The Adventures of Alyx

by Joanna Russ

Contents:
Bluestocking (1967)
I Thought She Was Afeard till She Stroked My Beard (1967)
The Barbarian (1968)
Picnic on Paradise (1968) novel
The Second Inquisition (1970)

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Feminism, Sword and Sorcery, Speculative Fiction

270 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Joanna Russ (February 22, 1937 – April 29, 2011) was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as How to Suppress Women's Writing, as well as a contemporary novel, On Strike Against God, and one children's book, Kittatinny. She is best known for The Female Man, a novel combining utopian fiction and satire. [Wikipedia]

Reviews

[Nicholas Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, a very good collection of stories. Lamentably, and annoyingly, my edition did not contain the story "A Game of Vlet" for some reason. Although that story is both available in Joanna Russ' other short story collection The Zanzibar Cat and the recently published collection of her most famous works Joanna Russ: Novels & Stories (LOA #373): The Female Man / We Who Are About To . . . / On Strike Against God / The Complet e Alyx Stories / Other Stories. You can actually read that story here, if you wish.

So just who is Alyx? Well, she's a woman warrior and/rogue from either our own ancient world or another world altogether who is eventually employed by the Trans-Temporal Authority. Although there is a general of idea of what Alyx is--a strong, calculating woman who finds herself in peril quite frequently and surrounded by odd lots--who is she remains inconsistent. This isn't an error in Russ' writing, it's intentional. The Adventures of Alyx is some of Russ' earlier stories, but not the earliest. Prior to this, I have read We Who Are About To . . ., which while written with stunning syntax and prose was a very nihilistic story, and The Female Man, which gave us unapologetic lesbian feminist rage but was greatly weakened by didacticism and TERF-like ideology (Russ later regretted the transphobic parts in The Female Man after decade-long discussions with trans feminists). In those books, Russ' prose was ironic, bittersweet, dream-like, and other straight-up strange all in one. It felt like I was in the mind of some both brilliant yet uncertain of what was happening to them. This is pretty much the same deal with The Adventures of Alyx's writing and the characterization of Alyx herself. In one story, she's in her thirties and single, but has already had a child. In another she's younger and leaves her husband. In another, she's still somewhat young, but has a husband. And in another, she's in her twenties and no husband or child is mentioned. And in that last story, she is referenced by her granddaughter (or is it her great-granddaughter?) and her comrades. The complete portrait of who Alyx is has fissures, a chipping frame and paint, and an shifting competition date, so to speak. It's very Gene Wolfe-like, which wouldn't be surprising as both Russ and Wolfe read each other. Whether Russ does this to play and twist with genre expectations and narrative, just for fun, or that it's a way of conveying her feminism, always present within her works, can be debated till the cows come home, but it makes for a Hell of a good time.

And now for individual reviews!

"Bluestocking" 4/5 stars.
Originally entitled "The Adventuress," this first story which introduces us to Alyx and the bizarre world of Ourdh is written quite comedically. In it we learn about Alyx's past as a former religious devotee to a faith she no longer believes, but still can't seem to get away from in other aspects, who became a pick-lock. Alyx is hired by a young woman named Edarra to help her escape an arranged marriage and hijinks ensue. It is mostly the relationship between Alyx and Edarra that carries this story; the adventure aspect is quite standard though still fairly fun, but how Alyx and Edarra bounce off one another is rib-tickling. Edarra is quite spoiled, but eventually wants to try and help out even though Alyx knows she can't do much. Alyx is the wise fighter who just wants to get her job done, but can't help but tease Edarra sometimes. In another media, this would've been a women's buddy-cop or buddy-adventurers scenario. Thankfully, despite its short length, "Bluestocking" doesn't have a lack of character development. Alyx does open up a little bit to Edarra and we first hear about her estranged daughter and Edarra does become tougher and less spoiled. Good fun.

"I Thought She Was Afeard Till She Stroked My Beard" 3/5 stars.
Don't know why they didn't just keep the original title "I Gave Her Sack and Sherry," but okay. This story details Alyx's past, or one of her pasts, and is probably the most feminist of the stories. Here, Alyx escapes (and possibly kills) her abusive husband when she is quite young--either her late teens or early twenties. She eventually falls in with a dark-beard pirate who continually tries to seduce her while equally being frustrated with her challenging him and wanting to fight other pirates. Alyx and him enter a tumultuous relationship that is both bizarre and interesting to watch at the same time. I will be honest and say that although this story was a bit fun at times, in true Russ fashion, for me it was the weakest of the stories. The constant back and forth with the pirate could get tedious, though it was thankfully not didactic. He knew why he struggled so much with Alyx, but he didn't go on any rants about. This is another saving grace of this story, which I mentioned in my updates, is that here Russ accomplishes the description and story of a "strong female protagonist" far better than any current writers in fantasy and sci-fi. A lot of writers in these genres today who focus on feminist issues really like to remind readers, quite frequently, almost ad nauseum, that their main women characters are women and that they are going through it and those cruel, sexist antagonists are being very sexist and patriarchal towards them, oh ho ho, do you see what we're doing? Admittedly, Russ does this in The Female Man, however, in "I Thought She Was Afeard Till She Stroked My Beard" she accomplishes it far better. She, nor Alyx herself, need to tell you what Alyx is going through as a woman because it's already shown to you on page. She doesn't need to tell you why the pirate or Alyx's ex-husband are doing what they're doing. You already know and Russ knows that.

"The Barbarian" 4/5 stars.
In this adventure, a mysterious wizard employs Alyx for various odd jobs. Very odd jobs. The man is quite strange when Alyx first meets him and she isn't really sure if magic actually exists. Spoiler alerts: it does, but you can feel that Alyx is still cautious. This moment made "The Barbarian" seem very sword and sorcery. Or sword and planet (maybe that's "Picnic on Paradise")? Or sword and dimension? Anyway, Alyx questions why the wizard wants her to do all these things and what is the purpose. Her morals eventually conflict with his when he orders her to kill a baby. Throughout this story, Alyx's more serious comes to the forefront; it isn't absent in the previous stories, but those stories were a bit more comical in tone (mostly). You get the feeling that Alyx really despised being played by the wizard, possibly a reflection and callback to her ex-husband and the pirate. It ends with Alyx returning her husband. Who is he? We don't know. This was definitely strange one, and I quit enjoyed it.

"Picnic on Paradise" 5/5 stars.
The best story in the entire collection and possibly one of the best short stories I've ever read. Alyx is hired by the Trans-Temporal Authority to accompany an interesting group of tourists to the planet Paradise. However, the alien landscape is not kind to them and the journey becomes something out of a Cormac McCarthy novel. Alyx's companions are Gunnar, a stupid yet handsome adventurer; Machine, a strange young man who might be part cyborg; Iris, a kind woman who, despite being a little older than Alyx, acts like a brat sometimes; Maudey, Iris' overly dramatic mother; Gavrily, a musician of some sort; Raydos, an artist; and two Buddhist-like, hippie-like nuns. The longest of the stories, at first you think that this is going to be another weird and zany adventure for Alyx. Weird, yes. Zany? Not so much. This is probably the grimmest of the stories. Alyx and her companions' journey drags them through Hell and back. People die. Alyx gets angry, breaks down, screams, kills, loves, loses, and nearly unmoors from her hold on reality. Some of the others try to keep Alyx sane, particularly Iris whom Alyx develops a fraught relationship with. The way the characters interact and speak to one another, particularly between Alyx and Iris and Alyx and Machine, are quite strange. It's as if no one is speaking normally. In the other stories, the dialogue had a quirkiness to it that wasn't grating, but here it's as if the dialogue and character interactions were apart of some great mosaic than was shattered then put back to together. This is no a criticism, but a description. Perhaps it was because the characters were on edge or perhaps Russ is playing with genre and narrative again. It definitely feels like you too are breaking down as well. This story is oddly reminiscent of Russ' later novella We Who Are About To...: a group of travelers on an alien world with no hope and grim realizations and endings. Thankfully, this story ends a bit more bittersweetly than depressing like the novella. "Picnic on Paradise" is also special, because get even more of Alyx's backstory, even if it contradicts some things. She's apparently from the ancient Mediterranean, possibly Phoenicia, and has had multiple children who are estranged and/or lost to time. The ending was quite sad as well. This is probably the story that mostly rounds out Alyx's character.

"The Second Inquisition" 4/5 stars.
This is probably the most meta story. Unlike the other ones, this one is in first person from the perspective of a teenage girl who just might be Russ herself. The girl and her parents are being visited by a very tall woman who asks the girl a variety of questions about books and life over the course of the story. Others seem put off by the woman's visit, but the girl, who feels trapped in her daily life, seems conflicted. It's later revealed that the woman is granddaughter (or great-granddaughter?) of Alyx and is also a member of Trans-Temporal Authority. The girl wants to woman to stay, but things must go on. A simpler (however it can be), sadder story about how out stories can be escapism and that perhaps there is something better for us out there, hopefully.

This was a really great collection of stories and shows Russ' master of storytelling and craft. Pleasantly weird, fun, feminist, yet also bittersweet and poignant.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alyx, her personal history, and her adventures all stubbornly refuse to be pigeonholed. She is not the stereotype of a sword-and-sorcery hero and not that stereotype's inversion, and her history before and during the stories doesn't seem to make conventional sense.

Each story challenges the reader to figure out its rules, which may not apply to the next story in the series. Each one presents a subtly altered Alyx which may not mesh with the one before.

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is this Joanna Russ' earliest work? Certainly the first stories of a women adventurer in classical times are among her most conventional adventure yarns, but they still have a nuance of character and gender identity that look ahead the the futuristic novel included here (and reviewed by me elsewhere in a stand-alone edition -- Picnic on Paradise) and at last to the closing meta-story set in the 20s and looking further ahead to her magnum opus, The Female Man. Quick but deft and well-conceived. A good companion, perhaps, to her friend Delaney's later forays into early civilization and fantasy in his Neveryon stories.

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

171 Ratings · 18 Reviews
Still suppressed?
Samuel R. Delany dug it.

[Cécile · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but the essential credit I give this book is for the influence it had on Delany's Neveryon series, a true masterpiece we are lucky to have.

A couple of good points, otherwise: the ideas are not bad, it's always good to have some feminism around, since I sincerely don't believe we've had too much of that (just read Harry Potter or watch The X-Files to see what I mean...). I like the structure of the book as well: starting in a past clearly inspired by Fritz Leiber, and moving to the far future, eventually to drop Alyx altogether and settle for the last story in a very mundane 1920's context with only an allusion to Alyx's last adventure in the future. It is not common for a fantasy/SF writer to drag the reader forcefully back to his own world, and I must admit it worked rather well here, as you are forced to see that there were deeper thoughts in this book than just big swords and barbarian killers.

That said, I would also point out that the characters are far too caricatural to be engaging, and Alyx spends too much time punching stupid people and getting angry to sound really human at all. At times the stories are verging on slapstick, which might be fun when subtly done (cf Buster Keaton and the rest), however I did not find any subtle humour in those texts, be it the crazy drunken wit of Fritz Leiber or the more classical acidic tone of parodies. All in all I was a bit disappointed: I expected much, and the author seemed to be aiming high, but the result was nowhere near the hopes.

[shrug city · Rating 3 out of 5]

I get what it was doing, but it felt woefully second-wave. Disappointingly heterosexual, with very few non-white characters (aside from, well! in the future we are all brown, I guess!) and no space for female characters other than bratty, useless young girls for Alyx to be maternal to.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

A peculiar book. Its influence on Delany's Tales of Neveryon (how I ended up reading it) is clear in the first couple of stories, in the ancient setting unconcerned with worldbuilding and interested only in vague outlines, coupled with a female protagonist with a feminist mythology and stone-cold badass fighting skills coupled with some precociously and acontextually clever ideas. But Alyx was sunk by two things for me.

The first I could have gotten over. It's that the stories are poorly written in a very odd way. They aren't clumsy in the way derivative genre fiction is. But they are told ineptly, moving so quickly, skimming over so much, that it's really hard to grasp a lot of what's going on. The gist of the plot and character arc outlines is clear enough, though often only after several pages do the details of an event really become clear. The problem is that it glides over all the meat of the story. It's hard to put my figure on exactly how it does so; there are important plot developments dropped as afterthoughts at the end of one section and picked up without reintroduction in the next, and characters are often referred to by name only once or not at all. Little context is provided in terms of not just timing and backstory but even in how characters feel about each other or respond to events in the story. Action is described in broad strokes. There are plenty of nice touches in the prose, things you wouldn't expect from a truly poor author, but there are very few moments that feel tangible, in dialogue, introspection, or action. All that said, it reads very quickly and I wouldn't have minded finishing it.

The second thing, though, is that Alyx is not like Neveryon. The protagonist is swiftly plucked from her context in ancient Phoenicia when she discovers a meddling time traveler (whose motivations are conflicting and capricious at best), and is subsequently catapulted forward in time to shepherd a group of far-future dilettante tourists across a vacation planet in advance of a trade war. There's way too much jumping to cope with Russ's ambiguity in establishing any of these scenarios. It's hard to give a shit about any of it. More than that, though, I find the idle mashup of genres and settings distasteful for some reason and the first 120 pages of this book only confirmed that bias. Presumably one would only attempt such a span with some end in mind, but I didn't get the impression that was the case here (maybe unfair?).

I did enjoy the silhouette of Alyx that can be gleaned from the prose. She's refreshingly blunt and violent, in ways that hint at how she was shaped by patriarchy and abuse but not in any particularly obvious or victimized sense. It's hard to convey because there's not a lot there, but I can see how it would have been an inspiration for later writers.

[Isabel (kittiwake) · Rating 4 out of 5]

She was a soft-spoken, dark-haired, small-boned woman, not even coming up to their shoulders, like a kind of dwarf or miniature—but that was normal enough for a Mediterranean Greek of nearly four millennia ago, before super-diets and hybridization from seventy colonized planets had turned all humanity (so she had been told) into Scandinavian giants. The young lieutenant, who was two meters and a third tall, or three heads more than herself, very handsome and ebony-skinned, said ‘I'm sorry, ma'am, but I cannot believe you're the proper Trans-Temporal Agent; I think—‘ and he finished his thought on the floor, his head under one of his ankles and this slight young woman (or was she young? Trans-Temp did such strange things sometimes!) somehow holding him down in a position he could not get out of without hurting himself to excruciation.

The first two stories are about an assassin and thief called Alyx who lives in a city in the ancient world, while the third story, if it is about the same woman, may be set earlier in her life although this is not clear. The Alyx of the fourth story is a Trans-Temporal Agent who is sent through a portal to rescue a group of future tourists trapped when war breaks out on a tourist planet. The final story told from the point of view of a teenage girl in prohibition era America whose family has a exceptionally tall paying guest staying with them while she is hiding out in the past. The links between the stories in this book become a lot clearer when the visitor tells her hosts' daughter that her great-grandmother became the first ever Trans-Temporal Agent after being accidentally scooped up in Ancient Greece during a time travel experiment.

My favourites were "I Thought She Was Afeard Till She Stroked My Beard" and "The Second Inquisition".

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a slightly odd book. It's composed of four loosely linked short stories and a novella (Picnic on Paradise) mostly with the same protagonist (the titular Alyx, although the last story, The Second Inquisition does away even with this). The first two stories are entirely set in the past with no SFnal element to them, and reminded me of some of the Conan stories that I've read. The third introduces a 'sorcerer' while the novella relocates Alyx to the far future as she's accidentally lifted from her own timeline and she's recruited to help a group of trapped civilians cross a planet to safety in the midst of a war. This is the contribution that gives Alyx the most depth as she has to shepherd her group and inevitably gets involved with their lives. The final story is set in 1925 and only obliquely references the rest.

The slim volume is dense in multiple senses of the word. The print is small and closely packed but the imagery and metaphor are also sometimes dense, requiring close reading to process and unpack. Not exactly the light lunchtime reading that I was expecting, but mostly worth it.

Russ is, of course, known for her feminist work and this woman who starts as a cipher, a female Conan, develops into something much more complex, having an inner life of her own. She is always an actor, always driving the story, never being a passive character to whom events happen, which is something that I always enjoy in a protagonist.

So an odd set of stories, but enjoyable both in themselves, and for their place in the greater history of the genre.

[Jon Ciliberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a huge huge fan of Fritz Leiber. His stylish, literate writing style, combined with a strong storyteller's charm, really appeal. I'd heard on several occasions over the years a character (Alyx, a woman thief and adventurer) who appeared by name in a couple of Leiber's "Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser" stories was actually another writer's. This imprimatur by Leiber motivated me to seeking out "The Adventures of Alyx". This is a fantastic piece of writing, an example of what genre writing can achieve by hewing true to the format's avenues of imaginative exploration by expanding it not just to Fantastic Worlds, but to the inner life of human beings. (C.f., James Tiptree, Jr., Theodore Sturgeon.) The book gathers short and long stories, framed around sword and sorcery/science fantasy themes, but in fact much wider ranging excursions, and more often very little about swords or fights or magic or aliens. I am going to scan a passage from one of the stories (in which the titular character has hooked up for a spell with Bluebeard, the pirate). I thought this description of sea battles amazing, not romantic or heroic, but rather poetic and sensual and painterly:
http://tinyurl.com/l6z3pfs

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are early stories by Joanna Russ following her departure from writing traditional patriarchal fiction. They all feature the character of Alyx, a renaissance woman often toeing the line of the law, alternating between roles of thief, mercenary, adventurer-for-hire, etc. The first few lean toward the swashbuckling space pirate type of tale, with various Russ flourishes. She is beginning to challenge gender roles here, but has not gone totally radical yet (though at the time these were published [late 60s] they probably would've been radical enough for some). The first story, at least, was written before Russ said she began identifying as a feminist. 'Picnic on Paradise' approaches novella length and concerns Alyx's time as an agent sent to lead a group of vacationers to safety through harsh conditions on a planet under war. The last story includes Alyx only as a relative of one of the characters and might fall under the genre of 'slipstream' these days. None of the stories are hard sci-fi, though, and the focus is always on the interaction between characters rather than the 'otherworldliness' of the surroundings. Definitely recommended for existing Russ fans, as well as to those newly curious about her legacy as a feminist science fiction writer.

