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The Benaroya Chronicles #1
Passing for Human
When a dolphin-like alien comes to Earth disguised in a female human body, it sets the stage for a wild feminist romp that outstranges Stranger in a Strange Land. "The pace of the story never lets up, yet it finds room for serious contemplation of humanity's woes. The style is easy, with an edge of noir. The central character is a bit of a tough girl which, mixed with her naivety about humans, makes for an intriguing and likeable character. Especially as she (in common with the other aliens) inhabits bodies she has chosen from Earth culture - Brenda Starr, Emma Peel, and Virginia Woolf. Who could not like that, especially the final scenes in which Virginia Woolf is involved in a running gun battle.
191 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
25 people are currently reading
504 people want to read
About the author
Jody Scott
8 books26 followers"What a wild, original and outrageously funny writer she is." -TimeOut
Jody Scott (Jan 13, 1923- Dec 24, 2007 ) was an award-winning American writer whose novels garnered extensive critical and peer acclaim though most of her works remained unpublished during her lifetime. Scott was a satirist who employed speculative and mainstream fiction to critique society and question the nature of reality. Her scifi series The Benaroya Chronicles (consisting of the novels Passing for Human, I, Vampire and Devil-May-Care) became cult classics of feminist satire in the 1980's and were widely praised for their hilarity and originality.
In Berkeley CA partnered with George Leite to publish the influential beat-generation Circle Magazine and to run daliels bookstore, and with whom she also co-authored the novel cure it with honey, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award, before settling in Seattle WA in the 1960's. There she lived the remainder of her life and produced the bulk of her oeuvre.
Scott died of heart failure in 2007.
Her papers are housed at the Eaton Archive at the University of California at Riverside, which is the largest speculative fiction archive in the U.S.
This page is managed by her literary executor and spouse.
Jody Scott (Jan 13, 1923- Dec 24, 2007 ) was an award-winning American writer whose novels garnered extensive critical and peer acclaim though most of her works remained unpublished during her lifetime. Scott was a satirist who employed speculative and mainstream fiction to critique society and question the nature of reality. Her scifi series The Benaroya Chronicles (consisting of the novels Passing for Human, I, Vampire and Devil-May-Care) became cult classics of feminist satire in the 1980's and were widely praised for their hilarity and originality.
In Berkeley CA partnered with George Leite to publish the influential beat-generation Circle Magazine and to run daliels bookstore, and with whom she also co-authored the novel cure it with honey, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award, before settling in Seattle WA in the 1960's. There she lived the remainder of her life and produced the bulk of her oeuvre.
Scott died of heart failure in 2007.
Her papers are housed at the Eaton Archive at the University of California at Riverside, which is the largest speculative fiction archive in the U.S.
This page is managed by her literary executor and spouse.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
October 11, 2018
In 1999, I wrote:
In Jody Scott's cheerfully implausible PASSING FOR HUMAN (1977), Central Galaxy anthropologist Benaroya has conscious control of her breast size -- and everything else. She starts out playing "Brenda Starr" in a little red sports car on the LA freeways. Benaroya among the bushmen! Worth looking for. How very *complex* the sweet little bushmen were!
And here's Charlie Jane Anders' take:
"Benaroya is a giant space dolphin who's only interested in pleasure, until she decides to study humans. To do this, she disguises herself as Brenda Starr, the girl reporter from the newspaper comics. As she tells one human, "You might say I try to relate in a meaningful, concerned way to autochthonous bipeds in general." Later, Benaroya disguises herself as Emma Peel (from The Avengers) and author Virginia Woolf. Other members of her species are disguised as Abraham Lincoln and George S. Patton, while their support drones look like Richard Nixon. While disguised as Virginia Woolf, Benaroya gets herself captured by a race of psychopathic aliens who want to destroy the Earth, and you get a weird scene where Virginia Woolf debates whether it's a bad thing to fall in love with the leader of a group of genocidal alien psychopaths."
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5888835/10-wei...
$1 Kindle. Re-reading, as it instantly came to mind while reading Murderbot #2, which is facing the same challenge. Do try it, and "compare & contrast."
In Jody Scott's cheerfully implausible PASSING FOR HUMAN (1977), Central Galaxy anthropologist Benaroya has conscious control of her breast size -- and everything else. She starts out playing "Brenda Starr" in a little red sports car on the LA freeways. Benaroya among the bushmen! Worth looking for. How very *complex* the sweet little bushmen were!
