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Sex Gates #1
The Sex Gates
Second Edition - Revised with commentary from Darrell Bain and Jeanine Berry. Change your sex; change your life! One day thousand of gates suddenly and mysteriously appear on Earth. No one knows where they are from. Some think it is the start of an alien invasion. Others credit God. When the old and the sick go through these gates, they become young again and their illnesses disappear. But there are several problems! Not everyone makes it through the first time. Some people simply disappear. When you go through a gate, your sex changes -- men become women and women become men. And no one can go back through the gate a second time. Everyone who tries disappears. When Don accidentally falls through a gate and becomes Donna, he and his friends face a life-changing adventure, for THE SEX GATES are more than they seem to be.
252 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2002
4 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
Darrell Bain
113 books21 followersI grew up in an extremely poor family that was dysfunctional in many ways. We lived in the old segregated south, an era many of my readers have no knowledge of. This and a hardscrabble existence as well as an addictive personality gene(s) that apparently runs in our family shaped my life and played a part in me finally realizing a life-long dream and becoming a writer when I was about fifty years old. This autobiography, now in print and ebook both was begun in response to fans wanting to know more about me, and eventually one of my publishers thought it might make an interesting book. Many members from Betty’s side of the family were amazed at all the things they hadn’t known about me. You can judge for yourself now whether my publisher had the right idea of me doing an autobiography. I hope you are both entertained and possibly that some of you will learn a number of life’s lessons that I discovered the hard way!
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 5, 2010
The Sex Gates by Darrell Bain and Jeanine Berry is far more interesting than I thought it would be. The premise is easy. Green arches suddenly appear everywhere on Earth. If you go through them you emerge young and health but with your gender changed.
This book takes on so many issues. Human sexuality, poverty, social change, war, ageism, and religion among them. There are the obvious erotic encounters. But those are just the loss-leaders, drawing people in. The characters border on two dimensions, but are forced to pop up into the three dimensions just by virtue of the changes they go through. The plot twists almost in too many ways. Time moves in chunks which can be disconcerting.
So the writing is plebian at best. But the ideas and the plot makes the book worth the read. As science fiction goes, it is well worth the read, a solid 4.
This book takes on so many issues. Human sexuality, poverty, social change, war, ageism, and religion among them. There are the obvious erotic encounters. But those are just the loss-leaders, drawing people in. The characters border on two dimensions, but are forced to pop up into the three dimensions just by virtue of the changes they go through. The plot twists almost in too many ways. Time moves in chunks which can be disconcerting.
So the writing is plebian at best. But the ideas and the plot makes the book worth the read. As science fiction goes, it is well worth the read, a solid 4.
October 7, 2012
Unfortunately, what could have been an interesting study of identity vs physical gender was basically forgotten in order to add more sex. Also, I've spoken to a LOT of people just out of curiosity on the subject, and no one I've spoken to would take the possible trade-off of their sex, even for perfect health, particularly lightly. Most people I've spoken to would seem to try to make a go of it, whatever their situation, and only a few guys I've asked would be willing to go through the gate and become a woman just because their wife/girlfriend had to go through to become a man.
It just feels like more could have or should have been done. We certainly hear about interesting stories out there, like what's going on in the middle east, or the religious objections to it, but we don't get to follow that, we follow a young, beautiful couple who have great sex, go through the gate, and follow the same couple in different bodies as they learn to have great sex again.
The ending is a bit of a surprise, but then it lead on to the sequels. Which... ugh, just forget it.
On the technical side of things, Bain is an excellent writer, if a bit single-minded in his pursuit. It may just be me, but I flipped through the version he did on his own (The Original Sex Gates, for the record) and I couldn't see much different in terms of style from this version which he did with Berry. And yes, it is a Bain/Berry book, not a Berry/Bain book, regardless of what Goodreads wants to say.
