The Joy of Erudition’s Reviews > World without Men > Status Update

The book is broken up into 4 parts, and at this point in Part 3, it's clear that none of the previous parts (all skipping around through centuries) are going to be given an actual ending. There is no story here. It's essentially an essay on how the birth control pill leads to immorality, then a dictatorial government, then extinction. Part 3 is the worst tell-not-show "as you know, Bob" monologue yet.

Part 1 was a long, boring lesson on parthenogenesis, and Part 2 was a long, boring lesson on pharmaceutical development, package design, and marketing, alongside a pervasive diatribe about the "evil immorality" of contraception.

Okay, this book has crossed the line. I should just stop right here. It's short, so I'm going to finish it anyway, but I don't anticipate it will get a good rating.

A problem with single-issue "message" science fiction like this is their whole society ends up seeming obsessed with that issue. Here, they're constantly bringing up parthenogenesis and "parthenogenetic adaptation syndrome" as if they're recent or current issues, when in this story it's been that way for 5000 years! Also, I'm supposed to buy that this government has been keeping secrets and control all that time.

After a long and boring lesson on parthenogenesis and basic biology (though probably necessary for members of the audience who don't already have a biology background), Chapter 2 finally shows why this is a dystopia after all -- the government's repression of alternate sexualities and irrational fear that a minority might threaten humanity's overall reproductive survival.

The cover faithfully depicts a scene from the first chapter of this book. I think the author meant for this to be a dystopian future with the government running most of society, but the characters introduced so far seem to be happy, involved in good relationships and enjoying their jobs in luxurious surroundings.