Non binary Genders

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

This is a possible upcoming theme, if we can get enough suggestions for it.

I know I’ve read a lot of books that have characters (usually aliens) that don’t have standard male and female genders. Sometimes alien races have three or more genders. Some aliens change genders at certain times of their lives or have the option of doing so. Some aliens are hermaphroditic or reproduce asexually by cloning. And sometimes humans in the book are non binary as well.

Do you know a good book that fits this theme? I’ll start us off with The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov which has an alien race that has three or four genders depending on how you count them. Not exactly space opera because I don’t recall any spaceship in the book. Instead it’s some handwavium gizmo that taps energy from another universe (going by memory).

[Lizzie]

I know I have read some over the years where there was more than the male/female genders, but I couldn't actually name a book where that was the focus. They just happened to be characters within the story. Lois McMaster Bujold included a variety of sexual preferences and gender identities in her characters in the Vorkogisgan series, but I couldn't say which ones other than Falling Free really dealt with it being a major facet of the story, aside from the repression of Barrayar society in contrast to Beta Colony.

[Trike]

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet has one character who is of a race that has four sexes.

Jack L. Chalker’s Well World saga has non-binary characters. It’s Planetary Romance rather than Soace Opera, though.

One of the secondary characters in Midnight at the Well of Souls starts off as a hermaphrodite and is transformed into a Czill, a sentient mobile plant that reproduces asexually. Its twinning is a whole chapter, maybe two. (I really need to read those books again this year.)

Chalker’s novels usually feature body-changing, so frequently genders get swapped. Similarly, Varley’s Eight Worlds stories feature affordable cloning and body mods, so people can switch their genders if they want.

Provenance by Ann Leckie are called “they” until they become adults when they choose a pronoun that’s male, female or neither. Other than that it’s pretty binary. Her other books feature this, as well. Breq in Ancillary Justice doesn’t have a gender, since she used to be a sentient spaceship.

Niven’s Known Space has a few aliens which are non-binary, but as Lizzie mentioned I don’t think any of the books feature that. The Puppeteers have 3 sexes and the Jotoki have... 5? 6? Something like that.

[Teresa, Plan B is in Effect]

Lots of great suggestions! I’d accept Well World as having enough spaceship scenes for our group reads, even though most of the action is on the equivalent of a planet. Nathan Brazil is a pilot, and there are some scenes on his ship.

[Ed]

In The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt there is a race called Liars. From their own description in the story, as they needed to depend on variable reproductive strategies, we know that they either reproduced asexually, had 7 sexes, or used cloning. Some selected English gendered pronouns for themselves and some invented new. This is the 1st book in the series of 3 so far.

[Trike]

Ed wrote: "In The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt there is a race called Liars. From their own description in the story, as they needed to depend on variable reproductive strategies, ..."

That one sounds perfect for the group. I know I’ve looked at that book, and I might’ve even bought it.

Buying books and reading books are two different activities. :p

[L J]

James White Hospital Station series has characters that are non binary.