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Athena's Daughters #1

Athena's Daughters, Vol. 1: Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy

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Athena's Daughters is a collection of short fiction by women about women from some of the best writers in science fiction and fantasy today.

From a young girl facing a life-threatening crisis at lunar camp to a crew of elderly women graced with the power of Greek Gods, you'll find an engaging and diverse range of science fiction and fantasy stories by women, about women.


contents:
Introduction by Pam Melroy
First Flight by Mary Robinette Kowal
Commando Bats by Sherwood Smith
The Songbird's Search by C.A. Verstraete
Vision by Alma Alexander
The World to Come by Cleolinda Jones
The Destruction of Society by the Fairer Sex, Vol. 2 by Kelly Swails
White Dawn by Nisi Shawl
Looking Back by Danielle Ackley-Mcphail
Whoever Fights Monsters by Cynthia Ward
Millie by Janine K. Spendlove
Burly and Cavendish Blend by Vicki Johnson-Steger
Mission Accomplished by Tricia Barr
Vernon's Angel by D.L. Stever
Not Broken, Just Bent by Tera Fulbright
Oh, Sisters, Let's Go down to the River by Conley Lyons
Visage by Jean Rabe
Moon Fall by Tanya Spackman
Janera by Jennifer Brozek
Lunar Camp by Maggie Allen
Retribution by Gail Z. Martin
Huntress Sinister by Diana Peterfreund
The Gap in the Fence by Jean Marie Ward

451 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2014

5 people are currently reading
227 people want to read

About the author

Jean Rabe

206 books157 followers
When I am not writing, I toss tennis balls to my cadre of dogs. My house is filled with books and dogs, you can smell both when you walk in the front door. It's a good smell.

I have 36 published novels and am currently writing in the mystery genre. My latest mystery, The Dead of Winter, was a finalist for the Claymore Award and is the first in the Piper Blackwell series.

I live in a tiny town in the middle of Illinois that has a Dollar General, a pizza place with exceedingly slow service, a veterinarian (good thing, eh?), and train tracks...lots of train tracks.

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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
Profile Image for Tyrannosaurus regina.
1,199 reviews26 followers
September 9, 2014
I really wanted to love this, I did, because the idea of the anthology is so solid and I wanted it to be excellent. And there were a couple of real highlights, but they just weren't enough to bring the average up. A lot of the stories just had too much clumsy exposition or not enough narrative drive, and a surprising number were parts of a larger story that didn't entirely stand on their own. Worth it for the good ones, but I was hoping for so much more.
Profile Image for Dev.
2,462 reviews188 followers
January 8, 2018
Updated Review: Posted January 2018
my feelings on the anthology as a whole haven't really changed, but i did up my rating from 1 star to 2 stars since i was actually able to finish it finally, although honestly i think that is more a testament to how much i've improved my skimming skills in the past year than anything else. i really wanted to love this and i guess i will try to read the 2nd one eventually because i did pay for it but this one was just overall so underwhelming and it makes me sad.

Original Review: Posted January 2017
i'm finally just giving up on this, DNF at around 50%. i wanted to like this so badly, but i've been trying to get through it for two months and every time i think to pick it up i just dread trying to muddle through another story. and i'm sick of seeing it on my sidebar.

excellent idea for an anthology but there really needs to be some kind of quality control and also more of a variety of stories. i feel like 45% of them were the same victorian story over and over again, another 45% was the same sci-fi story over and over again, and then the remaining 10% was just weird shit. like there was some story with sentient animals that made ZERO sense because apparently it was the third in a series and the author chose to give no background info on it. i was just sitting there like ???? the whole time. i'm hoping maybe some of the other anthologies by this publishing company are better because i chose the backer package where i got ALL of them, but i guess what can you do about it now.

definitely the high point of the half that i read was cleolinda's short story, a prequel to her long awaited novel that i hope she manages to finish one day. ;)
Profile Image for Emma.
438 reviews
February 3, 2020
4*

It feels odd to rate a book where I know a few of the authors - some personally and some only by name. But anyway! This was a good read. All the short stories are very different and very diverse and that's refreshing. I definitely found a few new female heroes in this one!
Profile Image for Alma Alexander.
Author 73 books204 followers
September 15, 2014
Mine is one of the stories in here - so there's that caveat. I have to admit to there being one or two of the stories which did leave me scratching my head a little - but that is the case with every anthology ever and I don't hold it againat ANY anthology - any collection of this sort cannot by definition be identical in any way shape or form, in terms of content, or clarity, or quality (the latter being so comprehensively subjective, anyway, and one reader's favourite being the last thing that another would pick to read...)For the most part, I loved the book - loved the idea of it, the execution of it, the heft and the feel and the look of the book when it came to me, and there are several stories in here which WILL stay with me for a while which is a far better measure of any anthology than counting the ones that left me ambivalent. Again, with the caveat that I have a story in here myself, all I can say is well done, and I will look forward to the stories which make it into Athena's Daughers #2!
Profile Image for Kristen Waldron.
4 reviews1 follower
August 23, 2017
I helped fund this book. It turned out great. My favorite story was "First Flight" by Mary Robinett Kowal.
Profile Image for Julia Dvorin.
Author 3 books8 followers
February 19, 2015
This made a big splash on Kickstarter last year amongst those of us who like strong women in our spec fic, and it looked interesting enough for me to back it. I’ve had the book on my Kindle waiting for me for a few months and I finally got around to reading it this month.

I love the idea for this collection: a broad collection of sci-fi and fantasy stories about women, written and edited and designed by women. There were a wide variety of stories about a wide variety of women, which certainly kept things interesting. Stories ranged from military sci-fi to steampunk, from time travel to epic fantasy, from urban fantasy to fairy tales, from noir to ghost stories, and more. Not all the women were your typical “strong women” characters (aka action hero with a weapon), but all of them were effective protagonists in their own ways, and I appreciated that there was a lot more diversity represented than one typically finds in genre fiction. I really enjoyed the illustrations by Autumn Frederickson and Betsy Waddell for each story too.

Of the 22 stories in the collection, the ones that I appreciated the most were “White Dawn” by Nisi Shawl, in which animals previously kept as pets who have now been modified to talk go through moral debates over who is a person and what counts as intelligence; “Millie” by Janine K. Spendlove, which nicely combined time travel, women who love to fly and the early days of aviation; “Not Broken, Just Bent” by Tera Fulbright, about a reluctant military recruiter in a time of human-alien war; “Oh Sisters Let’s Go Down to the River” by Conley Lyons, an old timey Appalachian ghost tale with some truly spooky images of well-cleaning that will always stay with me; “Visage”, a fun story by Jean Rabe which mixes an entitled cosmetics company heiress with Amazonian jungle horror; “Lunar Camp”, a charming little story in which a girl who loves plants comes to appreciate those who love rocks when she is unwillingly sent to summer camp on the moon and adventure ensues; and “Huntress Sinister” by Diana Peterfreund, a great, emotional, character-driven story about evil monster unicorns and the women who are trained to hunt them.

If I had any criticism of this collection, it might be that there were too many steampunk/Victorian-era stories (though of course if you love the steampunk stuff you might feel like there weren’t enough). In addition, it felt like there were a lot of stories that were created as add-ons or side adventures for already created worlds or characters. Sometimes this was ok, but sometimes it was frustrating because the stories themselves didn’t feel resolved, and they felt like they had just been created as marketing tools to get a reader to buy the main book, rather than as complete stories in and of themselves for a reader to enjoy.

Overall, if you like speculative fiction about strong, interesting women and are looking for a good sampler of different kinds of speculative fiction, you will like Athena’s Daughters. I understand there is a second volume coming out soon, as well as a companion volume called Apollo’s Daughters which will be fiction starring women characters written by men.

- a Heroines of Fantasy review
683 reviews13 followers
June 3, 2015
Athena's Daughters, edited by Jean Rabe, is another in the growing list of sff anthologies featuring short fiction with a focus on women as the protagonists - an anthology described in its Introduction as "completely written, illustrated, and edited by strong, competent women—about strong, competent women." Like a number of other recent projects aimed at providing a venue for the publication of underrepresented voices and stories about women, people of colour, queer authors, and other marginalised peoples, Athena's Daughters was crowdfunded. The publishers, the creative collective Silence in the Library, have announced a companion anthology, Apollo's Daughters (short stories featuring female protagonists written by men) and a second volume in the Athena's Daughters series.

