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A review by lordenglishssbm
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree Jr.
3.0
I wish I hadn't listened to this in audiobook form, because the main appeal of the collection is Tiptree's (real name Alice Sheldon) prose. Her stories are generally well-written and intelligent. They're also very thematically repetitive.
The stories are about men and women, and specifically men who are unable to understand women because of social and scientific pressures, who frequently destroy said women or themselves (or both, or sometimes all of humanity) because of that divide. The context changes but the thrust of the stories remains the same, and the collection as a whole begins to feel predictable, and I never quite finished it because of that, even though I have a lot of respect for Tiptree's skill.
The Women Men Don't See is probably the best story of the ones I read, and The Girl Who Was Plugged In is fascinating because it's a cyberpunk story that predates Neuromancer. I don't know if I'd say that the whole collection is worth it, but if you read nothing else, at least read those two stories.
The stories are about men and women, and specifically men who are unable to understand women because of social and scientific pressures, who frequently destroy said women or themselves (or both, or sometimes all of humanity) because of that divide. The context changes but the thrust of the stories remains the same, and the collection as a whole begins to feel predictable, and I never quite finished it because of that, even though I have a lot of respect for Tiptree's skill.
The Women Men Don't See is probably the best story of the ones I read, and The Girl Who Was Plugged In is fascinating because it's a cyberpunk story that predates Neuromancer. I don't know if I'd say that the whole collection is worth it, but if you read nothing else, at least read those two stories.