The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women

by Alex Dally MacFarlane (Editor), Aliette de Bodard (Contributor), Karen Joy Fowler (Contributor)

33 outstanding science fiction stories by women

Travel by train to the Moon, discover living spaceships born in gas giants and explore the constellations, alternate universes and post-apocalyptic worlds of this compelling collection of SF written by women.

Whether crossing the stars or constructing the future of our planet, women have always written powerful, important science fiction. This anthology showcases the most exceptional SF stories written by women in recent decades, from classic stars Ursula K. Le Guin and Angélica Gorodischer; science fiction greats Karen Joy Fowler and Nancy Kress; new award-winning talents Elizabeth Bear, Nnedi Okorafor and Aliette de Bodard; and many more.

Contents:
Girl hours / Sofia Samatar --
Excerpt from a letter by a social-realist Aswang / Kristin Mandigma --
Somadeva: a sky river sutra / Vandana Singh --
The queen of Erewon / Lucy Sussex --
Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's Day / Tori Truslow --
Spider the artist / Nnedi Okorafor --
The science of herself / Karen Joy Fowler --
The other graces / Alice Sola Kim --
Boojum / Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette --
The eleven holy numbers of the mechanical soul / Natalia Theodoridou --
Mountain ways / Ursula K. Le Guin --
Tan-Tan and Dry Bone / Nalo Hopkinson --
The four generations of Chang E / Zen Cho --
Stay thy flight / Élisabeth Vonarburg --
Astrophilia / Carrie Vaughan --
Invisible planets / Hao Jingfang --
On the Leitmotif of the Trickster Constellation in Northern Hemispheric star charts, post apocalypse / Nicole Kornher-Stace --
Valentines / Shira Lipkin --
Dancing in the shadow of the once / Rochita Loenen-Ruiz --
Ej-Es / Nancy Kress --
The cartographer wasps and the anarchist bees / E. Lily Yu --
The death of Sugar Daddy / Toiya Kristen Finley --
Enyo-Enyo / Kameron Hurley --
Semiramis / Genevieve Valentine --
Immersion / Aliette de Bogard --
Down the wall / Greer Gilman --
Sing / Karin Tidbeck --
Good boy / Nisi Shwal --
The second card of the Major Arcana / Thoraiya Dyer --
A short encyclopedia of lunar seas / Ekaterina Sedia --
Vector / Benjanun Sriduangkaew --
Concerning the unchecked growth of cities / Angélica Gorodischer --
The radiant car thy sparrows drew / Catherynne M. Valente.

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

527 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2014

About the author

Alex Dally MacFarlane is a writer, editor and historian. When not researching narrative maps in the legendary traditions of Alexander III of Macedon, she writes stories, found in Clarkesworld, Interfictions Online and the anthologies Phantasm Japan, Solaris Rising 3 and The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2014. She is the editor of Aliens: Recent Encounters (2013) and The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women (2014). In 2015, she joined Sofia Samatar as co-editor of non-fiction and poetry for Interfictions Online. For Tor.com, she runs the Post-Binary Gender in SF column. Find her on Twitter: @foxvertebrae.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a terrific collection of SciFi stories by some wonderful women writers. Many of the stories were 5 stars there were just a few that weren't so great that kept the whole collection from being a 5. A lot of the authors I had heard of and read before but I found a few new ones to pursue. I can definitely see myself returning to some of these stories to reread.

[Carolyn F. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anthology The average of the stories I read is 2.17 stars. I usually rate upwards but this is so close to 2 that I'm giving it 2 stars out of 5.

1. Girl hours by Sofia Samatar -- This felt like a poem and a free form thought progression had a sci-fi baby. I didn't like it. 1 star.

2. Excerpt from a letter by a social-realist Aswang / Kristin Mandigma -- I first had to look up Aswang : A shapeshifting monster usually possessing a combination of the traits of either a vampire, a ghoul, a witch, or different species of werebeast in Filipino folklore or even all of them together. This clarified nothing. Strange story( 2-1/2 pgs?). 1-1/2 stars.

3. Somadeva: a sky river sutra / Vandana Singh -- A storyteller is brought back to life eons later but keeps living in the past and future simultaneously. Different, but good. 3-1/2 stars.

At this point, I had to start skipping or I would never finish this book. Some of the stories are so out there that I was just confused and/or bored reading them. So, I'm just going to read the ones I want.

4. Boojum / Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette -- This is about a ship that is alive and the engineer who loves her. Bad stuff starts happening and the ship saves her friend. I liked this story a lot. 4 stars.

