Alice Sheldon's "The Man Who Walked Home" (as by James Tiptree, Jr) (short story, post apocalypse, free)

Apocalypse here results as a side effect of a time travel experiment. While I found the time travel part positively incomprehensible & boring, the rest of it is very readable - a dead world in the process of rebuilding itself.

Story summary.

At the site of the time travel experiment, there was an explosion, a crater, & the side effects that killed much life of earth. But there is also a curious physical phenomenon that is a side effect of original experiment: once a day, every year, at the same time, at a place in the original crater, a "monster" appears for a few seconds - a monster that appears to be moving but is not, it leaves bad smell after it's gone, & any attempt to touch it tends to cost you your limbs.

Story is mostly a view of this curious phenomenon, & eventually an explanation, from the point of view of sundry people who'll watch it over the centuries as the dead place keeps slowly getting inhabited.

Fact sheet.

First published: Amazing Science Fiction, November 1972.
Download full text from Baen eBooks.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Alice Sheldon (as by James Tiptree, Jr).

Alice Sheldon's "Beam Us Home" (as by James Tiptree, Jr) (short story, Star Trek fanfic, free): A US soldier's life, & death

Mostly beautifully done, it describes the life story of Hobie. Scenes from different life stages of him, with vague hints that he may be an alien...

Later parts, I suppose are a criticism of some US war or the other; US readers with '60s political background should be better able to see the point.

Fact sheet.

First published: Galaxy, April 1969.
Download full text from Internet Archive, Lexal.
Rating: B.
Among the classics of Sci Fiction, edited by Ellen Datlow.
Related: Stories of Alice Sheldon (as by James Tiptree, Jr).

Alice Sheldon's "Love is the Plan the Plan is Death" (as by James Tiptree, Jr) (short story, free): Fighting instincts can be fatal

A species of animals, physically alien but with sexual & reproductive behavior similar to many familiar animals. "Plan" in the title is a substitute for "instinct"; story is of an individual's futile fight against the instinct.

Story summary.

Told from the point of view of Moggadeet, a "male" of the species that hibernate in winter.

Born in winter, chased away with his litter by mother at the end of winter as the litter changed fur color from golden (babies) to black (males) & red (females).

His first summer alone. Instinct that takes him go to caves for hibernation at the beginning of winter. His meeting the "Old One" who instructs him on his species instincts, & whom he will eat for food in winter.

His second summer & coming of age. His killing of his brother Frim for the jointly coveted lady love, Lilliloo. His instinct to keep his lady love bound up in silks his body secretes & his loving care of her. Suspecting he will kill her for food in winter, he begins gathering food - so there will be plenty for both in winter.

Coming of winter & his sexual arousal, & finally impregnation of Lilliloo. Fighting instinct & against protests of Lilliloo, his releasing of her from silken bonds. Only she now is too big, & has the instinct to eat her male partner!

Fact sheet.

First published: Stephen Goldin (Ed)'s "The Alien Condition" (anthology, 1973).
Rating: A.
Download full text from Internet Archive.
Included in Classics section of Ellen Datlow's SciFiction.
Nebula Award 1973 winner in short story category.
Hugo Award 1974 nominee in novelette (?) category.
Related: Stories of Alice Sheldon (as by James Tiptree, Jr).award

Best women genre authors

A panel presentation at SF Signal.
Note: At the moment, link doesn't seem to work. Hopefully, should be back live sometime.

My own favorites: C L Moore, Mary Shelley, & J K Rowling. I don't recall Shelley even mentioned in above panel; her classics (at least the ones I've read), including Frankenstein, actually make a light reading in spite of being very influential.
PS: Did you know Moore's "Black God's Kiss" is sometimes regarded as the defining story of sword-&-sorcery subgenre? Few others of the subgenre I've read appear to be poor rehashes. And her "The Bright Illusion" is among the first stories where aliens appear as truly alien; I'm not sure if this came before Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey" or not - but both are remembered for this feature, & I've an impression both came around the same time. While her superlative works came later in life, with Henry Kuttner, she has several good solo works too from her early career (apart from, sadly, several crappy ones too). She's often very original - a dream author for those who regard sf as a genre of ideas.

On my to-read list: Ursula K Le Guin & Andre Norton. I've heard good things about both, but have read only one story from each, neither of them particularly noteworthy. SF Signal link above has some suggested readings of Le Guin.

Lois McMaster Bujold is a name I've heard often but never read. Would like to check something out, particularly any short fiction.

Two well regarded names that don't really figure in my list: Anne McCaffrey & Alice Sheldon (better known by her pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr). I've only read "Weyr Search" of McCaffery, the original story of the massive Pern series; not bad, but didn't really make me seek more. I've read 3 or 4 stories of Sheldon, & liked only one of them - Hugo & Nebula winner "The Screwfly Solution" which actually has the same identical plot as one of the Murray Leinster's Med Ship stories I cannot recollect the name of.

Alice Sheldon's "The Screwfly Solution" (as by Raccoona Sheldon) (novelette, alien invasion, free): Insects are to humans what humans are to...

Note the author is Alice Sheldon, better known by her male pseudonym “James Tiptree, Jr”.

A very dark, but difficult to put down story - once it picks up.

Story summary.

Premise is a theory, I don't know if real or fictional, that male sexual behavior is a conversion of male aggressive behavior - triggered by some kind of hormone or something.

In bizarre incidents, all concentrated near the population centers around 30th parallel all over the world, men have been killing women en masse ("femicide")! We will slowly learn that these are the areas where winds of "Intertropical Convergence Zone" touch down the surface of earth. There is something in the air triggering this behavior, & its source is in the upper atmosphere.

But governments won't listen to scientists making these deductions till it's too late. Town after town is being thus destroyed. We will see areas other than 30th parallel also getting affected near the end of the story.

Story is told through the personal accounts of Alan, his wife Anne, his daughter Angie, & a close friend Dr Barnhard Braithwaite aka Barney. Barney is one of the proponents of the theory that there is something infectious in the air. By the end of the story, an infected Alan would be dead after killing his daughter, & Anne will be hiding from rampaging male mobs disguised as a boy. In one of her lonely refuges, she will see an alien - examining the land that is now theirs for grabs.

Title comes from a similar treatment some people are experimenting with for some troublesome insect.

See also.

1. Joe Dante directed a 1 hour TV movie based on this story. I've not seen the movie.
2. Murray Leinster's "The Mutant Weapon" (1957): Sheldon's story is practically a copy of Leinster's.
   

Fact sheet.

First published: Analog, June 1977.
Rating: A
Nebula Award 1977 winner in novelette category.
Hugo Award 1978 nominee in novelette category.
Locus Award 1978 nominee in short fiction category.
Download full text from Internet Archive.
Included in Ellen Datlow's Sci Fiction classics.
Related: All stories as by Raccoona Sheldon; James Tiptree, Jr.

Alice Sheldon's "The Women Men Don't See" (as by James Tiptree, Jr) (novelette, free): A woman is very unhappy in a male dominated society

This might have been ok (if not great) non-genre story, but the completely unnecessary introduction of aliens near end & bizarre ending ruined it for me.

Story summary.

Much of it is an adventure story. A woman, Ruth Parsons, has hired a private plane piloted by Captain Estéban, & is taking a trip to somewhere in South America with her daughter Althea. She will also take a hitchhiker, Don Fenton (the narrator), on board.

On the way, there is plane crash, & the four are stranded in a small wet place with no freshwater & no hope of early rescue.

Ruth & Don will go looking for fresh water, & end up spending a couple of nights away from crash site. That's where we get the background of Ruth filled up. She never married, nor did her mother, & hopefully her daughter too will not marry - though the daughter hopefully have bear the child of Captain Estéban, now that she's alone with him. We learn that Ruth is carrying major rage inside her against a male dominated society.

While on their camping site beside a river when out looking for fresh water, she'll find a curious object, & instantly know it's an alien artifact. Aliens - students on earth! - come looking for it in the morning in their boat. She successfully bargains with them to be taken to their world, away from this male dominated world, along with her daughter - never to return!

Fact sheet.

First published: F&SF, December 1973.
Rating: B
Download full text from Internet Archive.
Included in Ellen Datlow's Sci Fiction classics.
Related: All stories as by James Tiptree, Jr.