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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hugo and Nebula Award-winning feminist science fiction,
By Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Houston, Houston, do you read? (The Science Fiction Book Club collection) (Hardcover)
When I recently came across a copy of Houston, Houston Do You Read? I had never heard of James Tiptree, Jr. This story, which resides somewhere between long short story and novella, won both Nebula and Hugo Awards, though, and that certainly snared my interest. In the end, though, I find myself much more interested in the author than the story - frankly, the story never really captured my imagination at all, and I'm having trouble understanding why it was such a big deal. It is a feminist story, and that is its primary claim to fame. As for myself, I saw some men behaving badly (what else is new?), but obviously I'm not close enough to the feminist wavelength to get a real charge out of what I read here.
In the story, three astronauts returning to Earth are stymied in their attempts to contact Mission Control in Houston; some women keep popping up on the frequency, and it takes a while for the startling truth to sink in: somehow, the three male astronauts have experienced a time slip and now find themselves a few hundred years in the future. They aren't that keen on being saved by a bunch of women (you know how men hate to ask a woman for directions), but it eventually becomes clear that they have no choice (unless they would prefer a slow, agonizing death in space). These women are a little different, though, and it soon becomes clear that they are hiding something. The truth is rather obvious, but it takes a while for the protagonist to figure things out - in the midst of a drug-induced haze, we flash back with him to earlier parts of the story and slowly put together the clues that make his situation, without question, unique. James Tiptree, Jr., was famous for writing incredibly insightful gender-bending and feminist stories. A generally unsuspected truth about the author finally became public about the time this story was published, however. To the shock of basically everyone (including Robert Silverberg, who had recently gone out of his way to characterize the masculinity of Tiptree's writing), Tiptree (a former Army Air Corps major and retired CIA employee) turned out to be a woman named Alice Sheldon. Actually, Houston, Houston Do You Read? was published under the name Raccoona Sheldon (the use of two pen names was a handy means of getting two stories published in one collection). A general brouhaha ensued, robbing the author of much of her creative utility in the years to follow. In 1987, she was found dead alongside her husband; he had no desire to live since he became infirm, and she had no desire to live without him, so she killed him and then herself. A sense of darkness and mystery seems to characterize Sheldon's fiction, and her writing was reportedly rather shocking for reading audiences in the early 1970s. Today, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award is given annually for the science fiction work that best explores the issue of gender, proving that the trail-blazing legacy of Alice Sheldon lives on. I wish I could say I really enjoyed this award-winning story, but it never really drew me in to its strange future world. Those with an interest in feminism, though, especially feminism in science fiction, should definitely check out the work of James Tiptree, Jr., and this famous story would certainly seem to be a good place to start.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stories that intrigue, challenge and interest,
By
This review is from: Houston, Houston, do you read? (The Science Fiction Book Club collection) (Hardcover)
James Tiptree, an alias of Alice Sheldon, was one of the most intriguing authors of the Seventies and Eighties. Her stories were frequently bleak in appearance but not always in tone. For instance the title story concerns a space crew suddenly transported to a rather different future. And while we wouldn't wish to share their ultimate fate, it says much about our modern assumptions about gender roles, self-deception, and an ability to see humor in the workings of fate. Tiptree/Sheldon's writing is powerful enough that this story has stuck in my mind for more than twenty years and a few thousand other books. Even if I don't immediately recall the other stories in the book, each offered something different and unique. Even the weakest written of them was the equal of most other short fiction.What I've always valued in this collection in particular is its ability to make me think. I originally read it in my mid-teens, a period when most of us are forming our initial view of the world and personal philosophy. "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" introduced a different viewpoint to me, which influenced some of my later reading interests. You may not find all the stories comfortable to read but don't avoid them simply for that reason or because you don't agree with the central ideas.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Bof,
This review is from: Houston, Houston, do you read? (The Science Fiction Book Club collection) (Hardcover)
I did not like the characters or the story line or the flash backs. Sorry. Maybe if I had read it in 1976 when it first came out it would have made more sense. Then again, I would have been only six years old.
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