And here's Charlie Jane Anders' take:
"Benaroya is a giant space dolphin who's only interested in pleasure, until she decides to study humans. To do this, she disguises herself as Brenda Starr, the girl reporter from the newspaper comics. As she tells one human, "You might say I try to relate in a meaningful, concerned way to autochthonous bipeds in general." Later, Benaroya disguises herself as Emma Peel (from The Avengers) and author Virginia Woolf. Other members of her species are disguised as Abraham Lincoln and George S. Patton, while their support drones look like Richard Nixon. While disguised as Virginia Woolf, Benaroya gets herself captured by a race of psychopathic aliens who want to destroy the Earth, and you get a weird scene where Virginia Woolf debates whether it's a bad thing to fall in love with the leader of a group of genocidal alien psychopaths."
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5888835/10-wei...
$1 Kindle. Re-reading, as it instantly came to mind while reading Murderbot #2, which is facing the same challenge. Do try it, and "compare & contrast."
Want to read
November 1, 2022So glad I found this! A sci-fi lesbian vampire and shapeshifting story from back in 1977!
However, there is an error on its GoodRead's page. It is published by Strange Particle Press, not CreateSpace.
However, there is an error on its GoodRead's page. It is published by Strange Particle Press, not CreateSpace.
January 20, 2019
That was weird. I'm not sure if the disjointed, slightly annoying writing style was a function of the time the novel was written, bad writing, or a brilliant strategy to portrary humans through alien culture-shocked eyes. And wow does Jody Scott see nothing redeeming about humans!
May 11, 2023
Mystery box book #4!
WHAT EVEN.
Dolphin-like aliens who can inhabit bodies based on Earth celebrities/famous fictional characters (some of whom are so obscure in 2023 that I had to Google because I had no idea what Scott was referencing) are at war with another type of alien who wants to wipe out humanity, so they wage an incomprehensible battle on our planet. The main character is a dolphin-alien anthropologist who presents primarily as Brenda Starr (Me: WHOMST???), Emma Peel, or Virginia Woolf. Her affect is of a bubbly airhead, mostly, and she needs to be protected and saved by her male superiors a lot (except for when characters incomprehensibly die?) and this is feminist somehow??? Or at least, my edition of this book was published by a feminist press.
Idk, y'all. I think everyone in the '70s was on a LOT of drugs.
WHAT EVEN.
Dolphin-like aliens who can inhabit bodies based on Earth celebrities/famous fictional characters (some of whom are so obscure in 2023 that I had to Google because I had no idea what Scott was referencing) are at war with another type of alien who wants to wipe out humanity, so they wage an incomprehensible battle on our planet. The main character is a dolphin-alien anthropologist who presents primarily as Brenda Starr (Me: WHOMST???), Emma Peel, or Virginia Woolf. Her affect is of a bubbly airhead, mostly, and she needs to be protected and saved by her male superiors a lot (except for when characters incomprehensibly die?) and this is feminist somehow??? Or at least, my edition of this book was published by a feminist press.
Idk, y'all. I think everyone in the '70s was on a LOT of drugs.
April 24, 2025
“She was learning to be human. That meant being split into a million confused, unhappy fragments.”
If Ursula Le Guin popped two handfuls of psilocybin mushrooms with Terence McKenna and they both went on a motorcycle trip with Jim Morrison and Hunter S. Thompson, the four of them together might conjure a novel like Passing For Human. The story is part Zelazny mythos, part Barrington Bayley space opera, and it has the succinct perspicacious psychological insight that writers like Barry Malzberg wielded with gusto. That razor sharp edge of the intelligent and witty cynic.
This forgotten work is no doubt a lost gem of science fiction. Jody Scott only wrote three novels and a handful of short stories. It’s unfortunate that the paperback market of the time didn’t bother collecting her oeuvre—most of it now buried in long-forgotten digests and magazines.
Passing For Human follows the adventures of a race of alien gods who send their best anthropologists to Earth to determine whether humanity can be saved from destruction given its pessimistic condition. Although these aliens carry a smug superiority complex, they’re not immune to the very tendencies they condemn in us. This is no oversight—it’s Scott’s point. The entire ladder of consciousness may be subject to a strange form of inimical pollution. It begs the metaphysical question: what even is universal morality? what qualities constitute the perfect being?
My only point of contention with Mrs. Scott is one of perception. She is a scathing cynic—and I understand why. But humanity is not just a seething ocean of malevolence, swallowing goodness en masse through black whirlpools. Still, I sympathize—especially considering the era this book was written. We are a curious, creative species that, even for generations at a time, may forget the very essence that drives us: the underlying, if unstable, propensity for goodness. Now, where that goodness comes from, or how we preserve it—that remains the mystery. An eternal one. Many of her points are difficult to contend with:
“The System is always a mirror of the mass mind.”
“Reality is just frozen imagination.”
“She had a firm grasp of the three Basics: defending self loudly; keeping the finger of blame pointed at others; and selling out to the highest bidder while in the very act of boasting of own loyalty.”
“It’s very complicated but humans out of jealousy always kill off the true creators and artists. Then they either start a religion on the bones, or they express grave concern and shift the blame.”
Scott diagnoses humanity with a perennial condition of the collective impulse to look in the wrong place for solutions. Symptoms of cultural malaise are merely managed, medicated, and driven underground until their inevitable relapse. She outlines our inability to comprehend collective need, let alone individual need. She raises an important issue on why creative insight or behavior is ridiculed out of people during childhood. And questions why we cement ourselves in adulthood with negative mantras that perpetuate and justify the conditions of the world: “That’s just the way things are”.
Jody has composed an exceptional tale showcasing the utter bizarreness of human behavior. She offers a bird’s-eye perspective of the unfolding psychodrama we perform. The ever rampaging coalescence of elation and sorrow, the manifold roles and masks adorned by sleeping bodies, the idols of gluttony and progress, our culturally projected emblems of desire that manifest our own willful bondage, the beauty of our romantic spontaneity and quixotic daydreams. She reminds you to just pause for a moment, and consider that we are a strange isolated accident of conscious emergence on a seemingly random but perfectly positioned blue rock in an ever expanding universe attached to a dying star.
If Ursula Le Guin popped two handfuls of psilocybin mushrooms with Terence McKenna and they both went on a motorcycle trip with Jim Morrison and Hunter S. Thompson, the four of them together might conjure a novel like Passing For Human. The story is part Zelazny mythos, part Barrington Bayley space opera, and it has the succinct perspicacious psychological insight that writers like Barry Malzberg wielded with gusto. That razor sharp edge of the intelligent and witty cynic.
This forgotten work is no doubt a lost gem of science fiction. Jody Scott only wrote three novels and a handful of short stories. It’s unfortunate that the paperback market of the time didn’t bother collecting her oeuvre—most of it now buried in long-forgotten digests and magazines.
Passing For Human follows the adventures of a race of alien gods who send their best anthropologists to Earth to determine whether humanity can be saved from destruction given its pessimistic condition. Although these aliens carry a smug superiority complex, they’re not immune to the very tendencies they condemn in us. This is no oversight—it’s Scott’s point. The entire ladder of consciousness may be subject to a strange form of inimical pollution. It begs the metaphysical question: what even is universal morality? what qualities constitute the perfect being?
My only point of contention with Mrs. Scott is one of perception. She is a scathing cynic—and I understand why. But humanity is not just a seething ocean of malevolence, swallowing goodness en masse through black whirlpools. Still, I sympathize—especially considering the era this book was written. We are a curious, creative species that, even for generations at a time, may forget the very essence that drives us: the underlying, if unstable, propensity for goodness. Now, where that goodness comes from, or how we preserve it—that remains the mystery. An eternal one. Many of her points are difficult to contend with:
“The System is always a mirror of the mass mind.”
“Reality is just frozen imagination.”
“She had a firm grasp of the three Basics: defending self loudly; keeping the finger of blame pointed at others; and selling out to the highest bidder while in the very act of boasting of own loyalty.”
“It’s very complicated but humans out of jealousy always kill off the true creators and artists. Then they either start a religion on the bones, or they express grave concern and shift the blame.”
Scott diagnoses humanity with a perennial condition of the collective impulse to look in the wrong place for solutions. Symptoms of cultural malaise are merely managed, medicated, and driven underground until their inevitable relapse. She outlines our inability to comprehend collective need, let alone individual need. She raises an important issue on why creative insight or behavior is ridiculed out of people during childhood. And questions why we cement ourselves in adulthood with negative mantras that perpetuate and justify the conditions of the world: “That’s just the way things are”.
