Description:Mid-century SF and pulp novels from Beacon Books, scanned by gnv64 as a group of 53 Erotic Novels, OCRed to make them searchable.
Philip Jose Farmer's Flesh feels like a drug induced haze where nothing feels right and very little makes sense most of the time. A space crew returns to Earth after an interstellar journey where relativistic time dilation brings them home 800 years into the future. They arrive to a planet almost unrecognizable to 20th century man. Societies have been balkanized into various religious cults with a focus on pagan fertility rites. The captain of the ship is declared a 'Sunhero' who sole function is to impregnate as many women as possible between the solstices after undergoing a procedure of horn grafting that amps his virility. The rest of his crew face various hardships in adjustment, until finally an exit strategy is formulated.
Farmer was telegraphing the impact of the sexual revolution of the 60's. Although 800 years may be sufficient for such a dramatic societal transition, the story still seems a bit crude and poorly executed. At the same time while the sexual emphasis was soft-pedaled (there is nothing graphic), there is also a tendency to violent expressions of routine activities and vigilante justice.