Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home
Reviewed date: 2026 Jul 21
374 pages
As it turns out, I don't like Tiptree's writing. She's talented, but she turns her talents in the wrong direction.
The only decent story in this collection is Birth of a Salesman, and that only marginally so.
And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side
Humans are genetically programmed to want to have sex with aliens, and that’s going to lead to the downfall of humanity
The Snows are Melted, Snows are Gone
Armless mutant woman uses her body to lure a primitive man away from his tribe, then kidnaps him. Plot twist: it’s the future, men are mostly extinct, and the world is dying or something. The story is happening in what used to be Ethiopia.
The Peacefulness of Vivyan
Drivel and incomprehensible. As near as I can tell, the viewpoint character is mentally deranged and travels from planet to planet subconsciously trying to escape the memories that his conscious mind has long ago suppressed: that his entire family was butchered in a revolt on the planet Atlixco—and that it was his brother who betrayed them all. But as I said, it’s incomprehensible drivel.
Mamma Come Home
Giant alien women come to earth to take men as slaves. Tiptree can't write anything not about sex, apparently.
Help
Religious fundamentalist aliens from Cygnus come to earth and blow up various houses of worship to coerce humans to worship the Great Pupa. Finally a story not about sex—but about the worst stereotype of imperialist religion.
Painwise
So dumb. Some guy has been tuned—altered—so he cannot feel pain, and forced to explore the galaxy for new planets. He’s picked up by some touring alien telepaths who use him for their amusement. He convinces them to take him back to earth, where he feels pain again. What kind of nonsense is this?
Faithful to Thee, Terra, in Our Fashion
On Raceworld, creatures from a million planets compete in races, for fame and money—and all run by the fair and incorruptible Solterrans. The poor, orphan, planetless refugees from a destroyed Terra.
The Man Doors Said Hello To
Nope nope nope nope nope. The doors literally say hello to the man. That’s the most sense this absurdist story makes.
The Man Who Walked Home
A science experience goes boom and triggers the apocalypse. Later, a post-apocalyptic world notices an annual specter that appears for a few seconds at the epicenter of the event: it’s a man, Major John Delgano, traveling backwards in time to his home—where he will cause the boom that triggers the apocalypse. This is not so much a story as a poetic description of a thought experiment.
Forever to a Hudson Bay Blanket
Time-jumping sex maniac from the future. Ugh.
I'll Be Waiting for You When the Swimming Pool is Empty
Terran boy goes exploring and sort of accidentally communicates Terran interstellar enlightenment to a primitive planet. I think Tiptree wants me to consider this a bad thing, but the Terran culture portrayed is far superior, morally and spiritually and from a human-rights perspective—than the cruel and inhumane native culture. If they lost some of their native customs, it’s a small price to pay for all the babies that weren't burned on pagan altars and women who were no longer forced to be slaves or men who weren't slaughtered in pointless wars.
I'm Too Big but I Love to Play
Drivel again. Some disembodied alien intelligence takes on the shape of various people and does various strange things. This is yet another pointless story with too much sex. I am not liking this Tiptree collection.
Birth of a Salesman
Mr. T. Benedict works in the off-planet shipping office, making sure products don’t cause unexpected reactions in alien lifeforms along the shipping route. This isn’t a terrible story, it’s just kind of rushed and harried.
Mother in the Sky with Diamonds
An asteroid inspector/cop for the Company is hiding a secret: the old derelict Ragnorak—and a woman, Topanga.
Beam Us Home
Little Hobie gets hooked on Star Trek, grows up expecting the Enterprise to come and beam him up, joins the Air Force, flies a plane to the stratosphere, and gets abducted by aliens.