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A review by mburnamfink
Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree Jr.
3.0
I couldn't imagine a more 70s piece of science fiction if it showed up and challenged me to a disco dance competition, and I own a replica Zardoz mask. Tiptree weaves a tripart plot about telepathy, alien minds, and salvation.
THE DESTROYER is some kind of immense and ancient interstellar war-machine on an endless journey between systems, obliterating intelligent life by forcing their stars to go nova. It speaks in ITALICS ALL CAPS. Tyree is a gas giant world soon to be targeted by THE DESTROYER, where a civilization of telepathic wind dwelling mantas have a complex and peaceful society based around the wisdom of Fathers, and shared engram-experience patterns. On Earth, Dr. Daniel Dann is a drug addicted medical advisor to a U.S. Navy psi project to develop telepathic communications, which will be used to transmit orders to nuclear submarines.
The Tyreen embark on a desperate plan to transmit some of their minds telepathically to Earth, which might ensure their survival but is also their worst kind of crime. Dr. Dann mopes about his alienation and sexual frustration and the futility of the project. Then as doom approaches Tyree, Dann swaps minds with Giadoc, a Tyreen scientist. He learns telepathy, tries to heal the others as they seek shelter from THE DESTROYER deep within the gas giant, and then when all is lost, it turns out that THE DESTROYER has been partially hijacked by Margorie Omali, a brilliant African-American computer programmer, and TOTAL, a variant of the ARPANET. Dann, the Tyreens, and everybody struggles for mental integrity within the vast bulk of THE DESTROYER.
There's at least two really cool ideas here, gas giant civilizations and alien berserkers, and bunch of stuff about telepathy and alternate senses and socialities. As I've heard, Tiptree has a keen and ironic eye for gender politics, and there's some good style there, but so much of the story is buried under flopsy cruft that it's hard to discern what happens, or why we should care. The Tyreen's are so utopian they can't seem to conceive of their extinction except rationally. The whole thing feels rather half-baked.
I think I'd like to read some of Tiptree's short stories, but this first book has not impressed me.
THE DESTROYER is some kind of immense and ancient interstellar war-machine on an endless journey between systems, obliterating intelligent life by forcing their stars to go nova. It speaks in ITALICS ALL CAPS. Tyree is a gas giant world soon to be targeted by THE DESTROYER, where a civilization of telepathic wind dwelling mantas have a complex and peaceful society based around the wisdom of Fathers, and shared engram-experience patterns. On Earth, Dr. Daniel Dann is a drug addicted medical advisor to a U.S. Navy psi project to develop telepathic communications, which will be used to transmit orders to nuclear submarines.
The Tyreen embark on a desperate plan to transmit some of their minds telepathically to Earth, which might ensure their survival but is also their worst kind of crime. Dr. Dann mopes about his alienation and sexual frustration and the futility of the project. Then as doom approaches Tyree, Dann swaps minds with Giadoc, a Tyreen scientist. He learns telepathy, tries to heal the others as they seek shelter from THE DESTROYER deep within the gas giant, and then when all is lost, it turns out that THE DESTROYER has been partially hijacked by Margorie Omali, a brilliant African-American computer programmer, and TOTAL, a variant of the ARPANET. Dann, the Tyreens, and everybody struggles for mental integrity within the vast bulk of THE DESTROYER.
There's at least two really cool ideas here, gas giant civilizations and alien berserkers, and bunch of stuff about telepathy and alternate senses and socialities. As I've heard, Tiptree has a keen and ironic eye for gender politics, and there's some good style there, but so much of the story is buried under flopsy cruft that it's hard to discern what happens, or why we should care. The Tyreen's are so utopian they can't seem to conceive of their extinction except rationally. The whole thing feels rather half-baked.
I think I'd like to read some of Tiptree's short stories, but this first book has not impressed me.