The Future Is Female! Vol. 2: The 1970s: More Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women

by Lisa Yaszek (Editor), Sonya Dorman, Kate Wilhelm

Go back to the Future Is Female in this all new collection of wildly entertaining stories by the trailblazing feminist writers who transformed American science fiction in the 1970s

In the 1970s, feminist authors created a new mode of science fiction in defiance of the “baboon patriarchy”—Ursula Le Guin’s words—that had long dominated the genre, imagining futures that are still visionary. In this sequel to her groundbreaking 2018 anthology The Future is Female!: 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin, SF-expert Lisa Yaszek offers a time machine back to the decade when far-sighted rebels changed science fiction forever with stories that made female community, agency, and sexuality central to the American future.

Here are twenty-three wild, witty, and wonderful classics that dramatize the liberating energies of the 1970s:

Sonya Dorman, “Bitching It” (1971)
Kate Wilhelm, “The Funeral” (1972)
Joanna Russ, “When It Changed” (1972) NEBULA AWARD
Miriam Allen deFord, “A Way Out”(1973)
Vonda N. McIntyre, “Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand” (1973) NEBULA
James Tiptree, Jr., “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” (1973) HUGO AWARD
Kathleen Sky, “Lament of the Keeku Bird” (1973)
Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Day Before the Revolution” (1974) NEBULA & LOCUS AWARD
Eleanor Arnason, “The Warlord of Saturn’s Moons” (1974)
Kathleen M. Sidney, “The Anthropologist” (1975)
Marta Randall, “A Scarab in the City of Time” (1975)
Elinor Busby, “A Time to Kill” (1977)
Raccoona Sheldon, “The Screwfly Solution” (1977) NEBULA AWARD
Pamela Sargent, “If Ever I Should Leave You” (1974)
Joan D. Vinge, “View from a Height” (1978)
M. Lucie Chin, “The Best Is Yet to Be” (1978)
Lisa Tuttle, “Wives” (1979)
Connie Willis, “Daisy, In the Sun” (1979)

Story Locale:Include post-apocalyptic California; a dystopian convent; post-pandemic Earth; extraterrestrial human colonies; and more

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

450 pages, Hardcover

Published October 11, 2022

Reviews

[EveStar91 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Future is Female! Vol. 2 is a solid collection of stories for anyone looking to read more classic SF by women (or even if not!). I found a good mix of award-winning stories, some authors and stories I'd already read and some authors I read for the first time here.

It's easy to see why these works were trail-blazing in the 1970's and why they are classics still widely read now. The writing is, simply put, powerful. The characters and plots are well constructed for short stories. The world-building gets top marks of course.

Some stories were hit and miss for me, but that would happen with any anthology. The rating for the whole collection is five stars.

[One star for the premise and the whole collection; One star for the characters; One star for the story arcs; One star for the writing; One star for the world-building - Five stars on the whole.]

Thanks to NetGalley and the Library of America for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Stefanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me nearly three months to read this (I'm just not great at short story collections, what can I say?) but it was worth it. I loved the first volume of this series, The Future is Female! Women's Science Fiction Stories from the Pulp Era to the New Wave. Similarly, I appreciated the curation of this follow-up, which is laser-focused on the decade of the 1970s - a key time for second-wave feminism and some notable work among women publishing in SFF.

If you don't read any other part of this book, read the introduction. Yaszek offers great orientation to the time and the selection of stories in the book, even addressing women of color and queer women authors in the time period (there are a couple included in both categories). The author bios at the back are also unmissable - I would flip to the back and read each as soon as I finished a story.

The stories in the book are arranged by publication date, starting with the early 1970s and progressing through the decade. My GR reading updates contain short summaries / thoughts about each story, but some standouts are below.

Stories I Really Enjoyed - By the Big Names
Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand by Vonda M. McIntyre - I might have liked this story the most out of the whole book, and it's the most "classic" sci-fi. I liked it so much I actually bought the novel McIntyre expanded it into.
The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr. - Whooaaaaa. Terrifying and exhilaratingly dark ride.
The Day before the Revolution by Ursula K. LeGuin - not sure if there's anything she written I didn't like? But I especially liked the musings of an older woman revolutionary leader in this story - written by LeGuin when she was 45.
Cassandra by C.J. Cherryh - I think I liked this story second-best in the whole volume. Feverish take on the Greek myth character. I thought it would make a great short film.

Stories I Really Enjoyed - New to Me Authors
A Way Out by Miriam Allen deFord - This is a great send-up of classic sci-fi tropes, features a Black woman President, and was written when deFord was in her 80s!
A Scarab in the City of Time by Marta Randall - Written by and starring a Latinx woman, loved this adventure tale of domed cities.
The Anthropologist by Kathleen M. Sidney - This story of alien displacement pulled on my heart strings.
The Best is Yet to Be by M. Lucie Chin - Fascinating exploration of life extension via inhabiting new bodies.

For That 70s Feminism Flavor!
The Funeral by Kate Wilhelm - This is The Handmaid's Tale but before The Handmaid's Tale.
When It Changed by Joanna Russ - Pretty sure Russ is the mascot of 70s feminism in SFF.
Hey, Lillith! by Gayle N. Netzer - Short and to the point, lol.
Wives by Lisa Tuttle - Someone should write their grad paper on the metaphor and symbolism in this story.

If Yaszek keeps publishing volumes in this series, I'm going to keep buying them.

[Ximena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a very solid SF anthology! With soaring highs and pretty ok lows.

Sonya Dorman, “Bitching It” (1971) - Fun way to start off the anthology. Not often female sexuality is described so atavistically. Humourous and thought-provoking

Chelsea Quinn Yarbo, "Frog Pond" (1971) - This one was funny, liked the tone of the writing and the main character's naïveté

Kate Wilhelm, “The Funeral” (1972) - Great story with a tragic ending. Really conveyed the dark and helpless experience of being a child with no power in an uncaring world.

Joanna Russ, “When It Changed” (1972) NEBULA AWARD - One of my favorites, really felt like a bleak acceptance of the coming apocalypse and acceptance of the patriarchy

Miriam Allen deFord, “A Way Out”(1973) - Don't remember this one :(

Vonda N. McIntyre, “Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand” (1973) NEBULA - Imagine if Dune was better

James Tiptree, Jr., “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” (1973) HUGO AWARD - This one was interesting, but the colloqualisms made it hard to read so removed from the colloquy

Kathleen Sky, “Lament of the Keeku Bird” (1973) - This one was wild, I don't know if I'll ever be the same after reading it, kinda reminded me of "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge"

Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Day Before the Revolution” (1974) NEBULA & LOCUS AWARD - This one had a very cool "stonepunk" vibe, think the Sentinel portions of Doom: Eternal (I know it's a weird comparison but my brain is weird so...)

Eleanor Arnason, “The Warlord of Saturn’s Moons” (1974) - Cool golden-era sci-fi vibes

Kathleen M. Sidney, “The Anthropologist” (1975) - This one is also gone from my memory

Marta Randall, “A Scarab in the City of Time” (1975) - I would love to watch a TV adaptation of this, and loved the hopeful vibe of this after some of the more dour stories

Elinor Busby, “A Time to Kill” (1977) - Forgot this one too :(

Raccoona Sheldon, “The Screwfly Solution” (1977) NEBULA AWARD - Back to bleakness! This one was like a feminist disaster movie, which was pretty legit.

Pamela Sargent, “If Ever I Should Leave You” (1974) - I'm here for time traveling love stories!

Joan D. Vinge, “View from a Height” (1978) - The loneliness in this story was very effective, another one of my favorites; because of lonely IN SPACE!

M. Lucie Chin, “The Best Is Yet to Be” (1978) - I don't remember :(

Lisa Tuttle, “Wives” (1979) - This one was pretty cool. Very Simone de Beauvoir. Really shows how 'woman' is a role based on a societal construct than biology, since the 'wives' in this are literal aliens.

Connie Willis, “Daisy, In the Sun” (1979) - Good way to end the anthology, end scene reminded me of "Don't look up", but not my favorite tbh

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have an interest in voices at the margins of SFF and in noting the stories and authors that fall out of print--or fall out of mainstream awareness--in a way that reflects social forces more than it reflects the writing itself. I'm pretty reliably interested in collections of this type and followed James Davis Nicoll's "Fighting Erasure" series of articles for Tor with interest.

Yazek's in-depth introduction is excellent; she pays homage to the landmark collections of women's SF (such as Pamela Sargent's Women of Wonder) that have preceded this one and brings both the stories and the authors into personal and social/historical context. The biographical notes at the end are similarly astute and in-depth, for readers interested in the lives and in some cases controversial legacies of the authors whose works are represented. (The only detail that I found puzzling was classifying Joan D. Vinge and Marta Randall both as a BIPOC authors.) Note that the stories are listed in the table of contents with the name under which they were originally published--so Alice Sheldon's two entries are credited there as James Tiptree, Jr. and Raccoona Sheldon--but Yazek makes this clear in the forward and biographical notes at the end.

No anthology or collection contains stories that every reader will find unanimously excellent, and naturally I connected more with some stories than others. The first story in the collection, Sonya Dorman Hess' "Bitchin It" was not my thing, and Joanna Russ' "When It Changed" left me breathless and thoughtful and I finished and immediately read it again. The breadth of styles and storytelling in this collection, the quality of the writing, and the range of authors represented were superb. (I was absolutely delighted to see a Doris Piserchia story in this collection--she consistently seems to be overlooked in similar anthologies.) A couple of the stories were familiar to me, but most were not, and I was happy to see that a number of authors were new to me... as well as new aspects to authors I thought I knew (I'd had no idea that Chelsea Quinn Yarbro wrote any short fiction--or speculative fiction, for that matter--and particularly enjoyed her entry).

Altogether an excellent collection that's left me wanting to hunt down a copy of the first volume. I received a copy from Library of America and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[ambyr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the first volume, this is a thought-provoking collection that suffers from a lack of notes and other editorial insight. Several stories left my bookclub baffled about why they were chosen for inclusion, including "The Warlord of Saturn's Moons" (of all the excellent Arnason you could pick from, why this rather slight piece?), "Hey, Lilith!" (even slighter, and by an author who seems not unjustly to have been forgotten), and "Time to Kill." But still very much worth reading, both for the classics I'd encountered before ("The Girl Who Was Plugged In," "The Day before the Revolution") and for many largely forgotten stories I'd never seen before.

[David Agranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Interviews with Editor Lisa Yaszek
Vol 1: https://soundcloud.com/dickheadspodca...
Vol 2: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

The mark of an important anthology is standing the test of time. Most anthologies just have the job of collecting stories. This book and the first in the series are so much more than just stories. That being said the Future is Female has stories, great glorious stories that capture an era, a time. You will enjoy a variety of stories, but more important entertain and teach. Part of this review will be telling you about the impact the first book had on me because It had a big impact.

Before we get into the stories let's try to sell you out of the gates to open another tab on your browser and order this book, or request it at your library. Whatever you have to do to get a copy. This edition is stories from the 70s in chronological order by year. In the back of the book are extremely detailed biographies, I went back and read those before each story and I recommend that. You want to know that the very sexual “A Way Out” by Miriam Allen Deford was 92 years old when it was published. You want to know that Kate Wilham was a founder of the Clarion Writers workshop. It brings a personal touch to each story. In the end, there are 400 pages of Sci-fi from Huge names Leguin and Russ, legends like Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Tiptree Jr. to stories that appeared in fanzines lost to time like the opener Bitching it by Sonya Dorman Hess.

These are stories of second-wave feminism, they explore environmentalism, post-male societies, first menstruation, and the nitty-gritty of being a woman. Common in fiction now, to find fiction about the experience of women, but sadly revolutionary in a genre that fairly or unfairly is painted as a boy's club at the time. Yaszek's books make clear women were ALWAYS there.

The stories have righteous anger and deserved frustration with patriarchy that Vol. 1 didn’t have. The women writing Science Fiction from the 1920s to 1969 had different agendas. Judith Merril aside whom openly challenged John W. Campbell and told him "I am going to sell you stories and you are going to like it." Even Campbell with his myriad problems couldn't resist the tide.

Now that I read Vol 1, four years in the past how did reading it affect me? Authors I never heard of before reading that book CL Moore and Judith Merril have become favorites I have devoted episodes of both podcasts too. Leigh Brackett an author I knew has become a heavier part of my rotation. I visited buildings CL Moore lived and worked in during visits to our mutual home state of Indiana. I have read more about Katherine Maclean and Claire Winger Harris since then.

Vol. 2 I knew the names of more of the writers, I had read a few of the stories. In the interview posted here, Lisa talks about the selection process. Her younger grad students being fourth-wave feminists reading second-wave stories and how they reacted across generations was interesting.
My favorite stories this time included “A Way Out,” by Deford, Frog Pond by Chelsea Quinn Yarbo, The Screwfly Solution is a stone-cold masterpiece, and had I just read it last year, why the hell not read it again? Joan D. Vinge's story and the closing story by Connie Willis were highlights.

Lisa Yaszek is one of my favorite interviews but her appearances, four of them total on the Dickheads podcast. She is the Regents Professor of Science Fiction Studies in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech. She is the author of Galactic Suburbia: Recovering Women’s Science Fiction and co-editor of Sisters of Tomorrow. Most importantly today she is the editor of two Library of America editions of The Future is Female. These are definitive anthologies that paint the history of women’s role in the writing of 20th century Science Fiction
I interviewed her about the first Future is Female Vol 1 on DHP, She also joined us for panels on Cancel Culture, Scholars in Quarantine, and a panel on the work of Judith Merril.

Yeah, Lisa is an example of a legit in academic scholar we need. Jo Walton for example, does similar things as an author and fan. Genres like SF, horror, crime or mystery. We have to preserve out history. We need both. Books like The Future of Female are so important. These two books should be on the shelf of feminists everywhere because they highlight how unique the power of science fiction genre is for empowering women. Science Fiction can crush patriarchy in the right hands and this book is a hammer for the toolkit.

[Julie Capell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone who is serious about scifi. Chock full of excellent short stories published in the 1970s by women. Many remain recognizable names today, others I had never heard of. I definitely recommend reading the bios (at the end of the book) prior to reading each story, to have a grounding in the lives of these authors, most of whom were born in the 1940s, the issues they were interested in, and the overall trajectories of their authorship. Some have published extensively (Eleanor Arnason), some only a few stories (Gayle Netzer), some were influencers before that was a word (Joanna Russ), some began in fanzines (Elinor Busby) and some in teaching (CJ Cherryh)
some are SFWA Grand Masters (Ursula LeGuin), some were known primarily for the works they edited (Pamela Sargent), some hid their identities behind pseudonyms (Racoona Sheldon AKA James Tiptree, Jr.) some wrote "hard" scifi (Joan D. Vinge), some wrote in multiple genres (Chelsea Quinn Yarbro), one was a cofounder of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Workshop (Kate Wilhelm), some continue to publish today (Connie Willis). And I noted that while most of them got married, of these more than half also got divorced (some more than once).

This quote from Eleanor Arnason seems to sum up the inspiration behind many of the outstanding stories in this collection:

I never wanted to be a housewife, a mother, or anything that was allowed to women in those days: a secretary, a teacher or a nurse. I wanted to bee a writer, a space cadet and someone who changed the world for the better.

This was one of the best short story collections I've ever read. The quality of the stories was consistently excellent. My favorite stories were:
-Frog Pond by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - bigotry may morph but it will always be with us
-The Funeral by Kate Wilhelm - girls should be careful what they wish for
-When It Changed by Joanna Russ - the only post-utopia story I've ever heard, the most purely feminist story here and my favorite in the whole volume
-A Way Out by Miriam Allen DeFord - a funny and original take on the fish-out-of-water tale
-Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand by Vonda N. McIntyre - Such a touching story, compelling main character, and fully realized world, it's easy to see why this short story became the wonderful novel "Dreamsnake"
-The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree, Jr. - incredible to realize this was written in 1973, years before the internet, algorithms that predict our behavior, movies made by AI, and social influencers would take over our lives (to the extent that a podcaster could tip the balance and get Donald Trump elected to a second term) How's this for scifi prescience:

The idea that art thrives on creative flamboyance has long been torpedoed by proof that what art needs is computers. Because this showbiz has omething TV and Hollywood never had--autmoated inbuilt viewer feedback. Samples, ratings, critics, polls? Forget it. With that carrier field you can get real-time response-sensor from every receiver in the world, served up at your console.

-If Ever I Should Leave You by Pamela Sargent - Content warning: don't read if you've recently lost someone dear to you. I felt the character's pain deep in my being. Great ending. Another one of my faves in this volume
-Pale Hands by Doris Piserchia - Pretty graphic sexual content, worth it all for the twist at the end
-The Day Before the Revolution by Ursula LeGuin - some of the best writing in the whole collection, what else would one expect from LeGuin? An examination of what becomes of a revolutionary when she outlives the revolution she started. I recently finished reading a book of poems written by LeGuin when she was in her 80's, and this story is just as piercing a meditation on aging as those poems are, despite having been written when the author was just 45 years old. Excellent story.
-The Anthropologist by Kathleen M. Sidney - The fate of the exile, to be forever misunderstood wherever you are. Reminded me a little of Rollback by Robert J Sawyer, and the Xenogenesis books by Octavia Butler.
-The Screwfly Solution by Racoona Sheldon - horror as the battle of the sexes goes into overdrive, with a great twist ending.
-Time to Kill by Elinor Busby - short but good twist on time travel
-The Best is Yet to Be by M. Lucie Chin - another examination of the difficulties of aging, combined with questions about the ROI of immortality, and women's ability to practice self-realization. Great story.
-View from a Height by Joan D. Vinge - view from the inside of what extreme isolation in the form of a decades-long space flight can do to a human psyche. Also, an O'Henry twist.
- No One Said Forever by Cynthia Felice - Perfectly captures the interior dialog of women in the 1970s/1980s (I think it's still true today, or if it's not, it will be again soon) who try to live their lives according to their own compass, rather than doing things to satisfy their parents, or their husbands, or their kids.
-Cassandra by C.J. Cherryh - why it would suck to be able to see the future.
-Wives by Lisa Tuttle - I always like a story told from a point-of-view where it takes a while to figure out what is exactly going on. Packs a punch at the end.
-Daisy, In the Sun by Connie Willis - definitely the earliest thing by Willis I have read, written 13 years before the Doomsday Book, and wow is it different from all her novels. As her novels have gotten more and more crammed with research, I have grown tired of them, but this story is pure imagination. I can see why it was nominated for a Hugo.

Cannot recommend this anthology enough!

[Beth Cato · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

The second volume in The Future is Female! series focused on the 1970s, presenting 23 science fictions stories written by women. Though I had read several of the authors and recognized many, I don't believe I have read any of these specific stories before. The breadth of topics is fascinating, ranging from alien worlds to earthly apocalypses to travels through deep space. Many thoughtfully examine gender roles, and indeed, the role of being a human or an alien being.

Some of my favorites included :Frog Pond" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbo, "The Day Before the Revolution" by Ursula K. Le Guin, and the very creepy "The Screwfly Solution" by Raccoona Sheldon. Other stories struck me as almost incomprehensibly weird and not to my liking, but I still found them fascinating and I appreciated their bold spirit. It's a solid anthology overall.

[Banshee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like modern fiction. It offers everything that fiction can in terms of story, world-building, characters, prose and ideas without being diminished by being dated. And yet, I will sometimes reach for older works for educational purposes.

In this case, the collection of short stories provides the glimpse into the minds of female science fiction writers who had to struggle to make their presence known in the field dominated by men. I appreciate every single one of those writers and even if I didn't love every single of the stories included in this anthology, I saw what all of them were trying to do and respect them for it.

I already knew and valued some of these short stories beforehand (my reviews are probably out there somewhere), all of them deserving awareness of the modern readers:
- Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand by Vonda N. McIntyre
- The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon)
- The Day Before the Revolution by Ursula K. Le Guin
- The Screwfly Solution by Racoona Sheldon (Alice Sheldon).

From the stories new to me, my favourites were the following:
- The Funeral - dark dystopia with creepy vibes
- When It Changed - a society comprising solely of women, much improved over one created by both sexes, threatened by the return of men; the story reminded me of another story from that time period, Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr.
- The Anthropologist - an intriguing tale about an alien adopted into human society, with the undertone of nature vs. nurture considerations
- Time to Kill - a very short story, but my inner anti-Christian atheist cackled at the idea
- No One Said Forever - a story about a family in the future where people are expected to regularly relocate for work
- Wives - a story that was 0% enjoyable and 100% sad and terrifying; I believe it was exploring why women were living under men's oppression for many centuries without organising and putting up a real fight - not because they enjoyed their lives but out of fear.

*I received an e-ARC from NetGalley and I leave this review voluntarily.

[Nicole (bookwyrm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this was a very solid anthology. I've definitely found some authors whose entries here I liked enough to seek out more of their work. I also greatly appreciated that the anthology as a whole—even though it does focus on women at the heart of SF short stories—doesn't feel like it was intended as a "girls only" club. It feels like the focus was on writing quality; these were all nicely crafted, even the ones I didn't care for much.

CONTENTS:

Sonya Dorman, “Bitching It”
This story starts the anthology off with a reminder that "science fiction" has evolved. There's very little science in this piece, but it's set in a future where women can live on their own and be the ones in charge of sex. Weird to look back at this piece 50+ years later.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, "Frog Pond"
This was a bit of an odd dystopian. It felt like the big apocalypse event happened before our narrator was born, and so for older people it may feel like the world is a dystopia but for our MC this is just life as usual. I enjoyed it, and though I have a sense of where it takes place I have little sense of time. It could be any point in the near future, honestly, and I think I like it better for that. It felt like it could have been a story written last year, not over 50 years ago.

Kate Wilhelm, “The Funeral”
I was not a fan of this story, but that's because of the subject matter. I haven't read Atwood's THE HANDMAID'S TALE, but this felt like a version of that universe, where children have their lives planned for them by Teachers and other adults instead of getting to chose a life for themselves. Well written, just not my thing.

Joanna Russ, “When It Changed” ~ NEBULA AWARD WINNER
I haven't read many stories of this nature, where the men are all gone and society is women only but in this case it worked for me. The history of how that happened isn't explored (this is a short story after all) but you can still get a good enough sense of everything. While I don't think the plot will stick with me long, this is a masterclass in how to write a short and fully-contained story.

Kathleen Sky, “Lament of the Keeku Bird”
I fear that this story was beyond my comprehension. I saw the themes of motherhood and conformity and obedience, but generally I was so confused by this story.

Miriam Allen deFord, “A Way Out”
This was perhaps the most whimsical story of the collection so far: it tells the story from an alien's POV as he tries to get out of his position as an ambassador to humanity. While I didn't particularly enjoy the story, I appreciated the inclusion of something lighter.

Vonda N. McIntyre, “Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand” ~ NEBULA AWARD WINNER
I adored this story. It's beautiful and sad and wonderful. It is both heartbreaking and hopeful. It might be my favorite short story that I've read this year. ~ CW: cancer, child illness, snakes, animal death (but all of those things are handled very well)

James Tiptree, Jr., “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” ~ HUGO AWARD WINNER
Of all the stories so far in this anthology, this one has felt the most like other classic SF short stories that I have read—in both the good ways and the bad ways. The good: the concept is intriguing, the vision of the future was fantastical and yet still felt realistic, and the science was plausible. The bad: there is no real emotion conveyed (even during some sad scenes), some points were repeated too frequently, and the characters seemed relatively one-dimensional. It was well crafted (except maybe for the repetition) but not one I particularly cared about one way or the other.

Pamela Sargent, “If Ever I Should Leave You”
This was a lovely piece! It doesn't get too dark, but it does look at grief and methods of healing from it. It also addresses the way our society holds up youth as a thing to be sought after and age as shameful. But overall, it was very touching and sweet.

Doris Piserchia, "Pale Hands"
This is an odd story. The narrator's job is to clean public masturbation stalls, and she (and the reader) is confused for most of the story why they get quite as much use as they do. It gets loosely explained by the end of the story, but I still don't know how society got to where it was in the story. (Side note, this one is set in 2021. That amused me.)

Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Day Before the Revolution” ~ NEBULA & LOCUS AWARD WINNER
In this story, a 72-year-old woman looks back at her life as one of the founders of a revolution. It is a very quotable story, but thin on plot. I was frequently bored.

Eleanor Arnason, “The Warlord of Saturn’s Moons”
In many respects, this story felt more like a contemporary story than a science fiction one. Even though it was set in a nebulous future, I got the impression that the only thing I would normally point to as "sci-fi" took place within the book that this story's MC was writing. I didn't get much out of this story.

Marta Randall, “A Scarab in the City of Time”
This was amusing, and felt a bit more like an adventure caper than a science fiction story. Still, the message the story told still hit home today.

Kathleen M. Sidney, “The Anthropologist”
This is a very neat look at what early human-alien interactions might be like. I liked the use of the alien as the POV character, and the way that the alien race *felt* alien.

Gayle N. Netzer, "Hey, Lilith!"
I found this to be one of the most "fun" stories so far. It's both silly and pointed all at the same time.

Raccoona Sheldon, “The Screwfly Solution” ~ NEBULA AWARD WINNER
While I see what this story was doing, I didn't particularly like it. (In part because it's a depressing story that felt all too real.) The ending wasn't hard to see coming; I knew where the story was going about halfway in, I think? It was still interesting to see the process of getting our MC to that point, though.

Elinor Busby, “Time to Kill”
Short and fun! I love the approach to time travel in this one.

M. Lucie Chin, “The Best Is Yet to Be”
This is a neat look at the concept of extending your lifespan using brain transplants. While the science aspect wasn't described in much detail, I found the story fascinating. However, I also thought it stopped just as it was getting started.

Joan D. Vinge, “View from a Height”
I really liked this story. It really only has one character, and the story is told through dictated diary entries (though there is a talking parrot in the background). Our MC is the sole occupant of a manned space probe, with a one way ticket out of the solar system. It's more introspection than action, but I really enjoyed the direction it went.

Cynthia Felice, "No One Said Forever"
This story didn't really feel futuristic to me (though it might have in the 70's). When it really comes down to it, this is a story about commitment and relationships, and the genre of the piece is irrelevant.

C.J. Cherryh, "Cassandra" ~ HUGO AWARD WINNER
Cassandra's story in Greek mythology is one that has always both intrigued and horrified me. To know the future but have no one believe you... would that be better or worse than being as much in the dark as everyone else? This story is a masterful retelling of that situation, and I really enjoyed the journey of trying to figure out what I was seeing through the protagonist's eyes.

Lisa Tuttle, “Wives”
This is an odd story, yet one that I could see happening. The portrayal of how an alien species manages to fit into human society is all too believable. It dumps the reader down in the middle of the action (not uncommon for short stories) and the story of how we got to this point is partially explained but largely left implied. It works for this piece, though. Nicely crafted.

Connie Willis, "Daisy, In the Sun"
Of the many stories in this anthology, Willis' piece is the only one I had read before. However, it has been long enough that I didn't remember it... and honestly, it's hard enough to wrap my head around it that I don't think I'll remember it long this time, either. I think I have a decent idea of what the story is telling, but it's convoluted enough that it's hard to say I "liked" it. I do think it's well crafted, but Willis has other short stories that I enjoyed a lot more than this one.

[Mary Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were only a few stories in here that I really liked or really disliked. Most of them fell in the middle for me.

Tbh most of the stories in here were bummers.

[july · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lisa Yaszek did a great work with this collection. She made visible the thread between feminism and science fiction, writing the historical context behind the stories in the introduction and adding a brief biography of the authors by the end.
I haven't read the book that precedes this one yet, so I made sure to add it to my tbr list.

➡ Bitching It (1971) by Sonya Dorman Hess - ★☆☆☆☆
Am I to take it as a precursor of the omegaverse?

➡ Frog Pond (1971) by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - ★★★☆☆

But to hear him tell it, you'd think it changed the whole world.

It's the kind of reveal you know to expect, but don't really know what exactly it is that you're expecting until the end; and it builds really well before you get there.

➡ The Funeral (1972) by Kate Wilhelm - ★★★★★
It does feel like The Handmaid's Tale, but somehow I liked this one better.

➡ When It Changed (1972) by Joanna Russ - ★★★★☆
A colony of Earth, left for a while, becomes host to a female-only society. Their men are all dead and have been for generations, so why do they have to come back and ruin this world, too?

➡ Lament of the Keeku Bird (1973) by Kathleen Sky - ★★☆☆☆
While I don't really mind gore, incest and cannibalism, I know some people may; however, my greatest pet peeve was not understanding what she was supposed to be - a coyote? a furry? another omega?? And oh, don't let me started on how annoying I found all those animal verses...
I think what saved this one from being a complete failure in my eyes was how she seemed to gain greater conscience as the story went on, as she crawled on, reflecting so her journey to become an Old Being.

➡ A Way Out (1973) by Miriam Allen Deford - ★☆☆☆☆
A tentacled alien is an ambassador on future Earth; not liking it, he tries to escape. Unfortunately humans are weird, so his plans fail successfully.

➡ Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand (1973) by Vonda M. McIntyre - ★★★★☆
A precursor or prequel of sorts of her late novel Dreamsnake, this story is a great example of how fear of cultural differences can be a source of harm.

➡ The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1973) by James Tiptree, Jr.* - ★★★☆☆

“The news.” He laughs. “There’s nothing in the news except what they want people to know. Half the country could burn up and nobody would know it if they didn’t want. Dee, can’t you take what I’m explaining to you? They’ve got the whole world programmed! Total control of communication. They’ve got everybody’s minds wired in to think what they show them and want what they give them and they give them what they’re programmed to want—you can’t break in or out of it, you can’t get hold of it anywhere. I don’t think they even have a plan except to keep things going round and round— and God knows what’s happening to the people or the earth or the other planets, maybe. One great big vortex of lies and garbage pouring round and round getting bigger and bigger and nothing can ever change. If people don’t wake up soon we’re through!”

Influencers in a world when and where the internet was just starting to exist but social media didn't appear yet.
Great concept, especially relevant nowadays, but I had a few problems with the writing style.

➡ If Ever I Should Leave You (1974/77) by Pamela Sargent - ★★★★☆
A paradoxical time travel romance.

➡ Pale Hands (1974) by Doris Piserchia - ★★★★★
Humanity controlled via sexual conditioning.

➡ The Day Before The Revolution (1974) by Ursula K. Le Guin - ★★★★★

The young people went about the halls of the House in becoming immodesty, but she was too old for that. She didn’t want to spoil some young man’s breakfast with the sight of her. Besides, they had grown up in the principle of freedom of dress and sex and all the rest, and she hadn’t. All she had done was invent it. It’s not the same.
Like speaking of Asieo as “my husband.” They winced. The word she should use as a good Odonian, of course, was “partner.” But why the hell did she have to be a good Odonian?

A short story following the last day in the life of Laia Asieo Odo, the semi-legendary woman who led the revolution that founded the anarchist society in The Dispossessed, reminescing her past actions and words and whether they held any true intention.

➡ The Warlord of Saturn's Moons (1974) by Eleanor Arnason - ★★☆☆☆
While her own world goes up in flames outside her home, a woman writes science fiction.

➡ A Scarab in the City of Time (1975) by Marta Randall - ★★★★☆
If you move across the desert, you'll find a city; a domed city of which the intended use was to seal people inside in advent of the end of the world, but whose application, years later, seems to be that of keeping the world – and other people – outside of it.
And yet, a woman manages to tunnel in, in the hope of showing the population of the dome that their sun is an artificial one that doesn’t compare with the one outside, at the cost of being trapped in and considered an heretic, a ghost, a demon.

➡ The Anthropologist (1975) by Kathleen M. Sydney - ★★★★☆
With a human mind and an alien body, []he may be alone among the humans, but is alone among the aliens, too.
And while the loneliness in this tale may have been what truly made it take place in my heart, the theme of nature vs. nurture makes a great starting point for reflection.

➡ Hey, Lilith! (1976) by Gayle N. Netzer - ★☆☆☆☆
Tries to be both funny and meta, just reads as annoying.

➡ The Screwfly Solution (1977) by Raccoona Sheldon* - ★★★★★
A virus outbreak sees the exponential death of women at the hand of the men that surround them – both those who once were friendly faces and the unknown ones.
The Screwfly Solution takes up the theme of a humanity made fragile by its sexual impulses, as the title indeed refers to the sterile insect technique – one of eradicating the screwfly population by releasing large quantities of sterilized males which would compete with fertile ones, further reducing the native population with each generation – of which the story is a similar distortion.
If the Angels from Evangelion were to take inspiration from what happened here, they would've succedeed for sure.
An interesting article I found pertaining the story.

➡ Time to Kill (1977) by Elinor Busby - ★★★☆☆
Given the opportunity to go back in time, would you take the choice of killing a character with a playing role in history – if it meant it could change the outcome of the future present? Who would you choose? And would it even change anything?
Just know you should strike the goat when it’s still a lamb.

➡ The Best Is Yet to Be (1978) by M. Lucie Chin - ★★★★☆
From the Latin, nomen omen: the name is a sign.
And it is a pretty telling one for Kitty, the pet of the Harvard family, a cat in her ninth life. She's the longest living woman at her ninth brain transplant in a new body, living a new life for the last time; but then, like an ouroboros, she begins again from where she left out.

➡ View from a Height (1978) by Joan D. Vinge - ★★★★★

When you confront the absolute indifference of magnitudes and vistas so overwhelming, the swollen ego of your self- important suffering is diminished...
And I remembered one of the things that was always so important to me about space—that here anyone has to put on a spacesuit before they step outside. We’re all aliens, no one better equipped to survive than another. I am as normal as anyone else, out here.

A woman with no functioning immune system to speak of, has somehow decided to work in space because of it. She felt alone before, she is even more so now, but will the choice she made back then mean anything less in retrospect?

➡ No One Said Forever (1978) by Cynthia Felice - ★★★☆☆
While the past still finds ways to hurt us in the present, it’s our current choices and opportunities that will haunt us in the future; especially if those splitting paths were made visible not only by looking back, but by moving forward.

➡ Cassandra (1978) by C.J. Cherryh - ★★★☆☆

One could live in ruins, only so the fires were gone.
And the ghosts were all in the past, invisible.

You only ever hear of Cassandra during the war, and while you never believe her before, the proof inevitably comes after. But if we were in a period of peace, would you even try and stay to listen?

➡ Wives (1979) by Lisa Tuttle - ★★★☆☆

I’m not what I used to be, she thought. I’m something else, now—a “wife,” created by man in the image of something I have never seen, something called “woman.”

It reminded me a little of Jackalope Wives, if the wives were spiders instead, at first; and then of a possible outcome of the previous story When It Changed, if instead of just coming back, the men made a pit-stop on some other planet.
As Simone de Beauvoir said, one is not born a woman, but becomes one.

➡ Daisy, in the Sun (1979) by Connie Willis - ★★★★★

“That’s what you think! You think you know everything. Well, you don’t know what anything is. I read a book about it and you know what it said? They don’t know what memory is. They think maybe it isn’t even in the brain cells. That it’s in the atoms somewhere and even if we’re blown apart that memory stays. What if we do get burned by the sun and we still remember? What if we go on burning and burning and remembering and remembering forever?”

Of my fifteenth summer I only remember falling asleep on the beach, under the sun. I slept there for hours and woke up with a fever that lasted the whole week, and a second degree burn of which I bear some traces, still. I know I dreamt, before my awakening, but nothing again ever came near to what it felt like, in those few hours - before this story, at least.

[Sarah E · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy via NetGalley.

It seems like older science fiction was overwhelmingly written by men, so this collection was refreshing to read to see some of the work that women were putting out in the 1970s. That being said, many of the stories fell flat for me, and I found myself wishing that this collection had been edited down to less short stories.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again, introducing me to amazing writers and stories. “The Screwfly Solution” is one I can’t believe I’ve never read before, as is “Wives”.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read via NetGalley.

Lisa Yaszek has put together another very fine set of stories that highlight the variety of science fiction that has been produced by women, this time in the 1970s. Arranged chronologically by publication date, this fiction has some stories that are angry, and some that are more on the whimsical side; some that (I think) could only have been written by a woman, and others that don't particularly reflect a gendered authorship (and then there's the James Tiptree, Jr). Some feel like classic SF, others are more experimental. I didn't love them all. As a set, this is a really amazing way to showcase the variety of what women can write and have written.

Some I've read before: "When It Changed" (Joanna Russ) always gets me and I hope will always be discussed as part of science fiction in general, and not ever just relegated to 'battle of the sexes' conversations. I don't understand why we don't talk more about "The Girl who was Plugged In" (Tiptree) when we discuss cyberpunk; "The Screwfly Solution" (Raccoona Sheldon) is always completely horrific, and so is "Wives" (Lisa Tuttle), for very different reasons. I have always loved "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand" (Vonda N. McIntyre) for its exploration of love and compassion - and same, in some ways, with "The Day before the Revolution" (Ursula K. Le Guin), although the latter is even more poignant; I always need to just stop and stare into the distance for a moment when I read it.

Of the others, there were several that stood out. I've read very little by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro; "Frog Pond" was very nicely paced, and the reveals built up beautifully. Kate Wilhelm's "The Funeral" was quietly terrifying as the state of America was slowly revealed - and these two, next to each other, were particularly distressing to read in the current state of the world. "The Anthropologist" (Kathleen M Sidney) feels in some ways like it's in conversation with Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, with its exploration of living between two very different worlds. And as someone who occasionally feels sad for Curiosity and Voyager etc, never being able to come home, "View from a Height" (Joan D Vinge) was something of a gut-punch. Gorgeous, but a bit harrowing.

... clearly, I think this anthology works for both people with some knowledge of the state of the 1970s field, and I believe it would also work for those who want an introduction to 1970s SF in general. It's nicely comprehensive.

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and to the Library of America for this wonderful eARC.

I’ve been reading a lot of women’s fiction lately—the proper definition, as in, fiction written by women, and not the other, silly definition. I have not, traditionally, been terribly interested in old sci-fi, finding it stilted, racist, and sexist. Admittedly, I had mostly been reading Western white men, and then the one book by Ursula the Great (which I loved). So I was curious to read this collection, particularly because these stories are from the Seventies, roughly at the beginning of second-wave feminism. Some of the authors included here are also quite famous, so this was a great way to be introduced to their writing.

Although I didn’t like every single story—usual when one reads an anthology—I found this collection refreshing and thoughtful in all of the right ways. Much more importantly, this was fun (sometimes laugh-out-loud funny). Women, girls and non-binary people are doing all kinds of things here: living, growing old, sometimes dying, existing, having offspring, growing up, saving the world or not, cleaning or not, pairing up or not, escaping, being adopted, migrating, leaving. So much womanhood, ordinary and extraordinary, presented in interesting ways.

I am a sci-fi fan, so this works out to be my kind of thing. If you’re not, you can still read this for what sci-fi is really good at: between its lines, challenging the status quo, which is what these authors achieved. Lisa Yaszek’s introduction to the anthology is also excellent. I will be reading the first volume (2018) for completeness.

These were my favourite stories:

Kate Wilhelm The Funeral (1972)
Miriam Allen Deford A Way Out (1973)
Vonda N. Mcintyre Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand (1973)
James Tiptree, Jr. The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1973)
Pamela Sargent If Ever I Should Leave You (1974/77)
Doris Piserchia Pale Hands (1974)
Ursula K. Le Guin The Day Before the Revolution (1974)
Eleanor Arnason The Warlord of Saturn’s Moons (1974)
Marta Randall A Scarab in the City of Time (1975)
Kathleen M. Sidney The Anthropologist (1975)
Raccoona Sheldon The Screwfly Solution (1977)

My rating: 8/10

[Sheila Jenné · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories are perfect for reading when you're busy and struggling to focus, so this was the perfect book for this moment. Although the stories are from the 70s, they weren't dated. Rather, it felt like the dilemmas and issues in them are only more pressing now.

I can't review every story, so I'll mention a couple I especially liked. There was a James Tiptree story (note: James Tiptree was a female author writing under a pseudonym) about a young woman who is, essentially, an instagram operator. The internet didn't exist at the time of writing, but somehow Tiptree predicted we would have influencers, that they'd be glamorous for a living and make their money promoting products. But in this story, the influencer is a cloned body remotely piloted by a woman not nearly so beautiful or glamorous. Without explicitly saying so, Tiptree brings our attention to how different it is to be beautiful or ugly, especially as a woman. How almost everyone sees the body as the person, and the real person behind it as the "thing."

Another that hit me hard was about a change in human psychology that makes men violent against women. Nobody can figure out what's going on, but as it spreads and more and more women are gruesomely murdered . . . we find that men largely don't care. It's hard to argue it wouldn't be like that.

Many of the stories end on a somber note; as short stories tend to, they give us a premise, make us care, and then wrap up. Still, they left me thinking.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

[RestingandReviewing · Rating 4 out of 5]

RestingandReviewing.wordpress.com

Book Review: The Future Is Female! Volume Two, The 1970s: More Classic Science Fiction Stories By Women

A Library of America Special Publication (2022)

A Thank-you

Before starting this review I would like to thank Netgalley and A Library of America Special Publication for this reviewers copy of the book.

Blurb

In the 1970s, feminist authors created a new mode of science fiction in defiance of the “baboon patriarchy”—Ursula K. Le Guin’s words—that had long dominated the genre, imagining futures that are still visionary. In this sequel to her groundbreaking 2018 anthology The Future is Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin, SF-expert Lisa Yaszek opens a time portal to the decade when women changed science fiction forever with stories that made female community, agency, and sexuality central to the American future. (Library of America, n,d)

Ebook version

This is the second review of an ebook version that has a contents page, like (Chinese Adventure Stories in Space) but no links. Check out the last review for Writers of the Future Volume 39; this had a contents page and a link to every single short story. THIS is the way ebooks should be done! Unfortunately, The Future is Female has no links and you have to manually scroll the ebook to get to every story. This is NOT ergonomic for reading or reviewing. I will not rehash the same arguments as to why, please read the other reviews and find out why.

Favourite Stories

1.The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1973) James Tiptree, Jr.

I have previously read this story before in a James Tiptree, Jr. anthology and enjoyed it. James Tiptree, Jr is one of my favourite Science Fiction writers. The biography at the back of the book was astounding to read. It turns out Tiptree (or Sheldon, her real name) enlisted in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and rose to the rank of major! (Library of America, 94%) After the war she joined the CIA in 1953 (Library of America, 94%)…And if that was not enough she also went on to become a Doctor with a Ph.D. in Psychology! (Library of America, 94%). If you have never read Tiptree, or never heard of this story – go out and buy everything you can get your hands on.

2. If Ever I should Leave You (1974/77) Pamela Sargent

Time travel done right. I have read a few time travel stories now in these short story anthologies and this was a heart breaking, interesting tale, focussing on two lovers entangled in a web of time. It was poignant, but ultimately demonstrated the power of time.

3.Pale Hands (1974) Doris Piserchia

This story was a surprise! It explores sexuality, politics, overpopulation and conditioning.

4. The Warlord of Saturn’s Moons (1974) Eleanor Arnason

Bizarre is one word to describe this story. I thought it was great. Here we have a tale told by the writer and her writing journey. Although not your typical science fiction story it was interesting.

5. A Scarab in the City of Time (1975) Marta Randall

A scientist turned vandal. It was an interesting story and a good concept. It was interesting to see how Randall shows the conflict between different generations.

6. Hey, Lilith! (1976) Gayle N. Netzer

Humorous, refreshing, but also quite a bit dark if you think about it too long.

7. The Screwfly Solution (1977) Racoona Sheldon

This was a great story! Well executed and the final line was brilliant. I read this and I was reminded of a book I recently read, Moths – Jane Hennigan. it’s amazing to see how similar ideas can be tackled by different writers, in different times. I believe this short story was well done and it deserves a read.

8. Time to Kill (1977) Elinor Busby

A good story. Another time travel story about going back in time to save the future. But as with all time travel, there are consequences with everything. I did not expect it to turn out the way it did, but I was glad that Busby did not make it too predictable.

9. No One Said Forever (1978) Cynthia Felice

The Science Fiction within this story was subtle and this focussed more on the relationships of the characters. I felt like I was in the middle of their conversation and the characters were well developed even through the first few lines. It alluded to various Science Fiction themes, but it centres more on the people involved.

10. Wives (1979) Lisa Tuttle

A harrowing idea. Assessing men, their desires and breaking down social constructs. What would men do if they were thrown on another planet with beings which resemble women? This was a sad tale and a very good one.

Would I Recommend?

Yes. There are 25 Science Fiction stories included in this anthology and I picked out my favourite ten to talk about. I don’t want to spoil plots, or ruin stories for you, but they were great. An overall good collection, full of great writers and James Tiptree, Jr. I am glad Library of America are going back in time and plucking out these brilliant writers and highlighting their work from stories of the past. Buy it. Support Library of America and The Future is Female!

References

Library of America. (n,d). The Future Is Female! More Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women. Accessed via: https://www.loa.org/books/721-the-fut...
Library of America (2023). The Future Is Female! More Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women. New York. United States of America.

[Keeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Thank you to NetGalley and Library of America for granting me access to an early copy*
Why I Requested It: I was curious to read older science fiction by women and this anthology conveniently compiled a bunch of stories together, all written by women.

Overall Thoughts: A very good collection. Aged well. What I find feminist about this collection is not just the focus on the female perspective but also on being an outsider and being an "other." Below I have the stories ranked from my most favorite to least favorite along with a summation of my thoughts on each story. Dying for a third volume.

Ranking:
When It Changed by Johanna Russ
Despite my extreme disappointment with The Female Man, which is based on this story, I thought When It Changed was phenomenal. Unlike The Female Man, it has aged quite well and feels like a complete story, even though it has an open ending. It also perfectly encapsulates the theme of this collection, with a future society composed entirely of females that are about to face a huge change. Can see why this won an award.

The Best is Yet to Be by M. Lucie Chin
Like the previous story this one felt fully fleshed out. What I probably loved best about this story was the interaction between the female leads, and how this causes them to question the concept of autonomy and how choices can impact the future.

