Status
Available
Publication
Tor Books (1994), Edition: Reprint, 250 pages
Description
This novel set in the far-future and filled with action, extraordinary characters, and visionary speculation, chronicles the human exploration of alien planets with strange and mysterious life forms.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member mdbrady
The Starry Rift by James Tiptree is enjoyable, slightly off-beat science fiction, written by a woman using a male pseudonym in the 1970s when the genre was largely a male domain.
James Tiptee, jr., is a story in herself. Frustrated by her limited opportunities for expressing her creativity, Alice
In The Starry Rift Tiptree brings us three adventure stories of the human exploration of the Rift, a starless region of our galaxy beyond which lay non-human civilizations. The first story is about a 15 year-old girl whose wanderlust leads her to a friendship with an alien and a dilemma they must face together. The second is a tale of a free-spirited man who roams space assisting those in trouble or salvaging their ruins. His work brings him face to face with his past and the need to choose between love and freedom. The last story is that of a clash of cultures, two super powers engaging across the rift zone. We watch from both sides as events escalate toward war and individuals struggle to avoid that dire outcome. The stories are framed with encounters in a library, where an amphibious librarian assists two students, also alien to human eyes, in their exploration of human history.
The stories are compelling, mixing sheer adventure with deeper moral questions. The gadgetry of classic science fiction is much in evidence. I didn’t understand, or even try to understand, much of the technical talk, but its presence helped create the right mood. And yes, her female characters are particularly well drawn.
GENDER
I picked up this book planning to read it for the Gender in Fantasy and Science Fiction Challenge, which failed to materialize. None the less, I read it looking for how Tiptree treated issues of gender.
Sometimes typical twentieth-century gender roles seem to be in place, but here and there are some sharp suggestions of alternatives. The fact that the young adventurer in the first story is a girl rather than the more typical boy is one. In addition, women hold significant leadership positions in the hierarchy of human space administration, not something that would have been possible when the story was written. An example is the women executive in the last story.
Even more striking is the alien civilization where three genders rather than two are required for reproduction. The man and woman of this culture seem less bound by gender definitions than humans generally are. Although the extra being was by definition neither male nor female, I found it hard not to see it as a nurturing and sacrificial female nanny. Interestingly this third-gendered creature is the one that saves the lives of all the aliens on the ship before dying itself.
I reccomend Rift to all who enjoy adventure, science fiction, or different views of gender.
James Tiptee, jr., is a story in herself. Frustrated by her limited opportunities for expressing her creativity, Alice
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Sheldon took the man’s name and became famous in the 1970s as a male author of science fiction. She won prizes for her writing and was known for being both “hard-edged” and being unusually sensitive in her portrayal of women creatures. As a book critic for the New York Times put it, “Only when she became someone else could she tell the truth about herself. Only in writing about the alien could she speak about her body and her experience.“ I just added a recent, well-regarded new biography of Sheldon/Tiptree by Julia Phillips to my wishlist.In The Starry Rift Tiptree brings us three adventure stories of the human exploration of the Rift, a starless region of our galaxy beyond which lay non-human civilizations. The first story is about a 15 year-old girl whose wanderlust leads her to a friendship with an alien and a dilemma they must face together. The second is a tale of a free-spirited man who roams space assisting those in trouble or salvaging their ruins. His work brings him face to face with his past and the need to choose between love and freedom. The last story is that of a clash of cultures, two super powers engaging across the rift zone. We watch from both sides as events escalate toward war and individuals struggle to avoid that dire outcome. The stories are framed with encounters in a library, where an amphibious librarian assists two students, also alien to human eyes, in their exploration of human history.
The stories are compelling, mixing sheer adventure with deeper moral questions. The gadgetry of classic science fiction is much in evidence. I didn’t understand, or even try to understand, much of the technical talk, but its presence helped create the right mood. And yes, her female characters are particularly well drawn.
