https://varley.net/

I picked it up one day with the intent to just read the first paragraph to see what it was about. 3-4 hours letter I had finished the book without realising.

This happened again, twice. Such a good book.

May he rest in peace.

This is one of the more fascinating things about Varley's world.

Unlike today's primitive surgical and hormone treatments, they had a much more elegant solution. You would have a new body of the opposite sex grown in a tank, and when it was ready, a medico would remove your brain from your old body and place it into your new body.

So instead of being in a medical approximation of your new gender, you really were that gender, with your old brain and all your memories intact.

It was so commonplace that people would change back and forth many times. You may ask a friend in casual conversation, "When did you have your first Change?"

A "medico" was something like what we would call a "doctor" today, but they were not considered nearly as highly skilled and highly paid. Basically a mechanic for your brain and body.