[Edward Rathke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty solid collection. While each story is fine by itself, what makes it great is the interplay between the stories.

The first few are essentially sword and sorcery stories, with Picnic on Paradise pulling the character into the distant future, and the final story taking place in the 1920s, where Alyx is a character only referenced by those in the story.

What's nice about Russ is that her prose is great and she writes dialogue maybe better than anyone. The way she has characters say so much without actually speaking anything of consequence is brilliant.

But, yeah, a mix of sword and sorcery and future science fiction and contemporary science fiction all with near perfect dialogue[especially the early stories] and prose that remains strong throughout.

Easy to see the huge influence she had on Delany, too. After reading this, you can see her fingers all over Neveryon and Triton, which is interesting to see.

[Luke Dylan Ramsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A-/A

I seem to have enjoyed this more than most (I’m trying to be harsher with my ratings and grades but I think I’m failing). I read these stories (and the 1 novella) in the Library of America edition that collects a few of Russ’ stories and novels together in one volume. I have not yet read the last Alyx story in that collection because I’m hooked on the show Adolescence (“watching” right now) (I am on my phone way too much, even (or especially) when I’m watching the tellytube) (the show is very, very good, by the way) and it’s not included in the story collection I am reviewing so whatever. I was inspired to read them because of how effusively Samuel R Delany praises them in his book The Jewel-Hinged Jaw (also a very good book, also a must read for fans of science fiction).

Anyways, on to the stories. To be perfectly real with you, I read these over the course of the last month or so, so I don’t have a great handle on the first few stories. That being said, I do remember enjoying them all a lot… like a lot a lot.

The last story (The Second Inquisition) is probably the most Gene Wolfe-like, although Picnic On Paradise also has that Wolfe-y puzzlebox feel. I could definitely see these stories being at least somewhat of an influence on Wolfe and his Book of the New Sun… although that may be a bit of a stretch… though, maybe not? They both feature time travel and very odd sexual relationships and sexual situations. They both mix science fiction with fantasy in interesting ways as well.

I do like how Alyx seems to change throughout the different stories. At the beginning (and middle) she is depicted as almost cartoonishly small (at least in comparison to the men she repeatedly attacks), but in the final story, she is a giant. Her backstory changes from story to story as well. I think you could definitely excuse that as perhaps being a symptom of her time traveling stuff and/or a depiction of different timelines/realities.

The through line in these stories is how truly badass Alyx is. She’s consistently super interesting as a character; her dialogue is always very clever and surprising, as are her actions.

The first couple stories are pretty straightforward fantasy / sword and sorcery type stories. They are more solid than amazing, although there are little flourishes and details here and there that let you know that you are reading the work of a genius-level author. Things start getting real and really interesting once the time travel stuff starts up in the third story, and that stuff only gets better and more interesting in Picnic On Paradise.

THERE IS SOMEONE IN MY APARTMENT COMPLEX THAT KEEPS BLARING MUSIC AT SEEMINGLY RANDOM TIMES OF DAY AND ITS 1:15 AM AND ITS HAPPENING AGAIN AHHHHHHH I AM USUALLY UP ALL NIGHT BUT STILL IT IS MADDENING AHHHHHH

Anyways, I have a few nitpicks to include. As much as I loved The Second Inquisition, I struggle with what the point of the story is, what I’m supposed to take away from it, why any of what is depicted happens, and why it is an Alyx story given there’s literally no action at all. Picnic On Paradise has some plot holes and the graphic depictions of rough sex confused me to be honest. Alyx and Machine (a cyborg character) seem to really want to hurt each other and they do hurt each other while making love and like I’m not a virgin or anything but like why do they do that? Lol. Like I get the whole fighting or wrestling turning into sex thing, sure, but I guess I just couldn’t picture what they were doing, and I was confused by it, because it happens every time they have sex, and Alyx seems to really actually like Machine so why does she beat him up and allow him to beat her up? Like their relationship is immediately toxic and fucked up and very odd once it becomes romantic / sexual and I guess I could’ve used more of a lead up to that, more motivation behind it.

As for the first three stories and nitpicks, I wish there was more action generally, especially in the second story, a lot of which takes place at sea, where not much can or does happen.

