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Strange Bedfellows: Sex and Science Fiction

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Stated first edition. A Very Good copy in a Very Good dust jacket. Small bumps to the book's corners. Dust soiling to the edges of the book's upper page block. Faint black mark, maybe a remainder mark at the edges of the bottom page block. The dust jacket has a 3/4" and a 1 1/2" diagonal scratch on the front panel. Dust soiling to the panels and rubs to its spine tips and corners. Anthology includes stories by Robert Silverberg, Brian W. Aldiss, Theodore Sturgeon, Anthony Boucher and others.

287 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

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About the author

Thomas N. Scortia

54 books12 followers
Thomas Nicholas Scortia was a science fiction author. He worked in the American aerospace industry until the late 1960s/early 1970s. He collaborated on several works with fellow author Frank M. Robinson. He sometimes used the pseudonyms Scott Nichols, Gerald MacDow, and Arthur R. Kurtz.

Scortia was born in Alton, Illinois. He attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he earned a degree in chemistry in 1949. He worked for a number of aerospace companies during the 1950s and 1960s, and held a patent for the fuel used by one of the Jupiter fly-by missions.

Scortia had been writing in his spare time while still working in the aerospace field. When the industry began to see increased unemployment in the early 1970s, Scortia decided to try his hand at full-time writing. His first novel, The Glass Inferno (in collaboration with Frank M. Robinson) was the inspiration for the 1974 film The Towering Inferno. Scortia also collaborated with Dalton Trumbo on the novel The Endangered Species.

Scortia died of leukemia in La Verne, California on April 29, 1986.

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5 stars
1 (3%)
4 stars
4 (15%)
3 stars
13 (50%)
2 stars
6 (23%)
1 star
2 (7%)
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
17 reviews
September 2, 2025
DNF, only because the rhythm of the stories started to feel repetitive, despite being a compilation from different authors. All had interesting premises, and I do recommend it to someone who likes a pessimistic sci fi story, but it just got a tad predictable for me. Fair warning, while the stories are sexual in nature, I wouldn't call most of them erotic. more speculative horror in the realm of intimacy.
Profile Image for Joseph DeBolt.
191 reviews13 followers
January 26, 2025
Groundbreaking anthology of nineteen science fiction stories that deal with sex as their central idea. Stories date from the early 1950s to the early 1070s, and range from Anthony Boucher's light "Khartoum: A Prose Limerick," through Theodore Sturgeon's homosexuals in "The World Well Lost," to the powerful "Mother," Philip Jose Farmer's wrenching story of the ultimate return to the womb. Other authors include Robert Silverberg, George Zebrowski, Reginald Bretnor, Brian Aldiss, and Miriam deFord. It also includes introductions to stories and a brief but interesting essay on sex in science fiction by the editor, "Where Have All the Deflowerers Gone?"
A lesser collection on the same theme is Joseph Elder's Eros in Orbit (Trident, 1973, Pocket Books) with ten original stories, the best of which are Robert Silverberg's "In the Group," Ron Goulart's "Whistler," and George Zebrowski's "Starcrossed."
Profile Image for Erik Graff.
5,179 reviews1,490 followers
February 9, 2012
During winter and summer breaks from seminary I would devour science fiction books collected over the preceding semester, usually knowing nothing of their contents beyond the cover descriptions. Short story collections with name authors were, of course, safest. They couldn't be all bad.

This book is typical of such acquisitions: a name editor, name authors, eye-catching cover and seductive theme. Of all the stories the most memorable is Yarbro's, later expanded into a novel which I also read.
Profile Image for Megan Barnes.
85 reviews
March 5, 2011
It was amusing to see how many books have had the title Strange Bedfellows. This is more on the science fiction side of things than erotica. My favorite story was Robert Silverberg's Push No More, about a teenage boy's desperate longing for sexual awakening, and what is lost with his innocence.

Since this is a collection from the early 70s, its interesting to see what they get wrong about the future, like in Sturgeon's story, where there is interstellar space travel, but homosexuality is still completely forbidden.
Profile Image for Saul Souto.
337 reviews12 followers
January 22, 2015
Demasiada diversidad de estilos, no creo volver a leerlo.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews