Joanna Russ

One woman’s quest to die with dignity may doom them all.

We Who Are About To...

Penguin reissues a work of classic science fiction from the revolutionary author of The Female Man - with a new introduction by Hari Kunzru An explosion in space, a starship stranded at the end of the universe, a group of strangers alone in a barren, alien wilderness. Facing almost certain death, the human survivors of a deep-space crash are determined to ignore the odds and colonize an inhospitable planet, recreating a civilization like the one they have lost forever. Only one woman rejects this path, choosing instead a daring and desperate alternative: to practice the art of dying. But her fellow passengers require her reproductive skills for their survival plan, and they are prepared to impose their regime by force if necessary... Joanna Russ offers an electrifying, original and challenging exploration of individual freedom, power, and our most primitive will to live. We Who Are About To is part of the Penguin Worlds classic science fiction series

We Who Are about To...

Charlotte Dann

Found this book pretty insufferable, especially towards the end, despite its interesting premise and voice. I made a full video on it too.

Maggie Gordon

Damn, golden age sci-fi was often about hope and optimism, and crash landings frequently turned into stories about human ingenuity. Years before grimdark became popular, Russ shatters these narratives. In this story, our protagonist realises the only possible end for their group is death, and she wants to be left alone so that she can pass on quietly. No futile attempt at rebuilding civilization from a small group for her. The high rating on this one is mostly for the historical significance of the piece. Such a plot is common in today's SF field, and the writing in this is quite dated. However, it's a powerful piece given the directness with which Russ handles the tragedies of these types of stories.

Momo

This took me longer to read than it should have. Interesting premise but I struggled to get through this. I feel like there should have been context about colonising planets in this book and more world building.

Anna Pinto

3.75 stars, maybe. I admit I appreciated the book more after going back and reading the introduction (which I had started but was super spoilery so I ended up skipping). It's cleverly written and mostly entertaining, but also very uncomfortable at times. (view spoiler)[ It started to drag out for me after the murders, where the inner dialogue takes over and becomes more and more rambling until the end - which is probably what happens when you starve to death anyway, but it was such a contrast from the first half of the book that made me pause. (hide spoiler)]

We Who Are About To...

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