Ten Thousand Light-Years From Home

This was the first collection from James Tiptree Jr (real name Alice Sheldon), which mostly consist of her early works from the late 1960's through 1972. Sheldon is a character in SF that I've grown really interested in, who I think led an interesting life. Something about her called out to me, so I've slowly collected her published works, and decided to start with the first collection. 

And boy, can you really tell that this is a first collection. Sheldon shoots for the stars in a lot of these stories, but most of the time ends up falling in the mud. She takes a lot of chances with structure and form, mostly to the detriment of the themes she tries to convey. Most of these stories are at least somewhat experimental, in a bad way, and it leaves them feeling more confused than mysterious. 

My favorite stories were the opener, And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side, which details a drunkard/sex addict explaining his crippling fascination with the many species of alien, and The Man Who Walked Home, which is a time travel story that has a vaguely dying earth feel. I really do enjoy her story titles, which actively make me want to read the story itself, a compliment that I never thought I would end up having. Unfortunately, even these stories are only slightly above average for me, and the rest of the collection is weighed down by stories that are either boring, or so hopelessly confused that are a struggle to read. In fact, I struggled to complete the collection, and I found myself drifting off during the last two stories. 

Now, despite all of this, there are moments where you can see Sheldon coming into her own a little bit, moments that make me still eager to explore her later works. There are a few stories, like The Snows Are Melted, the Snows Are Gone, where her prose really shines through, creating atmosphere and a great reading experience. She shows that she can write tenderly while still exploring dark subject matter. I wish there were more of these moments in the collection, but hopefully I can be vindicated in the future. 

Unless you are already a diehard fan of her work, I don't think there's anything here for you. A mostly forgettable debut.