The men also come in two grades. Most numerous are the Squires, who have signed on as sort of male "mistresses” (marriage having got lost around 2025) and live as their Doms see fit. One of the rewards for Squiredom is longevity treatment, which permits Doms and their consorts to go to at least 200 without visibly aging. Men who do not rise to Squiredom, through lack of charm or by their own choice, eke out a precarious existance as menial employees, prostitutes or both. They are known as Sports, and when they go on a rampage of vandalism, as Pirates.

It is a rather comfortable, and very safe world that the Doms have made. War is nearly forgotten; such risky enterprises as space travel are of no interest. A brilliant technology, much of it developed from 20th cen- tury male-type beginnings, carries one anywhere by strato-rocket or personal jet-pack without risk. Entertainment is unlimited; London is a place of beauty and quiet, and the rulers find little to do, with all problems tidily solved. Of course, there are quite a few suicides among all classes, due to sheerest boredom...

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So, who is feminine and who is masculine in this semi-Utopia? Not quite that simple the Infras alone have retained their traditional orientation and are all sex-toys and mothers in turn as required. The Doms are subject to moments of tenderness in which the old female submissiveness shows through the hard neutral shell. Sports, and Squires in their company, exhibit the shrill pettiness and gossip of underlings of all places and times — but that is hardly femininity. Masculinity is dead, and without it, one suspects, femininity is an anachronism. Certainly, no one is seen to cross-dress; any man masquerading as a Dom would rate Grade One psycho-therapy (total removal of memories and personality), while passing as an Infra might lead to other com- plications. Doms are reported to engage in "mild lesbian frolics", and no doubt the Sports find things to do with each other during the long dull years, but sex is mostly hetero and primarily for pleasure. Per- sonally, I would petition for sex-change and Dom status, but there is nothing in the book to indicate whether I'd stand a chance of that!

THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, by Ursala K. LeGuin, Ace Publ. Corp., N.Y., No. 47800, 286 pp, 95c. This one takes us even farther away in time, and also in space, to a planet, Gethen, inhabited by a race of people who have branched off from the main line of humans just enough so they are all functional hermaphrodites. Their lives. operate on an approximately lunar estrus cycle; instead of being in heat all the time, like other humanoids, they are sexually neuter for

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