Crown of Stars

It’s probably long past time I acknowledge Tiptree as one of my favourite genre writers, given I’ve read almost everything she wrote and will happily reread many of her stories. I’d also classify some of her fiction as stone-cold genre classics.

Crown of Stars, a posthumous collection, is an odd book. Especially given how Tiptree died. The contents are a mixture of science fiction and fantasy and, to be honest, the fantasy ones feel more like extended jokes than actual fiction. Not that the sf stories are all entirely serious. They are all, however, pretty dark.

Telepathic aliens visit Earth but go away disappointed there are no gods. Poor single mothers give up their babies for adoption in a future where only the super-rich can show more afford “meat”. Heaven has gone bankrupt so Satan offers it space in Hell. A soldier on battle-drugs is sent to detox but finds a stash of the drugs and breaks out. A young woman is convinced the Earth is male and does her best to attract his interest. The most poignant story, however, has a teenage girl swap lives with herself at seventy, only to discover her family’s wealth had been lost, the USA consists of gated communities but is otherwise lawless, and in her attempt to make her life when she swaps back better, she inadvertently makes it worse.

These are quality stories, although none are perhaps as memorable as Tiptree’s best. ‘The Earth Like a Snake Doth Renew’, which is clearly in conversation with Tiptree’s own ‘The Last Flight of Doctor Ain’, is perhaps the top story here, or at least showcases those elements in her fiction for which she was most admired. To anyone new to Tiptree, I’d suggest starting somewhere else, perhaps her first anthology, Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home, or one of the later best of collection, such as Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, but exploring her oeuvre is certainly worth doing. show less

The best of James Tiptree, Jr. is about as good as it gets in terms of science fiction short stories. Having said that, I am begrudgingly starting to agree with those who assert that something changed after Tiptree was “outed” as Alice B. Sheldon. Something fearless and relentless is missing from her later stories, an ability to look into the mirror and see both profound beauty and terrible evil.

I did find things to like in this volume, but overall it falls far short of the best of Tiptree’s early work. Even the stories I liked (which included the two stories which had been written in the early 70s, but are included here as “not previously collected”) felt somewhat contrived and inorganic. Some of these stories have heavy show more handed political messages (anti-pollution, anti-war, and pro-choice, to be specific) which left me cold despite the fact that I more or less agree with the author’s positions.

My favorite story in the collection was “Backward, Turn Backward,” a time travel story which starts with a ridiculous premise but then takes this premise to both interesting and insightful places. I also enjoyed “Last Night and Every Night,” a short story in which the bad guys are not what they think they are, “The Earth Doth Like a Snake Renew,” a very funny (in a dark way) novelette about a woman who is in lust with the Earth, and “All This and Heaven Too” a sort of very contemporary and moderately adult fairy tale.

The biggest disappointment was “Morality Meat,” which took pro-choice arguments in utterly unconvincing ways (with a tip of the hat to one of the most famous satiric essays of all time). “Second Going,” a first contact story about aliens that are too good to be true, also left me unconvinced. show less

Maybe my expectations were too high because I've enjoyed some of Tiptree's other works, but the stories collected in this volume just didn't resonate with me overall. There were only two I would say that I enjoyed. The others ranged from tolerable to skim-my-way-through.

James Tiptree Jr. aka Alice Sheldon's later short stories. The ones I liked were: the "Second Going"s humorous take on alien contact and religion, "Morality Meat" on abortion and cannibalism, "The Earth Like a Snake Doth Renew" on a woman's love affair with the Earth, and "In the Midst of Life" is an old standby take on the afterlife.

Contents:
"Second Going" (1987)
Our Resident Djinn" (
"Morality Meat
All This and Heaven Too
Yanqui Doodle"
Come Live with Me
"Last Night and Every Night" (1970)
"In Midst of Life
Backward, Turn Backward
The Earth Doth Like a Snake Renew