It just feels like more could have or should have been done. We certainly hear about interesting stories out there, like what's going on in the middle east, or the religious objections to it, but we don't get to follow that, we follow a young, beautiful couple who have great sex, go through the gate, and follow the same couple in different bodies as they learn to have great sex again.
The ending is a bit of a surprise, but then it lead on to the sequels. Which... ugh, just forget it.
On the technical side of things, Bain is an excellent writer, if a bit single-minded in his pursuit. It may just be me, but I flipped through the version he did on his own (The Original Sex Gates, for the record) and I couldn't see much different in terms of style from this version which he did with Berry. And yes, it is a Bain/Berry book, not a Berry/Bain book, regardless of what Goodreads wants to say.
October 10, 2009
Sex change abounds. Total sex change. Hormones, reproductive parts, everything. Interesting take on the roles gender can have in society when gender is not permanent.
August 16, 2013
I'm not going to say too much so I don't get yelled at as has happened before. Suffice it to say the writers have a great future writing for the adult film industry. Like many indie books this has a number of typos; the writers should learn the difference between "succeed" and "secede" for instance. Maybe because of all the graphic sex I found all the characters unpleasant. The first one to go through a gate and change his/her sex was the worst. He goes through the gate and becomes a woman, promptly turns into a whore, and that's pretty much her only function. A main character goes through, becomes a woman, has sex with everyone, and then we skip forward 3 years, so it didn't really add much.
There was a forehead-slapping moment where that character named Lee goes from a boy to a girl and they all get together and decide to change her name to Li. What? I checked this on a couple baby name sites and Lee is listed as a unisex name. Duh. Lee would be a lot less confusing than Li, where they'd probably think she was Asian, bringing to mind an old Seinfeld episode involving that scenario. That was about the moment I lost all confidence in the authors.
At least by the end we sorta find out what the gates are, though it was kind of obvious; I think the various incarnations of Star Trek did it a number of times. I don't understand the decision to set it in the future as that only creates confusion that makes it harder to grasp the impact of these weird gates appearing from nowhere. And I could have done without the Limbaugh-esque junk about those entitled poor people receiving government handouts. I would invite the authors to try to live on Social Security or welfare and see how entitled you feel.
I've probably said too much. Oh well.
That is all.
There was a forehead-slapping moment where that character named Lee goes from a boy to a girl and they all get together and decide to change her name to Li. What? I checked this on a couple baby name sites and Lee is listed as a unisex name. Duh. Lee would be a lot less confusing than Li, where they'd probably think she was Asian, bringing to mind an old Seinfeld episode involving that scenario. That was about the moment I lost all confidence in the authors.
At least by the end we sorta find out what the gates are, though it was kind of obvious; I think the various incarnations of Star Trek did it a number of times. I don't understand the decision to set it in the future as that only creates confusion that makes it harder to grasp the impact of these weird gates appearing from nowhere. And I could have done without the Limbaugh-esque junk about those entitled poor people receiving government handouts. I would invite the authors to try to live on Social Security or welfare and see how entitled you feel.
I've probably said too much. Oh well.
That is all.
December 28, 2022
This book is absolutely terrible. It reads like a clueless straight person's shower thoughts about gender. For example, one of the protagonist's friends gets transformed in the first part of the story, decides in no time flat he needs a nice hunk of man meat in his life/other places, and begs the protagonist to screw him. The protagonist is understandably freaked out about this, so the protagonist's girlfriend naturally comes up with the brilliant idea to drug him with a potent aphrodisiac. Coitus ensues! The rest of the book is basically like that. All gay people in the world jump through the gates to become heterosexual men/women, because, of course.
Don't waste your money. You can find thousands of functionally equivalent gender transformation fiction all over the internet. Try Fictionmania/BigCloset/Scribblehub. You'll get the same thing and have saved 5$.
Don't waste your money. You can find thousands of functionally equivalent gender transformation fiction all over the internet. Try Fictionmania/BigCloset/Scribblehub. You'll get the same thing and have saved 5$.
January 9, 2017
Interesting. Disturbingly plausible extrapolation of the effect of the gates, and an enjoyable exploration of the main character's responses to them. The book is obviously the first of a series, but the end is solid enough to be satisfying.
June 14, 2012
A fascinating idea. Gates pop up all over the world; go through and you find yourself 18 again--but with your gender switched. What happens--to you, to family, to society?
There's a lot of potential here, and maybe about 60% of it gets met. (But there are two more volumes to the story, so we'll see what happens.) The story is told in the first-person; however it suffers from too much telling, not enough showing. For a good example of a similar idea done well, check out Robert Wilson's The Chronoliths. On the other hand, this novel has a great "imagination trap" and (unlike Wilson's) the author leads us toward a resolution. But not all the way, because there's more to come.
There's a lot of potential here, and maybe about 60% of it gets met. (But there are two more volumes to the story, so we'll see what happens.) The story is told in the first-person; however it suffers from too much telling, not enough showing. For a good example of a similar idea done well, check out Robert Wilson's The Chronoliths. On the other hand, this novel has a great "imagination trap" and (unlike Wilson's) the author leads us toward a resolution. But not all the way, because there's more to come.
Read
March 1, 2016This is a goofy little story of how the world was changed in a day. These structures appeared in various locations around the globe, and when someone went through them, they were changed to the other sex – men became women, women became men. As time went on, they found out more about what the gates did to the people who went through them – cured diseases, healed wounds, made them young adults – this was great because it gave old and young dying people a second life.
They never really found out much about the gates, the structure, the reason they came to this world, how they worked, but they were there and the world changed drastically because of them. This is more the story of how societies reacted to what the gates did then anything else.
January 9, 2012
Sci-fi story about mysterious gates that suddenly appeared all around the world. These gates have the power to heal and rejuvenate the human body - but in the process changes the user into the opposite sex.
Even given the title of the book and the premise given, I was kind of surprised by the large amount of semi graphic sex involved. Having said that, it was certainly an interesting read, with an interesting plot that was reasonably engaging, combined with a decent mix of social commentary and sci-fi.
This is a revised version of the book btw, modified to become part one of a trilogy. There is also another version out I believe which was written to be a standalone book.
Even given the title of the book and the premise given, I was kind of surprised by the large amount of semi graphic sex involved. Having said that, it was certainly an interesting read, with an interesting plot that was reasonably engaging, combined with a decent mix of social commentary and sci-fi.
This is a revised version of the book btw, modified to become part one of a trilogy. There is also another version out I believe which was written to be a standalone book.
August 4, 2016
For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. It appeared as though the editing was much more thorough in the beginning, and less so as the book progressed. Still, when you consider price vs. quality, you can't count the typographical errors against the price of the book. It was a very enjoyable story, filled with creative futuristic technology. If you are into adult fiction, and can accept the errors for the price, this is a fun read. I'm looking forward to reading the second novel in the series!
January 19, 2013
When I first saw the title of this story I had a misconception of what the story would be about because I didn't see the cover. I was happily surprised and I really enjoyed this book. The Sex Gates and sort of like a weird Stargate. A man goes in one side and comes out a woman. But, alien tech all has potential danger. Enter the gate at your own risk.
March 10, 2013
Sigh. This shouldn't be a 4 star book. There was a period in the early days of ebooks when all bets were off. Authors you never heard of got a seat at the table. Bain was one of these. His ideas always outstripped his prose and his characters. That said, the ideas were excellent and his various books had the sums greater than the parts.
November 26, 2009
Reads like young adult fiction. The kernals of the plot are interesting - what if eternal youth was handed out for free, what if your sex was force changed, and so on. But the final package, the sex gates, just comes across as silly.
September 11, 2013
Very strange book, I didn't really know what to make of it.
May 1, 2014
I am not sure that I finished it. I liked the idea but thought the characters were poorly developed and the reactions of goverenments and people to the gates were strange.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews