James Tiptree Jr. Bibliography Ranking books
Authors Best, Best Books, Bibliography By First Name, Bibliography By Last Name, Fiction & Literature, First Name: I-J, Last Name: S-T, Outer Space, Science Fiction

Ranking Author James Tiptree Jr.’s Best Books (A Bibliography Countdown)

“What are James Tiptree Jr.’s Best Books?” We looked at all of James Tiptree Jr.’s authored bibliography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!

We took all of the books written by James Tiptree Jr. and looked at their Goodreads, Amazon, and LibraryThing scores, ranking them against one another to see which books came out on top. The books are ranked in our list below based on which titles have the highest overall score between all 3 review sites in comparison with all of the other books by the same author. The process isn’t super scientific and in reality, most books aren’t “better” than other books as much as they are just different. That being said, we do enjoy seeing where our favorites landed, and if you aren’t familiar with the author at all, the rankings can help you see what books might be best to start with.

The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!



The Top Book’s Of James Tiptree Jr.



13 ) Brightness Falls from the Air

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 12
  • Amazon: 10
  • LibraryThing: 13

The arrival of an odd assortment of suspicious tourists on the planet Damiem parallels the final moves in a twenty-year-old interplanetary war that ends in the destruction of a star

Purchase / Learn More



12 ) Neat Sheets: The Poetry of James Tiptree Jr.

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 10
  • Amazon: 12
  • LibraryThing: 12

Purchase / Learn More



11 ) The Starry Rift (linked stories)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 11
  • Amazon: 8
  • LibraryThing: 10

This novel set in the far-future and filled with action, extraordinary characters, and visionary speculation, chronicles the human exploration of alien planets with strange and mysterious life forms

Purchase / Learn More



10 ) Byte Beautiful: Eight Science Fiction Stories

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 7
  • Amazon: 12
  • LibraryThing: 8

Short stories by an award-winning science fiction writer include adventures in outer space and the world of the future

Purchase / Learn More



8 ) Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 6
  • Amazon: 11
  • LibraryThing: 5

Purchase / Learn More



8 ) Up the Walls of the World

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 7
  • Amazon: 4
  • LibraryThing: 11

A huge interstellar being intent on destroying whole solar systems gains control of alien creatures from a distant planet and of the telepathic earthlings into whose minds they have inadvertently projected themselves

Purchase / Learn More



7 ) Tales of the Quintana Roo (linked stories)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 12
  • Amazon: 1
  • LibraryThing: 8

Three stories deal with a realm of dead souls, a time warp that leads back to the Mayan past, and a mysterious world beneath the sea

Purchase / Learn More



6 ) Meet Me at Infinity

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 9
  • Amazon: 4
  • LibraryThing: 7

James Tiptree, Jr. was the pseudonym of Alice B. Sheldon(1915-1987), in whose honor the Tiptree Awards are given annually. She wrote some of the best short SF ever, winning two Hugos and three Nebulas. This book brings together stories previously uncollected-including an early one published under her own name in The New Yorker-and many of her colorful non-fiction pieces, mainly autobiographical, published under the Tiptree name (1970-1987). What shines through in this book is the magnetic and charming personality of the author, one of the most influential SF personalities of her era.

Purchase / Learn More



5 ) Crown of Stars

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 5
  • Amazon: 8
  • LibraryThing: 6

The best of the late author’s recent and unpublished fiction is offered in this collection of science fiction tales, along with some earlier uncollected pieces

Purchase / Learn More



4 ) Star Songs of an Old Primate

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 3
  • Amazon: 7
  • LibraryThing: 2

Purchase / Learn More



2 ) Out of the Everywhere and Other Extraordinary Visions

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 2
  • Amazon: 6
  • LibraryThing: 1

Tales tell of an alien landing on Earth, a mysterious courier, an epidemic of femicide, an apocalyptic vision, and a hijacked spaceship

Purchase / Learn More



2 ) Warm Worlds and Otherwise

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 4
  • Amazon: 1
  • LibraryThing: 4

First collection of Tiptree’s stories, many of which won or were nominated for major awards.

Purchase / Learn More



1 ) Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (omnibus collection)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Goodreads: 1
  • Amazon: 3
  • LibraryThing: 3

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever collects eighteen brilliant short stories from a luminary of the science-fiction genre, James Tiptree, Jr. This updated edition is the quintessential Tiptree collection and contains revisions from the author’s original notes. Tiptree’s fiction reflects the darkly complex world its author inhabited: exploring the alien among us; the unreliability of perception; love, sex, and death; and humanity’s place in a vast, cold universe.

Purchase / Learn More



James Tiptree Jr.’s Best Books



James Tiptree Jr. Review Website Bibliography Rankings

BookGoodreadsAmazonLibraryThingOveral Rank
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (omnibus collection) 133 1
Out of the Everywhere and Other Extraordinary Visions 261 2
Warm Worlds and Otherwise 414 2
Star Songs of an Old Primate 372 4
Crown of Stars 586 5
Meet Me at Infinity 947 6
Tales of the Quintana Roo (linked stories) 1218 7
Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home 6115 8
Up the Walls of the World 7411 8
Byte Beautiful: Eight Science Fiction Stories 7128 10
The Starry Rift (linked stories) 11810 11
Neat Sheets: The Poetry of James Tiptree Jr. 101212 12
Brightness Falls from the Air 121013 13