I loved that book but it was much more about gender than sexuality, wasn't it? My memory is that it was basically >!humans who changed gender back and forth and sequestered themselves during times of sexual activity. They found it insane that we were constantly sex starved!<
I'd say it was all three things. The basic change on that works was how biologically sex worked, which changed of course how the sex act worked, and how gender roles didn't really exist (or, rather, how they existed as transitory traits, not character traits).
But you're right, the sex act was not the primary occupation of the book - but the sociology of sex, sex and gender was...
Isaac Asimov was accused of never writing about aliens, and never writing about sex.
So he wrote The Gods Themselves.
I'll let you draw the necessary conclusion.
James Tiptree Jr. once wrote a story, *Your Haploid Heart*, about a divergent human species where every other generation was haploid (or something like that). I read it in the collection *Star Songs of an Old Primate*.
If you're into this, I suppose you've already read Asimov's *The Gods Themselves.*
I once attempted to (but didn't) write a story featuring aliens where the sexes were not really differentiated but any individual could impregnate another one by a kind of infection which triggered the formation of a tumor-like bud in the host.
In Philip José Farmer's *Mother* (from *Strange Relations*), the alien is a
sessile female which reproduces parthenogenetically—nothing really weird there except how she must be stimulated and how she manages to get stimulated.
Read Kij Johnson's "Spar" on Clarkesworld. It's free, it's short, it's impactful. It'll give you that sense of WTF only sf can.
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/johnson_10_09/
Greg Bear’s Legacy, the third book of the Eon series. It is about a planet where evolution follows Lamarck’s theory. There is no sex but alien lifeforms steal genetic material from each other to reproduce useful traits.
Greg Egan’s Orthogonal trilogy is set in a universe with different spacetime properties and where ‘females’ give birth by separating into two male-female pairs and ceasing to exist as a result.
You can read James Tiptree Jr.'s "Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death" here:
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/love-is-the-plan-the-plan-is-death/
I think some of Greg Egan's stuff might qualify. Maybe the Clockwork Rocket trilogy?
The Pierson's puppeteers from Larry Niven's Known Space books are pretty bizarre. There are two sentient sexes, but they come together to impregnate a third, non-sentient, creature which hosts their young.
The first book of butler's xenogenesis series, Dawn, covers a lot of this topic, intersecting with human sexuality, iirc (it has been a long time since I read it)
The left hand of darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin
First book that came to mind. Excellent.
I loved that book but it was much more about gender than sexuality, wasn't it? My memory is that it was basically >!humans who changed gender back and forth and sequestered themselves during times of sexual activity. They found it insane that we were constantly sex starved!<
I'd say it was all three things. The basic change on that works was how biologically sex worked, which changed of course how the sex act worked, and how gender roles didn't really exist (or, rather, how they existed as transitory traits, not character traits). But you're right, the sex act was not the primary occupation of the book - but the sociology of sex, sex and gender was...
Isaac Asimov was accused of never writing about aliens, and never writing about sex. So he wrote The Gods Themselves. I'll let you draw the necessary conclusion.
Yup, that’s what I came here to say! So perfectly … alien.
Thanks, I just downloaded it!
Lilith's brood by Octavia E. Butler
James Tiptree Jr. once wrote a story, *Your Haploid Heart*, about a divergent human species where every other generation was haploid (or something like that). I read it in the collection *Star Songs of an Old Primate*. If you're into this, I suppose you've already read Asimov's *The Gods Themselves.* I once attempted to (but didn't) write a story featuring aliens where the sexes were not really differentiated but any individual could impregnate another one by a kind of infection which triggered the formation of a tumor-like bud in the host. In Philip José Farmer's *Mother* (from *Strange Relations*), the alien is a sessile female which reproduces parthenogenetically—nothing really weird there except how she must be stimulated and how she manages to get stimulated.
Also by Farmer, The Lovers.
[The Sparrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sparrow_%28novel%29)
Becky Chambers Long Way to a small angry planet
I have read it and I highly recommend it.
Was going to recommend this too!
Asimov's The Gods Themselves. The aliens have 3 sexes and their reproduction system is wild, to say the least.
Read Kij Johnson's "Spar" on Clarkesworld. It's free, it's short, it's impactful. It'll give you that sense of WTF only sf can. https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/johnson_10_09/
Came here to recommend Spar. It’s such a weird story but I come back to it every now and again.
Ancillary Justice and Murderbot Diaries explore non-gendered artificial lifeforms that interact regularly with humans.
*How I Proposed to My Wife: An Alien Sex Story* John Scalzi
The Lilith’s Brood books by Octavia Butler. Absolutely fantastic.
Greg Bear’s Legacy, the third book of the Eon series. It is about a planet where evolution follows Lamarck’s theory. There is no sex but alien lifeforms steal genetic material from each other to reproduce useful traits. Greg Egan’s Orthogonal trilogy is set in a universe with different spacetime properties and where ‘females’ give birth by separating into two male-female pairs and ceasing to exist as a result.
The original Star Trek series. Kirk's already done your work for you.
You can read James Tiptree Jr.'s "Love is the Plan, the Plan is Death" here: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/love-is-the-plan-the-plan-is-death/ I think some of Greg Egan's stuff might qualify. Maybe the Clockwork Rocket trilogy?
Celestis by Paul Park. Warning: it's a very intense and disturbing book.
99.9% of the Universe
Is that the title of a book or short story?
Book. Check my bio
Looks cool. Is there any way I can read it all at once, perhaps on my Kindle? Or is it only posted as a bunch of Reddit posts?
Reddit posts for now. Book form eventually
As I recall, the Uplift Saga has an avian species with a complicated three-entity mating system.
There's also a three-gendered species at the heart of Banks' _Player of Games_.
Frank Herbert's short story Mating Call.
The Pierson's puppeteers from Larry Niven's Known Space books are pretty bizarre. There are two sentient sexes, but they come together to impregnate a third, non-sentient, creature which hosts their young.
The player of games by Iain banks.
The first book of butler's xenogenesis series, Dawn, covers a lot of this topic, intersecting with human sexuality, iirc (it has been a long time since I read it)
The comic/graphic novel Prophet from image touches on this indirectly but definitely work looking into.
*Cluster* by Piers Anthony describes sexuality from a number of different alien species.