This is not actually a novel; it's three novellas, connected by setting (sort of -- in the same universe, and same version of humanity's future, but with no characters in common) and by the conceit that the stories are all a sort of well-researched historical fiction that alien students of the future can read to get a sense of the "ambiance" of human history.-----The first story, "The Only Neat Thing To Do," was my favorite. It's about a girl whose parents buy her a space coupe for her sixteenth birthday. She immediately spends all her saved allowance fitting it for deep-space travel, heads out for the "Starry Rift" in search of adventure, comes upon the track of two adult scouts reported missing, and in an attempt to find them herself comes subject to the same problem... It's also a story about the friendship between this human girl and a young creature of another star system.I thought the characterization of Coati Cass (this story's protagonist) was lovely. Yes, Coati's not exactly sensible in breaking away from her approved flight plan, and that is why she gets in trouble. But she's also clever, confident, and extremely well-prepared, just like one of Heinlein's Boy Scouts.Most of my favorite of Tiptree's stories are a lot darker and sadder and especially angrier than this one. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for something really horrible to happen to Coati. And of course, something does happen; but it's not, somehow, terrible. In fact, this is very much like a retelling of "With Delicate Mad Hands" in which the protagonist starts out with rich, adoring parents in a society in which sexism doesn't seem to exist anymore (there are even gender-neutral honorary prefixes!). Same irrepressible wanderlust and creativity in obeying it; same intense, costly female friendship with an alien creature; but Coati is taken seriously and until she heads out into the Rift, she's safe.That was good to read. "With Delicate Mad Hands" is one of my favorite Tiptree stories, but it makes me happy that she had "The Only Neat Thing To Do" in her too.(The only real problem with this story, I think, is that unless I was missing something -- and I definitely wouldn't mind doing a re-read to check! -- the time-settings of the Base Coati starts from, Coati awake on her little ship, and Coati at her destinations all seem to match up, when they shouldn't.)-----The middle story, "Good Night, Sweethearts," was far less interesting to me. It's all about how a lone spacer rescues a luxury space-yacht, encounters some pirates, is reminded of a past he's left behind him, and has to choose between human affections and the lonely freedom of his space adventures. I find Tiptree's male protagonists much less interesting than the female ones, especially when they're thinking about women as sexual and romantic objects -- she's good at doing the Male Gaze and I don't really want any more of that -- and so this story, for me, was too much navel-gazing by this character. I liked the exciting rescue and escape bits, but otherwise could have done without.-----The last and longest story, "Collision," is a very good First Contact story. It's told partly in a sort of future-epistolary form, as the humans on a Base bordering the Rift receive recorded messages from an expedition that set out twenty years ago. The first message states that after crossing a certain point in space, the explorers are all experiencing "subjective phenomena" -- species dysphoria, in fact, in which they feel as though they ought to have structurally-important tails, an upper set of arms, and in some cases, socially-significant spots! But although they feel clumsy and fear that Base might question their sanity, they see no compelling reason not to carry on...The human messages are alternated with scenes (in some cases, other recorded messages) among people who, it so happens, have structurally-important tails, an upper set of arms, etc. Interesting alien-design is very important to me in science fiction, and I highly approve of Tiptree's creativity in designing the parts of this alien society she chooses to describe. Unfortunately, although these aliens (the Zieltan) are just as interested in peace and friendly contact with others as the humans (which is very much, in this universe), at the same time the human explorers are making their way across the Rift, the Zieltan are becoming predisposed to hate and fear them..."Collision" is not as tightly written as "The Only Neat Thing To Do," although it tries a lot harder to have the timelines make sense; but it's fun and exciting, and is one of those first contact stories in which one gets the aliens' side of things and sympathizes with and cheers for them just as much as for the humans.
The Starry Rift by James Tiptree Jr is one of only two collections of short stories readily available as ebooks. I admit I chose to buy it first partly because it was only $3 and partly because it was shorter and I could more easily fit it in before getting to Letters to Tiptree.The Starry Rift is set up with a framing narrative about two students seeking library materials for class. The books the librarian gives them form the three stories contained within this collection. The stories are all set around the same general region of space: Federation Base 900, the frontier outpost on the edge of the Rift. (Hence the title.) The Rift is an area of space devoid of stars, apparently not quite in between spiral arms of the Milky Way, but something like that.I have to say, the science in this book was a bit off. Some of it was quaint — as in, not up to date, as would be expected of an older book like this — and some of it did not entirely make sense. I was a bit confused about the relativistic and also normal time passing effects of space travel which didn't seem to be addressed in the first story but were explained more in the third. On the other hand, the scientific points in these stories were generally not dwelt upon, decreasing the likelihood of an egregious error. None of the stories were about new inventions; they were all, first and foremost, about characters in unusual situations. (But aliens who have FTL comms but not pretty fundamental chemistry? Come on!)Anyway, as per usual I have made comments on the individual stories which you can find below. In general, I would recommend this collection as a good example of classic SF. While the science may not have stood the test of time, the concepts explored in the stories mostly have.The Only Neat Thing to Do — A fourteen year old girl (with rich parents) gets a space coupe from her parents, tricks it out with extra fuel tanks and goes exploring to the edge of Human-explored space. It started out as a fun adventure, if a little unlikely since fourteen year olds can't have cars, and took some interesting and then emotional turns. (I really wasn't expecting the sort of ending it had.) There were a few weird science-related moments but they weren't dwelled on by the narrative, so I found them easier to skip over than in most books. (Why do so many books use bad science as a lynchpin?) As a first introduction to Tiptree, I found it a solid story. (Coming back after finishing the collection, this was my favourite of the three.)Good Night, Sweethearts — A space salvager/repairman/portable refueller comes across a stranded ship that's out of fuel. It transpires that it contains someone from his past. A past that, almost interestingly (it could have been explored further), he doesn't remember due to what I gathered to be PTSD-type treatment he received after being in a war. Some external action provides excitement and the climax and the main character is left with some difficult decisions. I was disappointed with how much these objectified the female characters. I also found his final choice baffling, though perhaps less so, given some of what I've recently learnt about the author's life.Collision — This is the story of first (well, second) contact between the human Federation and a large alien empire. Told from points of view on both sides, we learn a lot about the culture and unusual biology of the aliens before the human protagonists come across them. The biological procedure of reproduction was very unusual — honestly it struck me as a bit inefficient — for all that the aliens resemble kangaroos in superficial ways. I liked that after explaining the mechanics of it, the notion turned out to be relevant to the plot in an unexpected way. On the human side of things, the story starts off being told through long-delayed communications capsules. We listen to the story along with the people at base, knowing only that the explorers survive long enough to send the capsule, but nit whether there'll be another capsule. Although this is actually a relatively cheery story in the end, there is still some death, notably of the only two human women (although they didn't die because they were women). It's still less bleak than the first story in this collection.4 / 5 starsRead more reviews on my blog.
What do You think about The Starry Rift (1994)?
This is very old-fashioned science fiction, which makes it hard for me to read it as anything but a curiosity. It's clearly more about ideas than about constructing a realistic world -- the characters are flat, the exposition is painfully communicated, the pacing is odd. The ideas are interesting (I particularly enjoyed the bits about alien reproduction), but not enough to make me really engage with the stories.Noted as a specific curiosity: I was several times amused that these future space-faring humans communicated by... sending each other cassette tapes through space. HELLO, 1980s!
—Ellen
There's something about science fiction of a certain age that keeps me coming back to it - a reliable flavor, so to speak, that can be found in all SF books published within this time period. I'm not sure what the time period is, but the phenomenon exists nonetheless.This book is... solidly 'sci-fi of a certain age' to me. There's not much revolutionary to it, not much that really pushes the boundaries of the genre. The aliens aren't too alien, the human characters not particularly nuanced, the conflicts not all that original. It's not a bad book, and there are some interesting worldbuilding concepts, but it's also not all that riveting, especially in light of scientific advances since its publication. (Their method of interstellar communication really is cassette tapes in tubes. I kid you not.)Overall: not one I'd suggest going out of your way to pick up, but a good enough way to pass the time if you have it to hand.
—Anila
