Alph

by Charles Eric Maine

In a future society where only female children are born, the birth of a male child promises to create scientific and socio-political chaos, so they determine to destroy the child, until one woman steals him and vows to care for him in defiance of a ruthless totalitarian authority.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Classics, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy

218 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Charles Eric Maine (pseudonym of David McIlwain; 21 January 1921 – 30 November 1981) was an English science fiction writer whose most prominent works were published in the 1950s and 1960s. His stories were thrillers that dealt with new scientific technology

Biography

McIlwain was born in Liverpool.

He published three issues of a science fiction magazine called The Satellite which he co-edited along with J. F. Burke. From 1940 to 1941, he published his own magazine called Gargoyle.

During World War II, he was in the Royal Air Force and served in Northern Africa in 1943.

After the war, he worked in TV engineering, and became involved in editorial work with radio and TV. During 1952, he sold his first radio play, Spaceways, to the BBC. Due to its popularity, it became a novel as well as a movie.

One of his best known stories, Timeliner, was about a scientist who experiments with a time machine, only to be maliciously thrust into the future by a fellow scientist who was having an affair with his wife. It was originally written as a radio play known as The Einstein Highway.

He died in London in 1981.
Bibliography

Spaceways (1953) (Variant Title: Spaceways Satellite)
Timeliner (1955)
Escapement (1956) (Variant Title: The Man Who Couldn't Sleep)
High Vacuum (1956)
The Tide Went Out (1958) (Revised in 1997 with Variant Title: Thirst!)
World Without Men (1958) (Revised in 1972 with Variant Title: Alph)
Count-Down (1959) (Variant Title: Fire Past the Future)
Crisis 2000 (1959)
Subterfuge (1959)
Calculated Risk (1960)
He Owned the World (1960) (Variant Title: The Man Who Owned the World)
The Mind of Mr. Soames (1961)
The Darkest of Nights (1962) (Variant Title: Survival Margin)
B.E.A.S.T. (1966)
Alph (1972)

Reviews

[Rob Slaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this title as I was perusing the shelves at a locally-owned bookstore and purchased it based only on its intriguing description and the fact that I'll buy just about anything at a locally-owned bookstore to support those fine and endangered institutions.

The summary is a pretty simple one and one that about half the population isn't especially comfortable with. All the dudes are gone. Society has turned into the ultimate matriarchy. All is well and good though, they've figured out how to get by without us. Until one day scientists create a dude and 500 of monosexual culture it turned on its proverbial ear.

To the positive side, this is one of those brilliant science fiction novels of the 50s-60s-70s that not only entertains you but has a deep and vibrant kernel of sociological truth to it. This isn't just a feast of Lesbian eroticism (which it most definitely is) but it's also a broad and well thought out tale of how societies and governments deal with and relate to change. It's one of those books that always makes me whip out the standard mantra of "this is what science fiction was meant to be!" It makes you think about yourself and about everyone you know in new ways.

To the negative, and this is not so much a negative as it is an advisory to potential readers, the book loves its terminology. You're advised to look up the first ten words you don't know (unless you know the definition of cytology and parthenogenetic off the top of your head) and commit them to memory because you'll be seeing them again and again and again. The book is an education but be prepared to either gloss over things or infer by context because this isn't the soft vocabulary fiction you're used to.

In summary, this book is exactly as old as I am and it's worth a read. It does tend at times to be rather graphic sexually so it's not one for the kiddies but it has a lot of deep things to say about humanity. I'm sad that I've lived my entire life along side it without having any awareness of its existence.

[John Bruni · Rating 1 out of 5]

This one is a tough one to rate. There are some interesting ideas in this book, but there is also a lot of bigotry and other various nonsense, as well. Maine comes off as a raging homophobe throughout most of the book. Even though this future world has adopted lesbianism as the societal norm, he clearly views this as a vile evil that must be undone by bringing men back to the world. Also, he has a real hatred for the birth control pill, which was being approved by the FDA back when this book was written. This is not a spoiler, so don't worry, but men were forced out of existence because the Pill (here called Sterilin) came into frequent use. That's just crazy talk. That's to say nothing of the odd and unnecessary structure, and the shoddy story, and the irritating way he uses dialogue between characters who know everything already just so the reader can learn about the world he's built. Sorry, but I'll save my world-without-men fiction craving for things like Y: THE LAST MAN, and I suggest you do the same. (It does have a cool ending, though.)

[claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

really really bad guys. the general premise of 'what if we lived in a world on earth where there was no men' being written by a man had me already narrowing my eyes. too heavy on the science-y talk even though it didn't help move the story along and didn't make sense and they never actually explained how they're creating more babies when there's no dudes around.

worst part of it all mr maine made it sound like living in a lesbian society would be a bad thing (?) and also that we would somehow devolve into a society where having sex for pleasure would become obsolete and no one would never masturbate??? like WHATS GOING ONNNN WHO SAID THAT.

too many characters + confusing time skips + too many scenes with casual sexual assault + literally nothing happened yet thousand of years passed.

final thoughts, give me a pen i could write a story a billion times better with this premise

[Dustin Neuman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I really hunted for. The first time I saw it was in 1986 at a B.Daltons books at the mall under the alternate title “World Without Men” in a hard cover reprint. I could not afford it but wrote down the title and author. For years after I scoured libraries and book stores for it. This was pre internet days and my only sources for Science Fiction/Fantasy news was Locus Magazine, Starlog Magazine and the Uber nerd who ran my local used book store. For a long time I could not find it and came to believe the book was a chimera and did not actually exist. I finally found it in the Science Fiction book club, purchased a copy and read it. Of course by then I knew both titles and both the Authors real name David McIlwain and his pen name “Charles Eric Maine.” It is everything a pulpy 1950’s sci-fi novel should be, it is entertaining and quick paced, I really enjoyed it. Alpha is the revised 1972 version and title, I assume it is the same as the original, but have not read both to compare.

[Amber Cox · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars for creativity. The ending though...ick. There are strange sexist overtones, going both ways.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Men...you can’t live with them and you can’t live without them. Or so the old saying goes. The women in World Without Men by Charles Eric Maine, found a way to live without them, well, at least they almost did. This science-fiction novel from the late 1950s depicts a utopian society of the future where men are no longer needed and the planet is run entirely by Lesbians (that word is always capitalized in this book). Like any good work of this genre, it grows out of and reflects social ideas of its time. In this case these reflections come from a darkened mirror.

True to the styles of its time, this book is a series of short stories, revolving around a central theme, and strung together to form a novel. Most of the characters do not carry over from one story to the next. As it opens, the body of a dead male is discovered in a rocket ship. Aubretia, a woman who works for the media, tells her lover, Gallardia, about this incident. Gallardia goes on to explain the history of the present they live in. Seven centuries previous to their time, in the 1950s, a birth control pill was invented. Through its use over time, the male half of the human species eventually disappeared. The Lesbians learned how to reproduce through parthenogenesis and single-cell cytosis; eventually they created a perfect cybernetic technocracy with no war, no poverty, and scientific work for everyone. The world was controlled by a computerized brain that everyone was attached to. (Sounds like the internet?) But when Aubretia speaks out about the discovered male body, she gets taken away for brainwashing so she forgets about it. This perfect society functions smoothly because it hides truth from its citizens. A male on the planet would disrupt everything and those in power would never want that. By the end of the first chapter, it becomes clear that both 1984 and Brave New World are sources from which Maine derived his attitudes and ideas.

The two stories that follow go back in time to the 1950s and 2020s to show the stages of progression from the invention of the birth control pill to the utopia the novel starts out with. In one story, the scientist who leads the research team for the corporation that is developing the pill. He decides to quit because he fears being a part of an invention that will lead to widespread amorality but he has an internal dilemma because he is, himself, completely amoral about his own sexuality. In the other story, an American journalist travels to London for a tryst with a government employee but he has the ulterior motive of getting her to talk about the inner workings of the increasingly totalitarian government. Neither of these stories has a happy ending, leaving the reader in the darker areas of Rod Serling-type story telling.

The fourth, and best, story of the bunch is about Gorste, an old man imprisoned by the Lesbians so they can extract what they need from him to artificially induce mandatory asexual births. After attacking and raping the woman who takes care of him, he escapes from his apartment only to discover there is no way out of the building in which he is trapped. After the woman recovers, she opens the outside door to set him free, knowing that doing so will ultimately result in his death. If he had not raped her, she would never have let him go. What is clever about this story is that it acts as an inversion of the housewife syndrome. Feminists in the 1950s claimed that being a housewife, while the husband went out to work, was the same as living in a prison. So in this case, the roles are reversed and Gorste is a man trapped by a Lesbian whose job it is to keep him from getting away. In this inverted world, the man is put into the housewife’s place. But the weapon he uses to escape from her grasp is rape so any intelligent reader will lose respect and sympathy for him. Again, this is an inverted world and in it rape can be used as a means for Gorste’s liberation but by un-inverting this world we are faced with the dilemma that the housewife does not have rape as an option for her own liberation. So the imbalance of power is exposed but possibly only to the carefully discerning reader.

