Sheri Tepper's book The Family Tree is the only one of hers I've read, and (no spoilers here!!) I'll just say that about halfway through, you have to completely change your mindspace. Biggest "WTF?!?" (but in a good way) moment I ever had reading. Do NOT let yourself get spoiled about this book, because I loved that 180 turn I had to take.
I also liked an old SF romance I read back in the late '80s by Ann Maxwell (Elizabeth Lowell's SF penname) called Timeshadow Rider. I read it in one day, did not understand the climax of the book at all, reread it the next, and finally the light bulb went on over my head about 3/4 of the way through the second read. It involved a big mental shift to figure out the ending because it was so alien. Again, I loved that rethinking.
Tomorrow I will want to hit myself over the head repeatedly for missing the opportunity.
Hey hey, we're both still alive, as far as I noticed. The future is ahead of us!
And thanks, Erin. Your post was duly marked.
if we can't begin to comprehend the truly alien, as Shir points out, then should we just give up on sci-fi altogether? Is it a pointless genre?
Sci fi doesn't have to be about aliens to be good sci fi. It can be about "just" the impact of technology on our culture.
I second the recommendation of Octavia Butler--she did a lot about the cost of alienness. I can't recommend anything of Sheri Tepper's beyond her YA stuff, which I don't think was remarkable in handling aliens. Her adult work I found shrilly one-note political.
Staying true to my words, I'll say goodnight to you too, Bitches.
Don't talk so much while I'm away, OK? I have the feeling I'll wake up tomorrow to 152 new posts in discussion I hate to miss.
Williams Gibson's stuff mostly isn't about aliens but is damned good science fiction.
Her adult work I found shrilly one-note political.
This is why The Family Tree remains the only book of hers I've read. Really annoyingly strident in her political agenda. I have similar issues with James Tiptree, Jr.--she (Alice Sheldon was her real name) was blatantly anti-male in her writing, but she did write some beautiful short stories nonetheless.
It's not necessarily a shortcoming that any given SF alien species serves as a metaphor for some aspect of humanity, either. It's a reasonable approach.
I did find that bias in Tiptree - except in "Brightness Falls from the Air" which is a CRUSHING novel, about inevitability, and cruelty, and vengeance. The writing is so beautiful that I have to re-read it every so often, but not more than once every couple of years; I find it shattering.
(I'm sure this comes as little surprise to most of the Bitches that the "James Tiptree Award" is handed out every year for SF/F that challenges assumptions about gender)
I can totally see how some of Tepper's works could be seen as one-note, ita. Some of her books I just have to roll my eyes at, but some of them, I think she has some gallow's humored, funny scenes.