Jody has composed an exceptional tale showcasing the utter bizarreness of human behavior. She offers a bird’s-eye perspective of the unfolding psychodrama we perform. The ever rampaging coalescence of elation and sorrow, the manifold roles and masks adorned by sleeping bodies, the idols of gluttony and progress, our culturally projected emblems of desire that manifest our own willful bondage, the beauty of our romantic spontaneity and quixotic daydreams. She reminds you to just pause for a moment, and consider that we are a strange isolated accident of conscious emergence on a seemingly random but perfectly positioned blue rock in an ever expanding universe attached to a dying star.
June 13, 2025
Some great ideas and cool concepts; godlike anthropologist aliens, wormhole highways, and a devilish antagonist bent on revenge - it had a lot going for it, but the incessant condemnation of the negative aspects of human nature got old quickly. I agree with a lot of the critical ideas, but it was explored just a few too many times.
The writing was solid and the satire was thick; would have worked really well as a short story.
The writing was solid and the satire was thick; would have worked really well as a short story.
November 21, 2020
An amazing, provocative, hilarious, insightful novel disguised as a space opera. I am halfway through book 2, I Vampire. And I can say without exaggeration that Jody Scott is a better writer and a more important one than most of the famous classic science fiction authors. In fact, her work is more important and mind-opening than most other novelists, period. She will blow your mind wide open, and you'll be laughing your ass off the entire time (except when you feel like crying). She was not just a writer, but a visionary, and a genius satirist. I had never even heard of her till a year ago. Now, she has become one of my heroes.
February 5, 2017
Found this listed on a "10 Weirdest SF Novels That You've Never Read" so gave it a go. It was more goofy than weird but an enjoyable, quick read. Written in the aliens point of view, the way humans were observed as being primitive, petty and cruel was handled cleverly and funny at times. I totally agree with the aliens.
January 8, 2021
I've written an article for Sexy Fantastic Magazine issue 1 about this book, so can't post it here until a suitable time has elapsed after publication.
Want to read
July 16, 2017This book long out of print has been reissued again so look out for it.
July 17, 2017
The only thing that Jody Scott's Passing for Human seems sure about is its manic energy. Each page crackles with an energy unsurpassed by none, and yet this energy is its undoing. Scott, I assume, is attempting to tackle serious social issues, yet her flippant tone makes it hard to take anything that happens seriously. The breathless way Scott jumps from action to action, idea to idea, leaves the reader with nothing to grasp, whether ideologically or visually. I see that the book was originally published in 1977, but never really took off, and now Scott's estate would like to see if her book will fare better after her death. I'm afraid this has aged a lot and many readers won't understand references to Emma Peel or Brenda Starr, though maybe that doesn't matter. The writing style may appeal to those who like frequent mentions of "zowie!" but to others it will grow tiring. This is sci-fi-lite, satire-lite, and just light stuff in general.
An alien race, the Rymesians, are observing Earth to determine whether the planet's dominant species, humans, known to Rymesians as bushmen, deserve to remain alive or not. On this quest is anthropologist Benaroya, often confusingly referred to as simply B. (lazy editing?), Brenda Starr, Brenda, Miss Star, Emma Peel, Emma, and Miss Peel, among other names. This grows more confusing when more Rymesians enter the fold and are referred interchangeably by their Rymesian name and their human body name. These Rymesians have dolphin bodies in their natural form, but a body is not truly important to them. Their souls, or consciousness, or what have you, are able to jump from body to body. Not in the sense that they can take control of any person, but they can jump into any empty body at any time. This is nothing based in any sort of science, but more of a spiritualism. Anyway.
A cliche story would take this concept and cause the alien to come to love the human race and want to save it. This is not a cliche story, but that's not to say this isn't what happens. It's very confusing, actually, what happens. Benaroya begins flying down the highway in a fancy car, being chased by police officers. Her skillful driving skills, however, cause them to crash and die. Then she provokes a frustrated woman into a race, causing her to crash and die as well. Benaroya, in her bikini Brenda Starr body, is arrested and within the hour has seduced her lawyer into having sex with her in his office and professing his love, and all the while she's just excited to have mated with a human so quickly. This may sound amusing, with a few zowies! and zoinks! thrown in for good measure, but it's actually more tiring than it sounds.
For one, Scott, or maybe just her characters, shovels venom upon the human race. It's tough to tell if Scott is the one so spiteful of the human race or just her alien characters, and it's also tough to tell exactly why she or they are so spiteful. Everything from the shape and makeup of human bodies to humanity's careless handling of Earth's resources is an object of scorn. But the scorn fails to do any true cutting because it's fired off like a five year old boy trying to aim his urine into the toilet and hitting the seat and floor instead. Somebody who agrees with her might not see a problem with some of her remarks, and I don't necessarily disagree, but the level of vitriol isn't really earned in the novel.
Scott certainly writes with a lot of manic energy, but another word I would use to describe her writing style is ephemeral. It fails to grasp anything - setting, character, satire - and the reader will have trouble grasping these things as well. The action at the beginning feels impossible. The car races through the streets seemingly without other vehicles or objects, without the limitations or noises or feelings of driving at such a speed. Characters move from area to area as though by means of teleportation. Benaroya proclaims hatred of the human species early in the book and mere chapters later somehow has a fondness of them and does not want them destroyed. I know Scott is trying to be funny and satirical, but her satire crosses some lines and teeters dangerously near to her seeming misanthropic. Scott seems to be using her Rymesians as a stand in for humans who view other humans and animal species as inferior and deserving of scorn. On the other hand, Scott also seems to be using her Rymesians as a vessel for her own dire view of humanity. While critiques of humanity are always needed, and always coming, there should be at least something constructive, not just hate.
An alien race, the Rymesians, are observing Earth to determine whether the planet's dominant species, humans, known to Rymesians as bushmen, deserve to remain alive or not. On this quest is anthropologist Benaroya, often confusingly referred to as simply B. (lazy editing?), Brenda Starr, Brenda, Miss Star, Emma Peel, Emma, and Miss Peel, among other names. This grows more confusing when more Rymesians enter the fold and are referred interchangeably by their Rymesian name and their human body name. These Rymesians have dolphin bodies in their natural form, but a body is not truly important to them. Their souls, or consciousness, or what have you, are able to jump from body to body. Not in the sense that they can take control of any person, but they can jump into any empty body at any time. This is nothing based in any sort of science, but more of a spiritualism. Anyway.
A cliche story would take this concept and cause the alien to come to love the human race and want to save it. This is not a cliche story, but that's not to say this isn't what happens. It's very confusing, actually, what happens. Benaroya begins flying down the highway in a fancy car, being chased by police officers. Her skillful driving skills, however, cause them to crash and die. Then she provokes a frustrated woman into a race, causing her to crash and die as well. Benaroya, in her bikini Brenda Starr body, is arrested and within the hour has seduced her lawyer into having sex with her in his office and professing his love, and all the while she's just excited to have mated with a human so quickly. This may sound amusing, with a few zowies! and zoinks! thrown in for good measure, but it's actually more tiring than it sounds.
For one, Scott, or maybe just her characters, shovels venom upon the human race. It's tough to tell if Scott is the one so spiteful of the human race or just her alien characters, and it's also tough to tell exactly why she or they are so spiteful. Everything from the shape and makeup of human bodies to humanity's careless handling of Earth's resources is an object of scorn. But the scorn fails to do any true cutting because it's fired off like a five year old boy trying to aim his urine into the toilet and hitting the seat and floor instead. Somebody who agrees with her might not see a problem with some of her remarks, and I don't necessarily disagree, but the level of vitriol isn't really earned in the novel.
Scott certainly writes with a lot of manic energy, but another word I would use to describe her writing style is ephemeral. It fails to grasp anything - setting, character, satire - and the reader will have trouble grasping these things as well. The action at the beginning feels impossible. The car races through the streets seemingly without other vehicles or objects, without the limitations or noises or feelings of driving at such a speed. Characters move from area to area as though by means of teleportation. Benaroya proclaims hatred of the human species early in the book and mere chapters later somehow has a fondness of them and does not want them destroyed. I know Scott is trying to be funny and satirical, but her satire crosses some lines and teeters dangerously near to her seeming misanthropic. Scott seems to be using her Rymesians as a stand in for humans who view other humans and animal species as inferior and deserving of scorn. On the other hand, Scott also seems to be using her Rymesians as a vessel for her own dire view of humanity. While critiques of humanity are always needed, and always coming, there should be at least something constructive, not just hate.
August 30, 2022
Jody Scott is aware of the truth about humanity and is not afraid to spell it out, even if only in the form of a humorous science fiction novel. Her observations are absolutely brutal and absolutely correct. This is a forgotten masterpiece that works on every single level. Grateful to Barry Malzberg for help getting this published.