5. Mountain ways / Ursula K. Le Guin -- A foursome marriage (two women, two men) becomes something different and they learn to live with it. Good story. 4 stars.

6. Astrophilia / Carrie Vaughan -- Humans from Earth settle on another planet that through flooding and plague becomes a very regulated society. A family tries to live with the past and a possible future. 3 stars.

And then I stopped reading this anthology. The stories were just too out there and didn't catch my interest.

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am quite shocked that this book has received so few ratings so far. It's a fantastic collection of modern sci-fi done by authors who are not showcased nearly enough: women, many of them racialised.

Like all anthologies, I did not enjoy every single story. However, the compilation as a whole was quite satisfying, and the stories that stood out were simply amazing. Many of these stories engage with sci-fi from the perspective of colonised people, and the messages and themes that come out of these stories are exceptionally powerful. If you've ever struggled with understanding why certain people feel systemically marginalised or want to see your own experiences and thoughts reflected in fiction, these stories really get to the heart of colonisation and oppression.

The collection is on the literary side, and I found myself going slowly through the submissions to properly enjoy the beautiful language and often complex narratives. This book contains some truly experimental and innovative work, and I feel enriched by the experience of having finished these challenging pieces.

A short selection of my favourite stories were:

1. Nnedi Okorafor - Spider the Artist: Environmental racism, music, and how humanity can easily destroy itself through callous decisions.

2. Zen Cho - The Four Generations of Chang E: Experiencing diaspora on the moon.

3. Rochita Loenen-Ruiz - Dancing in the Shadow of the Once: A gut-punching story of the terrible bargains made between colonised and coloniser.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wondrous collection of stories! Such a great reading experience. Each story is powerful, and deliciously complex, with such well-crafted world-building, you forget you are immersed in a short story, and not a novel. I had a chance to revisit a few of my very favorite women writers in science-fiction, and add new authors to my list. As a constant seeker of science-fiction stories by women, I realized that I had read a handful of these stories previously, but all were worth rereading! Highly recommended! My personal favorites include:
Somadeva: a Sky River Sutra ~ Vandana Singh
Spider the Artist ~ Nnedi Okorafor
The Science of Herself ~ Karen Joy Fowler
Ej-Es ~ Nancy Kress
The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees ~ E. Lily Yu

[Alex Ankarr · Rating 2 out of 5]

An enormous curate's egg, mostly stinky and curdled. The Le Guin is not the best Le Guin there's ever been, but then the worst Le Guin is better than etc etc etc. I didn't mind the Karen Joy Fowler, nice very deliberate measured style. Didn't mind the poems at the beginning.

[nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

cross posted from fox and fiction

i read a review for another mammoth short story collection where someone complained that the book was filled with too much estrogen. being such a blatant misogynist must be terrible because they are missing out on gems like this. not only is it filled with stories by authors i love, but it introduced me to a whole new flock of women writers that i can't wait to read more of. the best part is that so many of the stories were about women loving women- that's entirely the content i am here for. science fiction lesbians. i know this book is mammoth but i wish it was longer.

[Michael Drakich · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where to begin? Because there is so little of it, I will start with what praise I can give before the criticism. Encapsulated within this collection are a few very good stories that deserve recognition.

My favorites, in order, are;
IMMERSION by Aliette De Bodard.
SPIDER THE ARTIST by Nnedi Okorafor.
DANCING IN THE SHADOW OF THE ONCE by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz.
These three were the only ones I was willing to rate as 5 stars. There are a few 4 star selections.
THE RADIANT CAR THY SPARROWS DREW by Catherynne M. Valente.
THE ELEVEN HOLY NUMBERS OF THE MECHANICAL SOUL by Natalia Theodoridou.
BOOJUM by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette.
VALENTINES by Shira Lipkin.
EJ-ES by Nancy Kress.

So ends the good news.

Adding these five 4 star stories to the three 5 star stories only gives you a list of eight out of the thirty-three that fill this collection. That leaves you with twenty-five with a 3 star or lower rating, and far too many of those with only a 1 star rating. Using an average 2.57 I could rate this collection as high as 3 stars by rounding up, or play it safe by rating it 2 stars, but the fact there were so many disappointments a reader would have to suffer through to get to the gems forced my hand to give the disappointing rating of 1 star.

A number of issues upset me to the point of almost antagonizing me. There were way too many stories which should never have even been considered science fiction. They simply weren't. There were many where the only trace of science fiction dealt with unique (and often outrageous) matrimonial situations. In hindsight, I cannot understand how the editor, Alex Dally MacFarlane, came to the decision to include such irregulars in a volume dedicated to science fiction stories by women.

