The only Tiptree work I'd read prior to this was "The Screwfly Solution" in a short story anthology, and it was one of my favorites in that work, so I was excited to read this collection. It took me longer than I thought it would, because despite the stories' length, it takes awhile to get through each one. These are not happy stories. Not to say there isn't happiness, or beauty, or hope to be found, but that's certainly not the point. Any of that is ancillary - it matters, it has a place, but it's not primary. Primary is death, and sex, and conflict between sexes, and humanity's drive to action even if it kills us. But mostly death. In this, Tiptree is being completely honest, because what else do we all share if not our own mortality? I'm not trying to scare people off from this collection - I loved it, and I'll read it again - but it's good to know what you're getting into. This is a grim collection of stories, but it's not bleak. 
 Favorites: 
 "On the Last Afternoon" 
 "Slow Music" 
 "The Screwfly Solution" 
 "We Who Stole the Dream" 
 "Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light!" 
 2016 reading challenge: a book set in a hostile environment