These ten classic stories, each featuring well-developed, strong female characters, have garnered numerous literary awards and span every style and theme in speculative fiction.
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A Woman's Liberation seems to promise explicitly feminist stories, but with one exception, that is not what you get. In sociopolitical terms, there isn't much in A Woman's Liberation that would discomfort the white, suburban, American middle class, and that's something that will discomfort many feminists.
The collection may be mainstream in its feminism and, usually, its sociocultural assumptions, but that does not mean the stories are comforting--quite the opposite. In "Inertia," Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Award winner Nancy Kress takes a disturbing look at a concentration camp for disease sufferers in a repressive, decaying America. In the Nebula and Hugo Award winner "Even the Queen," Connie Willis deftly dissects mother-daughter relationships and satirically skewers a naive, doctrinaire feminist; this story represents an impressive but little-noted feminist accomplishment: Mrs. Willis placed a story blatantly about menstruation in Asimov's SF. Multi-award-winner Pat Murphy's "Rachel in Love" is guaranteed to disturb readers: when a young woman, Rachel, dies in an accident, her mind is downloaded into a chimpanzee's body, creating a mixed human-ape consciousness, and Rachel is torn between love for a man and love for a chimpanzee. The title story, Ursula K. Le Guin's impressive novella "A Woman's Liberation," is the book's most overtly feminist work; a multilayered, perceptive examination of politics (of several sorts) and freedom, it follows a woman's journey from slavery to liberty across two planets.
The anthology's subtitle, A Choice of Futures by and About Women, describes the contents perfectly: stories written by women about strong, intelligent female lead characters, set in the present and the future, on Earth and on distant planets. A Woman's Liberation is a superior collection of modern SF stories accompanied by an insightful introduction. --Cynthia Ward
From Publishers Weekly
This anthology, which reprints 10 award-winning stories by and about women, brings little new to the table, but it does assemble excellent work by sci-fi luminaries, originally published in Analog and Asimov's (for which Williams is executive editor). Its failure to provide historical context, however, renders the stories somewhat flat. The pieces range widely: Vonda N. McIntyre's "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand" and Katherine MacLean's postapocalyptic "The Kidnapping of Baroness 5" present worlds where scientific study uses animals for healing humans or for gathering genetic material. The human condition is deftly described in both Connie Willis's "Even the Queen," a hilarious story about menstruation, and Ursula K. Le Guin's poignant "A Woman's Liberation," a first-person journey through the eyes of a former slave who discovers that freedom comes at a price. Many stories explore the world via metaphors of illness or plague: Nancy Kress's "Inertia" describes a quarantined plague community given hope that the plague might be cured; Anne McCaffrey's dated "The Ship Who Mourned" chronicles a sentient ship's trip to a plague world; and in Octavia Butler's harrowing but hopeful "Speech Sounds," a plague has caused people to forget how to speak or read, leading to chaos. Many SF fans will have read at least some of these stories already. Maybe the familiarity of the stories in this anthology signals women's entrenchment in the genre.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Paperback
...I am not a big fan of the science fiction genre. On the other hand, I am a big fan of anything to do with the liberation of women, which is why I requested A WOMAN'S LIBERATION for review.
'A WOMAN'S LIBERATION: A Choice Of Futures By And About Women' is an anthology featuring some of the finest women science fiction writers out there. Ladies, you have done your jobs as writers extremely well. You have hooked yourselves another fan with this anthology. I was captivated with this book from the very first story. I could scarcely put the book down. I couldn't believe it; I was reading science fiction and enjoying it immensely!
A WOMAN'S LIBERATION consists of stories by ten different authors - Nancy Kress, Connie Willis, Sarah Zettel, Pat Murphy, Vonda N. McIntyre, S.N. Dyer, Katherine MacLean, Octavia E. Butler, Anne McCaffrey, and Ursula K. Le Guin. It would be very tough for me to pick a favorite story out of the ten featured in this book; but, if hard pressed, I think it would have to be 'Rachel in Love' by Pat Murphy with 'Inertia' by Nancy Kress coming in a close second.
Fans of the science fiction genre, this is a must read. For all you readers out there who haven't tried the science fiction genre, this a book that you need to read; I think you will become hooked just as I was!...
By Harriet Klausner
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
This anthology consists of ten science fiction stories previously published in Asimov or Analog written by women starring a female protagonist. The tales display how female authors have more than just contributed to the genre, but pioneered it while liberating writers to go beyond the limits of the past. Each story is well written as expected from a group of authors like this collection contains. Regardless of your gender, if you enjoy science fiction short stories you will gain much pleasure from much of A WOMAN'S LIBERATION.
Harriet Klausner
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
I am not a big fan of the science fiction genre but ----
May 21 2002
By Kristie Leigh Maguire
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
...I am not a big fan of the science fiction genre. On the other hand, I am a big fan of anything to do with the liberation of women, which is why I requested A WOMAN'S LIBERATION for review.
`A WOMAN'S LIBERATION: A Choice Of Futures By And About Women' is an anthology featuring some of the finest women science fiction writers out there. Ladies, you have done your jobs as writers extremely well. You have hooked yourselves another fan with this anthology. I was captivated with this book from the very first story. I could scarcely put the book down. I couldn't believe it; I was reading science fiction and enjoying it immensely!
A WOMAN'S LIBERATION consists of stories by ten different authors - Nancy Kress, Connie Willis, Sarah Zettel, Pat Murphy, Vonda N. McIntyre, S.N. Dyer, Katherine MacLean, Octavia E. Butler, Anne McCaffrey, and Ursula K. Le Guin. It would be very tough for me to pick a favorite story out of the ten featured in this book; but, if hard pressed, I think it would have to be `Rachel in Love' by Pat Murphy with `Inertia' by Nancy Kress coming in a close second.
Fans of the science fiction genre, this is a must read. For all you readers out there who haven't tried the science fiction genre, this a book that you need to read; I think you will become hooked just as I was!...
7 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
enjoyable science fiction short stories
Sep 29 2001
By Harriet Klausner
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This anthology consists of ten science fiction stories previously published in Asimov or Analog written by women starring a female protagonist. The tales display how female authors have more than just contributed to the genre, but pioneered it while liberating writers to go beyond the limits of the past. Each story is well written as expected from a group of authors like this collection contains. Regardless of your gender, if you enjoy science fiction short stories you will gain much pleasure from much of A WOMAN'S LIBERATION.
Harriet Klausner
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