For an individual review and rating of each story in the order as they appear in the novel, here is the complete list.

GIRL HOURS by Sofia Samatar. One would think you would want to start a compilation with something good, not the mindless doodling of this first story. 1 star
EXCERPT FROM A LETTER BY A SOCIALIST-REALIST ASWANG by Kristin Mandigma. Oh my gosh, the second story is nothing more than a rant. 1 star
SOMADEVA: A SKY RIVER SUTRA by Vandana Singh. Alien looks for the meaning of life through the tales of other species. Someone should have told her the answer is 42. 2 stars
THE QUEEN OF EREWHON by Lucy Sussex. A tale of an illegal lesbian affair in a land ruled under a unique society based loosely on the structure in a bee hive. Too convoluted for easy reading. 3 stars
TOMORROW IS ST. VALENTINE'S DAY by Tori Truslow. A tale of mermaids told in a collection of scientific notes, memoirs, poems and references. The use of footnotes made reading this fluently impossible. 1 star
SPIDER THE ARTIST by Nnedi Okorafor. Finally! A story I enjoyed. Giant robotic AI spiders guard an oil pipeline in Africa. One falls in love with music and befriends the musician. 5 stars
THE SCIENCE OF HERSELF by Karen Joy Fowler. This is nothing more than an essay about Mary Anning, a noted paleontologist . How this classifies as science fiction is beyond me. 1 star
THE OTHER GRACES by Alice Sola Kim. A young Korean woman in America has a Gateway opened in her mind to others who are guiding her to success. Lacking details. 3 stars
BOOJUM by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette. Living monstrous beings called Boojums are also spaceships people live in - a concept done before, but still rare enough to enjoy. Black Alice works in engineering on a Boojum pirate ship. The ship and her become friends. 4 stars
THE ELEVEN HOLY NUMBERS OF THE MECHANICAL SOUL by Natalia Theodoridou. Stuck on a dying alien world with only mechanical beasts for company, the sole survivor struggles to survive and whether to struggle on. 4 stars
MOUNTAIN WAYS by Ursula L LeGuin. Another boring foray into a unique marriage system requiring two men and two women when some want the system cheated. Outside of the weird marriage, where's the scifi? 1 star
TAN-TAN AND DRY BONE by Nalo Hopkinson. Written in some kind of African English the story is about a woman who is encumbered by a man who holds dark sway over her. Respectable, but is truly an occult story, not science fiction in any manner. It should never have been in this collection. 2 stars
THE FOUR GENERATIONS OF CHANG E by Zen Cho. A girl goes through numerous physical and mental changes to become a moon person. 2 stars
STAY THE FLIGHT by Elisabeth Vonarburg. An interesting premise of living statues, but the staccato style of the writing made reading somewhat difficult. 3 stars
ASTROPHILIA by Carrie Vaughn. A simplistic post-apocalyptic world returned to simple life where people weave wool by hand. One girl has an old telescope. Some same sex love. I've noticed a trend in this book where sexual relationships are outside the norm. Not much of a story. 3 stars
INVISIBLE PLANETS by Hao Jingfang. A collection of flash fiction bios of silly planets with even sillier people loosely tied together by an elder relating them to a child. 2 stars
ON THE LEITMOTIF OF THE TRICKSTER CONSTELLATION IN NORTHERN HEMISPHERE STAR CHARTS, POST-APOCALYPSE by Nicole Kronher-Stace. A story of an historian gathering details from ghosts loosely tied to the naming and history of constellations. 3 stars
VALENTINES by Shira Lipkin. A woman takes copious notes about everything and tracks her relationship with three different waiters named Valentine, Val and V. Is she crossing between worlds in the mutli-verse? 4 stars
DANCING IN THE SHADOW OF THE ONCE by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz. A woman from a conquered people has implants that allow her to be the Artifact of her people through live presentations. Showcase around the galaxy, she is a living history exposed to other races with misgivings. 5 stars
EJ-ES by Nancy Kress. Almost all people die in a distant colony on a far off planet from a special virus. Survivors suffer from dillusions. One woman sets out to fix things. Some good medical jargon in here. 4 stars
THE CARTOGRAPHER WASPS AND THE ANARCHIST BEES by E. Lily Yu. Literally, this is about a hive of wasps and a hive of bees living in a difficult arrangement side by side. 2 stars
THE DEATH OF SUGAR DADDY by Toyla Kristen Finley. I found the writing style, some type of inner city poor, interesting, but a story about inner city youths looking for a man known as Sugar Daddy while some people are suffering a weird rash is not science fiction, it is supernatural. 2 stars
ENYO-ENYO by Kameron Hurley. This mish-mash of a dark future for humanity is too convoluted to provide a credible story that can be followed by the average reader, By the end, I never really grasped what was being said. 2 stars
SEMIRAMIS by Genevieve Valentine. A post apocalyptic world being flooded by rising seas and a woman in charge of a seed collection and the illicit trade of seeds. 3 stars
IMMERSION by Aliette De Bodard. A superb story of people wearing a device called an immerser that changes your image and your way of thinking to emulate people known as Galactics. 5 stars
DOWN THE WALL by Greer Gilman. A montage of incomprehensible statements creating neither a story or message. 1 star
SING by Karin Tidbeck. The base concept on which the story was written, a planet where all life involves parasitism, is interesting, but the actual story left something missing. 3 stars
GOOD BOY by Nisi Shawl. On a distant planetary colony an unknown sickness is spreading and one citizen resorts to being possessed by spirits to address the problem. Not including the setting, not sure whether this is science fiction or supernatural. 2 stars
THE SECOND CARD OF THE MAJOR ARCANA by Thoraiya Dyer. A supernatural ancient deity returns to life and kills people who fail to answer her questions until she comes face to face with a computer that does. 3 stars
A SHORT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LUNAR SEAS by Ekaterina Sedia. The title says it all. A list of lunar seas with silly descriptions. 1 star
VECTOR by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. This is a guess, but I think this is a homage to the movie THE MATRIX. The character is in the matrix and fights the system. Only a guess because it is not clear enough. 2 stars
CONCERNING THE UNCHECKED GROWTH OF CITIES by Angelica Gorodischer. First off, this is not science fiction, it is 100% high fantasy. The story reads like a 20 page marathon monologue summation of a 1000 page book. 1 star
THE RADIANT CAR THY SPARROWS DREW by Catherynne M. Valente. Alien super-whales on Venus and the mystery around them as seen by a female reporter. A slow start, but ends with a flair. A reasonable finish to the collection. 4 stars

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

An incredibly uneven anthology of SF by women authors from around the planet. Some of them are incredible, a few are OK, and more than a few are confusing and difficult. The best stories, in my opinion, are about the clash of cultures, both terrestrial and interstellar. If you're interested in the vanguard of female SF and fantasy, this is worth a read.

[Bad Cookie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I rated each story and gave 3 stars to nine stories, 2 stars to seven stories, and 1 star to the rest (seventeen stories). The following stories are the ones I actually liked and gave 3 stars:

"Spider the Artist" by Nnedi Okorafor
"The Science of Herself" by Karen Joy Fowler
"Astrophilia" by Carrie Vaughn
"Valentines" by Shira Lipkin
"Dancing in the Shadow of the Once" by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
"The Death of Sugar Daddy" by Toiya Kristen Finley
"Sing" by Karin Tidbeck
"Concerning the Unchecked Growth of Cities" by Angelica Gorodischer
"The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew" by Catherynne M. Valente

[Phorc Ewe · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book gets almost a solid 'WTF?'
I thought 3 stories good, and a few ok, the rest pretty much gave me a headache from my eyes being crinkled at the WTF'ness of them.

[Matthew Lloyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, time to review this collection of short stories that I read over a period of two years. Let's see what I can remember.

Fortunately, I posted updates about most of the stories almost immediately after reading them, which helps. Looking back at the earlier stories, I remember "The Other Graces" by Alice Sola Kim most distinctly as a fascinating story that I would like to revisit; I enjoyed "Spider the Artist" by Nnedi Okorafor and "The Science of Herself" by Karen Joy Fowler, although I was already familiar with both of those authors. These were all very different stories across the science fiction genre, but all were interesting in different ways. For a volume such as this one, "interesting in different ways" must be the aim. I can't imagine it's possible to collect 33 stories by very different writers in very different styles and have many readers love all of them; there are certainly those that I would have left out (but which, I'm sure, are other people's favourites). Furthermore, as Alex Dalley MacFarlane writes in the introduction, this volume is intended as a challenge to the exclusion of women from the history of science fiction (although it focuses largely on the contemporary). I mention this, largely, as a warning that some bad reviews of this volume will be reflecting the fact that this volume is meant to be a challenge. Personally, my responses to these stories were wildly variable.

My average rating for the stories in this book is 3.30 recurring, so 3 seems about fair. However, looking back I notice that my tendency to give certain stories 3.5 ratings to indicate that they were better than fine but not great also seems to have affected stories that were excellent and probably deserved 5* (Zen Cho's "Three Generations of Chang-E", Hao Jingfang's "Invisible Planets", and Aliette de Bodard's "Immersion"). Essentially, there are stories in this volume that I would absolutely recommend, and some that I didn't enjoy, but you might. It might be worth you taking a look.

[Marissa]

I'm taking this off my " currently reading" shelf because I just can't. This is probably the worst anthology that I could have bought to get me interested in short stories because it simply gives me so much frustration. If my love for short stories can be judged by how many short stories I finished while in college, that would probably be down to 1 per anthology – and even with that one, I probably skimmed it. If it was "Short Stories about Planetary Discovery by Women" or "Short Stories about AI by Women" maybe I would feel inclined to finish this, but I just can't. Everything is so scattered and it’s hard to put myself in these new worlds if I’m going into them blind not knowing what anything is about. I'm at page 30, (I know, it's not really that many to judge an anthology of 33 stories), but I just can't convince myself I'm going to read this cover to cover. And maybe it's not meant for that. I did a "first sentence test" of about half the book and maybe 3 stories actually gripped me. And that's hairy.

BY NO MEANS am I saying that these stories are poorly written. For the right person, I think they could really enjoy these. I stopped at the The queen of Erewon by Lucy Sussex, and it was honestly really a fascinating concept and I loved it. I just stopped in the middle of the story one night and opened it up and just had a "I really don't care anymore" moment, and I don’t know if it was because I just lost interest or didn’t know what was really happening in the first place.

Needless to say, I feel like I'm obligated to finish this anthology with it on my "currently reading" shelf. I'm going to probably read whatever is interesting to me, but if a story loses my interest (even if it passes the first sentence test), I'm just scrapping it.

[Kate Savage · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has an awkward title and a cover with a sexy lady...beheading a robot? There is absolutely no reason for this to be a good book. They could have sold as many copies just mashing together some mediocre stories. That seems to be what the marketing arm thought this was.

And yet. It is magnificent. It is a superb collection. Alex Dally MacFarlane found some of the most exquisite stories, all of them resonating with each other, reweaving questions of gender and race and culture and the future. Read about communist vampires in the Philippines, oil pipelines guarded by sensitive spider-robots in Nigeria, Yoruban myth-monsters, anarchist bees in China, and Black space-colonies curing disease by connecting to ancestral funk musicians.

The standard thing to say about anthologies is that they are 'uneven.' What surprises me about this one is how consistently fantastic it is.

Also: so many lesbians! Highly recommend.

[Olgalijo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories were good, some others were not, most of them I would not classify as Scifi...

[Brian Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if this is actually a *mammoth* book -- my copy is 500-odd pages, which doesn't seem unusually thick -- but the editor chose to focus on proper short stories, so there are a whopping 33 stories. Moreover, as the introduction points out, it tries to assemble a snapshot of diversity; the stories have all been published elsewhere first, but in a pretty large number of outlets, so having them all in one location may be of great benefit. Brief author biographies are included at the end, and highlight that many backgrounds and ethnicities are represented, although perhaps unsurprisingly for an English language collection most of the authors live in the US, the UK, or Canada.

Many (although not all) of the stories eschew traditional plots; they're story fragments, or sketches within a brave new world; common themes include cultural interactions and social mores, truths revealed in myth and poetry.

I often would sketch out a table of contents, but it'd be a bit over long; I'll just talk about a few stories/authors that stand out from the pack for me.

1. "Immersion" by Aliette de Bodard -- my favorite story of the collection. Imagine technology that allows the dominant Galactic culture to briefly play tourist in local cultures; now imagine the local cultures using the same technology to adapt themselves.
2. "The Queen of Erewhon" by Lucy Sussex; and "Mountain Ways" by Ursula Le Guin. Both of these stories concern themselves with marriage structure (in one, culturally enforced polyandry; in the other, 4-person marriages involving an "Evening couple" and a "Morning couple", demonstrating different moieties). These felt thematically linked but are separated by the editor; probably because, while both are good, in close proximity it's a very tight focus. In both cases, while the social structure has its reasons, inflexibility leads to problems ...
3. "Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's Day" by Tori Truslow -- a haunting look at merfolk living on the moon and their interactions with humans. Probably my second favorite of the collection.
4. "Ej-Es" by Nancy Kress. One of the more traditional stories of the bunch, but its look at what Star Trek calls "the Prime Directive" about leaving cultures alone is powerful.
5. "Vector" by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. Nothing; this author's behavior as "Requires Hate" (a blogging personality notorious in some parts of the SF fandom community) crossed a personal line for me so I regard her work as excommunicate. I intentionally left this story completely unread.

