The Frenchman Gabriel De Foigny wrote this imaginary voyage novel set in terra incognita (Australia) in the 1670's, fifty years before the appearance of "Gulliver's Travels". This early lost race/science fiction novel has many attractions. First and perhaps foremost, it is a rousing adventure yarn replete with perils among a strange race of semi-human hermaphrodites; daring escapes; fights with monstrous creatures; and well-realized battle scenes. Second, it is a brilliant philosophical and sociological work which envisions a very strange, proto-communistic culture that is brought intensly to life. De Foigny uses this race of hermaphrodites as a foil to examine 17th century Europe's concepts of sexuality and society. It is amazing that in the early days of the novel, with very few prototypes to turn to, De Foigny would attempt a work that succeeds as an adventure story, a delightful fantasy, a dark dystopia, and an examination of the philosophical and mor! al tenets of the era, but De Foigny's remarkable novel works on these levels and more. Briefly, the book's protagonist, Sadeur, is carried to the shores of terra incognita in the clutches of a huge, predatory, Roc-like bird of prey. He is rescued by a civilized race that vaguely resembles humans. The individuals are eight feet tall, of a reddish hue, are hermaphrodites, and many have a second set of arms. Their social framework is equally unfamiliar, being communal and socialistic. All things are owned in common, there are no personal possessions, and human emotions such as covetousness, competetiveness, and even love are held in contempt. These creatures also have a drug culture, and their own strange sciences, and they have acheived the art of creating living creatures, although these creatures have fatal flaws that allow them to live only for several days. From the beginning Sadeur is loathed for his unisexual nature and because he is suspected to be a member of the ! hated human race, and he only manages to survive through th! e patronage of a high minded and powerful sage. After an exposition of the strange society he finds himself among (this is a common feature of lost race novels, and would be a bit tedious if De Foigny's creation were not so fascinating), and a string of adventures including the incursion of "sea monsters" that turn out to be a convoy of European explorers that are massacred after a savage battle, Sadeur's patron dies and things become dicey for him. The hermaphrodites wage war against a tribe of humans on a neighboring island, and Sadeur is forced to fight against his own kind. His heart is not in it, and after rescuing one of the human women and hiding her, he is caught by several of the hermaphrodites engaging in a sexual dalliance with the woman. The level of disgust the hermaphrodites feel over this discovery can barely be expressed. After killing the woman, they imprison Sadeur and condemn him to a ritualistic death. Sadeur escapes from this predicament by! means of secretly taming one of the huge predatory birds, which carries him out of the country in the same manner in which he entered it. It is hoped that this thumbnail sketch successfully conveys some of the interest of this fascinating work. My review will be worthwhile if helps convince a few more readers to find their way to this obscure and unjustly neglected novel.