Of Grass and Mist and Sand by Vonda McIntyre
A beautiful story that really showcases McIntyre's writing skills. A woman healer makes a critical mistake and underestimates the fear and ignorance of a small community. There is a gentleness that I really liked, both within the narrative and from the healer herself and despite the very realistic portrayal of the flaws of humanity, the story never feels hopeless. Serves as the basis for her award winning novel Dreamsnake, which I am looking forward to reading.

Frog Pond by Chelsea Quinn Yarbo
Great story about the environment, how it is altered due to pollution and nuclear fallout, and how different people respond to it. There's also a smidgen of weirdness that highlights the message(s) of the story without being distracting.

If Ever You Should Leave by Pamela Sargent
A heartfelt time travel story about two lovers. Really what makes this story stand out in such positive way is the fact that it packs such an emotional punch in a short period of time and doesn't fall victim to the frustrations that tend to come with a time travel story.

The Warlord of Saturn's Moons by Eleanor Arnason
First exposure to Arnason, and I preferred this to Woman of the Iron People. Pulpy with deceptive depth, the narrative switches between a woman writing a short story in the vein of stories that came out during the Golden Age of science fiction and the contents of the story (so there's also a bit a meta feel to it). There's enough pulpiness in it to be entertaining, in part because its self aware, but enough depth to ground it by exploring themes of war and its effects on people as well as women's presence in all aspects of science fiction.

Daisy in the Sun by Connie Willis
I was initially very skeptical about this story because I hated The Doomsday Book, but this surprisingly turned out okay. The whole story uses the “apocalypse” as a metaphor for puberty and growing up and seems to end with this message of embracing change, because its not the end of everything.

A Scarab in the City of Time by Marta Randall
A science fiction “Allegory of the Cave” set in a closed off city, what makes this one stand out is that its the only one that explicitly addresses race as the “otherness” and the city disregards those that don't fit their archetype. Following the trend of me preferring optimistic stories, it ends on a hopeful note with a hole in the city and focus on the children with the potential for connection.

Wives by Lisa Tuttle
Completely forgot about this one for awhile. Good but dark, with a focus on gender and sex as aliens are forced to conform to the restrictive roles imposed on them by the patriarchy.

A Way Out by Miriam Allen DeFord
When first compiling this list I had this one much higher up because I liked the comedic narrative as a curmudgeonly alien is forced to interact with humans, but as time has passed the thing that I remember best is the ending which was my least favorite part of the story because the author chose to portray this important female politician as a ditz.

The Screwfly Solution by Raccoona Sheldon
If Lament of the Keeku Bird is the goriest and Bitching It is the most sexual, than The Screwfly Solution is definitely the bleakest. In fact I've tried to block out much of the narrative because of how grim and violent it is. The narrative centers on this mysterious wave of male mob mentality that results in genocide, particularly aimed at females. I liked that it was a fusion of biology and sociology yet I feel much of it went over my head, but again that's probably due to how I responded to the nature of the story.

The Girl Who was Plugged In by James Tiptree Jr
This was my first Tiptree story and it very much fits the bill of a cyberpunk narrative. Very chaotic writing which I expect in this genre but as such confused me, which is one of the two main reasons I tend not to like cyberpunk in the written format. Lots of tech was also featured, along with a dark tone beneath all glitter and glamour, which actually works well with the story which is essentially about influencers before they were a thing.

View from a Height by Joan D. Vinge
This one is the reverse of A Way Out wherein initially I had this one lower because it was one of the more forgettable ones and it barely counts as science fiction. How it does incorporate genre, however, highlights exactly why I prefer speculative fiction to literary fiction. In the story, an immune comprised woman is chosen for a solo mission in space. Because there is just one person who has been isolated her entire life the story focuses on her grappling with this, possibly permanent, loneliness yet there emerges this thread of hope in opportunities for a better future. It's a story you have to patient with but can be rewarding.

No One Said Forever by Cynthia Felice
A really good story that is very relevant about a woman choosing between her job and relationship, just not sure how it counts as speculative fiction (maybe at the time it was published there were speculative elements). What stands out to me about this story is not only how topical the subject has remained but also how maturely it was presented, without the constant petty bickering and gaslighting, which gives both sides of the debate validity.

Pale Hands by Doris Piserchia
Another story where sex is at the forefront so very 70s but more palatable than Bitching It because the sex isn't quite as in your face and there did seem to be a point to the story besides performing sexual acts on page, even if I couldn't tell what it was (I think sexual liberation and gender dynamics).

The Funeral by Kate Wilhelm
I was intrigued at the beginning of this, wanting to see where it went, but with an increasingly militaristic tone that was reminiscent of a YA Handmaid's Tale, I actually became less interested, and the end just lost me.

The Anthropologist by Kathleen M. Sidney
Interesting set up of a nature vs nurture conflict, about this alien that was raised by humans and then going back to study his own race. Then things took a left turn after the sex scene and the story really lost its momentum and direction.

Bitching It by Sonya Dorman
Well, I wouldn't say this is a good story, but it is a very 70s story with its rough and graphic sex and I can appreciate it for that (though the sex came across as non consensual).

Lament of the Keeku Bird by Kathleen Sky
This is probably the most gory story in this collection, which does make an impact. I think this was trying to make some commentary about motherhood, but I could not get beyond the grizzly exterior to the core of this story.

The Day Before the Revolution by Ursula K. LeGuin
It feels sacrilegious to say anything bad about anything by this author, but I just did not like this story. LeGuin's works are frequently too short for their own good and this was the worst example of that so far. It does follow an older woman, which I'm sure was a novelty when this story was first written, but there's something about the way she judges women and their bodies that rubbed me the wrong way. Also like many other stories in this collection and LeGuins full length works, this story was the basis for another novel The Dispossessed, which was frankly better.

Hey Lilith by Gayle Netzer
A very short story that's basically a post apocalyptic first wives club and with all men always chasing something younger. Its not exactly wrong but its so short that I don't really have much to say beyond that.

Time to Kill by Eleanor Busby
Like the previous one I get what this story was going for, showing that religious extremists will always exist, but I'm very particular with my time travel stories and this one didn't shine. Too simple with an unlikeable leading lady, being both obtuse and a cold blooded child killer.

Cassandra by C.J. Cherry
Even before completing this collection, after reading this story I knew this was one of the worst ones. It's just a bad retelling of the Cassandra myth because you really have to squint to find any retelling aspect aside from the name but its also an insufficient story. Neither thought provoking nor entertaining but at least it wasn't as dark as I would expect from C.J. Cherry.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is really hard to rate anthologies, especially ones like this that include so many different stories from so many different authors. There were some stories that I really enjoyed, some stories that I didn't really like, but I appreciated, and some that I intensely disliked. In the end, I decided the fairest way to do it would be to keep track of my rating for each story and then average them out, which resulted in a 3.5 (which rounds up to 4). This feels pretty accurate!

There are several things that are strengths of this anthology - quantity, variety, innovation of ideas, and the significance of these stories in the time frame in which they were written. I think the concepts are the biggest strength of this collection; these authors explore a lot of themes related to misogyny, feminism, justice, sex, relationships, etc, through inventive settings and scenarios.

Although there was a lot to like about this book, I did ultimately feel that parts of this book were a slog. I thought for a long time about why that was, and I ultimately came up with this: something that I really like and appreciate about both science fiction and feminist writing is that even in the darkness of the genre, there's some sort of sense of optimism and hope for a better future. What many of these stories lacked was any shred of optimism; they commented on social issues and imagined possible futures, but often they just came to the conclusion that it sucks to be a woman and always will. There's certainly still value in these, but I had a harder time getting through them and connecting because I was searching for that shred of hope.

A quick recap of my thoughts on each story, with a few brief comments (although I don't want to spoil too much, since discovering the premise of the stories is one of the highlights of reading an anthology):

SONYA DORMAN HESS - Bitching It: 0/5 (Basically just “what if women raped men and it was normalized?” I found it very gross and uncomfortable.)

CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO - Frog Pond: 4/5 (Intriguing, interesting reveal, made me curious about the world of the story.)

KATE WILHELM - The Funeral: 3.5/5 (Interesting setup, not much resolution. Handmaid’s tale vibes)

JOANNA RUSS - When It Changed: 5/5 (Interesting, inspiring, upsetting. A sad reminder of the power of patriarchal violence)

KATHLEEN SKY- Lament of the Keeku Bird: 0/5 (Just gross. Gore, incest, cannibalism, not much even happens. Ew.)

MIRIAM ALLEN DEFORD - A Way Out: 3.5/5 (Interesting view of humanity from the perspective of a very nonhuman alien, but parts of it a little gross. Also not seeing much of the feminist slant?)

VONDA N. MCINTYRE - Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand: 5/5 (The world was fascinating and I liked the exploration of cultural differences and fear causing harm. I felt a clear sense of character despite the short length.)

JAMES TIPTREE, JR. - The Girl Who Was Plugged In: 4.5/5 (I have a few nitpicks with the writing style, but the concept and execution are interesting in a “chilling because it could happen” way.)

PAMELA SARGENT - If Ever I Should Leave You: 4/5 (Good, but sad. A time traveling love story)

DORIS PISERCHIA - Pale Hands: 2/5 (It’s clearly trying to say something about sex but it’s just not working for me.)

