From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Nov 23 13:31:37 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.books.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.written Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: danny@staff.cs.su.oz.au (Danny Yee) Subject: Book Review - Her Smoke Rose up Forever / Brightness Falls From the Air Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Organization: Basser Dept of Computer Sciece, Uni of Sydney, Australia Date: Mon, 21 Nov 1994 23:13:32 GMT Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Lines: 83 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.books.reviews:30 rec.arts.sf.reviews:679 rec.arts.books:102456 rec.arts.sf.written:81721 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 (danny@cs.su.oz.au) 16 November 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------- All book reviews by Danny Yee are available via anonymous FTP ftp.anatomy.su.oz.au in /danny/book-reviews (index INDEX) or URL http://www.anatomy.su.oz.au/danny/book-reviews/index.html ------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (C) Danny Yee 1994 : Comments and criticism welcome ------------------------------------------------------------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Sep 12 12:54:23 1996 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!news.stealth.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.sgi.com!uhog.mit.edu!news!news From: agapow@latcs1.cs.latrobe.edu.au (p-m agapow) Subject: Review: "10,000 Lightyears from Home" by James Tiptree Jr. Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Keywords: author= p-m agapow Lines: 55 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu (Graystreak) Organization: Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Biologists X-Newsreader: (ding) Gnus v0.94 Date: Fri, 6 Sep 1996 14:37:34 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Lines: 55 "10,000 Lightyears from Home" by James Tiptree Jr A Postview, copyright 1996 p-m agapow A short story collection featuring "Faithful to thee, Terra, in our fashion" where a harassed bureaucrat attempts to manage a racetrack frequented by aliens from thousands of worlds; "Mama come home" where a group of intelligence analysts come to grips with a strangely emasculating First Contact; "And I awoke and found me here on the cold hill's side" where human are placed in the role of natives paddling out to the ships of a strange and more advanced world outside; and more. When Alice Sheldon, psychologist and one-time CIA employee, took it upon herself in 1987 to commit suicide, it also destroyed her literary alter ego James Tiptree Jr. Any suicide is sad, and the sorrow surrounding Sheldon/ Tiptree's is extended by watching her work slip slowly out of print and into oblivion. After searching nearly a dozen worthwhile bookstores in recent weeks, i came up with only two worn second-hand volumes. Hopefully, as with the recent re-issue of Alfred Bester's work, someone will take it onto themselves to rerelease the Tiptree canon. In the mean time you may be fortunate enough to find "Her Smoke Rose Up Forever" edited by James Turner, a good solid collection. "10,000 Lightyears" collects about a dozen stories from the early 70s. There's a rare quality to many of them, that makes you envious that you hadn't written them. After finishing some stories, you wish there was more to go on reading. Sometimes Tiptree was effortlessly talented, giving depth and verisimilitude as well as a great deal of humour to scenarios that were in many ways ridiculous: the giant uber-female aliens of "Mama come home," the pan-galactic races of "Faithful to thee Terra." "The [aliens] had been in our system exactly thirteen hours, during which the united brains of Earth had demonstrated all the initiative of a shocked opossum." There's a bleakness here, too, that in the hands of lesser authors -- and unfortunately in her later work -- would consume and nullify the story. "And I awoke" and "The man who walked home," about a time traveller heading back in time to the point of global destruction, are both about deeply hopeless situations, yet they don't wallow in this and deter you from reading on. Truthfully some stories do not work as well as others. Several (e.g "I'm too big but I love to play") smack too much of early 70's self-absorption and the issues of the time to age well. And occasionally Tiptree carries a story far, too far, on the basis of a clever analogy or punchline. But these are minor quibbles, and the collection can only be recommended. Once again, let's hope Tiptree gets back into print, soon. [***/interesting] and Charlie Parker on the Sid and Nancy scale. %A James Tiptree Jr. %B 10,000 Lightyears from Home %D 1973 paul-michael agapow (agapow@latcs1.oz.au), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse [archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/]