June 3, 2019
Enticing.
February 23, 2019
I went into this book on an author recommendation. While it was not a ”you will love this” sort of review, I had thought I might. I was incorrect. It was somewhat as described, a bit alien, but unless subtleties of storytelling are lost on me it was definitely not as otherworldly as described.
It was certainly an interesting window into something resembling the pop culture of the time. I think it most reminded me of a Roger Moore style Bond... Tongue in cheek, campy, but intriguing concepts. It certainly seems more fiction than science fiction, but it was fun regardless of any other flaws.
Perhaps experience with Battlestar Galactica, Altered Carbon, and other stories that feature body swapping themes have raised my expectations for this sort of story. Maybe I was expecting too much from this book, and was ultimately let down.
It was certainly not in the realm of the truly bad, or really even moderately bad. I just had expectations that were not met. It you are looking for a story with an interesting perspective, and campy humor, you'll probably enjoy the heck out of this book. If you are looking for a serious exploration of humanity and deeper meaning, this is probably NOT the book for you. I putting this about in Austin Powers territory. A fun romp, with poignant moments, but not serious. Your mileage may vary.
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book, through Reading Deals, and I gave an honest review.
It was certainly an interesting window into something resembling the pop culture of the time. I think it most reminded me of a Roger Moore style Bond... Tongue in cheek, campy, but intriguing concepts. It certainly seems more fiction than science fiction, but it was fun regardless of any other flaws.
Perhaps experience with Battlestar Galactica, Altered Carbon, and other stories that feature body swapping themes have raised my expectations for this sort of story. Maybe I was expecting too much from this book, and was ultimately let down.
It was certainly not in the realm of the truly bad, or really even moderately bad. I just had expectations that were not met. It you are looking for a story with an interesting perspective, and campy humor, you'll probably enjoy the heck out of this book. If you are looking for a serious exploration of humanity and deeper meaning, this is probably NOT the book for you. I putting this about in Austin Powers territory. A fun romp, with poignant moments, but not serious. Your mileage may vary.
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book, through Reading Deals, and I gave an honest review.
February 5, 2017
I guess I jus don't get this genre of science fiction.
Passing for Human is the first of two books by Jody Scott (I already read the second one.) It was highly praised by Barry Malzberg (and William Burroughs); I've read some Malzberg and see the similarities and don't really like his writing, either.
It's all very loose, very flip, with sarcasm that (in my opinion) falls flat.
This book is about an alien, Benaroya, who comes to earth--able to shift between many different bodies; in the course of events, earth is threatened by another alien, known as the devil, and Benaroyas race must decide if earth should just be killed. Benaroya doesn't think much of earthling life, but nor does she think it should be destroyed.
The plot moves along with all kinds of seemingly outrageous statements and scenes--the servants in Benaroya's mothership all look like Richard Nixon.
But it all feels forced. A failed farce.
Passing for Human is the first of two books by Jody Scott (I already read the second one.) It was highly praised by Barry Malzberg (and William Burroughs); I've read some Malzberg and see the similarities and don't really like his writing, either.
It's all very loose, very flip, with sarcasm that (in my opinion) falls flat.
This book is about an alien, Benaroya, who comes to earth--able to shift between many different bodies; in the course of events, earth is threatened by another alien, known as the devil, and Benaroyas race must decide if earth should just be killed. Benaroya doesn't think much of earthling life, but nor does she think it should be destroyed.
The plot moves along with all kinds of seemingly outrageous statements and scenes--the servants in Benaroya's mothership all look like Richard Nixon.
But it all feels forced. A failed farce.
January 29, 2017
This was pretty awful, sadly. The back cover makes it sound pretty great, but really it's just a kinda generic evil overlord versus good aliens sci-fi plot with some vague attempts at satire thrown in. Unfortunately, the satire generally falls flat and winds up making the protagonist and the other allegedly good aliens seem monstrous. Within the first chapter, the protagonist murders a number of cops and a random woman, and things only get worse from there. I only managed to drag myself through this mess because I had to. Otherwise I would have quickly given up. I know that satire can be effectively employed in sci-fi and fantasy, but this is definitely not a good example of that. I almost wish I could get back the time I spent reading this.
October 20, 2008
I'll admit that I bought it for the cover and that the story is terribly silly.
But it'll only take you a couple hours to read it and then you'll be left wondering what just happened.
but mostly in a good way.
