galaxy. The novel is set on a frontier world called Retreat and follows the development and relationships of a number of women living in one of the communities there. The back cover has "What It Was Like Before the Men Came", but there is no mention of men in the book.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Ring Cycle - Melvin [Ezell] Gorham (1910-94) (Sovereign Press, 1979)
Consists of "The Valkyrie: A Play in Three Acts" which replays Richard Wagner's Ring as a dystopia featuring two police states and opposed by Wotan as the leader of free people. See the author's The Six Disciplines of Man's Being and Man's Relation to Government. Rev. ed. Rochester, WA: Sovereign Press, 1984. See also 1970 and 1975 Gorham. For other works from the same general perspective, see 1984 von Konen, the note there, 1984 Valoric Fire, and 1987 Pedersen.
Part also published as Melvin Gorham’s Interpretation of Richard Wagner’s The Valkyries [Cover adds A Play in Three Acts] Together with The Morality of the Early Northern Europeans by John Harland. Rochester, WA: Sovereign Press, 1987.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Salute to America In the Year 2000" - Tom [Thomas Jefferson] Anderson (1910-2002) (American Opinion, 1979)
A John Birch Society eutopia. Money is tied to gold and silver. It is illegal for the federal government to have a deficit. The minimum wage is abolished; anyone on welfare or being paid in tax dollars is disenfranchised. The sixteenth amendment establishing the income tax is repealed and a new tax system is implemented with no deductions and a maximum tax of ten per cent. The US is no longer in the UN, and the UN is no longer in the US. US citizens tried for treason are "deported to the Communist country of their choice" (46). The change was brought about by those who were "raised in traditional Christian homes and attended private Christian schools" (40).
Keywords: Male author; US author

Shadow of Earth - Phyllis [Leah Kleinstein] Eisenstein (1946-2020) (Dell, 1979)
Dystopian parallel history in which the Spanish Armada defeats England in 1588 and the middle ages continue.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Sudden Star - Pamela Sargent (b. 1948) (Fawcett Gold Medal, 1979)
Dystopia of overpopulation and violence. Medical care severely restricted.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Talking Coffins of Cryo-City - Shirley [Laurolyn] Parenteau (b. 1935) (Elsevier/Nelson Books, 1979)
A young adult novel which describes a flawed utopia based on the control of the weather. The world is run by machines. Criminals are frozen.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Third Body. A Novel - Sam[uel H.] Dann (1918-2004) (Popular Library, 1979)
Dystopia of separate female and male countries where reproduction is a matter of dominance and death and sexual pleasure unknown. The novel focuses on a couple who commit the blasphemy of falling in love.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"To Keep the Oath" - Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-99) (The Bloody Sun, 1979)
Story about her Free Amazons with an emphasis on why women choose to join them.
Rpt. in The Bloody Sun and "To Keep the Oath" (Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1979), 373-408; and in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover (New York: DAW Books, 1993), 15-42. It is not in The Bloody Sun. New York: Ace Books, 1964.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Tomorrow . . . What It Will Be Like - Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986) (Everest House, 1979)
Eutopia. Direct rule by God. God will make the entire world cultivatable by reducing the mountains, watering the deserts, changing the world weather patterns, and thawing out the ice packs. This will eliminate the population problem. Single language. Jerusalem the financial capital of the world. Gold standard. Human nature improved. All debts canceled every fifty years. See also 1966 Armstrong and Armstrong.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Transmaniacon - John [Patrick] Shirley (b. 1954) (Zebra Books, 1979)
Dystopia set in the 22nd century. The continental U.S. is cut off from the rest of the world by an apparently impenetrable barrier. Inside the barrier there are a number of authoritarian city-states. The novel follows one man's successful attempt to escape.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Two Kingdoms; A Novel of Islandia - Mark Saxton (1914-88) (Houghton Mifflin, 1979)
A novel of romance and adventure set in the history of Islandia from 1942 Wright. See also 1969 Saxton and 1982 Saxton. The author worked for the publisher of 1942 Wright and assisted Wright’s daughter in preparing the manuscript for publication.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Unaccompanied Sonata" - Orson Scott Card (b. 1951) (Omni, 1979)
Dystopia. People are categorized through tests given almost from birth and are required to do only the thing that they are supposedly best suited to do. The story focuses on a musical genius who is only allowed to make music uninfluenced by hearing anyone else's music. When he hears other music and incorporates it, he is no longer allowed to make music. When he does, his hands are cut off; when he sings, his vocal cords are removed.
Rpt. in The 1980 Worlds Best SF. Ed. Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha ([New York:] DAW Books, 1980), 73-91; in The Best of Omni Science Fiction. Ed. Ben Bova and Don Myrus (New York: Omni Society, 1980), 38-44; and in The Fourth Omni Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Ellen [Sue] Datlow (New York: Zebra Books, 1985), 185-206. Separately published [Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1992].
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Vandal - Ann [Acheson] Schlee (b. 1934) (Macmillan, 1979)
Young adult future dystopia run by scientists who use drugs to control the citizenry. Vandalism as an act of rebellion against authority. Solidarity with other young people who are being controlled by the authorities.
U.S. ed. New York: Crown, 1981.
Keywords: Female author; US author

A Voice Out of Ramah - [Karen] Lee Killough (b. 1942) (Ballantine Books, 1979)
Dystopia of a male dominated society that uses religion to reinforce its power until a man begins to doubt and a woman begins to question.
Keywords: Female author; US author

On Wings of Song - Thomas M[ichael] Disch (1940-2008) (St. Martin's Press, 1979)
Religious dystopia with fantasy elements.
U.K. edition. London: Gollancz, 1979. Also published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 56.2 - 4 (February - April 1979): 6-61; 101-57; 86-159. Collector's Edition illus. Pat Morrissey with an "Introduction" by James Morrow (vii-xii). Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1993.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"With Mingled Feelings of Anticipation and Apprehension the Emigrants Leave Their Native Earth for a Far-Off Destination" - [Joseph] Ward Moore (1903-78) (Chrysalis, 1979)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A World Between - Norman [Richard] Spinrad (b. 1940) (Pocket Books, 1979)
Pacifica is a decentralized, electronic democracy with gender equality threatened by two authoritarian dystopias, one lesbian, one technological.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Antinomy" - Spider Robinson (b. 1948) (Destinies, 1978)
Future tale set in 1998 with a background dystopia of violence. Great medical advances.
Rpt. in his Antinomy (New York: Dell, 1980), 13-47; and in his Melancholy Elephants (Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1984), 23-53. Rpt. (New York: Tor, 1985), 65-100.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

