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Unwillingly to Earth
"A good, original, space-setting adventure" (Piers Anthony) from a Hugo Award nominee. Raised on a backwater miners' planet thousands of light-years from civilization, Lysistrata Lee is surprised to receive a scholarship to the most prestigious university in the galaxy. And in the process of getting an education, Lizzie manages to solve a murder, prevent a planetary war, and find a little romance.
Contents:
Unwillingly to School (1958)
Rats in the Moon (1982)
Fatal Statistics (1988)
The Lost Kafoozalum (1960)
Contents:
Unwillingly to School (1958)
Rats in the Moon (1982)
Fatal Statistics (1988)
The Lost Kafoozalum (1960)
280 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
2 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Pauline Ashwell
23 books2 followersPauline Whitby was British science fiction author who wrote under the pseudonym Pauline Ashwell. She has also written under the names Paul Ashwell and Paul Ash.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 6, 2022
What a terrific book this is! Hilarious, picaresque, and diabolically well plotted. Instead of Enders Game or those wizard books by the transphobic Voldemort author, THIS would have made a great series of films about folks figuring their way through a bunch of kids worrying their way through galactic anthropology.
The protagonist, Lizzie Lee (her real name is one of the spoilers I won’t divulge) makes her way to Earth from a dusty planet (sort of an outback Tattoine mining culture) to study Cultural engineering and her insights, her humor, and irreverence make her the best type of heroine — credible, resilient, and smart.
I don’t care if you normally prefer mysteries, hate Sci-fi, or don’t read fiction at all — I wholeheartedly recommend this book for its brilliance.
The protagonist, Lizzie Lee (her real name is one of the spoilers I won’t divulge) makes her way to Earth from a dusty planet (sort of an outback Tattoine mining culture) to study Cultural engineering and her insights, her humor, and irreverence make her the best type of heroine — credible, resilient, and smart.
I don’t care if you normally prefer mysteries, hate Sci-fi, or don’t read fiction at all — I wholeheartedly recommend this book for its brilliance.
August 30, 2019
The beginning and end sections were written in the 1950s, with two middle adventures published in the 1980s, all fixed up into a single story. I note this because it seems like it would have been quite original at the time but comes across as quite limited and dated today.
Lizzie Lee is from a mining planet (i.e. read working class background) who gets a scholarship to Earth university and isn't happy about it. Along the way she finds herself involved in a lot of surprising adventures. It is readable enough but compared to the sophistication of YA stories today it feels very basic.
Lizzie Lee is from a mining planet (i.e. read working class background) who gets a scholarship to Earth university and isn't happy about it. Along the way she finds herself involved in a lot of surprising adventures. It is readable enough but compared to the sophistication of YA stories today it feels very basic.
December 4, 2025
Well, I loved this book. A compilation of four traditional-style SF space yarns written between 1958 and 1988, the episodes hang together beautifully, forming the continuing adventures of Lizzie Lee.
Raised on her father's farm on a mining planet, Lizzie stumbles into (and initally resists) attending school on Earth to study Cultural Engineering. She has a natural aptitude for the subject, as her pragmatism and innate kindess, leavened with a strong moral sense and some sass, guide her through difficult situations. (The situation in which her talents first are recognized is quite funny.)
I really love her narrative voice. She says at the beginning, "This may come as a surprise, that I am a girl, I mean. My tutor at Prelim School says my speech is feminine as spoken but written down looks like the kind of male character who spits sideways." LOL--well, exactly. I thought her voice might wear thin as the book progressed, but her run-on, reverse-engineered sentence structure and 18th-century style of seemingly random capitalization remained entertaining throughout. She is hilarious and perceptive, and wry.
An excerpt:
"The rapping starts again and I suddenly recognize a Primitive signaling system called Regret or something. I guess because it was used by people in situations they did not like such as Sinking ships or Solitary confinement; it is done by tapping on water pipes and such.
"Someone fond it in a book and the more childish element in College learned it up for Signaling during compulsory lectures, Interest waning abruptly when the lecturers started to learn it too.
"I never paid much attention not expecting to be in Solitary confinement much; this just shows you; next moment Ram opens a door and pushes me through it, the door clicks behind me and Solitary confinement is what I am in.
"I remember this code is really called Remorse which is what I feel for not learning it when I had the chance."
(Of course she later learns that the code is called Morse.)
I'm working my way through Jo Walton's Informal History of the Hugo Awards, which led me to this author; Ashwell (who also wrote as Paul Ash) was nominated for Hugos for all these stories and for the collection. I am grateful for the intel. What a find!!! Unfortunately, she didn't publish a lot--a number of magazine stories and one other novel--but off I go to locate them...
Raised on her father's farm on a mining planet, Lizzie stumbles into (and initally resists) attending school on Earth to study Cultural Engineering. She has a natural aptitude for the subject, as her pragmatism and innate kindess, leavened with a strong moral sense and some sass, guide her through difficult situations. (The situation in which her talents first are recognized is quite funny.)
I really love her narrative voice. She says at the beginning, "This may come as a surprise, that I am a girl, I mean. My tutor at Prelim School says my speech is feminine as spoken but written down looks like the kind of male character who spits sideways." LOL--well, exactly. I thought her voice might wear thin as the book progressed, but her run-on, reverse-engineered sentence structure and 18th-century style of seemingly random capitalization remained entertaining throughout. She is hilarious and perceptive, and wry.
An excerpt:
"The rapping starts again and I suddenly recognize a Primitive signaling system called Regret or something. I guess because it was used by people in situations they did not like such as Sinking ships or Solitary confinement; it is done by tapping on water pipes and such.
"Someone fond it in a book and the more childish element in College learned it up for Signaling during compulsory lectures, Interest waning abruptly when the lecturers started to learn it too.
"I never paid much attention not expecting to be in Solitary confinement much; this just shows you; next moment Ram opens a door and pushes me through it, the door clicks behind me and Solitary confinement is what I am in.
"I remember this code is really called Remorse which is what I feel for not learning it when I had the chance."
(Of course she later learns that the code is called Morse.)
I'm working my way through Jo Walton's Informal History of the Hugo Awards, which led me to this author; Ashwell (who also wrote as Paul Ash) was nominated for Hugos for all these stories and for the collection. I am grateful for the intel. What a find!!! Unfortunately, she didn't publish a lot--a number of magazine stories and one other novel--but off I go to locate them...
August 27, 2020
What makes this book a fun read is the strong and feisty character that is Lizzie Lee. She carries the stories along by her force of personality. The book is written in a definite style with, for instance, liberal uses of capital letters. A lot of the book was written in the 1950s which is obvious in places, but these factors give it more of a contemporary feel.
Lizzie Lee is unwillingly sent to Earth to study Cultural Engineering - an interesting concept to me, but not so much to Lizzie, although she has a natural aptitude for it. It is her direct, honest and open approach to such matters that helps her through the four stories contained in the book. If you approach reading it with the same sense of carefree fun, you'll enjoy it too. A light read I'd put in the YA category.
Perhaps a 3.5 for me, but made it a 4 to recognise some pioneering positive female characterisation.
Lizzie Lee is unwillingly sent to Earth to study Cultural Engineering - an interesting concept to me, but not so much to Lizzie, although she has a natural aptitude for it. It is her direct, honest and open approach to such matters that helps her through the four stories contained in the book. If you approach reading it with the same sense of carefree fun, you'll enjoy it too. A light read I'd put in the YA category.
Perhaps a 3.5 for me, but made it a 4 to recognise some pioneering positive female characterisation.
did-not-finish-or-start
May 4, 2023DNS 5/4/23 no longer interested
July 28, 2007
This is the novelistic equivalent of a hot bowl of popcorn: sheer, fluffy fun. Basically, this book is _Podkayne of Mars_, only with more plot and less annoying attitudes towards women.
Like Podkayne, the teenaged female narrator has a too-precious habit of capitalizing random nouns for emphasis, like an eighteenth century writer or a modern-day Internet teen, but this is far less annoying than you'd expect. Sure, the final character twist does make you roll your eyes a bit. Just go along for the romp - you'll be glad you did.
Like Podkayne, the teenaged female narrator has a too-precious habit of capitalizing random nouns for emphasis, like an eighteenth century writer or a modern-day Internet teen, but this is far less annoying than you'd expect. Sure, the final character twist does make you roll your eyes a bit. Just go along for the romp - you'll be glad you did.
June 27, 2015
I found Pauline Ashwell's Lizzie Lee to be a likeable maverick. She doesn't really want to go to earth for higher education, but she can't deny her special aptitude for Cultural Engineering. She may not be well suited for this education business, but she is too stubborn to quit. There are a few challenges ahead, so she will get her chance to show these arrogant Earther's just what she's made of! Lizzie's innate psychological and sociological skills make her a winner, as is this novel, except for the strange lingo.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews