From Publishers Weekly
A dozen writers pay tribute to Alice Sheldon (1915–1987), who as an SF author adopted the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr., in this eclectic mix of fiction and nonfiction, the third in an anthology series to examine gender identity. Ursula K. Le Guin's provocative "Mountain Ways" portrays a world where marriage is a four-partner affair, while in Nalo Hopkinson's harrowing "The Glass Bottle Trick," a light-skinned black woman discovers a disturbing secret about her husband, who resents his own dark skin. "Have Not Have," the opening chapter of Geoff Ryman's novel Air, presents a tantalizing portrait of a humble fashion consultant in a fictional Asian country. Most striking among the nonfiction selections is L. Timmel Duchamp's gently poignant "Letter to Alice Sheldon." (Jan.)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Julie Phillips' biography James Tiptree, Jr.(2006) renewed interest in the late, iconoclastic author and perhaps will magnify the profile of the annual bearing Alice B. Sheldon's famous pen name. Emulating Tiptree's predilection for gender-bending themes, the collection continues to feature stories, essays, and novel excerpts that "explore and expand gender." A dozen award-winning and short-listed pieces probe the boundaries of sexual identity in today's world and in imaginatively rendered futures. Nalo Hopkinson recounts the macabre fate of a superstitious man's third wife, who mistakenly becomes pregnant. Ursula LeGuin fashions a world in which marriage involves four bisexual partners and predictably complex interrelations. In honor of its namesake, the volume includes Tiptree's brilliant "The Girl Who Was Plugged In," envisioning a future in which advertising is illegal, and remotely manipulated starlets push products using their celebrity alone. While some selections focus more on racial concerns than gender issues, the resulting collection is both entertaining and thought-provoking. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Go[es] beyond whatever imagined boundaries may be placed around 'feminist science fiction.'" —New York Review of Science Fiction
"Stereotype-busting stories and gender-bending romances...immense, surprising and utterly delightful." —SciFi.com
"Really juicy...transgresses the boundaries of fiction, genre and gender." —The Agony Column
"Subversive stories about sex and gender . . . imaginative flights into other worlds." —BookLoons
"Absolutely recommended for everyone who is interested in a wide range of fantastic fiction with a taste for the experimental." —SF Site (featured review)
"It's hard to pick out favorites, so I won't try. Just get the book and read them all." —The Green Man Review
"This latest edition has enough substance to satisfy any gender." —SF Revu
"Pure gold . . . what a feast!" —Bibliogramma
Book Description
Returning again to the fertile ground of sex and identity, this third entry in a successful and controversial anthology series continues to celebrate thought-provoking and provocative fiction that explores and expands gender. Through their subversive, engaging stories, Tiptree Award–winning authors offer fascinating speculations on the ever-increasing mutability of our public—and private—selves. James Tiptree, Jr. was the pseudonym of Alice Bradley Sheldon, whose lasting contributions to the gender-bending genre are honored with this annual award, now in its 15th year. Previous winners of the Tiptree Award include Karen Joy Fowler, Ursula K. Le Guin, M. John Harrison, Kelly Link, Joe Haldeman, and Joanna Russ.
About the Author
Karen Joy Fowler is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Jane Austen Book Club and Sister Noon, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. She lives in Davis, California. Pat Murphy is the author of the Nebula Award–winning The Falling Woman and Rachel in Love. She lives in San Francisco. Debbie Notkin is the editor of Flying Cups and Saucers, which was the first anthology of Tiptree-recognized short fiction. She lives in San Francisco. Jeffrey D. Smith is the literary trustee of James Tiptree Jr.'s literary estate and an editor of the revised edition of Tiptree's Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. He lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
