Four-BEE Series by Tanith Lee

It's jang to be wild and sexy and reckless and teen-age.It's jang to do daredevil tricks and even get killed a few times ... you could always come alive again.It's jang to change your body, to switch your sex, to do anything you want to keep up with the crowd.But there comes a time when you begin to think about serious things, to want to do something valid. And that's when you find out there are rules beyond the rules and that the world is something else than all they'd taught you... moreIt's jang to be wild and sexy and reckless and teen-age.It's jang to do daredevil tricks and even get killed a few times ... you could always come alive again.It's jang to change your body, to switch your sex, to do anything you want to keep up with the crowd.But there comes a time when you begin to think about serious things, to want to do something valid. And that's when you find out there are rules beyond the rules and that the world is something else than all they'd taught you.It's the brilliant author of THE BIRTHGRAVE in a strikingly different style and a startlingly different sf novel. less

Four-BEE was an utopian city. If you didn't mind being taken care of all your long long life, having a wild time as a "jang" teen-ager, able to do anything you wanted from killing yourself innumerable times, changing bodies, changing sex, and raising perpetual hell, it could be heaven. But for one inhabitant there was always something askew. He/she had tried everything and yet the taste always soured... moreFour-BEE was an utopian city. If you didn't mind being taken care of all your long long life, having a wild time as a "jang" teen-ager, able to do anything you wanted from killing yourself innumerable times, changing bodies, changing sex, and raising perpetual hell, it could be heaven. But for one inhabitant there was always something askew. He/she had tried everything and yet the taste always soured. And then he/she succeeded in committing the one illegal act--and was thrown out of heaven forever. But forever is not a term any native of that robotic utopia understood. And so he/she challenged the rules, declared independence, and set out to prove that a human was still smarter than the cleverest and most protective robot. less

In a world dedicated to pleasure, one young rebel sets out on a forbidden quest--.Published for the first time in a single volume, Tanith Lee's duet of novels set in a hedonistic Utopia are as riveting and revolutionary as they were when they first appeared two decades ago.It's a perfect existence, a world in which no pleasure is off-limits, no risk is too dangerous, and no responsibilities can cramp your style. Not if you're Jang: a caste of libertine teenagers in the city of Four BEE... moreIn a world dedicated to pleasure, one young rebel sets out on a forbidden quest--.Published for the first time in a single volume, Tanith Lee's duet of novels set in a hedonistic Utopia are as riveting and revolutionary as they were when they first appeared two decades ago.It's a perfect existence, a world in which no pleasure is off-limits, no risk is too dangerous, and no responsibilities can cramp your style. Not if you're Jang: a caste of libertine teenagers in the city of Four BEE. But when you're expected to make trouble--when you can kill yourself on a whim and return in another body, when you're encouraged to change genders at will and experience whatever you desire--you've got no reason to rebel...until making love and raising hell, daring death and running wild just leave you cold and empty.Ravenous for true adventures of the mind and body, desperate to find some meaning, one restless spirit finally bucks the system--and by shattering the rules, strikes at the very heart of a soulless society.... less