Uncovering Writing

3 of 5 stars

Alice Sheldon, writing as James Tiptree, Jr., has created some amazing stories, and experimented with language and writing in her works. This collection of her short stories is okay.

Of the 12 stories included here, I only found 4 that I liked. The two I liked the best were “And I Have Come Upon This Place By Lost Ways” and “The Last Flight of Dr. Ain”. The latter was very haunting. I also liked “The Women Men Don’t See”, which was especially pertinent today when it says that when a crisis hits, the equality of men & women is thrown out and men turn women back into their “property” with no more rights. This is playing out in Republican states throughout America today. Included in this collection is a story of hers I read before, “The Girl Who Was Plugged In”. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1974. I read it first as part of Tor Double #7. I had the same opinion this time. I liked it but it wasn’t a favorite.

I still think that “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” is her best work. It won the 1976 Nebula Award and 1977 Hugo Award for Best Novella. Start there first.

5 of 5 stars

Possibly one of the best sci-fi books I’ve ever read. Such beautiful prose, provocative plot, fully developed characters, especially women, and did I mention, beautiful prose? A take on cloning developed more fully than anything I’d read before and a sci-fi book that is most psychological. One of the high points of 70s sci-fi new wave.

5 of 5 stars

A stunning, exciting and dark look into the future. Quality writing and an intriguing plot make this quick read an essential read. Blows my mind on one level that it’s from 1972, but then, without the sci-fi component, it’s spot on 70s literature. Once more: loved it.ew WN

4 of 5 stars

It seems at times like this novel shouldn’t work, but then it does. The writing is superb, as always with Russ. It’s one that you need to let sit in your mind awhile to further digest and explore.

5 of 5 stars

A dark, disturbing, visceral tour de force, representing some the best New Wave sci-if I’ve read. Predictable at points but you are locked into the seat and the ride doesn’t stop until the end.

3 of 5 stars

An exciting and interesting exploration of gender that the sci-fi genre is so perfect for to explore. There is some great dialogue, but it is hurt by the messy introduction of chunks of exposition that break up an otherwise well-written story. The last chapter also felt like rushed preaching, not aligned with the well-played earlier parts. I’m glad I read it and wish I had known about it and read it back when it came out.

4 of 5 stars

Beautifully written dark sci-fi whose social commentary hits you hard and fast. Still as relevant today as it was in 1979. I didn’t care for the ending but I was thinking four stars throughout my entire time reading, with hints of five now and then. Another female writer I knew nothing about and am overjoyed to finally read. I have another of her books in my to-read list and I look forward to it.

5 of 5 stars

This was psychologically chilling: solitude, sleeping crew mates, advancing fascism, descent into madness or only a dream of it. Wonderfully written.

The politics are shockingly relevant for today though it also was perfect for 1969 as well. The times, they are a changing’ but not that much at all… The world he describes is like life in US today, esp under Trump and Republicans denials of crises. (pp 36-7).

I haven’t had a read lately that I immediately thought needed to go onto my favorites list. This novel felt that way after I was halfway through and it never faltered. So enjoyed.

5 of 5 stars

Kate Wilhelm comes into her own in this collection of stories (both sci-fi and not). I read some of her later works and have now been working from her earliest to latest pieces. In “The Mile-Long Spaceship”, her collection of stories from the late 1950s and early 1960s, you had hints of her style: deep, psychological, strongly written characters, but only hints. With her late 1960s book “The Killer Thing” (1967), she seemingly had come into her own, with strong writing and good storytelling. With this collection of stories from the late 1960s, you can see she’s confident, strong, and all the Wilhelm-esque techniques and styles are in place. A fantastic read, never wavered from a 5 * rating for me. As for the individual stories, I have a few light comment below. My favorite pieces were “Baby , You Were Great”, “When The Moon Was Red”, “How Many Miles To Babylon?”, “Countdown”, “A Time To Keep”, “The Most Beautiful Woman In The World”, and “Windsong”. I know, a lot of favorites, but Kate Wilhelm IS that good.

