SEX WARS 2084

The latest chapter in an ongoing series set in a dystopian America in which the sexes are at war.

In the new novella from Beaudoin (Sex Wars 2084 Book Two, 2014, etc.), an army of “ultra-feminist” women have succeeded in driving a large group of men into hiding in the rugged wilderness of northern Florida. There, they live in secret encampments to avoid indoctrination into what they consider a feminist society gone berserk. The ultrafeminists sneeringly refer to this fugitive enclave as “the Wild Men,” but when a thermonuclear war suddenly wipes out most of the world’s other males—and renders many of the survivors sterile—the women are forced to change their behavior. The Wild Men’s wilderness shelters protected them from disabling radiation, and they therefore now represent humankind’s sole chance for survival. A protracted war arises, and to circumvent these hostilities, the ultrafeminists develop a series of female clones specifically designed to entice the Wild Men into mating (and equipped to force them, if necessary). Beaudoin’s third volume picks up in the middle of this conflict. Two formerly brainwashed ultrafeminist clones, Chontelle and Dominique, have learned to live their lives in the natural world with the Wild Men. The men have captured three women conditioned to support the ultrafeminist cause—and as the novella’s action opens, Wild Man leader Frederick, Chontelle and Dominique are trying to convince them of the rightness of old-fashioned gender relationships. Beaudoin tells the unfolding story mostly in dialogue, in a playlike format that’s occasionally broken up by Dominique’s first-person narration. Although some of the characters are prone to speechifying at length, the overall format keeps the plot developments moving briskly along. The book’s larger implications, of course—particularly regarding feminism—will no doubt irritate some of Beaudoin’s potential readers; it’s difficult, for example, to imagine many women enjoying this story, which is a sort of reverse-image of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). Nevertheless, there’s a good deal of engaging discussion about gender stereotypes (“Men live with the face they’re born with while women have to put on their face each morning”) and social roles here.

An imaginatively conceived tale of the future.