The last story is a return to the future utopia where scientists have created a male baby in a laboratory. They are ordered to destroy it but one woman, instead, kidnaps the infant and escapes with it to renew the human race from its perfect but dull and meaningless society.

World Without Men deals with a lot of issues that were prevalent in its time. In one sense it deals with fears of totalitarianism; this is in relation to the post World War II generation when the threats of fascism and the realities of communism were looming large over the free world. But the threat of totalitarian domination was not limited to those types of governments. The legitimate fear of large corporations becoming more powerful than the government was beginning to take hold while Western bureaucrats were insisting that the free people of America and Europe all look and behave in a uniform fashion. This tension can be felt in the rise of the corporation that invents birth control pills for women. The author also successfully predicts the sexual revolution and the women’s liberation movement that began in the 1960s after the invention of female birth control. He addresses the fears of a blossoming amorality and a sexually promiscuous society that leads to the breakdown of the nuclear family and eventually the breakdown of society on a macro level too. This opens up the possibility of a domineering government stepping in to maintain order. Maine also brings the Frankenstein syndrome into this novel by showing how a technological innovation can lead to having unwanted, and possibly destructive, consequences that its creators were unable to predict as they did their research and development. While this book lacks originality in its themes, it is uniqueness comes out in its details.

Like in Huxley’s Brave New World, there is a fine line between utopia and dystopia. The Lesbians have created a society free of war, crime, and poverty but they do so by eliminating individuality and freedom of choice. You either conform or get put to death. People deemed to be unworthy of the state are humanely executed and those who seek truth about the system are arrested and hypnotized so they forget anything they have learned. Their society functions because it is stagnant and free from entropy or any other kind of noise in the system. This novel not only argues for sexual diversity but also the right to choose, to explore, and to learn in ways that are beneficial to each individual. If the price we pay for that freedom is shifting levels of randomness and chaos, then that is a worthy price to pay. That is what makes life interesting.

This is a minor novel. The themes it addresses are derivative and somewhat typical of the science-fiction genre of its day. All the stories are molded from the same template: one person tries to liberate themselves from the domination of the authoritarian society they live in. Large portions of the story are told through internal monologue or dialogue in which the characters don’t speak naturally but sound as though they are reading an essay out loud, violating the dictum of “show don’t tell” that is believed to be a standard for good fictional writing. The issues of gender and sexuality, as they are portrayed, are dated and too limited to the mindset of its time so that younger readers may not pick up the social and ideological cues it is meant to convey.

World Without Men may not be a profound work of literature but it is worth reading once. The fact that it is dated may even make it more interesting, especially for those with a taste for retro-futurism. The themes of moral uncertainty, claustrophobia, and paranoia are chilling at times and the mild nightmare this book portrays is the type of thing that could only have come out of the 1950s. Besides all that, both heterosexual men and lesbians can get a mutual thrill by imagining a world populated by bare breasted women in mini-skirts who get tipsy and make out on the couch for fun. At the very least, it can be an interesting experiment to try imagining the time when this book was written and how such imagery could be titillating, shocking, or even offensive depending on who you ask.

[Sarah Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange exploration of a world without men. Perhaps what intrigued me most is that the author himself is a man, so I was curious as to what he thought an all female society would look like. It was an interesting, quick read.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a little dry at times but still an interesting look at eugenics and what might happen when the long-absent other sex is reintroduced into a monosexual society.

[Dominick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite a qualm or two caused by the book's initial depiction of a woman primarily in terms of her physical appearance (and her care with it), this book initially seemed like it might actually be worthwhile. Early on, it acknowledges lesbianism as a feature of a woman-only society in a way that seems straightforward and unsensationalized. Unfortunately, that does not last. The premise here is that there has been a 5000-year period in which the only humans are woman, who bred parthenogenetically. Initially we are told that evolution eliminated men as unnecessary once social stability was achieved--no more need for hunters, fighters, explorers. Natural parthenogenesis replaced sexual reproduction. Turns out that this is a not entirely accurate depiction. We are led to understand that, yes, evolution eventually eliminated men, but it did so because of ... birth control. Yes, the development of, basically, the pill (here called Sterilin), by granting women control over whether they would become pregnant, set in motion an evolutionary attempt to compensate for dropping female fertility be increasing the number of female born and reducing the number of males. This begins within a generation of the invention of female birth control and within a few generations has almost entirely eliminated male births (they do eventually end entirely). Evolution radically changing the balance of female and male births within a few generations? Seems pretty implausible to me. But still, take it as a gimme; one can make allowances for the mechanism allowing for the premise, after all. However, the book (or its author) is pretty clearly over-concerned about the necessity of women remaining good, fertile mothers, as the book's premise is that absent heterosexual sex, the movement into a women-only world creates a dystopia in which everything is controlled and regimented by electronic brains and women become de facto robots (the book says as much). The book also has a pretty risible moral perspective on lesbianism. I bookmarked this gem of a passage so I would not forget to cite it in the review:

"We [the resistance movement who want to try to bring men back] are the freethinkers of the world. We have no aim other than to spread the truth and destroy evil and perversion and corruption."
"Even if it means creating unhappiness and discontent?"
Aquilegia smiled grimly. "The truth is more important than happiness and contentment. Morality is more vital than peace and stability based on lies and Lesbianism."

So, yeah. Later, we are told that the female culture of all lesbians is suffering from a "perversion-neurosis." However, the electronic brains decide, once a viable male infant is created that, nope, we can't being men back, as that would disrupt our nice ordered world. This despite apparent millennia devoted to this scientific effort. (I found myself wondering why, if evolution would wipe out men within a few generations, it would not reintroduce them some time sooner than 5,000 years later--or, if evolution had really altered humanity so much that men were no longer, born, why creating a new man using materials drawn from long-dead male corpses would, by creating ONE fertile man, set in motion a reversal of that development). The book is not really a thoughtful or serious exploration of what an all-female culture would be like. Rather, it creates such a society in order to reaffirm the essential need for biological males and their stereotypical male traits. To be fair, the book does not ignore that some of those traits are pretty bad. Indeed, pretty much the final act performed by the last man left alive (before he freezes to death, perhaps supplying the body later used to recreate the male) is rape. And the eventual male infant is explicitly associated with the second coming of Christ. Sheesh! Probably a must-read for anyone interested in the depiction of women in SF, and especially in feminist issues associated therewith, but as an entertainment, it has in my opinion dated extremely badly.

[Jared · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most interesting cosas about this book were it´s shortcomings. About a world without men, it is really just a long idea with horrible character development. He has some very interesting ideas about society and societal relationships, but he never properly explores the world he has created. I am left wondering if this is an idea best explored by a woman. The entire novel wreaks of a man´s hand, which is unfortunate in leu of the plot. There were many times where I made the ¨mcht¨lip smacking sound of ¨thats not how it would go in a world of women.¨

In the end, a read recommended just so you can tell me what you think.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a few great ideas in this book. Unfortunately, they were presented in the style common to Sci-Fi of this time period. It focused so much on the politics and societal layout that it neglected the main plot. The story moved too quickly through the timeline and merely glanced over the main idea of the extinction and return of man to earth. It also lacked the character development needed for this type of story. I would love to see this rewritten today with a slightly more enlightened view toward male/female roles, Lesbianism and politics.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

i picked this up after finishing y: the last man, wanting to get other sci-fi perspectives about a society without males...

it was not at all enjoyable until the last two chapters, which then go by way to quickly. it's very dry and lacks character development. the author spends too much time focusing on cultural shifts, and using "sci-fi" words.

blah.

[Stephanie Onderchanin · Rating 2 out of 5]

really focused on hating lesbianism, boring narration

[Bill Robson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in college. Very well written. I recommend it.

[Andy Dotto · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's an idea... one that would be much better modernized and without the male savoir.

Before I started this book, I expressed scepticism about a man handling an all-female society well. I think that was well founded. In a world where a pill meant to give women bodily autonomy breeds out the need for men, the remaining ladies give complete control of their society over to a computer and have state enforced births.

Alph doesn't ever need to be in this story. Old Gavor, the last of the old generation of men, was a rapist. That's the last thing he ever does, and I was glad to see him go. Society functioned without him fine for 500 years.

This could have been a fine story of dystopian heroines throwing off taker oppressive yokes of their emotionless, computer-driven society and forced eugenics programs, but even as we're told how bodies are engineered for maximum lesbian pleasure and test-tube births, nah they also instinctually miss a dick tho or something?

Would not recommend to queer women.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

uhmm i did like this book, i was the kind of reading you just dont know where the pages went... you have the book separated in a few chapters that explain the present, how we got there and then a conclusion... because so many had a bit of a bad opinion by it, i was a bit worried, but in the end it didnt disapoint me, i wish it had a second volume thou to know more about what was not said in the end ^_~

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was stunned by this book on first release but not so much now on re-read so it is time to go. A world without the male sex produces a lesbian culture. Reintroducing the gender results in helpless accommodation to the penis. The book ends all too abruptly.

