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eBook Category: Science Fiction Tiptree Award Winner, Sturgeon Award Nominee, Nebula Award(R) Finalist
eBook Description: Seventeen-year-old Erno, under the spell of a rude stand-up comedian who calls himself Tyler Durden, rebels against the women-dominated lunar society he grew up in. Problem: Erno's mom is a cop.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Asimov's, 2002
Fictionwise Release Date: September 2003

670 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [104 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [88 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [86 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [312 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [96 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [119 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [154 KB] , hiebook (KML) [246 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [124 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [79 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [99 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [126 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [134 KB]
Words: 28591
Reading time: 81-114 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"Set among the Society of Cousins lunar settlement which was the scene of John Kessel's "The Juniper Tree" in 2000, "Stories for Men" follows seventeen-year-old Erno, a young man who is beginning to feel somewhat at odds with the social structure of the Society. The Society of Cousins is the ultimate antidote to centuries of patriarchy. Matronymic and egalitarian, this is a society in which biology is no longer destiny; the Society is that Woman-Centric Dream World they tried to sell us in all those Women's Studies classes in the early 1980s. Men are trained from an early age to be good sexual partners (to men and women), and while the women may control the Society and its resources, it is a benevolent control. But, look closer.

Erno meets a comedian, Tyler Durden, who is sort of a Lenny Bruce (or maybe Andrew Dice Clay). His act is designed to shock the men in the audience into realizing what all this gender role change has cost them. Much of his routine involves conversations with his penis that show the absurdity of some of the ideas that form the basis of the Society of Cousins. When a riot breaks out at the club, Erno helps Tyler escape. During the escape, Tyler finds an old paper book from the twentieth century, a collection of short stories titled, "Stories for Men," which he gives to Erno. The men in these stories (from Hemingway, Faulkner and Hammett, among others) fascinate and horrify Erno.

As it happens, Tyler has ambitions beyond being a comedian who "makes men think" and Erno, a biotech worker ("gene hacker") figures into Tyler's plan. Erno's participation in this scheme forces him (and us) to take a good long look at the Society of Cousins.

"Stories for Men" works beautifully as both SF adventure/mystery (What is Tyler really up to? Will Erno really join him?) and social commentary. I hate to use the phrase "social commentary" because what Kessel does here is so much more. As a woman, a wife, and the mother of a son, this story has had me thinking about gender and about sexual politics more in the past five days than all those Women's Studies classes put together. But the story never descends to the level of a polemic. It does what the very best SF does: it takes us down one possible future path to illuminate our present a bit more brightly. Read this one and then think."--Deborah Layne, Tangent Online (Learn more about Tangent Online, the Internet's leading SF&F short fiction review website)

Erno couldn't get to the club until an hour after it opened, so of course the place was crowded and he got stuck in the back behind three queens whose loud, aimless conversation made him edgy. He was never less than edgy anyway, Erno--a seventeen-year-old biotech apprentice known for the clumsy, earnest intensity with which he propositioned almost every girl he met.

It was more people than Erno had ever seen in the Oxygen Warehouse. Even though Tyler Durden had not yet taken the stage, every table was filled, and people stood three deep at the bar. Rosamund, the owner, bustled back and forth providing drinks, her face glistening with sweat. The crush of people only irritated Erno. He had been one of the first to catch on to Durden, and the room full of others, some of whom had probably come on his own recommendation, struck him as usurpers.

Erno forced his way to the bar and bought a tincture. Tyrus and Sid, friends of his, nodded at him from across the room. Erno sipped the cool, licorice flavored drink and eavesdropped, and gradually his thoughts took on an architectural, intricate intellectuality.

A friend of his mother sat with a couple of sons who anticipated for her what she was going to see. "He's not just a comedian, he's a philosopher," said the skinny one. His foot, crossed over his knee, bounced in rhythm to the jazz playing in the background. Erno recognized him from a party he'd attended a few months back.

"We have philosophers," the matron said. "We even have comedians."

"Not like Tyler Durden," said the other boy.

"Tyler Durden--who gave him that name?"

"I think it's historical," the first boy said.

"Not any history I ever heard," the woman said. "Who's his mother?"

Erno noticed that there were more women in the room than there had been at any performance he had seen. Already the matrons were honing in. You could not escape their sisterly curiosity, their motherly tyranny. He realized that his shoulders were cramped; he rolled his head to try to loosen the spring-tight muscles.

The Oxygen Warehouse was located in what had been a shop in the commercial district of the northwest lava tube. It was a free enterprise zone, and no one had objected to the addition of a tinctures bar, though some eyebrows had been raised when it was discovered that one of the tinctures sold was alcohol. The stage was merely a raised platform in one corner. Around the room were small tables with chairs. The bar spanned one end, and the other featured a false window that showed a nighttime cityscape of Old New York.

Rosamund Demisdaughter, who'd started the club, at first booked local jazz musicians. Her idea was to present as close to a retro earth atmosphere as could be managed on the far side of the moon, where few of the inhabitants had ever even seen the earth. Her clientele consisted of a few immigrants and a larger group of rebellious young Cousins who were looking for an avant garde. Erno knew his mother would not approve his going to the Warehouse, so he was there immediately.

He pulled his pack of fireless cigarettes from the inside pocket of his black twentieth-century suit, shook out a fag, inhaled it into life and imagined himself living back on earth a hundred years ago. Exhaling a plume of cool, rancid smoke, he caught a glimpse of his razor haircut in the mirror behind the bar, then adjusted the knot of his narrow tie.

After some minutes the door beside the bar opened and Tyler Durden came out. He leaned over and exchanged a few words with Rosamund. Some of the men whistled and cheered. Rosamund flipped a brandy snifter high into the air, where it caught the ceiling lights as it spun in the low G, then slowly fell back to her hand. Having attracted the attention of the audience, she hopped over the bar and onto the small stage.

"Don't you people have anything better to do?" she shouted.

A chorus of rude remarks.

"Welcome to The Oxygen Warehouse," she said. "I want to say, before I bring him out, that I take no responsibility for the opinions expressed by Tyler Durden. He's not my boy."