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Rating: 
Summary: An intense but incomplete novel
Review: A group of humans gather on the planet Dameii to see the light of a war-destoyed star, on a planet that was itself the site of terrible atrocities against the native inhabitants. Some come out of interest, others revenge, and still others plan to start the horrors all over again. As with Tiptree's (aka Alice Sheldon) other work, this features the beautiful, intense prose which sets her apart from other sci-fi authors. It's very moving and, as you near the climax, very suspenceful. Quite a work of art. The story, however, doesn't really start until the story is at the halfway point. Many of the characters seem to lack depth, and the aliens only rarely appear. It is not quite equal to her earlier work, "Up the Walls of the World". I can only give this 4 stars. Had the characterization and pace been better, I would have rated this the best book I'd ever read
Rating:
Summary: Delicate little novel, not fully realised.
Review: A strange group of characters gather on a forbidden world to watch and experience the effects of a dying planet. It seems, however, that some of them come with an agenda that involves harm to the natives of the world-- natives who have already been harmed enough...Tiptree introduces a wide variety of characters-- probably too many characters for the 270 pages of the book. They are developed enough to be interesting, but not enough to be even. It is not your run of the mill science fiction novel, and doesn't shy away from some fairly explicit sexuality and violence. If you can find a copy of this book, I do recommend a read. Despite the flaws, it's both compelling and thought-provoking.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor writing, plot, characters...
Review: Cardboard characters, High School level writing, poor plotting, unremarkable prose, "Brightness Falls from the Air" is a book that confounds the reader who has earlier read the superlatives and the cover blurb by the New York Times. Was Gerald Jonas high that day?
The setup is fairly interesting: sixteen characters gather on a planet to witness the arrival of a visually spectacular nova front. This front is all that remains of a star destroyed along with an entire race of beings during an interstellar war. Our story opens as sixteen characters both human and alien arrive on the planet to witness the phenomena.
The story is needlessly melodramatic and constantly dragged down by incidental minutiae. The much lauded sexuality of the novel turns out to be a child pornographer and his troupe of pubescents, whose depiction is about as sexy and subversive as "Calendar Girls." Praise has been heaped upon Sheldon for her short stories. I saw no writing in evidence here that would cause me to go seek any of them out.
Here is one frustrating event that characterizes the failure of the novel: an alien bounty hunter, the last of his race, has spent the better part of his life tracking down the person who activated the device that destroyed his people's star. When he finally finds the person (one of our characters) he does a complete turnabout, realizes that the destruction of the artifact (which in turn destroyed the star) was a good thing since it had been psychologically destroying his people over the years (she must have hit the alien cable network), changes his mind and blows his head off (after a cliche hostage standoff). Some might say that this is an interesting and even shocking twist. I had to pinch myself from falling asleep. One question blows the entire construction out of the water: has this alien never thought about these things before? How can it be that only at the very end of his search does he wake up and realize that she did them all a favor? In plain language, a steaming heap of...BS.
And the relationship between Kip and Cory seems like some idealized autumn years marriage but with the woman (Sheldon perhaps?) 'deepened' by her 'dark' past. Hooey. And overall, could there be any more boring representation of a relationship between two people? Isn't everything just perfect? They don't use the bathroom, they don't stink, and they don't use harsh language - and they have really boring lovely sex: how enlightened!
You would be well advised to try one of her short stories first before launching into this C-grade affair.
Rating:
Summary: I could barely finish it...
Review: I am really surprised to see the 4 and 5 star ratings other readers gave this book. One of Tiptree's short stories 'Love Is The Plan The Plan Is Death' is one of my favorite short stories of all time, very moving, brilliantly written. I can't believe 'Brightness Falls...' was even written by the same author. Shallow characters, very slow pace, unnatural conversation, unconvincing plot. I was very disappointed by this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Strong Premise; Poor Writing
Review: In Brightness Falls from the Air, Ms. Triptree has written a rich yet unsatisfactory novel. Ms. Triptree's characters are an interesting collection and the general backdrop of the novel is well staged. Yet the novel is consistently hindered by the short-sighted and outright unintelligent attitudes of the characters. As such, what might have been a sophisticated novel soon becomes tedious and trite. Ms. Triptree does provide a final, dark revelation that proves eerily satisfying -- but ultimately it is the writing, not the plot, that prevents this novel from ever taking flight.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful novel by one of SF's greatest short story authors
Review: One of the most surprising announcements in science fiction history was when award-winning but reclusive science fiction writer James Tiptree, Jr. revealed that she was actually Dr. Alice Sheldon. Sheldon wote some of the best short fiction of the 70s, including such classics as "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" (which anticipated many cyberpunk themes years before William Gibson), "The Women Men Don't See", and "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?". Brightness Falls from the Air was Sheldon's second (and final) novel. Although Sheldon's best work was certainly in her short stories, my favorite thing about this novel was seeing Sheldon express many of her recurring themes in a longer form, weaving several seemingly disparate plot lines into one. The novel works well both as a mystery and as science fiction, and offers a nice helping of excitement as well. This is one of my favorite science fiction novels of all time, and is an excellent introduction to the work of James Tiptree, Jr.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful novel by one of SF's greatest short story authors
Review: One of the most surprising announcements in science fiction history was when award-winning but reclusive science fiction writer James Tiptree, Jr. revealed that she was actually Dr. Alice Sheldon. Sheldon wote some of the best short fiction of the 70s, including such classics as "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" (which anticipated many cyberpunk themes years before William Gibson), "The Women Men Don't See", and "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?". Brightness Falls from the Air was Sheldon's second (and final) novel. Although Sheldon's best work was certainly in her short stories, my favorite thing about this novel was seeing Sheldon express many of her recurring themes in a longer form, weaving several seemingly disparate plot lines into one. The novel works well both as a mystery and as science fiction, and offers a nice helping of excitement as well. This is one of my favorite science fiction novels of all time, and is an excellent introduction to the work of James Tiptree, Jr.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful novel
Review: The sheer beauty of the language Tiptree uses to tell her compelling tale is incredible. I have always thought that if I could ask Tiptree what the meaning of life is, and why I should go on living, she'd know...her passing is unfortunate.
Rating:
Summary: Sad, beautiful tale - Tiptree's best
Review: This is a tale of beauty, horror and greed. On a faraway planet, a nearly extinct species of beauty and love lives, now protected by the very same humans that earlier exploited them in the cruelest ways imaginable. And man returns. This book tells us about the darker sides of humanity, as well as of beauty and love. It made me cry. Recommended.
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