Triton

Also published as Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia, the novel was conceived as a response to Ursula K. Le Guin’s Ambiguous Utopia, The Dispossessed. But at the core of the utopian society that Delany presents is the posthuman idea that people can make themselves whatever they want. The technology available on Triton allows individuals to take whatever form they wish. It is easy for people to change gender, change their physical appearance, their sexual orientation, even their personal tastes. Given that the government on Triton has no powers to control personal behaviour, the chance to be who and what you wish, and to try other genders is the key to the utopian society. Why it’s on the list: By freeing people from the limitations of how they are born, the ability to change oneself that is at the heart of Triton is an important step on the way to posthumanity.