We Who Are About To...

Description

After an accident destroys their starship and leaves them stranded on an uncharted but apparently hospitable planet - crewless, with few supplies and without tools - the five female and three male passengers debate how to survive. Penguin reissues a work of classic science fiction from the revolutionary author of The Female Man - with a new introduction by Hari Kunzru An explosion in space, a starship stranded at the end of the universe, a group of strangers alone in a barren, alien wilderness. Facing almost certain death, the human survivors of a deep-space crash are determined to ignore the odds and colonize an inhospitable planet, recreating a civilization like the one they have lost forever. Only one woman rejects this path, choosing instead a daring and desperate alternative- to practice the art of dying. But her fellow passengers require her reproductive skills for their survival plan, and they are prepared to impose their regime by force if necessary... Joanna Russ offers an electrifying, original and challenging exploration of individual freedom, power, and our most primitive will to live. We Who Are About To is part of the Penguin Worlds classic science fiction series

Joanna Russ was born in 1937 in New York City. She was an academic and feminist who authored numerous works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as How to Suppress Women's Writing. She is best known for her 1975 satirical utopian novel The Female Man; We Who Are About To was her fourth novel, originally published in 1977. Joanna Russ died in 2011 and her work is still widely taught on literature courses throughout the English speaking world.