Sime Gen

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.


 * Achilles Heel: Any Gen can kill the Sime first if they know where the Sime's conveniently at hand weak spots are.
 * After the End
 * All There in the Manual: There is a enormous amount of information in the fanzines and on the websites.
 * Applied Phlebotinum: In the later books, selyn technology can do all sorts of great things, to the point of displacing most other technology.
 * Being Evil Sucks: Juncts usually are sick and die young.
 * Crapsack World
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Almost everybody, given that 1/3 of all teenagers are murdered.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Given the situation, no one has much of a chance of being emotionally healthy and not living their whole life in denial. Members of Householdings are the exception. Maybe.
 * Evil Feels Good
 * Evil Is Easy
 * Evil Tastes Good
 * Fanfic: Lots of it, some of it officially recognized by the original authors.
 * Good Feels Good: But is much harder to achieve.
 * Heroic Willpower: The Tecton tries very hard to train people in this. Sometimes it works.
 * Hidden Elf Village: The Rathorites are a secret society/hidden community who have tools that could go a long way towards fixing the problems of the world, but won't reveal them because they could be misused.
 * Life Energy: Selyn
 * Liquid Assets: Selyn
 * Lost Technology: The Ancients were able to do all sorts of cool stuff.
 * Magic Feather: The Starred Cross, a symbol that will protect you from Simes if you believe in it. Justified because Simes can sense your fear.
 * Neologism
 * Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Tecton ends up being run by these.
 * Our Vampires Are Different
 * Parental Abandonment: Simes tend to die young, leaving their children to become orphans. If you are lucky, one of you will get a Promotion to Parent.
 * The President's Daughter: In House of Zeor Aisha, the Gen Territory Treasury's chief engraver. If the heroes don't get her back, Gen Territory will be conquered within a year.
 * Psychic Powers: Simes can "zlin" which lets them sense emotions and gives them a kind of X-Ray Vision.
 * Run for the Border (Type B): Anyone who changes into the wrong type for their territory has to do this. Fortunately there are Shrines of the Starred Cross as an underground railroad for Gens.
 * Single-Target Sexuality: Can happen to channels sometimes. Can be cured the obvious way.
 * Super Strength: Simes get this and Super Speed by spending extra selyn.
 * Word of God: The authors are active in the fandom and talk extensively about the setting and how it works.
 * You Fail Linguistics Forever: All Simes speak the same language, Simelan, despite communities never having any contact with each other. Retconned as being a character's ignorant statement.