The vast majority of these authors were new to me; I skipped over some stories and failed to see the point of others, but on the whole, I regard the anthology as a success and worth reading.

[Marie-Therese · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars (but closer to 3)

Very uneven collection, with too strong a preponderance of really mediocre work for me to rate it higher. The works here by Gorodischer, Le Guin, Kress, Fowler, and Vonarburg are classics and would be worthy inclusions in any SFF anthology (and I've seen a least a couple of these printed elsewhere), and stories by Nalo Hopkinson, Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette, Nisi Shawl, Catherynne M. Valente, Toiya Kristen Finley, Nicole Kohrner-Stace, and E. Lily Yu are enjoyable and accomplished, but the rest are almost uniformly mediocre and occasionally painfully amateurish.

These "Mammoth" books vary widely in quality and I've come to expect at least some disappointment when I pick one up, but this volume garnered so much good press and such excited buzz that I find myself more dissatisfied than usual. For those looking for a really good anthology of speculative fiction by women writers, I urge you to check out Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's five-star all the way Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology You won't be disappointed!

[Dave Poole · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can think of 2 books in my life that I have given up on and this is one of them.
I loved "Spider the artist" by Nnedi Okorafor. I enjoyed Boojum by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette. Stay thy flight by Elizabeth Vonarburg was an interesting concept that just fell short.
I've read Ursula Le Guin. I can see the quality in her writing though it is not to my taste.
I stopped reading at the half way point. If there are any "must read" authors past that point I'd be grateful if you could draw attention to them.

The rest of what I read did not inspire or have me wishing I didn't have to go to work tomorrow so I could read longer. They felt like a penance.

I can remember champing at the bit waiting for the next Julian May book. Much the same with Laini Taylor, Marie Brannon, Helen Lowe and numerous others. There's so much quality out there it throws this into sharp relief

[Darnell · Rating 2 out of 5]

All anthologies are mixed bags, but this one more so than most. That's not just a judgment call from me - one of the entries is actually a nonfiction essay about Mary Anning. It's also not marked as nonfiction, which left my hopes for an alternate history where Mary Anning discovers alien bones sorely disappointed.

There were the expected good stories from Nnedi Okorafor, Katherine Addison, and Aliette de Bodard. There's also a set of authors I will have to look into because I liked their stories: Tori Truslow, Elizabeth Bear, Hao Jingfang, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Nancy Kress, and Karin Tidbeck. And finally, the stories of Kameron Hurley, Thoraiya Dyer, and Catherynne Valente didn't quite work for me, but intrigued me enough to put the authors on my list.

[Kira]

Girl Hours - Sofia Samatar - 5 Stars
Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-Realist Aswang by Kristin Mandigma - 3 Stars
Somadeva: a Sky River Sutra by Vandana Singh - 5 Stars
The Four Generations of Chang E by Zen Cho - 5 Stars
On the Leitmotif of the Trickster... by Nicole Kornher-Stace - 5 Stars
Immersion by Aliette de Bodard - 5 Stars
The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew by Catherynne M. Valente - 5 Stars

[Gnome Claire *Wishes she was as cool as Gnome Ann* · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really tried but I just had to give up at page 163 (I kept starting a story, not really enjoying it then skim-reading/skipping to the end of that one), I just was't enjoying the stories, they were all to experimental for me and felt more driven by the writing style and concept than by plot or characters. Some of them were interesting but I didn't actually enjoy any of the 11 stories I tried. Clearly who ever collated this just has a completely different reading taste to me.

[Sue Chant · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can see why this was for sale second-hand. Most of the stories are dull, some not even remotely science-fiction. I would have felt aggrieved if I'd payed full price for this.
Three good stories:
“Boojum” by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette - excellent
“Valentines” by Shira Lipkin - excellent
“Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard - excellent

[Maddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, there were only 3 stories that I really enjoyed. Maybe my hopes were set too high for this one. I'm sad I didn't like it very much.

[Victoria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally gave up. The stories are so inconsistent - one will be good and several in a row will be really, spectacularly bad.

