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drsldn's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not a great fan of short stories, although most of these were more like novellas. I did enjoy them, especially Joan Vinge's "The soldier" and Ursula Le Guin's "The day before revolution" (except I think I would have enjoyed that more if I had already read The Dispossessed, but at least now I am inspired to read it!). The biggest problem I had was with the over because I still can't work out which (if any) of the stories it represented, plus I'm not all that keen on airbrush art. It's a fine example of its kind, though!
stephenmeansme's review
4.0
This is a little gem of a collection, sadly relegated to the cheap used-paperback bin. I'm on an active quest for the women of sf's past, not only because it turns out many of them were kickass writers but also to demolish for myself the weird myth in the contemporary sf&f discourse that somehow sf was all straight white men until, I dunno the Nineties? (Conveniently when the discourse writers were children, hm.)
So here we have novelettes by C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Joanna Russ, Kate Wilhelm, and Joan D. Vinge - all of whom I knew - and also Josephine Saxton, whom I didn't. Plus a really good introductory essay by editor Pamela Sargent on women, women authors, and science fiction. There's a "Further Reading" section in the back, too, which is very nice.
Unfortunately, I don't know that the Moore and Brackett stories, which open the collection, are very good representatives of their work. Somewhat tellingly nether show up in their authors' BEST OF collections, so I would recommend that anyone go read those.
I had read Joanna Russ's story "The Second Inquisition" before - it's pretty good, a bit weird. The allegorical message didn't quite click for me, but YMMV.
Josephine Saxton was a new read, and "The Power of Time" was fine, but nothing in particular stood out.
Then we really start ramping up. I gave Kate Wilhelm's SOMERSET DREAMS AND OTHER STORIES collection 3 stars, it was solid but not as sfnal as I wanted. Well, "The Funeral" is basically a novella distillation of THE HANDMAID'S TALE but with actual feelings. Very well done.
Joan D. Vinge's "Tin Soldier" reminded me in some respects of Cordwainer Smith's "Scanners Live in Vain!" but gender-flipped. It's a love story with sfnal twists, and a play on a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale to boot.
Finally, we have Ursula K. Le Guin, with a prequel story to THE DISPOSSESSED, extending that book's piercing look at political movements and systems. It's vaguely grotesque and sympathetic at the same time. It's really really good.
So four okay stories, three really good stories, and really good ancillary material. 3.5 stars, rounded up. There's lots of value here; only go read the Best Of collections I noted, too!
So here we have novelettes by C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Joanna Russ, Kate Wilhelm, and Joan D. Vinge - all of whom I knew - and also Josephine Saxton, whom I didn't. Plus a really good introductory essay by editor Pamela Sargent on women, women authors, and science fiction. There's a "Further Reading" section in the back, too, which is very nice.
Unfortunately, I don't know that the Moore and Brackett stories, which open the collection, are very good representatives of their work. Somewhat tellingly nether show up in their authors' BEST OF collections, so I would recommend that anyone go read those.
I had read Joanna Russ's story "The Second Inquisition" before - it's pretty good, a bit weird. The allegorical message didn't quite click for me, but YMMV.
Josephine Saxton was a new read, and "The Power of Time" was fine, but nothing in particular stood out.
Then we really start ramping up. I gave Kate Wilhelm's SOMERSET DREAMS AND OTHER STORIES collection 3 stars, it was solid but not as sfnal as I wanted. Well, "The Funeral" is basically a novella distillation of THE HANDMAID'S TALE but with actual feelings. Very well done.
Joan D. Vinge's "Tin Soldier" reminded me in some respects of Cordwainer Smith's "Scanners Live in Vain!" but gender-flipped. It's a love story with sfnal twists, and a play on a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale to boot.
Finally, we have Ursula K. Le Guin, with a prequel story to THE DISPOSSESSED, extending that book's piercing look at political movements and systems. It's vaguely grotesque and sympathetic at the same time. It's really really good.
