More Women of Wonder: Science Fiction Novelettes by Women About Women

Women of Wonder

by Pamela Sargent (Editor)

Contents

xi • Introduction (More Women of Wonder) • essay by Pamela Sargent
3 • Jirel Meets Magic • [Jirel of Joiry] • (1935) • novelette by C. L. Moore
53 • The Lake of the Gone Forever • (1949) • novelette by Leigh Brackett
104 • The Second Inquisition • [Alyx] • (1970) • novelette by Joanna Russ
149 • The Power of Time • (1971) • short story by Josephine Saxton
175 • The Funeral • (1972) • novelette by Kate Wilhelm
214 • Tin Soldier • (1974) • novella by Joan D. Vinge
279 • The Day Before the Revolution • [Hainish] • (1974) • short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
303 • Further Reading (More Women of Wonder) • essay by Pamela Sargent [as by uncredited]
307 • About the Authors (More Women of Wonder) • essay by Pamela Sargent [as by uncredited]
309 • About the Editor • essay by uncredited

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction, Fantasy, Feminism, Speculative Fiction

305 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Pamela Sargent has won the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, and has been a finalist for the Hugo Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. In 2012, she was honored with the Pilgrim Award by the Science Fiction Research Association for lifetime achievement in science fiction scholarship. She is the author of the novels Cloned Lives, The Sudden Star, Watchstar, The Golden Space, The Alien Upstairs, Eye of the Comet, Homesmind, Alien Child, The Shore of Women, Venus of Dreams, Venus of Shadows, Child of Venus, Climb the Wind, and Ruler of the Sky. Her most recent short story collection is Thumbprints, published by Golden Gryphon Press, with an introduction by James Morrow. The Washington Post Book World has called her “one of the genre's best writers.”

In the 1970s, she edited the Women of Wonder series, the first collections of science fiction by women; her other anthologies include Bio-Futures and, with British writer Ian Watson as co-editor, Afterlives. Two anthologies, Women of Wonder, The Classic Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1940s to the 1970s and Women of Wonder, The Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s, were published by Harcourt Brace in 1995; Publishers Weekly called these two books “essential reading for any serious sf fan.” Her most recent anthology is Conqueror Fantastic, out from DAW Books in 2004. Tor Books reissued her 1983 young adult novel Earthseed, selected as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association, and a sequel, Farseed, in early 2007. A third volume, Seed Seeker, was published in November of 2010 by Tor. Earthseed has been optioned by Paramount Pictures, with Melissa Rosenberg, scriptwriter for all of the Twilight films, writing the script and producing through her Tall Girls Productions.

A collection, Puss in D.C. and Other Stories, is out; her novel Season of the Cats is out in hardcover and will be available in paperback from Wildside Press. The Shore of Women has been optioned for development as a TV series by Super Deluxe Films, part of Turner Broadcasting.

Pamela Sargent lives in Albany, New York.

Reviews

[William Clemens · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Jeanette Greaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a time when once again, young men are expressing surprise that there are female authors of sf / fantasy / horror, and when people who are approaching middle age and should know better really DO think that Joke Rowling was the first woman to ever write a book, it's refreshing and somewhat humbling to revisit this book. The book itself, a celebration of women in sf, is almost fifty years old, so when it looks back in time to the 1940s, it gives us an even longer reach.

What's even more astonishing is that the editor, Pamela Sargent, is still with us, and was still in her twenties when she was commissioned to put this book together and given the space to write a long essay about women in sf, both as characters, readers and authors. If you do read this book, take the time to read the essay, it's well worth it.

Having got all that out of the way, what of the stories? We have here a slim collection of short stories / novellas, mostly by writers who I met in the 1980s / 90s The Women's Press SF imprint. The first story though, is an 85 year old sword and sorcery tale by CL Moore, a frequent contributor to the pulp sf scene. Her hero, Jirel of Joiry, is a tough, determined warrior monarch. In this story, Jirel encounters an adversary who seems to be her match, but proves that sheer bloody mindedness is sometimes enough to save the day. Jirel's stubborn refusal to give in to powers greater than her own is an absolute joy.

Leigh Brackett is a familiar name to lovers of golden age sf, and like CL Moore, wrote under a gender ambiguous byline. As a screenwriter and novelist, she was well known in mid 20th century sf circles, and wrote a draft screenplay for 'The Empire Strikes Back'. In 'The Lake of the Gone Forever' we see a typical sf rockets and colonisation story set in a future solar system. There is no female main character, but the male main character is strongly influenced by the native woman who guides him through his troubles.

I was born in the early 1960s, and suffer from the common mindset that anything before I was born is 'historical' and anything after it is 'modern'. And so, to the first 'modern' story in the book, Joanna Russ's 'The Second Inquisition'. I've read this book so many times, and have enjoyed finding more little details every time. Russ's intellect vastly overshadows my own, and it's always a pleasure to read a story for the fifteenth time and know that I'll still be wowed by it the next time. Of course, Joanna Russ should need no introduction, but if you're wondering, most of her books are still gloriously in print. Another of my favourite authors, Gwyneth Jones, has written a great book about Russ, which is well worth reading.

'The Power of Time' by Josephine Saxton is so absolutely, purely, Josephine Saxton that nobody else could have written it. I 'met' Saxton in her Womens Press novels, and have enjoyed her work ever since. She writes with dry humour and wild imagination. This story is an entertaining dual perspective look at the adventures of a British housewife on an all expenses paid luxury trip to New York, and her many times great granddaughter as a left behind trillionaire on a far future earth, following her ancestor's dreams.

Kate Wilhelm is another big name from the mid 20th century, and her 1972 story 'The Funeral' deserves to be in many more collections. It gives very strong 'Handmaid's Tale' vibes but with, of course, a different perspective. This is a beautiful tale of rebellion against the destruction of love and spirit. It should be on all the school reading lists.

Joan D Vinge breaks my heart on a regular basis, it's my own fault, I know what's going to happen every time I pick up 'The Snow Queen', but I just can't resist. The story in this collection, 'Tin Soldier' is another reworking of an old tale, and again, it's a heartbreaker. It's absolutely solid sf romance and I urge everyone who loves a bit of 'romantasy' to find it and read it.

The last story in the collection is Ursula Le Guin's 1974 novella, 'The Day before the Revolution' is a prequel to her wonderful novel 'The Dispossessed' and is a perfect way to end the collection. We all have to let go at some point.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Introduction,” Pamela Sargent — A solid underpinning for this second volume, detailing where SF had ignored women in the past, by either simply not including them or giving them only one specialized role, that of the childbearer. In fifty years, this has changed, thankfully. Both women authors and women characters that are more than mothers are firmly established in the field. But it is important to remember that this was not always the case.

“Jirel Meets Magic,” C.L. Moore — A very early work featuring a lead female character, a warrior-queen. Most of the story is filled with the stuff that made up Weird Tales, where it originally appeared: descriptions of monsters so hideous to be indescribable, battles on different planes of existence, etc. It’s told with verve and vigor but I’m afraid I no longer care for this kind of action-adventure sword & sorcery kind of story. Interesting for its historical context, however.

“The Lake of the Gone Forever,” Leigh Brackett — An interesting story about indigenous culture and those who would exploit them from the 1950s, so, yeah, SF has been covering these topics for a long time. Unlike other writers, Brackett’s characters have more of a feeling of possible reality, while still striking that element of the heroic (or anti-heroic) necessary to drive the type of action-adventure story popular at the time. Her macguffin here isn’t explained, or perhaps even possible, but she uses it not for its own sake, but to define the people it affects.

“The Second Inquisition,” Joanna Russ — When Russ is great, she’s very great. But then there’s stories like these which I think I should understand but have no clue. I can’t tell if the narrator is unreliable or…what? I follow the sentences, but can not make out what the story was supposed to be about.

“The Power of Time,” Josephine Saxton — A far future story about the rich and powerful of Earth, the population of which is only 16 million after the emigration. But there still remains a city that one woman just must have, but not to own, but to move, and so she pays for having Manhattan moved to England. Interposed with this is the story of her great-something-grandmother who wins a contest and gets to go to Manhattan from small-town England, and the two stories have multiple parallels until everything comes crashing down at the end. Interesting; a kind of New Wave-ish story where engineering and physics principles take a backseat to imagineering. But I’m not sure what I was supposed to take from it in the end. The hubris of the rich?

“The Funeral,” Kate Wilhelm — I’ve read this several times in the past and every time I’ve understood only part of what Wilhelm was going for: the way subjugators make new subjugators of the young. But I suspect there’s even more there that I’m not quite getting, but one I don’t feel necessary to try because this is one of those ugly dystopias, like Atwood’s handmaidens, where you feel ugly just reading it, as if you were a part of it. Which speaks to the power of Wilhelm’s prose, but doesn’t make me want to read it any more.

“Tin Soldier,” Joan D. Vinge — Over the decades, one’s reading tastes change. I won’t say mature, because that’s loaded. But what one read and enjoyed as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult, and onward, shifts with time. As a teenager I devoured horror novels, especially those of Stephen King, but sometime in my college years I burned out on that kind of story: it became all too gory and without a point. The same with pure adventure books, like those by Edgar Rice Burroughs. What I’ve grown to look for, and the point of saying all this here, is a story about people and their reactions to a world different than my own, but understandable. That’s what you get in this story by Joan Vinge: a bartender who lost parts of his body in a senseless war who’s now a cyborg, giving him the ability to age only five years to every hundred, and his relationship with a spacer who, because of time dilation, is gone every 25 years, although she only ages 2-3 years during that time. As someone who’s written a couple of stories about the effects of time dilation, this reverberated with me; in fact, one of those stories is about a space miner who has a relationship with an android bartender. It also shares a pivotal focus on the spacer’s relationship with her ship and its mind. Had I read this story at one time and retained it somewhat to write that? I have no ideal. Science fiction and fantasy is a bit like jazz, with authors riffing off (and sometimes ripping off) the ideas of others. I believe my story is different enough from this that I’m not going to stop submitting it. On the other hand, I loved this story tremendously. It is the best thing in the More Women of Wonder volume and I would highly recommend it for those who want a story about real people and real relationships in SF.

