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A review by theaurochs
Ten Thousand Light Years From Home by James Tiptree Jr.
4.0
First off, absolute treasure of a find in a charity shop on the isle of Mull- mid seventies edition of this book.
Secondly; Tiptree is an absolute master, although this collection definitely contains some less than stellar entries.
It is packed full with her trademark abrasive language and ideas; I feel like my mind is being expanded somewhat against my will when I read Tiptree, and it's great; the ideas forcing their way in and rattling around the inside of my cranium at somewhere near the speed of sound, sparking off each other and whatever else was already in there.
Her short stories do fantastic jobs of crafting fully realised worlds (and in some cases universes) in really minimal word-counts- the glimpses we get are very often tantalising, but they equally get across everything they want to. Short, sharp, precision stabs of incredible wit, social awareness and anger.
Some favourites include: The Man Who Walked Home; Mother In The Sky With Diamonds; I'm Too Big But I Love To Play
Less good: The Man Doors Said Hello to (too bonkers even for me); Faithful To Thee, Oh Terra, In Our Fashion & Birth of a Salesmen, only because they are doing very very similar things and the redundancy is a shame
Secondly; Tiptree is an absolute master, although this collection definitely contains some less than stellar entries.
It is packed full with her trademark abrasive language and ideas; I feel like my mind is being expanded somewhat against my will when I read Tiptree, and it's great; the ideas forcing their way in and rattling around the inside of my cranium at somewhere near the speed of sound, sparking off each other and whatever else was already in there.
Her short stories do fantastic jobs of crafting fully realised worlds (and in some cases universes) in really minimal word-counts- the glimpses we get are very often tantalising, but they equally get across everything they want to. Short, sharp, precision stabs of incredible wit, social awareness and anger.
Some favourites include: The Man Who Walked Home; Mother In The Sky With Diamonds; I'm Too Big But I Love To Play
Less good: The Man Doors Said Hello to (too bonkers even for me); Faithful To Thee, Oh Terra, In Our Fashion & Birth of a Salesmen, only because they are doing very very similar things and the redundancy is a shame