Women of Wonder: Science-Fiction Stories by Women about Women

Women of Wonder

by Pamela Sargent (editor)

'Women are writing many of the things male sf writers thought could never be written; they are making us examine tenets and shibboleths we thought were immutable. The mightily thewed warrior trip is one of these. People like Ursula Le Guin, Joanna Russ, Kate Wilhelm ... are making that seem hideously ridiculous' - Harlan Ellison

In Women of Wonder, Pamela Sargent has assembled a collection of amazing stories which show that some of the most exciting and innovative writing in science fiction is being produced by women.

Women in Science Fiction (1975) essay by Pamela Sargent
The Child Dreams (1975) poem by Sonya Dorman
That Only a Mother (1948) story by Judith Merril
Contagion (1950) novelette by Katherine MacLean
The Wind People (1959) story by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Ship Who Sang (1961) novelette by Anne McCaffrey
When I Was Miss Dow (1966) story by Sonya Dorman
The Food Farm (1967) story by Kit Reed
Baby, You Were Great (1967) story by Kate Wilhelm
Sex &/or Mr. Morrison (1967) story by Carol Emshwiller
Vaster Than Empires & More Slow (1971) novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
False Dawn (1972) story by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Nobody's Home (1972) story by Joanna Russ
Of Mist, & Grass, & Sand (1973) novelette by Vonda N. McIntyre

Cover illustration by Candy Amsden.

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

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

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

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

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

Pamela Sargent lives in Albany, New York.

Reviews

[Olethros · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Un concepto de partida sobresaliente y un resultado llamativo.-

Género. Relatos.

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Mujeres y maravillas (publicación original: Women of Wonder. SF Stories by Women about Women, 1975) es una antología de relatos de ciencia ficción escritos por mujeres, con Pamela Sargent a cargo de la selección y de un estupendo ensayo que, a modo de introducción y demasiado actual en algunos aspectos de fondo a pesar de que han pasado cuarenta años, analiza la presencia de la mujer en la literatura de “lo fantástico”, tanto desde la perspectiva de escritoras como de personajes. Si hoy en día la disparidad autores/autoras continúa (como en tantas otras profesiones y trabajos), imagínense como era entonces y sorpréndanse, estimados lectores, con lo que ofrecían (por mi parte, solo indicar que, si no me equivoco, todas las autoras ya han tenido algún trabajo reseñado en este blog y varios en el caso de alguna de las escritoras).

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Pippi Bluestocking · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection worth reading - however, I warn you that it is terribly outdated. It was published in the '70s but the stories date since the '40s. While there are fine SF stories back in their golden age, the way authors treated certain themes might make one cringe today - and this includes women authors too.

However, when viewed as a whole, every story in this collection touches on a range of aspects of women's lives, with most prominent the way women's bodies are policed by society.

Read it for: historical reasons, Sargent's excellent introduction, the stories by Le Guin and McIntyre.
Don't read it: if you have more recent SF by women available to read

* = recommended

* Pamela Sargent - Introduction

Fascinating & illuminating piece of literary criticism. What is amazing about this collection is that it was published in the '70s. It is part of how women build their own presence in SF, not some literary professor's attempt to collect these stories later. Sargent's essay reflects that.

Sonya Dornan - The Child Dreams

Short poem.

Judith Merril - That Only a Mother

Early SF by a woman, centred around anxieties on giving birth in a post-atomic world.

A similar theme with a similar ending has been revisited by Kelly Sandoval in "The Right Sort of Monsters".

Katherine MacLean - Contagion

First contact, contagious disease ensues.

Marion Zimmer Bradley - The Wind People

No comment.

Anne McCaffrey - The Ship Who Sang

Human brains transplanted into ships - lovely premise although the brains belonged to children with disabilities. No.

For ships with brains, I recommend Ann Leckie's "Ancillary Justice".

Sonya Dorman - When I was Miss Dow

Alien changes sexes and finds out what it's like to be a woman. A fun story, classic example of what early feminist SF was like. Tiptree-awarded.

Joe Haldeman's "Camouflage" (also Tiptree-awarded) deals with a similar theme.

* Kit Reed - The Food Farm

Fat girl is sent to a special school to lose weight. This stunned me a bit. It was the one story in the whole book that felt the most contemporary, as if it was published yesterday.

* Kate Wilhelm - Baby, You Were Great

Entertainment industry gone wild. A woman's life is on constant display and she wants out. Excellent.

Pairs well with James Tiptree's "The Girl Who Was Plugged In", although the styles and stories are very different.

Carol Emshwiller - Sex and/or Mr. Morrison

This kinda freaked me out. Obsessive, frantic. Exquisite writing, but not my cup of tea.

* Ursula Le Guin - Vaster Than Empires and More Slow

One of the stories in this collection you will remember. Part of Le Guin's Hainish stories. A ship of explorers tries to figure out a new planet and they really didn't expect what they found (neither will you). Amazing dynamics between characters. Fascinating setting-as-character. I'm still unsure about how autism is treated in this story, though.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - False Dawn

Imagine the bleakest dystopia. Then add rape. The end.
I understand where it comes from, but it is exactly the kind of thing that wouldn't be published today and rightfully so. It happened to be the last one I read from this book and it marred my whole experience.

Joanna Russ - Nobody’s Home

A future utopia where people can teleport (my suspension of disbelief died at this one) and everyone is very smart and polyamorous. Poor girl in the story is stupid - meaning, she has your and my kind of brains. Memorable, though not my favourite from Russ.

* Vonda McIntyre - Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand

Excellent. A healer with three snakes (isn't this the coolest thing?) must deal with inter-cultural conundrum. Feels like fantasy, but it isn't. Nebula winner, novelette that later became the first chapter of novel "Dreamsnake", also a Nebula winner - and also excellent.

[Elsits · Rating 5 out of 5]

Primera reseña del año y va a ser larga.

Como titular:
Me ha parecido una maravilla de antología, con relatos muy distintos entre sí pero todos muy buenos (más abajo disecciono uno por uno), y una gran introducción de Pamela Sargent -Mujeres en la ciencia ficción- muy enriquecedora.

Para situarnos:
Este libro es una antología de 12 relatos (+ 1 poema) de ciencia ficción escritos exclusivamente por mujeres -estadounidenses- entre los años 40 y 70, seleccionados por otra mujer, Pamela Sargent, y traducidos al español por una tercera, Manuela Díez.

Esta singular recopilación de relatos publicados en 1975 supone un ejemplo representativo de la reivindicación de las propias mujeres de la época buscando hacerse hueco en los espacios de dominación masculina.

Y su publicación en español en 1977 de la mano de la editorial Bruguera me parece todo un hito digno de mención. Eso sí, para hacerse con un ejemplar hoy en día hay que buscar en librerías de segunda mano.

A destacar:
La antología empieza fuerte, con casi 50 páginas de introducción de Pamela Sargent en un agudo análisis sobre el recorrido de la ciencia ficción y la presencia y papel de la mujer en la misma. Muy recomendable su lectura incluso habiendo pasado casi 50 años.

Con respecto a la antología, Pamela Sargent dice:

"Mi principal interés era ofrecer una serie de narraciones de ciencia ficción entretenidas, que invitasen a la meditación y que estuvieran bien realizadas, escritas por mujeres, y en las cuales los personajes femeninos interpretaran los papeles importantes."

Bonus track:
En la edición traducida de 1977, al ensayo de Pamela Sargent le precede una brevísima introducción de Carlo Frabetti -Presentación doblemente superflua a una antología doblemente válida- la cual me gustaría destacar por su acertadísimo contenido:

"Al contrario de mis otras presentaciones, que suelen ser sencillamente superfluas, ésta lo es doblemente. Primero, porque el extenso y muy interesante prólogo (¡sobre todo, no se lo salten ni lo dejen para el final!) de la propia recopiladora, Pamela Sargent, es más que suficiente, entre otras cosas, como introducción a los relatos seleccionados. Segundo, porque éste es un libro en el que, a nivel intelectual, no ha intervenido ningún hombre, lo cual vere dignum et justim est; no sólo las autoras y la antologista son mujeres, sino incluso la traductora, y es probable que más de una lectora feminista se pregunte, no sin razón: "Y a este tío, ¿quién le ha llamado?".

[...] Únicamente quería comentar que, así como me parece sumamente positivo que en un país cerrado al cambio durante tantos años se esté produciendo un cierto boom de la ciencia ficción (que es, por excelencia, la narrativa del cambio) encuentro doblemente interesante que en la lengua a la que corresponde el deshonor de haber cedido a las demás -y por muy buenas razones- el término machismo, empiece a puiblicarse una ciencia ficción escrita y protagonizada por mujeres.

Una ciencia ficción escrita y protagonizada por mujeres que es doblemente revulsiva: primero, en la medida en que lo es toda la buena ciencia ficción, y segundo, en la medida en que lo es el feminismo, probablemente la fuerza revolucionaria más rica y prometedora de nuestro tiempo."

Y dicho esto, comienza la chicha: los relatos.

-La niña sueña (Sonya Dorman, 1975): la antología empieza con un poema cortito pero con un mensaje muy potente hacia las futuras generaciones:

"La niña sueña que su sueño
es más rápido que la luz, porque
le hemos prometido que así es como la muerte
vendrá a llevársela. Reina del cielo,
volará en sueños con su propio impulso,
y sueña con cohetes tan grandes
que sobresalen por encima de los océanos.

Remonta el vuelo a través del universo,
dejando los riscos de donde pende su familia;
no será Andrómeda,
encadenada a una roca hasta que el príncipe
llegue, sino que vuela por su propio impulso
lejos de nuestras sofocantes cocinas.

El príncipe es una ficción
de nuestras aburridas leyendas: es
la gravedad de la que su nave de sueños
puede escapar. Vestida
de rojo cambio, ella es
un mundo por delante de su lastre."

-Solo una madre (Judith Merril, 1948): un relato inquietante sobre las posibles consecuencias de las armas atómicas en los recién nacidos narrado a través de Margaret, una mujer que acaba de tener una niña.

-Contaminación (Katherine MacLean, 1950): una nave de exploradores, liderada por la médica June, se encuentra con el grupo de colonos que habita el planeta, pero este enclave humano es el reducido grupo de supervivientes adaptados a la exposición de los agentes contaminantes del planeta, y los efectos que éstos causan en los exploradores son del todo inesperados.

-Los habitantes del viento (Marion Zimmer Bradley, 1959): Helen, la protagonista del relato, va a dar a luz en el planeta donde está llevando a cabo una misión con su grupo de exploración, pero se tienen que marchar y la única salvación para el bebé es que ella abandone la nave y se quede sola en el planeta para criarlo. Una vuelta de tuerca al tabú de la madre soltera.

-La nave que cantaba (Anne McCaffrey, 1961): Helva, desarrollada como ciborg por haber nacido con un cuerpo deforme, es el cerebro de una nave espacial, pero su lado humano es tan fuerte que es capaz de experimentar sentimientos complejos e, incluso, de cantar.

-Cuando yo era la señorita Dow (Sonya Dorman, 1966): un relato sobre alienígenas cambiaformas que conviven con nosotros y cuyo protagonista alien se transforma en Martha Dow, auxiliar de un investigador. A través de la suplantación de identidad, experimenta el papel que la mayoría de las mujeres han tenido que jugar.

-La granja (Kit Reed, 1967): un relato muy curioso sobre Nelly, una adolescente con obesidad que acaba siendo institucionalizada por sus padres en un centro especial para perder peso. La fantasía se mezcla con la realidad en esta historia que culmina con un final un tanto estrambótico. Una crítica cruda a lo condicionadas que nos sentimos las mujeres, desde muy jóvenes, por los estándares de belleza impuestos.

-Chica, eras grande (Kate Wilhelm, 1967): Anne Beaumont es una estrella de cine explotada por una industria que cada vez busca más sensaciones mediante un chip que lleva injertado y que permite al espectador sentir las emociones del que lo lleva. Me ha parecido una buena crítica al ejercicio de abuso de poder que se ha dado mucho en la industria cinematográfica entre directores y actrices cosificadas así como al consumismo abusivo derivado del sistema capitalista.

-Sexo y/o el señor Morrison (Carol Emshwiller, 1967): un relato bizarro que consigue incomodar e incluso desagradar de una forma magistral. La protagonista nos envuelve en una atmósfera escalofriantemente obsesiva hacia su vecino -el señor Morrison- un hombre triste, solitario y en cierta medida desagradable pero que genera una extraña y obscena atracción en la joven protagonista.

-Más vasto que los imperios y más lento (Ursula K. Le Guin, 1971): un relato marca Le Guin que pertenece al ciclo de Hainish. Una tripulación de exploradores investiga un nuevo planeta mediante percepciones extrasensoriales de los singulares miembros de la expedición, pero -se trata de Le Guin-, el punto brillante del relato es la concurrencia de una buena idea conducida a través de unos personajes excelentemente construidos y sus relaciones interpersonales.

-Falso amanecer (Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, 1972): Thea es una mutante que sobrevive sola en un mundo postapocalíptico totalmente devastado ocultándose de grupos de despiadados piratas hasta que un día se cruza con un hombre que parece estar huyendo de algo. Trata el tema de la violación, lo cual me parece digno de mención. Además, he leído que el relato acabó extendiéndose a una novela con el mismo nombre publicada en 1978.

-La casa de nadie (Joanna Russ, 1972): un mundo futurista en el cual se ha desarrollado una tecnología de teletransporte instantáneo -es posible viajar a cualquier parte del planeta tierra en segundos-, lo cual ha supuesto una profunda transformación en las estructuras sociales y familiares y la gente vive en una suerte de extraña utopía donde no existe la escasez, pero sí otro tipo de problemáticas. La idea del relato es buena, pero el intrincado estilo narrativo de Russ es complejo de seguir y disfrutar.

-Bruma, Hierba y Arena (Vonda N. McIntyre, 1973): un relato original donde seguimos a Serpiente, una especie de curandera del desierto que utiliza a sus serpientes -Bruma, Hierba y Arena- y las propiedades de sus venenos para curar enfermedades. Este relato podría ubicarse más dentro de la fantasía que de la ciencia ficción y, al igual que Falso amanecer, acabó extendiéndose a una novela, Serpiente del sueño, publicada en 1978.

Y concluyo destacando mis relatos favoritos: "Contaminación" de Katherine MacLean, "Bruma, Hierba y Arena" de Vonda N. McIntyre y, mi absoluto favorito, "Más vasto que los imperios y más lento" de la inigualable Ursula K. Le Guin.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky to get into science fiction early, substantially through the excellent collections assembled by Judith Merril. Women in the field were rare then. In grade school at the time, I didn't give it a thought. She was my favorite anthologist at the time. The fact that almost all the sf writers I read outside of her publications were guys didn't strike me as at all peculiar.

Then came the late sixties and high school and a whole bunch of women suddenly appeared in the bookstores and dimestore carousels. Some of these books had introductions making a point of the gender of the authors, proclaiming that it was something new and good and progressive. Indeed, it was often different, a widening of the genre. I'd been accustomed to the sciences explored being the hard ones, physics and chemistry mostly. The women were, generally and to my perception, bringing in the softer ones: sociology, psychology, anthropology. My own interests had moved from astronomy and physics in grade school to the social sciences, so this was appreciated. Maybe it even had some influence in this migration of interest.

Pamela Sargent assembled in her Women of Wonder series and other, similar anthologies, some of the more prominent women in the field. Her selections were good and the feminist themes in some of the stories were, for me, eye-opening, even challenging.

[M— · Rating 1 out of 5]

Crap. Even with the list of prestigious writers collected here, do not waste your time with this collection.

Most of the stories contained in this collection were new to me, and apparently to be respected as a feminist writer in the seventies was to spend your time writing really stupid stories of despair and futility and dwelling on women's natural nobility being crushed.

Do not bother reading:
The Child Dreams (1975) by Sonya Dorman | A poem. Gaah. There are three anthologies of Women of Wonder stories, and Sargent has placed a single poem — not one of her own, thank goodness, but bad enough — a the start of each of these anthologies. Honestly, why would you do this? Poetry can be an incredibly evocative medium, and I am passionately in love with many poems and select poets. This poem is not even readable.

That Only a Mother (1948) by Judith Merril | Woman gives birth to child lacking arms and legs and doesn't notice, much to her husband's horror when he returns from war and get a chance to express this in the last four paragraphs. This story was apparently written to allow the author to explore setting half-hints and innuendos throughout a story. I cannot imagine that this technique was innovative in the 70s, but maybe it was in the 40s? It doesn't even rate as high as trite in reading it now.

Contagion (1950) by Katherine MacLean | Group of settlers all set up to colonize a planet land and find a forgotten colony already there, and they're carrying a virus that turns the settlers into clones. Setting aside the fact that that premise is ridiculously illogical, I am frustrated with the focus of appearance in the story. Appearance and personal association with appearance is the deliberate focus of this story, which I know because Sargent has told me so point-blank in the preface blurb. While reading the story set-up, about all the female settlers finding the single (that they've encountered) surviving colonist (male) unbelievably attractive and fascinating to the extent that they all want to leave their established long-term relationships in favor of him, I really wanted the story to unveil that the colonist had some sort of pheromones that caused the women to respond this way, thus framing the story as a contemplation of love and desire. I found the actual story so much less interesting.

The Wind People (1959) Marion Zimmer Bradley | Space-faring woman unwisely becomes pregnant (oops!) and, as infants are unable to survive in space, opts to declare herself dead and maroon herself and her child on a random, empty planet. Who would possibly think this was a good idea? Later, as the child grows to adulthood, incestuous desires develop. I really, really don't like Zimmer Bradley, and this story makes me dislike her even more. Aside from the nicely unintentional advocacy for responsible birth control and possibly for contingency plans, this story is pointless.

When I Was Miss Dow (1966) by Sonya Dorman | Alien shapeshifts into woman for a time; doesn't want to switch back. This was actually passably interesting, in an extremely introspective sort of way, but not a story I'd ever recommend.

The Food Farm (1967) by Kit Reed | Eating disorder somehow intertwined with pop-star infatuation; leads to psychopathic plan to force-feed people. Wut.

Sex and/or Mr. Morrison (1967) by Carol Emshwiller | What the hell? I have just read this story thrice over and I can not even distinguish a plot, to say nothing of a point. Emshwiller's afterward to this story is quoted, "It would be nice to live in a society where the genitals were really considered Beauty. It seems to me any other way of seeing them is obscene." Emshwiller is a psycho.

False Dawn (1971) by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro | Stuck in some sort of post-atomic dystopic future, a mutated woman gets raped, rescued, and limps off with her rescuer. That's about it.

Nobody's Home (1972) by Joanna Russ | Convoluted tale of teleportation theorizing on how instantaneous transport would affect interpersonal relationships, but not boring.

These are kind of worth your time:
The Ship Who Sang (1961) by Anne McCaffrey | Okay. I am a great fan of McCaffrey's, and the novel of this same name is one of my favorites. It's nice that the opening chapter is recognized here, but it's far better to experience this story as part of a novel than as a stand-alone tale.

Baby, You Were Great (1967) by Kate Wilhelm | Creepy creepy creepy story about voyeurism, rape, control, and ratings. Extremely well-crafted and powerful; not enjoyable at all to read.

Vaster than Empires and More Slow (1971) by Ursula K. Le Guin | Le Guin is great and this story no less so, but it's keeping poor company here. Read it in a collection of her works instead.

