I finally got around to reading this classic, and it's a book of ideas - not so sermonish as Heinlein, but tending in that direction. You can see echos of Plato, Heinlein, James Hilton, and Margaret Mead, but withal the book has something to say on its own. Most of the exploration is about gender, but there is some interesting exploration of the ties between gender definitions and religious hierarchy. There is a bit of science ex machina at the end, but it does define this book as SF rather than fantasy. There's two plot threads in parallel, but I would just skip the 20th century part - except for a nice excursus on a father's love, there isn't much to relish in that strand. It's interesting that this was published just a year before Stranger in a Strange Land - both naively revolutionary works with something to say, though I think Heinlein's is the stronger.

Wow! What a great, great book this is. Theodore Sturgeon, that most empathic of all science fiction authors, has long been one of my favorites. In this book he turns a harsh mirror on man, and finds his subject wanting, but not, in the end, utterly without hope of redemption.

Charlie Johns is a man who finds himself awoken amongst a truly alien race on a truly alien world at some unknown time in the future. He is given and accepts their offer: a chance to return to his past, but only after understanding and passing judgement on their race. His subsequent studies reveal marvels, but also hints of hidden secrets not so wonderful. Interspersed with Charlie's story are short, telling vignettes from the lives of a contemporaneous family on Earth.

This is a clearly a cold war book written in the shadow of impending nuclear holocaust, but it also tackles quite directly issues around sex, prejudice, gender and religion. The first half of the book did a beautiful job of capturing that bewildering wonderful sense of the truly alien in a way that reminded me of another of my favorite authors, Stanislaw Lem.

It’s a short book, but quite dense and not at all an easy read. It's also in some ways not a particularly enjoyable read (for all the joy expressed quite convincingly in some parts of it). But it’s a book that might just change the way you look at the world, and you can’t really ask for more than that. I found the short author's afterward particularly compelling. ( )

An interesting look at society and how gender influences it. The protagonist, Charlie Johns, in this story winds up in the society of Ledom. In Ledom shumans only have one gender, and manage to function quite happily in that fashion.

While there, Charlie is given a decent background briefing on their culture and technology.

Charlie is confused, and begins to suspect something might be rotten in the state of Denmark.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2006/12/venus-plus-x-theodore-sturgeon.html ( )