Extra(ordinary) People

1984 Russ, Joanna [Ruth] (1937-2011). Extra(ordinary) People. New York: St. Martin's Press. Rpt. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985. U.K. ed. London: The Women’s Press, 1985. Reprints three stories with two stories and additional material that provides connections among them (61, 93, 115, 145, 161). The reprinted stories are: “Souls” (1-59). Rpt. from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 62.1 (368) (January 1982): 7-46; and as part of a Tor Double with [Alice Bradley Sheldon], Houston, Houston, Do You Read? By James Tiptree, Jr. [pseud.]. New York: Tor, 1989; 14002204330021210423140032403333 [pseud.]; “The Mystery of the Young Gentlemen” (63-92). Rpt. from Speculations. Ed. Isaac Asimov and Alice Laurence (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1982), 245-75; and “What Did You Do During the Revolution, Grandma?” (117-44). Rpt. from The Seattle Review 6.1 (Spring 1983): 5-24. The new stories are “Bodies” (95-114); and “Everyday Depressions” (147-60). DLC, PSt

Primarily dystopian with the five stories moving from medieval Scandinavia to the future with some set versions of the nineteenth century. Two themes suggest the possibility of a better world, telepathic people, and the end of sexual differentiation. But the connecting material both supports and undercuts the eutopian interpretation. Female author.