Venus and the Seven Sexes

"Venus and the Seven Sexes" is a science fiction story by American writer William Tenn. It was first published in the anthology The Girl with the Hungry Eyes, and Other Stories (Avon Publishing) in 1949, and then in 1953 in the anthology Science-Fiction Carnival by Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds (Shasta Publishers).[1]

"Venus and the Seven Sexes"
AuthorWilliam Tenn
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Science Fiction short story
Published inThe Girl with the Hungry Eyes, and Other Stories
Publication typeAnthology
PublisherAvon Publishing Co., Inc.
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Publication date1949

The story was reprinted in 1968 in The Seven Sexes, an anthology of William Tenn's short stories published by Ballantine Books. It also appeared in the 2001 anthology of William Tenn's works titled Immodest Proposals, published by NESFA Press.

Plot

On the planet Venus, the native Plookhs —who require the participation of seven different sexes in order to reproduce — are corrupted by human film director Hogan Shlestertrap.

Reception

Don D'Ammassa has described it as "quite funny",[2] while Nick Gevers considered it to be a "scathing [analysis] of militarism and cargo-cult culture possessing great bite even now".[3] Io9 called it "off-kilter" and "humorous.[4] Inc. editor George Gendron has compared the Plookh reproductive cycle to the difficulties of running a startup.[5]

gollark: We don't even have the emoji for it now because we lost the boosts!
gollark: I used to run the transistor cult.
gollark: Sadly, most of the cultist roles are gone now.
gollark: Most of the channel-specific roles are, well, for one channel, and not important in the server "hierarchy", since moderator/whatever probably let you see them anyway.
gollark: They got rid of "access levels" a while ago, and I think moderator status gives you must of the channel-specific stuff.

References
  1. ISFDB publication history
  2. William Tenn], by Don D'Ammassa, at DonDammassa.com; published no later than September 14, 2015; retrieved November 24, 2017
  3. Immodest Proposals, reviewed by Nick Gevers, at the SF Site; published 2001; retrieved November 24, 2017
  4. Remembering Golden Age Science Fiction Author William Tenn, by Alisdair Wilkins, at io9; published February 8, 2010; retrieved November 24, 2017
  5. The Seven Sexes of Venus, by George Gendron, at Inc.; published April 1, 1999; retrieved November 24, 2017
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