This is a posthumous gathering of previously uncollected stories and essays, so might have turned out to be a grab bag of offcuts of interest only to completologists. I'm glad to report that it's not so.

In the fiction section, roughly the first half of the book, most of the pieces do turn out to be of mainly completological interest. But two of the stories, specifically 'Trey of Hearts' and 'The Color of Neanderthal Eyes', are vivid reminders of Tiptree's ability to portray intimate sensuality (including, as in the first of these stories, graphically described sexual encounters) between beings from different planets.
The non-fiction pieces were mostly written for fanzines – some of which were produced by the book's editor, Jeffrey D Smith, who helpfully explains fandom and fanzines in his notes. The early pieces are informal, 'Uncle Tip' telling traveller's tales, dispensing advice to his younger co-fans and generally shooting the breeze in playfully overwrought language. You get the impression the writer was having so much fun creating this male character that she allowed herself to say all sorts of things about creativity, science fiction, ageing, the environment and anything else that crossed her mind, things she might not have said in her own person. Some of it is embarrassing, as when 'Tip' writes with self-deprecating comedy of his lustful admiration for a young Mayan woman. But there's a lot that's eminently quotable.

The book gets really intersting with his/her unmasking, in a number of ways. First, the real Alice Sheldon steps out onto the stage, and although she talks in a number of pieces of how disappointed her readers must be to have the writer they'd suspected of having lived a daring life (a spy, or something worse?) turn out to be a nice elderly lady ('At least I hope I'm nice'), she turns out to have had a very interesting life – starting with accompanying her parents on major journeys of exploration as a very young child. Second, her writing changes, becomes more straightforward, less florid, though perhaps also slightly less adventurous. And third, she reports on what she has learned about gender in sciencce fiction, about sexism in general, from her masquerade and unmasking: all too often what can be heard with respect if said by a man, if said by a woman is understood to be whining. As 'Tip' she could suggest to an anthologist (pen-)friend that he ought to include some women in his collection; the same suggestion from Alice would probably be heard as motivated by pure self-interest. And so on. Without the male persona, she writes passionately about the situation of women, and about the importance of male allies in the struggle against sexism. But always with style, oddness, modesty, spark and a weird kind of grace. ( )