Any fucking ways, I loved this book, and may pick up a standalone non-Library of America copy of it.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

No, I did not misspell my own name (although someone at work did yesterday...) - Joanna Russ called her character Alyx, and I have finally read the collection of four short stories + one novella about said adventurer.

The thing you have to know about Alyx is that although the name stays the same, and some aspects of the character remain the same, trying to establish an internal chronology for these stories is likely to bust your brain. It doesn't work, and it doesn't have to work. Maybe it's the same woman, maybe she's a time traveller, maybe the name lends certain characteristics (like Julias in Tansy Rayner Roberts' Love and Romanpunk) ... or maybe Russ is playing, and it actually doesn't matter. Although once you accept that it doesn't necessarily work, making connections is a lot of fun.

These stories are different genre, with different approaches to narrative - what makes a narrative - so don't go in expecting a cohesive whole. Of course, it is a whole in that Russ is doing confronting things with her female character: making her the lead, and not making romance important, and exploring reactions to women. That's still a bold thing to do, and my edition of these stories was published in 1983; they originally came out between 1967 and 1970. I really wish I was alive to experience Russ As She Happened. And it makes me wonder who, if anyone, fills a similar niche today - and whether I am completely missing their stuff, for whatever reason.

I feel like a barbarian myself to admit that I did not love the first two stories. In fact, it took me ages to get through this slim volume because I was so not in love with the first one, and then the second, that I was worried I wouldn't enjoy the rest. I persevered though, partly from an admittedly perverse desire to be able to say that I had read it, and partly because I knew that the stories changed up so I was hoping that I would come across stories more to my taste later on. And I did. Some of what comes below is my analysis of my own reactions to the stories, rather than a pure review. This might be dismissed as navel gazing; for me, it's a way of working out how I work with Joanna Russ, such a powerful influence over what I'm interested in.

"Bluestocking" begins in a very self-deprecating way - "This is the tale of a voyage that is on interest only as it concerns the doings of one small, gray-eyed woman." Not a great start? It gets subversive within moments, though, suggesting that the first man was created from the sixth finger of the left hand of the first woman... but our lady, Alyx, has all six fingers. Alyx is a pickpocket; she gets hired to look after a spoiled young woman. Then there are adventures, of a sort. There's travelling, and bickering, and a sword fight. It is also supremely brief. I'm not sure whether it was that aspect that most didn't work for me, but it certainly contributed - I found this story quite frustrating, with all its lacunae and its teasing and... something. "I Thought she was Afeard till she stroked by Beard" worked similarly on me. In this case, Alyx escapes an unhappy marriage; gets on board a ship and has a complex relationship with the captain; and is frustrated by the place of women in the world. I think it's clever, but for mine there's just not enough.

I should say at this point that there is more going on here than 'just' a narrative, especially in narrative connections; I know Russ is addressing Fritz Lieber, and others. I haven't read any Lieber. Perhaps this is a fault in me, and the stories would be greatly improved with that background knowledge. But I know Terry Pratchett riffs off Lieber too, and I enjoy those stories; I know Mieville and Reynolds are riffing off others, but I still enjoy theirs too. So... perhaps it's ok that I don't enjoy all of Russ' work? Maybe?

"The Barbarian" is a story that Gary Wolfe, in his essay in On Joanna Russ (... I think?? eep maybe I'm wrong...) suggests is the switch for Alyx between fantasy and SF, which is an intriguing way of seeing it. Here Alyx is again a crim-for-hire, but she doesn't like what she's hired to do and things go downhill from there. For me as a reader, though, things started going up. This story appealed more, although I'm not sure why. Maybe it's a simpler story but with more flesh, more detail?

Then - next - oh, delight: "Picnic on Paradise." This was originally published alone, as a novel; I guess it's a novella, by today's standards? 90 pages in my little pocketbook edition. Alyx, a Trans-Temporal Agent brought from the ancient Mediterranean world to both the future and a different planet. She's being used to guide a disparate group of tourists across a war-ravaged planet, to keep them safe in the most horrific of circumstances: no access to their technology. There's an incredibly profound moment at the start, where one of the women asks why Alyx is "covered up" - wearing clothes. So Alyx takes off her shift, therefore mimicking those around her, which group promptly have apoplexy. Alyx is confused, naturally; one of them says that she is wearing her history, which they are not used to. This goes a long way to demonstrating some of the rather large differences between Alyx and her charges. The story is a straightforward one of flight, and fighting for survival: getting lost, getting hungry, literally fighting (nature, each other, etc). It's Russ, and having read We Who Are About To... I wasn't surprised that things do not go according to plan, in a drastic way. One of the remarkable aspects is, of course, that the leader is a woman. Making the hard decisions, being contemptuous, fighting - being well-rounded. The tourists are a motley bunch: nuns, macho men, wannabe robots, high-society ladies. They too have their chance to be well-rounded, to interact especially with Alyx but also each other. This isn't a fun story but it's a great story, an intriguing one, and one I am so pleased to have read.

The final story in the set is a difficult one in terms of "Alyx canon," the idea of which I rather suggest Russ would either have rolled her eyes or laughed at. Because Alyx probably isn't in it. Her descendants might be, but if you read this by itself you wouldn't have a clue about her. It's also frustrating me because I know I have read it - "The Second Inquisition" - before, but I don't know where. Some anthology, some time. Anyway... this too is science fiction, focussed on a young girl whose family is hosting a very odd stranger, who leads the girl in all sorts of directions: physically, introducing her to other, even more strange people; intellectually, introducing her to books and ideas she has never encountered; and culturally, challenging a whole bunch of assumptions within the family and society more broadly. There's also questions about reality and imagination going on here that I think I missed the first time through. Intriguingly I think this gets a little close to the 'galactic suburbia' stories that Russ dismissed, since the focus is very much a suburban home with the occasional break-in of the science fictional. At any rate it certainly makes a challenging and difficult-in-a-good-way conclusion to the collection, because it doesn't fit neatly into Alyx's adventures. Which is as it should be, because Alyx - as a woman and as a character - doesn't fit anywhere comfortably either. And she wouldn't want to.

[Oliver Brackenbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you come to this sword & sorcery novel hoping for mighty thews style stories, you'll be disappointed. However if you're looking for something a little different, and/or Joanna Russ' highly specific voice expressing her own special take on S&S, then you'll do just fine.

The first three stories, of five, are sword & sorcery and I'm reluctant to compare it to anybody else as Russ is so much her own thing, here and elsewhere, but I suppose you could compare them to a mix of Leiber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories and a Dunsany-like fairy tale logic to how things play out. All three delighted me greatly.

But the fourth story pulls Alyx into a far, far future novella centering on her leading a band of people who are almost entirely unsuited for their long, arduous journey. There were parts in it where I felt perhaps too much empathy with the sensation of slog the characters wrestled with, however it's worth a read if only to set up the last story. It's a bit like a more upbeat version of Russ' "We Who Are About To...".

The last story may or may not even feature Alyx, but instead a character from the previous tale, and the setting changes entirely again for something of an Alice *Almost* in Wonderland tale. It seems utterly mundane, until it isn't, and when it ends, that's it. Book over!

So yes, if you've enjoyed Russ' work before, like her classic "The Female Man", then come on down! If you're up for a very different take on sword & sorcery, come on down! But I wouldn't recommend coming to it looking for something akin to Conan, or even Fafhrd & Grey Mouser (despite a fun, oblique reference to Alyx hooking up with Fafhrd, which was sanctioned by Leiber who in turn mentions Alyx in "The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar"), or even a terribly straightforward narrative.

[Richard Clay · Rating 4 out of 5]

'First British Publication' claims the back cover of this Women's Press edition but that's not quite the case. The greater part of the volume is taken up by 'Picnic on Paradise', a short novel that had been put out minus the accompanying short stories by Wyndham's 'Star' imprint, some time in the 70s. I can see why WP might have wanted to airbrush the 'Star' edition out of history; its cover bore an image - Chris Achilleos, possibly - of the familiar teenette dressed in that kind of armour - peculiar to 1970s sci-fi paperbacks and heavy metal album sleves - that leaves the breasts and belly uncovered. Try working out the logic of that. Of course, such a figure bears no resemblance to Russ' greying and embittered thirtysomething protagonist; the cover of this WP collection gives you a much better idea of the character you're about to encounter.

Readers picking up the 'Star' edition expecting something on the lines of 'High Couch of Silistra' or even 'Floating Worlds' would, let's not mince words here, have shit themselves. Russ' sexual politics may not be the same as Andrea Dworkin's or Sarah Daniels', but it's tough stuff. Whether you want to call it feminism or not is up to you and whether it's justified or not is a question I'll not engage with. I tend to find male reviewers who try to express an opinion - ANY opinion on such issues inevitably make themselves look utter nobcheeses. So see what you think.

[Randy Money · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great collection of stories including the exceptional short novel, Picnic on Paradise. (Review of Picnic here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).

Starting and ending with stories in a Swords and Sorcery vein, Russ manages to turn Alyx's story into science fiction through a simple and effective explanation in the short novel. The novel is stand-alone, and yet if you read the early stories, I think it adds depth and understanding of Alyx, where she came from and what motivates her.

Note, I didn't read directly from this collection, but from Joanna Russ: Novels & Stories (LOA #373): The Female Man / We Who Are About To . . . / On Strike Against God / The Complet e Alyx Stories / Other Stories, which includes a story not in this collection, "A Game of Vlet".

[Jeanette Greaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how many times I read this book in the 1980s and early 1990s, but it must have been quite a few because I found myself finishing some of the sentences as I read it. The stories are fifty years old now, but the anger still resonates.

[James Bovay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Background reading for the Modal Calculus. The last story's pretty good but I couldn't tell if the title character was in it. Much vagueness and Style.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable feminist (I guess?) fantasy, which segues into science fiction. Bonus oblique reference to Fritz Lieber’s character Fafhrd.

[Georgia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful read. Pure, no-nonsense entertainment. I wish we had more of that.

[Critical · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conceptually interesting at times, but frequently hard to follow.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Never confuse the weapon and the arm," and taking the candle, she went away and left him in the dark.

I'm so glad I found this (very) loosely connected collection of stories from 1968 at Goodwill!

Alyx is a total badass as she makes her way through space and time and Russ has great fun playing with themes of identity and independence. The main draw is the 140 pp. "Picnic on Paradise" which turns out to be neither. Her writing is still fresh after all this time.

(Now, if I can give And Chaos Died one more try.)

[Iany Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is a book easy to read

[Ape · Rating 2 out of 5]

2010 bookcrossing review:

Well, hurah, I have finally gotten around to reading this book. I've just finished it, and to be honest, my initial thought is, what on earth was that all about? This is actually the second book by Joanna Russ I've read now, and I probably preferred The Female Man, which was just as strange and disjointed, but it felt as though it worked better. Here it just got a bit random and disconnected and I'm really not sure what the point of it all was.

It's a kind of sci-fi fantasy book, split into chapters that all seem to be seperate from one another, and all of which are about a woman called Alyx except the last one where she might feature but its all a bit unclear. There's stories about her guiding a spoilt rich bratt across the world, becoming a pirate's woman and a really long one about her guiding a goup of small people across paradise, which is a frozen world. Not entirely sure why they were travelling across there either but anyway.

All very random and not a book I'd want to read again. One of these odd things I must have picked up on a whim because it was cheap. Anyway, I have already promised that I am going to send this to a bookmoocher so it will soon be moving on.

[Cory · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover of my paperback copy of The Adventures of Alyx features a woman, an odd, child-faced, red-headed magician, and a spaceship; the back has a short synopsis of a trashy space opera plot. Both covers lie. This is a collection of loosely-connected short stories in the grand tradition of mid-century sci fi, which leave you wondering "WTF was that all about?" The crucial difference, of course, is that Joanna Russ was a pioneering feminist writer, and her Alyx is a unique character in that genre (or rather, Alyxes - the same character is explored from several angles, much like "Annie" in Martin Crimps' play "Attempts on Her Life").

As a last note, I want to point out the final story, "The Second Inquisition"; this one has a very different feel from the others and provides an unexpectedly gut-wrenching commentary on childhood; it's close to the top of the list of my favorite pieces of short fiction.

[Sarah Vernall · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Alyx story-cycle is a thing of beauty. From Leiber-esque Swords and Sandals fantasy in the ancient Mediterranean to time travel, science fiction and beautifully expressed culture shock in Picnic on Paradise. Alyx is a wonderfully realised heroine, sharp but warm at the same time, clever, practical, brave, competent. The wisest amongst a sex that is exceedingly wise, to paraphrase Russ. Alyx, the grey-eyed, the quiet wonag. Wit, arm, kill-quick for hire. I adore her and find her endlessly compelling. It was a treat to travel with her from fantastical Ourdh to brooding Tyre to the rocky snowscapes of Paradise.

[Sloth Slaughter · Rating 2 out of 5]

As eager as I was to read this book, outspoken feminist author with a female protagonist, I couldn't get over the weird 70s overly vague and twisted writing style. I'll try something else by her. Why all the girls gotta write so strangely? Ursula K. LeGuin does it too. Sigh.

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun collection of stories, some fantasy, some science-fiction. Theoretically they share a protagonist, but the back-story isn't consistent. The last one was particularly intriguing in its ability to be read several different ways.

[Pär · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karen and I named our domain, alyx.com, after this book. Enough said.