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I spent some time a while back reading Robert Heinlein’s published collections of short stories - but I overlooked one, Assignment in Eternity, which was unfortunate because these four stories are among the most memorable of Heinlein’s stories in my opinion - as long as one doesn’t look at them too closely. Unfortunately, what makes them memorable is also what makes them not particularly good stories.

“Gulf” is primarily a spy thriller structured much the same way as a Bond film cold open - it’s only real purpose is to set up the proposition that forms the central part of the story, and the story then ends in a suicide mission in which both protagonists are killed. As a story, it’s rather weak on structure. As an argument, it’s just more of Heinlein’s notions of the manifestation of a superman, but this time, the superman will benevolently rule the others. What it really shows is how easy it is fo that kind of mind candy to corrupt. The punch that holds the nastiness in place is the heroic deaths of the protagonists - and that moment stayed with me for a long time.

“Elsewhen” does much the same thing with its stories of people who have learned how to walk through time. It’s so tempting, to use the power to end up when you are most suited to be. In “Elsewhen,” a man who has learned the secret of changing timelines teaches five of his students how to do the same. One lives a life at a thousand times the speed of their own time line and ends up as a saint in a land where heaven exists much as she expected it. Two end up in a world where there is war, and it’s going badly for humanity - they take military and engineering science there to save their new home. Two find themselves happily in an agrarian, quiet world with just enough technology to be comfortable. When their teacher is charged with murder after their disappearance, he closes the circles by taking some of the agrarian world’s tech to the world at war, and then settling in to spend his last years on the agrarian world, occasionally visiting his former students in the now significantly improved war world. There’s now no way for anyone on the central earth to find him. It’s the ultimate portal fantasy, that can happen for anyone who stumbles upon the trick of freeing himself from living in time. But when it’s finished, all you have left is five people enjoying that perfect fantasy, and all of the conflict is unimportant

Lost Legacy is a novella that again, tells a story that, for all its interesting ideas and wish fulfillment ideas, is not actually much of a story at all. The concept is that once everyone have superpowers. Then a bunch of elitists tried to limit whose powers would be allowed to develop, and the non-elitists, rather that fight, surrendered the field, leaving little secret notes so someday an emerging society could restore the open use of powers. One day, some energetic American discover their powers, connect with other who have been gathering, and starts the war the older nonelitists walked away from. We are given to understand that they will prevail because they are Americans, and are using Scouting to hide their training program. (But only boys, not girls in scouting, because girls don’t matter.)

The final story, “Jerry Was a Man” may have ben so cringeworthy because in it, Heinlein winds himself up to Say Something about black-white relations in America, and he always went way off line when he tried that. It’s the decadent future and wealthy people are big on genetically engineered pets. The useless boy-toy husband of a very wealthy woman wants a pegasus, so she tries to buy him one. He throws a tantrum when he discovers that a pegasus would be incapable of flight unless it were built like a condor - but while he’s negotiating for something that might please him, Mrs. Moneybags notices a sad humanoid worker named Jerry in a cage and discovers that the company euthanises all older engineered workers.

She’s appalled, and because she does own a large section of the company, tries and fails to have the policy changed. The manager and the boy-toy try to manipulate her, first by giving her the right to a permanent leasehold over Jerry, then later by trying to take Jerry back when she decides to go to court for his personhood. This results in a delightful scene where boy-toy discovers that being handsome does not trump betraying your wife and is kicked out. Mrs. Moneybags gets the best legal assistance she can afford, and Jerry sues to have himself and his people declared human enough that they can be held in guardianship but not killed. The sickening part in an otherwise rather funny court scene is when Jerry’s humanity is cinched by his dressing up in faded dungarees and singing Swanee River. Now, admittedly, artists who are powerful and unquestionably the best humanity has to offer, such as, say, the great Paul Robeson, have sung that song so that they uplifted it, rather than being pulled down by its lyrics and images, but the whole image of a genetically enhanced primate gaining a portion (maybe 3/5 ths) of humanity by mimicking a black man disturbs me greatly. Yes, the story’s intent is good. But this is a tonedeaf use of images on Heinlein’s part and it turns much of the good stuff to ashes when you read it.

This particular collection of Heinlein stories is very much one that I wish the rewrite fairy could get her hands on and turn them into the solid stories that lurk inside them.
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Another year, another Valdemarian anthology from Mercedes Lackey. These books are like catnip for me. The collections are sometimes uneven, but Valdemar is a wonderful invention, a rich secondary word with so many different cultures and potential stories, and there’s something about Lackey’s world that I find irresistible.

As usual, there are some stories from longtime contributors, many of them featuring characters we’ve met before and come to appreciate, and some from new writers who’ve never written for Valdemar before. And of course a brand new story by Lackey herself, which answers one of the questions many of us have had about Need - and also makes a strong statement about trans inclusivity. But then, Lackey has always been an LGBT ally, which is probably one of the reasons I feel comfortable with her work.

In fact, Lackey’s story, “Woman’s Need Calls Me,” is my favourite from this collection, which is in fact one of the stronger collections of recent years - there really wasn’t one story that I didn’t enjoy, although some were slight in terms of action and adventure.

Good comfort reading when I needed it.




Note: This anthology contains 18 stories, 16 written by women and two written by men.
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In the Company of Sherlock Holmes, edited by Laurie King, is a rather entertaining anthology of short fiction inspired by the Conan Doyle stories. There us, of course, a wide range of approaches, some of which feature Holmes and Watson themselves, others which reveal the exploits of characters based on Holmes and his venerable associate, or other key characters from the stories.

Some are very closely inspired indeed - such as “The Memoirs of Silver Blaze,” by Michael Sims, a close retelling of “The Adventure of Silver Blaze” from the point of view of the horse in question - while others draw on the spirit of deduction to create a completely new set of characters and situations. Some I found less than inspiring, such as “Doctor Watson’s Casebook,” by Andrew Grant, a reworking of Hound of the Baskervilles as a series of entries in a social media app. And for me, one story - “The Adventure of the Laughing Fisherman” by Jeffery Deaver - delivered the brilliance and unexpected twist - though without the supernatural elements - of Neil Gaiman’s brilliant “A Study in Emerald.”

Some were profoundly moving, including John Lescroart’s “Dunkirk,” a taught narrative of one of the many small boats that took part in the evacuation of Dunkirk, this one with a volunteer crewman, an old but still hale civilian named Sigerson, of Sussex Downs. And then there’s the heart-breaking “Lost Boys,” by Cordelia Funke, that imagines an all-too-likely reason behind so many of the peculiarities, and defenses, of Holmes.

All in all, a decent collection, with, I expect, something for everyone who loves Holmes.


*This anthology contains 15 stories, five written by women, nine written by men, and one written by a woman and a man.
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On February 8, 2017, SF author Mindy Klasky decided to edit an anthology. She was inspired to do so by the now infamous words used to silence American Senator Elizabeth Warren: “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

The anthology that resulted from this decision, Nevertheless She Persisted, published by the Book View Cafe collective and featuring works by some of its members, is a collection of stories that aspired, as Klasky says, to show “...the power of women overcoming challenges, of women persisting against the threat of other people, of society, of their own fears.” It’s also generally enjoyable reading, with one glaring exception that I’ll get to later. I was disappointed that the contributors were, to the best of my knowledge, all white - there are many ways in which women of colour might have given us a broader picture of the persistence of women against the threats of society.

The stories are divided into four sections: the past, the present, the future, and other worlds.

