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A review by testpattern
Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree Jr.
5.0
This is one of those books that make me say, yes that's what science fiction should be. Meditations upon gender and species, the nature and scale of existence, all culminating in a glorious affirmation of the place that love occupies in a scientific universe.
This is one of those books where a plot summary just doesn't do much justice, but here goes. There are three narrative threads that become more and more entwined as the novel climaxes: on our planet, a group of extremely damaged individuals are the subjects of a military study attempting to harness psychic communication. On the planet Tyree, a race of superpsychic airborne manta-rays come to realize that their planet is endangered. The menace they face is an inconceivably vast, somewhat deranged interstellar entity that destroys suns without really thinking, and warps localized time in space the way that you or I might pluck a blade of grass, all the while trying to understand what the hell it's supposed to be doing. Along the way, the real events of the book unfold: sacrifice and forgiveness, acceptance, the fluidity of gender roles and self-definition, and our capacity to heal and support one another. And ultimately, our desire to transcend, to go up the titular walls of the world.
I know that's all fairly vague, but I really can't be any more specific. This is one of those books that sort of washes over you, that you just have to let happen. I encourage you to give it a try.
This is one of those books where a plot summary just doesn't do much justice, but here goes. There are three narrative threads that become more and more entwined as the novel climaxes: on our planet, a group of extremely damaged individuals are the subjects of a military study attempting to harness psychic communication. On the planet Tyree, a race of superpsychic airborne manta-rays come to realize that their planet is endangered. The menace they face is an inconceivably vast, somewhat deranged interstellar entity that destroys suns without really thinking, and warps localized time in space the way that you or I might pluck a blade of grass, all the while trying to understand what the hell it's supposed to be doing. Along the way, the real events of the book unfold: sacrifice and forgiveness, acceptance, the fluidity of gender roles and self-definition, and our capacity to heal and support one another. And ultimately, our desire to transcend, to go up the titular walls of the world.
I know that's all fairly vague, but I really can't be any more specific. This is one of those books that sort of washes over you, that you just have to let happen. I encourage you to give it a try.