Eyes of Amber and Other Tales

by Joan D. Vinge

A collection of 6 stories:
"Eyes of Amber"
"To Bell the Cat"
"View from a Height"
"Media Man"
"The Crystal Ship"
"Tin Soldier"

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction, Collections, Science Fiction Fantasy, Anthologies

248 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1979

About the author

Joan D. Vinge (born Joan Carol Dennison) is an American science fiction author. She is known for such works as her Hugo Award-winning novel The Snow Queen and its sequels, her series about the telepath named Cat, and her Heaven's Chronicles books.

Reviews

[Temucano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me sorprendió la densidad de los relatos. Primero hay que habituarse a las tecnologías y universos propuestos, y luego dejarse llevar por el drama, casi siempre de seres desclasados al vaivén de sus emociones. En general son tramas a flor de piel, por lo que cuando encajan satisfacen, pero también tienen el peligro de aburrir, sobre todo si se exceden en las páginas como en "La nave de cristal". Personalmente me quedo con los tres cuentos del principio, los dos más alienígenos: "Ojos de ámbar" y "El cascabel al gato"; y con "Panorama desde una altura", un canto de cisne en los lindes del espacio, el que más me gustó.

[Xabi1990 · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10. Media de los 2 libros leídos de la autora: 6/10

Yo lo tengo como "Ojos de Ambar", de Edhasa Nebulae

[Jai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories were were at the "OK" level for me, except for Tin Soldier, which is why I bought this collection in the first place.

P.S. The way Vinge writes aliens: they are really alien.

[Matt Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, this book is why it remains so worthwhile to pick up an old, unfamiliar story collection. Sometimes the stories in such books are little gifts just waiting for you to claim them. Joan Vinge certainly began her publishing career with confidence and style. Narrative, character, and alien perspectives are dealt creative and credible hands throughout, and the stories have aged well.
Of the stories here, "Media Man" is the weakest to me and closest to dated; it's conventional in form, content, and conclusion and kinda forgettable. As for the others, "Eyes of Amber" is a fascinating and fun romp through xeno-anthropology and the observer effect, "To Bell The Cat" seems awkward at first but makes itself clear in its own time, "View From a Height" is a good, credible psychological progression, "The Crystal Ship" paints a rich, almost psychedelic portrait of two very different characters' shared, lonesome journeys and builds in unexpected ways, and "Tin Soldier" is just sublime.
Looks like I'll be adding plenty more of JV's work to my readings.

[Dalibor Dado Ivanovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baš zanimljivo kako mi je promakla Vinge, tj pročitao sam samo Snježnu i Ljetnu Kraljicu. I eto otkrio zbirku u kojoj su sabrane sve njene kratke priče. Oduševila me, tako lijepo piše, zanimljive teme i likovi. Priče su odlične jer se može svašta očekivati do kraja.
Posebne su mi
Tinn Soldier
Mother and Child
The Crystal Ship
Tam Lin
Phoenix in the Ashes

[Josef Komensky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful collection of four stories with strong Female touch.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding collection of six short stores written in the 1970s, where both 'hard' and 'soft' science fiction elements take equal precedence.

The title story won a Hugo award. T'uupieh is an assassin from a bewinged alien species of the moon Titan who speak in a language of musical chords. A research team on earth have established contact with her via a sophisticated probe that she considers to be a powerful demon. When she accepts a commission to murder her own sister, human and alien morality come into conflict.
It's an excellent story.

'To Bell the Cat' is even better. A notorious war criminal, now a decriminalized assistant and catspaw to an amoral scientist on a distant planet, is given an unlikely opportunity for a measure of atonement when he encounters an alien species.

A 'View from a Height' answers the question about just whom would make an ideal astronaut for a one-way, deep space exploration. Emmylou Stewart's biggest problem on her mission is combating boredom until, that is, she receives some shattering news from earth.

In 'Media Man' huge corporations dominate a distant earth colony which has just decimated itself in a civil war. A reporter gains the opportunity to join one of the biggest corporations when asked to cover a rescue mission, but when foul play occurs he faces a choice between his ambitions and justice.

As good as the preceding stories are, the final two are a further cut above.

'The Crystal Ship', inspired by The Doors song of the same name, is another meeting between human and alien cultures, only this time a fully developed one with a significant back history. A colony of humans have become all but extinct, those that remain are addicted to a native narcotic and orbit suspended above the planet in the Crystal Ship, 'the dream world where all griefs were forgotten'. Then a woman named Tarawassie breaks out of her lassitude, forming a symbiotic relationship with one of the 'Real People' from whom she learns many secrets.

