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The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer
A cult classic from its first appearance, this ambitious novel is a rich and comic blend of physics, feminism, and political farce. Brilliant physicist Amanda Jaworski is in training to be the first person to journey to Mars. With her magic cat, Schrodinger, Amanda soon finds herself doing battle with the greatest seductress of all, the Eleven Million Mile High Dancer, a being from 40 million light years away.
460 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
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469 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
August 4, 2011
This strange, wild, weird book is like nothing else I've ever read. Every few years I re-read the book just to reassure myself the story still reads as wonderful as ever. Pleased to report the words never disappoint me.
September 22, 2023
Das Unterhaltsame und Witzige wog halwegs das seltsame philosophische Geschwafel auf. Man merkt allerdings, dass die Autorin gewissen Theorien anhängt, sehr eigenwilligen Theorien. Die Geschichte bekommt in Lichtgeschwindigkeit einen absurden Touch und die Autoren tut permanent noch eine Schippe drauf.
Alles wird dann noch kräftig mit Physik durchgemischt, so dass man nicht mehr unterscheiden kann zwischen richtiger und Pseudowissenschaft.
Das Buch ist 100pro nicht alltagstauglich.
Mich haben die witzigen und liebenswerten Charaktere und die Idee der Geschichte etwas entschädigt. Aber ob ich es nochmal lesen werde? Wohl eher nicht.
Alles wird dann noch kräftig mit Physik durchgemischt, so dass man nicht mehr unterscheiden kann zwischen richtiger und Pseudowissenschaft.
Das Buch ist 100pro nicht alltagstauglich.
Mich haben die witzigen und liebenswerten Charaktere und die Idee der Geschichte etwas entschädigt. Aber ob ich es nochmal lesen werde? Wohl eher nicht.
Read
March 30, 2011I loved this as a teenager. I fear nothing can possibly live up to my memories of it.
November 21, 2016
But Amanda had been born in a river of electrons. Where the river ended and the marsh began it was difficult to tell; where the tadpole ended and the frog began it was difficult to tell; where the Bible's "begats" ended and history began was difficult to tell Amanda was awash in history, science, and explanations; time had clicked on in her mind in a totally different orbit from Hotchkiss. Her eyes held prisms he had only dreamed of.
August is re-read month for me, and I re-read The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer which I first read in the 1980s. I had forgotten almost everything about this book except that I had really enjoyed it, but luckily someone posted a successful request for it on Name that book, or a similar board elsewhere. All I would have been able to write in a Name That Book post would have been "it was science fiction and the there was a woman scientist, and she had a cat. Not an ordinary cat, maybe magical or kind of Shrodingery". Although it was published in the mid-1980s, it seems to me to have much more of a 1970s vibe, having a psychedelic, hippy, environmentalist streak a mile wide.
This is an extremely odd book. I enjoyed the first part of the book, in which Amanda roller-skates around the NASA campus while preparing for the first manned trip to Mars, teaching occasional physics classes to high school students and worrying about her narcoleptic cat (whose name is Schrodinger), her romantic relationships, and why a Frankenstein's monster keeps appearing in her kitchen. The book becomes tediously quirky once Amanda and 342 are in space and interacting with Rastus and the Ooze, but from Chapter 68 onwards it gets a whole lot better. I really enjoyed the final few chapters of the book and realised why I liked it so much the first time I read it.
August is re-read month for me, and I re-read The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer which I first read in the 1980s. I had forgotten almost everything about this book except that I had really enjoyed it, but luckily someone posted a successful request for it on Name that book, or a similar board elsewhere. All I would have been able to write in a Name That Book post would have been "it was science fiction and the there was a woman scientist, and she had a cat. Not an ordinary cat, maybe magical or kind of Shrodingery". Although it was published in the mid-1980s, it seems to me to have much more of a 1970s vibe, having a psychedelic, hippy, environmentalist streak a mile wide.
This is an extremely odd book. I enjoyed the first part of the book, in which Amanda roller-skates around the NASA campus while preparing for the first manned trip to Mars, teaching occasional physics classes to high school students and worrying about her narcoleptic cat (whose name is Schrodinger), her romantic relationships, and why a Frankenstein's monster keeps appearing in her kitchen. The book becomes tediously quirky once Amanda and 342 are in space and interacting with Rastus and the Ooze, but from Chapter 68 onwards it gets a whole lot better. I really enjoyed the final few chapters of the book and realised why I liked it so much the first time I read it.
