The Metal Maiden Collection: To Be a Woman, Shepherd, Fly Trap, and Awares

The Metal Maiden Series #1-4

by Piers Anthony

Four novellas in one volume—the thrilling science fiction saga of a female robot who becomes sentient and fights to save humanity from destruction.

With nearly two hundred published works and more than twenty  New York Times  bestsellers to his credit, Piers Anthony is without a doubt one of the most prolific and creative authors in science fiction and fantasy. Among his most ingenious literary creations are the four books of his remarkable Metal Maiden saga, collected here in one the breathtaking tale of Elasa, the fembot who desires nothing more than to be human.

In “To Be a Woman” we meet Elasa, who is perfect in every way—a female machine created for pleasure, whose newborn consciousness makes her strive for more. The story moves to a distant colony planet in “Shepherd,” in which a young man participating in a student exchange program finds himself in another body and suddenly the caretaker of a herd of telepathic and eminently wise sheep. “Flytrap” brings Elasa’s friend Mona to the colony in the body of a pregnant woman, through which she learns that her work with a young precognitive lamb could have a major impact on more than one existence and more than one world. Finally, in “Awares,” Elasa must work closely with a unique group of environmentally attuned beings in order to protect the earth from an onslaught of gigantic, world-devouring extraterrestrial maggots.

447 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Though he spent the first four years of his life in England, Piers never returned to live in his country of birth after moving to Spain and immigrated to America at age six. After graduating with a B.A. from Goddard College, he married one of his fellow students and and spent fifteen years in an assortment of professions before he began writing fiction full-time.

Piers is a self-proclaimed environmentalist and lives on a tree farm in Florida with his wife. They have two grown daughters.

Reviews

[Eero · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I last read something by Piers Anthony. At one time I did enjoy reading the Xanth books, although I was aware they were not regarded highly by the more discerning readers. I guess one reason was they were written in a rather simple and straightforward prose, English not being my native language. Also, the puns were probably funnier to a non-native reader.

This series of novellas is strangely old-fashioned; although it is written in the 2010s, the science-fictional concepts are really old hat: robots, telepathy, precognition, and mind-swapping as a form of space travel, all of which date back to the 1950s at the latest. Gender roles are also very much in the 1950s mold, which probably infuriates a bunch of people. Oh, and there is also a lot of explicit sex, written in a strangely coy manner. The first story is all about a female sexbot (if there are any male sexbots in that world, they are never mentioned) gaining consciousness through love and then becoming emancipated. After that the story jumps to a colony planet with telepathic and precognitive sheep, and elves, who are a diminutive human variant (one of Anthony's kinks seems to be male protagonists having sexual relations with diminutive females); and sex vampires that seduce with pheromones and attack their victims' genitals. And then on to a cosmic threat from some extremely nasty aliens who process all the life forms of whole worlds into canned food. All of this is supremely silly.

[Gaenolee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting group of novelas

While filled with gratuitous sex (as well as some needed for the plots), this series of four stories sets put a potentially plausible ending to the earth.

[Steven Stowers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I probably would have rated this higher if I had read it when I was a lot younger. It's not a good book, but for a bad book it's pretty entertaining and readable.

[Steve Crooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Every author has to begin somewhere but this is an awfully low level.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an unusual book for me. I wondered why I couldn't wait to get back to it. The story was compelling, the characters were less so. I think ultimately it was the questions it raised for me that captured my attention. How and why these various creatures and people existed and to what purpose in the world of the story, and then how and why the people and creatures exist in my story. I was very satisfied at the end. The questions raised stick with me.