I have discovered that what I like in a biography is lots and lots and lots of quotations. When I was reading Julie Phillips’s excellent biography of Alice Sheldon, I kept reading bits of it out loud to Mumsy, and Mumsy said, “This is an autobiography?” It’s not, but Julie Phillips has brilliantly pulled together a multiplicity of letters, journals, and papers to create a wonderfully vivid picture of Sheldon’s life. To step back slightly: James Tiptree, Jr. was the pseudonym of science fiction writer Alice Sheldon, a woman who wrote fantastically creepy sci-fi stories about sex and death and…
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The beginning: A group of humans — including two who should not have ended up there, and seem to be (but are they?) furious about the mistake (if it is one) — gather on the planet Dameim to witness the passing of a star whose explosion many years ago destroyed an entire race of aliens. Focused closely on the logistics of such a large group, the three guardians stationed on the planet do not act decisively enough to prevent a murderous plan from being set in motion. Tiptree’s writing is admirably clear and entertaining, considering that so many of the…
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