[Lyri Ahnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those rare anthologies where all of the stories are well-written and the majority pack a punch that lingers long after reading.
Out of the thirty-three selections in The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women, almost all are tales I’ll reread both for the pure pleasure of the stories and to study them as a writer.
They range from silly to sublime. Some are narrated as letters or anthropology studies, others have a more traditional story structure.
Favorites:
“Excerpt From a Letter by a Socialist-Realist Aswang,” by Kristin Mandigma is a hilarious rant from a Filipino ghoul. He takes his “Comrade” to task for writing a story about “an interstellar war between monster cockroaches and alienated capitalist soldiers.”
Lucy Sussex uses a layered story structure, weaving back and forth in time and between a jail-cell interview and court testimony to unveil “The Queen of Erewhon,” a haunting tale of forbidden love amidst rigid social traditions. “Valentines” by Shira Lipkin uses a similar layered structure, but creates a very different story in both tone and emotional intimacy. The ending reveal is terrifying and poignant.
“The Other Graces” by Alice Sola Kim turns the time-travel/multiverse trope on its ear. Grace is an Ivy League hopeful who comes from a poor, “yellow-trash” Korean family. The tension ratchets up when her mentally-ill father takes the college envelope she’s been waiting for, thinking he’s saving her from his own demons. Most of the story is narrated in second-person from a “future” Grace.
“Eleven Holy Numbers of the Mechanical Soul” by Natalia Theodoridou is about the last survivor of a spaceship crash on an ocean world. The main character, Theo, has constructed mechanical beasts to keep himself company. Theo’s plight and the indifferent nature of the beasts creates a compelling crisis after a storm strikes.
Ursula K. LeGuin is one of my favorite authors. “Mountain Ways” is written as an anthropology study of a culture that forms foursome marriages. Conflict is inevitable when two lovers from a small village try to game the system. The surprising ending, both heartwarming and insightful, expertly balanced the human need for connection and autonomy.
“Astrophilia” by Carrie Vaughn is set in a post-apocalyptic world where cooperation is key to survival. A young weaver, Stella, becomes part of a new household, but discovers underlying tension between the house leader and a young woman her age who yearns to revive the lost art of astronomy. Stella must choose between obedience and doing what she believes is right. I loved the world of this story: full of human conflict but with an overall bias toward hope and love.
Nancy Kress presents an ethical dilemma in “Ej-Es,” a story of an interstellar rescue mission that finds most of a colony dead and the survivors severely compromised mentally. The main character is a biologist on her final mission before retirement who disagrees with the majority opinion of noninterference. But what if “do no harm” causes unbearable damage? The ending is heartbreaking.
“Immersion” by Aliette de Bodard is another impactful tale. This is a world where people wear avatars to make them look more attractive, but people can become overly dependent on avatars out of social insecurity and lose themselves. The author played with cultural stereotypes and colonialism through a prism of strong emotions. The story blossomed from different points of view to create a powerful and hopeful ending.
Karin Tidbeck explores cultural diversity and disability in “Sing.” The story is told from the perspective of the village tailor and her relationship to an offworlder who thinks he’s found a place to retire from the fast-paced life he’s lived. He is frustrated by his inability to sing like the natives and ignores warnings to be satisfied with his “mute” status. The ending is bittersweet, but ultimately hopeful.
“The Second Card of the Major Arcana” by Thoraiya Dyer is another tour de force. We follow a newly awakened being leaving a trail of death whose identity is not immediately clear but is revealed as the story unfolds. The ending was a delightful surprise and thoroughly satisfying.
There are many more wonderful stories in this collection. I got the book from my local library, but was so entranced I bought a copy so I could revisit them. Highly recommended.

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

**3.42**

The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women
33 stories

1- "Girl Hours"
Sofia Samatar --------------> 2.3

2- "EXCERPT FROM A LETTER BY A SOCIAL-REALIST ASWANG"
Kristin Mandigma ----------> 3.0

3- "SOMADEVA: A SKY RIVER SUTRA"
Vandana Singh -------------> 3.5

4- "The queen of Erewhon"
Lucy Sussex ---------------> 4.0

5- "Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's Day"
Tori Truslow ---------------> 3.0

6- "Spider the artist"
Nnedi Okorafor -----------> 4.5

7- "The science of herself"
Karen Joy Fowler --------> 3.3

8- "The other Graces"
Alice Sola Kim -----------> 3.5

9- "Boojum"
Elizabeth Bear
& Sarah Monette -------------> 4.0

10- "The eleven holy numbers of the mechanical soul"
Natalia Theodoridou ----> 3.7