September 22, 2009
This book is very hard to put into words. It was certainly a good break from serious things I have been reading. I guess I'd have to say it was "fun" but with a very wild ride. To try to summarize the story would be impossible. My 3 favorite characters were Amanda, physicist, astronaut, and drop-dead gorgeous; her narcoleptic cat, Schrodinger; and 342, a chimpanzee trained for space who loves to steal fast cars and go on joy rides. I liked the first 2/3 of the book better; the last 1/3 turned into such smorgasbord of wild scenarios that I almost lost my patience. Although I think the book was too long, I still have to say it was a fun read.
April 7, 2012
This is just far out... Amanda is a well made character (and so for that matter is the cat who draws obsessively pictures of his Mistress' feet). It has the wonder of 2001 and the humanity of The Ship Who Sang all rolled into one. I loved this when I read it and I've read it half a dozen times since. Beautiful and quirky and in a genre of its own... no wonder the reviews are so mixed.
December 3, 2012
This was my second time around with “The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer” and I still feel like I need a companion course in Quantum Physics to get all the bits and pieces that seem to fly right over my head. I have to compare reading this book with the feeling I get when reading comics at xkcd.com - I certainly enjoy the weird surface story and even the bits of science (or mathematics) that make sense to me every now and then, but I suspect I'm missing out on some excellent inside jokes.
October 8, 2022
Surreal and funny story about a super intelligent slightly eccentric astronaut, her cat, and the two men in her life. Many surprising things happen to Amanda in the course of the book. It’s very enjoyable if you like science fiction that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Read
September 11, 2024special one here; madeleine l'engle plus brief history of time plus broom of the system times magical girl anime to the power of funkentelechy. <3 amanda jaworski + schrodinger 4e
April 4, 2025
A little too dated and wild for me.
October 13, 2010
The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer, is a novel about Amanda Jaworski, "America's leading lady astronaut," who roller skates around the NASA complex, her cat Schroedinger, who draws pictures of her feet, and their adventures in outer space. The novel is based on the principles of particle physics. It's filled with awe and wonder at the universe and is funny and fascinating.
November 13, 2023
Here was an opportunity to save the world. A simple thing. In exchange for her cat. “No!” she said. “Certainly not!”
This was inarguably the weirdest book I have ever read. By far. And I am sure that there will never be a book to top it, either.
At the core, it was a story about a woman who did everything in her power and more to get her kidnapped cat back.
But it also was so much more.
It critiqued corrupt and lazy politicians, showing the aftermath of their inactivity and bad decision making towards industry vs. nature. It showed that we all have our part to play, may we be the president of the USA or a random farmer.
It commented on the Cold War that was still going on at the time.
It was a feminist piece that showed that women can do it all, despite all the misogyny she is confronted with: She can be smart, a scientist and an astronaut, the world’s leading astronaut at that. At the same time she can still be emotional, have periods, love cats and sexy clothes and be beautiful and struggle to find the true love she craves. Amanda had it all and yet she was so relatable at the same time, she was perfect because she wasn’t.
It showed that sometimes the people we want are not the ones that are right for us; that the right person is going to change for the better to deserve us, and that they would even follow you to a different universe to save you.
It told the story of so many people healing their (childhood) wounds. From the genius boy who just wanted a mother to the dutiful sheriff who wanted to protect his people at all costs to his best friend grieving for his lost family.
It told the story of duty and endurance; of creativity; of hope and love; of believing in the impossible; of believing in oneself.
It was lovely but also so so strange.
The writing was unlike any other I have read before as well. Every single page was filled with basic or incredibly complex physical theories, with sarcasm and humor. You could not possibly skip a single sentence without missing out on so much, maybe even a vital piece of information.
Also, I usually hate anthropomorphism (looking at you, Lessons in Chemistry) but Schrodinger‘s development was just so well and comically done. I would have loved to see his little drawings.
———————————————————————————
He thought that occasionally Amanda was quite capable of believing that women were vastly superior to men, and at such times she pointed out to him that the masculine tendency toward rational, linear, logical thinking processes might look good, but was wrong.
He pointed to the sky and he said to me, “What do you see?” and I said, “Clouds”. And he asked me three times did I see anything besides clouds, and I said no, and he looked at me and he said, “You will never be crazy, so don’t worry about it.” Then he sighed and he said, “On the other hand, you will miss much”.
There was certainly no confusion between the drawings of those dreadful slippers and the impulse that inspired the Sistine Chapel.
She didn’t want them to think for a minute that he wasn’t patriotic, so she had tied a red-white-and-blue ribbon around his neck and hung a small USA emblem from it.
But an injection. A tranquilizer. Something to make her forget. A lobotomy. Cruel, but necessary. A surgical solution. She was a woman, he told himself, and she’d be better off that way anyhow.
It was only one of the crazier aspects of history that here were a woman and chimp chasing to the moon, after a cat, sponsored by the entire military establishment of the United States and utilizing all of technology, but protected finally by young boy and a magic ring.
This was inarguably the weirdest book I have ever read. By far. And I am sure that there will never be a book to top it, either.
At the core, it was a story about a woman who did everything in her power and more to get her kidnapped cat back.
But it also was so much more.
It critiqued corrupt and lazy politicians, showing the aftermath of their inactivity and bad decision making towards industry vs. nature. It showed that we all have our part to play, may we be the president of the USA or a random farmer.
It commented on the Cold War that was still going on at the time.
It was a feminist piece that showed that women can do it all, despite all the misogyny she is confronted with: She can be smart, a scientist and an astronaut, the world’s leading astronaut at that. At the same time she can still be emotional, have periods, love cats and sexy clothes and be beautiful and struggle to find the true love she craves. Amanda had it all and yet she was so relatable at the same time, she was perfect because she wasn’t.
It showed that sometimes the people we want are not the ones that are right for us; that the right person is going to change for the better to deserve us, and that they would even follow you to a different universe to save you.
It told the story of so many people healing their (childhood) wounds. From the genius boy who just wanted a mother to the dutiful sheriff who wanted to protect his people at all costs to his best friend grieving for his lost family.
It told the story of duty and endurance; of creativity; of hope and love; of believing in the impossible; of believing in oneself.
It was lovely but also so so strange.
The writing was unlike any other I have read before as well. Every single page was filled with basic or incredibly complex physical theories, with sarcasm and humor. You could not possibly skip a single sentence without missing out on so much, maybe even a vital piece of information.
Also, I usually hate anthropomorphism (looking at you, Lessons in Chemistry) but Schrodinger‘s development was just so well and comically done. I would have loved to see his little drawings.
———————————————————————————
He thought that occasionally Amanda was quite capable of believing that women were vastly superior to men, and at such times she pointed out to him that the masculine tendency toward rational, linear, logical thinking processes might look good, but was wrong.
He pointed to the sky and he said to me, “What do you see?” and I said, “Clouds”. And he asked me three times did I see anything besides clouds, and I said no, and he looked at me and he said, “You will never be crazy, so don’t worry about it.” Then he sighed and he said, “On the other hand, you will miss much”.
There was certainly no confusion between the drawings of those dreadful slippers and the impulse that inspired the Sistine Chapel.
She didn’t want them to think for a minute that he wasn’t patriotic, so she had tied a red-white-and-blue ribbon around his neck and hung a small USA emblem from it.
But an injection. A tranquilizer. Something to make her forget. A lobotomy. Cruel, but necessary. A surgical solution. She was a woman, he told himself, and she’d be better off that way anyhow.
It was only one of the crazier aspects of history that here were a woman and chimp chasing to the moon, after a cat, sponsored by the entire military establishment of the United States and utilizing all of technology, but protected finally by young boy and a magic ring.
September 20, 2020
Great. Although I wish I’d read this in high school when I was discovering Douglas Adams and Robert Anton Wilson, it’s refreshing to find new content of the same Ilk so many years later. This book is tinged with just enough real empirical science to keep it grounded and enough absurdist out there psychedelia to keep it soaring. It sags in a couple of places as the author struggles to hammer home ideas of feminist independence through repetition (a message pure enough to render such nuisances meager) but overall, just wow. I chuckled aloud, went down a few side quests researching actual scientists quoted within, and felt my heart race a bit at the exotic high paced climax. A masterpiece of writing, maybe not, but my stars and garters, what a fantastic rollick. And of course at the heart of it all of the romance and robots and talking animals, a message of feminine strength that feels so good to read. Gosh, and I love the tonal shifts from section to section..books 2 and 3 are a crazy acid trip of kitchen sink sci-foolery. Recommended!
February 28, 2023
Admittedly, I have a very limited grasp of physics and this book seems to be steeped in it, but I don’t think that accounts for how messy and overstuffed the story is, how confounding the second half of the book is, and how squirm-inducing the depictions of drawling Texan hicks and a quantum-realm inhabitant literally named Rastus are.
As confounding as it is, it’s consistently readable—Hill is a talented writer—but after a while it was just washing over me, all the red robots and blue robots and GCB and Ooze and so forth.
As confounding as it is, it’s consistently readable—Hill is a talented writer—but after a while it was just washing over me, all the red robots and blue robots and GCB and Ooze and so forth.
April 15, 2018
The first half of this book, about female astronaut Amanda Jaworski and her proposed flight to Mars, involved the space program, strange phenomena and international intrigue, with a lot of quirky touches that made me want to read on. Unfortunately, the second half involved Amanda's adventures in interstellar and quantum-or-something reality as she tries to retrieve her cat, and the proceedings reminded me a lot more of Douglas Adams than Thomas Pynchon.
May 21, 2018
Weird, quirky sci-fi. The characters are endearing and I flew through it.
April 22, 2021
Absolute acid trip, loved every second of how unapolegetically absurd it dared to be
May 31, 2024
One of the strangest books I have read since 2001 and Philip K Dick
September 30, 2025
Good for Juvenile reader. Unbelievable stereotyped characters and lackluster plot.
December 11, 2025
What can I say? I just loved this book! But then, I would travel to the stars and back if needed to in order to rescue my most magical of cats, the infamous Roto Rooter!
March 18, 2018
Possibly the most influential book in my life, I think this book was the turning point which directed my development in geek direction :). I am thankful for it, mind you. I read it first time as a teenager, and keep reading it every several years, just to make sure I still love it the same (I do). Sure it is weird to the bits, but in a very enjoyable way. It is an easy read, and yet manages to tackle equality, quantum physics, politics, art of resilience, love, good vs. evil, and dimensions beyond. You most certainly do not need a degree in quantum physics to follow the story, but if you do know some basics, you will enjoy the book even more.
January 26, 2010
I picked this up from Malaprop's more than a decade ago. It was one of Emoke's picks, and I've discovered some amazing things via her recommendation (co-owner of the store). I returned to Malaprop's a few months ago and this title was still among her picks, so I decided to try it again.
It is not a page-turner. I vowed I'd give it 150 pages -- more than generous -- before giving up. By 150 pages, the male character development was poor and the author's fixation on the romantic life of the central character seemed inserted into the plot, but also disconnected and unbelievable. I'm not sure that it's reasonable to expect readers to buy a serious statement about sexism when the central character is the epitome of everything our culture endorses as physically attractive about a woman. That's a philosophical conundrum that might make for good fodder for a feminist studies course, but for pleasure reading, it was a lot to swallow.
From a literary point of view, this book is weak on character development. I'm not a big sci-fi fan and found myself in universes I did not expect to visit. That said, the author is fundamentally using the narrative to drive home another version of the same basic theme as the movie "Avatar" -- we are connected and what we do individually matters.
That said, if you like physics, sci-fi, and sexy intelligent women, this book may be in your all-time life top 10.
It is not a page-turner. I vowed I'd give it 150 pages -- more than generous -- before giving up. By 150 pages, the male character development was poor and the author's fixation on the romantic life of the central character seemed inserted into the plot, but also disconnected and unbelievable. I'm not sure that it's reasonable to expect readers to buy a serious statement about sexism when the central character is the epitome of everything our culture endorses as physically attractive about a woman. That's a philosophical conundrum that might make for good fodder for a feminist studies course, but for pleasure reading, it was a lot to swallow.
From a literary point of view, this book is weak on character development. I'm not a big sci-fi fan and found myself in universes I did not expect to visit. That said, the author is fundamentally using the narrative to drive home another version of the same basic theme as the movie "Avatar" -- we are connected and what we do individually matters.
That said, if you like physics, sci-fi, and sexy intelligent women, this book may be in your all-time life top 10.
October 9, 2008
I think Iwas supposed to like this more than I did. The book, writtne in 185 is a kind of feminist sci-fi novel that breaks into two sections and has a Space Oddesy 2001 type of feel. You, the journey through Jupiter scene where everything goes psychedelic? Well, the first half of the novel was pretty engaging, but the seocnd in the outer reaches of space left mes struggling a bit trying to find something compelling in the plot.
January 8, 2011
I really liked this, when I read it as a teenager. But now I could not get into it at all. It was very quirky and as such should have kept me interested. But I was just bored. Perhaps it was too off the wall. Or it was too introspective with too little actual story progression. I am not sure. It just did not seem to be moving.
July 21, 2007
Picked this up at a little record store and was pleasantly surprised. Strange story about a female astronaut, her narcoleptic cat, 10,000 disappearing Native Americans, large blue and red robots, molecules and physics. Slightly disappointing ending, but very interesting concepts throughout.
December 25, 2012
This book was a little "2001, A Space Oddysey", a little "Alice in Wonderland" and a little "The Wizard of OZ". It started out well and then sunk to a totally stupid mess. A tribe of Indians sent into the basement of the Pentagon? So, what's the sense?
November 15, 2008
I don't reread many books, but this one intrigues my sense of relativity and forces a look into the box every few years.
January 7, 2011
LOVED every word in this book! I wish I had a cat who read Chinese and painted pictures of my toe nails :)
Want to read
April 30, 2012Need to re-read this one before I can rate. I remember liking the first part of the journey and then last third got a bit confusing. I also remember really liking the science.
May 14, 2013
I read this as a teenager and loved it and its a book that I rethink of every now and then so I'm pleased to have finally remembered the whole title and I think I should read it again...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews