"Steve's Story" by Steve3925 (Steve3925@aol.com). This is a marvelously well-written story. I could write a whole issue of Celestial Reviews about this one story. Instead, I'll try to focus as concisely as possible on a few key ideas.

The story is about a 16-year-old boy who has testicular cancer and has to undergo surgery. The narrative is written in the form of a diary; and Steve's daily entries show how his thoughts and emotions change as a result of the operation and subsequent hormonal therapy. The story gives the impression of sensitive, touching realism.

One potential problem with the story is the medical angle. This surgery simply does NOT typically have effects like those described in this story. To the author's credit, he points this out repeatedly by having the doctor say that this is an extremely unusual reaction. Actually, it's my opinion that it's so unusual that it's science fiction. Reactions like this occur approximately as often as people engage in time travel. The story IS realistic once we suspend our disbelief enough to believe that the reaction described in the story is possible and has occurred to Steve. On the other hand, there are probably thousands of young men who undergo this kind of surgery every year. The last thing they need is to be anxious that they are being turned into a girl.

Let me repeat what I said in a previous issue about castration, which is the surgical removal of one or both testicles of a male person or animal in order to suppress the development or function of the sexual glands. (In the present story the purpose is to destroy a cancerous growth; the effects stated in the preceding sentence are side effects.) Male farm animals are castrated, or gelded, in order to improve the breed or make the animals more docile; house pets may be castrated to keep them from wandering or producing unwanted offspring.

Nowadays castration may be performed on men with cancer of the prostate or certain diseases of the testicles. If the operation is done after puberty, it produces sterility but has little or no effect on secondary sex characteristics. Hormonal treatments enable the castrated person to function like a normal male (except that he is sterile, having received the equivalent of a vasectomy). It WOULD be medically possible to follow castration with a sex-change operation; but this would require a separate, deliberate operation.

I'm certain that there are medical types out there in my audience. If I am inaccurate, please let me know. I won't embarrass you. I'll just incorporate corrections into a future review when the author reposts this story.

A second problem arises from the labeling of this story with the "alphabet soup" that typically follows the title on the subject line. This one was unlabeled. Dr. Bob, the author of the Story Codes FAQ, argues convincingly that such labels are important, because they enable readers to zero in on stories that they will like and to avoid topics in which they are not interested. The problem is that it would be very difficult and possibly counterproductive to label this story. Without using the "alphabet soup," I have labeled this as "emerging adolescence." I assume a correct Story Code for this story would be TG (for transgender), because the protagonist essentially changes from a boy to a girl during the story. The problem is that notifying the reader up front that this is a TG story would possibly ruin the story's impact. As it is, we are able to discover the changes in the boy's body and emotions at about the same time he does; and I would hate to ruin that by giving away the plot in the subject line.

As I have said, this is an excellent story. I encourage you to read it; and I plan to look for other stories by this author.