Trans in Sci-Fi

[sarah_hillcrest]

Back several years ago I went through an extreme sci-fi reading binge. I read Ian Banks Culture series and Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth, and Nights Dawn. I know sex changes were mentioned in the culture series, can't remember if they were mentioned in Commonwealth.

So the massively advanced humans of the "The Culture" could change sex at will. The process took several weeks if I remember correctly and the old anatomy would be absorbed into the body while new anatomy developed. Changing one's sex and gender every now and again was considered a normal thing to do. It was abnormal not to live for a time as the opposite sex.

I also remember reading "The Forever War" in which in the future humanity develops heterophobia as the entire population turns homosexual, then eventually becomes a single person.

I read the "Left Hand of Darkness," not to long ago.

I imagine if we don't face another dark age, if we don't wipe our selves out, eventually humanities attitude will change, think how much it's changed in the last 50 years.

Any other interesting sci-fi reading anyone can think of?

[Kelly DeWinter]

Robert Heinlien "I Will Fear No Evil," was a leader written circa 1970 about a old mans brain transplanted into a young woman's body.

I too have read many si-fi books over the years. Most allude to a character here or there, but until recently very few main characters were transgender or cross-dressers..

Methuselah Children and Time Enough for Love are interesting reads there is one character later in the series that finds in the future gender identity is flexible and is expressed by the way a person dresses.

[Marcie Rose]

I love Robert Heinlein's All You Zombies where a transgender is his own mother and father. It was adapted into a movie named Predestination. After reading or seeing it, it's like wtf was that.

[Jaylyn]

I may have to go back to reading Sarah, I didn't even know there trans Sci-Fi. One question I have is does it come in Kindle so I can listen to it? The Forever War sounds interesting also.

[rhonda]

Their's a time coming when all people will changed in the world of tomorrow

[Linda E. Woodworth]

I am a huge Robert Heinlein fan but have never cared for his later work. I did read "I will fear no evil" and didn't think much of it either way. When he started to get farther out there with "The cat who walks through walls" I stopped reading his new stuff. His "Have Spacesuit will Travel" and "Citizen of the Galaxy" were some of the first science fiction stories I ever read.

Joe Haldeman's "Forever War" was a good read but I couldn't get into the sequel. Again, I didn't think either way when humanity changed. I just found it something to add to the tension of the main character with him being the "only" heterosexual member of the command on the planet.

In the end I don't read science fiction for "trans" content and if that's the sole reason for the book I'm just as likely to not even pick it up.

[Kayliedaskope]

I'll have to go through my collection of sf, but I remember reading about a convicted man whose consciousness was electronically placed into the mind of a big time corporate woman. The woman's personality was still there, just shoved down to a lower level. Can't remember what the name of the book is right offhand, though.

[DIANEF]

I have vague recollections of a 70s sci fi film where people of both sexes, on reaching a certain age (18?) could go to an automated 'hospital', key in their requirements (gender, size, hair colour ect) and robotic surgeons would carry out any changes specified, all in an hour or so!

[rachael.davis]

Larry Niven postulated a future where transplant surgery was routine - the drawbacks were that body parts started becoming hard to come by, and "organ leggers" would kidnap and disassemble people for black market surgeries.
One of his characters is a cop (complicated backstory) who figures out that the wealthy woman who hired him to track something was/is the chief organlegger he's been hunting who just had his brain transplanted into her body.
massively creepy story

[Dana44]

I have a cross dressing situation in my scfi book Destiny of the Humble Giants series. You can find it on amazon. It s kind of a forced CD adventure of the hero of the story by a person supplied to keep him safe.