Commitment Hour

Blurb

Commitment Hour is a science fiction novel by James Alan Gardner, published in 1998. The novel is set in Gardner's "League of Peoples's" futuristic universe, and plays out in the small, isolated village of Tober Cove. Set on post-apocalyptic Earth, Tober Cove most resembles a rural, seventeenth century fishing village, with one exception: every year, everyone below the age of 21 changes gender. At the age of twenty-one, the people of the village must "commit" to being male, female or both in the form of a Hermaphrodite, forever. Commitment Hour follows the day leading up to the main character's hour of commitment.
Tober Cove's society revolves around gender. Dualistic in structure, there is a matriarch and a patriarch, both of whom command equal - but different - power within the community. The patriarch is the head of the city council and the military, which also serves as the town's police force. The matriarch runs the town's health services, a vital role in a society without modern medicine. Tasks within the community are largely gender determined: men are warriors, fishermen, carpenters etc. and women are seamstresses, craft-makers, food preparers etc.