URSULA K. LE GUIN - The Day Before the Revolution: 3/5 (I love Le Guin and it’s very thoughtful, but the sadness was too much for me)

ELEANOR ARNASON - The Warlord of Saturn’s Moons: 4/5 (Very meta - a woman writing about a woman writing about a woman in a sci fi story. Still, engaging!)

MARTA RANDALL - A Scarab in the City of Time: 5/5 (Interesting and engaging, ultimately hopeful!)

KATHLEEN M. SIDNEY - The Anthropologist: 3/5 (Interesting concept, I guess, but kind of hard to follow)

GAYLE N. NETZER - Hey, Lilith!: 3/5 (Vaguely interesting premise maybe, lacking in executions - very short!)

RACCOONA SHELDON - The Screwfly Solution: 4/5 (Very well executed, but chilling. Handmaid’s tale vibes but more science-y and sci-fi)

ELINOR BUSBY - Time to Kill: ??/5 (Unsure how to rate, feel weird about the premise as someone who was brought up religious)

M. LUCIE CHIN - The Best Is Yet to Be: 5/5 (Very interesting, Trill-esque (Star Trek) concept. Leaves you wanting more)

JOAN D. VINGE - View from a Height: 3/5 (Decently written, interesting concept, but kind of just a bummer. Captured loneliness well, I guess)

CYNTHIA FELICE - No One Said Forever: 4/5 (Wrenching portrait of a relationship faced with conflicting pressures and expectations for men and women, and how our pasts continue to hurt us.)

C. J. CHERRYH - Cassandra: 2/5 (Did not really understand this, nor did I particularly want to)

LISA TUTTLE - Wives: 5/5 (Again, chilling, but very well written. Fascinating concept.)

CONNIE WILLIS - Daisy, in the Sun: 4/5 (Well written, very scary)

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an entertaining selection of stories covering a wide range of topics and styles. Science fiction being a product of its time, there’s a lot of focus on the environment, over population and women’s rights. (Interestingly, despite the dystopian tendencies of many sci fi writers, except for global warming -- which no one predicted – these things have gotten better since the 1970s.)

Here are some brief thoughts on the stories as I read them:


Pale Hands – This is a very unusual story about how the overpopulated world limits birth through masturbation and limits on love and reproduction. A very disturbing end.

The Day Before the Revolution – interesting tale about aging (mortality) and revolution. Other than the exotic, other-worldly locales mentioned, did this need to be a sci fi story? (Couldn’t it easily have been placed in some unnamed South America or Africa country? Even America?) The story oddly seems to imply that the main character’s main identity was through/with her husband. Some good sections on growing old.

The Warlords of Saturn’s Moons – A meta story about a female writer in some future society who chooses to escape her dreary reality through writing a science fiction/fantasy story about a strong, bold woman living a life of adventure. The story deftly goes back and forth between the author’s fantasy and reality, poignantly displaying the contrast.

The Scarab in the City of Time – An odd story about a domed city existing in the middle of another civilization for thousands of years without any outside contact. A woman manages to break inside but can’t get back out to her world. It is odd because the people in the dome don’t seem particularly unhappy. It seems like a very strict, rules-based society that does not condone nonconformity – but none of this is developed clearly. The trapped woman wants to get out so she tries to convince the people they, too, should want out. I felt a bit conflicted about the trapped woman’s motives. She seemed kind of selfish.

The Anthropologist – This is the sad story about a creature from another planet adopted by humans and raised as a human. He doesn’t feel he belongs in the human world, but when he goes back to his native world he finds he doesn’t fit in there either, so he sadly decides to go back to Earth where he at least has family and friends.

Hey Lilith! – This is a wry story about a woman’s struggle to form deeper relationships with society in general and men in particular, but only finding shallowness and turning (inevitably) to a group of older women for company and companionship. I’m not quite sure of the sci fi angle.

The Screwfly Solution – This is a frightening tale of men increasingly turning on women and murdering them. It could almost be a done as a novel, but the story is told effectively. I won’t give out the ending, but it is a very disturbing piece of dystopian writing.

Time to Kill – A time traveler story with the usual surprise ending. Probably one of the weaker ones I’ve read.

[Book Club of One · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Future Is Female! Volume 2 continues to highlight and celebrate the work of feminist science fiction writers. Lisa Yaszek gathers 18 stories from the 1970s. Volume 1 highlighted the work from the 1920s through to the end of the 1960s.

This collection takes its name from the 1972 merchandise slogan created by Jane Lurie and Marizel Rios to support the New York City feminist bookstore Labyris Books. As Yaszek discusses in the introduction to this volume, the 1970s were a time when the science fiction was reaching a wider audience thanks in part to the success of Star Trek and towards the end of the decade Star Wars. This meant more writers working in the genre, and while women were still a minority, there were more of them active. At its best fiction can serve as a medium to explore, reflect on or react to contemporary issues. In this collection we see many authors doing just that.

And of course, we need to talk about the stories! I picked up this book recognizing Ursula K. Le Guin and James Tiptree, Jr. From having read the two volumes of Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions anthologies I'd read "The Funeral" and "When It Changed." Otherwise most of the stories here were new to me.

Arranged chronologically, these stories explore the traditional sandbox of Science fiction. There are stories of space travelers, encounters with non human life, poking fun or criticisms of the stock characters, and most importantly the possible futures of gender relations. While each story will not be detailed in few, below are the stories that were the most memorable.

When It Changed (1972) by Joanna Russ
- A planet that hosts a female only society encounters men for the first time in generations.

A Scarab in the City of Time (1975) by Marta Randall
- After tunneling in to a domed city, our narrator explorer is trapped. She now spends her time stealing food and graffitiing and pranking the population of the dome trying to find her way out.

The Screwfly Solution (1977) by James Tiptree, Jr.
- Told through letters, news reports, interviews inter cut with the story of a scientist in the field, this story presents the outbreak and spread of an unnamed condition that sees men killing all women and children.

No One Said Forever (1978) Cynthia Felice
- Carol and Mike are both professionals. Mike is in mining and Carol does undisclosed computing work. Carol has been offered a wonderful professional opportunity but it means leaving the life she's built with Mike for at least two years. Through conversations, we see the splitting paths of choices or opportunities open to Carol as they try to reach a decision.

A great collection of works of science fiction that offer plenty of new worlds to explore. As with any anthology work, one can read a story as the mood strikes. Worth reading for any fan of the genre.

I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to both NetGalley and the Library of America for an advanced copy of this science fiction anthology showcasing some of the best work by women in the 1970's.

Science fiction has always tried to look forward, even thought many of it's ideas are stuck in the past. The roles of women, minorities and those different from most of the male authors, always played second fiddle, or seemed to conform to some romanticized or stereotypical role. Of course there were exceptions. Though through the years more and more stories are being told about famous authors and their grabby hands, or even abusive attitudes. However women still persisted, entering the field, writing movies, books and stories that are still remembered today for their excellence, their view of the future, both positive and regressive. Edited by Lisa Yaszek, The Future Is Female! Volume Two, The 1970s: More Classic Science Fiction Stories By Women, highlights some women who entered the field during this decade and the powerful stories they presented.

The introductory essay is almost worth the price of the book being solid study of the era, the writers and changes that were taking place in the genre. How authors, even manly men authors began to include more women in their stories, some well, some poorly, and how more women began to enter the field and excel. The stories are presented chronologically from the beginning of the decade to the end to highlight the changes and depth of the stories and how previous authors might have affected later writers. Two of the best stories are Vonda N. McIntyre Of Mist and Grass and James Tiptree Jr.'s The Girl Who Was Plugged In, which really presages the work and worlds of Bruce Sterling and William Gibson and Cyberpunk stories.

Judging an anthology is difficult as stories that might seem important at the time might read poorly in the future, or even derivative. This is a very strong collection with a lot of good stories, a few that really standout, and a couple that I could not enjoy, either that I did not understand or that I could not wrap my mind around the concept of. Some stories are more classic in what they present, a few are imaginative, sometimes too much. What astonishes most is that many of the stories don't seem of an era, but seem fresh, and sadly to reminiscent of our times today, showing that nothing has really changed in 50 years, in fact has gotten worse. However there is a sense of hope in quite a few tales, that is very infectious and heartwarming.

A very good, and with a few stories very disturbing collection, that might home for a lot of readers in many different ways. Recommended for fans of science fiction, no matter what gender. These are stories with a passion and feeling behind them, and good or bad, that comes across quite strongly in the writing.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first volume of these at least pointed to some positive, utopian visions, whether they be egalitarian or matriarchal; this one is full of dystopia and a vague horror at the wrongdoing of man, wherever in time across the galaxy. I have nothing against this, obviously, it just makes the title amusingly inappropriate. More coherent than that first volume, as the stories are drawn from a ten-year period (eight, actually, now I check); everyone included here had at least heard of second-wave feminism, though I think a couple likely didn’t conceive of themselves in those terms. The editor at least namechecks Pamela Sargrent’s Women of Wonder anthologies in the intro this time, which there’s like a 60% crossover with those; James Tiptree Jr. is featured under both her male and female pseudonyms, perhaps in a nod to Vonda McIntyre and Susan Janice Anderson accidentally doing the same in their Aurora: Beyond Equality, thinking they’d achieved gender parity.

