Picnic on Paradise was Joanna Russ's first novel, and it remains one of my favorites. It concerns Alyx, agent of TransTemp, and her attempt to get a group of civilians safely across a hostile landscape. The dangers faced are sometimes environmental but more often internal. The characters are vivid and fascinating (particularly Machine) and the story is surprisingly realistic and grounded. Definitely my favorite of Ms. Russ's books (and she's one of my favorite authors).

First, I have one of the essays in this book to thank for getting me started on Darkover. If only for that, it deserves a few stars.

Beyond that, it's difficult not to enjoy reading an essay that narrowly missed being titled "The Triumph of the Flasher." Russ writes clearly and humorously of the problems that face women connected with the written word -- both as authors and as characters (often in stories written by men).

In the vein of the Alyx stories, Russ offers up another gutsy time and space travelling heroine. There's plenty of adventure and plenty of feminist content, as well as some interesting narrative structures. (As when Russ briefly breaks the narrative flow to comment on the story in her capacity as narrator.) Self referential writing can easily become self conscious and stilted. It's hard to pull off, but when it works, it works well. Russ pulls it off. This is vintage Russ--more accesible than The Female Man, and more explicitly feminist than the Alyx stories.

With the possible exception of the western, sci-fi has historically been about the most markedly gendered genre of fiction. Up until the 1970s, their were hardly any women writing in the field at all (Judith Merrill and Leigh Brackett being rare exceptions). The readership was likewise almost exclusively male. So that's what Joanna Russ was up against when she tried to break into the field in the 1970s. So, what kind of welcome did she get from the boys? Well, in short order the evil sexist curs of sci-fi community had bestowed upon Joanna Russ its two highest honors, the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award.Understandably outraged at this shabby treatment, Russ poured her anger into this prolonged whine of a book, this manual of grievance, this feminist masterpiece.

Had to read this for a master's class and was blown away by how good it was. If you like to challenge your patterns of thought, this is the book for you. Feminist masterpiece.

This book about women and art is a very accurate commentary, peppered with plenty of humour. All of what Joanna Russ writes about rings true with me, and at the same time I wished it wasn't so. I've always known what she says to be as it is, but I just accepted it, and didn't really give it much thought. All narrow-minded literary scholars (and I've met plenty...so many college profs. are) should read this book, and hopefully it will open their mind.

I love this book because one of its chapter titles seems to sum up the spirit of contemporary feminism in just one simple phrase: "My life is hard because your life is easy."

To which sentiment I , an unreconstructed straight white male, would have to reply in the following manner: "Your life, Joanna, may well be as horrible as you say it is --god knows it looks unappealing -- but that has nothing to do with me. My happiness does not create your misery. My successes do not determine your failures. You and me, we have nothing more in common than the air we breath. Mope away the remainder of your days in ideological squalor if that's what floats your boat. Just don't point your finger at me. "

This is a must read for anyone interested in feminism and the prospect for social change and women's liberation.

Joanna Russ is more than thorough in her analysis of the current wave of reactionary feminism. She asserts that those who are active in this "wave" are primarily interested in personal beliefs, opinions and relationships instead of political analysis and action. She clearly articulates how the current mass reaction in the feminist movement has essentially reduced feminism into lifestyle and personal aggrandizement devoid of political and economic analysis, agenda and impact.

Russ'work illustrates that what has been lost is the understanding that feminism is an impetus to the radical reordering of society through socially conscious political struggle. She challenges those interested in women's rights to examine (or reexamine) and analyze the roots of women's oppression with a socially conscious perspective and all those claiming to be feminists to develop a political agenda based on the reality of the relationship of forces and to immediately end their support of patriarchy.

If nothing else, the bibliography of this book is a shining model for every feminist's bookshelf.

If you are looking for an introduction to the feminist theory because you didn't get any in high school (or college, for that matter) this book is a great place to start. This book is really, really readable. I normally don't call such academically founded texts page turners, but this one is. I could not put it down. Russ makes several vital connections between the problems of sex, race, class and sexual orientation, and shows you how she arrives at her conclusions regarding these connections. I had fun reading the book, but I was shocked at my personal ignorance on so many of the topics. It was certainly eye opening. Kudos to the author.

