Unwillingly To Earth [Mass Market Paperback]

Pauline Ashwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 1992

Raised on a rough miner's planet thousands of light years away from civilization, Lizzie Lee is tricked into accepting a scholarship to the most prestigious university in the galaxy. Original.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (August 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812519299
• ISBN-13: 978-0812519297
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 3.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,806,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Willingly Read, December 13, 2001

By 

S. Lim "ichimunki" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unwillingly To Earth (Mass Market Paperback)

One of the best sf books I have ever read. Perfect for someone who is just getting their feet wet in this genre. Okay, have to admit, much more of a girly book and not as tech-oriented as traditional sf but great story and told well. Waiting for Pauline Ashwell to come out with a sequel but not sure how well it did with readers/buyers. In some crazy way, reminds me of Anne of Green Gables/Fire & Hemlock sort of read. Perhaps I am insane. Yes. That must be it. But please support this author and read this book making it popular and thus creating demand for a second book.

4.0 out of 5 stars A near-classic except for the middle section..., August 10, 2007

By 

rickzz "rickzz" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unwillingly To Earth (Mass Market Paperback)

Back in 1992, I eagerly bought this after stumbling upon it in the bookstore because I'd recently read Piers Anthony's "Uncollected Stars" (1986) anthology, which included "Unwillingly to School"(1958) by "Paul Ashwell".

"Unwillingly to Earth" is basically a collection of the four "Lizzie Lee" stories written by Pauline Ashwell, the pseudonym of British writer Pauline Whitby (1928-), over a 30-year span. "Unwilling" and the last story in the collection "The Lost Kafoolazum" (1960) were both Hugo-nominated and deservedly so. Both are delightful to read (and re-read). Decades later, Ashwell returned to Lizzie Lee with "Rats in the Moon" (1982) and "Fatal Statistics" (1988), which take place between "Unwilling" and "Lost".

Unfortunately, these stories are merely good, not great..part of the problem is that Ashwell had partially lost the character's unique voice during the decades-long gap between stories...if the middle-part was as good as the beginning and end, then this would be a classic of the first-order.

It's too bad that Whitby didn't write more SF. Her other "novel", Project Farcry, is really a collection as well...

4.0 out of 5 stars And now for something completely different!, February 6, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Unwillingly To Earth (Mass Market Paperback)

The other reviewer compares Lizzie Lee to Anne of Green Gables. I can see that, if you also throw in the Perils of Pauline. Lizzie is 19 years old when the book begins and 24 when it ends.
She is one of those girls that things just seem to happen around. Raised on a remote planet, our intrepid Lizzie finds herself in several interesting, if unintentional, situations.
First, she goes to the city to be with her father (who is in the hospital) and finds herself working in a seedy bar and charming the customers out of getting drunk and fighting. Then she finds herself reluctantly whisked away to college on Earth. Lizzie is reluctant because she has a reading disability. She manages to get by until the disability is discovered and help is provided. Her remaining undergraduate years are full of hard work, interrupted by field trips off planet where she gets into all sorts of trouble and winds up saving the day. Told in the first person in a unique, disjointed style, I would also recommend this as a "young adult" novel. There is no sex or extreme violence and only a mild romance thrown in at the end. Read it and enjoy.