The Adventures of Alyx

Timescape edition Cover

The Women's Press edition Cover (with price sticker)

1976 collection of stories by Joanna Russ (reissued 1985).

Russ' feminist work began with the Alyx stories, published between 1967 and 1970 and collected in The Adventures of Alyx. Alyx is a smart, tough woman, a thief and assassin, sensual, intelligent and not beautiful. With Alyx, Russ deliberately countered prevailing gender stereotypes in SF and in her own writing she has said that Alyx was a breakthrough for her.^{[citation needed]}

Influences and references

Alyx was inspired in part by Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series, and appeared in two of those stories.

Mary Gentle has said her White Crow series was particularly inspired by Russ's Alyx, who inhabits both fantastic and science fictional worlds.

Table of contents

• "Bluestocking"
• "I Thought She Was Afeard Till She Stroked My Beard"
• "The Barbarian"
• "Picnic on Paradise"
• "The Second Inquisition"

Editions

• Jun 1976 Boston: G.K. Hall & Co./Gregg Press, ISBN 0-8398-2337-1. (hardcover; as Alyx)
• Aug 1983 New York: Timescape/Pocket Books, ISBN 0-671-45900-7. (paperback; The Adventures of Alyx)
• Sep 1985 London: The Women's Press, ISBN 0-70432-972-2. (paperback; as The Adventures of Alyx)
• Nov 1986 New York: Baen Books, ISBN 0-671-65601-5. (paperback; The Adventures of Alyx)

Further reading

• LibraryThing entry