Somewhere in the bowels of this solidly dated novel is an interesting concept having to due with genetics and interstellar colonization. Unfortunately it is lost in the heavy-handed dystopian society building and a clumsy deus ex machina conclusion. Despite an effort to prove that it is not as sexist as you might be expecting (i.e., when Helena confounds Ross’s expectations about a woman’s presumed inability to pilot a spaceship), the book is so profoundly sexist that it will be at least moderately offensive to many contemporary readers. ( )