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carolynf's review
4.0
I normally don't get into short stories very much, but the pieces in this collection all complement each other very well. Most are sci-fi although there are some fantasy stories. In pretty much all of them, women in general or a woman in particular is being oppressed by men in general or a man in particular. It seems like this would get old, but each story looks at gendered society from a different angle. In some stories women come out on top in the end, but usually they don't.
I was the least interested in the first piece in the collection, about a constitutional amendment that was created just for the silencing of one particular woman, whose words have long since been forgotten. The story about the woman who was a werewolf was terribly sad, even sadder than the various stories about societies which have forced women to go into hiding for one reason or another.
I was the least interested in the first piece in the collection, about a constitutional amendment that was created just for the silencing of one particular woman, whose words have long since been forgotten. The story about the woman who was a werewolf was terribly sad, even sadder than the various stories about societies which have forced women to go into hiding for one reason or another.
lizziebennett's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.25
kieralesley's review against another edition
4.0
I love an anthology that stretches my horizons and shows me stories and authors outside of my current familiarity. I like an anthology that gives me a robust group of new things to read through.
In the introduction the editors acknowledge that this collection will necessarily have gaps, but they present the stories collected here as contributing to part of the conversation about feminist speculative fiction with a focus on the 1960s and 70s, with some selected stories from the 2000s.
As a result this reads and feels like an anthology rather than a collection of stories on a theme. The individual stories are good, but the thought and rigour behind the selection means the whole thing hangs together as a whole. This anthology is showing and saying something. It’s a field primer for speculative literature and feminist thinking in that literature in a specific time period. It doesn’t just stick to comfortable American writers and perspectives, either, it ranges further afield to find fascinating international pieces. It’s one of the few anthologies I would give to someone whole rather than pulling stories out of to share.
The stories here are older and in some ways it felt like the editors were walking me through some of the literature and writers I should be familiar with in this space. They’ve done a good job of it, too. Key pieces I appreciated and enjoyed reading were:
The Palm Tree Bandit – Nnedi Okorafor
The Grammarian’s Five Daughters – Eleanor Arnason
The Glass Bottle Trick – Nalo Hopkinson
The Screwfly Solution – James Tiptree Jr.
The Evening and the Morning and the Night – Octavia E. Butler
When it Changed – Joanna Russ
The Woman Who Thought She Was A Planet – Vandana Singh
Aunts – Karin Tidbeck
Special mention to the opening story, The Forbidden Words of Margaret A. by L. Timmel Duchamp, which I loved so much I instantly sent to a bunch of female friends demanding they read it immediately so I could talk to them about it.
I found the speculative to feminist angle element of some of the stories to be out of alignment to what I ideally wanted. There was a high hit rate for me of stories I found too weird, too preachy, or too literary to suit me. That really goes to show though that this anthology works hard to cover a lot of ground. The VanderMeers are not sticking the safe, easy and obvious genre reads in this – it’s expected that you’re not going to like all of it and I outright disliked several stories here. Thinking about what I didn’t like about those stories gave me both food for thought about my subjective literary tastes and the boundaries of my ideas of feminism.
In the introduction the editors acknowledge that this collection will necessarily have gaps, but they present the stories collected here as contributing to part of the conversation about feminist speculative fiction with a focus on the 1960s and 70s, with some selected stories from the 2000s.
As a result this reads and feels like an anthology rather than a collection of stories on a theme. The individual stories are good, but the thought and rigour behind the selection means the whole thing hangs together as a whole. This anthology is showing and saying something. It’s a field primer for speculative literature and feminist thinking in that literature in a specific time period. It doesn’t just stick to comfortable American writers and perspectives, either, it ranges further afield to find fascinating international pieces. It’s one of the few anthologies I would give to someone whole rather than pulling stories out of to share.
The stories here are older and in some ways it felt like the editors were walking me through some of the literature and writers I should be familiar with in this space. They’ve done a good job of it, too. Key pieces I appreciated and enjoyed reading were:
The Palm Tree Bandit – Nnedi Okorafor
The Grammarian’s Five Daughters – Eleanor Arnason
The Glass Bottle Trick – Nalo Hopkinson
The Screwfly Solution – James Tiptree Jr.
The Evening and the Morning and the Night – Octavia E. Butler
When it Changed – Joanna Russ
The Woman Who Thought She Was A Planet – Vandana Singh
Aunts – Karin Tidbeck
Special mention to the opening story, The Forbidden Words of Margaret A. by L. Timmel Duchamp, which I loved so much I instantly sent to a bunch of female friends demanding they read it immediately so I could talk to them about it.
I found the speculative to feminist angle element of some of the stories to be out of alignment to what I ideally wanted. There was a high hit rate for me of stories I found too weird, too preachy, or too literary to suit me. That really goes to show though that this anthology works hard to cover a lot of ground. The VanderMeers are not sticking the safe, easy and obvious genre reads in this – it’s expected that you’re not going to like all of it and I outright disliked several stories here. Thinking about what I didn’t like about those stories gave me both food for thought about my subjective literary tastes and the boundaries of my ideas of feminism.
merricatct's review
5.0
Another fantastic VanderMeer anthology! I liked every one of these stories, and flat-out loved quite a few of them. Some frightened me ("The Screwfly Solution" by James Tiptree Jr), some disturbed me ("Gestella" by Susan Palwick) some delighted me ("The Grammarian's Five Daughters" by Eleanor Arnason). Other favorites were "Northern Chess" by Tanith Lee, "Sur" by Ursula K. LeGuin, "The Glass Bottle Trick" by Nalo Hopkinson, and "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time" by Catherynne M. Valente. Some of these authors I've read before, some I've meant to read, and some were brand-new to me; but based on these stories, I want to read more by just about every one of them.
talentedmisfit's review
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
tisawizard's review
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
zoes_human's review against another edition
4.25
An impressive collection of feminist speculative fiction including not only those voices that one would expect (Butler, Le Guin, Tiptree, etc.) but a host of other storytellers who are seldom heard. Thought-provoking and intriguing across the board.
taciturn_sprocket's review
4.0
Short story anthologies are always a grab bag, but I can say that with this one all the stories were good, some were very melancholy, some were utterly scary (looking at you, James Tiptree, Jr.), and some were hopeful. My only complaint is that the book suffered from some terrible copyediting, which threw me right out of the stories on a regular basis. Especially the last story, where the consistent misspelling of "dike" was either based on the semi-literacy and lack of worldliness of the editors, or on purpose by the author based on the subject matter of the anthology. I'm going with the former, however, based on previous egregious errors in other stories.
If you can overlook that, and you should try, this is a great anthology of feminist sci-fi with some decent intersectionality.
If you can overlook that, and you should try, this is a great anthology of feminist sci-fi with some decent intersectionality.
kbuchanan's review
4.0
A fascinating and diverse collection highlighting both new and established female writers of speculative fiction. Of particular note were Kelly Barnhill's " The Men Who Live in Trees," Octavia Butler's "The Evening, the Morning, and the Night," Eleanor Arnason's "The Grammarian's Five Daughters," and Kit Reed's "The Mothers of Shark Island." Also included are stories by stallwarts Angela Carter, Ursula K. LeGuin, and some fantastic material by writers not known to me before, such as Finnish author Leena Krohn. This is a great jumping-off point to explore several new writers whose work I now know to seek out. Ranging from the profoundly weird, to the disturbing, to the heartbreaking and back again, this collection of short stories comes highly recommended.