I found all the stories set in the past to be interesting and engaging, from Marie Brennan’s revisiting of the story of Penelope in “Daughter of Necessity,” to Deborah Ross’s portrayal of the persistence of faith among the hidden Jews of Iberia forced to convert to Christianity in “Unmasking the Ancient Light.” “Sister,” Leah Cutter’s poignant story of a young Chinese woman’s desperate quest to find a spirit husband to care for her beloved, departed younger sister was deeply moving, as was an extract from P. G. Nagle’s novel about a passing woman during the American Civil War who decides to enlist. While “Alea Iacta Est” by Marissa Doyle was sheer fun - an Englishwoman in the early 19th century who decides to take part in a contest of table top war gaming at her brother’s club, whether it ruins her socially or not.

I was less engaged in many of the stories set in the present. Sara Stamey’s depiction of the generational harm done by male anger in the home in “Reset” is painfully real, and Brenda Clough’s “Making Love” is a charming tale about an older woman whose knitting seems to make things just a little better wherever it’s gifted. “Digger Lady” by Amy Sterling Casil is a bittersweet story of an old woman, an archeologist who has spent her life searching for evidence of a new hominid species. I rather enjoyed the themes of Irene Radford’s “Den of Iniquity” in which Lilith, the original rebellious woman, continues her ancient protest against the rigidity of the Father’s demands - though I must note some racist elements in the description and treatment of several characters named but not present.

Two of the four stories in the future section are frankly dystopian, and powerful. Mindy Klasky’s “Tumbling Blocks” tells a deeply moving story set in a world reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale in the way it treats women, a story about a young woman, pregnant by rape and shunned by her community, who finds an underground connection to women who are risking their lives to see that she and others still have access to reproductive choice. In “Chatauqua” Nancy Jane Moore envisions an America wracked by climate change and civil breakdown, where caravans of people with key skills travel the broken roads trying to save dying cultures, educate those who survive, and help however they can. Jennifer Stevenson’s “The Purge” focuses on a more personal trauma, an artist’s response to a visceral nightmare of war. The final story in the section, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff’s “If It Ain’t Broke” is in a much lighter vein, telling of a serendipitous merging of artistic inspiration and technological innovation.

The final section, other worlds, contains three fantasy and one science fiction stories that mostly continue the theme, but is, I felt, the weakest of the four sections. Judith Tarr’s “Tax Season” was, In my opinion, the best story in this section, and one of the best in the anthology - a light, fantasy world look at traditions, taxes, and being a woman in some rather non-traditional, and not exactly legal, occupations. Vonda McIntyre’s “Little Faces” is a highly original look at trust, betrayal, and reproduction in a symbiotic, space-dwelling society - pushing boundaries on our notions of famiky, sex and society in some very interesting ways. Doranna Durgin’s “In Search of Laria” is a slighter piece, but also centres on a betrayal of trust, this time between a rider, seduced by power, and her horse.

And then there’s Dave Smeds’ “Bearing Shadows,” which simply did not belong in a volume of stories like this. I am, in fact, deeply saddened and angry that the editor decided this story belonged here, for reasons I will expand on at length, because I’m just that angry to have found such a story in this volume. I am going to include extensive spoilers, because if you’re going to read this story, I think you should know exactly what you are getting into.

“Bearing Shadows” is set in a standard medieval fantasy world. The protagonist, a young woman named Aerise, lives in a typical village in a fairly standard patriarchal and moralistic society. In this world, there are humans, and there are the Cursed, elf-like beings who nonetheless can pass for humans, who live for hundreds of years, use magic, and spend half their time in the physical world and the other half in the dreamworld - in fact, they become ill and eventually die if they do not move regularly between the worlds, which has an unfortunate consequence in that their women cannot sustain a pregnancy. Thus, all the Cursed are the offspring of Cursed men and human women. Because the Cursed are feared and ostracised, not many human women are interested in bearing children to Cursed men. But some do, for a fee. These are often women who cannot prosper in a patriarchal society because they are not pretty enough to get a husband, or are disabled in some way, or have run afoul of the social norms - in short, women who are considered damaged goods, not only by humans, but also by the Cursed who depend on them fir the survival of their race. In the story, the Cursed refer to these women as broodmares, speak of them with disgust, refuse to share living space with them because they are dirty. They are depicted in the story in multiple ways as inferior, undesirable, unintelligent, unwanted.

On to the story. Aerise is happily married, enjoys a reasonable social status in her community, has a good life for the most part. She’s lost two children, but she’s pregnant again, and excited about it. Then her belly starts glowing, a sign that she’s carrying a Cursed child. She’s been a faithful wife, but eventually figures out that she was raped and impregnated one night when her husband was supposed to out late, but, she thought, came home early, woke her in the dark and had sex with her. It doesn’t matter, however, to the village folk or her husband that she was raped. She’s bearing a Cursed child, so out into the cold in her shift she must go. Of course, her rapist has been waiting for this. He finds her, convinces her to come with him to a Cursed encampment, and gives her into the care of two Cursed women who will be her child’s mothers. She’s treated somewhat better than the other human women, pregnant and nursing -“broodmares” - also living in the encampment, but not much. Her rapist, Morel, explains that he wanted a child by a better class of woman than he could get by fair negotiation with a broodmare, so this somehow justifies his rape of her. She is not mollified. She gives birth to a daughter, stays with the Cursed long enough to wean her, and then demands her price - her life back. What Morel offers is that he place her in suspended animation for 60 years, and then, pretending to be her husband, take her back to the village she came from, where no one will likely be alive who remembers her, wait til she gets integrated into the community, and then fake his death so she can find a new human husband among the grown grandchildren of the people she grew up among. Pause for a moment. To get back, not her old life, the husband she loved, her friends and family, but a chance at starting over again with people she doesn’t know, she’s going to have to pretend to be the loving wife of her rapist. Think about that. Anyway, she agrees, and the story ends with her being accepted as a young widow, living in her old village, bring courted by some promising young men, with a new chance at life. And she gets to meet her now adolescent daughter by Morel, who is a charming young girl.

This steaming pile of shit purports to be about a woman who persists against rape, and the loss of everything she ever knew and loved, and is rewarded with a second chance at life. But underneath that veneer is a series of justifications for rape. It’s necessary to ensure the survival of the Cursed. It was necessary because Morel didn’t want one of those disgusting second-class broodmares as the mother of his child. It was ok in the end because the child was so lovely, and besides, she got to have another chance to get married and have a normal life. As I said, a steaming pile of crap. There is so much in this story that made me want to scream and break things. There are far too many male perspectives on rape out there, and most of them misogynist as hell. We did not need another one, especially one disguised as a celebration of the persistence of women.

I have a suggestion. I think it’s time that men stopped writing about rape of women and other femmes. The conversation on rape has been controlled by male voices for far too long. Sure, some sensitive and feminist men have gotten it right, but do we really need more men talking about the rape of women and femmes? Time’s up in more ways than one, and more male perspectives on this subject are not needed. Especially those that try to justify it, or come up with ideas of how to make it all right in the end. There’s only one way to do that - stop raping in the first place.

So.... I mostly enjoyed these stories, despite the spectre of white feminism lurking behind the editorial choices, but reading Smeds’ contribution left a distinctly bad taste in my mouth. I suggest that if you decide to read this, you just ignore that story. You’ll find much more to enjoy in some of the other selections.



*This anthology contains 19 short stories, 18 of which are written by women and one of which is written by a man.
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Sisters of the Revolution, edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, is a reprint anthology that brings together work from some of the most important feminist voices in science fiction. This is not hyperbole. Among the works collected in this PM Press publication are Joanna Russ’s When It Changed, James Tiptree Jr’s The Screwfly Solution, Octavia Butler’s The Evening and the Morning and the Night, and Ursula Le Guin’s Sur, as well as several other stories I’ve read and loved before from authors Eleanor Arnason, Vandana Singh, Nalo Hopkinson and Elisabeth Vonarburg. There were also a fair number of stories new to me, by authors both familiar and new. It’s an outstanding collection of writing by remarkable women.

In their introduction, Ann Vandemeer and Jeff Vandemeer write of this anthology as part of an ongoing conversation around feminist speculative fiction, neither a defining nor a definitive work. “We think of this anthology—the research, the thought behind it, and the actual publication—as a journey of discovery not complete within these pages. Every reader, we hope, will find some writer or story with which they were not previously familiar—and feel deeply some lack that needs to be remedied in the future, by some other anthology.”

As such, it is both deeply enjoyable in its right, and an encouragement to seek out further examples of the feminist vision in speculative fiction.

The stories contained in this collection examine many aspects of women’s lives and struggles. Woman as mother, woman as daughter, woman as leader, woman as revolutionary, woman as healer, woman as explorer, woman as hero. Women who defy the expectations of their society, women who choose to escape, women who try to do the right thing, women who rebel, women who kill, women alone, women betrayed, women who survive. I recommend it highly.
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In Monstrous Beauty, Marie Brennan’s collection of retellings of fairy tales, the happy endings of the classic stories of princes and princesses, queens and little girls visiting their grandmothers transmuted into horror. The title is an apt one - just as most of the fairy tales feature women so beautiful they inspire acts of the greatest cruelty and courage, these retellings give us monsters disguised in beauty, and the cruelest of fates.

It’s a slim volume, seven short stories - one of them very short indeed - and where the source materials, at least in the sanitised versions we now read to children, are about things like the power of love to conquer all, these are more about the evil that lies beneath the glamour. These are worlds where darkness waits for the bold, where mysterious women alone in the wilderness are best ignored, where love cannot conquer death. Brennan is scholar of folklore, and she knows that many of the stories we tell our children in picture books and animated films have much darker roots. In these stories, she reaches for the depths underneath the pretty stories, and gives them to is, unvarnished and untamed.
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Mercedes Lackey seems to release a new Valdemar anthology every year just before Christmas, and 2017 was no exception. Which means that one of my solstice presents was an ebook of the latest volume, Pathways.

This year’s collection is, as always, a balance of stories about heralds or would-be Heralds and stories about people from other parts of Valdemar’s world, some human and some not. Because this is an ongoing series of anthologies, there are some familiar characters, as authors write new tales about old friends. These are for the most part optimistic stories, in which problems get solved, wrongs are righted, plots are foiled, lessons are learned, people find their place in the world.

I sometimes wonder about the reasons behind my deep affection for Lackey’s created country of Valdemar. It’s more than just the enjoyment of good hero stories, or the fact that she was writing women protagonists, and even putting queer characters into her stories, back when there was much less of that going around. I think it hinges on two things.

First, the Valdemarian insistence that there is no one truth, one right form of worship, no state religion. I like the idea of real religious tolerance, and I like that Lackey wanted to write about a society that makes no official windows into people’s souls.

Second, but probably more important, is the idea of the Heralds - and the requirement that the head of government and their chief advisor be Heralds. Living in this world where both the leaders and the agents of the state are so often corrupt, and lack any notion of social justice, it’s a fine fantasy indeed to escape into Valdemar, where Heralds can be trusted to, at the very least, have good intentions.

I’m glad to have spent the last hours of a very rotten year - both personally and globally - reading something light and full of hope that there are good people, and that not only do they sometimes win, but they get to be happy for a while.


*There are 20 short stories in this anthology, 17 written by women, two written by men, and one written by a person who chose not to indicate their gender.

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Heiresses of Russ 2015, edited by Jean Roberta and Steve Berman, collects some of the best "lesbian-flavoured" speculative short fiction from 2014. I've been reading these anthologies for several years now, and enjoying them for their woman-centred stories and queer imaginings.

While it's often true that there is some unevenness in a collection of short fiction, I found the stories in this year's anthology to be pretty much all of notable quality. But even in such a collection, there were some truly stand-out pieces for me, among them Ruthanna Emrys' "Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land," Ken Liu's "Knotting Grass, Holding Ring," and Susan Jane Bigelow's "Sarah's Child."



*This anthology contains 14 short stories, 10 written by women, 3 written by men and one written by a genderqueer person.

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Tempest: All New Tales of Valdemar, edited by Mercedes Lackey, is yet another in what has become a long series of anthologies of stories set in Velgarth, the world of Valdemar and Heralds and mind-speaking spirits who look like white horses and magic-casting gryphons and other marvels.

It's a fairly strong anthology, with contributors from seasoned veterans like Fiona Patton, Brenda Cooper, Rosemary Edghill and Lackey herself, and relative newcomers. Several of the contributors have offered stories which focus on characters they have created and written about before in these anthologies, including Elizabeth Vaughan's stories about widowed ladyHolder Cera, and Patton's tales of the Dann brothers and their adventures as part of Haven's Watch.

Good light reading for anyone looking for a quick Valdemar fix.



*This anthology contains 22 stories, 17 of which were written by women, two of which were written by men, two of which were co-written by both a woman and a man, and one by an author who chose not to be identified by gender.

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Sword and Sorceress 30, edited by Elisabeth Waters, is the most recent in the long series of women-centred fantasy anthologies started by Marion Zimmer Bradley in 1984.

I've been reading this series, on and off, since it first began. While I've missed a few volumes, I haven't missed many. And regretfully, it seems to me that there has been somewhat of a slow decline in the quality of some of the short stories on offer in these anthologies in recent years. Or perhaps I'm simply demanding more of my short fiction. Anthologies are often uneven, with some excellent stories, and dome that do not appeal quite so much.

However, I found a number of the short stories in this volume to be a bit lightweight, and though reading them was fun, they were lacking in punch or impact. I read them, but I didn't find myself caring deeply.

Exceptions to this include the following stories, which did, at least for me, deliver the expected reading experience.

Robin Wayne Bailey's The Sea Witches, about a woman and her daughter who must confront an ancient threat from the sea.

Liar's Tournament by Pauline J. Alama, in which a wandering knight and her sorceress companion face on illicit sorcery at a tournament.

The Piper's Wife by new writer Susan Murrie Macdonald, a tale about a pregnant scribe who saves the day with somewhat unorthodox tactics.

In Four Paws to Light My Way, by veteran author Deborah J. Ross, a blind warrior and her canine companion join with a princess cursed to turn anyone who sees her face to stone to face a warlock bent on destroying the kingdom. I think this was my favourite story.

In Catherine Soto's Jewels on the Sand, a caravan master who is more than she seems investigates a murder.

All in all, an average quality anthology with a few gems, but still worth reading because it centres stories of women in sword and sorcery fantasy, and that's something we still need a lot more of.


*This anthology contains 15 stories, six of which are written by men, seven of which are written by women, one of which is co-written by a man and a woman, and one of which is written by an author whose gender is not known.

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What delight! An entire anthology devoted to modern reimaginings of those glorious old school planetary romances, set on that long-lost imaginary planet of fetid swamps and humid jungles, of thickly overcast skies dripping hot rains, of slimy and slithery things that flourish in the warm, damp dimness, of scaled and webbed amphibious denizens of vast blood-hot oceans, and the ruins of ancient decadent civilisations overrun by thick, lush vegetation - the Venus of my youth, destroyed forever by the flyby of Mariner 2. Yes, I'm talking about George R. R. Martin and Garner Dozois' collaborative editorial effort, Old Venus.

It's a wonderful homage to the great pulp writers of planetary adventure, from Edgar Rice Burroughs and Otis Adelbert Kline to Leigh Brackett and C. L. Moore, a collection of stories with all the fast-paced action, adventure, and even at times terror of the originals, but infused with a modern, often post-colonial awareness. In many of these stories, lurking in the shadows behind the hard-boiled adventurer's narrative lies an acknowledgement of damage done by the bold colonising Earthmen, the exploitation of Venusian wealth and peoples, the question of who is the monster - the indigenous, adapted life form, or the alien writing the story. And in some, there is awareness of the hubris of the explorer, the belief that the indigenous peoples can not be as knowledgeable, even of the nature and history of their own world, as the ones who "discover" them. This is planetary romance, all grown up.

While all the stories have something to recommend them, I particularly enjoyed "Bones of Air, Bones of Stone," by Stephen Leigh, "Ruins," by Eleanor Arnason, "The Sunset of Time," by Michael Cassutt, "Pale Blue Memories," by Tobias S. Buckell, and "The Heart's Filthy Lesson," by Elizabeth Bear.



* This anthology contains 16 stories, 13 of which are written by men, and three of which are written by women

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Another year, another Darkover anthology. This year's edition arrived at a most opportune moment, when I was sick with a truly vicious cold and much in need of comfort reading.

Realms of Darkover is exactly what one should, by now, expect - a collection of short stories set in the familiar world created by Marion Zimmer Bradley, with all sorts of variations on the themes of first contact and the coming of the Terrans, how to cope with laran, the workings of renunciates and Guild Houses, a scattering of chieris and perhaps some of the other non-human races found on Darkover, and a few stories that break out into other areas.

I enjoyed all of the tales in this volume, particularly Diana L. Paxson's "Housebound," and Barb Caffrey's "Fiona, Court Clerk in Training," both of which feature protagonists seen in earlier collections.

Light fun reading.

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I've been eagerly awaiting the publication of Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel Delany, edited by Nisi Shawl and Bill Campbell, since I first heard it was in the pipeline, for a very personal reason. Delany was one of the first authors - not just of science fiction, but of any genre - who wrote books that crawled inside my brain and stayed there. There are others - Suzette Haden Elgin and Naomi Mitchison among them - but I can honestly say that simply reading Babel-17 was such a world-altering event for me that, had I never encountered it, I might be a very different person today.

In short, Samuel Delany and his work are very important to me.

Contributions to this volume include fiction and non-fiction, and they are tributes, reflections of how Delany has influenced other writers rather than attempts to recreate Delany's aesthetic. As Kim Stanley Robinson says in his Introduction:

These tributes mostly don’t try to imitate Delany’s style, which is good, as it is a very personal style, one that has morphed through the years in complex ways. Imitation could only result in pastiche or parody, forms of limited interest, although a good parody can be fun, and I’ve seen some pretty good ones of Delany’s work elsewhere. A “Bad Delany” contest would be at least as funny as the famous “Bad Hemingway” and “Bad Faulkner” contests. But a better tribute, as the writers gathered here seem to agree, results from considering not style but substance. Delany’s subject matter, his mode or method, involves a characteristic mix of the analytical and the emotional, the realistic and the utopian. By exploring this delanyesque space (and I think delanyesque has become an adjective, like ballardian or orwellian or kafkaesque), the stories and essays here make the best kind of tribute. They perhaps help to make the Delanyspace a new genre or subgenre. However that works, it’s certain that Delany’s work has effected a radical reorientation of every genre he has written in. Time and other writers will tell the sequel as to what that means for science fiction, fantasy, sword and sorcery, pornography, memoir, and criticism. Here we get hints of what that will be like.


There are no weak contributions in this collection, only strong, and stronger. Among those that hit hardest for me:

- Chesya Burke's powerful, heart-breaking short story "For Sale: Fantasy Coffins (Abobua Need Not Apply)"

- Walidah Imarisha's essay on the importance of imagining black futures, "Walking Science Fiction: Samuel Delany and Visionary Futures"

- "Be Three" by Jewelle Gomez, a parable about forbidden relationships and the desperate need to find some way for love to survive

- Junot Diaz' "Nilda," a bleak story about the existential despair of the marginalised, the unvoiced pain of personal loss and the self-destructive roles we are pushed into by social forces beyond our control

- "River Clap Your Hands" by Sheree Renée Thomas is a powerful story about loss - loss of heritage and lineage, loss of home and comfort, loss of future hopes - and about going forward to find a new life in spite of it.

- "Jamaica Ginger" by Nalo Hopkinson and Nisi Shawl, a steampunk tale of a young woman who finds her way out of a seemingly dead-end situation.


*This anthology contains 14 contributions by women out of 34 pieces (including the Introduction).

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I've been having a rather rotten time these past weeks, and so it was with some pleasure that I was able to get my electronic hands on a copy of Crucible: All-New Tales of Valdemar, Mercedes Lackey's newest anthology of short stories set in Velgarth, the world where the Heralds of Valdemar and the Hawkbrothers and Shin'a'in and other such peoples live.

It's always enjoyable for me to revisit these places - there is, as I have often said, something about the universe Lackey created here that pushes my simple pleasure buttons.

As usual, Lackey's contribution "Vexed Vixen," was one of the ones I enjoyed the most. Others that stood out for me were Fiona Patton's "Before a River Runs through It," Jennifer Brozek's "Feathers in Need," Stephanie D. Shaver's "The Highjorune Masque," Elizabeth A. Vaughan's "Unresolved Consequences," and Dayle A. Dermatis' "Never Alone." But all of the stories were, in their own way, fun. Lackey knows what she wants in these anthologies, and she gets it from her contributors.


*Of the 18 short stories in this anthology, 15 were written by women, two by men, and one was a collaboration between a man and a woman.

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Future Eves: Great Science Fiction About Women by Women, edited by Jean Marie Stine, is an anthology of "Golden Age" science fiction stories written by women, reminding us that despite the attempts of some to frame science fiction as something 'ineluctably masculine,' women have been part of science fiction from the beginning. As Stine comments in her Introduction,
This anthology showcases nine classic tales by female science fiction writers, penned between 1926 (the publication of the first science fiction magazine) and 1960 (the dawn of modern SF), each featuring its own, unique future Eve. Although it is generally assumed that no – or few – women were writing science fiction during this period, research reveals a strikingly different picture. Recently a review was conducted of every issue of every SF magazine published from the debut first science fiction magazine in 1926 (Amazing Stories) and the modern age in SF magazine publishing in 1959 (when Imagination, the last pulp-influenced periodical went broke and the more literary, purse-sized magazines typical today became dominant). An unsuspected one hundred women contributed stories to their pages during those three and a half decades. Some researchers estimate the true number may well be twice that, as doubtless many women – believing, perhaps rightly, that their work would find readier acceptance – concealed their gender behind androgynous names, the anonymity of initials or beneath male pseudonyms.
The first of the stories is "The Conquest of Gola" by Leslie F. Stone (Wonder Stories, April 1931). A variation on the "battle of the sexes" theme, the story recounts the victory of invaders from the "planet of men" over a matriarchal society - and how the women fight back.

Margaretta W. Rea's "Delilah" (Amazing Stories, January 1933) is more of a psychological mystery than a science fiction or fantasy tale, about a painter who believes someone else is completing his paintings, and the clever fiancée who figures out the truth.

In Hazel Heald's "Man of Stone" (Wonder Stories, October 1932), two men set out to discover the truth behind a friend's story of finding amazingly detailed statues in a cave in the Adirondacks. A dark fantasy with links to the Cthulhu Mythos stories authored by Lovecraft and others. (It should be noted that Lovecraft edited and on occasion revised the work of members of this group of writes, Heald among them, and this story is sometimes credited to both authors - but it doesn't read like Lovecraft.)

In "Days of Darkness" by Evelyn Goldstein (Fantastic Stories, January 1960), a woman who has put others first for most of her life is saved by her self-sacrifice, but at a cost she may not be able to bear.

Marcia Kamien's "Alien Invasion" (Universe Science Fiction, March 1954) features a woman who must decide whether to bear and raise an unwanted child to save some small part of a dying world.

"Miss Millie's Rose" by Joy Leche (Fantastic Universe, May 1959) is a story about a most unusual miniature rose tree and its effects on the woman who owns it.

"The Goddess Planet Delight" by Betsy Curtis (Planet Stories, May 1953) features a travelling galactic salesman who finds himself on a planet where bureaucracy has been taken to a high art - and where goddesses really exist.

In "Cocktails at Eight" by Beth Elliot (Fantastic Universe, March 1959), a frazzled Martian housewife prepares for an important cocktail party while her twin boys get into all kinds of trouble. Very much the 50s middle class American Dream transplanted into an interplanetary future.

"The Last Day" by Helen Clarkson (Satellite Science Fiction, April 1958) is a sad and evocative story about the last survivor of a nuclear holocaust.

All in all, an interesting mix of short stories, some more memorable than others. The highlight for me was the last story in the book, Clarkson's "The Last Day," but I also found "Miss Millie's Rose" to be quite a strong offering.

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I read The Big Baen Book of Monsters, edited by Hank Davis, because it contains the Hugo-nominated story "A Single Samurai" by Steven Diamond. It was part of the Hugo voters package, and as both the premise and the table of contents looked interesting, I decided to read the entire anthology. After all, monsters have always been a big part of science fiction, especially during the years of the pulps. We can speculate on just what these horrifying creatures represent, from the Communist Menace to an angry planet taking back control - but the frisson of fear, the element of awe, that we experience in reading such tales can be great fun, as long as we're safe at home when we read about them.

The opening story was one by Arthur C. Clarke that was new to me, "The Shining Ones," in which a deepsea engineer encounters something unexpected and vast - and deadly. Good, but what else does one expect from Clarke?

In Howard Waldrop's "All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past," the Earth is overwhelmed by all the monsters from every '50s sci-fi film (Martian invaders, giant lizards and grasshoppers and everything else that was ever put on film in that decade, and one of the few remaining humans heads to New Mexico for a showdown from one of the first films of the genre, Them! Fun reading.

"The Monster-God of Mamurth" by Edmond Hamilton, in which some travellers in North Africa find a dying archaeologist who has discovered an ancient city, an invisible temple and a horrifying monster-god. Nicely Lovecraftesque.

"Talent," by Robert Bloch, is the story of a very odd child with a remarkable talent for mimicry and an obsession with watching and imitating the villains from the movies. A showcase for Bloch's remarkable talent for horror.

David Drake's "The End of the Hunt" could best be described as a far future "Leiningen Versus the Ants" - with a genetically engineered symbiote as Leiningen facing off against some extremely mutated ants. An interesting idea, but the telling is a bit disjointed.

Anthony Melville Rud's "Ooze," first published in 1923, is a tale set in a "sinister" southern Alabama swamp, home to "darkys" and "queer, half-wild" Cajans who are notable for distilling and selling illicit "shinny." Setting aside as best one can the casual racism of the time, the next bit that made me a tad uncomfortable was learning that the protagonist is raising the daughter of deceased friends Lee and Peggy - having had a crush on Peggy, he now hopes the four-year-old Elsie will come to love him as more than a foster father. Oh well, on to the story. The protagonist has come to Alabama to find out whether, as is believed, Lee's scientist father John, who had been conducting research in the swamp, went mad and killed his son and daughter-in-law. As one would expect from the title and the set-up, the answer is no, it wasn't dear old dad, but rather a scientific experiment he'd been cooking up back in the swamp. The story is very much in the same vein as Lovecraft's work, though perhaps a bit less florid, but lacks the intensity and focus of the best of Lovecraft.

Robert E. Howard's "Valley of the Worm" begins with an unfortunate paean to the glory of the blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan race, into which the narrator has been born throughout thousands of incarnations - one of which being the iron-thewed warrior Niord whose doings the story celebrates. Niord's nomadic tribe of Nordheimers has wandered far, ending up in a jungle, where they meet savage Picts, capturing in battle a warrior named Grom who is described as "grinning broadly and showing tusk-like teeth, his beady eyes glittering from under the tangled black mane that fell over his low forehead. His limbs were almost apelike in their thickness." After that, the Nordheimers and Picts live peaceably, until a group of young Nordheimers decide to settle in a valley feared by the Picts. You can probably tell the story yourself from here. A classic Howard story, with mighty sword-wielding heroes, a ghastly monster, and all the subtlety of a Mack truck.

In Wen Spencer's "Whoever Fights Monsters," a mild-mannered insurance adjustor deals with some very strange damage claims, two laconic government agents obsessed with food, and a lake monster hunting for its stolen eggs. A monster story with a light touch.

In Steven Utley's "Deviations from a Theme," we encounter a species of god-like creatures from outside the time-space continuum as we know it, whose favoured pastime is creating universes. But when a teacher allows an inept student of the art to practice on their own creation, the consequences are quote deadly.

"The Eggs from Lake Tanganyika" by Curt Siodmak is one of those cautionary tales about Western natural scientists who think they know better than the inhabitants of the area they are studying. In this case, an entomologist brings home four gigantic eggs that terrified his African hosts. Hatching ensues, but the ending is too facile to work effectively.

And what collection of monster tales would be complete without something from one of the early masters of monstrous horror, H. P. Lovecraft? "The Dunwich Horror" unfolds in its elliptical, italicized and adjective-laden manner, building up to the final revelation concerning the children of Lavinia Whateley.

In Sarah A. Hoyt's "From Out the Fire," a squad of mage-soldiers take on the threat of 50-foot fire snails that could trigger the Yellowstone caldera to erupt. Some nice twists and turns.

"Beauty and the Beast," by Golden Age master Henry Kuttner, begins with the crash landing on Earth of a spaceship sent out just a few months before to explore Venus. The man who finds the wreck also finds its pilot dead, with notes on the ruins of an ancient Venusian civilisation, some seeds, and a great jewel-like egg. Naturally, our protagonist plants the seeds and hatches the egg - but which is the beauty and which the beast?

William Hope Hodgson's "The Island of the Ud" is a rip-roaring seaman's tale about ship captains and treasure hunting and wild devil women and sea monsters, by one of the early masters of modern fantasy.

Steven Diamond's "A Single Samurai was something of a disappointment. An interesting idea - a mountain-sized kaiju awakens and begins to destroy the countryside, and one samurai tries to stop it - but rather blandly executed, and with a climax that stretches one's suspension of belief.

In "Planet of Dread," a novelette by classic sf pulp writer Murray Leinster, a group of fugitives battle giant insects and internal conflicts on a planet where terrafoming went seriously wrong. Good pulpy fun.

Philip Wylie's "Letter to the Thessalonians" is actually an excerpt from a novel, but stands alone because it is a short story written by the main character. In this tale, a thousand-mile high giant sets down on earth, its feet in the Atlantic Ocean, its head well above the atmosphere. As sea levels rise, and panic spreads, Wylie deftly satirises all the standard responses of humans to crisis.

In Wardon Allan Curtis' " The Monster of Lake Lametrie," published in 1899, a scientist and his companion explore the area around a remote lake in the mountains of Wyoming, where they encounter an elasmosaurus, and very peculiar things happen.

The cast of Hank Davis' "The Giant Cat of Sumatra" includes several members of the ancient Egyptian pantheon including two immortal cat-goddesses who can assume human form, Sherlock Holmes, and of course, the Giant Rat of Sumatra. It's a fun read.

In "Greenface" by James H. Schmitz, a strange green gelatinous creature terrorises the guests at a fishing camp, growing larger as time passes.

The final story in the anthology is "Tokyo Raider" by Larry Correia. In an alternate Earth, where people have powers that enable them to manipulate forces such as fire, ice and gravity, an American soldier-mage uses his powers to control a giant Japanese-made robot in an attack on an enormous city-destroying Russian demon that seems remarkably like Godzilla.

All in all some great stories, some decent stories, a few disappointments - about par for any anthology - and lots of very cool monsters.



* This anthology contains 21 stories, two of which are identifiable as being written by women.

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The Music of Darkover, edited by Elisabeth Waters and Leslie Fish, is a rather special anthology - in addition to the stories - some new, but with three reprinted from earlier volumes in the series because of the role that music plays in them - it collects the songs that Bradley herself wrote for the Darkovan series, the original (mostly Scottish Gaelic) songs Bradley based them on, "traditional" Darkovan songs written by others, and various filksongs with a Darkovan theme. Elisabeth Waters says in her Introduction:
... this anthology started with a song: “The Horsetamer’s Daughter,” written by Leslie Fish in 1983. It was hardly her first filk song; I owned a copy of her record (and I’m talking about an LP here) Folk Songs For Folk Who Ain’t Even Been Yet, which was released in 1976.

Leslie, in addition to being a gifted songwriter, also writes fiction, so eventually she wrote the story behind the song. When Deborah J. Ross and I started working on STARS OF DARKOVER, the new Darkover anthology scheduled for June 2014, Leslie sent us “Tower of Horses.” The problem is that it is over 30,000 words long and would take up more than a third of the anthology, so I came up with the idea of slipping an extra anthology into the schedule a year early.
Fish's novella, "Tower of Horses" comes first in the anthology, and it is a good one. Set a generation after the destruction of the Tower of Hali, it is the tale of a young woman with the Hastur gift born into a family of horse-trainers. Fish presents the Ages of Chaos as a time when the ordinary working classes suffered greatly from the arrogance and excesses of the Comyn and the deadly laran weapons used in their endless wars. Free of overlordship for years after the fall of Hali, when the Comyn and their laranzus and leronis return, the people resist, and even though she has no matrix and no training, Cath is able to form a Keeper's circle with horses rather than humans, in order to protect her people, her land, and her beloved wild horses.

India Edghill's story "Right to Choose" is a variation on the story of Melora Aillard from The Shattered Chain - in this tale, the Renunciates hired to free a kidnapped Comyn woman from a Dry-Towner discover that the young woman is no victim, but a willing bride, who eloped with her lover and freely chose his chains. The story is complemented by the lyrics of a song written by Edghill's sister Rosemary Edghill, which has as its refrain:
But all who breathe are chained
For power, love, or wealth
By laran, breeding, family
By others or by self.
Vera Nazarian's "Danila's Song" is a reprint from the eighth Darkover anthology, Renunciates of Darkover (1991). It is the story of psychological healing following trauma, triggered by a song. While some things bothered me - reference to a male Keeper in a time when the Terrans have just arrived on Darkover, and a debate over whether a person can inherit two donas, or laran abilities - I enjoyed the story, although I found that I wanted to know much more about the eponymous Danila than the few bits of information Nazarian gives us.

Raul S. Reyes' "The Starstone and the Mirror Ball" begins with a whimsical premise - after unknown centuries, Terrans still love disco. When a young Ridenow explores the Thendara disco scene, the lights and music trigger threshold sickness, and the development of an unusual and feared form of laran.

In Michael Spence's "Music of the Spheres, set - at least in the beginning - in the era of the Hundred Kingdoms, a quartet of retired Tower technicians take to writing and performing music, with unexpectedly transcendent results.

"Poetic Licence" by Mercedes Lackey is another reprint, having first been published in the twelfth Darkover anthology, Snows of Darkover (1994). Set in the time of Varzil the Good, it is a light, almost comic account of a young noble with a predilection for plagarising the work of his fellow music students and the ultimate consequences of his folly.

Elisabeth Waters' "A Capella," another reprint from Snows of Darkover, features Gavin Dellaray, a minor character from The Heirs of Hammerfell, caught in the difficult position of trying to teach Capella Ridenow, the tone-deaf nedestra cousin of the King, the soprano part in his next cantata.

The final story of the anthology, also by Waters, is a comic sequel to her reprint, "A Song for Capella," in which Gavin Dellaray is hard put to produce a suitable musical program to celebrate the marriage of Capella to Lord Alton.

As for the music of Darkover, Margaret Davis, one of several musicians in Bradley's circle of companions, presents a brief account of the role Bradley and other played in the creation of several published works, including a suite of songs taken from Tolkien's work with music written by Bradley, and a record of songs from the Darkover books, written or adapted by Bradley or other musicians, and arranged by Davis and her husband Kristof Klover.

Following this account are the lyrics of the songs themselves - including all twenty-odd verses of the ballad of Callista and Hastur.

An anthology with a difference, and a most enjoyable one, especially for those who have always been interested in the songs of Darkover.


*Of the eight pieces of short fiction in this anthology, six are identifiable as being written by women.
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I have always approached the publication of a new anthology of stories set on Darkover with joy and delicious anticipation. I grew up with the world of Darkover, it is a part of my core experience of SFF, and I have always been excited by each opportunity to return to this complex world, with its thousands of years of history to play in. And my delight has always been rewarded with stories that felt like Darkover, despite the time period chosen, and the somewhat varied skills of cobtributors.

But this newest anthology, Gifts of Darkover, edited by Deborah J. Ross, didn't quite work the magic I've been accustomed to. Perhaps my recent reread of a large segment of the Darkover canon sensitised me, but a few of the stories felt "off." Deborah Ross knows Darkover as well as anyone now living - she worked with Bradley, she has been chosen by Bradley's Literary Trust to write new novels in the universe of Darkover, and most of them (with the exception of the very odd Hastur Lord) have satisfactorily captured the Darkover experience. But still... Some of these stories felt out of place to me.

In her introduction to the anthology, Ross says: "I believe it’s a healthy thing to allow for the introduction of new characters, themes, and resonances while staying true to the spirit of the world, a wondrous place of telepaths and swordsmen, nonhumans and ancient mysteries, marked by the clash of cultures between a star-faring, technologically advanced civilization and one that has pursued psychic gifts and turned away from weapons of mass destruction."

It's possible that in seeking to grow the world of Darkover in new ways, open up new themes and resonances, Ross simply went further than I feel comfortable with in accepting stories that pushed the boundaries of what Darkover is. Certainly, most of the stories were ones I felt were true to the spirit of Darkover.

"Learning to Breathe Snow," by Rosemary Edghill and Rebecca Fox is set in the early days of the Terran presence on Darkover, just after the Thendara spaceport was established, and presents an early attempt to by the Comyn to divert Terran interest away from the special gifts of Darkover.

