Sime Gen

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Sime Gen series of science fiction novels were written by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah. The series consists of eight novels and two short stories.

Humanity has split into two types, the Gens who produce selyn and Simes who must get selyn from Gens to survive. Gens look like pre-split humans, while Simes have tentacles growing out of their arms. If a Sime tries to suck selyn out of a Gen who doesn't resist and isn't afraid, both of them enjoy it immensely. If the Gen resists or is afraid, the Gen dies and the Sime is "junct", addicted to killing.

Naturally this leads to The End of the World as We Know It. To ensure that this is a total Crapsack World, one-third of the children of one type will be the other type. And there is no way to tell which you are until you "establish" or "changeover" as a teenager.

So if you live in Gen territory, you grow up knowing there is a one-third chance that you will turn into a monster and kill your friends and family, unless they beat you to death before you have finished changing. And your parents know this, too.

And if you live in Sime territory, you grow up knowing there is a one-third chance that one day all the adults will stop considering you a human being and instead think of you as a tasty, tasty treat. And your parents know this too.

Dysfunction Junction ensues.

Centuries later, Rimon Farris discovers that he is a "channel" who can take selyn from any Gen without hurting them, and give it to other Simes so they don't need to kill every month. Now the trick is to convince Simes that not killing isn't a sick perversion, and to convince Gens that Simes don't have to be evil killing machines. This first happens in communal "Householdings" in Sime territory, and eventually the whole world changes to the channeling system under the Tecton.


The books and short stories are:

  • First Channel (1980) – Reconstruction Era
  • Channel's Destiny (1982) – Reconstruction Era
  • House of Zeor (1974) – Householding Era
  • Ambrov Keon (1986) – Householding Era
  • Zelerod's Doom (1986) – Householding Era
  • Unto Zeor, Forever (1978) – Tecton Era
  • Mahogany Trinrose (1981) – Tecton Era
  • "Operation High Time" (1969) – Tecton Era
  • Rensime (1984) – Tecton Era
  • "The Channel's Exemption" (1977) – Space-faring Era

The series has an official Web site and at least one unauthorized one.

Tropes used in Sime Gen include: