Warm Worlds and Otherwise was published by Ballantine Books in 1975, with an introduction by Robert Silverberg that would become infamous after the revelation of Tiptree’s identity. The collection contains two of the most important stories in the history of feminist science fiction: “The Women Men Don’t See” and “The Girl Who Was Plugged In.”
“The Women Men Don’t See” follows a male narrator stranded with two women after a plane crash in Yucatán. When aliens arrive, the women choose to leave Earth with them rather than remain in a world where they are invisible. The narrator’s incomprehension — his inability to understand why women might prefer alien captivity to human society — is the story’s subject: the title refers not to women who are hidden but to women whom men cannot see even when they are right in front of them.
“The Girl Who Was Plugged In” — which won the Hugo Award — tells of a deformed girl given a beautiful remote-controlled body to inhabit, exploring themes of beauty, technology, corporate manipulation, and the relationship between the physical body and the self. Written in 1973, it anticipates cyberpunk by a decade.
The collection also includes “Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death” (Hugo winner), “The Milk of Paradise,” and “All the Kinds of Yes” — each pushing against the boundaries of what science fiction could address emotionally and politically.
Collecting Warm Worlds and Otherwise
First edition (Ballantine Books, New York, 1975): Paperback original.
Market values:
- First Ballantine paperback: $10–$30
- First hardcover (UK, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1979): $30–$80