Ingathering by Zenna Henderson

[snugglekitty]

Title: Ingathering: The Complete People Stories
Author: Zenna Henderson
Genre: Speculative fiction, short stories.
Setting: Mostly the US, a few of the stories are set on alien planets.
Reason for Reading: gentlescholar read me one of the stories, "Ararat," and I loved it.
Finished In: Months.
Pages: 577
Copyright Date: 1995
Cover: A desert with a lizard in the foreground and a crashed spaceship in the background.
First line: "The window of the bus was a dark square against the featureless night."
Best part: Many of these stories are very sweet and warming.
Worst part: The aliens are Christian? Come now.
Imaginary Theme Song: "Get Together" by the Youngbloods
Grade: C+
Recommended for: Anyone that needs a bit of a lift.
Related Reads: Illusions by Richard Bach.

This book has a lot of good moments, though I think I would have enjoyed it even more if there was a shorter selection of the best stories instead of a complete omnibus with frames between chapters. I found the way the author wrote about depression to be a little frustrating, and then there was the whole Christian alien thing. But I definitely enjoyed the stories, especially "Ararat," "Pottage," and "Captivity."

When "Ararat" was first read to me, it reminded me a lot of a movie I had seen many years ago. It turns out that this movie, "The People," was actually based on Henderson's work. Old black and white thing, kind of fun and silly as I recall but it's been quite a long time.

Comments

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

it's interesting... i normally don't like Christian overtones in my SF, but in the case of Henderson's work I don't mind -- for two reasons. 1) She was writing about times and places where Earth people were more strongly Christian than today. 2) She was using the Christian metaphor as a (not so?) gentle reminder to her readers that good is good, even if it does things that you might consider scary (flying, moving stuff with their minds).

The lessons of non-violence in the face of persecution, and caring for one's true kin are some of the better bits of Christianity, IMO, and so it's not quite so silly as it could be.

[dilletante.livejournal.com]

oh, i loved those of this series i've read. i'll have to look for this one.