A brief guide to the Sime/Gen series aka Psychic Vampire Soulbonding Tentacle Slavefic

[thuviaptarth]

I tried to reread those a couple of years ago and just couldn't get more than a few pages in-- which is a pity, because I have such fond memories of them. (I don't actually remember them as being good, mind you, just as deeply satisfying, in the way that vampire soulbonding tentacle slavefic is when one is fourteen.)--ellen_fremedon

The Sime/Gen series was created by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and written by Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah. It's set in a future in which humanity has mutated into two subspecies, Simes and Gens. Gens produce a biological energy called "selyn" which Simes need to absorb at least once a month to live. Unfortunately, taking selyn can kill the Gen. Children become Sime or Gen at some point during adolescence. In the earliest books in the series, the world is divided into Sime Territories and Gen Territories. In Gen Territories, children who change over into Sime get shot on sight, often after killing friends or loved ones in their ravenous First Need. In Sime Territories, Gens are considered subhuman and raised in "Pens" in "Genfarms" or kidnapped from Gen Territory, and each Sime kills a Gen once a month to survive. Children of Simes who become Gen at adolescence are escorted by a loved one to the border of Gen Territory if they're lucky, and sold off to the Pens if they're not. Eventually, people discover a Sime submutation called "channels" who are able to take selyn from Gens without killing them and give it to other Simes. "Householdings" where Simes and Gens live together are set up and eventually become an organization called the "Tecton," which ensures that regular Simes live off selyn transfers from channels instead of directly drawing from (and endangering) Gens.

The most visible marker of change is that Simes have tentacles on their forearms -- four "handling" tentacles which are like extra, more flexible fingers, and two smaller tentacles just for selyn transfer which are usually retracted in their sheaths. Simes are efficient predators and are attracted by Gen fear or pain (leading to much angst when they attempt to give up the kill) and can read emotions in the selyn fields surrounding the human body. There need to be five contact points for selyn transfer--usually the four lateral tentacles and mouth-to-mouth connections. Transfer isn't like sex, the authors are at great pains to assure us. It's better than sex and way more intimate. And totally not gay even when transfer partners are of the same sex and even though strong sexual desire is one of the results of satisfactory transfer and opposite-sex transfer partners frequently fall in love in the books. Yeah. I personally mentally cross out all the explicit "But channels can't be gay!" lines the authors feel compelled to put in.

The publication history is pretty different from the internal chronology, so I am going with internal chronology. Most of the books stand alone pretty well.



Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah, First Channel
When Rimon Farris' childhood sweetheart Kadi establishes as Gen, he is heartbroken but determined to take her to the border of Gen Territory. He's never thought of Gens as human before, but this is Kadi. Naturally, complications drive Rimon into Need before they reach the border--the state of selyn hunger in which Simes cannot resist any source of selyn, no matter who it is. He attacks Kadi, who responds with love and self-sacrifice instead of fear and pain and ... doesn't die.

The rest of the book is about Rimon and Kadi's attempts to convince other Simes to give up the kill and then figure out what the hell they're doing. It's the second or third book in the series I read, and I'm still fond of it.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah, Channel's Destiny
Coming-of-age story of Rimon and Kadi's son, Zeth, interwoven with further attempts to figure out the physiology of channels and Sime/Gen transfer. The relationship between Zeth and his best friend Owen is sweet and very slashy, and I think the book handles disability really well -- Owen loses an arm in an attack by Sime raiders and the book spends a lot of time on his recovery and adjustment and doesn't shy from pointing out the ways in which some of his difficulties are created by the attitudes of people around him rather than by any physical limitations.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg, House of Zeor
A few centuries later: Gen Hugh Valleroy goes under cover in Sime Territory to find his kidnapped girlfriend. He's aided by channel Klyd Farris, the head of the House of Zeor, who wants to create diplomatic links between the Householdings and Gen Territory. They are forced -- forced, I say! -- to share transfer and fall in love grow to respect each other over the course of their adventures.

This was the first book published in the series and I think it's one of the weaker ones; it doesn't help that the female characters are nonentities. It is, however, fabulously slashy.

Jean Lorrah, Ambrov Keon
"Junct" (killer) Sime Risa Tigue is rescued from a flood by Householder Gen Sergi ambrov Keon, who gives her transfer, discovers she's a channel, convinces her to join Keon, and falls in love with her. Risa brings capitalism to Keon. It is much more charming than it sounds.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah, Zelerod's Doom
"Zelerod's Doom" is the prediction by the mathematician Zelerod that when the Sime:Gen ratio reaches a certain point, the Simes will kill off all the Gens and then turn on each other, ending Sime civilization -- and probably bringing down Gen civilization, too, since desperate Simes will raid Gen territory. Klyd Farris is traveling to multiple Territories with a mathematician to convince Simes that Householdings and ending the kill are the only solutions, while Hugh Valleroy attempts to convince Klyd that direct Sime/Gen transfer should be available to more than just channels. Also features people from Ambrov Keon.

Kind of dull except for the Klyd/Hugh slashiness.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Unto Zeor, Forever
A few centuries later: The Tecton set up by Klyd trains channels and controls selyn transfers. Klyd's descendant Digen Farris goes to Gen Territory to train as a surgeon and meets his "matchmate"--a Gen who produces selyn at exactly the rate Digen consumes it. Unfortunately, she belongs to a rebel organization called the Distect, which is forbidden by the Tecton. Also features bonus slashiness between Digen and the Gen Companion he turns to in an attempt to avoid Ilyana, the Distect Gen.

This was the first book in the series I read and is still one of my favorites.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Mahogony Trinrose
Digen's daughter Ercy changes over and gains magic powers.

Yeah, I don't know, either.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg, RenSime!
RenSimes are ordinary Simes -- nonchannels. When Laneff Farris changed over during a visit to a friend in Gen Territory, she killed two people in her first Need and then had to go through the painful "disjunction" process of separating from the kill. Now she's a chemist looking for a substance that will identify whether fetuses will become Sime or Gen before they're born, so no one else will go through an unexpected changeover and become a killer. A terrorist group of extremist Gens will do anything to discredit her, including trying to force her to break her conditioning and kill again.

This is one of my favorites, and not just because the title has an exclamation point.


In conclusion: You know you wanna.

Comments

[yhlee]

I was all set to seek out the one with the mathematician (what? I have a kink, I own my kink) and then I saw that it was one of the dull ones. Alas!

[thuviaptarth]

There isn't much math in it, either.

[rheanna]

AWESOME. Just when I thought it couldn't get crackier, it turned out there were *tentacles* involved, too.

I haven't heard of these books before, but I so wish I'd come across them when I was a teenager.

[thuviaptarth]

Twelve or thirteen is the ideal age for them.

[kensieg]

What do you say to people who think that these are good books? I met the author at a serious (academic) gathering. She's totally anti=slash.

[vehemently]

Oh the things I missed when I was 14. This is not as shocking as the space aliens that show up at the end of the Black Stallion series, but only because some things are basically geared for space aliens and some things are not.

Certainly, the "we get off on fear and pain (but then feel really bad about it, see my single perfect mantear)" stuff is right in fandom's wheelhouse.

[thuviaptarth]

OMG, the intrusion of prophecies and aliens into the Black Stallion series was so disturbing.

Lichtenberg and Lorrah started off in Trek fandom. I'm sure you're surprised.

[vehemently]

Indeed, I recognized Lorrah's name -- probably from Camille's book -- but not the other name.

[zillah975]

the space aliens that show up at the end of the Black Stallion series


O_o


I...apparently never made it as far as the end. Or else I didn't know what was going on.

I really have to go re-read those now. Or at least the last ones.

[stranger]

Another long-ago Sime-Gen reader here, who resolutely ignored and re-wrote mentally the parts where the authors (I think this was mostly Lichtenberg, but I could be wrong) keep claiming that same-sex channelling and transfer have no sexual component. It was blindingly obvious, from House of Zeor onward that slash needed to be invented precisely to make the S/G universe complete and consistent. (It might have helped that I was already reading Darkover.) I soon graduated to K/S, but have always had a soft spot for this amazing example of id vortex writing.

[thuviaptarth]

hiya! Yeah, I got the impression the hinky sexuality stuff came from Lichtenberg, too. I was reading Darkover around the same time, but I didn't notice anything on the first read.

[stasia]

I just read my first Sime~Gen book, First Channel, and I'm really ... well, if I'd read your post before buying the two books I bought, I'd not have bought them.

I mean, I had a good time reading psychic vampire tentacle slave fic, but I'm not sure I need to read two books about it.

I'm writing up a quick review of the book; can I link to this post?

Stasia

[thuviaptarth]

Sure, go ahead.