I would also add that you should make sure to read all the endnotes; they're every bit as good as the text itself.

Joanna Russ is a big name in feminist science fiction for a reason: she was one of the first big radical noisemakers in a predominantly male world.

First does not always mean best, and even best does not necessarily mean great.

I'm sure that die hard feminists would disagree with me, but, after sharing this and other Russ books with my female feminist friends, I can only say that her work is sometimes good, sometimes passable, sometimes garbage. Rarely great. The Female Man is an IMPORTANT book, but by far not a GREAT book.

This collection is probably the best, and not coincidentally, the least radical she has to offer. It is certainly more enjoyable, although could not be considered important.

It contains several stories collected from other sources (presumably previously published stories from magazines) containing, loosely, a chronological tale of an adventurer named Alyx. The descriptions and chronology are variously inconsistent; this is not necessarily a bad thing, since the stories stand independent, and since they are suppposed to represent an idea more than a single character.

Her writing style is short sentences and sentence fragments, if that is your sort of thing. Also of note, this book contains what is probably her only reference to heterosexual sex (I could be wrong, but there were no other references in the two other books of hers that I read).

Russ has often been vocal about getting people to go out and read the female corpus of literature, naming some great women writers as her inspirations. I agree; there are some great women writers. You should probably read them instead.

The readership of fantasy has been said to be predominantly feminine (as opposed to the predominantly masculine readership of science fiction), so it is perhaps not much of a surprise that one of the best collections of fantasy writing would be one dedicated solely to the work of women authors. If one were looking for non-patriachal, original, stimulating fantasy generally uncluttered by the cliches of the genre one could do worse than one of the most important collections to come out of the field in the last few decades. The range of the book, which also traverses science-fictionesque territory, is impressive, from straightforward space opera (The Ship Who Sang, by Anne McCaffrey; the short story that birthed the famous novel of the same name), to revisionist visions of classic fairy tales (Red as Blood; a revisionist Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs story with a distinctly Stokerian--re: Vampiric--twist). Classy packaging and a beautiful cover illustation (Baby Giant) complete a pleasant reading experience. The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women is a welcome mainstay on the bookshelf of essential science-fiction and fantasy writing.

The Female Man is rather interesting science fiction novel. That is not saying that is good novel, but it is one that makes you think about things. The author herself, Joanna Russ, is one of the most well known feminist writers around. Hence, making the man's role in this novel pretty much nonexistent. The novel is based on four women's lives and involves a special place called Wileaway. A place in which the entire male population has been destroyed and no longer exists. The interesting thing about this factor is that no one from Wileaway seems to mind this one bit. They continue to go with their lives marry each other and taking care of their children and working at the same time. The four women in the novel come together from all different areas and backgrounds. Once they are all four together, they each teach each other different things from where they come from. Janet is the one woman from Wileaway and first meets up with Jeannine, a librarian. Jeannine tries to associate Janet with the way in the world works. Needless to say this is the most interesting part of the novel, to read about Jeannine trying to teach Janet how to act in public, how to dress and that she should be looking to date a male not a female. Overall, this book was an ok novel. If you are a feminist, then I know that you will enjoy more than those who are not. Males, sorry but I don't think that you will find this one too good. The one thing that would change about the book would be the fact that it jumps around so much. In each part the author jumps in between character at least ten to twelve times, without telling the reader that she is switching or whom she is switching too. Other than that I enjoyed the book, but don't think I would read anymore of Joanna Russ' novels.

I'm a guy. Just thought I'd get that out of the way before I write this. I knew this was considered a classic of science fiction before I even found a used copy, but I have to admit that I wasn't looking all that forward to reading it. For one the cover (the old original one on the paperback) is a garish thing, basically a feathered woman putting on another skin. Plus I knew the book was about female issues and specifically issues that came up during movements that started in the seventies, when the book was written. At least it was short, I told myself. I'd get it over with quick. Boy, was I surprised. Not only does this rank among the best books I've ever read, but it gave me a lot to think about. Part of that has to do with Russ' style, she cascades all sorts of chapters together, bouncing back and forth, her prose is excellent, not just femenist rhetoric, she brings up all sorts of points about everything. And her contrast of the different worlds, there's Joanna's world, which is like ours (she's the female trying to be liberated), and Jeannine's world, where the Depression never ended (she's meek and just wants to go along with the group, essentially), then there's Janet's, where men don't exist at all (my favorite scene is where the newspeople ask how she has sex if there are no men and Janet explains to their dismay). There's one other too but that's a surprise. The style is sometimes confusing at first, sometimes you don't know who is narrating or which character is which but after a while it all starts falling together. Russ peppers it with her own observations throughout, my favorite being when she anticipates the reviews the book is going to get (not good ones). Is it angry? Sure but back then she had a lot to be angry about, and she comes across rationally through, her anger is righteous and not of the "all men should die!" type of rage. Like I said, it gives guys and gals lots to ponder and deserves to be wider read. The style may be off putting but the message is clear as anything. You just have to dig a little with thought to figure it out.

A woman from a world without men. A feminist during the Women's Liberation in the 70s. A woman trying her best to fit in to her patriarchal society in the 60s. A female assassin from a period where men and women are warring against each other. What do they all have in common? Well, you'll have to read Joanna Russ' THE FEMALE MAN for the answer to that question, but you'll be glad you did. Russ' science fiction novel compares the lives of four women from parallel universes and their relations - or lack thereof - with men. Written during the height of the women's lib movement in 1975, The Female Man boldly attempts to reconsider our patriarchal society and to question woman's place in this world. I found this book extremely intelligent, entertaining, and thought-provoking. Russ created highly plausible and interesting characters with which I could relate and found believable. While much of the novel deals with feminist issues, it is done in a reasonable fashion and yet it creates controversy at the same time - a good duo in my opinion. I found Russ' writing style of jumping back and forth between character, narrator, and time period very confusing at first, but after a while I was able to catch on just fine. I really liked this method of telling the story because Russ allows you to enter into the mind of all the characters so as to get a different perspective on the same incident and to further one's understanding of the characters and events. I would highly recommend this book to anyone - male or female - who claims to like science fiction and especially those who say they do not - I'm converted!:-)

This a story of a woman being bored to death. Really, she dies of it. There are some other characters to begin with, but they're a bit boring and she kills them half way through the book. Then we're left with this murderer, and her morbid fascination with, well, death, and her slow, well, death. There's that D word again. The book's actually more interesting then it sounds, but it's still dead boring. The writing is pretty good, but really, the plot is a killer. There's nothing going on, and the murderer's morbid thoughts and recollections are not that interesting, especially as the sane reader will probably not sympathize with the one and only character offered in the second half of the book.
Other reviewers seemed awed by the fact this book deals with, you guessed it, death. This book should have been killed in its infancy.

If I had read this book when I was fifteen, I do believe my life would have been entirely different. This is wonderfully subversive stuff, addressing all the problems any science fiction fan has with the "starship separated from civilization" plot, with a protagonist you will love to be appalled by.

I was young when I first read "We who are about to..." Too young, really, to grasp the full concept of life and death, the two main currents that lie within the book.

A cruise vessel of the future manages to miss the point in space that it was attempting to fold to, spinning amazingly far off course and crashing into a planet that is in no way guaranteed not to kill the survivors. A politician, an upper class family, a "jock", a young sex object, a washed up waitress, a supposed tactical expert, and a musician (our heroine) all help make an ensemble from Hell. Nothing goes according to protocol, and chaos ensues as the musician experiments liberally with her psychoactive drugs.

While in a science-fiction setting, Ms. Russ manages to maintain a surprising lack of the technological; the underlying concept of the story being Gilligan's Island on Acid. As Social Darwinism takes its course, the value of life itself is called into question.

This is not a book for those who are set in their ideas of God and living; this is for those who remain unsure as to what lies in store for them, and what may be the meaning of life.

The first story is fair; they slide progressivly towards poor and hateful sickness. This is, once again, a collection of writing from an author who seems devout in her desire to prodice poor work and then dare anyone to criticize it, by setting herself up as a martyr.

There are many varied and brilliant feminist and/or women writers, who take the time to study writing, character analysis, style, form, etc... Such must have all bought into the "oppressors" dictum of "male" writing, if one were to believe this "liberated" author.

I somewhat enjoyed "The Female Man", but that was back in the days when I was more radically femenist myself, in college. If the book can't hold interest past the college age, it is not very much worth the writing, or the reading. In any case, take a look at The Femal Man, and you will get the gist of this author, allowing you to skip the rest.

The stories in this book are strange and varied: they're witty, sharp, disturbing, hypnotic, brilliant, boring, ethereal (sometimes too much so), evocative and compelling by turns. I can't really say anything that would refer equally to all the work presented in this volume. Some of the stories were deadly dull; they were dreaming, floating, non-sensical and, well, too diffuse and non-specific to be anything but boring--though the language was interesting, jumping and alive. Some of the stories don't make sense, and are quite proud to be so. And then there are some very good ones scattered around that make this book worth possessing.

"The Little Dirty Girl" is funny and touching story about a woman who had resolutely turned aside from life finding something new and compelling in her sudden friendship to a very dirty little girl who is more than she seems--a woman reawakening to human contact. Her emotional state is finely conveyed with a really good first-person POV.

"I Had Vacantly Crumbled It Into My Pocket..." is a scary-sad tale of loneliness and the way that some people seek out the dark predator, blackest Death, in relief. Despair! Despair!

"Come Closer" is a goodish horror tale of a pretty house on the end of a lane filled with fruit trees... only what are those fruit exactly?

"Window Dressing" is fun and fashion through the eyes of a mannequin, the ultimate seductress. She's plastic and she can't think--making her thoughts hilarious.

"The Cliches From Outer Space" is funny; a short little reworking of some feminist pet peeve stories done with blackest humor.

But my favorite story, the best one in the book, is "The View From This Window" which is just this wonderful story about what it feels like to fall in love, which I know sounds derivative and commonplace, but not so well as in this story. 90% of fiction features falling in love somewhere in its plotlines and thematic paradigms, while in this story, Russ captures perfectly, in her evocative and fearless prose, the craziness, the wonder, the need and scariness of realizing how much this one person means to you. Russ doesn't sketch out the characters or elucidate their thoughts, but merely writes with perfect pitch the roiling confusion of emotion, of love. It's not linear, it doesn't strive for clarity--just immediacy of emotion, of feeling, of the freefall (scary, uncertain, anguished and exalted) of finding oneself in love. This is a beautiful story.

The stories in this book are strange and varied; they're witty, sharp, disturbing, hypnotic, brilliant, boring, ethereal (sometimes too much so), evocative and compelling. I can't really say anything that would refer equally to all the work presented in this volume. Some of the stories were deadly dull; they were dreaming, floating, non-sensical and, well, boring. Some of them don't make sense. And then there are some very good ones scattered around that make this book worth possessing.

"The Little Dirty Girl" is funny and touching story about a woman who has turned aside from life finding something new and compelling in her sudden friendship to a very dirty little girl who is more than she seems. "'I Had Vacantly Crumbled It Into My Pocket...'" is a scary-sad tale of loneliness and the way that some people seek out the dark predator, blackest Death, in relief. "Come Closer" is a goodish horror tale of a pretty house on the end of a lane filled with fruit trees... only what are those fruit exactly? "Window Dressing" is fun and fashion through the eyes of a mannequin, that ultimate seductress. "The Cliches From Outer Space" is hilarious; it's a short little reworking of some feminist pet peeve stories done with blackest humor. But my favorite story, the best one in the book, is "The View From This Window" which is just this wonderful story about what it feels like to fall in love, which I know sounds derivative and done about a million times, but not so well as in this story. 90% of fiction features falling in love somewhere in its plotlines and thematic structures, while in this story, Russ captures perfectly, in her evocative and delicate prose, the craziness, the wonder, the need and scariness of realizing how much this one person means to you. While many writers can convey emotions like hate and pain and nihilistic blankness, only a few can do the same with that most blatantly ill-used of all emotions deployed in fiction, love.