Subject: Book Review - Her Smoke Rose up Forever / Brightness Falls From the Air

From: [email-masked] (Danny Yee)
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 1994 23:13:32 GMT

title: Her Smoke Rose up Forever
        by: James Tiptree, Jr. [Alice Sheldon]
 publisher: Arkham House 1990
  subjects: science fiction, short fiction
     other: 520 pages, US$25.95

     title: Brightness Falls from the Air
        by: James Tiptree, Jr. [Alice Sheldon]
 publisher: Tom Doherty 1985
  subjects: science fiction
     other: 382 pages, US$9.95

_Her Smoke Rose up Forever_ is an anthology of eighteen science fiction
stories compiled from the published collections of James Tiptree, Jr.
(the pseudonym of Alice Sheldon).  Even after several months to
reflect, I would rank it as the single most impressive volume of
science fiction stories by one author I have ever read.  The mood
of the stories is almost uniformly dark, with themes centering on
death and sex (many of the stories are strongly feminist, including
the famous "The Women Men don't See" and "Houston, Houston, do
you Read?"), and reading them is at the same time both emotionally
draining and exhilarating.  A few of the stories (such as "We Who
Stole the Dream" or "And I Have Come Upon this Place by Lost Ways")
are a little contrived, but their failings are only obvious next to
their companions, some of which are perfectly cut gems, almost too
brilliant to look at.  Tiptree is inventive and has some original
ideas, but it is the sheer power of her writing and its emotional
engagement which is most impressive: I don't think I will ever be
able to forget stories like "Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces
Filled of Light!", "The Screwfly Solution" and "Love is the Plan;
the Plan is Death".  _Her Smoke Rose up Forever_ is not a volume to
be tackled lightly, but it is definitely worth making an effort for.
As Ursula LeGuin summarized in an introduction to one of Tiptree's
collections (reprinted in _The Language of the Night_, and the reason
I went looking for Tiptree's works):

    Here are 
    Some real stories.

--

_Brightness Falls from the Air_ is the second of Tiptree's two novels.
Though less demanding than the short stories, it shares similar themes.
Here, however, too many ideas and devices - two kinds of aliens, time
travel, genocide, torture, various kinds drugs - are deployed and
too much is contrived to fit them all together.  It would, however,
be churlish to harp on the problems. _Brightness Falls from the Air_
is an impressive novel, and it is only in comparison with some of
the short stories that it is found wanting.

--

%A 	Tiptree, James Jr. (Alice Sheldon)
%T 	Her Smoke Rose up Forever
%I 	Arkham House
%C 	Sauk City, Wisconsin
%D 	1990
%G 	ISBN 0-87054-160-9
%P 	520pp
%O 	hardcover, US$25.95
%K 	science fiction, short fiction

%A 	Tiptree, James Jr. (Alice Sheldon)
%T 	Brightness Falls from the Air
%I 	Tom Doherty
%C 	New York
%D 	1985
%G 	ISBN 0-312-85407-2
%P 	382pp
%O 	paperback, US$9.95
%K 	science fiction

Danny Yee ([email-masked])
16 November 1994

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