The Dialectic of Sex. Shulamith Firestone (Bantam, $1.25). Abyss. Kate Wilhelm (Doubleday, $4.95). The Light Fantastic. Ed. Harry Harrison (Scribner's, $5.95). Partners in Wonder. Harlan Ellison (collaborations with various authors) (Walker, $8.95). The Day After Judgment. James Blish (Doubleday, $4.95)

It's long been a truism of our field that science fiction is better at gadgets than people. Unfortunately the truism is also a truth. Our social extrapolation is pretty much in the state technical extrapolation used to be – one change projected into the future without the (necessarily) accompanying changes in everything else. Even the supposed innovations in social structure almost always turn out to be regressive – e.g. Heinlein's family system in Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a patriarchal, patrilocal “stem” family very like those of the middle ages, with the added feature of droit du seigneur for the men (in order of seniority). None of this is new.

The most exciting social extrapolation around nowadays can be found in The Dialectic of Sex by Shulamith Firestone. You will have a hard time with this book if you believe that Capitalism is God's Way or that Manly Competition is the Law of the Universe – but then you can go back to reading The Skylark of Valeron or whatever and forget about the real future. Firestone is a radical, a feminist, a Marxist (or rather, a thinker who has absorbed both Marx and Freud) and the author of a tough, difficult, analytic, fascinating book. In her extrapolated future:

In fact, culture as we know it will vanish, to be replaced by serious play and direct satisfaction.

Childhood, a fairly recent invention, will vanish.

The family will “die” – that is, the parental role will be diffused to everybody, just as the “feminine” role will be diffused to everybody.

Children will be compensated by society for their physical weakness and their inexperience.

Artificial reproduction will be available as an option (it is very close to being possible right now).