REVIEW: Breeder by Maxwell Avoi

I’d been tempted to purchase a Maxwell Avoi e-book for some time now because the synopsis of most of his many efforts was generally quite interesting and his prices were so right. However, I never did buy one because I always noticed that each offering was pretty much a short story and I like books I can read for a while and really “sink my teeth into.” 

In Breeder, Avoi finally wrote and published a lengthier then usual book. True, Breeder is not quite as long as I would have hoped, maybe 2.5 hours of listening time on my Kindle text-to-speech format, operating at the fastest setting, but the premise of this novella was right up my alley so I was up for giving it a try.

I’ve long been a science fiction fan, but for the past several years, my interest has focused pretty much on books concerning mostly gender issues. When I’ve been fortunate enough to come across one that combines sci-fi with gender swap, gender change, gender transformation, gender shape shifting, etc, I snatch it up as quick as I can. To name a couple I’ve particularly enjoyed, allow me to mention The Original Sex Gates by Darrell Bain, and Halfway Human by Carolyn Ives Gilman.

I found Breeder to be a wonderful and creative little effort. Very well written, it provides the reader with a fine and plausible story of gender switching, set in the distant future. I won’t go into the circumstances and details leading to the unwanted transmogrification that befell the main protagonist, outlined in great detail by Avoi in this book. I will say, however, that Avoi proves himself to be a very sensitive and caring soul, as well as a darn fine writer, to be able to discourse so lovingly about a fictitious segment of a futuristic population so maligned by its’ peers and disparaged by the majority of the populace for no particular reason other than being different. 

In Breeder there is quite a lot of deep philosophical stuff presented that has great application in today’s society. Not to be too mundane, there is also some really vivid and hot sex to enjoy.

This short novel is a very worthwhile read and I recommend it highly.


[Reviewed by Samuel]