• Unbirthday Party: early Wilhelm. Interesting but not emotionally fulfilling like her later work.
• Baby, You Were Great: dark Wilhelm. Not as subtle as she will become but this is her feel and utterly enjoyable.
• When the Moon Was Red: really good, dark Wilhelm. The style I fell in love with with her later work. Best story so far.
• Sirloin and White Wine: unusual story, well written psychology, her trait.
• Perchance to Dream: cute. Kind of like an Alfred Hitchcock 30 min light drama. Ended too quickly and too neat, though. Lots of paths to “Wilhelm” it that weren’t taken. Still, fun.
• How Many Miles to Babylon?: dark, disturbing.
• The Downstairs Room: good writing but I wasn’t interested in story.
• Countdown: good development, strong final two words. Was initially thinking not that great but the Zeitgeist nails it.
• The Plausible Improbable: meh
• The Feel of Desperation: again, good writing but final twist at end seems like a ploy.
• A Time to Keep: haunting story, great Wilhelm. A joy to read her words.
• The Most Beautiful Woman in the World: wow. Surface level great and then the deeper meaning as the story becomes clear in the end. Just wow.
• The Planners: an intriguing story with dark underlying tones. Won ‘69 Nebula award for best short story
• Windsong: excellent. Probably the most sci-Fi of the bunch but deeply psychological and thoughtful. Wilhelm was a gifted writer and storyteller. Great way to end this collection.

4 of 5 stars

I picked this up due to a tweet from a great Sci-Fi review site, Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations. It’s run by Joachim Boaz. Do check it out. As usual with collections, there are some great stories, some good ones, some okay ones and some awful ones. This volume is no different. I’ll go through the stories in order.

I didn’t like Frederik Pohl’s “We Purchased People”. It felt a little disgusting on a couple of levels. Poul Anderson’s “The Voortrekkers” was just okay.

Kit Reed’s “Great Escape Tours, Inc.” was pretty good even though it was sad. Old age and thoughts of youth seem so good, but nostalgia isn’t always what you thought it was if you get to go back to it. Interesting, this was the first story in the collection I liked and it was a woman sci-fi writer. 1960s and 70s sci-fi, especially the New Wave, had some fantastic women writers that I never heard of even though I was a hardcore addict of sci-fi growing up in the 70s and 80s. I’m glad I’m able to read them now but so sad that I missed some of these woman who died only in the last 5-10 years.

Brian Aldiss’s “Diagram for Three Enigmatic Stories” felt like a pre-MFA MFA entry. It read a little “too cool for school”, at least for me.

I was surprised I liked Isaac Asimov’s “That Thou Art Mindful of Him!”. I loved Asimov growing up and still re-read The Foundation Trilogy from time to time, but I figured that once I dove into the New Wave, especially the social sci-fi (as opposed to hard sci-fi), I wouldn’t enjoy him as much. But, Asimov is a great story teller. He’s like Stephen King for me, in that I don’t always like the subject matter, but both are great at writing and telling a story. This Asimov story was also darker than his normal work. I enjoyed it.

Dean R. Koontz’s “We Three” had some interesting ideas with a bit of a creepy plot. Once I remembered that Koontz wrote the novel Demon Seed, I was able to adjust to it. I think of him as your sick, weird uncle in a trench coat who has some really good ideas for a story.

Joanna Russ delivers as usual. “An Old Fashioned Girl” is unusual but beautifully written, really making you think. It’s amazing she did it in such a short story; it’s only 5 pages long.

Harlan Ellison irks me. He is very cocky but he does have good chops. “Catman” is a good, and twisted, story. It reminded me of the types of pieces he chose for his own anthology, “Again, Dangerous Visions”.

Harry Harrison’s “Space Rats of the CCC” is an hilarious parody that nails space opera sci-fi. It’s even more tongue in cheek than his Stainless Steel Rat series. I loved space opera growing up but don’t enjoy it now. However, this parody of it was perfect. Nicely skewered. His afterword is excellent and basically notes all the tropes of space opera that I was thinking of as I read his story.

I didn’t care as much for Robert Silverberg’s “Trips”. I really enjoyed his novel “Dying Inside”, but this short story is more of a clever exercise that a good story.

“The Wonderful, All-Purpose Transmogrifier” by Barry N. Malzberg is full of his typical Malzbergian insights. As I read it, I wondered if today’s Transmogrifier is the mobile phone or binging streaming shows. Malzberg includes his usual sex and violence bits, but with a twist as the end that can’t undo the violence but shifts the understanding of it. It’s classic Malzberg. Definitely check out his novels “The Falling Astronauts”, “Beyond Apollo”, and “Revelations”. But, be warned.

James Tiptree, Jr. (aka Alice Bradley Sheldon) has given us a good but not her best work with “Her Smoke Rose Up Forever”. It started slow but did pick up.

Finally, I turn to Philip K. Dick’s “A Little Something for Us Tempunauts”. This is actually the first Dick piece I’ve ever read. I’ve seen adaptations in movies and heard about his work, but never actually read any. This piece is excellent. It reads like Malzberg but without the profanity and violence. This was a perfect story to end the Final Stage anthology.

3 of 5 stars

It was so hard to give this book only 3 stars as I love Kate Wilhelm’s writing. I only discovered her during the past year but I’ve devoured several of her works and short stories. Her psychological science fiction is simply amazing and some of the best stuff I’ve read. But, this was her first collection of short stories and you can see her working through it. There are glimpses of the greatness to come but either due to length or other reason, many of these failed to strike me. However, if you are a Wilhelm fan (and I heartily encourage that), you probably want to add this to your pile so you can see her development over her science fiction career.

As for the individual stories, I have some short thoughts:

• The Mile-Long Spaceship: meh.
• Fear is a Cold Black: good story but a weak ending. Early hints of Wilhelm's motifs
• Jenny with Wings: no, just no.
• A is for Automation: an intriguing idea
• Gift From The Stars: good but not great. Really neat idea that might have developed in a longer format.
• No Light In The Window: Excellent. What Wilhelm does best. By far my favorite piece in the collection.
• One for the Road: A riff on the recent anti-science climate. But overall, a weak ending.
• Andover and the Android: A sly, good read.
• The Man Without a Planet: meh. Maybe a longer length would have helped this story.
• The Apostolic Travelers: Too short, not enough time to develop, but intriguing idea.
• The Last Days of the Captain: meh

5 of 5 stars

This was an excellent experimental work of science fiction and hard social commentary. Once you got into the flow of the work after about a dozen pages, it was fast reading up through the end. Whenever it seemed to slow down, all of a sudden it would speed up. If it was banging away on some important feminist issue, it would shift gears and move into another issue. Russ never gave you too much to handle but was merciless in hammering home her points. I loved her issues, her writing, and the story.

I agree with what one reviewer wrote, this story is as relevant, valid and important today as it was the day it was written. Sara’s post is great and it was cool to see so many similar passages that grabbed our attention.

I highly recommend this work.

4 of 5 stars

I was torn between 4 or 5 stars. A great read but not quite as good as his Beyond Apollo or The Falling Astronauts. Still, Malzberg shines through: reality TV, sex, and internal monologues rife with divergent thoughts. Again, a book written in 1972 that easily tracks 2020s America … sadly. A great, fast, surreal read.

5 of 5 stars

A powerful anti-war novel and a great read from a fantastic author to close out this year. Not much was good in 2020, but finding Kate Wilhelm was one of the highlights. A good story, nice psychological development, well-paced and just fine writing.

2 of 5 stars

This had some intriguing ideas and an interesting plot. I thought it might have worked better as a short story or novelette rather than the length it was. There was a great deal of exposition that wasn’t really needed. I could have given this 3 stars, but I was also balancing my rating against other books I’ve read this year. I always try to be fair with my ratings within an arbitrarily defined period (for me, a calendar year. So, maybe read my 2 stars as 2.5.

2 of 5 stars

The final piece, by James Tiptree, Jr. (aka Alice Hastings Bradley), “The Milk of Paradise”, was the only great story. Her works are always interesting and often the best around. Without this, I’d have given this volume one star without hesitation. The piece by Ben Bova, “Zero Gee”, was okay. The rest was just horrific. Volume 1 of Again, Dangerous Visions, was also a collection of mostly awful stories with a few stellar pieces (Russ, Wilhelm & Le Guin).

3 of 5 stars

I didn’t enjoy Vonda McIntyre’s “Screwtop”. There were interesting ideas but they were never developed.

James Tiptree Jr.’s “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” had a fantastic premise but the beginning and end suffered from the writing style. Too experimental? Too clever? There was a point where the story was climaxing with Paul, P. Burke, and Delphi that was masterful, but then the ending reverts to the ‘too clever by half’ writing style of earlier.

So, 1 star for Screwtop and 3 for Tiptree’s story (should have been a 4 easily and could have been a 5).

Overall, since these Tor volumes are hard to rate, I’ll go with 3. If I was just rating the Tiptree piece, I’d probably go for 3.5 or 4 stars.

4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this novelization of the Thing. It had more backstory for all the characters, which helped explain a little more about what I saw in the movie. It was based on the screenplay, and like others have commented, it might have been an earlier version that had different scenes and plot lines. It was nice to see more fleshed out profiles of Nauls, Palmer and Childs, since they were more one-dimensional in the film. Some of the story was different, but it wasn’t worse or better. I’m happy to have read it.

4 of 5 stars

Hard to rate a Tor double novel. Kate Wilhelm’s “The Infinity Box” was 5 stars easy. Another great psychological whirlwind of science fiction. I just love her style and stories. As for Zelazny’s “He Who Shapes”, I give it one star. Just never worked for me from page 1 to page 107.

So, splitting the difference, I should give 3 stars but Wilhelm demands I give more.