 | |
| Author | Joanna Russ |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Dell Publishing |
Publication date | July 1977 (book) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 170 |
| ISBN | 0-440-19428-8 |
| OCLC | 3160986 |
We Who Are About To... is a feminist science fiction novella by Joanna Russ. It first appeared in magazine form in the January 1976 and February 1976 issues of Galaxy Science Fiction and was first published in book form by Dell Publishing in July 1977.
The story takes the form of an audio diary kept by the unnamed protagonist. A group of people, with no technical skills and scant supplies, are stranded on a planet and debate how to survive. The men in the group are dedicated to colonizing and populating the planet, but the unnamed female protagonist, who does not believe that long-term survival is possible, resists being made pregnant by them. Tensions escalate into violence, until finally she is forced to kill the other survivors in order to defend herself against rape. Left alone, she becomes increasingly philosophical, recounting her personal history in political agitation and attempting to chart the days and seasons even as she begins to hallucinate from hunger and loneliness. She experiences visions, first of the people she killed, and then of people from her past. Finally, weak from hunger, she resolves to kill herself.
We Who Are About To... received poor reviews at the time of publication, and was panned by Spider Robinson writing in Analog , [1] and by Algis Budrys in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction . [2] Later reviews have been more positive, however; David Pringle referred to it as "a grim tale which inverts the usual sf myth of human indomitability" in The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction, [3] and Sarah LeFanu said in In the Chinks of the World Machine: Feminism and Science Fiction that "for all its brevity [it] can withstand a multiplicity of readings. It is about how to die, then it is as much about how to live." [4] Samuel R. Delany called We Who Are About To... "a damningly fine analysis of the mechanics of political and social decay", offering the interpretation that "Russ suggests that the quality of life is the purpose of living, and reproduction only a reparative process to extend that quality—and not the point of life at all... only feudal societies can really believe wholly that reproduction... is life's real point." [5] In Slate Magazine, Noah Berlatsky calls it a gender-flipped version of Golding's Lord of the Flies. [6]
The New Wave was a science fiction style of the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by a great degree of experimentation with the form and content of stories, greater imitation of the styles of non-science fiction literature, and an emphasis on the psychological and social sciences as opposed to the physical sciences. New Wave authors often considered themselves as part of the modernist tradition of fiction, and the New Wave was conceived as a deliberate change from the traditions of the science fiction characteristic of pulp magazines, which many of the writers involved considered irrelevant or unambitious.
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L. Gold, who rapidly made Galaxy the leading science fiction magazine of its time, focusing on stories about social issues rather than technology.
Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome in collaboration with Jerome Bixby, John A. Sentry, William Scarff, and Paul Janvier. In 1960, he authored Rogue Moon, a novel.
The Rest of the Robots is a collection of eight short stories and two full-length novels by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1964. The stories, centred on positronic robots, are all part of the Robot series, most of which take place in the Foundation universe. Another collection of short stories about robots, I, Robot, was re-published in the previous year, which is why Asimov chose to title the collection as The Rest of the Robots. None of the short stories in this collection were in I, Robot, however all of them were later included in The Complete Robot, and both novels about Elijah Baley were also published separately.
The Past Through Tomorrow is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, first published in 1967, all part of his Future History.
James Patrick Baen was a U.S. science fiction publisher and editor. In 1983, he founded his own publishing house, Baen Books, specializing in the adventure, fantasy, military science fiction, and space opera genres. Baen also founded the video game publisher, Baen Software. In late 1999, he started an electronic publishing business called Webscriptions, which is considered to be the first profitable e-book vendor.
Orbit was a series of anthologies of new science fiction edited by Damon Knight, often featuring work by such writers as Gene Wolfe, Joanna Russ, R. A. Lafferty, and Kate Wilhelm. The anthologies tended toward the avant-garde edge of science fiction, but by no means exclusively; occasionally the volumes featured nonfiction critical writing or humorous anecdotes by Knight. Inspired by Frederik Pohl's Star Science Fiction series, and in its turn an influence on other original speculative fiction anthologies, it ran for over a decade and twenty-one volumes, not including a 1975 "Best of" collection selected from the first ten volumes.
