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  #1  
Old 10-16-2009, 01:25 PM
Harmonious Discord Harmonious Discord is offline
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Identify this science fiction story

An expedition lands on a planet and one guy is killed. They catch the physically defective person that did it. It seems that the guy attacked the explorer because he couldn't kill a man in combat. The normal thing for a father to do when his son reaches puberty is to kill a man in combat. The son is fed the testosterone producing body parts to give him enough of a boost to become sexually mature. Without the boost at the critical time they remain sexually immature for life. It turns out that there is an upper class that never have to deal with the death of family for this purpose, because the lowest class is used to provide the hormone boost. The wife of the dead explorer plans to give artificial hormones to this planet and destroy this dependence.

Last edited by Harmonious Discord; 10-16-2009 at 01:26 PM.
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  #2  
Old 10-16-2009, 02:43 PM
appleciders appleciders is offline
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Oh, I read this one this summer. It was, I believe, in a collection of short stories from some particular year in the '60s, or possibly in a collection of the best stories published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Can't remember the title or author, though.
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Old 10-16-2009, 04:14 PM
Harmonious Discord Harmonious Discord is offline
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It is decades old for sure.
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Old 10-16-2009, 04:36 PM
Chronos Chronos is offline
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The Sharing of Flesh, by Poul Anderson.
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Old 10-16-2009, 04:55 PM
Harmonious Discord Harmonious Discord is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chronos View Post
The Sharing of Flesh, by Poul Anderson.
Thank you that's it. It won a Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1969.
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