“The Day Before the Revolution,” Ursula K. Le Guin — The only thing that makes this story “speculative” is that it is set in a country/world not our own. It’s a Ruritanian fantasy, I suppose, describing the efforts of a working class revolution against oppression. But Le Guin starts at the end: although the revolution hasn’t started, it took decades for those who fought for it (and were imprisoned for it) to happen. Le Guin’s protagonist is kind of the mother of the revolution: the wife of a influential politician who is one of the 1400 killed during a brutal takedown, who spends 15 years in prison writing manifestos, then years organizing and writing. She’s nearly senile, definitely declining, and, while she doesn’t have misgivings about the revolution itself, she does question the part she played. It’s an interesting study, but I really wanted some more speculative element to be a part of it.

[Jai · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok. I bought this because I was in the mood for a science fiction romance. Tin Soldier by Joan D. Vinge was in a recommendation list, and that story was published in this anthology. That story ended up being my favorite, while the rest of the stories were just 'fine', or just too weird and/or esoteric for my tastes.

Tin Soldier is a story inspired by the song 'Brandy' by Looking Glass, and also by the Steadfast Tin Soldier fairy tale. Except in this case, Brandy is the sailor in love with her sea, a crew member on a starship that only comes to port once every 25 years, (though to her, only 3 years have passed), while the steadfast bartender Maris (himself aging slowly thanks to his cybernetic parts), waits for her.

[Stephen Antczak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great anthology of science fiction (and one fantasy story) edited by Sargent. Like all anthologies, the contents are a mixed back, but there are definitely some gems in here!

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good survey of SF written by women. I wouldn't say it is all feminist fiction, but Pamela Sargent makes this clear in her great introduction so it wasn't a surprise to me. I always enjoy exploring some of the older pulpier fiction and thought it was especially interesting when written by a woman for a more sexist, predominantly male, audience.

[Linda Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again, the introduction by Pamela Sargent is a gem in this book, albeit an included gem. "The mode of literature is that of an indirect interpretative experience" is so unlike Sargent's writing, I'd be tempted to bet somebody else tossed that in. Read several of the novellas before, but I was glad to read Tin Soldier by Joan D. Vinge. A goodreads friend wrote a comment on my blog post that helped me understand the genre confusion - some women sf is also romance, or also fantasy or also a bunch of other subsets. And all is speculative fiction. No one knows the future; we can only extrapolate. The women-written science fiction collected here is all imagined before the consciousness raising of the 60s and 70s, so the leap into space and an imagined different life for women is heroic. Strong voices published - published - in a time that, until this decade, was the most male-dominated for a couple of earlier eons, and entrenched for millennia. The times are changing, but along a bumpy front of advance/retreat. Wonder what science fiction would read like if the humans didn't make it? Le Guin comes closest to imagining that galaxy. Can we write the cosmos without us in it?

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some memorable stories in this collection. Good to read some older sf by women featuring women, not as damsels in distress or temptresses but as persons worthy of our attention at the center of a story.
- "Jirel Meets Magic" was the most colorful, with descriptions and elements reminiscent of C.S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew.
- "The Second Inquisition" is an unusual story, bringing the fantastic to America of the 1920s and depicting a sliver of another world of which, by the end, I wish I knew more.
- "The Funeral" is also noteworthy for its interesting premise of a future or alternate society (and possibly a reflection of our own) - one in which the old envy and detest the young.
- "Tin Soldier" however was my personal favorite of the collection. Poignant, delicately written, it captures the distance between people and the irrevocable distance meted out by time. This story will stay with me for a long time.

All in all, a recommendation for fans of speculative, thoughtful fiction

[Deborah · Rating 3 out of 5]

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!

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sixties and early seventies saw the entry of many women into the genre of science (or speculative) fiction, redressing a long-standing gender imbalance. Although I've seen no attempt to quantify it, my impression is that their entry also expanded the field to sciences other than astronomy, chemistry, physics and engineering, sciences like sociology, anthropology and psychology.

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite disappointing. I found only the last two stories interesting. The first two were silly, antiquated space opera that I found pointless. ( Sigh.) I bought four of these books, after seeing them mentioned on an SF link I read. I pretty much skipped the intro; I started reading SF in 1963, and I did scan the intro of the first book.
I suppose historically interesting for newbies in the field.

[Ed]

ISFDB 22881. OCLC 2542274. LCCN 76013239.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

super love this book