Customer Reviews

Alph

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This is a speculative fiction set in the future - a future where there are only female humans left surviving. In essence - a new form of birth control had disrupted the ability of women to have male children - until there are no males born at all - only females. Only the process 'parthenogenisis' - the development of an unfertilized female egg allows humanity to continue - but this only produces other females.
The author outlines his vision of a future with no men - and how society might look. This is a very interesting take - and somewhat more graphic than Ursula LeGuinn's 'Left Hand Of Darkness'. Eventually, a frozen male body is found in the far future, and the chaos that ensues from the possible re-introduction of males into society ensues.
Be forewarned - there are some rather graphic forced sex scenes in this book.

Alph is set in a futuristic, woman only world. When the first male baby in 500 years is created by cloning, the entire society structure is in for a shake.

Charles Eric Maine makes a reasonable effort with this rather inplausible premise. The book is an easy read (its short, and that helps). An OK, but not really thrilling reading.

On the negative side, the viewpoint is set rather distant from the characters, more concerned with describing the society than the characters that populate it. As a result,no real interesting characters emerge. Even the titular Alph doesnt show until the last chapters. Characters are little more than devices to explain society's innerworkings

A couple of somewhat amusing cases of bad technical forecasting appear, but I am not sure how off they were in 1972, when the book was written.

The finale is not that suprising (gee, we have this opressive, Orwellian, individuality-neutralizing society, I wonder what is going to happen)

Recommended as light SF reading.