But it'll only take you a couple hours to read it and then you'll be left wondering what just happened.
but mostly in a good way.
April 30, 2024
At the start of the book I thought I would like it, as it was witty and silly but then it didn't really go anywhere. The humour was funny in parts but eventually it grates and is dull and repetitive. The plot is practically non-existent and paced in an unengaging way, with numerous unnecessary and jarring scene/character changes. The telepathy of the alien races is patchy in a way that is irritating to read; they are constantly asking humans questions to which they would already know the answer through telepathy - like they do the other half of the time. Benaroya also knows heaps of extraordinarily nuanced human social conventions, idioms and mannerisms but then every so often will be stumped by some very obvious cultural element for the convenience of being able to complain about how stupid humans are. This is flimsy social commentary and wasn't funny enough to redeem itself. I also found the writing style unengaging and inconsistently and unnecessarily verbose, often using uncommon words in ways that don't even make a whole lot of sense.
The alien races in the book are very unconvincing. They have almost no cultural elements and really just seem like humans that complain about humans the entire time. They are obviously a paper-thin excuse to criticise human society in a non-nuanced and unoriginal way - capitalism is bad, men have all the power, humans are greedy, humans don't care about the environment, etc. While all of these things are important issues, it's extraordinarily surface level and there are many writers (lots of whom are contemporaneous with Scott) who have done a far better job of exploring these issues in a way that's not just an anthropocentric alien pretending to be non-anthropocentric by calling out how stupid humans are.
I would not bother with this one - you've probably got better things to do. I would go pick up an Ursula K. Le Guin book, or maybe a Suzette Haden Elgin or Joanna Russ if you're looking for something that has similar aims but is far more polished and enjoyable.
The alien races in the book are very unconvincing. They have almost no cultural elements and really just seem like humans that complain about humans the entire time. They are obviously a paper-thin excuse to criticise human society in a non-nuanced and unoriginal way - capitalism is bad, men have all the power, humans are greedy, humans don't care about the environment, etc. While all of these things are important issues, it's extraordinarily surface level and there are many writers (lots of whom are contemporaneous with Scott) who have done a far better job of exploring these issues in a way that's not just an anthropocentric alien pretending to be non-anthropocentric by calling out how stupid humans are.
I would not bother with this one - you've probably got better things to do. I would go pick up an Ursula K. Le Guin book, or maybe a Suzette Haden Elgin or Joanna Russ if you're looking for something that has similar aims but is far more polished and enjoyable.
October 6, 2018
This is one of the science fiction paperbacks from the 60s and 70s that my dad had read--and that I have now and keep in a box. I reached in the box and picked this one up. A blurb on the cover says it's "a Swiftian satire." The story is a satire and there are some funny bits--and it reminded me of Ron Goulart or Robert Sheckley. But I got tired of it by the time I got to the end on the 191st page. The story is an interesting one--an alien named Benaroya has created a human body to use as she explores the Earth ( her original body is dolphinoid ). The satire results because we get an alien's view of humans and their society. Conflict results because there is an alien baddie--also in human form--who seeks to take over the Earth. Checking online, I found out this book is the first of a trilogy--but I'm not interested in reading the other books. Jody Scott was born in 1923 and passed away in 2007.
February 21, 2022
I'm not sure how exactly I came to learn of this book. I think it was mentioned at a panel on "obsurce books you should read" at Capricon, a Chicago-area science fiction convention. Well, whoever mentioned the book was right - you should read it.
The ebook description on Amazon says it is "one of the 10 weirdest science fiction novels you've ever read" and I heartily agree with that sentiment. Written in 1977, the book stars Benaroya, a dolphin-like alien from a highly-advanced race. She's an anthropologist and is visiting then-modern Earth. She is able to download herself into human bodies, such as a copy of Emma Peel or Virginia Woolf. While expressing her opinions about the (to her) Stone Age humans, she's in a struggle with another alien race over the fate of Earth.
This book is hard to describe because it's so weird. I'll just say, go read it.
The ebook description on Amazon says it is "one of the 10 weirdest science fiction novels you've ever read" and I heartily agree with that sentiment. Written in 1977, the book stars Benaroya, a dolphin-like alien from a highly-advanced race. She's an anthropologist and is visiting then-modern Earth. She is able to download herself into human bodies, such as a copy of Emma Peel or Virginia Woolf. While expressing her opinions about the (to her) Stone Age humans, she's in a struggle with another alien race over the fate of Earth.