Last up is another belter called 'Tin Soldier', where a female space traveller and a cyborg barmen share a relationship between her flights, their meetings separated by three years by her experience and twenty-five by his. It's a uniquely touching love story.

There is so much to commend about Vinge's writing on this evidence that I hardly know where to start. She has excellent ideas, can synthesize three or four in the same story without becoming a muddle, creates deep and convincing alien worlds without the need for clunky passages of exposition, and is as adept with characterization as she is with ideas.

It's also a joy to read science fiction stories featuring strong and believable female characters for a change. It never ceases to amaze me just how pathetic most male sci-fi writers are at understanding women.

Highly recommended if you can hunt out a copy.

[Darnoc Leadburger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know what to expect going into this. What I got was a wonderfully written collection of science fiction stories written in a literary vein. I'll go through the stories one by one, starting... now.

-"Eyes of Amber" is a story about an alien civilization and communication with them. It's pretty clever and was a pretty good way to kick off this collection.
-"To Bell the Cat" is a trippy story about a disabled person and the people around him and a trippy alien race on the planet that these people are on... pretty clever, and relatively effective.
-"View From a Height" continues the trend of 'pretty good' stories with a tale of an immuno-compromised woman on a one way trip about a spaceship. A cool character study.
-"Media Man" is a decent novella, but I didn't feel it was meaty enough for its length. That or the prose was drier and a little more boring than the predecessors. But it's not as bad as the next one...
-"The Crystal Ship" was the book's biggest disappointment. Maybe it's because of the reading circumstances around it, but I just couldn't get into it or care about the characters or anything. It had more worried about the last story.
-But "Tin Solider," thankfully, was not just a return to form but a shattering of the glass ceiling. This is a great story that, believe it or not, hinges on romance. But great sci-fi concepts are wrapped into these tear-jerking moments - it made me tear up twice - and it's changed my perspective on several songs and character themes. It is a fantastic little gem that is worth the price of admission right here.

[Julie Decker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six short stories by the fabulous Joan D. Vinge. I've enjoyed her longer work and her novellas, so I picked this up and was impressed beyond imagining at some of these stories--she has this incredible talent of making the alien seem familiar and making every character she creates seem utterly real. One particular short story, "View From a Height," involves a woman being sent on a spaceship that will be flying farther from home for the rest of her life, and though she has a mission and intends to carry it out until she dies, the story primarily focuses on her emotional state when coming closer and closer to the threshold after which communications from home will never reach her again. An amazing exploration of isolation and connection. Every story, however, is fantastic.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading this I can safely say that Joan D. Vinge is an excellent author, or at least became one. There's a lot of great potential in these stories, it's just that a lot of it is held back by becoming outdated by modern standards. This book isn't bad if you can overlook that, but it did impact my enjoyment.

[Burak Emiralp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okurken inanılmaz keyif aldığım hikayeler barındıran bilim kurgu kitabı...

Orjinalinde To Bell the Cat ve Crystal Ship adlı iki hikaye daha barındırmasına rağmen dilimize bu hikayeler çevrilmemiş.

Favori öyküm ise Kurşun Asker...

[Nowhere Girl · Rating 4 out of 5]

gets off to a really weak start, with an award winning story that has few redeeming qualities and a really thin premise, but everything after that was really worthwhile, especially the Crystal Starship and the Belling of the Cat or whatever

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories were good or okay, but the last one, "Tin Soldier," is phenomenal!

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joan is not afraid to let an alien be an alien.

[Swankivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short story collection by the fab Ms. Vinge, I'd never read it so I picked it up. It's old stuff. Some of the stories were so beautiful they made me cry. Every time she creates a character, the person is so realistic and multi-layered that it just doesn't even matter to me if what they're doing is interesting; I just care about her people so much that they could sit around drinking tea and it'd be interesting. I loved the story about the woman who spends her life heading farther and farther away from her home hurtling through space, and with every passing year it's going to take longer and longer to receive and send communications to home until it's completely impossible . . . wow. Just wow.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Introduction" essay by Ben Bova 5/20/2019
"Eyes of Amber" 5/23/2019
"To Bell the Cat" 6/2/2019
"View from a Height" 6/4/2019
"Media Man" 6/5/2019
"The Crystal Ship" 6/6/2019
"Tin Soldier" 6/9/2019

[Chani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the linguistic/musical idea but the dialogue was sooooo bad. Wish someone would take this idea and upgrade it.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two of the short stories were worthy enough to receive the Hugo award, two were not worth reading and the others were just okay.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tin Soldier was amazing.