"The Barbie Murders" - John [Herbert] Varley (b. 1947) (Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 1978)
Authoritarian dystopia set in a Barbie commune in which all are women and all look alike.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #8 Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979), 1-34; in his The Barbie Murders (New York: Berkley, 1980), 52-81; U.K. ed. (London: Futura, 1983), 52-81; book reissued as Picnic on Nearside (New York: Berkley, 1984), 52-81; and in Future Crime: An Anthology of the Shape of Crime to Come. Ed. Cynthia Manson and Charles Ardai (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1992), 165-91.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Best Interests" - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (b. 1942) (Chrysalis, 1978)
An over-caring apartment computer system produces a dystopia.
Rpt. as "Best Interest." In her Signs and Portents (Santa Cruz, CA: Dream Press, 1984), 75-85.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Body Game" - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Omni, 1978)
Dystopia of a rich/poor division based around the possibility of being able to purchase a new body when the old one wears out.
Rpt. in The Best of Omni Science Fiction. Ed. Ben Bova and Don Myrus (New York: Omni Society, 1980), 34-37.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Judy Barrett (b, 1941) (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1978)
Picture book for children. Life in the town of Chewandswallo where food fell from the sky three times a day and was a Cockaigne until the weather changed and storms of food forced the people to flee.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Darkness and Scattered Light: Four Talks on the Future - William Irwin Thompson (b. 1938) (Anchor Books, 1978)
Future speculation by the founder of the Lindisfarne Community, in Southampton, NY, which was established in 1973. Although much of the text uses the language of the New Age and is vague about the eutopia to be produced, he suggests what he calls "The Metaindustrial Village" that will involve both agricultural and industrial work and be connected to the world through computer technology.
Parts of the first two chapters were originally published as "Beyond Civilization: Auguries of Planetization." Quest/77 1.2 (May/June 1977):69-72, 74, 92-93; and "Auguries of Planetization: Braving a New World." Quest/77 1.3 (July/August 1977): 55-60, 94-95.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Death in Florence - George Alec Effinger (1947-2002) (Doubleday, 1978)
Utopia 3 is a postwar project designed to reform humanity and lead to a eutopia of common understanding. The novel follows three people who become part of the project and the various problems they and the project encounter.
Rpt. as Utopia 3. New York: Playboy Press Paperbacks, 1980.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Differences Are Cause For Joy. View from the Year Twenty-two Hundred. Essay in Feminist Theory" - Jessica Amanda Salmonson (b. 1950) (Mythologies, 1978)
Non-fiction feminist eutopia with gender equality, a population in balance, no more violence or war, a balanced ecology, agism and racism gone, and there is no religion.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Ed Dean is Queer - N[ikolas] A[nthony] Diaman (b. 1936) (Persona Press, 1978)
Future dystopia from a gay perspective but with the gay community fighting back against discrimination and the novel ends with the beginnings of a eutopia. See also 1980 and 1997 Diaman.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Equality in the Year 1977: An Expository Lump" - Arthur D. Hlavaty (b. 1942) (Mythologies, 1978)
Alternative history with the birth control pill being invented in the 1850s and widely accepted then.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Escape to the Suburbs" - Rachel Cosgrove Payes (1922-98) (Cassandra Rising, 1978)
Overpopulation dystopia. Manhattan is cut off from the suburbs. The city government has fled to New Jersey and the tunnels have been blown up. Manhattan is now entirely black and Hispanic, extremely poor, and crowded. Those who try to escape are killed.
Keywords: Female author; US author

An Exercise for Madmen - Barbara [Jeanne] Paul (b. 1931) (Berkley Books, 1978)
Describes a scientific satellite that is a near eutopia and its corruption by an alien.
Keywords: US author

"The Eye of the Heron" - Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin (1929-2018) (Millennial Women, 1978)
Dystopia and eutopia. An authoritarian dystopia on another world that was originally a penal colony and continues with men ruling and women severely restricted. This is contrasted with a group of later arrivals who came to establish a small, free, egalitarian farming community. The dystopia initially dominates the smaller community, but it manages to free itself with the help of a young woman from the dystopia.
Rpt. in The Eye of the Heron and Other Stories. By Ursula K. Le Guin and Others. Ed. Virginia Kidd (London: Panther, 1980), 109-251; and as The Eye of the Heron. London: Victor Gollancz, 1982. 122 pp.
Keywords: Female author; US author

