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geekwayne's review against another edition
2.0
'Brightness Falls from the Air' by James Tiptree Jr. was the January pick for my online book club.
16 people gather on the planet Damiem for various reasons, some known, some hidden and some nefarious, for a chance to view an astronomical event. The planet is also host to an exploited native species.
There were things I really liked about this story and things I did not. There is some difficult subject matter that goes unexplained and is left to the reader to interpret. There is also a certain aged prose style that makes the story overdramatic at times. I wanted to like this more and, frankly, didn't.
16 people gather on the planet Damiem for various reasons, some known, some hidden and some nefarious, for a chance to view an astronomical event. The planet is also host to an exploited native species.
There were things I really liked about this story and things I did not. There is some difficult subject matter that goes unexplained and is left to the reader to interpret. There is also a certain aged prose style that makes the story overdramatic at times. I wanted to like this more and, frankly, didn't.
avitaminose's review against another edition
2.0
I thought the style was very heavy, everything was over explained and by the end I didn't really care about the fate of any of the characters.
ethanpoole's review against another edition
1.0
I get what Tiptree/Bradley was trying to do, but it doesn't age well.
riotsquirrrl's review against another edition
3.0
I don't think that I would recommend this book to friends who are not into the history of science fiction. It's more of a useful artifact for pointing how we got to now rather than being a good read in and of itself. The novel is interesting from a historical perspective because so many people thought the work was written by a man when it was written by a woman. (For what it's worth I can tell the difference, mostly because even now a large number of male writers fail to make their main female characters as compelling and human as Tiptree does.)
I don't usually read other reviews in the middle of reading a book because they color how I read the book. Unusually I read the reviews of this book and how people described it as tragic/a real downer. And halfway through the book, that definitely made me think that Tiptree would kill off all of the characters in the book and the bad guys would win and there would be a massive genocide. While people die in this book, and it is not a shiny happy work, it isn't the bloodbath I feared.
But jeez, otherwise this is like white feminism the sci fi novel. Like the Damieii (humanoid people descended from insects) definitely are treated as an exotic tribe of subhumans and have human "guardians" to "protect" them from being exploited by human beings. Those same guardians are astounded when the Damieii, at the end of the novel, wish to go into business for themselves and don't want to keep living their subsistence life. Like heaven forbid that they might want something like plumbing rather than to keep to their "traditional" lives and to have some personal autonomy. So this book had a very anthropological feel which doesn't really stand up in 2018.
That said, it's a science fiction book that handles sex work in a more nuanced and sympathetic way than many other that I've read. And has a fairly nuanced main female character. There's just so much good science fiction coming out now that I can't justify other people spending the time to read this book.
I don't usually read other reviews in the middle of reading a book because they color how I read the book. Unusually I read the reviews of this book and how people described it as tragic/a real downer. And halfway through the book, that definitely made me think that Tiptree would kill off all of the characters in the book and the bad guys would win and there would be a massive genocide. While people die in this book, and it is not a shiny happy work, it isn't the bloodbath I feared.
But jeez, otherwise this is like white feminism the sci fi novel. Like the Damieii (humanoid people descended from insects) definitely are treated as an exotic tribe of subhumans and have human "guardians" to "protect" them from being exploited by human beings. Those same guardians are astounded when the Damieii, at the end of the novel, wish to go into business for themselves and don't want to keep living their subsistence life. Like heaven forbid that they might want something like plumbing rather than to keep to their "traditional" lives and to have some personal autonomy. So this book had a very anthropological feel which doesn't really stand up in 2018.
That said, it's a science fiction book that handles sex work in a more nuanced and sympathetic way than many other that I've read. And has a fairly nuanced main female character. There's just so much good science fiction coming out now that I can't justify other people spending the time to read this book.
heregrim's review against another edition
3.0
On the plus, good mystery with lots of twists and turns. Great world building with the aliens and Heaven's Tears being drugs made from torturing the aliens. Great characters and storylines. Great "time travel" based in science of an exploding star. Minus, porn star team made up of children, which I couldn't think or find any justifiable reason to include.
mikehex's review against another edition
4.0
I had found this in my library as a teenager and must have read it 5 times. I had no idea about the authors backstory untill after I had moved on. I finally decided to see if it holds up. The answer is... Pretty much, yes.
It reads like a 70s/80s sci fi novel, but I'm not sure how to explain that further. The emotional scenes don't pack quite the punch I remember but it still hot me. The denouement was so long, which also seems uncommon today.
I'm glad I reread it.
It reads like a 70s/80s sci fi novel, but I'm not sure how to explain that further. The emotional scenes don't pack quite the punch I remember but it still hot me. The denouement was so long, which also seems uncommon today.
I'm glad I reread it.
oldwindways's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
brogshan's review against another edition
2.0
Not sure how I feel about this book. The general story of a who-done-it among a bunch of tourist gathered at the edge of the known galaxy to watch the end of a star's super nova was engaging and held my interest, but there were a lot of extra parts for such a small setting and a relatively short book. At times I felt I knew more about the universe than the characters in the story. And the nonchalant attitude towards the porn actors who ended up just being children was really off putting. The imbalance of a surface level thriller with the themes of genocide and abuse just left me wondering what the book was supposed to be.
tamouse's review against another edition
5.0
I absolutely loved this novel. The rich descriptions of the planet, the people, the characters, all was so enjoyable. My greatest wish is that Tiptree's work are re-published for a new generation, and available on e-readers.
elizafiedler's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Imagine it starting out as an Agatha Christie manor house mystery in space, but it quickly goes down an even darker path.