David's Reviews > Venus Plus X

This is, by any standard, a novel of ideas that pushes the boundaries of what was acceptable in old-style pulp sf. The central premise (a very unlikely one, it must be said) is that someone with a lot of wealth and influence creates a model society (Ledom, get it?) in secret. Ledom keeps the outside world at bay thanks to super-science, like many a Utopia before it. But Sturgeon's basic premise is radical to say the least - that if we eliminate sexual difference by making everyone hermaphrodite, we remove most of the things that mar human affairs.

This is the sort of idea that led to the author being nicknamed 'Steamy Ted', though to be fair there's no actual sex here - probably because no mainstream publisher would have dared print it. Instead there is a lot of philosophising and some fair-to-interesting exposition about Ledom history, culture, education etc. But, as other reviewers have noticed, if you want an actual novel, drama only kicks in towards the end when some cracks in the seemingly flawless system start to show.

Overall, Venus Plus X is a weird, memorable but unsatisfying read. It's proto-feminist in its assumption that eliminating macho aggression would make a better world, but relies heavily on the 'there's a ray for everything' gadgetry of Golden Age sci-fi. It sits uncomfortably between two worlds and ends in ambiguity.