[Carlene Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Alph in the 60s & never forgot it. I’ve been looking for it for years, but Google keywords was not my friend. Finally found it on this website. I don’t remember the details any more, but since the ‘War on Women’ is coming back around in US politics I want to read it again!

[Chris Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

No men left,
lots of lesbians,
that don't want men back.
what could go wrong.

if u are a snowflake type skip this one you are gonna get butt hurt on so many levels you might pop like a zit on societies arse.

[Bruce Majors]

I read this decades ago but now want to re-read it since I am watching the FX show "Y: The Last Man"

[march · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m writing my uni thesis on this book and it was soooo crazy!!! Loved it ngl

[Emma Crighton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Riddled with outright homophobia and misogyny. An interesting read because it illustrates the social views of the era, but yikes.

[Beth G · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vintage sci-fi is so hit or miss.

I like the "last man" concept, but I could tell just a couple of chapters into this book that it was too incel-ish for me. DNF.

[KHLOARIS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine a future where AI has hijacked the female libido, allowing it to erect a worldwide socialist society that’s non-threatening, hyper-efficient, and entirely devoid of men. This is the story of how the human species lost the male gamete.

The narrative is told through four distinct time periods, unfolding over the span of many thousand of years. First we meet Aubretia, a young reporter who’s mind gets erased by World Brain agents before she can expose the public to the discovery of a 5,000 year old secret. Deep under the polar ice-caps, at an ancient 20th century crash site, the corpse of a very nude male astronaut has been extracted from his very phallic shaped rocket. From the POV of this reporter we get a great scene of him lying on the examination table surrounded by government scientists – but none of these lady scientists have ever seen a male before and so they can’t really make sense of what their own eyes are looking at. The best part is the author also avoids telling us what it might be. But before Aubretia’s mind can get erased, she manages to meet up with her albino-twin girlfriend and tell her all about what she saw back at the lab. They’re both part of an underground resistance, and now the rebels finally have evidence that scientific lesbian reproduction in the laboratory is not the only way babies are made. This novel has a lot in common with P.D. James’ Children of Men (1992) also Alph (1972) except its a lot more pulpy and wasn’t nearly as boring.

[Jascollins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a stunning masterpiece, but I really enjoyed it in my teens; it rather suited the brand of feminist I was then.

My response to the synopsis is that it overplays the politics that are in the actual book. The government is viewed negatively, but not much worse than many other fictional political systems being written at the time. The society itself (as distinct from its government) is viewed as improved over that of the modern day. If anything, so far from being dystopic, it reads like a fairly reasonable governmental response to a new and dangerous (or at least destabilizing) influence on society.

The storyline itself places much more emphasis on the relationships between Alph's surrogate mother and her immediate circle as she attempts to escape with her kidnapped loose cannon, and despite the words "brutal" and "totalitarian" in some synopses I have seen, is resolved pretty bloodlessly, with the government giving ground at the end.

It could be more nuanced, but usually this type of thing is composed entirely of cardboard characters, and Alph is definitely not.

[Mark Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh boy. This would make a great movie if updated and directed by, say, Alex Garland or Denis Villeneuve. This book is not LGBTQIA friendly. Also the very antithesis of Me Too. At the outset I thought I would be rating it one or two stars. (E.g., rape is pretty much OK, given certain circumstances.) And yet this book is filled with so many ideas and twists and turns it reminded me of a Philip K Dick novel (high praise indeed). It even has the trope of futurist women painting their bare breasts with spray paint! A sociologically, judgement-free reading makes for a fascinating experience, if you can manage it.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terrible writing, but interesting concept. The story is also broken down into 3 unrelated parts. The author clearly had a stance against birth control and thought it would lead to promiscuity and decrease world population to the point that men no longer exist and all women become lesbians, procreating via parthenogenesis.

I enjoyed the blurb's prediction that this sci-fi story would be "ranked with 1984 and Brave New World". Clearly, not.

[Mike]

I think this may have been the first adult sci-fi books I ever read, but I read in 5th or 6th grade so I don't really remember much about it now apart from there being a lot of lesbian sex scenes and the story was about a future society where there were no men, but one is created through genetic engineering or something and upsets the entire society. Hmm, maybe it was not really an adult novel then but more of a teenage boy's fantasy? Maybe I'll track this down again.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my book set in the future for my Reading Challenge 2015. I read it many years ago and did not remember it. Reminded me of Brave New World. I will not reread it. Definitely a good book for social commentary.

[Sarah Tinsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea, but terribly realised. Most of the book is spent with characters meticulously explaining how the world works, which means there is very little action. Also incredibly bigoted – seems to have a deep distrust of female sexuality and is very homophobic.