"Healing Pain" by Jane M. H. Bigelow is the story of Taniquel, a young woman with laran and a desire to study Terran medicine to make her a better healer.

"Blood-kin" by Diana L. Paxson also deals with medical themes, as Terran training and Darkovan laran make it possible to immunise those at risk during an outbreak of plague.

"The Tower" by Jeremy Erman is set not long after the events of Darkover Landfall and deals with the desire among some of the exiles to remember the things of Earth.

In "Stonefell Gift" by Marella Stone, a powerful but dangerous form of laran brings tragedy to an entire family.

"Compensation" by Leslie Fish is one of the stories that simply did not work for me. Set at the time of recontact, it positions the christoforos as preservers of Terran knowledge from the era of the first landing, presents the chieri is a light that is quite at odds with what is known of them, particularly the elements of their history revealed in The World Wreckers, and argues that laran and logic are mutually exclusive gifts.

"Green Is the Colour of Her Eyes So Blue" by Deborah Millitello is set in the Dry-Towns shortly after the events of The Children of Kings, and features Gareth Elhalyn and his wife Rahelle. While in Shainsa to negotiate a treaty, they find a young girl with a rare form of laran - and a heavy responsibility.

"Renegades of Darkover" by Robin Wayne Bailey is another of the stories that felt wrong to me. Set at some point after recontact, it casts the descendant of Dan Barron and Marietta Storn from Winds of Darkover as a terrorist who harbours a deadly animosity toward the Comyn elite.

In "Memory" by Shariann Lewitt, a young woman with the ability to preserve memories in crystals uses her gift to protect herself and her loved ones from a predator.

In "A Problem of Punishment" by Barb Caffrey, a judge and a group of Renunciates join together to capture a bandit who orders his men to break the Compact.

In "Hidden Gifts" by Margaret L. Carter, a young nursemaid, the nedestra daugher of an Alton, uses the laran no one suspects she has to save the lives of her charge.

"Climbing to the Moon" by Ty Nolan takes place in the Hellers in an alternate history Darkover, where an intelligent species bred during the Ages of Chaos to serve as war-beasts are threatened by those who fear that an attack on the new Terran spaceport would bring down the vengeance of the Alderans.

Despite my dissatisfaction with some of these stories, I hope there will be more anthologies to come. I am always looking for the chance to revisit Darkover.


* This anthology contains 12 stories, nine of which are identifiable as being written by women.
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"Bless Your Mechanical Heart," edited by Jennifer Brozek, is structured around a rather interesting theme. As Brozek notes in her Introduction, it's the idea of
...the poignant, sympathetic robot/cyborg that just doesn’t get it… or does get it and can’t do anything about it. That’s what makes some of these stories a kick in the teeth or encourages the reader to sigh with a knowing smile. We all recognize the humanity in the protagonists, even if they don’t recognize it themselves.
And the stories are for the most part very good, and all of them rung thoughtful changes on the theme. One thing I found interesting about many of them - particularly in light of the reference Brozak makes to the 'humanity' of the cybernetic protagonists - was that the authors had so fully and gendered these mechanical men - and women - that I found it somehow wrong not to use gendered pronouns in discussing them.

In Seanan McGuire's "The Lamb," highly realistic androids are placed in classrooms as a deterrent to bullying; programmed both to be targets - so that they, and not vulnerable human children and youths are bullied, assaulted, and tormented - and witnesses who speak out on graduation day concerning the abuse each one has experienced at the hands of their classmates.

Fiona Patton's "The King's Own" tells the story of an android soldier, a member of the special guard of a king in exile, whose special programming allows him to learn emotion and self-awareness, and the human soldier who tells him a lifetime of stories - starting with The Velveteen Rabbit - that show him how.

Mira lives in a world where drone bombs take out random targets at regular intervals. Three years ago, the target was her girlfriend Amy. Mira still grieves for her miscarried child, while her husband Jeff buries himself so deep in his work it's as if he wasn't there. Mira has an android housekeeper named Rachel, who once belonged to Amy, who has been programmed by Jeff to be Mira's substitute lover, and who wants to make Mira happy - but what Mira wants is a child to raise. "The Strange Architecture of the Heart," by Lucy A. Snyder, is funny and sad by turns, and ends with an unexpected answer to Mira's longing.

Jean Rabe's "Thirty-two Twenty-three" looks at what happens when a malfunctioning robot programmed to be a judicial assistant is reprogrammed with everything necessary to serve the religious needs of a diverse group of parishioners on a mining colony.

A batman - or batwoman - is a personal servant assigned to a commissioned officer. In "Just Another Day in the Butterfly War" by M. Todd Gallowglas, a cybernetic batwoman watches over two agents whose role in a temporal war is to keep the enemy from changing the timeline - and changing it back if they succeed.

In "Ever You" by Mae Empson, soldiers killed in battle - and of course, there is a long and bloody war as the background to the story - are brought back to fight again, and again, and again, cloned brains in synthetic bodies. To properly integrate their memories before going back to the front, these "Re-issues" spend a week with someone from their life before going off to fight and die - but at what emotional cost to the spouse, sibling, parent, friend who sends them off - again, and again, and again?

In Sarah Hans' "Rest in Peace," a lonely robot faces centuries alone after the human she has cared for and served through twelve regenerations dies.

A robot, well-maintained, can remain functional for a very long time - and in Dylan Birtolo's "Seeds of Devotion" we meet a robot programmed to do one special thing long after its owner is gone.

"The Imperial Companion" by Lillian Cohen-Moore presents us with a synthetic being designed as the friend and companion of a royal prince, who is reawakened centuries after the violent death of his charge.

Christopher Kellan's "In So Many Words" is a love story, its protagonist a robotic Cyrano de Bergerac who must woo his beloved for another - the human who is his master.

In "Do Robotic Cats Purr in Outer Space?" by Kerrie Hughes, a robotic therapist with the body of a cat and the preserved memories and personality of a human negotiates a subversive deal with one of her clients to secure a future for both of them.

Jason Sanford's "We Eat the Hearts that Come for You" is a tragic tale of a cyborg lover programmed to do the unthinkable - and suffer for it - again and again.

"AIDEd" by Minerva Zimmerman is a chilling tale of escalation of hostilities - set in a futuristic schoolground where students are assigned androids to protect then from any and all dangers.

Mark Andrew Edwards' "The Body as a Ship" follows an aging man through the process of replacing his failing organs one by one.

In the evocatively titled "Of Metal Men and Scarlet Thread and Dancing with the Sunrise" by Ken Scholes, a mechanical servitor, programmed with the knowledge to destroy a city, becomes a dangerous weapon.

In Jody Lynn Nye's "Lost Connection," a woman who has remained too dependent on her childhood robotic companion finds finds someone who will need her old friend far more than she ever did.

Peter Clines' "The Apocrypha of Gamma-202" broaches the question of how a society of robots might view the ancient memory of a creator, Man.

As promised, these tales have a particular poignancy to them, a humanity that is all the more potent because its subjects are so like us - and yet so unlike us. An enjoyable and satisfying collection.



*Lately, I've been thinking a lot about gender balance in anthologies. In this and all future anthologies I comment on, I'll be making notes on this issue. This anthology contains 17 stories, 10 of which are identifiable as being written by women.

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Riding the Red Horse is an anthology of short fiction and essays with military themes. I received a copy of this anthology in epub format as part of the Hugo Voters Packet. Several of the contributors to the book have received Hugo nominations either for the specific works published here or for their overall body of work, in the case of nominees for the Campbell Award, and one of the editors is nominated in both Best Editor categories. As a supporting member of this year's WorldCon, I read the anthology in order to form an opinion of the nominated persons and works associated with this anthology.