GENDER
I picked up this book planning to read it for the Gender in Fantasy and Science Fiction Challenge, which failed to materialize. None the less, I read it looking for how Tiptree treated issues of gender.
Sometimes typical twentieth-century gender roles seem to be in place, but here and there are some sharp suggestions of alternatives. The fact that the young adventurer in the first story is a girl rather than the more typical boy is one. In addition, women hold significant leadership positions in the hierarchy of human space administration, not something that would have been possible when the story was written. An example is the women executive in the last story.
Even more striking is the alien civilization where three genders rather than two are required for reproduction. The man and woman of this culture seem less bound by gender definitions than humans generally are. Although the extra being was by definition neither male nor female, I found it hard not to see it as a nurturing and sacrificial female nanny. Interestingly this third-gendered creature is the one that saves the lives of all the aliens on the ship before dying itself.
I reccomend Rift to all who enjoy adventure, science fiction, or different views of gender.
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LibraryThing member clong
I was somewhat disappointed by this collection of two novellas and a novelette from an author whose short fiction I typically rave about. I thought that "The Only Neat Thing to Do" was great - Tiptree at her best, but I never really got engaged by "Good Night, Sweethearts," and while "Collision"
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offered interesting narrative format, aliens, and characters, some of the plotting felt quite contrived. Add to that a very sketchy framing story that feels like something written in a couple hours on a tight deadline, and you have a book that doesn't really work all that well. I'd recommend seeking out "The Only Neat Thing to Do" elsewhere. Show Less
LibraryThing member figre
Three of Tiptree’s short stories repurposed around the flimsy premise that a pair of aliens have gone to their university library to learn about ancient history – as told in the short stories. You may have seen this listed as a novel. I thought it was a novel. It’s not a novel. More like one
But who’s gonna complain?! Three stories by Tiptree – three very good stories from Tiptree. They are all based on explorations within the rift – an area devoid of stars. “The Only Neat Thing To Do” is an award winner and nominee for the Hugo. Combined with “Good Night, Sweethearts” and “Collision”, it is a nice little collection of three good stories that are great examples of Tiptree as a story teller and as someone who always manages to explore different angles of human experience through the SF basics of space travel and the discovery of alien life forms.
The story of the library that provides the framework for this book is a waste, and if you are really wanting to explore Tiptree’s writing, find a heftier collection. But as a quick distraction with solid writing and compelling tales, then take a quick dip this direction.
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of those movies where they film four stories and use the excuse of watching a black cat travel between the locations – or think the Twilight Zone movie from the 80s.But who’s gonna complain?! Three stories by Tiptree – three very good stories from Tiptree. They are all based on explorations within the rift – an area devoid of stars. “The Only Neat Thing To Do” is an award winner and nominee for the Hugo. Combined with “Good Night, Sweethearts” and “Collision”, it is a nice little collection of three good stories that are great examples of Tiptree as a story teller and as someone who always manages to explore different angles of human experience through the SF basics of space travel and the discovery of alien life forms.
The story of the library that provides the framework for this book is a waste, and if you are really wanting to explore Tiptree’s writing, find a heftier collection. But as a quick distraction with solid writing and compelling tales, then take a quick dip this direction.
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LibraryThing member ansate
surprisingly not full on misandrist depressing.
LibraryThing member ScoLgo
I enjoyed this short set of interconnected novellas set in the same universe as the Tiptree/Sheldon novel, Brightness Falls From the Air. The framing device here felt a bit clunky but the stories themselves are of the fun, pulpy variety. They are more about the characters and the situations in
The first story, The Only Neat Thing To Do, starts off with a very 'James H. Schmitz' type of feel to it with a plucky young heroine zipping off to adventure in her new spaceship, (without her parent's permission). But the story takes a very non-Schmitz-like darker turn that leads to a rather poignant ending. Story #2, Good Night, Sweet Hearts is the weakest of the three, but still not bad. Time-dilation, clones, and space pirates! The third tale, Collision, is also the longest and centers around an exploratory mission across The Rift that stumbles upon a new alien species. Half the tale, similar to Asimov's The Gods Themselves, is told from the alien's perspective, which lends an extra dimension to what is, in the end, a fairly standard alien contact story. That said, the characterization is good and the aliens are nicely realized.
Overall, this is a decent entry in Tiptree's catalog. It is not her best work but is still worth checking out if you are already a fan.
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which they find themselves rather than about hard sci-fi, so readers will likely have a better time if they don't go into this expecting to find science and space travel ideas that conform to actual physics.The first story, The Only Neat Thing To Do, starts off with a very 'James H. Schmitz' type of feel to it with a plucky young heroine zipping off to adventure in her new spaceship, (without her parent's permission). But the story takes a very non-Schmitz-like darker turn that leads to a rather poignant ending. Story #2, Good Night, Sweet Hearts is the weakest of the three, but still not bad. Time-dilation, clones, and space pirates! The third tale, Collision, is also the longest and centers around an exploratory mission across The Rift that stumbles upon a new alien species. Half the tale, similar to Asimov's The Gods Themselves, is told from the alien's perspective, which lends an extra dimension to what is, in the end, a fairly standard alien contact story. That said, the characterization is good and the aliens are nicely realized.
Overall, this is a decent entry in Tiptree's catalog. It is not her best work but is still worth checking out if you are already a fan.
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LibraryThing member LyndaInOregon
This trilogy of Tiptree short stories is held together by a framework that sets them as "historical" documents from the time when the human race was exploring their galaxy. Two of them touch briefly on how reproductive patterns of nonterrestrial races might differ from (and cause confusion or
Perhaps the best example of Tiptree's ability to go beyond space-opera here is the middle story, 'Goodnight, Sweethearts'. The basic plot is pretty straight-up adventure, wherein the loner protagonist (who runs a sort of roadside-assistance service, but in space) realizes the private liner he has just assisted has now blundered into the arms of the regional bad guys, and he's compelled, for various reasons, to attempt a rescue. His motivation is less altruistic than romantic -- one of the passengers is a woman with whom he has a romantic past.
Now, this sounds pretty much by-the-numbers, but Tiptree is also developing a strong undercurrent here of how futuristic technologies might impact everything from treatment for PTSD to what happens to personal relationships when lifespans can be extended into centuries by the suspended animation required for decades-long journeys through space. Ultimately, these factors lead the protagonist smack into a devastating moral choice -- but not necessarily the one readers might expect.
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conflict with) human expectations. One deals with the curious social effects arising from the "coldsleep" that allowed humans to survive decades-long journeys in pre-FTL spacecraft. All are imbued with Tiptree's vividly-imagined future worlds.Perhaps the best example of Tiptree's ability to go beyond space-opera here is the middle story, 'Goodnight, Sweethearts'. The basic plot is pretty straight-up adventure, wherein the loner protagonist (who runs a sort of roadside-assistance service, but in space) realizes the private liner he has just assisted has now blundered into the arms of the regional bad guys, and he's compelled, for various reasons, to attempt a rescue. His motivation is less altruistic than romantic -- one of the passengers is a woman with whom he has a romantic past.
Now, this sounds pretty much by-the-numbers, but Tiptree is also developing a strong undercurrent here of how futuristic technologies might impact everything from treatment for PTSD to what happens to personal relationships when lifespans can be extended into centuries by the suspended animation required for decades-long journeys through space. Ultimately, these factors lead the protagonist smack into a devastating moral choice -- but not necessarily the one readers might expect.
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LibraryThing member catseyegreen
This is 3 short stories linked together by a brief framework of research being done by a librarian for a pair of students. The only thing the stories have in common is the setting of "the rift" a largely unexplored region of space.
It's a mixed lot of stories that do not really work well together.
It's a mixed lot of stories that do not really work well together.
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1986
Physical description
250 p.; 5.5 inches
ISBN
0312890214 / 9780312890216