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Vermilion Sands by J. G. Ballard (England, 1971)    
A set of linked short stories all based in the imaginary desert resort of Vermilion Sands, a self-contained society of wealthy, disaffected or parasitic people. The setting functions as a dystopic vision of a post-apocalyptic world.

The World Inside by Robert Silverberg (USA, 1971)    
In 2381, Earth has a massive population now that war, starvation, crime and birth control have been eliminated, and life takes place within high density 1,000-storey skyscrapers. Everything is shared, including partners, justice is harsh and “reprogramming” is the fate of any social deviants. The farmers that produce food for this population are almost a separate, and inferior, race.

Gray Matters by William Hjortsberg (USA, 1971)    
The few hundred “cerebromorphs” (bodiless brains) that were preserved through the Armageddon of World War 3 have to pass through various levels of understanding before they can be released in perfect manufactured bodies into the pastoral paradise outside.

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin (USA, 1974)    
Subtitled “An Ambiguous Utopia”, this book is set in a future, post-imperial galactic civilization, more specifically on two planets in the Tau Ceti system. Set against the very Earth-like organization of the larger planet Urras (with its USA-Soviet Union type set-up), the smaller planet Anarres has a utopian, anarchic structure without any government or coercive authoritative institutions (although it is not presented as a perfect society).

My Petition for More Space by John Hersey (USA, 1974)    
In a claustrophobic, overpopulated future world, policies have been adopted to deal with the impossibility of getting away from other people, including a strict prohibition on anything which might be construed as sexual or lascivious.

Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach (USA, 1975)    
Subtitled “The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston”, this was the first of the ecotopia sub-genre. In a future independent American North-West, the free-thinking, creative and energetic citizens make selective use of technology to optimize the social, medical and ecological health of their society. 1981’s Ecotopia Emerging is a prequel to this novel.

Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (USA, 1976)    
In a schizophrenic delusion in the 1970’s, Connie Ramos travels to the idyllic village of Mattapoisett in the year 2137 to see a utopian society free from pollution, homophobia, racism, chauvinism, classism and subordination. She also travels to an alternative future where a wealthy, technocratic elite living on space platforms subdues the majority of the population with drugs and harvests their organs. Connie’s present is somehow instrumental in deciding which of those futures will come to pass.

1985 by Anthony Burgess (England, 1978)    
In a novella based loosely on Orwell’s 1984, Burgess imagines a near-future ruled by the whims of powerful trade unions, and with Islam as a major political and cultural force.

Macrolife: A Mobile Utopia by George Zebrowski (USA, 1979)    
The Bulero family escape an over-populated and collapsing earth in a mobile colony in a hollowed-out asteroid, which over a thousand years develops into a successful, self-contained society. After a hundred billion years, as the universe itself begins to collapse, the resulting ‘macrolife’ (an amalgamation of beings of all kinds) is dominant throughout the universe, but now has to find a way to conquer time itself.

The Probability Broach by L. Neil Smith (USA, 1980)    
Smith’s first novel is set in an alternative Earth history in the alternative Gallatin universe, where the North American Confederacy is organized as a libertarian utopia, science and medicine have advanced at a prodigious pace, and the more intelligent mammals have been recognized as sentient beings and granted equal rights.

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore (England, 1982-8)    
This is graphic novel (comic book) series set in a near-future Britain after a limited nuclear war, where a mysterious anarchist works to overthrow the totalitarian fascist government.

Neuromancer by William Gibson (Canada, 1984)    
The first of Gibson’s cyberpunk novels presaged a not-too-distant future world of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, ‘cyberspace’ and genetic engineering. It is set in a dystopic urban society where callous multinational corporations overpower nation-states, and cheap and ubiquitous technology has dehumanized the world. Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive are the sequels in Gibson’s 'Sprawl' trilogy.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (Canada, 1985)    
Set in a totalitarian, theocratic future America known as the Republic Of Gilead, the story follows Offred, a Handmaid or concubine, whose job it is to bear children to her employer, or Commander. Through various plot twists she becomes connected with the underground resistance and, pregnant, escapes the clutches of the regime. In this dark dystopia, post-revolutionary America has become a strict Christian theocracy following biblical fundamentalist philosophies, with enforced social roles, austere dress laws, an almost complete suppression of freedoms and the subjugation of women.

Brazil by Terry Gilliam (USA, 1985)    
This is a black comedy movie by one-time Monty Python member Gilliam set in a future dystopian world, not dissimilar to that of 1984, where a bureaucratic, totalitarian regime uses machines to impose state control.

Always Coming Home by Ursula Le Guin (USA, 1985)    
This book chronicles the society of the Kesh, a post-apocalyptic people who combine some elements of the distant past (computers, electricity, trains, etc) with a more anarchistic, ecological social order which has much of its basis in hunter-gatherer societies and Native American philosophies. It is contrasted with another tribe who have a much more rigid, patriarchal, hierarchical and expansionist way of life.

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks (Scotland, 1987)    
This is a science fiction book about a war between two very different races with very different ideologies. The Culture is a rather self-satisfied, star-faring society run by benevolent machines; the Idirians, are a more traditional, religious and passionate race.

The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (USA, 1992-6)    
Red Mars (1992), Green Mars (1993) and Blue Mars (1996) depict a largely (but not entirely) utopian society as it colonizes and terraforms Mars. A violent revolution occurs in 2061 against the power of the meta-national corporations who wield much of the power on Earth and Mars.

The Giver by Lois Lowry (USA, 1993)    
Popular both with young readers and adults, the novel describes a future world where pain and strife has been eliminated by a complete denial of emotion and individuality. Love and sexuality (“stirrings”) are suppressed by pills; children are born to designated birth-mothers; genetic engineering removes the seeing of colours or hearing of music; climate control and even physical landscaping alter the world to make it comfortable, if boring; a Council of Elders assigns jobs to each adolescent; and punishment is by secret euthanasia. A single person, The Giver, is burdened with the emotional weight of the whole community’s suppressed memories and emotions, both good and bad, until Jonas decides to release them back to the population. Gathering Blue (2000) and Messenger (2004) are Lowry's later novels set in other dystopic future eras.

Three Californias Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (USA, 1994-80)    
The trilogy depicts three different possible futures for Orange County, California. The Wild Shore (1984), set in 2047, details a pastoral, agrarian post-nuclear society. The Gold Coast (1988), set in 2027, is a dystopic car-orientated sprawl of condos, freeways and malls. Pacific Edge (1990), set in 2065, is possibly the most obviously utopian in nature, and describes the transformation from our own culture to an ecologically sane future.

Burn by James Patrick Kelly (USA, 1995)    
The inhabitants of Transcendent State have rejected high technology for a simple, Thoreau-esque life on a planet named Walden. But contacts with the ‘pukpuk’, survivors of a previous settlement on the planet, and then with the ruler of a distant world, cause the protagonist Spur to doubt the wisdom of their social experiment.

Hostile Takeover Trilogy by S. Andrew Swann (USA, 1995-6)    
Profiteer, Partisan and Revolutionary are all set in the 24th Century where humans, ‘moreaus’ (biologically-uplifted animals) and ‘franks’ (genetically-engineered humans) have established a loose confederacy on several worlds, one of which is the anarcho-capitalist planet of Bakunin.

The Truth Machine by James L. Halperin (USA, 1996)    
A machie is invented which infallibly detects lies and becomes ubiquitously used in all walks of life. Crime is eliminated overnight, as is political duplicity, but at a cost to personal privacy.

The Beach by Alex Garland (England, 1996)    
A tight-knit and largely self-sufficient community has been established at an idyllic beach, almost completely cut off from mainstream civilization. There is a sophisticated hierarchy and an almost dictatorial leadership, but a series of events causes fractures to develop and chaos ensues.

The Night’s Dawn Trilogy by Peter Hamilton (England, 1996-9)    
In the 27th Century, humankind is split into the Adamists (a religious people of various cultures and backgrounds, who use nanotechnology and fusion-energy space travel) and the Edenists (an idealized, egalitarian, genetically-engineered society, living on huge, sentient space stations, and using ‘affinity’ to communicate with each other and their ‘bitek’ technology). Despite the immensely high technology, it is clear that suffering, environmental destruction and crime continue, although there is some room for hope. The trilogy consists of The Reality Dysfunction (Parts 1 and 2), The Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God.

Elvissey by Jack Womack (USA, 1997)    
This novel is set in a future dystopic United States of 2054 where the Dryco corporation, a mind-manipulating multinational conglomerate, runs everything and everyone has been “re-gooded” for their own good.

Kirinyaga by Mike Resnick (USA, 1998)    
Subtitled “A Fable of Utopia”, Kirinyaga is a small planetoid settled by Kikuyu tribesmen in an attempt to return to their roots without technological or cultural interference. However, a computer link with the outside which the tribe use to maintain their idyllic existence eventually proves their undoing.

White Mars by Brian Aldiss (England, 2000)    
Subtitled “The Mind Set Free: A 21st Century Utopia”, this is Aldiss’ response to Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy. A thriving Mars colony is cut off and marooned after Earth’s economy collapses in the mid-21st Century. The citizens then debate the ethics and morals of various political issues in order to plan their society for the long term.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (Canada, 2003)    
This book presents a very different dystopic future to Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale - a world of genetic engineering, transgenic animals and the commodification of human life. In this post-apocalyptic milieu, a race of peaceful, vegetarian human-like beings are created by the mad scientist Crake in an attempt to create a sustainable life-form to harmoniously populate the Earth, and at the same time he creates a virulent pandemic to kill off the existing humans.

Jennifer Government by Max Barry (Australia, 2003)    
The novel is set in a dystopian alternative reality where global corporations dominate America (which in turn dominates most of the world outside the ‘socialist’ European Union), and where the government has been almost totally privatized. People take their surnames from the company they work for, schools are sponsored by corporations, welfare has been abolished and weapons and drugs legalized and deregulated.

Uglies by Scott Westerfield (USA, 2004)    
Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic world where all 16 year olds have an operation to make them beautiful (and therefore, supposedly, equal), transforming them from “Uglies” to “Pretties”. However, there are some who hide in The Smoke because they do not wish to go through with the operation, which also affects people’s personalities, and the authorities want to close down this unpredictable and embarrassing resistance movement. The quartet continues with Pretties, Specials and Extras.

Utopia X by Scott Wilson (USA, 2004)    
In the year 2048, multiculturalism and political correctness have become the sacred cows of America and any transgressions are harshly punished by an oppressive police state. Liam, a lowly office clerk working on editing history into a more favourable version, is mistakenly identified as a rebel and eventually find himself in a position to bring down the whole regime.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (England, 2005)    
In a dystopian parallel Britain, humans are cloned in order to provide organs for transplants and carers for these donors (the main character, Kathy is one such). Attempts to improve attitudes towards the clones (which are regarded as sub-human organ sources, whereas in fact they are fully human) seem doomed to failure.

Rant by Chuck Palahniuk (USA, 2007)    
Subtitled "The Oral History of Buster Casey", this bizarre future dystopia imagines that urban dwellers are divided into two distinct classes by a strict curfew, the respectable Daytimers and the oppressed Nighttimers, the latter taking to dangerous games like ‘party crashing’ for thrills.