The Memory of Whiteness is a science fiction novel written by Kim Stanley Robinson and published in September 1985. It shares with the Mars trilogy a focus on human colonization of the Solar System and depicts a grand tour that travels from the outer planets inward toward the Sun, visiting many human colonies along the way. The different human societies on the various planets and planetoids visited are depicted in detail. The purpose of the tour is to stage concerts by the "Holywelkin Orchestra", a futuristic musical instrument played by a selected master. Readers follow the Orchestra and its entourage together with a journalist, who after some time detects a conspiracy that seems to be connected with a group of gray-clad, sun-worshipping monks. The tour ends near the planet Mercury in a solar station belonging to these "Grays", which controls the white line energy source for the whole Solar System.
Code of the Lifemaker is a 1983 novel by British science fiction author James P. Hogan. NASA's report Advanced Automation for Space Missions was the direct inspiration for this novel detailing first contact between Earth explorers and the Taloids, clanking replicators who have colonized Saturn's moon Titan.
Tik-Tok is a 1983 science fiction novel by John Sladek. It received a 1983 British Science Fiction Association Award.
Options is a 1975 absurdist science fiction novel by American writer Robert Sheckley, published in paperback by Pyramid Books. The first British edition appeared in 1977, and a French translation was published in 1979.
Hawkmistress! is a science fantasy novel by American writer Marion Zimmer Bradley, part of the Darkover series at the end of Ages of Chaos, in the period of Darkover's history known as the Hundred Kingdoms. Chapters 35 and 46–50 of Zandru's Forge overlap with the story in Hawkmistress!.
Valentine Pontifex is a novel by Robert Silverberg published in 1983.
Wireheading is a term associated with fictional or futuristic applications of brain stimulation reward, the act of directly triggering the brain's reward center by electrical stimulation of an inserted wire, for the purpose of 'short-circuiting' the brain's normal reward process and artificially inducing pleasure. Scientists have successfully performed brain stimulation reward on rats (1950s) and humans (1960s). This stimulation does not appear to lead to tolerance or satiation in the way that sex or drugs do. The term is sometimes associated with science fiction writer Larry Niven, who used the term in his Known Space series. In the philosophy of artificial intelligence, the term is used to refer to AI systems that hack their own reward channel.
Null-A Three, usually written Ā Three, is a 1985 science fiction novel by A. E. van Vogt. It incorporates concepts from the General semantics of Alfred Korzybski and refers to non-Aristotelian logic.
The Unteleported Man is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published as a novella in 1964. It is about a future in which a one-way teleportation technology enables 40 million people to emigrate to a colony named Whale's Mouth on an Earth-like planet, which advertisements show as a lush green utopia. When the owner of a failing spaceship travel firm tries to take the 18-year flight to the colony to bring back any unhappy colonists, powerful forces try to stop him from finding out the truth.
Software is a 1982 cyberpunk science fiction novel written by Rudy Rucker. It won the first Philip K. Dick Award in 1983. The novel is the first book in Rucker's Ware Tetralogy, and was followed by a sequel, Wetware, in 1988.
Saraband of Lost Time is a science fiction novel by American writer Richard Grant, published by Avon Books in 1985. It is his first novel. Saraband of Lost Time placed eighth in the annual Locus magazine poll for best first novel, and received a special citation from the Philip K. Dick Award judges.
Banquets of the Black Widowers is a collection of mystery short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov featuring his fictional club of mystery solvers, the Black Widowers. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in September 1984, and in paperback by the Fawcett Crest imprint of Ballantine Books in June 1986. The first British edition was issued by Grafton in August 1986.
Ground Zero Man is a science fiction novel by British writer Bob Shaw, first published in 1971, and then revised as The Peace Machine in 1985.
'X' Stands for Unknown is a collection of seventeen nonfiction science essays written by Isaac Asimov. It was the seventeenth of a series of books collecting essays from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, these being first published between January 1982 and May 1983. It was first published by Doubleday & Company in 1984.
Free Live Free is a novel by American writer Gene Wolfe, first published in 1984.
Black Star Rising, published in 1986, is a dystopian science fiction novel by American author Frederik Pohl. It is about a post-nuclear war future in which a conquered United States becomes a Chinese farming colony. The main character is an American who the Chinese send to meet a race of warlike aliens who come to Earth.
The Tides of Time (ISBN 0-345-31838-2) is a science fiction novel by John Brunner. It was first published in the United States by Ballantine Del Rey Books in 1984. The novel tells the story of two people on an isolated island, each time they awoke from sleep, they lived a different life in a different time.
A Rose for Armageddon is a novel by Hilbert Schenck published in 1982.
Nifft the Lean is a fantasy novel by Michael Shea published in 1982.
Science Fiction Puzzle Tales is a book written by Martin Gardner.
