Asking for some help identifying a story I read between 20 and 25 years ago (so around Y2K)
The main elements that I remember are that it featured a post-fall setting, where an all female, Borg-like race had taken over. They would attack settlements and brainwash the women to join them, and feminize and brainwash the men too. Converted males were the ones given birthing duties.
The main character had a companion that came from a race/tribe that was androgynous until adulthood, and chooses their gender.
The main character spent some time captured by the enemy as they tried to break him. They weren't succesfull, and he either escaped or was saved by the companion. At the end of it, he's still male, and the companion chooses to be female to be with him.
Not sure how much it counts as a transgender story, but it certainly had the themes. It was more of a mind control story. Been trying to find it a while and hoping somebody has an idea or clue to help me.
Much appreciated.
borg
I dont have an answer but the story sounds interesting.
Could it be some story by Lethaldaza?
ALL her stories are about a one dimensional female race taking over the Earth, nation by nation, brainwashing the women and feminizing the men. That's all they do, humorlessly and singlemindedly, with no personalities beyond a hatred of men and a need to eradicate them by turning them into totally unfeminine THINGS like the conquerors themselves, that look like sexy women but act like viruses bent on one single goal. They go on + on about their superiority but there is nothing appealing about their lives. They don't seem to take any pleasure in their being gorgeous females and there is ZERO hot girl-on-girl sex in these stories. Totally Borg-like.
Every chapter is pretty much like the last, tedious in the extreme; and so full of typos, incomrehensible run-on sentences and mangled prose they're barely readable. The dialogue is all k And the author herself seemed to be really into the idea. But they do fit your description pretty closely. Here's a typical chapter from early in the first story she posted, called History Has Changed and the Earth is Now Ruled by Amazon Women:
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/57595/amazons-future-...
~hugs and good luck finding your story, Veronica
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
Search continues
Skimmed a few chapters, I see where your characterization comes from. Doesn't match.
So one thing I remember is that while they were brainwashed, they still retained their identity (the author specifically pointed out that it wasn't that they were a hive mind so much as a hive will.). They worked to continue expanding and supporting their society but weren't mindless. I do recall a scene where he spoke to a woman he knew before she was converted and talked to her about it
I'm hesitant to call it transgender, at least in the modern sense as there wasn't much of a personal journey for most of the characters regarding sex and gender. But the story did have an adventure element, at least for the mc, rather than just "and now you're a girl".
The Chrysanthemum Inheritance?
Could it be The Chrysanthemum Inheritance, a collection of stories by Nicki Benson? They feature a group of women with a hive mind, called the Kuzkardesh Gara.
Don’t know if it fits the description exactly, but it is a possible?
Either way, I'm going to read
Either way, I'm going to read through some more of this, but I'm doubtful
That said, one thing I didn't mention, mostly out of lack of confidence, was that the hive race did have a name. I had recalled it as "Kalamarane" but 20+ years of mind fog means that could be all over the place. So seeing you suggest a K race was interesting. But I also keep getting the Star Trek race (calamarane) if I try and find it
The other thing I recall is that the name was something like "The Traveller" but again .. twenty years of mind fog there. So those two elements are ones that are super shaky.
One other quote I recall somewhat distinctly was along the line of "because I'd been born male, I would be brainwashed, feminized, and impregnated" although that's almost certainly a digestion.
I appreciate the suggestions so far though. This honestly is going way back in the headspace, so it's crazy foggy and who knows what else has mucked into it in the recollection.