This book is hard to describe because it's so weird. I'll just say, go read it.
April 23, 2024
The cover quote on this book is "One of the 10 weirdest science fiction novels that you've never read" and boy did that prove to be true! A satirical and biting and hilarious commentary on humanity! I'm obsessed with Jody Scott and 1970s feminist sci-fi now. While it was absolutely absurd and had me rolling, it was also insightful and left me thinking about how our society would be viewed by an outsider. "[She] listed the four normal human states: hypnotized, committed to a cause (the more fanatical the better), depressed or active-criminal. Often these overlapped." Just as true today as it was when she wrote in 5o years ago.
November 20, 2025
This book is a sparkling gem of speculative fiction, playful, daring, and bursting with imagination. The author takes a premise that could have easily veered into absurdity and instead crafts something wonderfully coherent and emotionally rich. The alien protagonist, slipping into iconic female personas from Earth’s pop culture and literary history, is both hilarious and deeply compelling. Watching her navigate our baffling world with toughness, curiosity, and earnest confusion is pure joy. The blend of feminist themes, fast paced action, and clever character work makes this a standout novel that lingers long after the final page.
November 20, 2025
If you’re looking for sci-fi that’s smart, stylish, and genuinely fun, this book delivers in spades. The alien heroine, equal parts tough, witty, and disarmingly naïve, lights up every scene she’s in. The story races forward with nonstop momentum, yet still manages to explore weightier ideas about humanity’s flaws and contradictions. And the author’s choice to have aliens inhabit the bodies of Brenda Starr, Emma Peel, and even Virginia Woolf is nothing short of inspired. The final act, featuring Woolf in an action sequence you’ll never forget, seals the deal: this is a bold, clever, thoroughly entertaining read.
October 15, 2024
I read this after listening to Shaun’s glowing review of I Vampire on SFUltra. Definitely a fun romp. The jokes cut through in the way that Hitchhiker’s Guide did when I was an 11 year old; nonetheless, I was a bit burnt out by the end. The plot meanders from set-up to punchline without any real coherence. Which is fine if you’re just reading for savvy gags with a socio-political edge, but I hoped for more. Good but not great.
October 26, 2025
I was over the moon about this book when I first started it, but it lost me a bit as it evolved. Slightly dated celebrity references, and some logical leaps in her human relations critique left me feeling lackluster. Ultimately I enjoyed this book and had some feelings and thoughts provoked by it, but I didn't love it.
June 27, 2017
It was weird enough that I couldn't stop thinking about telepathic space-dolphin anthropology, not weird enough that I'd want to ever read it again, but a quick read that I certainly don't regret.
December 25, 2025
What a wild ride. This book is chaotic, irreverent and endlessly entertaining. Never read a book quite like it
February 21, 2017
Talk about weird books. Aliens come to earth and inhabit the bodies of humans they choose, many notable figures in history. The comedic writings of Jody Scott let loose an very enjoyable book.
January 31, 2017
This isn't a GREAT book but it's an admirable one. Jody Scott is the only sci-fi author I've read who actually understands how to write an immortal being. The book comes off as flippant because, guess what, these characters don't give a single crap about us!
Of course, the problem then becomes that it's hard to empathize with the main character because she is so decidedly un-human.
Scott is trying her best to demonstrate the opposite of humanity as a way of showing us what is wrong with humanity. It's a hard thing to do and, to her credit, she succeeds more than she fails.
Of course, the problem then becomes that it's hard to empathize with the main character because she is so decidedly un-human.
Scott is trying her best to demonstrate the opposite of humanity as a way of showing us what is wrong with humanity. It's a hard thing to do and, to her credit, she succeeds more than she fails.
September 12, 2016
It was pretty darn ´80s. There´s an obvious feminist reading, which was good and fun, and may even have held a certain contemporary poignancy that eludes my (male) millennial sensibilities.
That said, the "humans are so silly and basic and stupid, tee hee!" became so repetitive as to be grating. Scott drops an occasionally awesome and hilarious turn of phrase, usually characters lobbing colorful insults at each other, which made it worth reading. It was fun, and it was quick, but not really mind blowing.
That said, the "humans are so silly and basic and stupid, tee hee!" became so repetitive as to be grating. Scott drops an occasionally awesome and hilarious turn of phrase, usually characters lobbing colorful insults at each other, which made it worth reading. It was fun, and it was quick, but not really mind blowing.
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