The Shape of Sex to Come

by Douglas Arthur Hill (Editor), Robert Silverberg (Contributor), Michael Moorcock (Contributor)

Contents:
7 • Introduction • essay by Douglas Arthur Hill
12 • In the Group • (1973) • short story by Robert Silverberg
30 • Planet of the Rapes • (1977) • novelette by Thomas M. Disch
52 • Coming-of-Age Day • (1965) • short story by A. K. Jorgensson
66 • The Thorns of Barevi • (1970) • short story by Anne McCaffrey
78 • A One-Man Expedition Through Life (1974) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss
83 • The Taste of Shrapnel • (1974) • short story by Brian Aldiss
89 • Forty Million Miles from the Nearest Blonde • (1974) • short story fiction by Brian Wilson Aldiss
93 • Sisters • (1976) • novelette by Hilary Bailey
125 • Machine Screw • (1975) • short story by John Sladek
136 • Pale Roses • (1974) • novelette by Michael Moorcock

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies

176 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Douglas Arthur Hill (6 April 1935 – 21 June 2007) was a Canadian science fiction author, editor and reviewer. He was born in Brandon, Manitoba, the son of a railroad engineer, and was raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. An avid science fiction reader from an early age, he studied English at the University of Saskatchewan (where he earned an Honours B.A. in 1957) and at the University of Toronto. He married fellow writer and U. of S. alumna Gail Robinson in 1958; they moved to Britain in 1959, where he worked as a freelance writer and editor for Aldus Books. In 1967–1968 he served as Assistant Editor of the controversial New Worlds science fiction magazine under Michael Moorcock.

A lifetime leftist, he served from 1971 to 1984 as the Literary Editor of the socialist weekly Tribune (a position once held by George Orwell), where he regularly reviewed science fiction despite the continued refusal of the literary world to take it seriously. Before starting to write fiction in 1978, he wrote many books on history, science and folklore. Using the pseudonym Martin Hillman, he also worked as an editor of several anthologies, among them Window on the Future (1966), The Shape of Sex to Come (1978), Out of Time (1984), and Hidden Turnings (1988). He is probably best known for The Last Legionary quartet of novels, supposedly produced as the result of a challenge by a publisher to Hill's complaints about the lack of good science fiction for younger readers.

Hill and his wife had one child, a son. They were divorced in 1978. He lived in Wood Green, London, and died in London after being struck by a bus at a zebra crossing. His death occurred one day after he completed his last trilogy, Demon Stalkers.

Reviews

[Zenodotus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cover? Horrendous (what is going on with all that hair?). The title is an atrocious pun, and many of the stories within have even more excruciating titles (the cringe-inducing 'Planet of the Rapes' is the worst). And yet the stories themselves are of a uniformly high quality, as the roll-call of authors leads one to expect (they include Disch, Sladek, Aldiss, Moorcock, McCaffrey...), and several are exceptional. I almost bust a gut laughing while reading the Moorcock yarn, linked to his 'Dancers at the End of Time' sequence. Dare to look past the surface and see a top-notch collection of short stories, both speculative and humourous.

[Robin Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly a thought-provoking selection of stories by some excellent and renowned authors. Some of these tales are deliberately spicy, evoking an earlier style of storytelling (even then); others seem deliberately to court controversy, perhaps in attempt to highlight the social mores of another time, and thereby comment on those of the day they were written. Were one or two of the authors aiming to hang a lampshade on certain cultural taboos, and thereby subvert them? Possibly; possibly not.

Standout stories for me were Brian Alidss's "Three Songs for Enigmatic Lovers" - a twisty, turny pseudo-time travel tale with a delicious element of farce to it; Anne McCaffrey's "The Thorns of Barevi" - harking back to the tales that evoked those eye-popping covers of magazines like Planet Stories and Weird Tales; and Michael Moorcock's "Pale Roses", wonderfully stylish and inventive, despite the obviously problematic element.

My favourite, though, has to be Hilary Bailey's "Sisters", a powerful story of a career woman challenged by professional betrayal and science repurposed for profit while confronted with a stark social landscape and her sister's 'unfathomable' life choices. It's a powerful story that reads very well now, almost 50 years after it was first published. The tone is delightfully in the ballpark of Troughton or Pertwee era Doctor Who, but with an adult edge that really gives it teeth. Loved it.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-shape-of-sex-to-come-ed-douglas-hill/

A 1978 anthology from Pan, including stories by Robert Silverberg, Thomas M. Disch, A.K. Jorgensson, Anne McCaffrey, Brian Aldiss, Hilary Bailey, John Sladek and Michael Moorcock. I’m afraid that despite the stellar array of authors and the potentially interesting subject matter, this is not a great collection; several of the stories depend on a rather rapey concept of consent, the Aldiss contribution is frankly incomprehensible (I see that this is its only publication apart from its original appearance in F&SF) and the Moorcock is an excerpt from Dancers at the End of Time that I already have in two different editions. Hilary Bailey’s “Sisters” is the best of these, and it’s more about bio weapons than sex.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting, though somewhat uneven, collection of science fiction stories that explore sexual themes: virtual group sex; a planet in which females must submit to rape every three years; a very horny giant automobile, to name a few. I liked some stories a lot more than others, but all in all, I found it a worthwhile read.

[Frank Karioris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book is way more interesting than the later half. In topic, writing, and the like.

[Phil On The Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as a teenager and did not display this book to my parents! Can't remember a thing about it.

[Jacquie]

The Thorns of Barevi • (1970) • short story by Anne McCaffrey