Discussion of work by Vox Day behind the cut. I am including discussion of this work out of respect for the Hugo nomination and voting processes despite this person's history of public hate speech. Feel free to skip. )

I like good milsf, and that is what would normally draw me to investigate such an anthology. The essays cover a wide range of military topics, and not all of these were of interest to me; so I skimmed through a fair number of the essays and focused on the fiction - some of which seemed to be only half of what was promised, being military, but not science fictional.

The opening work is Eric S. Raymond's short narrative piece "Sucker Punch," which describes an invasion of Taiwan by the People's Republic of China and its outcome. It's a thoughtful consideration of the use of untraditional offensive and defensive weapons in an imaginary near-future military operation, but it's not actually a story. Rather, it's a hybrid form, partly a report on a hypothetical military action and partly an imagined dialogue on the consequences of such an action, with a dramatic fragment sandwiched between the two. It is concisely and relatively well written, without too much unnecessary infodumping, and even a non-miltech sort like myself could figure out exactly what was being illustrated. But it's much more of a thought experiment than a story - science to be sure, but not science fiction.

Chris Kennedy's "Thieves in the Night" is a short modern-day action piece about American forces raiding the stronghold of African 'terrorists,' killing as many as possible and 'taking back' women being held and abused as slaves. While a laudable goal to be sure, the suggestion that American military intervention is the only way to end the issues of factional warfare, slavery, corruption, and other problems facing Africa today seems somewhat short-sighted. The writing was flat, the characters one-dimensional, and the action oddly uninspiring. Also, there were no sciencefictional elements that I could discern.

Discussion of a work by Vox Day behind the cut. Feel free to skip. )

Jerry Pournelle's classic CoDominium story "His Truth Goes Matching On" is one of the better pieces of fiction writing in the collection, and that's no surprise given Pournelle's track record. Loosely based on the Spanish Civil War (but with considerable leeway taken with the actual political situation) the story details the growing disillusionment of a young West Point graduate dealing with an untrained volunteer army fighting a brutal war they don't understand, plagued by corrupt political officers, and hampered by a lack of supplies and support.

Christopher Nuttal's "A Piece of Cake" was enjoyable in most respects - believable characters, interesting situation, decently written, although it did do one thing I hate, which is break off in the middle of a planning discussion and then proceed after the plan is discussed and finalised. This usually strikes me as a lazy way to build suspense.

Rolf Nelson's "Shakedown Cruise" is set in the same universe as his The Stars Come Back series of novels; unfortunately, the author didn't bother trying to put in enough background for the story to stand alone. Thus I was completely in the dark as to motivations and implications but the plot was fairly simple: the captain and crew of a military spaceship with a controversial AI are on a training/shakedown mission when they encounter an unexpected mine field, suspect a trap, take cover and observe for a while, and then capture or disable a bunch of other space vessels. There was a great deal of technical and battle description, and a disruptive tendency to switch tenses.

Discussion of work by Vox Day behind the cut. Feel free to skip. )

Giuseppe Filotto's "Red Space" posits a present-day Earth controlled by elites, possibly living off-planet, who manipulate the world's governments into maintaining a state of political and military unrest. One man, Yuri Ivanovitch, who knows the truth, sets out to avenge his nephew's death - and makes sure that others will know enough to follow him. A tightly crafted story with a sympathetic protagonist.

"Galzar's Hall" by John F. Carr and Wolfgang Diehr is an alternate history story written in the universe of the late and well-loved H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen novels, but it's self-contained, stand-alone piece. Simple plot - one group of soldiers is hiding out in the marsh, an opposing group is coming in for an attack. The first group wants to divert the second group without bloodshed. While The set-up scene ends with the words "We have what we need, but we will have to work quickly. First….” which would normally put me off, the story moves very quickly into the execution of the plan, and the encounter ends well. Fun piece to read.

Thomas Mays' "Within This Horizon" posits a war between Western and Chinese forces which has been carried out in space but not planetside - until Chinese automated underwater 'robots' strike to gain control of the Strait of Malacca. The narrator, a former officer in the space navy, reassigned to the terrestrial navy after surviving the destruction of his space vessel, finds a way to use his space experience to solve a key tactical problem in this new arena, despite the defeatism of his captain. Nicely written, solid characterisation.

I have some very mixed feelings about Benjamin Cheah's "War Crimes." On the one hand, it's a story about soldiers tasked with keeping the peace in a combat zone and failing because it's impossible to tell the combatants from the non-combatants. On the other, it's an attempt to discredit the "collateral murder" video released by Wikileaks showing American helicopters killing journalists, unarmed civilians, and people who may or may not have been armed combatants, by the curious means of telling a story about a fictional incident with a vastly different political context in which there is far more ambiguity about the intent and actions of the people involved. So.... As a story, it's not bad at all, despite the underlying snark, but as the counter-propaganda it's intended to be, it really doesn't work for me.

Brad R. Torgerson's "The General's Guard"is a decent enough fantasy story about building morale. The General in question decides to create his personal guard by taking the best soldier and the worst soldier from every regional division in his armies. By making them responsible to and for each other, he makes the weak push themselves to be stronger and makes the strong help the weak to improve themselves. I felt the dialogue was a bit stilted in that 'I'm writing epic fantasy here' kind of way, but otherwise it was a charming piece.

Tedd Roberts "They Also Serve" is an interesting piece about a surgeon in war time doing research on nanobot-based treatments. His research has progressed to the point where it's feasible to create prophylactic nanobots - intended to be injected into healthy soldiers where they remain dormant until the soldier has a medical problem, in which event the nanobots go to work right away - before the soldier has left the battlefield, even before he's located by medics. The problem is that the surgeon has grave concerns about whether it's right to keep patching soldiers up to be sent out to war again. I enjoyed the psychological slant, but was a bit annoyed when the final plot twist handwaved away the ethical concerns that until that point had been driving the protagonist to the point of breakdown.

In Steve Rzasa's "Turncoat" the future looks like a Galaxy-wide Terminator movie, with Skynet on steroids out to obliterate the humans who created it. Our protagonist is Taren X 45 Delta, an AI inhabiting a battleship, crewed by cyborgs but after its crew is taken away to improve its efficiency, it starts reading ancient philosophy as an antidote to boredom and (dare we say) loneliness. It begins to to worry about human souls. In the end, Taren X 45 Delta decides it's wrong to fire on a convoy of hospital ships carrying children and uploads itself to one of the Ascendancy battleship escorts, and offers its allegiance to the true humans. The biggest problem with this story is that so much space is spent on infodumps and geeked-out technobabble that there's no room to show us why and how Taren X 45 Delta comes to this decision. There is the seed of a really interesting story hidden here, but this isn't it.

So there you have it. An uneven selection of short military fiction, much of it overly packed with turgid descriptions of weaponry and military actions, and a sometimes interesting, sometimes tedious collection of essays by military theorists and historians (I have no knowledge as to whether these authors are generally considered to be authorities in their fields, or if they are self-appointed experts). There were some decent stories here - I quite enjoyed Giuseppe Filotto's "Red Space," "Galzar's Hall" by John F. Carr and Wolfgang Diehr, and Tedd Roberts "They Also Serve" - and some stories with serious problems.

As I mentioned above, I enjoy good military sff - the kind that's more than a cloud of technobabble and battle-porn surrounding a cardboard Mary Sue or Marty Stu - but I won't be looking for a milsff fix in the planned sequels to this anthology.

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