James Triptree, Jr. is a facinating person, and I look forward to reading a recently published biography about her. She was a female author in the man's world of early SF, but avoided becoming a 'token female' like, say, Joanna Russ. Triptree's novels were hard to categorize, except for empty phrases like "new", "different", and "original." Brightness Falls from the Air (BFftA) was written in 1985, late in the author's career. It was reviewed not just by the usual suspects- Locus, Analog, Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine- but by the heavy hitters: the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, the New York Times. Reviewers that normally sneer at "genre" works raved over it. That's normally a strike against a SF novel, but BFftA really is so good that the prejudices of the fine-literature crowd could not stand against it.

Normally, I ignore the text on the back of a paperback. It gets written by the junior assistant to the editor's coffee brewer, after a thirty-second skim of the first draft. The purpose of that cover text is to sell copies, and accuracy to the novel is of peripherial concern. But in this case, that back text is an outstanding introduction. Permit me, if you will, to quote it in full:

Sixteen humans have come together on Damiem, a distant world where a dream was once stolen and atrocities once took place. They have gathered to view the last rising of a manmade nova, the passing testament to an unhallowed war.
Soon time will warp and masks will be shed.
Soon some will die, and others kill. Soon some will lie, and others go mad. Some will seek love, and others release. Some will learn names, and others courage.
Some will find justice... and others judgement.
Soon.
Now, sixteen humans have gathered.
To await the light of the murdered star.

BFfrA contains many ideas that you've seen elsewhere, both in SF and Westerns. Novas as warfare, atrocities performed against the natives, corrupt big city types versus pure country folk, evil criminal masterminds and straightforward honest cops. Flying people, aquatic people. And the sorrow of those that have done what they felt was necessary, and live with the consequences. Is there a crime so large that a lifetime cannot provide sufficient expropitiation? But BFftA doesn't read like a retread- more like other novels have tried and failed to cover the same ground.
I was reminded at times of Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross, and Look to Windward by Ian M. Banks. Slaughterhouse Five. Isaac Asimov's Foundation. Murder on the Orient Express.

It is certianly not without faults. The good guys made some mistakes that were difficult to justify, considering the sensitivity of their post and the selectivity with which they were chosen. One of the characters suffers a fate that has more to do with a gypsy curse than "widespread glandular damage". But Triptree is not an author to let trivia get in the way of a good story. This novel is about the ideas, not the facts.

I recommend this book unreservedly. I'm sure it's out of print. Check your library. Check your used bookstores. Read this book.

Posted by: Boviate at 07:37 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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