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Brightness Falls From The Air
 
 

Brightness Falls From The Air (Paperback)

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3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)


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  Kindle Edition, February 18, 2004 $7.19 -- --
  Hardcover, January 31, 1985 -- $2.50 $0.01
  Paperback, August 14, 1993 -- $7.99 $0.99

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

They have gathered now on Damien and are about to witness the last rising of a manmade nova. They are 16 humans in a distant world about to be enveloped by an eruption of violence--horror and murder oddly complemented by a bizarre unforgiving love. But justice is not all that's about to be found. Judgment is coming and the 16 unsuspecting ones are on the threshold of the murdered star. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.


About the Author

James Tiptree, Jr., was actually Alice Hastings Bradley Sheldon (1915-1987), a fact she kept secret for the first ten years of her meteoric career under the Tiptree pseudonym, as she won awards and acclaim. The truth came out in 1977. She also wrote as Raccoona Sheldon. She was born in Chicago, but spent much of her childhood in Africa and India. Her father was a lawyer and traveler. Her mother, Mary Hastings Bradley, was a well known geographer, traveler, and author of 35 books, who also wrote a successful children's book of which Alice was the heroine. After leaving her first career in the CIA in 1955, Sheldon got a Ph.D. in experimental psychology in 1967 and began her writing career. She won the Hugo, Nebula and Jupiter awards for her short fiction. Today, the annual Tiptree Award, for SF that explores and expands gender roles, is given in her memory.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 382 pages
  • Publisher: Orb Books (August 15, 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312854072
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312854072
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,130,738 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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9 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars An intense but incomplete novel, January 14, 1999
By A Customer
A group of humans gather on the planet Dameii to see the light of a war-destoyed star, on a planet that was itself the site of terrible atrocities against the native inhabitants. Some come out of interest, others revenge, and still others plan to start the horrors all over again. As with Tiptree's (aka Alice Sheldon) other work, this features the beautiful, intense prose which sets her apart from other sci-fi authors. It's very moving and, as you near the climax, very suspenceful. Quite a work of art. The story, however, doesn't really start until the story is at the halfway point. Many of the characters seem to lack depth, and the aliens only rarely appear. It is not quite equal to her earlier work, "Up the Walls of the World". I can only give this 4 stars. Had the characterization and pace been better, I would have rated this the best book I'd ever read
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful novel by one of SF's greatest short story authors, July 31, 2000
By "sdixonsf" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
One of the most surprising announcements in science fiction history was when award-winning but reclusive science fiction writer James Tiptree, Jr. revealed that she was actually Dr. Alice Sheldon.

Sheldon wote some of the best short fiction of the 70s, including such classics as "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" (which anticipated many cyberpunk themes years before William Gibson), "The Women Men Don't See", and "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?".

Brightness Falls from the Air was Sheldon's second (and final) novel. Although Sheldon's best work was certainly in her short stories, my favorite thing about this novel was seeing Sheldon express many of her recurring themes in a longer form, weaving several seemingly disparate plot lines into one. The novel works well both as a mystery and as science fiction, and offers a nice helping of excitement as well.

This is one of my favorite science fiction novels of all time, and is an excellent introduction to the work of James Tiptree, Jr.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Different Book, October 9, 2006
I can see why the reviewers are pretty much split down the middle on this one. The set-up is extraordinary, the writing style is unusual, and the payoff is less than the reader hopes for. Even so, I really enjoyed this novel. There are more ideas in this book than in a dozen average SF novels, so I can look past the fact that many of the ideas are never fleshed out. It is the first "James Tiptree" novel (or short story) that I've read, and now I will definitely search out some of her earlier and more highly regarded works to see what I think of them.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Flawed, melodramatic, but worth attention
This late novel by Tiptree, better known for her short stories and short novels, has not been popular with either reviewers or readers. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Rory Coker

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor writing, plot, characters...
Cardboard characters, High School level writing, poor plotting, unremarkable prose, "Brightness Falls from the Air" is a book that confounds the reader who has earlier read the... Read more
Published on August 17, 2004 by Jack Cade

2.0 out of 5 stars Strong Premise; Poor Writing
In Brightness Falls from the Air, Ms. Triptree has written a rich yet unsatisfactory novel. Ms. Triptree's characters are an interesting collection and the general backdrop of the... Read more
Published on June 8, 2004 by dhowenstine

4.0 out of 5 stars Delicate little novel, not fully realised.
A strange group of characters gather on a forbidden world to watch and experience the effects of a dying planet. Read more
Published on April 9, 2002 by C. Gilbert

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful novel
The sheer beauty of the language Tiptree uses to tell her compelling tale is incredible. I have always thought that if I could ask Tiptree what the meaning of life is, and why I... Read more
Published on August 10, 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars Sad, beautiful tale - Tiptree's best
This is a tale of beauty, horror and greed. On a faraway planet, a nearly extinct species of beauty and love lives, now protected by the very same humans that earlier exploited... Read more
Published on September 28, 1997

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