Commitment Hour

by James Alan Gardner

Book Overview

In the twenty-fifth century, Tober Cove is a wonderful place to be. With most of Earth's population long since departed for other planets, and with them the technology that makes such a journey... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380798271
• ISBN13: 9780380798278
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: Eos
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Interesting Fable on Gender Identity

This book set in a community where non-adults switch genders every year is a fascinating take on sexual identity.The narrater, Fullen, is especially enteresting.Fullen's feamale half even has different views than Fullen's male half.Wheras the former has liberal views, the latter is slightly conservative. And finally, I liked the twist ending which makes out the male Fullen's view of Neuters to be ironic.

Pick a sex

In Tober Cove, the humans change yearly from male to female, until their twentieth year when they must commit to being male or female, or to be neuter (a hermaphrodite), and thereby exiled and possibly executed. Fullin's Commitment Day is coming up, and it's not as smooth sailing as every other year's because a visiting scientist bring with him Steck, a neut who was exiled from Tober Cove twenty years ago. Fullin learns the history of his own heritage, and finds out that the Tober Cove's gods are not what everyone thought they were. I think this book is utterly fascinating (especially about the gender and sex roles commentary) and totally compelling. It's rough at the beginning, but soon I couldn't put it down. Steck's motivations for coming back to Tober Cove make perfect sense. Definitely recommended reading in my world!

Spans the age gap.

Great story! It spans the age gap--my son loaned it to me and I couldn't put it down. Alot of heavy questions wraped up in a delightfully colorful story. I like that Gardner doesn't try to answer or pass judment on the questions his story raises--just asking is more thought provoking than preaching. A good read.

A Good Twist To An Old Idea

Well, that was one interesting book! The first few pages brought me right into the story, so I picked the book up right away. The character Fullin was really interesting, along with his girl/boy (whatever) friend, Cappie -- which was written all in first-person point of view (Fullin's view). The way he views his world, and once the climax finally came in the story held very well to how he would have acted. (If you haven't already read the first review of this book, you lucked out. I felt he gave most of the book away right there!). Anyway from a guy that RARELY picks books to read, I found a gem here.

---great read about gender-switching culture---

I really enjoyed this book. It sucked me in and kept me guessing up until the end. I found the idea of gender-switching humans to be quite original, at least from my own reading history. :-) The concept of gender, and the ideas we traditionally associate with it, has always fascinated me. One thing I like about this book is that it doesn't shy away from the fact that we DO tend to categorize and compartmentalize people according to sex. It was nice to see that even in their male personas, the people of Tober Cove were very caring and loving toward their children, effectively dispelling the myth that only women can be nurturing. The book also touches on belief systems and how strongly people will hold onto their ideas even when faced with contradictory evidence, but the main character also seems to realize that faith really has a life of its own, a purpose, independent of "proof" either for or against.