The Cage of Zeus by Sayuri Ueda

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book is 1 of 2 books I was reading at the same time heavily using Science Fiction as a metaphor for modern issues. (The other is The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer)

The Cage of Zeus is written in the style of a Golden Age SF novel. That is to say, the characters spend many pages debating the philosophical issues of the novel. So if you like those old novels (think Asimov or Arthur C Clark), you’ll probably like this one.

This book deals with modern issues of gender fluidity, pronouns, etc via the SF concept of creating a human sub-species born with both sets of genetalia, both functioning, and arranged on the body such that both partners can simultaneously participate in sex. This leads (and other things I won’t spoil) leads to these new humans creating a new type of society in which there are no gender issues because everyone is the same gender. The antagonists are those who find this new subspecies to be an abomination and wish to end the project.

There is a bit of a reverse-diehard once the climax of the plot has begun, with the antagonist trying to sneak around to achieve their goals and escape.

Because it’s in the style of the Golden Age SF, it’s very anvilicious and it’s very slow until it’s suddenly fast so the plot can happen and resolve. This may or may not be for you, but I found it entertaining enough.

random fact: I got this as part of a Story Bundle bundle focusing on Japanese SFF.



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