11- "Mountain ways"
Ursula K. Le Guin ------> 3.3

12- "Tan-Tan and dry bone"
Nalo Hopkinson -------> 3.5

13- "The four generations of Chang E"
Zen Cho ----------------> 3.3

14- "Stay thy flight"
Élisabeth Vonarburg ------> 3.0

15- "Astrophilia"
Carrie Vaughn -----------> 3.4

16- "Invisible planets"
Hao Jingfang ------------> 3.3

17- "On the leitmotif of the Trickster constellation in northern hemispheric star charts, post-apocalypse"
Nicole Kornher-Stace -----> 3.0

18- "Valentines"
Shira Lipkin ----------------> 3.2

19- "Dancing in the shadow of the once"
Rochita Loenen-Ruiz -----> 3.5

20- "Ej-Es"
Nancy Kress ----------------> 4.0

21- "The cartographer wasps and the anarchists bees"
E. Lilly Yu -----------------> 3.5

22- "The death of Sugar Daddy"
Toiya Kristen Finley -----> 3.0

23- "Enyo-Enyo"
Kameron Hurley ---------> 3.3

24- "Semiramis"
Genevieve Valentine ----> 3.6

25- "Immersion"
Aliette de Bodard --------> 4.0

26- "Down the wall"
Greer Gilman -----------> 3.0

27- "Sing"
Karin Tidbeck -----------> 3.7

28- "Good Boy"
Nisi Shawl ---------------> 3.3

29- "The second card of the major arcana"
Thoraiya Dyer -----------> 3.3

30- "A short encyclopedia of lunar seas"
Ekaterina Sedia ---------> 3.3

31- "Vector"
Benjanun Sriduangkaew -----> 3.0

32- "Concerned the unchecked growth of cities"
Angélica Gorodischer ---------> 4.0

33- "The radiant car thy sparrows drew"
Catherynnne M. Valente ------> 3.7

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's impossible to rate this overall because there are so many stories that are so wildly different in approach. I admit that I skipped some stories, but I particularly enjoyed these ones. Where possible, I've linked to them available online:

Spider the Artist by Nnedi Okorafor. A robot learns to play music and befriends a woman in a grim situation.

The Other Graces by Alice Sola Kim. Parallel Graces help the Grace from one particular universe.

Boojum by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. This was so much fun. I'd totally read a longer work in this world. Humanity travels around the solar system on creatures from gas giants, and the mi-go exist. It's like The Expanse meets Lovecraft.

Mountain Ways by Ursula K. Le Guin. A society has a fascinating marriage structure, and a pair of lovers need to construct a marriage to match.

Astrophilia by Carrie Vaughn. More lovers needing to find their way, and they also love the stars.

The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees by E. Lily Yu. Remarkably, the title is simply descriptive: there are wasps who make maps, and bees who no longer want a queen.

The Second Card of the Major Arcana by Thoraiya Dyer. A mysterious and powerful being roams the boundaries of its now-scattered temple.

[Rhys Causon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know going into a short story collection there’s going to be hits and there’s going to be misses... but I hate to say it this one had far too many misses for me to enjoy the book as a whole.

The only stories that really gripped my attention were The Science of Herself by Karen Joy Fowler (written about Mary Anning the Victorian palaeontologist) and Tomorrow Is Saint Valentine’s Day by Tori Truslow.

But even though there were some other stories that were ok, no others were as good as the two mentioned. At least in my opinion.

So even though I’m usually a fan of short story collections this one was a disappointment and felt more like homework to read than be enjoyable.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3715215.html

This one contains 33 excellent stories by women writers, a couple of which I already knew, some of which were new to me, all reprints and almost all good. A casual reference to a distant relative of mine in Karen Joy Fowler's "The Science of Herself" prompted me to do some family research; I particularly liked Ekaterina Sedia's "A Short Encyclopedia of Lunar Seas"; but basically I was kicking myself for having acquired this way back in 2014 and not yet read it.

[Justine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greatly enjoyed reading the different stories. It also gave me a great overview of SF female writers who do not usually get as much exposure and I definitely found some I will check out again. Definitely check out this book for a good overview. Also something that I very much liked was that there were many LGBT characters and plotlines which are not as prevalent in SF as they could/should be. That was very enjoyable.

[Bethnoir · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried to persevere with this selection, but found the ones I read largely unenjoyable, not what I would classify as SF or even short stories, more a collection of words with barely any meaning or effort to construct a narrative or characters.

I liked 3 of the 33, but I didn't read all of them. Catherynne M Valente's, Aliette de Bodard's and Ursula K Le Guin's stories were the best for me.