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The Star Pit / Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo
Special Tor Double Edition, containing The Star Pit, by Samuel R. Delany and Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo by John Varley.
183 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
3 people are currently reading
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About the author
Samuel R. Delany
305 books2,257 followersSamuel Ray Delany, also known as "Chip," is an award-winning American science fiction author. He was born to a prominent black family on April 1, 1942, and raised in Harlem. His mother, Margaret Carey Boyd Delany, was a library clerk in the New York Public Library system. His father, Samuel Ray Delany, Senior, ran a successful Harlem undertaking establishment, Levy & Delany Funeral Home, on 7th Avenue, between 1938 and his death in 1960. The family lived in the top two floors of the three-story private house between five- and six-story Harlem apartment buildings. Delany's aunts were Sadie and Bessie Delany; Delany used some of their adventures as the basis for the adventures of his characters Elsie and Corry in the opening novella Atlantis: Model 1924 in his book of largely autobiographical stories Atlantis: Three Tales.
Delany attended the Dalton School and the Bronx High School of Science, during which he was selected to attend Camp Rising Sun, the Louis August Jonas Foundation's international summer scholarship program. Delany and poet Marilyn Hacker met in high school, and were married in 1961. Their marriage lasted nineteen years. They had a daughter, Iva Hacker-Delany (b. 1974), who spent a decade working in theater in New York City.
Delany was a published science fiction author by the age of 20. He published nine well-regarded science fiction novels between 1962 and 1968, as well as several prize-winning short stories (collected in Driftglass [1971] and more recently in Aye, and Gomorrah, and other stories [2002]). His eleventh and most popular novel, Dhalgren, was published in 1975. His main literary project through the late 1970s and 1980s was the Return to Nevèrÿon series, the overall title of the four volumes and also the title of the fourth and final book.
Delany has published several autobiographical/semi-autobiographical accounts of his life as a black, gay, and highly dyslexic writer, including his Hugo award winning autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water.
Since 1988, Delany has been a professor at several universities. This includes eleven years as a professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a year and a half as an English professor at the University at Buffalo. He then moved to the English Department of Temple University in 2001, where he has been teaching since. He has had several visiting guest professorships before and during these same years. He has also published several books of criticism, interviews, and essays. In one of his non-fiction books, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (1999), he draws on personal experience to examine the relationship between the effort to redevelop Times Square and the public sex lives of working-class men, gay and straight, in New York City.
In 2007, Delany was the subject of a documentary film, The Polymath, or, The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman. The film debuted on April 25 at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.
Delany attended the Dalton School and the Bronx High School of Science, during which he was selected to attend Camp Rising Sun, the Louis August Jonas Foundation's international summer scholarship program. Delany and poet Marilyn Hacker met in high school, and were married in 1961. Their marriage lasted nineteen years. They had a daughter, Iva Hacker-Delany (b. 1974), who spent a decade working in theater in New York City.
Delany was a published science fiction author by the age of 20. He published nine well-regarded science fiction novels between 1962 and 1968, as well as several prize-winning short stories (collected in Driftglass [1971] and more recently in Aye, and Gomorrah, and other stories [2002]). His eleventh and most popular novel, Dhalgren, was published in 1975. His main literary project through the late 1970s and 1980s was the Return to Nevèrÿon series, the overall title of the four volumes and also the title of the fourth and final book.
Delany has published several autobiographical/semi-autobiographical accounts of his life as a black, gay, and highly dyslexic writer, including his Hugo award winning autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water.
Since 1988, Delany has been a professor at several universities. This includes eleven years as a professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a year and a half as an English professor at the University at Buffalo. He then moved to the English Department of Temple University in 2001, where he has been teaching since. He has had several visiting guest professorships before and during these same years. He has also published several books of criticism, interviews, and essays. In one of his non-fiction books, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (1999), he draws on personal experience to examine the relationship between the effort to redevelop Times Square and the public sex lives of working-class men, gay and straight, in New York City.
In 2007, Delany was the subject of a documentary film, The Polymath, or, The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman. The film debuted on April 25 at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
June 19, 2018
TEN SHORT SF NOVELS
NO. 4 : THE STAR PIT
I can believe lots of things when I read a science fiction story. I can believe there’s an immortal man working as a carnival entertainer in order to keep a low profile. I can believe that some people in the future accidentally send a bunch of kids’ toys back into the past which really mess up some present day kids.
I can believe a device is invented which reveals that plants feel pain. I can believe aliens might use cats to invade Earth. I can believe that in the future, what with all the prosthetics and meds for prolonging life, old people become monsters.
But I couldn’t believe this :
"You’ve got the whole galaxy to run around in. You’ve seen a lot of it, yeah. But not all."
"But there are billions of galaxies out there. I want to see them. "
So here we have a character who’s feeling so very trapped because although we now all have access to intergalactic travel, we still haven’t figured out how to get from one galaxy to another. He’s stuck in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. According to what I read, the Milky Way contains between 100 to 400 BILLION stars. That’s billion not million. But that’s just not enough for this character, no. He needs more. He must be like one of those annoying people who say stuff like "We’ve done Thailand and Malaysia, Bali’s old hat, we went to India year before last, wouldn’t touch the Caribbean now, basically we’re running out of places to go. " Tragic.
I don’t know about you but that’s one of the silliest ideas I ever did come across. Maybe you’re going to tell me that it’s just a metaphor, but then I’d have to say it’s one of the silliest metaphors ever.
*
Stories referenced :
The Gnarly Man by L Sprague de Camp
Mimsy were the Borogoves by Henry Kuttner
The Sound Machine by Roald Dahl
The Start of the End of it All by Carol Emshwiller
Papa by Ian McLeod
NO. 4 : THE STAR PIT
I can believe lots of things when I read a science fiction story. I can believe there’s an immortal man working as a carnival entertainer in order to keep a low profile. I can believe that some people in the future accidentally send a bunch of kids’ toys back into the past which really mess up some present day kids.
I can believe a device is invented which reveals that plants feel pain. I can believe aliens might use cats to invade Earth. I can believe that in the future, what with all the prosthetics and meds for prolonging life, old people become monsters.
But I couldn’t believe this :
"You’ve got the whole galaxy to run around in. You’ve seen a lot of it, yeah. But not all."
"But there are billions of galaxies out there. I want to see them. "
So here we have a character who’s feeling so very trapped because although we now all have access to intergalactic travel, we still haven’t figured out how to get from one galaxy to another. He’s stuck in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. According to what I read, the Milky Way contains between 100 to 400 BILLION stars. That’s billion not million. But that’s just not enough for this character, no. He needs more. He must be like one of those annoying people who say stuff like "We’ve done Thailand and Malaysia, Bali’s old hat, we went to India year before last, wouldn’t touch the Caribbean now, basically we’re running out of places to go. " Tragic.
I don’t know about you but that’s one of the silliest ideas I ever did come across. Maybe you’re going to tell me that it’s just a metaphor, but then I’d have to say it’s one of the silliest metaphors ever.
*
Stories referenced :
The Gnarly Man by L Sprague de Camp
Mimsy were the Borogoves by Henry Kuttner
The Sound Machine by Roald Dahl
The Start of the End of it All by Carol Emshwiller
Papa by Ian McLeod
February 3, 2019
This was the fourth volume in Tor's Double novel series which presented two novellas back-to-back in reverse of each other with separate covers in the old Ace style. Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo by John Varley is quite good, perhaps his best work, but maddeningly depressing. I recognize it as very well crafted, but can't say that I enjoyed it. The Star Pit by Samuel R. Delany is from 1967, quite early in his career, and is an excellent genre science fiction story, before he became a high literary figure. The scientific concept would have fit well in Campbell's Analog, and the characters are great examples of the New Wave of the time; he meshes the two seemingly disparate concepts masterfully, and it becomes a terrific short read.
January 10, 2021
These are both very good novellas. The Tor Double format is convenient, but both stories have been widely reprinted elsewhere. Neither appears to be online, except for a radio-show version of the Delany.
"Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo" (1986) won the Seiun award in Japan, and was second runner-up for the Locus award for Best Novella. Nominally part of his "Anna-Louise Bach" alti-verse, but she makes no appearance iirc. Kind of a tear-jerker about a little girl and her pack of dogs, all abandoned on a space station in a decaying orbit. Good but pretty depressing. Not re-read recently, and likely won't. Reprints: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...
I think my favorite Delany is his "The Star Pit" (1967), which was nominated for the Hugo for Best Novella in the following year. It's been many years since I last read it, but in essence it's a blue-collar story of a starship mechanic who takes in a stray & trains him in the trade. Good, straightforward period SF. Not re-read recently. Many reprints:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...
There is an old MP3 of a 1967 radio broadcast online: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsoun...
My four-star rating is 3.5 stars rounded up for the Delany. I'd likely rate the Varley at 3 stars, by memory.
"Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo" (1986) won the Seiun award in Japan, and was second runner-up for the Locus award for Best Novella. Nominally part of his "Anna-Louise Bach" alti-verse, but she makes no appearance iirc. Kind of a tear-jerker about a little girl and her pack of dogs, all abandoned on a space station in a decaying orbit. Good but pretty depressing. Not re-read recently, and likely won't. Reprints: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...
I think my favorite Delany is his "The Star Pit" (1967), which was nominated for the Hugo for Best Novella in the following year. It's been many years since I last read it, but in essence it's a blue-collar story of a starship mechanic who takes in a stray & trains him in the trade. Good, straightforward period SF. Not re-read recently. Many reprints:
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...
There is an old MP3 of a 1967 radio broadcast online: http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsoun...
My four-star rating is 3.5 stars rounded up for the Delany. I'd likely rate the Varley at 3 stars, by memory.
January 16, 2019
This is Tor Double #4, of a series of 36 double books published from 1988 to 1991 by Tor Books. It contains two novellas, bound together tête-bêche in mass market paperback – back-to-back, inverted, with two front covers and both titles on the spine. The novellas are listed here alphabetically by author; neither should be considered “primary.”
The Star Pit, by Samuel R. Delany (1967)
This was originally published in the February 1967 issue of the Worlds of Tomorrow Magazine, and was nominated for the the 1968 Hugo Award in the novella category. Chip Delany is best known for his literary style that pushed the boundaries of genre fiction, but The Star Pit is one of his earliest works and more conventional. There is a limit of 20,000 light years beyond which most humans go insane. Vyme is a mechanic at the star pit where ships are repaired with a drinking problem. He happens to win a berth on a starship and sends his young protoge Ratit. I found it to be a moderately entertaining story that shows SF need not always be about heroic history-changing figures.
Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo, John Varley (1986)
This was originally published in John Varley's 1986 collection Blue Champagne. In it, Lunar police officer Anna-Louise Bach helps save a girl surviving on a long-abandoned space station that is about to crash. When the girl turns out actually to be over thirty years old, the decision about whether to save her becomes more complicated, as if a grownup's life were less valuable than that of a child. It is an emotional story that swings back and forth on our protective attitudes towards children.
The Star Pit, by Samuel R. Delany (1967)
This was originally published in the February 1967 issue of the Worlds of Tomorrow Magazine, and was nominated for the the 1968 Hugo Award in the novella category. Chip Delany is best known for his literary style that pushed the boundaries of genre fiction, but The Star Pit is one of his earliest works and more conventional. There is a limit of 20,000 light years beyond which most humans go insane. Vyme is a mechanic at the star pit where ships are repaired with a drinking problem. He happens to win a berth on a starship and sends his young protoge Ratit. I found it to be a moderately entertaining story that shows SF need not always be about heroic history-changing figures.
Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo, John Varley (1986)
This was originally published in John Varley's 1986 collection Blue Champagne. In it, Lunar police officer Anna-Louise Bach helps save a girl surviving on a long-abandoned space station that is about to crash. When the girl turns out actually to be over thirty years old, the decision about whether to save her becomes more complicated, as if a grownup's life were less valuable than that of a child. It is an emotional story that swings back and forth on our protective attitudes towards children.
November 15, 2009
Tango Charllie and Foxtrot Romeo has to be one of my all time favourite John Varley stories. I have very fond memories of reading this book, with The Star Pit at the other end, a Ballantyne double, when I was travelling around America on the greyhound buses back in 1990. It was one of the many books I bought whilst I was there and carried round with me in my backpack (I never thought about parcelling them up and sending them to the UK!!).
The tale of an orbiting colony - supposedly abandoned by all - on a collision course with another (? it's been a while!); and the story of the young girl on board with her collection of dogs, and the tale of what would happen to them is one I remember enjoying thoroughly at the time. I can see I'm going to have to reread it sometime!
The tale of an orbiting colony - supposedly abandoned by all - on a collision course with another (? it's been a while!); and the story of the young girl on board with her collection of dogs, and the tale of what would happen to them is one I remember enjoying thoroughly at the time. I can see I'm going to have to reread it sometime!
September 28, 2011
I read "The Star Pit" in an anthology; I haven't read the other, but I think I want to, because "The Star Pit" totally rocked. It's the one I keep re-reading out of all that anthology. Colorful, almost hallucinatory (well, literally, in a couple scenes), far-fetched and cool... its theme of longing and freedom versus stability and limits is much emphasized but this isn't a flaw because it spins into so many complexities when combined with the theme of family and especially with the individual characters and their relationships and the question of whether they were, or could be, family.
May 15, 2023
Last year I experienced my first three Ace Doubles and really enjoyed their format (if not all their stories). Hence, when I saw a very well-kept copy of a Tor Double featuring two authors who I need to read more of, I picked it up. I don't like this format nearly as much as that of the Ace Double, but I did find both of the stories inside entertaining to some degree. I'll split this review up into two halves and try to keep my reviews briefer than my normal novel analyses for all of our sakes.
*Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo* by John Varley
Varley is frequently advertised as being "the best writer in America" due to a Tom Clancy quote from back in the day. I'm not even close to sharing this opinion since the one Varley novel I've read is the more-or-less poorly-done *Mammoth*. *Mammoth* was written later in his life, so I figured he deserved a shot. This novella is from the 80s, which was, as far as I can tell, his heyday.
The story starts with a poetically-inclined drone registering and reporting a corpse which exits the space station that it's guarding. On another station, one of our two main characters - a military woman who would hold a higher rank if she didn't go against her corrupt and incompetent bosses so much - must analyze the situation. She determines that there's someone alive on the other space station, which is supposed to be dead. The story is told quickly and with plenty of misdirections and twists. For example, why is the station abandoned? What kind of corpse did the drone fine? The later part of the story pulls in a media superstar and some cool worldbuilding and the potential to ask really engaging questions about media involvement in emergencies. Sadly, it doesn't, and it peters out with .
I liked the first half of this story more than the second. It was clever and constantly trying to draw your attention from one assumption to another before hitting you over the head with a third. It's a fun, clever way of storytelling. I also think that Varley put some really cool elements into his world and could've had really compelling characters. Sadly, the motivation for the lead characters were never understood and that lack of motivational consistency really took me out of the story. The ending was subpar as well; I would've preferred something ambiguous. Overall a 7/10 and a bit of a mixed bag, although there were definitely enough good things to be make me want to read some more Varley (I own *Titan* and *Steel Beach*) this year...
*The Star Pit* by Samuel R. Delaney
Delaney is the kind of author that I've heard about a lot more than I've experienced. I read his debut novel, *The Jewels of Aptor*, last year, and enjoyed it for what it was - a fun, post-apocalyptic romp with some good prose - but I've wanted to read some of his more serious and remarkable work. Honestly, his name was more of a selling point for me than Varley.
Our story centers around this pilot/starship mechanic who starts out on this planet with his "proke-family" - a group-love/group-parentage situation - where one of his kids (who I think had this fixation on ant-farms) gets left behind while he's away on business and is attacked by an animal. He gets mad and apparently leaves the colony because of his alcoholism. He then goes to the Star-Pit, a place on the edge of the galaxy where genetically-lucky men and women called "goldens" launch to travel between the galaxies without going insane or dying like most people would. He works on their ships and gets a co-mechanic named Sandy. Eventually this kid who wants to be a golden shows up. I did read the back half of this novella over college-finals week so my recollection is a little fuzzy, but basically and it's all kind of weird and dream-like and it didn't leave a great impact on me.
Like most New Wave science fiction, I have mixed feelings on it. On one hand, Delaney uses very good word choice and prose and imagery to craft intoxicating sequences. On the other, that intoxication and dreaminess muddies and dulls the plot. There is a story here, but it's not the point; *The Star Pit* feels like a classical lit character study and that... does not interest me. I do think it's artistic and admirable, and I might enjoy the final sequences more if I read it at a less stressful and tiring time, but it still only warrants a 6/10. I should probably reread this at some point with a lighter head, but either way, I don't think this tickles my fancy. Hopefully I come to appreciate his big and famous novels a little more...
I guess this bind-up warrants a complete score of 6.5/10. I enjoyed reading it, but it leaves me feeling a bit... substanceless? I will buy more of these as I come across them since they represent important novellas (they're all reprints), and hopefully I get a greater kick from the neck batch. Still, it was fun, and I enjoyed my time. Now I need to go read some, ironically, British New Wave SF...
*Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo* by John Varley
Varley is frequently advertised as being "the best writer in America" due to a Tom Clancy quote from back in the day. I'm not even close to sharing this opinion since the one Varley novel I've read is the more-or-less poorly-done *Mammoth*. *Mammoth* was written later in his life, so I figured he deserved a shot. This novella is from the 80s, which was, as far as I can tell, his heyday.
The story starts with a poetically-inclined drone registering and reporting a corpse which exits the space station that it's guarding. On another station, one of our two main characters - a military woman who would hold a higher rank if she didn't go against her corrupt and incompetent bosses so much - must analyze the situation. She determines that there's someone alive on the other space station, which is supposed to be dead. The story is told quickly and with plenty of misdirections and twists. For example, why is the station abandoned? What kind of corpse did the drone fine? The later part of the story pulls in a media superstar and some cool worldbuilding and the potential to ask really engaging questions about media involvement in emergencies. Sadly, it doesn't, and it peters out with .
I liked the first half of this story more than the second. It was clever and constantly trying to draw your attention from one assumption to another before hitting you over the head with a third. It's a fun, clever way of storytelling. I also think that Varley put some really cool elements into his world and could've had really compelling characters. Sadly, the motivation for the lead characters were never understood and that lack of motivational consistency really took me out of the story. The ending was subpar as well; I would've preferred something ambiguous. Overall a 7/10 and a bit of a mixed bag, although there were definitely enough good things to be make me want to read some more Varley (I own *Titan* and *Steel Beach*) this year...
*The Star Pit* by Samuel R. Delaney
Delaney is the kind of author that I've heard about a lot more than I've experienced. I read his debut novel, *The Jewels of Aptor*, last year, and enjoyed it for what it was - a fun, post-apocalyptic romp with some good prose - but I've wanted to read some of his more serious and remarkable work. Honestly, his name was more of a selling point for me than Varley.
Our story centers around this pilot/starship mechanic who starts out on this planet with his "proke-family" - a group-love/group-parentage situation - where one of his kids (who I think had this fixation on ant-farms) gets left behind while he's away on business and is attacked by an animal. He gets mad and apparently leaves the colony because of his alcoholism. He then goes to the Star-Pit, a place on the edge of the galaxy where genetically-lucky men and women called "goldens" launch to travel between the galaxies without going insane or dying like most people would. He works on their ships and gets a co-mechanic named Sandy. Eventually this kid who wants to be a golden shows up. I did read the back half of this novella over college-finals week so my recollection is a little fuzzy, but basically and it's all kind of weird and dream-like and it didn't leave a great impact on me.
Like most New Wave science fiction, I have mixed feelings on it. On one hand, Delaney uses very good word choice and prose and imagery to craft intoxicating sequences. On the other, that intoxication and dreaminess muddies and dulls the plot. There is a story here, but it's not the point; *The Star Pit* feels like a classical lit character study and that... does not interest me. I do think it's artistic and admirable, and I might enjoy the final sequences more if I read it at a less stressful and tiring time, but it still only warrants a 6/10. I should probably reread this at some point with a lighter head, but either way, I don't think this tickles my fancy. Hopefully I come to appreciate his big and famous novels a little more...
I guess this bind-up warrants a complete score of 6.5/10. I enjoyed reading it, but it leaves me feeling a bit... substanceless? I will buy more of these as I come across them since they represent important novellas (they're all reprints), and hopefully I get a greater kick from the neck batch. Still, it was fun, and I enjoyed my time. Now I need to go read some, ironically, British New Wave SF...
June 27, 2016
REVIEW OF THE STAR PIT:
There were a lot of good things about it. Some bad. The thing that jumped out at me was the one time gratuitous use of a racial slur, which seemed thrown in for no good reason, and ruined it for me.
On the positive side there were a lot of cool concepts mentioned.
Another thing I didn't like was that it scored high on the: Confusing/Not Sure What's Going On Scale.
There were a lot of good things about it. Some bad. The thing that jumped out at me was the one time gratuitous use of a racial slur, which seemed thrown in for no good reason, and ruined it for me.
On the positive side there were a lot of cool concepts mentioned.
Another thing I didn't like was that it scored high on the: Confusing/Not Sure What's Going On Scale.
November 10, 2024
The Star Pit by Delany is actually rather amazing. Early 60's, full on into the New Wave period of SF, marks the departure of the Science Supremacy of SF and the deep delve into strange, wonderful characters, psychology, and stories of a literary bent.
In other words, it is a perfect complement to the Becky Chambers style of writing, but half a century before Becky Chambers.
No, it's not a feel-good kind of thing, but it is crazily great for characterizations, longing, and even tight plots wanting... or rather... just wanting. To see, experience, to thumb your nose at the consequences, to stare down the face of insanity (for that IS what you'd expect to find, the farther you go from the ancestral world of Earth), and just LIVE.
At least, that's what I got out of this, if not a bit more.
I've always appreciated Samuel R. Delany. The writing is lush and, above all, interesting. He was always FAR from being a simple, churn-it-out, writer. This early piece spells it out.
It should be noted, for those of you who have never even heard of Delany in the modern reading marketplace, that he is absolutely the definition of a PoC author and fully expresses it in very colorful and often heart-wringing ways. So. This is a shout out to some real history, you newer readers. :)
Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to DM requests. I think it's about time I get some eyes on them.
Arctunn.com
In other words, it is a perfect complement to the Becky Chambers style of writing, but half a century before Becky Chambers.
No, it's not a feel-good kind of thing, but it is crazily great for characterizations, longing, and even tight plots wanting... or rather... just wanting. To see, experience, to thumb your nose at the consequences, to stare down the face of insanity (for that IS what you'd expect to find, the farther you go from the ancestral world of Earth), and just LIVE.
At least, that's what I got out of this, if not a bit more.
I've always appreciated Samuel R. Delany. The writing is lush and, above all, interesting. He was always FAR from being a simple, churn-it-out, writer. This early piece spells it out.
It should be noted, for those of you who have never even heard of Delany in the modern reading marketplace, that he is absolutely the definition of a PoC author and fully expresses it in very colorful and often heart-wringing ways. So. This is a shout out to some real history, you newer readers. :)
Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to DM requests. I think it's about time I get some eyes on them.
Arctunn.com
December 31, 2024
Cool double feature paperback where the novellas meet in the middle. Samuel R Delany's The Star Pit is a typically heady and psychedelic exploration of generational agency and personal prisons from the working class edge of a galaxy. Lots of group marriage melodrama on the margins. Great book, 80 pages, lots to mull over. The space-drug-addicted, ex-government military therapist teen girl whose hallucinations project into the real world is an inventively sad creation.
John Varley's Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo has an irresistible premise: space military attempts to save an impossibly young girl trapped on a plague-ridden space station filled with purebred Shetland sheepdogs. Way better than The Martian, comes with built-in tension even if the prose is just fine. Varley conjures a sick disaster sequence when the space station swings very close to a lunar colony, but his dark ending that follows isn't quite earned. The eventual rescue and aftermath are rushed. 120 pages, could've and should've been twice as long. Begging for a movie adaptation.
John Varley's Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo has an irresistible premise: space military attempts to save an impossibly young girl trapped on a plague-ridden space station filled with purebred Shetland sheepdogs. Way better than The Martian, comes with built-in tension even if the prose is just fine. Varley conjures a sick disaster sequence when the space station swings very close to a lunar colony, but his dark ending that follows isn't quite earned. The eventual rescue and aftermath are rushed. 120 pages, could've and should've been twice as long. Begging for a movie adaptation.
December 28, 2024
The goal of a double is to discover 'new' work from authors. Though I have enjoyed other work from Delany, I had never read a work by Varley until now. For both works, I can say they are quite imaginative, with solid prose and good characters. Both of them also fall apart in nearly the same way. For Tango Charlie, there are several points where Varley writes something really out there and crude that threw me out of the narrative. And the ending, I believe, was handled poorly considering the subject manner. Delany creates a world where the mean or stupid rule the galaxy, but the drama is over very quickly and he spends more time overall talking about animals held in little tanks. Neither of these works are bad, per say, though I'm not sure a causal, first time reader would want to read more.
June 28, 2022
The stars are all for Delany's 1968 novella, which includes one of the best descriptions of an ecology in sci-fi I've met through the ecologarium. Also find it to be one of his best sci-fi short stories in its negotiation of ecology, class, race and personal turmoil. The Star Pit itself is a sort of galactic transit point which helps dramatizes genetically-boundaried hierarchies of speed and economic possibility. Would teaching it in an Intermediate Fiction course be a disaster? I blew through the Varley (blurbed by Tom Clancy?). While I read it was engaged w/parsing what it was up to RE: utopic hypercapitalism, whiteness, and genital tattoos but didn't find enough there to follow the thought.
July 31, 2024
only read star pit. just like every other sci-fi books i read from the 20th century i was confused for a while until i finally grasped the concept. basically the point vyme was trying to make was that all of humanity is trapped broken and bound to end diabolically? i’m ngl vyme did annoy me for sometime but i guess he was trying his best i loved how he still tried to give ‘kids’ a better life even though he was kind of a dickhead to some especially sandy lmao. but anyways this was a fun read i finished it in less than a day. the pacing was kind of off to me especially towards the end but not enough to like annoy me or confuse me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 20, 2025
The star pit wasn't bad, but the Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo half is a definite five star!
February 27, 2017
А вот это уже чистая научная фантастика: с кораблями, бороздящими просторы вселенной, людьми, в результате эволюции, ставшими кем-то другим, заселенными планетами и астероидами. Но вот только люди остаются людьми в любом месте и любое время, и желания чего-то большего, чего-то находящегося за гранью, желание фантастического остается у всех молодых. Хомо Аструм напоминает детские романы про пиратов и одновременно книжки Крапивина, с его мальчишками-романитиками. Не встречал я книги, где дух манящего, но недосягаемого космоса описан так живо и красочно. Такое чувство, что это ты живешь в притонах Звездной Ямы и все мечтаешь оказаться там, наверху в далеком космосе, куда почти невозможно долететь не сойдя с ума.
February 18, 2021
"The world is so ugly and painful now. I don't want to die here."
This brief novella by Samuel R. Delany works on multiple levels. For the science fiction reader, it offers interesting world building, describing a space faring society wherein only a small percentage of humanity have the ability to withstand traveling outside our galaxy to others. They are known as "golden." For literary readers, the recurring image of ecolariums (here termed an "ecologarium") and their significance and impact on the narrator symbolizes his plight as an individual as well as individuals within this society. For sociologists, there's the dynamics of procreation groups which have replaced monogamy as a family unit and, oddly enough (since this is Delany), the societal problems of raising children. All these levels are explored in some depth in 82 pages.
While not as strange or challenging as much of his other work, this short work proves Delany is one of the top science fiction writers. His ability to weave these disparate elements into a satisfying yarn is enviable. He returns to some of these elements and themes in other works, but the focus of this story reins in the excesses common to his larger works (like Dhalgren or Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia). The Star Pit is an excellent afternoon's read.
"You've all got it in your heads that this, out here, is it! The end! Sure, you gotta accept limitations, but the right ones. Sure, you have to admit there are certain directions in which you can not go. But once you do that, you find there are others where you can go as far as you want. Look, I'm not gonna hang around the Star-pit all my life! And if I make my way back toward galactic center, make enough money so I can go home, raise my family the way I want, that's going forward, forward even from here. Not back."
This brief novella by Samuel R. Delany works on multiple levels. For the science fiction reader, it offers interesting world building, describing a space faring society wherein only a small percentage of humanity have the ability to withstand traveling outside our galaxy to others. They are known as "golden." For literary readers, the recurring image of ecolariums (here termed an "ecologarium") and their significance and impact on the narrator symbolizes his plight as an individual as well as individuals within this society. For sociologists, there's the dynamics of procreation groups which have replaced monogamy as a family unit and, oddly enough (since this is Delany), the societal problems of raising children. All these levels are explored in some depth in 82 pages.
While not as strange or challenging as much of his other work, this short work proves Delany is one of the top science fiction writers. His ability to weave these disparate elements into a satisfying yarn is enviable. He returns to some of these elements and themes in other works, but the focus of this story reins in the excesses common to his larger works (like Dhalgren or Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia). The Star Pit is an excellent afternoon's read.
"You've all got it in your heads that this, out here, is it! The end! Sure, you gotta accept limitations, but the right ones. Sure, you have to admit there are certain directions in which you can not go. But once you do that, you find there are others where you can go as far as you want. Look, I'm not gonna hang around the Star-pit all my life! And if I make my way back toward galactic center, make enough money so I can go home, raise my family the way I want, that's going forward, forward even from here. Not back."
February 18, 2019
I like artsy difficult music like Schoenberg or Boulez. I even like artsy high brow films and artsy non-representational art. But I’ve never really warmed up to high brow writing. If having near complete disregard for reader comprehension is a high literary style count me out. Perhaps I only have room for Schoenberg and Boulez and Roberto Matta in my stylistic explorations.
I enjoy the layers upon layers of parallel symbols representing barriers or confinement in this short novelette, and there are alien life forms enough to have kept my sense of wonder revved up, but much of it is so ambiguous I haven’t the slightest idea what is transpiring or why. For example there is a scene in which the main character is planning to visit an acquaintance who hallucinates “out loud” for lack of a better description. He seems to be rembering her as a way of providing a character description but somewhere along the way he is actually there visiting, not recalling. I missed the transition or else he wasn’t recalling to begin with. I suppose these simple mechanics are not important to the plot, but I find that sort of thing frustrating. Yanking the rug out from under the reader may be exhilarating for some, but for me it simply breaks the fourth wall.
Though I begrudge no one worshipping Delany if impenetrable writing is your bliss, I’ll stick with Clarke and Burroughs and Norton. Oh, and Schoenberg and Boulez too.
I enjoy the layers upon layers of parallel symbols representing barriers or confinement in this short novelette, and there are alien life forms enough to have kept my sense of wonder revved up, but much of it is so ambiguous I haven’t the slightest idea what is transpiring or why. For example there is a scene in which the main character is planning to visit an acquaintance who hallucinates “out loud” for lack of a better description. He seems to be rembering her as a way of providing a character description but somewhere along the way he is actually there visiting, not recalling. I missed the transition or else he wasn’t recalling to begin with. I suppose these simple mechanics are not important to the plot, but I find that sort of thing frustrating. Yanking the rug out from under the reader may be exhilarating for some, but for me it simply breaks the fourth wall.
Though I begrudge no one worshipping Delany if impenetrable writing is your bliss, I’ll stick with Clarke and Burroughs and Norton. Oh, and Schoenberg and Boulez too.
June 23, 2011
In general, I prefer long to short. These two novellas, however, are both beautiful. Long enough to be satisfying stories, and contained enough to not leave me wanting more. I love Delaney and the way his own character shines through in his stories. The listing here is deceptive. Only The Star Pit is Delaney; Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo is John Varley. I finished these a couple of weeks ago and Varley's story is much stronger in my mind, maybe because I don't have so many of his other stories in my mind to mix it up with, like I do Delaney's. And it's more fantastic. A smart-ass lady cop, a smarter-ass 30 year old child alone on a decrepit space station breeding dogs, a nanny computer named Tick Tock, a media queen, a plague...it has everything, and the ending is really quite lovely - somehow it becomes just another day. The Star Pit I had read before, at least I remember an echo of The Golden, those just psychopathic enough to pilot interstellar spaceships. Like in Variable Star, but more unstable. An amazing character: a projective telepath addicted from birth to a strong hallucinogen; a trope of enclosed self-sustaining environments and their destruction; the trapped at the spaceport. I love a good spaceport, and the ship repair shop is very vivid.
November 24, 2023
Full disclosure: I only read the Star Pit by Samuel R. Delaney.
I didn't care for it that much. I think great sci-fi should be able to take current anxieties, put them into a fantastical setting, create a compelling world, and also be grounded with an intriguing story that works with a protagonist that could fit outside of the genre scenario. This one missed on all counts.
I'm not sure what the argument is (be it about different societies or age differences). The sci-fi gimmicks aren't played with well enough (we don't even get to see the ship take off). There's no commentary on mid 60's civil rights or societal changes. And the lead just watches things happen.
Avoid. I was really disappointed.
I didn't care for it that much. I think great sci-fi should be able to take current anxieties, put them into a fantastical setting, create a compelling world, and also be grounded with an intriguing story that works with a protagonist that could fit outside of the genre scenario. This one missed on all counts.
I'm not sure what the argument is (be it about different societies or age differences). The sci-fi gimmicks aren't played with well enough (we don't even get to see the ship take off). There's no commentary on mid 60's civil rights or societal changes. And the lead just watches things happen.
Avoid. I was really disappointed.
October 27, 2012
Delany is a linguistic master, and this novella is a classic of the era in which it was written. Good characterisation and a solid plot. It's the type of story that is seldom written in science fiction today. Worth the time. The other story, 'Tango Charlie' is a solid, well-written story, full of tension and a grand read. Enjoy them both!
September 9, 2008
Have no idea about the John Varley, but the flipside novella by Samuel R. Delany _The Star Pit_ is amazing. I rate it maybe even higher than his _Empire Star_ which influenced me in my more formative years. _Star Pit_ I read a few years ago in a collection called _Alpha 5_ edited by Robert Silverberg which also contains PKD's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale".
May 20, 2023
I will say this now. This is my favourite piece of writing in the English language. It has been a HUGE influence on me since I first read it in my early or mid-twenties. If you haven't read it, please do.
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April 14, 2008Science Fiction
April 10, 2011
Loved The Star Pit, can't remember the Varley novella at all.
February 22, 2015
Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo is amazing, can't remember the Delany novella at all.
November 24, 2012
Great story. Funnier than I expected.
Favorite quote: "Ya, they still have monogamous marriage and stuff like that where I was born. Like I said, it's pretty primitive."
Favorite quote: "Ya, they still have monogamous marriage and stuff like that where I was born. Like I said, it's pretty primitive."
June 27, 2013
Five stars for Delaney's delicious novella; have not read the Varley.
October 7, 2014
Are you in the mood to feel insignificant? Go read Star Pit. Man, you get your feels worth.
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