I thoroughly enjoyed almost all of the stories in the anthology. My most favourite selections included:

Mary Robinette Kowal's First Flight, about a woman who travels a very long way to witness the firsts flights at Kity Hawk;

Commando Bats by Sherwood Smith, in which three elderly women are granted heroic abilities of a sort by the goddess Hera;

The Songbird's Search by C. A. Verstraete, featuring a travelling wise woman who takes on the task of showing two young women with incredible power how to control and use that power wisely and well;

Cynthia Ward's Whoever Fights Monsters, which brings together elements of Bram Stoker's Dracula and the murders committed by the serial killer known as Jack the Ripper, with hints of Sherlock Holmes and James Bond;

Millie by Janine K. Spendlove, which addresses one of the greatest aerial mysteries of the 20th century;

Vicki Johnson-Steger's Burly and Cavendish Blend, a steampunk tale which features a protagonist delightfully reminiscent of Indiana Jones and a plot interwoven with Egyptian antiquities (and, unfortunately, a lot of unexplored colonialism and Orientalism, which I must acknowledge even as I enjoy reading it);

Jennifer Brozek's Janera, which is not really a story, but the opening chapter to a YA sf novel that Brozek has not yet published. I hope she does so soon, because both situation and protagonist grabbed me instantly. It's a "lost heir" story, but so far, it's a really good one.

Maggie Allen's "Lunar Camp" is reminiscent of the Heinlein juveniles of my youth, with young kids having adventures and finding their inner courage when tested. And that's a good thing. Here, Bee loves plants and doesn't want to spend her summer away from them - but when she's tested during an emergency, she forms bonds that make her realise there are things for her to learn and enjoy even on the moon.


Profile Image for Erin Penn.
Author 4 books23 followers
November 29, 2018
ORIGINAL READ IN August-September 2015

Athena's Daughters is a powerful anthology written by women, edited by women, illustrated by women, about women. And a very good read in the Fantasy and Sci-Fi genre. Stories range from steampunk (Looking Back by Danielle Ackley-McPhail)) to superhero (Commando Bats by Sherwood Smith), Gothic ghost (The World to Come by Cleolinda Jones) to time travel (First Flight by Mary Robinette Kowal), modern urban fantasy (Retribution by Gail Z Martin) to military sci-fi (Not Broken, Just Bent by Tera Fullbright).

I don't think I have seen a book with such a wide range of ages for the main characters before. Some of the females are in their twenties, some forties, and some sixties (and then there are the vampires). Nice to see older women make an impact on the world. In addition to being stories about women and having a wide range of ages, the stories also have other character traits of "diversity" (see below for some details).

Stories that grabbed me:
Commando Bats - Hera, in her contrary wisdom, has stolen the powers of male gods who were being stupid and granted them to little old ladies around the world to show them how people can use the power for good. Being the goddess of the hearth and women, of course she chose to grant the powers to females. The main point-of-view character is also disabled. I would love to see more superhero-themed stories about these characters.

Millie (by Janine K. Spendlove) - Another wonderful US Marine military short story from Ms. Spendlove (I have seen her in other anthologies) with a time travel twist you see coming if you know your aviation history but still enjoy the entire time. I really like how the main point-of-view character is Hispanic without pushing it on the audience - the character just happens to be Hispanic like most characters in American writing historically just happen to be white.

Are all the stories great? No, as with most anthologies unevenness in skill exists.

Overall a great read. And being an anthology, easy to set down and pick up again while doing chores. And with 22 stories (400+ printed pages if you buy the softback) a really good buy.

***

REREAD IN NOVEMBER 2018 FOR BOOKCLUB
Still good three years later. Please note the following short stories have been released as stand-alones short stories - you save money by buying the whole book. I have written reviews for each short story separately and posted them to Goodreads.