False Dawn - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (b. 1942) (Doubleday, 1978)
Authoritarian, violent dystopia set in a future U.S. where disease, pollution, and war has decimated both the land and the people.
Rpt. Northridge, CA: Babbage Press, 2002. U.K. ed. as False Dawn: Science Fiction. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1979. The first chapter was published as "False Dawn." Strange Bedfellows; Sex and Science Fiction. Ed. Thomas N[icholas] Scortia (New York: Random House, 1972), 117-34; and rpt. in Women of Wonder: Science Fiction Stories By Women About Women. Ed. Pamela Sargent (New York: Vintage Books, 1974), 214-34; and in Women of Wonder: The Classic Years. Science Fiction by Women from the 1940s to the 1970s. Ed. Pamela Sargent (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace, 1995), 234-48.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Forbidden World a science fiction novel - David F[rederick] Bischoff (1951-2018); Ted [Theodore Edwin] White (b. 1938) (Popular Library, 1978)
Three flawed utopias are presented, an agrarian community run by women, Plato’s Republic, and Regency England. But all are just part of an experiment, which is itself presented as the central dystopia of the novel.
Part was published as "Breaking Point" by White writing as William C. Johnstone [pseud.]. Amazing Stories 43.6 (March 1970): 71-77.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Garh City. Book II of Daily Lives in Nghsi-Altai - Robert [Molise Boyer] Nichols (1919-2010) (New Directions, 1978)
Second volume of four about a eutopia about a Southeast Asian country that has a fairly simple, agricultural life but a complex mythology. This volume describes a technologically sophisticated city (e.g., they have monorails and an advanced solar power system) with traditional kinships systems. See 1977 Nichols, the note there, and 1979 (2) Nichols.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Going Backward" - [David Eli] [Lilienthal] (b. 1927) (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, 1978)
An attempt to recreate a eutopian nineteenth century farming life fails because it becomes a tourist attraction.
Rpt. in his Always Home and Other Stories (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1991), 33-49.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia - Bernard [Herbert] Suits (1925-2007) (University of Toronto Press, 1978)
A fictional consideration of the nature of utopia that discusses a number of possible utopias. The basic position is that utopia would be the playing of games or activities valued only for themselves rather than being instrumental.
U.K. ed. Edinburgh, Scot.: Scottish Academic Press, 1978. Rpt. with a new Introduction by Thomas Hurka (7-20) and additional material. Peterborough, ON, Canada: Broadview Press, 2005. This should be read with his "The Grasshopper: Posthumous Reflections on Utopia." Utopias. Ed. Peter Alexander and Roger Gill (London: Duckworth, 1984), 197-209; first published as "Games and Utopia: Posthumous Reflections." Simulation and Games 15.1 (March 1984): 5-24.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

"The House That Shulamith Built" - Avedon Carol (b. 1951) (Mythologies, 1978)
Non-fictional feminist eutopia stressing variety. Shulamith refers to Shulamith Firestone (1945-2012), author of The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. New York: William Morrow, 1970. See 1970 Firestone.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Institute - Robert Petyo (Manor Books, 1978)
Authoritarian dystopia. The Institute is where scientists in the service of a power-hungry government bureaucracy experiment on humans.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Leprosarium" - Natalie L[evin] M[aines] Petesch (b.1924) (Seasons Such As These. Two Novels, 1978)
Dystopia in which a large insurance company punishes those who deviate from its rules by incarcerating them in the Leprosarium where large numbers of people are kept together but prohibited from most contact, with such contact warranting further physical punishment. Those who survive are sent to isolated islands, where they take large doses of the drug orgone, which causes hallucinations.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Love Me Tomorrow - Robert H[enry] Rimmer (1917-2001) (New American Library, 1978)
Revision of Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888) to produce a highly eroticized eutopia. Although the theorist of the society presents himself as a reincarnation of Bellamy, and wrote a book entitled Looking Backward II, the economics are based on the people's corporation proposed by Louis Kelso (1913-91) and the political system on the ideas of Rexford G. Tugwell (1891-1979). The Church of United Love or Unilove is related to Tantrism and based in part on the ideas of Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957). There is also a new language called Loglan, which is used together with English.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Make Us Happy - Arthur [H.] Herzog [III] (1927-2010) (Thomas Crowell, 1978)
Dystopia controlled by computers where happiness is defined by a computer as including low self-esteem. Intergenerational sex is stressed. Looks are standardized with everyone colored beige. Constant manipulation by the computers ultimately leads to revolt.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Man Who Had No Idea" - Thomas M[ichael] Disch (1940-2008) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1978)
Humorous dystopia about a society where speaking in public requires a license.
Rpt. in Winter's Tales 24. Ed. A.D. Maclean (New York: St. Martin's, 1978): 9-49; and in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #8. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979), 298-335.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Motherlines - Suzy McKee Charnas (1939-2023) (Berkley Books, 1978)
Sequel to 1974 Charnas where Alldera, the woman who escaped from the Holdfast, discovers, first, the Horsewomen, and later the Free Fems. Both might be called flawed feminist utopias because while they are clearly much better than the slavery of the Holdfast, each has serious internal conflicts and problems, and, while they trade, they are deeply opposed to each other. See also 1994, and 1999 Charnas.
U.K. ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1980. Rpt. in her The Slave and the Free (New York: Tor, 1999), 217-436.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Persistence of Vision" - John [Herbert] Varley (b. 1947) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1978)
The protagonist is a man who, following a series of recessions and a nuclear reactor accident in the Midwest that left a band of the country radioactive is wandering the country Looking for himself. He spends time in the Taos area of New Mexico living briefly in communes and discovers an intentional community composed of deaf and blind people who were born during a rubella epidemic, although their children can see and hear but only rarely speak. He stays there and learns the various languages they use, beginning with handtalk, or spelling out words in the palm of the hand to bodytalk, where people communicate with their entire bodies. And there is a third language, simply known as Touch, in which people are communicating without any contact that he fears he could never learn.
Rpt. in his The Persistence of Vision (New York: Dial Press/James Wade, 1978), 227-72 (U.K. ed. as In the Hall of the Martian Kings [London: Futura, 1978], 263-316); in The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year #1. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979), 1-53; and in Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. Ed. Leigh Ronald Grossman (Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2011), 670-80 with an editor’s note on 670.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Phoenix in the Ashes" - Joan [Carol] D[ennison] Vinge (b. 1948) (Millennial Women, 1978)
Authoritarian religious dystopia in a post-disaster primitive future. Women are controlled by their fathers and husbands.
Rpt. in her Phoenix in the Ashes (New York: Bluejay International Editions, 1985), 1-34 with "Afterword—Phoenix in the Ashes" (35-36).
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Planet of the Rapes" - Thomas M[ichael] Disch (1940-2008) (The Shape of Sex to Come, 1978)
Dystopia in which rape is the only means of procreation. Otherwise, men and women live completely apart.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Prayer for My Daughter" - Marilyn Hacker (b. 1942) (Millennial Women, 1978)
Eutopian poem of a future without men.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Ravens of the Moon - Charles L[ewis] Grant (1942-2006) (Doubleday, 1978)
Dystopia. Mostly political intrigue set in a world constantly at war where suburbs had been abandoned and people retreated to an essentially walled, militarized city with a poor fringe and a wealthier center. An attempt to fake a revolution by the government for political purposes is taken over by a faction within government and turned into a real, but ultimately unsuccessful coup with both the government and the coup leaders eliminated.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Revolt of the Unemployables - Ray [Radell] Faraday Nelson (1931-2022) (Anthelion Press, 1978)
Dystopia which reflects the title. Anyone who fails academically becomes permanently a member of the unemployables living in camps. The men are sterilized. They revolt and much of the country is destroyed. Some of the characters, plot, and text are repeated in 1982 Nelson.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Ruins of Isis - Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-99) (Starblaze/Donning, 1978)
Isis is a matriarchal eutopia going through a series of physical and political problems and being studied by an anthropologist from another planet. The ruins are ancient and thought to have been built by an extinct alien race.
Rpt. New York: Pocket Books, 1978; and New York: Timescape, 1979.
Keywords: Female author; US author