The book is structured with also-rans and amateur-presssers breaking up much-cited and anthologised works by Tiptree (both of her), Russ, Le Guin (featured with the moderately tedious ‘The Day Before the Revolution’). Again I’m not sure I quite see what the point is; I’m not convinced ‘The Girl Who Was Plugged In’ or ‘When It Changed’ are informed much by reading them next to work of the third water by less famous names. (Weird they didn’t find room for Pamela Zoline in either anthology.) What else. I hadn’t read any Vonda McIntyre before and the story here—later part of the novel Dreamsnake—convinced me I ought to read more. Of the lesser known names M. Lucie Chin seems worth further attention (by the world, I mean, not by me); apparently she got out of SF quick. The rollercoaster really does peak midway with Tiptree/Sheldon’s ‘The Screwfly Solution,’ after which the remaining two years and the next hundred pages really feel like anti-climax. I fully expected this to really bottom out with Connie Willis, of whose work I’d only read ‘Fire Watch’ and the beginning of The Domesday Book, both of which I disliked, because the cast of those stories seemed eternally about to burst into ‘Master of the House’ or ‘You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket or Two’; ‘Daisy, in the Sun’—the story here—is set, instead, in suburban America, Canada, and inside a sun gone nova, and is much, much better than I expected, though inhabitants of those territories might quibble.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have an interest in voices at the margins of SFF and in noting the stories and authors that fall out of print--or fall out of mainstream awareness--in a way that reflects social forces more than it reflects the writing itself. I'm pretty reliably interested in collections of this type and followed James Davis Nicoll's "Fighting Erasure" series of articles for Tor with interest.

Yazek's in-depth introduction is excellent; she pays homage to the landmark collections of women's SF (such as Pamela Sargent's Women of Wonder) that have preceded this one and brings both the stories and the authors into personal and social/historical context. The biographical notes at the end are similarly astute and in-depth, for readers interested in the lives and in some cases controversial legacies of the authors whose works are represented. (The only detail that I found puzzling was classifying Joan D. Vinge and Marta Randall both as a BIPOC authors.) Note that the stories are listed in the table of contents with the name under which they were originally published--so Alice Sheldon's two entries are credited there as James Tiptree, Jr. and Raccoona Sheldon--but Yazek makes this clear in the forward and biographical notes at the end.

No anthology or collection contains stories that every reader will find unanimously excellent, and naturally I connected more with some stories than others. The first story in the collection, Sonya Dorman Hess' "Bitchin It" was not my thing, and Joanna Russ' "When It Changed" left me breathless and thoughtful and I finished and immediately read it again. The breadth of styles and storytelling in this collection, the quality of the writing, and the range of authors represented were superb. (I was absolutely delighted to see a Doris Piserchia story in this collection--she consistently seems to be overlooked in similar anthologies.) A couple of the stories were familiar to me, but most were not, and I was happy to see that a number of authors were new to me... as well as new aspects to authors I thought I knew (I'd had no idea that Chelsea Quinn Yarbro wrote any short fiction--or speculative fiction, for that matter--and particularly enjoyed her entry).

Altogether an excellent collection that's left me wanting to hunt down a copy of the first volume. I received a copy from Library of America and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and to the Library of America for this wonderful eARC.

I’ve been reading a lot of women’s fiction lately—the proper definition, as in, fiction written by women, and not the other, silly definition. I have not, traditionally, been terribly interested in old sci-fi, finding it stilted, racist, and sexist. Admittedly, I had mostly been reading Western white men, and then the one book by Ursula the Great (which I loved). So I was curious to read this collection, particularly because these stories are from the Seventies, roughly at the beginning of second-wave feminism. Some of the authors included here are also quite famous, so this was a great way to be introduced to their writing.

Although I didn’t like every single story—usual when one reads an anthology—I found this collection refreshing and thoughtful in all of the right ways. Much more importantly, this was fun (sometimes laugh-out-loud funny). Women, girls and non-binary people are doing all kinds of things here: living, growing old, sometimes dying, existing, having offspring, growing up, saving the world or not, cleaning or not, pairing up or not, escaping, being adopted, migrating, leaving. So much womanhood, ordinary and extraordinary, presented in interesting ways.

I am a sci-fi fan, so this works out to be my kind of thing. If you’re not, you can still read this for what sci-fi is really good at: between its lines, challenging the status quo, which is what these authors achieved. Lisa Yaszek’s introduction to the anthology is also excellent. I will be reading the first volume (2018) for completeness.

These were my favourite stories:

Kate Wilhelm The Funeral (1972)
Miriam Allen Deford A Way Out (1973)
Vonda N. Mcintyre Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand (1973)
James Tiptree, Jr. The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1973)
Pamela Sargent If Ever I Should Leave You (1974/77)
Doris Piserchia Pale Hands (1974)
Ursula K. Le Guin The Day Before the Revolution (1974)
Eleanor Arnason The Warlord of Saturn’s Moons (1974)
Marta Randall A Scarab in the City of Time (1975)
Kathleen M. Sidney The Anthropologist (1975)
Raccoona Sheldon The Screwfly Solution (1977)

My rating: 8/10

[WorldconReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing collection of deeply philosophical stories that also entertain.

"The Future is Female! Volume Two." contains 23 stories by such renowned authors as Ursula K. Le Guin, James Tiptree, JR, Connie Willis, and others.

Each story is well written with a definite message. They are all creative and worthy to read. They tend to be dark, ranging from tantalizingly confusing dystopian to reassuringly comfortable dystopian to entertainingly and/or humorously dystopian to oddly disturbingly dystopian to thought-provoking dystopian to sadly understandable dystopian to terrifyingly real dystopian to psychologically depressingly dystopian to abjectly horrifying end-of-the-world in a really really bad way dystopian.

In all honestyly, a few stories did not deserve my overly general "dystopian" label. For example, the story of an alien assigned to represent his species as an ambassador at the United Planet was more humorous and entertaining than dystopian. Though one has to feel sorry for the poor alien since things did not exactly work out according to his plan. Another story was downright amusing in the conclusion that time travel to the past can not be easily used to solve dystopian problems. And one of the stories that felt dystopian had an absolutely happy ending, but I can't go in any detail since that would be a spoiler...

I absolutely recommend this book to the discerning thinking reader, and look forward to Volume Three of this series.

I thank the editor, authors, and publisher for kindly sharing a temporary electronic review copy of this work. Thank you!

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love science fiction stories featuring female protagonists and/or written by female or nonbinary authors? This anthology series meets those criteria. Have you ever been frustrated that an anthology of stories were all told from a male POV? The writing in this collection will solve that issue. Perhaps you wish it was easier to find sci-fi by various female writers and your local library is not meeting that need? You should grab a copy of The Future Is Female! and satisfy your cravings.

Volume Two was published on October 18 and contains two dozen stories from female writers in the 1970s. Whether you are already a fan and just want more writing from a favorite author, or are looking for new-to-you writers, this is a smorgasbord of options. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Vonda N. McIntyre, Pamela Sargent, Ursula K. LeGuin, C.J. Cherryh...the list is full of well-known names. If you have read The Saint-Germain Chronicles, Star Trek and Star Wars novels, or The Earthsea Cycle, then you have already met some of these women through their writing. For others, it could be an appetizer that will have you looking for more books by the same creator.

The stories themselves range from distant futures where humans have mutated to survive in a polluted and endangered ecosystem to a revolutionary thinking back on the history of the movement. James Tiptree's "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" paints a frightening picture of the future that foreshadows M.T. Anderson's Feed. "The Funeral" by Kate Wilhelm seems eerily similar in tone to Margaret Atwood's work. Other stories depict the impact of man's colonization of outer space or delve into possible causes of mass femicide. A couple even toy with the temptations of time travel.

There is such a range of topics, settings, and styles that every story may not be the perfect match for every reader, but there is something within the collection that will resonate with each of us and keep us circling back to it in our thoughts long after we have closed the book. This is a great introduction to each of these writers. Back matter features biographical details and notes about the writing career of each author.

I read an advance copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

[Roopa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid anthology.

Favorites: The Funeral (Wilhelm), When it Changed (Russ), A Scarab in the City of Time (Randall), The Screwfly Solution (Sheldon), and Wives (Tuttle).

Honorable mentions (all had at least one thing about them that was satisfyingly unsettling/twisty/trope-defying/inventive): Frog Pond (Yarbro), the girl who was plugged in (Tiptree), Pale Hands (Piserichia), The Anthropologist (Sidney), Cassandra (Cherryh).

Only a few that I really didn't care for (about 3), which is not bad at all for an anthology.

I typically love Le Guin and Willis, their entries here were good if not particularly memorable, but were a nice glimpse into some of their earlier works.

The intro is great, the authors bios are mixed (some give you a really good sense of the person, others read more like a bare bones Wikipedia page, which I don't think is the editors fault but the result of privately lived lives?) but worth reading nonetheless. Amusingly James Tiptree and Racoona Sheldon get their own entries in the bio section.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love short stories, and this book specially it brings to us the knowledge that there were good stories brought to life through woman's hands in the 70’s, most of the names in this book I didn’t know them, but now I know some more authors names that I will hunt down in second hand book shops. Without talking in special about the stories I will just say that even thou they were written on the 70’s you wont feel that they’re old, hmm in some you may get some vibes of activism, but then again, you get that kind of feelings even with stories that were released last year…

I did like some stories better than others, but that's the normal what is expected, even in a box of chocolates there are the ones you really like and the others you just eat because are the leftovers and the ones that you leave for your dad to eat (sorry dad hahah).

Thank you NetGalley and Library of America for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.