...sentient species has seven distinct sexes {SOLVED BY OP}

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voralfred
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...sentient species has seven distinct sexes {SOLVED BY OP}

Post by voralfred »

I read this story more than 40 years ago. Actually I read it in French, but it was almost certainly translated from english. I remember very little. It was possibly short fiction but maybe even a full novel. Humans had colonised a planet and more or less enslaved a local sentient species to do all the menial jobs. But the enslavement was not so harsh.

The only scene I remember is that one local got one day off, because he was needed for "une monte", a copulation. The point was that seven individuals were needed for that, one of each different sex. To procreate, they needed two distinct types of males, two distinct types of females, one hermaphrodite and two distinct types of "neutrals", one of which was for a "digestive" role. And I remember that these aliens were said to be "amorphous", though it is not clear what was really meant by that adjective, in that book.

I don't think the many sexes of the aliens was an important feature, it was just an incidental remark about the day off granted to the alien - the day off itself was probably a more important point. In fact I was just reminded of the "many sexes" by this recent piece of news.

It is not "Venus and the seven sexes", none of the details fit.
Last edited by voralfred on Sun Oct 06, 2019 11:01 am, edited 2 times in total.
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E Pericoloso Sporgersi
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Re: Planet where a sentient species has seven distinct sexes

Post by E Pericoloso Sporgersi »

voralfred wrote:I read this story more than 40 years ago.
...
40 and more years ago I was avidly reading SF (I started in the Humaniora, equivalent to the Anglosaxon High School), in English (many Pinguins'), French (Série Noire IIRC) and even Dutch.

So considering my age I should know of it.

But sadly it doesn't ring a bell.

Sorry!
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voralfred
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Re: Planet where a sentient species has seven distinct sexes

Post by voralfred »

As a matter of fact, I asked the same question on a different forum and go the answer:

Assassin & son, by Thomas Michael Disch
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