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Extra (Ordinary) People
Five stories deal with aliens, telepaths, time travel, other worlds, and the process of writing
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1984
About the author
Joanna Russ
186 books437 followersJoanna 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
March 9, 2020
-Más críptico de lo habitual en la autora, o al menos dentro de lo que yo conozco de su obra.-
Género. Relatos.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Almas (publicación original: Extra (Ordinary) People, 1984) es una recopilación de trabajos de ciencia ficción con una novela corta muy premiada y cuatro relatos más, dos de ellos inéditos, y al borde del Fix Up (sin serlo en absoluto) por la curiosa forma en que están presentados (o más bien “unidos”) y que nos presentaran, entre otros, a un escritor planificando su novela romántica decimonónica, a una abadesa medieval que maneja una incursión vikinga de maneras muy particulares y a una pareja de viajeros.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Relatos.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Almas (publicación original: Extra (Ordinary) People, 1984) es una recopilación de trabajos de ciencia ficción con una novela corta muy premiada y cuatro relatos más, dos de ellos inéditos, y al borde del Fix Up (sin serlo en absoluto) por la curiosa forma en que están presentados (o más bien “unidos”) y que nos presentaran, entre otros, a un escritor planificando su novela romántica decimonónica, a una abadesa medieval que maneja una incursión vikinga de maneras muy particulares y a una pareja de viajeros.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
March 16, 2016
Oh Joanna.
Five narratives, loosely connected by brief snatches of conversation between a schoolkid and their tutor on history. Each story different - thematically, stylistically - each story offering different perceptions on humanity and difference and survival.
I'd read "Souls" before - I have it as an Ace double with Tiptree's "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" The Abbess Radegunde is a remarkable woman - highly educated, linguistically talented, devoted to God and her flock of nuns - and then one day the Vikings come a-raiding. And things change, but definitely not in the way the Norsemen were expecting. How can you judge the people around you? What are you willing to sacrifice? How do you know who you are? I love that this story seems like one sort of story and then KAPOW it's a very different one.
I found "The Mystery of the Young Gentleman" quite hard to come to grips with, and even on reflection it's still not entirely clear. Partly this stems from language: someone refers to the narrator as an 'invert', and I wasn't entirely clear what that meant although I knew it had insulting sexual/gender overtones; I'm still not clear whether the speaker intended it to mean homosexuality or cross-dressing. In the context, probably either-or. Anyway, the story is written by the titular young man, as a series of letters although we don't know who the recipient will be. He's travelling across the Atlantic with a young Spanish girl pretending to be his niece, and there's a nosy doctor and a few other passengers. Like I said I'm still not entirely sure what was going on here - whether the young man was rescuing a girl like himself, where both of them are like Radegund from the previous story? Maybe. Despite my lack of complete comprehension I did still enjoy the story in a very Russ-type way: it challenges ideas of gender and sex and sexuality and identity and appearance and how much information you need for a story, anyway. Also what sort of stories ought to be read by young women.
"Bodies" goes well into the future and was probably the most opaque of the five stories, for me (possibly not helped by reading while camping, but anwyay...). This is also written as a letter, but this time we know who is being addressed - James - and the writer is reflecting on the time when they met (after he had been pulled from the past/resurrected/ reconstructed) and the immediate aftermath. It's also concerned with sexuality and gender identity - James has had a bad life because of his, and adjusting to a future where he is actually allowed to be himself is difficult. In some ways I was put in mind of Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time in terms of how hard it might be a for a 20th-century mind to cope with something approaching a utopia (especially someone who has been oppressed), because we're suspicious and guarded.
"What did you do during the revolution, Grandma?" is a bit Greg Egan and a bit Ursula Le Guin and a bit James Tiptree Jr. What if our universe exists on a hypersphere and the point where we happen to exist is the point where cause and effect happen to equal 1? Which means there are other universes where cause and effect does not equal 1... and then what would happen if you could access those other places? What would humans do? ... it's a pretty weird story. I am intrigued by the conceit although I don't think Russ plays it out as much as she might. Again she goes in for human stories rather than the maths looking at cause and effect in humanity, and love and sex and confusion.
Finally, with "Everyday Depressions", I nearly cried. It, too, is epistolary - it opens with "Dear Susanillamilla" - and it's about the letter-writer hashing out the plot and characters for a novel she (I presume) is thinking of writing. The bit that made me cry was when the heroine's mother is named Alice Tiptree, of the Sheldons of Deepdene. The entire collection opens with a quote from Alice Sheldon:
"I began thinking of you as pnongl. People" - [said the alien] "it's dreadful, you think a place is just wild and then there're people - "
I can't help but see similarities in the way Russ wrote to Alice Sheldon in the style of these letters, and in Sheldon's letters back. The development of the gothic novel the writer is proposing to write also just makes me ache, in knowing the Russ/Sheldon connections - and also of course Russ' own discussions about the gothic story. This little story is an absolute gem if you know those connections, and still amusing and lovely even if you don't.
Oh, Joanna.
Five narratives, loosely connected by brief snatches of conversation between a schoolkid and their tutor on history. Each story different - thematically, stylistically - each story offering different perceptions on humanity and difference and survival.
I'd read "Souls" before - I have it as an Ace double with Tiptree's "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?" The Abbess Radegunde is a remarkable woman - highly educated, linguistically talented, devoted to God and her flock of nuns - and then one day the Vikings come a-raiding. And things change, but definitely not in the way the Norsemen were expecting. How can you judge the people around you? What are you willing to sacrifice? How do you know who you are? I love that this story seems like one sort of story and then KAPOW it's a very different one.
I found "The Mystery of the Young Gentleman" quite hard to come to grips with, and even on reflection it's still not entirely clear. Partly this stems from language: someone refers to the narrator as an 'invert', and I wasn't entirely clear what that meant although I knew it had insulting sexual/gender overtones; I'm still not clear whether the speaker intended it to mean homosexuality or cross-dressing. In the context, probably either-or. Anyway, the story is written by the titular young man, as a series of letters although we don't know who the recipient will be. He's travelling across the Atlantic with a young Spanish girl pretending to be his niece, and there's a nosy doctor and a few other passengers. Like I said I'm still not entirely sure what was going on here - whether the young man was rescuing a girl like himself, where both of them are like Radegund from the previous story? Maybe. Despite my lack of complete comprehension I did still enjoy the story in a very Russ-type way: it challenges ideas of gender and sex and sexuality and identity and appearance and how much information you need for a story, anyway. Also what sort of stories ought to be read by young women.
"Bodies" goes well into the future and was probably the most opaque of the five stories, for me (possibly not helped by reading while camping, but anwyay...). This is also written as a letter, but this time we know who is being addressed - James - and the writer is reflecting on the time when they met (after he had been pulled from the past/resurrected/ reconstructed) and the immediate aftermath. It's also concerned with sexuality and gender identity - James has had a bad life because of his, and adjusting to a future where he is actually allowed to be himself is difficult. In some ways I was put in mind of Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time in terms of how hard it might be a for a 20th-century mind to cope with something approaching a utopia (especially someone who has been oppressed), because we're suspicious and guarded.
"What did you do during the revolution, Grandma?" is a bit Greg Egan and a bit Ursula Le Guin and a bit James Tiptree Jr. What if our universe exists on a hypersphere and the point where we happen to exist is the point where cause and effect happen to equal 1? Which means there are other universes where cause and effect does not equal 1... and then what would happen if you could access those other places? What would humans do? ... it's a pretty weird story. I am intrigued by the conceit although I don't think Russ plays it out as much as she might. Again she goes in for human stories rather than the maths looking at cause and effect in humanity, and love and sex and confusion.
Finally, with "Everyday Depressions", I nearly cried. It, too, is epistolary - it opens with "Dear Susanillamilla" - and it's about the letter-writer hashing out the plot and characters for a novel she (I presume) is thinking of writing. The bit that made me cry was when the heroine's mother is named Alice Tiptree, of the Sheldons of Deepdene. The entire collection opens with a quote from Alice Sheldon:
"I began thinking of you as pnongl. People" - [said the alien] "it's dreadful, you think a place is just wild and then there're people - "
I can't help but see similarities in the way Russ wrote to Alice Sheldon in the style of these letters, and in Sheldon's letters back. The development of the gothic novel the writer is proposing to write also just makes me ache, in knowing the Russ/Sheldon connections - and also of course Russ' own discussions about the gothic story. This little story is an absolute gem if you know those connections, and still amusing and lovely even if you don't.
Oh, Joanna.
June 8, 2019
Review and rating is solely for the novella "Souls" (1983 Hugo Award), which I liked a lot. The other stories ranged from OK to DNF for me. SOULS was a reread, and is memorable. Worth seeking out. Alexandra's review, nearby, will give you a bit of a preview. And here's a longer and much more complimentary review of the collection by Brit Mandelo, at Tor.com: https://www.tor.com/2012/01/10/readin...
July 4, 2021
Almas es una colección de relatos unidos por un hilo conductor y un esquema común: el lento y doloroso proceso de intentar averiguar qué está pasando en cada momento. Porque aunque el estilo, la forma, es muy bueno, el contenido es un auténtico mar de elipsis y (supuestos) sobreentendidos en el que me resulta agotador moverme. El primer relato es el mejor pero ya adolece un poco de este, para mi gusto, defecto.
August 31, 2014
I'd put this at three and a half stars, but the rating system doesn't allow for finer rating ...
This is a strange, at times intriguing, and at times amusing series of stories. Not easy to 'get into' I did however find it satisfying to persist and make myself think ... these are not for a quick light read.
The last story 'Everyday Depressions' was for me perhaps the lightest and easiest to access of the stories, delivered as a series of letters on the possible development of a gothic styled historic novel. It had me laughing with many playful nods to 18th/19th century 'classics'.
The first story 'Souls' is dark ... disturbing and powerful, and ultimately thought provoking ... "Think again ..."
This is a strange, at times intriguing, and at times amusing series of stories. Not easy to 'get into' I did however find it satisfying to persist and make myself think ... these are not for a quick light read.
The last story 'Everyday Depressions' was for me perhaps the lightest and easiest to access of the stories, delivered as a series of letters on the possible development of a gothic styled historic novel. It had me laughing with many playful nods to 18th/19th century 'classics'.
The first story 'Souls' is dark ... disturbing and powerful, and ultimately thought provoking ... "Think again ..."
January 21, 2012
Joanna Russ, along with women like Pamela Sargeant, Ursula LeGuin and others, came into science fiction as I came into high school. Together, they profoundly influenced the genre, introducing sciences such as anthropology, sociology and psychology into a field which had been dominated by chemistry, physics and engineering. They also tended, as a whole, to better at characterization than their male counterparts, perhaps because it was necessary for them to be better than average to get published.
In any case, Joanna Russ is one of the more pointedly feminist of her cohort. This is a good selection of her work.
In any case, Joanna Russ is one of the more pointedly feminist of her cohort. This is a good selection of her work.
January 15, 2018
These five stories were all brilliant explorations of human relationships, using speculative elements to enhance the narrative. They were feminist, they were queer, they were diverse. My first Joanna Russ, but certainly not my last--her writing was imaginative, playful and thought-provoking, and I reckon myself a little in love.
January 13, 2015
A very solid book by an author I'm increasingly appreciating, this is a collection of five short pieces (of varying length) linked by the sparsest of interstitials presenting them as part of a history lesson being given to a child of the future.
That sparseness is a feature of Russ' work, and it's something readers are likely to love or hate. Russ' writing is the very antithesis of the infodump: she has a tendency to simply drop the reader right in, engaging them with the thoughts and feelings of the characters and leaving them to figure out the background as they go. This is not to say that the settings are ever less than rich and original: there are enough ideas in each of the stories here to fuel many a longer work. But for Russ, those ideas are the backdrop, not the purpose. It takes a high degree of skill, and bravery, for a writer to adopt this approach, but bravery and skill are certainly two features of Russ' writing. And so, for that matter, is a willingness to treat the reader as an intelligent agent rather than a passive audience.
The stories have little enough of a common theme, other than being a general exploration of feminism, gender roles, and alternative sexuality (though the last is not present in every piece, nor am I convinced it's intended to be thematic even where it does appear). I've previously read the novella 'Souls', which kicks off the collection and is by far the longest piece, but it's no chore to read it again. The remarkable Abbess Radegunde strives to protect her people from a viking raid, leading to some unexpected discoveries. 'The Mystery of the Young Gentleman' plays with gender and sexuality with an SF twist. 'Bodies' is essentially an old SF trope, the travelogue of a contemporary character thrust into the future, but with a queer main cast. 'What Did You Do During the Revolution, Grandma?' is a parallel worlds story (I loved the underlying concept here) which again, features an element of gender-crossing but mostly seemed to me to be about modern beliefs about sexuality in the middle ages. And finally 'Everyday Depressions' is one of those stories about why we read: a series of letters in which an author outlines the plot of a potboiler Gothic romance, clearly intended as pure wish-fulfillment escapism (the twist being that the romance, of course, is between two women - allowing the writer to comment on sexual politics even in the midst of this escapism).
Overall well worth checking out.
That sparseness is a feature of Russ' work, and it's something readers are likely to love or hate. Russ' writing is the very antithesis of the infodump: she has a tendency to simply drop the reader right in, engaging them with the thoughts and feelings of the characters and leaving them to figure out the background as they go. This is not to say that the settings are ever less than rich and original: there are enough ideas in each of the stories here to fuel many a longer work. But for Russ, those ideas are the backdrop, not the purpose. It takes a high degree of skill, and bravery, for a writer to adopt this approach, but bravery and skill are certainly two features of Russ' writing. And so, for that matter, is a willingness to treat the reader as an intelligent agent rather than a passive audience.
The stories have little enough of a common theme, other than being a general exploration of feminism, gender roles, and alternative sexuality (though the last is not present in every piece, nor am I convinced it's intended to be thematic even where it does appear). I've previously read the novella 'Souls', which kicks off the collection and is by far the longest piece, but it's no chore to read it again. The remarkable Abbess Radegunde strives to protect her people from a viking raid, leading to some unexpected discoveries. 'The Mystery of the Young Gentleman' plays with gender and sexuality with an SF twist. 'Bodies' is essentially an old SF trope, the travelogue of a contemporary character thrust into the future, but with a queer main cast. 'What Did You Do During the Revolution, Grandma?' is a parallel worlds story (I loved the underlying concept here) which again, features an element of gender-crossing but mostly seemed to me to be about modern beliefs about sexuality in the middle ages. And finally 'Everyday Depressions' is one of those stories about why we read: a series of letters in which an author outlines the plot of a potboiler Gothic romance, clearly intended as pure wish-fulfillment escapism (the twist being that the romance, of course, is between two women - allowing the writer to comment on sexual politics even in the midst of this escapism).
Overall well worth checking out.
August 20, 2023
Des Gens (Extra)ordinaire est un recueil de 5 nouvelles de Joanna Russ publié en 1984. Le recueil avait alors gagné le Hugo.
Les histoires sont très vaguement rattachées ensemble par des dialogues entre chaque nouvelle. Mais honnêtement, rien ne les rapproche vraiment. Les histoires, styles et époques changent, sans parler des personnages.
La première nouvelle est en fait une novella racontant un raid viking arrêté par une religieuse qui tient tête aux envahisseurs. Par la parole dois-je préciser.
Puis on passe à du voyage dans le temps, puis des univers parallèles et ainsi de suite. En fait, le seul point commun des nouvelles est leur thème : La diversité sexuelle.
Et c'est plaisant de lire des autrices de l'époque qui ne sont pas Ursula Le Guin explorer cela d'une façon complètement différente.
Les histoires sont très vaguement rattachées ensemble par des dialogues entre chaque nouvelle. Mais honnêtement, rien ne les rapproche vraiment. Les histoires, styles et époques changent, sans parler des personnages.
La première nouvelle est en fait une novella racontant un raid viking arrêté par une religieuse qui tient tête aux envahisseurs. Par la parole dois-je préciser.
Puis on passe à du voyage dans le temps, puis des univers parallèles et ainsi de suite. En fait, le seul point commun des nouvelles est leur thème : La diversité sexuelle.
Et c'est plaisant de lire des autrices de l'époque qui ne sont pas Ursula Le Guin explorer cela d'une façon complètement différente.
May 13, 2021
If the whole collection was as good as 'Souls', the stunner that kicks things off, this would be fivestars, easy. It's a tale of tenth-century (or thereabouts) alien contact, when a bunch of marauding vikings find the abess of an apparently vulnerable abbey on the coast of Germany is more than she seems. It bears comparison with Iain M Banks' Inversions and with the Strugatskys' Hard to Be a God which blew me away earlier this year. And it exceeds any of Doris Lessing's Canopus series, the clunky politics of which sometimes held the vision back. There's something about Russ' prose in this one that reminds me of Henry James. I'd have to look at it very carefully to put my finger on what it is but I'm talking about James at his best here: thiere's none of your Golden Bowl-esque sentence structures that are shite-for-the-sake-of-being-shite and the dreaded 'it was as if...' is entirely absent.
The rest of the book is lesser stuff. Some of it reminds me of The Female Man - a novel that ought NOT to be Russ' best known work. But I did enjoy the Victorian pastiche that ends proceedings.
The rest of the book is lesser stuff. Some of it reminds me of The Female Man - a novel that ought NOT to be Russ' best known work. But I did enjoy the Victorian pastiche that ends proceedings.
May 22, 2021
El críptic estil narratiu de l'autora i les errates i la pèssima traducció de l'edició m'han fet realment patir llegint aquest llibre. Les històries juguen amb la identitat -la sexual, entre altres- dels personatges i narradors. Víkings i extraterrestres, poders mentals, dimensions paral·leles, esbojarrats esborranys de noveles… interessants propostes, però difícils de gaudir.
Entre les temàtiques -novedoses per a la seua l'època- que presenta l'autora estan les reivindicacions feministes, marxistes i d'alliberament sexual i LGTBI.
En definitiva, un recull de contes interessant i trencador en el seu moment, però que em sembla que no he pogut gaudir per la pèssima edició i traducció. Li haurem de donar una altra oportunitat a Russ més endavant.
“Almas” 5*
“El misterio del joven caballero” 3*
"Cuerpos" 2*
"¿Qué hiciste durante la revolución, abuela? 3*
"Depresiones cotidianas" 3*
“- Doctor -le digo con firmeza-, soy lo que la naturaleza me ha hecho. No lo he elegido y no tengo en ello culpa ni mérito”.
Entre les temàtiques -novedoses per a la seua l'època- que presenta l'autora estan les reivindicacions feministes, marxistes i d'alliberament sexual i LGTBI.
En definitiva, un recull de contes interessant i trencador en el seu moment, però que em sembla que no he pogut gaudir per la pèssima edició i traducció. Li haurem de donar una altra oportunitat a Russ més endavant.
“Almas” 5*
“El misterio del joven caballero” 3*
"Cuerpos" 2*
"¿Qué hiciste durante la revolución, abuela? 3*
"Depresiones cotidianas" 3*
“- Doctor -le digo con firmeza-, soy lo que la naturaleza me ha hecho. No lo he elegido y no tengo en ello culpa ni mérito”.
November 23, 2018
Liking two stories out of a collection of five isn't too bad, is it? "Souls" is a novella that won a Hugo award, a rich story of reli good stories in a collection of five isn't too bad, gion, identity, forgiveness and otherworldiness, and I'm not surprised. I think it's well worth reading on its own. A lot of the ones in the middle were honestly confusing, and I confess I didn't like "What Did You Do During the Revolution?" at all. But I loved "Everyday Depressions," about a writer (Russ?) describing a lesbian gothic novel she'd like to write.
April 5, 2023
I am humiliated to admit this but I have to be honest: I could not follow half these stories. "Souls" is an excellent novella and some of the others were interesting but maddeningly VAGUE. Her unique writing style and voice are mostly absent. I didn't feel like I was reading Joanna Russ. Try out her novels instead.
April 1, 2024
The first story (set in the Viking engagement) was interesting but the later stories didn't unroll according to any thread I could discern, so the collection seemed random. The later stories weren't as inherently interesting either.
May 29, 2017
A book of stories. The first one (a Hugo winning novella) is very good. The rest are not up to Ms Russ' usual standard.
June 4, 2017
Russ can be a tough read but by the end her stories are always worth the effort. Particularly liked 'What Did You Do During the Revolution, Grandma?"
March 11, 2019
Fantastic and profound - I can definitely see why it won awards and broke molds.
August 14, 2019
I loved the first story in particular, but I really need to read the whole book again (I felt like some of the stories went over my head a bit.)
April 27, 2021
Some excellent stories in here. I especially loved Souls, The Mystery of the young Gentleman and Everyday Depressions.
July 23, 2022
The last one ❤️
May 8, 2024
Joanna Russ is a legend
January 2, 2013
Joanna Russ is criminally under-read. I hope this collection comes back into print soon - seemingly OOP since 1985. Most of the stories are not quite mindblowing like The Female Man but "Souls" in particular is truly great, also "Everyday Depressions." A stone classic, super enjoyable and reminiscent of early Gene Wolfe.
June 9, 2012
"souls", the leading story, is brilliant and while i liked the Idea of the other pieces, we Just didn't connect. but i think there may be a lot of meta stuff going on that i didn't pick up on as only an occasional reader of scifi/fantasy.
May 6, 2013
Loved this book. Joanna Russ is a favorite sci-fi author. Here she's pushing the boundaries of what sci-fi can do. She plays with gender, time, identity, morality... but without being loud or flashy, and keeping each of these related stories very personal, very tightly focused.
June 19, 2014
I liked the first story, "Souls," but it all went downhill from there. Kept feeling as though I was missing something. She doesn't take the time to make sure the reader knows what's actually HAPPENING in each story, and I always finished with only a vague idea of what had passed.
July 21, 2020
Loved both "Souls" and "The Mystery of the Young Gentleman", the second one in particular. Probably one of my favourites by Russ. "Everyday Depressions" was also just really lovely, and made me chuckle out loud a couple of times. Really think more of her stories should be reprinted.
February 13, 2009
This is a superb collection of stories, beautifully written. It's funny and sharp. A real discovery.
November 3, 2010
The first story in this collection, Souls, was by far the best. Read the full review here => http://speculativebookreview.blogspot...
November 10, 2012
i'd forgotten how extraordinary Russ is, and how exquisite her control of register. the final story, "Everyday Depressions", made me as happy as anything has in a while.
September 10, 2016
Thanks Helen! Enjoyed this enormously.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews