Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee (1999, Paperback)

This is collection of two novels. I read the second Drinking Sapphire Wine first as a teenager and it's great as a stand alone novel. Reading Don't Bite the Sun gave me the background to understand the heroine/hero's (as you can switch bodies gender, color, antenna and all!) actions and why she/he chose instead of PD (where your personality is wiped and you "return" as a child to a " so called utopia" where anything except murder, true love and a meaningful life are permitted). Imagine - never having to work, being eternally young and carefree until you chose to move on to adult status where you stay in a young body until you chose to have your personality wiped so you can start it all over again and over again and again.

I really identified with the main character with my first read, who's name is never mentioned in either novel, as she/he was a loner as I was and still am to most extent and saw the world in a different light than others as well as had a love for pets, archaeology and the desert. I have read this book over and over and over and still enjoy it today as an adult. Along with the Sliver Metal Lover these are my favorite novels from Tanith Lee's great volume of work. When I was a teen I indoctrinated my friends to these novels and we used the "Jang slang" (teen slang) in our everyday language and notes. My first copies were LOST by a friend who SAID they were stolen out of his locker - HA! I don't BELIVE it. He was either obsessed with me (which he later outgrew and married a lovely lady) and wanted a memento or just didn't want to buy his own copies to read over and over! Along with the SF of body and sex changes there is the background of human emotions, which have been squashed to only "good" emotions by hypnoschool and androids who perform every function for you, revealing some of the darker emotions of the characters and love which will endure the ages. Exiled from the four Bee's, the main character (who was the first and only mandatory exile)and her/his friends/lovers and followers and some furry desert animals struggle to make an existence outside the dome - which except for a little android sabotage (AGAINST their programing!), turns out to be a better life than in the cities and the main characters find true love instead of having love of the domes and a meaningful existence instead of merely living. Would I read this again - yes I have - over and over.