Brightness Falls from the Air: Amazon.ca: James Tiptree: Books

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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2.0 out of 5 stars Strong Premise; Poor Writing, Jun 8 2004

By	"dhowenstine" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brightness Falls (Cloth) (Hardcover)

In Brightness Falls from the Air, Ms. Triptree has written a rich yet unsatisfactory novel. Ms. Triptree's characters are an interesting collection and the general backdrop of the novel is well staged. Yet the novel is consistently hindered by the short-sighted and outright unintelligent attitudes of the characters. As such, what might have been a sophisticated novel soon becomes tedious and trite. Ms. Triptree does provide a final, dark revelation that proves eerily satisfying -- but ultimately it is the writing, not the plot, that prevents this novel from ever taking flight.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful novel by one of SF's greatest short story authors, Jul 31 2000

By	"sdixonsf" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brightness Fall From Air (Paperback)

One of the most surprising announcements in science fiction history was when award-winning but reclusive science fiction writer James Tiptree, Jr. revealed that she was actually Dr. Alice Sheldon.

Sheldon wote some of the best short fiction of the 70s, including such classics as "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" (which anticipated many cyberpunk themes years before William Gibson), "The Women Men Don't See", and "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?".

Brightness Falls from the Air was Sheldon's second (and final) novel. Although Sheldon's best work was certainly in her short stories, my favorite thing about this novel was seeing Sheldon express many of her recurring themes in a longer form, weaving several seemingly disparate plot lines into one. The novel works well both as a mystery and as science fiction, and offers a nice helping of excitement as well.

This is one of my favorite science fiction novels of all time, and is an excellent introduction to the work of James Tiptree, Jr.

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1.0 out of 5 stars I could barely finish it..., Feb 10 1999

By	J. Claro (Halifax, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Brightness Fall From Air (Paperback)

I am really surprised to see the 4 and 5 star ratings other readers gave this book. One of Tiptree's short stories 'Love Is The Plan The Plan Is Death' is one of my favorite short stories of all time, very moving, brilliantly written. I can't believe 'Brightness Falls...' was even written by the same author. Shallow characters, very slow pace, unnatural conversation, unconvincing plot. I was very disappointed by this book.

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