“Saint Francis Night” - Gordon [Stewart] Eklund (b. 1945) (Amazing Science Fiction Stories, 1978)
Dystopia set in a future with strict rules such as walking in only one direction on sidewalks and everyone is conditioned to be non-violent, but the conditioning is failing.
Rpt. in Stalking the Sun: Selected Stories Volume Three (Vancleave, MS: Surinam Turtle Press/Ramble House, 2017), 164-87.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Seven American Nights" - Gene [Rodman] Wolfe (1931-2019) (Orbit, 1978)
Dystopia of a destroyed future America.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year #1. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979), 153-210; and in Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. Ed. Leigh Ronald Grossman (Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2011), 880-91 with an editor’s note on 880.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Seven Last Years - Carol Balizet (b. 1931) (Chosen Books, 1978)
Biblical dystopia of Armageddon (See Revelation 16), the seven years known as the "Tribulation" that, in this version, comes before the Millennium. Includes an "Appendix: Scriptural Prophecies for the Tribulation Period" (369-76).
Rpt. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Shipwright" - Donald [MacDonald] Kingsbury (b. 1929) (Analog Science Fiction--Science Fact, 1978)
Gender-role reversal but more complex than the usual in that it involves two planets with different customs and different gender relations.
Rpt. in The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year #1. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979), 110-52.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Space Station Eight: A Philosophical Novel Concerned with How Humanity Can Achieve Peace and Fulfillment in the Next One Thousand Years - Carlton C. Allen (b. 1911) (Vantage Press, 1978)
The novel is set in 1999 after a large space station where one thousand young people have spent time studying the desperate situation of the Earth and developing the ideas and principles needed to save Earth and create a eutopia, which they were expected to do within a year. The most basic principles were freedom and responsibility (97).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"SQ" - Ursula K[roeber] Le Guin (1929-2018) (Cassandra Rising, 1978)
Dystopia. The SQ test is presumably able to distinguish the sane and the insane and becomes required world-wide. Gradually the majority of people are judged insane and most of the sane choose to live in the asylums both to care for their relatives and because life was better in them than outside where the world economy is collapsing.
Rpt. in her The Compass Rose (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 69-80.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Stand - Stephen [Edwin] King (b. 1947) (Doubleday, 1978)
Post-catastrophe dystopia in which two surviving groups, one eutopian and the other an authoritarian dystopia come into conflict. Adapted for television by the author in a four-episode series 1994 and, with a new ending, in a nine-episode series beginning in December in 2020.
Uncut ed. as The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Trample an Empire Down - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Leisure Books, 1978)
Reynold’s standard utopia is boring, and some people decide to shake it up..
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Turner Diaries - [William Luther] [Pierce] (1933-2002) (National Alliance, 1978)
A future race war in the United States. One of the most important books for the survivalist and white supremacist right. The Oklahoma City bomber had a copy in his truck, and it was a basic text used by the insurrectionists at the U.S. capitol in 2021. A related book is his Hunter. A Novel. By Andrew Macdonald [pseud.]. Hillsboro, WV: National Vanguard Books, 1989.
2nd ed. [Washington, DC]: National Alliance, 1978. Rpt. New York: Barricade Books, 1996. Illus. ed. Washington, DC: National Alliance, 1978. Initially serialized in twenty-eight installments in Attack! no. 32 - 58 (January 1975 - February 1978) and its successor National Vanguard, which continued the numbering, no. 59 (April 1978), where it ends. All entries that I have seen (all but six) appear on pages 5-6.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Two of Them - Joanna [Ruth] Russ (1937-2011) (Berkley Publishing Co., 1978)
Dystopia set in a society that suppresses women and resonates with the most extreme forms of Wahhabism. Uses some characters from 1969 Elgin, “For the Sake of Grace,” and the book is dedicated to Elgin.
Rpt. New York: Berkley Books, 1979; and Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005 with a “Foreword” by Sharon LeFanu (vii-xv).
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Wanderground: Stories of the Hill Women - Sally Miller Gearhart (1931-2021) (Persephone Press, 1978)
Feminist eutopia presented through a series of linked stories. The primary eutopia is one of women without men. Other societies are also depicted, some of which are in conflict with these women.
Rpt. Denver, CO: Spinsters Ink Books, 2002. The first chapter, “Opening,” was published as “Freestanding: Jacqua’s Story.” Quest: A Feminist Quarterly 1.1 (Summer 1975): 20-26. Other material was first published as “Krueva and the Pony.” Ms. 5.2 (August 1976): 75-77, 87; “Jacqua.” The Witch and the Chameleon, no. 3 (April 1, 1975): 9-12, and “Alaka’s Story.” Woman-Spirit [2.8] (Summer solstice [1976]): 9.
Keywords: Female author; US author

A Weave of Women - E[sther] M[asserman] Broner (1927-2011) (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978)
A feminist novel about a group of women who call themselves the Daughters of Jerusalem and the community they create among themselves in a house in Jerusalem where they regularly get together.
Rpt. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985 with an “Introduction” by Marilyn French (ix-xv). Parts originally published as “The Bird and the Thieves.” Epoch 22.2 (Winter 1973): 160-176; “Habibi.” Florida Quarterly 6.1 (Spring 1974): 11-32; “On the Mt. of Meron.” Story Quarterly 1.1 (1975): 85-97.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Web of the Chozen - Jack L[aurence] Chalker (1944-2005) (Ballantine Books, 1978)
Eutopia. In the 21st century generation starships were sent out, mostly inhabited by political and religious groups hoping to establish their utopia. Earth has extended the lifespan to over 300 with two-thirds of the population in "near-guaranteed good health". No one has to work and most live in government flats on the adequate government dole. Nine large corporations "keep the resources flowing, provide the services, and thereby run the lives of just about everybody" (5). Earth is overpopulated and searching for places to offload surplus population. One planet that an explorer lands on radically transforms the human body into something like a horned kangaroo called the Chozen or Choz that lives in peaceful communities that seem eutopian in that there is plenty for all and little pain and death is rare. But they breed rapidly and overpopulation and conflict loom. The Chozen spread to all human worlds, and the humans become Chozen.
Keywords: Male author; US author

What Dreams May Come - Richard [Burton] Matheson (1926-2013) (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1978)
Domestic heaven (called Summerland) to the extent of a dog that had died was in heaven at its prime. Reincarnation. A film was made in 1998 directed by Vincent Ward (b. 1955) with a screenplay by Ronald [Jay] Bass (b. 1942) and starring Robin Williams.
U.K. ed. London: Michael Joseph, 1979. Rpt. London: Sphere Books, 1981.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Wyst: Alastor 1716 - Jack [John Holbrook] Vance (1916-2013) (DAW Books, 1978)
Flawed utopia where everyone is equal, works little, and plays much, but it is centered around war games that are not really games.
Rpt. San Francisco, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood-Miller, 1984. Repub. as vol. 31 of The Complete Works of Jack Vance. Oakland, CA: Vance Integral Editions, 2002.
Keywords: Male author; US author

After Utopia - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Ace Books, 1977)
Flawed utopia in that it is too perfect, to the extent that all progress has ended,and people are escaping into permanent dreams.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Anarchistic Colossus - A[lfred] E[lton] van Vogt (1912-2000) (Ace Books, 1977)
Anarchist eutopia as the setting for resistance to an alien invasion with the aliens believing that the apparently disorganized humans will be easy pickings. The system is tied together by a billions-strong network of AI (kirilian computers in the text) so that ethical and moral lapses can be identified and corrected.
U.K. ed. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1978
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

Arrival. Book 1 of Daily Lives in Nghsi-Altai - Robert [Molise Boyer] Nichols (1919-2010) (New Directions, 1977)
First volume of a four volume eutopia about a Southeast Asian country that has a fairly simple, agricultural life but a complex mythology, and the novel includes a number of stories and poems from Nghsi-Altai. The protagonists who visit the country include Santiago Alvarez (1919-98), a Cuban filmmaker, William Blake (1757-1827), Jack Kerouac (1922-69), and William Morris (1834-96) among other writers. See also 1978 and 1979 (2) Nichols.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Ascension - Charles L[ewis] Grant (1942-2006) (Berkley Books, 1977)
Post-catastrophe authoritarian dystopia set in 2247 in a collapsing world. Part of a series that follows the same family. See also 1976 and 1979 Grant.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Blue Chair. A Novel - Joyce [Marie] Thompson (b. 1948) (Avon Books, 1977)
Dystopia. Social institutions and personal relations produced in a society where immortality is available to those who choose not to have children.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Cold Cash War - Robert [Lynn] Asprin (St. Martin's Press, 1977)
Dystopia in which multinationals conclude that war games are a good way to end disputes so the hire mercenaries to fight non-lethal wars, thus avoiding supervision by the legal system. But the fake war spirals out of control and corporate executives become targets and are assassinated. A sequel of sorts is Asprin with Bill Fawcett. Combat CommandTM In the World of Robert Asprin’s Cold Cash War. The Cold Cash Warrior. New York: Ace Books, 1989 (CU-Riv)
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Confessions of Josef Baisz - Dan Jacobson (1929-2014) (Secker & Warburg, 1977)
Standard totalitarian dystopia as background to a autobiography of a man living in the dystopia and successfully rising within it.
U.S. ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
Keywords: English author; Male author; South African author; US author

