Reviews

From the psychology of war (``Yanqui Doodle'') to the metaphysics of the universe (``The Earth Doth Like a Snake Renew''), this collection of ten stories (some of them previously uncollected) demonstrates the wide range and imposing talent of the late James Tiptree, Jr. Often somber and cynical but always perceptive and intelligent, these stories belong in most sf collections. JC

Between her first SF story in 1968 and her suicide in 1987, Tiptree (the pseudonym of psychologist Alice Sheldon) produced a body of acclaimed if sometimes difficult work. Her approach to her characters, which had often been clinical and detached, had in recent years become a sentiment-filled array of heroes and victims in which contact with aliens put the humans in better contact with themselves. The angelic octopus-like creatures of ``Second Going'' offer Earth a substitute for the religious faith it lacks. ``In the Midst of Life,'' an executive shoots himself, only to find a strange fulfillment in the afterlife. Most striking here is Tiptree's sardonic variation of the Peggy Sue Got Married theme in ``Backward, Turn Backward,'' where what the characters find in their younger selves is not hope but hate and despair. Another uneven and unsettling collection from Tiptree. (September)