Of Mist, Sand, and Grass (1973) by Vonda N. McIntyre | A novella about a post-apocalyptic world featuring a fascinating blend of modern technological advancements and traditional behaviors, but rather rough and unfinished. McIntyre eventually developed this novella into the first third of an award-winning novel. Read the novel instead.

To give credit where credit is due, Sargent's essay to introduce this anthology — Women in Science Fiction or Women of Science Fiction, depending on whether you go by the title listed in the contents or the title at the head of the essay — is quite, quite good; probably the best of the three essays Sargent wrote for these anthologies. But you may have to grit your teeth through footnotes sprawling multiple pages (Footnote 10 took up five).

[Sophia Villanueva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sufrí un poco porque muchos de los cuentos no me engancharon para nada.
Contaminación, Más basto que los imperios y más lento, La nave que cantaba y Bruma, Hierba y Arena, fueron los únicos cuentos que recomendaría leer.

[Wendle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let’s start with my favourites. Plural, because there were a few strong ones here.

Baby You Were Great was that perfect balance of fascinating new-tech sci-fi and creepy fucked up sci-fi. The idea that everything you see and even feel can be recorded for other people to experience, and how that can be exploited and manipulated. Lots to digest and unpack here, and that’s how I love my science fiction!

In a much more subtle, understated way, I also really loved Nobody’s Home. In a world where instantaneous travel exists, this story speculates how that might affect love and family and friendships, in such an open and lovely way. It also touches on genetic engineering and the value placed on intelligence–higher and higher.

There were a few stories I was really drawn into, but ultimately let down by, too.

The one I have the strongest feelings about is False Dawn. Set in a polluted dystopia this story was at first really interesting, following a mutant woman with archery skills who was being hunted by pirates. I was all in on this narrative… until it took a terrible turn, leaving our main character defenseless, mutilated, raped, and suddenly falling in love with the random bloke who rescues her. Erm… no, thank you.

Overall I really enjoyed this book, and reading stories written by and specifically about women. I will always need more feminist science fiction in my life, and I can’t wait to read more in this series.

A longer review can be read at my book blog: Marvel at Words.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think stories and collections like these are important for what they record and represent, but I don't necessarily go in expecting to enjoy all of the stories in them. I'm pleased to say these were all really interesting, even those which I found a bit on the disturbing side or for which "like" is not a word I would use to describe the experience of reading them. I even loved a few of them. 3.5, rounding up.

[Tad Callin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought used copy of this book for $1.79 many years ago - and when I read it back then, I came away with a negative first impression. Over the years, though, I grew up quite a bit, and my tastes changed; so did my priorities. Now that I value representation more, and have learned a thing or two about perspectives outside of my cisgender/white male/heterosexual worldview, I wanted to revisit this volume with fresh eyes. I also wanted to apply my experiences as a first-reader for an Escape Artists podcast to see if maybe my initial reaction would differ from a more objective evaluation.

The Volume Itself:

Pamela Sargent's introductory essay, as other reviewers have pointed out, reads like a "who's who" of writers whose careers had not yet blossomed in 1974. The three oldest stories date from before 1960, the oldest being Judith Merrill's 1948 story "That Only A Mother" - so this clearly is meant to showcase relatively contemporary writers. The essay seems to be an attempt to define the collection as an attempt to promote female writers on their merits without framing this volume as being representative of a particularly feminist platform. That's probably good if the intent is to dispel the "women don't write sci-fi" myth by attracting male readers who are leery of being lectured.

But because the collection avoids taking a particular position, and isn't aiming for historical significance, it contains several stories that simply haven't aged well. There is an abundance of cringe-inducing body shaming, awkward speculation about alternative lifestyles in the far future, and self-conscious grappling with the expertise of women in science. Despite this, it does make for an interesting snapshot of the market in the early 1970s, and gives a glimpse into the early careers of some true legends who were just finding their feet at the time.