The Golden Age of Science Fiction, often identified in the United States as the years 1938–1946, was a period in which a number of foundational works of science fiction literature appeared. In the history of science fiction, the Golden Age follows the "pulp era" of the 1920s and 1930s, and precedes New Wave science fiction of the 1960s and 1970s. The 1950s are, in this scheme, a transitional period. Robert Silverberg, who came of age then, saw the 1950s as the true Golden Age.
James Henry Schmitz was an American science fiction writer born in Hamburg, Germany of American parents.
Norstrilia is a science fiction novel by American writer Paul Linebarger, published under the pseudonym Cordwainer Smith. It is the only novel he published under this name, which he used for his science fiction works. It takes place in Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind universe, and was heavily influenced by the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. The novel is in part a sequel to Smith's 1962 short story "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell", featuring some of the same characters and settings.
Beyond Fantasy Fiction was a US fantasy fiction magazine edited by H. L. Gold, with only ten issues published from 1953 to 1955. The last two issues carried the cover title of Beyond Fiction, but the publication's name for copyright purposes remained as before.
The Great Time Machine Hoax is a science fiction novel by American writer Keith Laumer, an expansion of his novelette serialized in Fantastic Magazine under the title of "A Hoax in Time" from June–August 1963. For the novel version Laumer altered the framing story, rearranged the order of the narrative, and added a section not found in the earlier version. The book was originally published in hardcover by Simon & Schuster in September 1964, and in paperback by Pocket Books in August 1965. Later paperback editions were published by Award Books in 1974 and Ace Books in 1978 and 1984; the novel was also reprinted in the collection Keith Laumer: the Lighter Side, published by Baen Books in 2002, and in an omnibus edition with Poul Anderson's Inside Earth as A Hoax in Time/Inside Earth, published by Armchair Fiction in 2011. It has also been translated into French under the title L'Ordinateur Désordonné
Kull is a collection of Fantasy short stories by Robert E. Howard. It was first published in 1967 by Lancer Books under the title King Kull. This edition included three stories completed by Lin Carter from unfinished fragments and drafts by Howard. Later editions, retitled as Kull, replaced the stories with the uncompleted fragments. Two of the stories, and the poem, "The King and the Oak", originally appeared in the magazine Weird Tales.
Stardance is a science fiction novel by Spider Robinson and Jeanne Robinson, published by Dial Press in 1979 as part of its Quantum science fiction line. The novel's opening segment originally appeared in Analog in 1977 as the novella "Stardance", followed by the serialized conclusion, "Stardance II", in Analog in 1978.
This Immortal, serialized as ...And Call Me Conrad, is a science fiction novel by American author Roger Zelazny. In its original publication, it was abridged by the editor and published in two parts in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in October and November 1965. It tied with Frank Herbert's Dune for the 1966 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Small Changes is a collection of science fiction short stories by Hal Clement, published by Doubleday in 1969. It was issued in Great Britain by Robert Hale Publishing, and reprinted in paperback by Dell Books as Space Lash.
"E for Effort" is a science fiction novelette by American writer T. L. Sherred, first published in 1947, about the consequences of a time viewer, a machine that projects images of the past. It has been reprinted many times, including in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
Four for Tomorrow is the first story collection by Roger Zelazny, published in paperback by Ace Books in 1967. British hardcover and paperback editions followed in 1969, under the title A Rose for Ecclesiastes. The first American hardcover was issued in the Garland Library of Science Fiction in 1975. A French translation appeared in 1980. Paperback reissues continued from Ace and later from Baen Books into the 1990s.
The Falling Astronauts is a science fiction novel by American writer Barry N. Malzberg, first published in 1971 in a paperback edition by Ace Books.
"Rock Diver" is a 1951 short story by American science fiction writer Harry Harrison. It was his first published story, and it is credited with popularizing the concept of matter penetration. The plot reworks a classic western plot about claim jumpers with a sci-fi twist.