So four okay stories, three really good stories, and really good ancillary material. 3.5 stars, rounded up. There's lots of value here; only go read the Best Of collections I noted, too!
kidclamp's review
4.0
There were some really good stories in here, and some I didn't care for, but overall it was a solid collection of classic science fiction.
mindsplinters's review
3.0
A mix of stories that I quite liked, including Vinge's Tin Soldier that totally made me cry, and some that left me either confused or unimpressed. I was also completely baffled as to how some of them qualified as sci-fi. Not everything has to be hard sci-fi but some of the novellas stretched the definition of soft sci-fi to breaking point, casting it over everything from CL Moore's straight up fantasy to Le Guin's piece that read more as a meander among social constructs and change (no sci-fi, just people and revolution... vaguely). I could not help but look up the publishing date of Wilhelm's The Funeral either as it ticked so many of the same boxes as Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (Wilhelm's was published first by more than a decade but is far less comprehensive, being a novella). So there is that, too. It kind of made me want to do a deep dive and see if there was a link between them, a shared inspiration, or what have you.
ibbys's review
3.0
“The Day Before the Revolution” is what drew me to this collection since it's a prequel to one of my favorite novels, The Dispossessed. Alien planet + female-led radical politics + emotional fidelity + empathy toward elderly women = a match made in heaven. I have to get my hands on some more of Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction.
The story that I found myself surprised to enjoy was “Tin Soldier.” There were some glimpses of inexpert prose, but it had innovative sf world-building details that were fun to chew on, plus a romance plot complicated by almost-speed-of-light travel and cyborg longevity. Cheesiness surfaced at times, but there was beauty, too.
The two first stories, “Jirel Meets Magic” and “The Lake of the Gone Forever,” started the anthology unimpressively. The florid prose of "Jirel Meets Magic" was icky, and the story more resembled fantasy than sf. "The Lake of the Gone Forever" betrayed a white/Western (Terran?) savior complex toward one-dimensional, oppressed alien women. The stories are ordered chronologically according to when they were published, meaning that these two were written in the early years of the genre (1930s,40s). They stand in the collection more for the sake of feminist sf’s history, rather than for their quality.
“The Second Inquisition and “The Funeral” each charmed me in different ways but ultimately didn’t hold my attention strongly. I enjoyed “The Second Inquisition” for its decision to place an alien time traveler in the setting of the 1920s. The ideas in “The Funeral” seemed better articulated in The Handmaid’s Tale. Both of those stories did something exciting to complicate the genre, but had their own foibles.
"The Power of Time" had a split narrative style between a woman in the 70s and a woman in the future. It was an OK story, probably not one I'll remember from the collection.
Even with some dated elements, this collection holds up fairly against time. I feel kinship with these female science fiction authors, as if we were all part of a similar world. Definitely gave me a lot to think about in writing my own sf stories.
The story that I found myself surprised to enjoy was “Tin Soldier.” There were some glimpses of inexpert prose, but it had innovative sf world-building details that were fun to chew on, plus a romance plot complicated by almost-speed-of-light travel and cyborg longevity. Cheesiness surfaced at times, but there was beauty, too.
The two first stories, “Jirel Meets Magic” and “The Lake of the Gone Forever,” started the anthology unimpressively. The florid prose of "Jirel Meets Magic" was icky, and the story more resembled fantasy than sf. "The Lake of the Gone Forever" betrayed a white/Western (Terran?) savior complex toward one-dimensional, oppressed alien women. The stories are ordered chronologically according to when they were published, meaning that these two were written in the early years of the genre (1930s,40s). They stand in the collection more for the sake of feminist sf’s history, rather than for their quality.
“The Second Inquisition and “The Funeral” each charmed me in different ways but ultimately didn’t hold my attention strongly. I enjoyed “The Second Inquisition” for its decision to place an alien time traveler in the setting of the 1920s. The ideas in “The Funeral” seemed better articulated in The Handmaid’s Tale. Both of those stories did something exciting to complicate the genre, but had their own foibles.
"The Power of Time" had a split narrative style between a woman in the 70s and a woman in the future. It was an OK story, probably not one I'll remember from the collection.
Even with some dated elements, this collection holds up fairly against time. I feel kinship with these female science fiction authors, as if we were all part of a similar world. Definitely gave me a lot to think about in writing my own sf stories.
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