40 1985 science fiction novels

Always Coming Home is a 1985 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is in parts narrative, pseudo-textbook and pseudo-anthropologist's record. It describes the life and society of the Kesh people, a cultural group who live in the distant future long after modern society has collapsed. It is presented by Pandora, who seems to be an anthropologist or ethnographer from the readers' contemporary culture, or a culture very close to it. Pandora describes the book as a protest against contemporary civilization, which the Kesh call "the Sickness of Man".

Angel with the Sword is a science fantasy novel by C. J. Cherryh published in 1985 by DAW Books. It is set in Cherryh's Alliance–Union universe, and is the first book in the shared universe, Merovingen Nights.

Blood Music is a science fiction novel by American writer Greg Bear. It was originally published as a short story in 1983 in the American science fiction magazine Analog Science Fact & Fiction, winning the 1983 Nebula Award for Best Novelette and the 1984 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.

Brightness Falls from the Air is a science fiction novel by American writer James Tiptree Jr., set in the same fictional universe as the stories in her 1986 collection The Starry Rift.

Chapterhouse: Dune is a 1985 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert, the last in his Dune series of six novels. It rose to No. 2 on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Child of Fortune is a 1985 science fiction novel by the American author Norman Spinrad. Like his previous book The Void Captain's Tale, Child of Fortune takes place three or four thousand years in the future in an era called the Second Starfaring Age. It is a coming of age story about a young girl's wanderjahr, a rite of passage that all adolescents in the Second Starfaring Age are expected to undertake before they become adults. Critical reaction to the book was mixed, with some critics dissatisfied with Spinrad's long ornate polyglot writing. Others were more positive, finding the difficult language worth the effort.

Children of the Dust is a post-apocalyptic, dystopia novel, written by Louise Lawrence, published in 1985. The book details three generations of a family during the aftermath of a nuclear war. The survivors of the blast suffer through radiation, nuclear winter, feuds between rival groups and radiation-induced mutations, eventually evolving into a new species, Homo superior. The new species has adapted to the loss of the ozone layer and the abundant radiation, and will become the dominant species on the planet.

Contact is a 1985 hard science fiction novel by American scientist Carl Sagan. It deals with the theme of contact between humanity and a more technologically advanced, extraterrestrial life form. It ranked No. 7 on the 1985 U.S. bestseller list. The novel originated as a screenplay by Sagan and Ann Druyan in 1979; when development of the film stalled, Sagan decided to convert the stalled film into a novel. The film concept was subsequently revived and eventually released in 1997 as the film Contact starring Jodie Foster.

The Court of a Thousand Suns is the third book in Chris Bunch and Allan Cole's The Sten Adventures.

Cuckoo's Egg is a science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh, which introduces a fictional race raising a human boy. It was published by DAW Books in 1985, and there was also a limited hardcover printing by Phantasia Press in the same year. The book was nominated for the Hugo Award and longlisted the Locus Award for Best Novel. It was later reprinted along with Cherryh's novel Serpent's Reach in the 2005 omnibus volume The Deep Beyond.

CV is a 1985 science fiction novel by American writer Damon Knight. It is the first novel in the "Sea Venture Trilogy", and was followed by The Observers (1988) and A Reasonable World (1991).

Dayworld is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip José Farmer. Published in 1985, it is the first in the Dayworld tetralogy of novels inspired by Farmer's own 1971 short story "The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World". There are two sequels - Dayworld Rebel (1987) and Dayworld Breakup (1990) - and one prequel, Dayworld: A Hole in Wednesday, co-authored by Danny Adams (2016).

Ender's Game is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with the Formics, an insectoid alien species they dub the "buggers". In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, children, including the novel's protagonist, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, are trained from a very young age by putting them through increasingly difficult games, including some in zero gravity, where Ender's tactical genius is revealed.

Eon is a 1985 science fiction novel by Greg Bear. It is the first story written in The Way fictional universe.

Footfall is a 1985 science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The book depicts the arrival of members of an alien species called the Fithp that have traveled to the solar system from Alpha Centauri in a large spacecraft driven by a Bussard ramjet. Their intent is conquest of the planet Earth.

The Forest of Peldain is the twelfth science fiction novel by Barrington J. Bayley. Set on the water world of the Hundred Islands, the Arelian empire attempts to seize control of the last island, Peldain, which within its dense forests contains an independent kingdom and an ancient secret.

Great Kings' War is an English language science fiction novel by John F. Carr and Roland J. Green, a sequel to H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. It continues the story of Corporal Calvin Morrison after he is transported to another timeline by a Paratime conveyor. The book was released in two editions, one in 1985 and the revised and expanded edition in 2000.

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England, in a strongly patriarchal, quasi-Christian, totalitarian state, known as Gilead, that has overthrown the United States government. The central character and narrator is a woman named Offred, one of the group known as "handmaids", who are forcibly assigned to produce children for the "commanders" – the ruling class of men.

In Other Worlds is a 1985 novel by American writer A. A. Attanasio, the second in his Radix Tetrad. It contains humans, zōtl, Rimstalkers, other spatial dimensions, and time-travel/temporal distortion as do other novels in the Radix series, though they are re-envisioned.

Last Letters from Hav is a Booker Prize-shortlisted 1985 novel by Welsh writer Jan Morris. Last Letters from Hav was republished in 2006 together with Hav of the Myrmidons and an introduction by Ursula K. Le Guin in a collected volume entitled Hav.

The Man Who Never Missed is the first book in the Matador series, by Steve Perry. It was first published in August 1985.

The Moon and the Face is a science fiction novel for juvenile readers by Patricia A. McKillip, a sequel to her earlier novel Moon-Flash. It was first published in hardcover by Atheneum in September 1985, with a paperback edition issued by Berkley Books in October 1986. It was subsequently combined with its prequel Moon-Flash in an omnibus edition, also titled Moon-Flash, issued in paperback and ebook by Firebird/Penguin in March 2005.

Night of Power is a novel by Spider Robinson. This is a speculative fiction tale about a race war that could have happened in New York. The book, written in 1984 although first published a year later, is set in the year 1996. The story revolves around an interracial family that has to deal with a black revolution in New York.

Peace on Earth is a 1985 science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem. The novel describes, in a satirical tone, the ultimate implications of the arms race. It is a continuation of the adventures of Ijon Tichy.

Politician is a novel by Piers Anthony published in 1985.

The Postman is a post-apocalyptic dystopia science fiction novel by David Brin. It is about a man wandering the desolate Oregon countryside who finds a United States Postal Service uniform, which he puts on and then claims he is a mail carrier and federal inspector for the "Restored United States of America". His mail service and claims about the return of a central government gives hope to the people, who are threatened by a murderous hypersurvivalist army.

The Proteus Operation is a science fiction alternate history novel written by James P. Hogan and published in 1985. The plot concerns time travel by one group which brings Adolf Hitler to power, who then wages and wins World War II; and then another group which tries to prevent the Axis victory in World War II

The Rod of Light is the thirteenth science fiction novel by Barrington J. Bayley and his only sequel. The book continues the story of Jasperodus, who is now in conflict with Gargan, a ruthless robot attempting to make his own soul.

Saraband of Lost Time is a science fiction novel by Maine author Richard Grant (1952–present), published by Avon Books in 1985. It is his first of several novels, labeled as science fiction. Saraband placed eighth in the annual Locus Poll for best first novel, and received a special citation from the Philip K. Dick Award judges.

"The Scapegoat" is a science fiction novella by American writer C. J. Cherryh, set in her Alliance-Union universe. It deals with a war in which the two opposing species do not understand each other and do not know how to stop the fighting. The work was originally published in the 1985 anthology of military science fiction Alien Stars and was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novella.

Schismatrix is a science fiction novel by Bruce Sterling, originally published in 1985. The story was Sterling's only novel-length treatment of the Shaper/Mechanist universe. Five short stories preceded the novel and are published together with it in a 1996 edition entitled Schismatrix Plus. Schismatrix was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1985, and the British Science Fiction Award in 1986.

Sentenced to Prism (1985) is a science fiction novel by American writer Alan Dean Foster, a stand-alone entry in his Humanx Commonwealth series of books. Like many of his books, Foster creates an extraordinary world that he tries to make unlike anything ever seen by his readers by creating a primarily silicon-based planet with almost everything seeming to be made from crystals, glass, and reflective surfaces.

Singularity, published in 1985 by E. P. Dutton, is a science fiction novel for young adults written by William Sleator. It was listed as a YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and was a Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award Nominee.

Space Demons is a book by Australian author Gillian Rubinstein. First released in 1985, the young adult science fiction novel is the first of the 'Space Demons' trilogy. The book was awarded the CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers in 1987. The book is often studied in Australian high schools as a text, and was used by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority as a reference text for VCE Drama. The book is centered on a group of four school children who enter a video game world through a Japanese prototype video game cartridge. The two subsequent books in the trilogy are Skymaze and Shinkei.

Star Healer is a 1985 science fiction book by author James White, part of the Sector General series.

Starquake is a science fiction novel written and published in 1985 by Robert L. Forward as a sequel to his novel Dragon's Egg. It is about the life of the Cheela civilization, creatures who live on a neutron star named Dragon's Egg, struggling to recover from a disastrous starquake.

Time After Time is a novel by Allen Appel, first published in 1985 by Carroll & Graf. It launched the Alex Balfour series of time travel novels, which the author usually refers to as the "Pastmaster" series.

The Time Wanderers is a 1985 science fiction novel by Soviet writers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, set in the Noon Universe. The book is narrated by Maxim Kammerer, and tells the story of The Great Revelation.

The Timeservers is a novel by Russell M. Griffin, published in 1985 by Avon Books. The tagline on the cover of the paperback is, "Too far from Earth time creates a different kind of human." It received a nomination for the Philip K. Dick Award for excellence in Science Fiction in 1985. This novel is no longer in print.

Uhura's Song is a Star Trek: The Original Series novel written by Janet Kagan published in 1985. Kagan was asked to produce an outline by editor David G. Hartwell, after he read the manuscript of her novel Hellspark. She was unfamiliar with Star Trek and needed to research the series whilst writing Uhura's Song. She subsequently proposed two sequels, but they went unwritten as they featured original characters introduced in Uhura's Song.