1. First Flight by Mary Robinette Kowal
2. Commando Bats by Sherwood Smith
3. Retribution by Gail Z. Martin
Profile Image for Maggie.
Author 8 books9 followers
August 15, 2015
I'm sure it's lame to review a book you're in - but hey, I only wrote one story in this (Lunar Camp) so there are a lots of others that are not mine! And that was one reason I did want to read this one, the other reason being that this project was really special to us. All the stories are written by women about women (or girls) - it was our effort to help the gender imbalance in science fiction since we are underrepresented, both as authors an as protagonists. (This book does have a sister (or brother) volume, Apollo's Daughters, featuring men writing about women.) I really enjoyed the range of stories in this volume, from steampunk to horror to time travel to ghost story to YA urban fantasy - and more. Something for everyone! Some of my personal fav stories included Sherwood Smith's (about older ladies called on by a Greek goddess to be superheroes), Alma Alexander's (about a visionary that transcends time), and Janine Spendlove's (a fun time-travel aviation tale), and Conley Lyon's (a period ghost story set in Appalachia). I'll stop here or else I'll end up listing them all! Please enjoy! (And do leave a review if you read the book!)
Profile Image for Jon Allanson.
222 reviews3 followers
January 29, 2015
I had backed this anthology on Kickstarter, and was really excited by the concept. For me, the idea behind this book totally paid off - I thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories. I knew only a few of the authors by reputation prior to reading this, but not most of them. I was so impressed and delighted by the stories and the worlds they transported me to while I was reading that I have short-listed most of these authors for further reading. I was engaged and delighted by the characters I met in this book, and frequently lost myself wishing I was along on the adventures they were experiencing. The writing was top-notch, and I was pleased by the wide variety of people and points-of-view represented. But mostly, it was a crazy fun read, with unicorn hunters, fairies, pilots, military personnel, princesses, schoolchildren, and all sorts of amazing heroines.
Profile Image for CuriousLibrarian.
153 reviews14 followers
January 23, 2015
This is an incredibly well put together collection of stories. I backed it on kickstarter not knowing whether I would get a mess of a collection, or potentially a few good stories... but almost every story hit the mark for me. I love that having female spec fic main characters meant a diverse range. For instance, it's not often that you see a disabled senior citizen as a main character (unless you are talking a wizened crone/witch character in a fairy tale). There was certainly a good helping of young girls having fanciful adventures, but this collection is so much more than that.

My only major complaint is that most of the art looks rather amateurish. But the stories more than make up for it. (Although I hate to say that one of the big-name authors could have used another editing pass on her story.)

I am REALLY looking to volume 2, and backed that one on kickstarter as well.
Profile Image for Kate.
243 reviews
December 31, 2016
Oh man, this was another really awful anthology. The title sounds so promising! I really enjoy stories about strong women, but in this collection they were sadly lacking. I can't even remember most of them they were so lacklustre. There were a lot of sections from novels so many of the stories had little introduction and no resolution.

I think the story about the young girl that went to summer camp on the Moon and hated it, but decided she loved it after her live was saved by a friend and a camp leader was the worst.

I hope the sequel is better!
Profile Image for John Devenny.
267 reviews
September 9, 2014
I was a supporter of the Kickstarter campaign which made this book possible so I was predisposed to like it. However I was disappointed by the overall quality of many of the stories in this anthology. It started so well with a lovely time travel story by Mary Robinette Kowal but unfortunately most of the rest failed to live up to that standard. As a result I was only able to give this one a 2 star rating.
Profile Image for Leilani.
446 reviews16 followers
August 16, 2014
There were several strong, enjoyable stories (the old women with powers, the haunted house, the lunar camp, the dog story at the end), but they couldn't quite make up for the impatience I felt with the rest of the volume. Too many typos and a strong feeling that many of the stories needed another edit or two - particularly the steampunk-in-Egypt one, which felt particularly hasty and amateurish.
Profile Image for Nancy.
275 reviews19 followers
September 25, 2014
There's a decent mix of stories here, most of which I enjoyed. Since I got this specifically for Cleolinda's story, I should probably mention that I thought it was wonderful, and it makes me excited to read more, when it becomes available.
Profile Image for Hallie.
954 reviews128 followers
Want to read
June 28, 2014
They're getting ready to send out the *print* copies, and I'm getting even more impatient for my digital one!
Profile Image for Brewergnome.
414 reviews4 followers
February 27, 2016
An excellent collection. I enjoyed all the stories, and some of them were truly excellent!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews

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