Crackpot - Ron[ald Joseph] Goulart (1933-2022) (Doubleday, 1977)
Post-World War III authoritarian, pleasure oriented automated society that is controlled by androids and robots.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Double E - Percival Goodman (1904-89) (Anchor Books, 1977)
Eutopia intended to revisited some of the issues raised in 1947 Goodman and Goodman. Double E refers to environment and economy. Includes both consideration of varied plans for ideal cities and proposals for ideal built environments. Some of the material is based on 1973 Goodman.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Earth Again Redeemed. May 26 to July 1, 1984 on this earth of ours and its alter ego. A Science Fiction Novel - Martin [Burgess] Green (1927-2010) (Basic Books, 1977)
Two alternative future dystopias set in 1984. One is post-nuclear catastrophe and the other is a world of seventeenth century colonial attitudes facing a religious war in Africa. Contact occurs between the two and both are changed.
Rpt. without the second subtitle. London: Sphere Books, 1979.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The Ecolog - R[adell] Faraday Nelson (1931-2022) (Laser Books, 1977)
Feudal dystopia in which a woman, known as the Ecolog, rules a planet with a rigid division between the ruling class and the rest of society and with women holding power over men.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Eldorado" - Charles L[ewis] Grant (1942-2006) (The Arts and Beyond; Visions of Man's Aesthetic Future, 1977)
Dystopia. An artist colony that was designed so that artists would be free to be creative is run by an automated city in so stultifying a manner that most artists left.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Equality: In the Year 2000 - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Ace Books, 1977)
Sequel to 1973 Reynolds based on 1888 and 1897 Bellamy. In this novel the future utopia is shown to have dissidents, but the resuscitated protagonist from the past helps the society deal with them.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Generation Removed - Gary K[enneth] Wolf (b. 1941) (Doubleday, 1977)
Dystopia of generational conflict in which the young rule with all teenagers having the vote. Retirement at 55, no medical care, and euthanasia for the ill. The dust jacket adds “In this brave new world, aging is a crime.” Euth Centres staffed by teenagers Anyone over 55 with a euthable disease was euthanized, and almost everything was euthable.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Heat - Arthur [H.] Herzog [III] (1927-2010) (Simon & Schuster, 1977)
Ecological dystopia.
U.K. ed. London: William Heinemann, 1978.
Keywords: Male author; US author

In the Keep of Time - Margaret J[ean] Anderson (b. 1931) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1977)
First volume of a young adult trilogy. This volume sets the stage for the later volumes in the four children travel first to the past and then to the future. In the past, they deal with war between England and Scotland. In the future, they are faced with an environmentally damaged world. The female author was born in Scotland and lives in the U.S.
Keywords: Scottish author; US author

"In the Stocks" - Barry N[athaniel] Malzberg (b. 1939) (New Dimensions Science Fiction, 1977)
Sequel to 1973 Malzberg in which women are sent into the homosexual enclave in attempt to "cure" the homosexuality of the men in the enclave.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Kampus. A Novel - James E[dwin] Gunn (1923-2020) (Bantam Books, 1977)
A dystopia of the future of universities where many students are illiterate, faculty market their classes to attract such students, and the students control much of the campus. Much sex and violence.
Rpt. as the Collector's Edition. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1986 illus. Richard Powers and with an "Introduction" (v-viii) by Frederik Pohl.
Keywords: Male author; US author