"James Tiptree Jr. -10000 Light Years From Home" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tiptree James Jr)

TEN-THOUSAND LIGHT YEARS FROM
HOME
James Tiptree Jr
[03 dec 2001тАФproofed and re-released for #bookz]

INTRODUCTION
There is one particular joy that only editors share. This is the biting edge of pleasure experienced
upon reading a good story by a totally unknown and unsold author. If the story is not only good but very
good the pleasure is obviously even greater. Like other authors in the science fiction field I find myself
wearing different hats from time to time; editor more often than not, critic when pressed, insulted
letter-writer when bothered. The editorial hat is the most comfortable one to wear. Since I first began
editing in the early 1950тАЩs I have discovered, chortled over and published the first stories of at least a
half-dozen authors. Some of them later vanished into the interstellar night from whence they came; others
went on to become established professionals. Which brings us instantly to the name of James Tiptree, Jr.
I remember the story well. It was a bad day in the editing business. The slush pileтАФfor that is what it
is crudely called in the tradeтАФwas piled high and tottering with bad stories. I had a deadline. I was tired.
I tried reading one more story; then I was no longer tired. Here was a story by a professional, a man who
knew how to interest me, entertain me, and tell me something about the world and mankindтАЩs affairs all at
the same time. I wrote at once and was pleased to hear, some years later, that the word from me arrived
just one day before a check from John W. Campbell. Now that is the way to start a career in science
fiction.
Tiptree is a professional because he cares about his work and keeps on caring. He reworks it
himself until he has it right, then reworks it some more aiming at an unobtainable perfection. He is fun to
work with because he actually thanks an editor for pointing out something that needs brushing up. But
most of all he is a professional because he writes the kind of fiction that is worth reading and is a pleasure
to read at the same time.
There is a temptation in an introduction of this kind to be very biographical and spend a good deal of
time on the authorтАЩs lovely dark hair or firm waistline despite his advancing years. I shall resist this
because the fiction, the stories before you, are what really counts. The fact that their author enjoys
observing bears in the wilds of Canada or skindiving deep in Mexico is not really relevent. Nor is the
information that he spent a good part of World War II in a Pentagon subbasement. These facts may clue
you to the obviosity that James Tiptree, Jr. is well-traveled and well-experienced in the facts, both sordid
and otherwise, of our world. But internal evidence in the stories informs us of that just as easily.
The stories are what we must look atтАФand here they are: the first collection by an author who can
only go on to greater successes. I found them a pleasure to readтАФand I know that you will too.
Harry Harrison тАУ San Diego, 1973



AND I AWOKE AND FOUND ME HERE ON THE COLD HILLтАЩS SIDE
He was standing absolutely still by a service port, staring out at the belly of the Orion docking above
us. He had on a gray uniform and his rusty hair was cut short. I took him for a station engineer.
That was bad for me. Newsmen strictly donтАЩt belong in the bowels of Big Junction. But in my first
twenty hours I hadnтАЩt found anyplace to get a shot of an alien ship.
I turned my holocam to show its big World Media insigne and started my bit about What It Meant
to the People Back Home who were paying for it all.
 тАЬтАФit may be routine work to you, sir, but we owe it to them to shareтАФтАЭ
His face came around slow and tight, and his gaze passed over me from a peculiar distance.
тАЬThe wonders, the drama,тАЭ he repeated dispassionately. His eyes focused on me. тАЬYou
consummated fool.тАЭ