There are only 12 stories and a poem here, so I'll summarize my thoughts as concisely as I can:

The Child Dreams, Sonya Dorman - Poetry is not my forte, but I enjoyed this brief, 3-stanza introduction. (3/5 stars)

That Only A Mother, Judith Merrill (1948) - This story ran on Pseudopod in May 2017, and it still functions well as a story of the horror of war in the budding atomic age. The story is structured around a plot twist which more jaded modern readers will probably see coming early on - but because hints and innuendos are used to convey the underlying attitudes of the characters, the story side-steps the problem of baldly stating what we might now see as very problematic attitudes. Rooting the horror of the story around a child born with severe disabilities is, itself, problematic. However, by leaving so much unsaid in the subtext, this story almost leaves itself a plausible defense for the way it calls into question how we place value on other people. The story implies - and we bring our own baggage to what we infer from it. (3/5 stars)

Contagion, Katherine MacLean (1950) - A colony ship faces several difficult choices when they encounter a virus that transforms everyone into a copy of one man. An intriguing concept, the writing focuses more on solving the hard science problem than on developing realistic characters. The introduction to the story generously claims that the tale "is also about physical appearance and its relationship to our personal identity, as well as to our feelings about others." The truth is that the characters are not well differentiated by the author, except in their physical descriptions - which weirdly makes the story feel like a self-parody. And the "surprise" ending leaves the situation essentially unresolved, and those feelings unexplored. (1/5 stars)

The Wind People, Marion Zimmer Bradley (1958) - Decades before writing her popular Camelot-based fantasy series, this story is written with a hint of the poetic prose that would mark her later novels. However, the contrived situation of a mother who maroons herself with her infant son and raises him alone on a planet populated by invisible people (one of whom is apparently the boy's father) stretches the suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. The uncomfortable Oedipal aspects of the story threaten to overwhelm the prose even as the reader struggles to figure out what the stakes of the story really are. (2/5 stars)

The Ship Who Sang, Anne McCaffrey (1961) - Again confronting problematic attitudes about people with disabilities, the central conceit of this story is that severely deformed human infants can be turned into the "brains" of magnificent starships. Of course, a core assumption in this universe seems to code the ships as "female" and their human "brawn" as "male" - and the characters seem confined to rather stereotypical roles in that framework. This story was one of several which formed the basis of her later "Brain and Brawn" ship series, and it reads very much like an origin story, suffering from the sense that it closed at the end of its own first chapter. (2/5 stars)

When I Was Miss Dow, Sonya Dorman (1966) - Apparently, these aliens can take human form, and - the details are vague as to why, or how their collective existence works, or what their motivations are. The POV character takes the form of a stereotypical secretary who develops a (probably) inappropriate relationship with a scientist. The way the sexual politics are laid out, it is hard to discern exactly who the author believes is exploiting whom in this story, but on every level, every interpretation feels appalling. (1/5 stars)

The Food Farm, Kit Reed (1966) - Imagine a world in which body-shaming worked both ways. In this piece, a girl develops a fixation on a pop star who likes his girls as big as possible; and when her parents send her for a radical treatment that alters her metabolism, the pop star regretfully tells her she'll never be big enough for him - but he enlists her help in "training" other girls to meet his standards. The writing made it hard to parse what was happening, and this story angered me on many levels, but I'll leave it there. (0/5 stars)

Baby, You Were Great, Kate Wilhelm (1967) - It wouldn't be very difficult to update this story as a comment on our own social media-driven society. A technology exists that can transmit emotions, and so one woman who feels emotions more easily becomes the star of a Truman Show-style broadcast. As with our own world, though, the problem doesn't rest in the technology itself as much as in the flawed people using it. Of the stories in this collection, this one comes closest to making a coherent indictment of the stereotypes it displays. Still, the dated and stilted dialogue and the implausibility of the situation make it difficult to understand what the stakes are or who the real "bad guy" of the story actually is. (2/5 stars)

Sex and/or Mr. Morrison, Carol Emshwiller (1967) - This bizarre little piece would be more at home in a collection of stories specifically about questioning gender roles. The point of view character is a thoroughly unreliable narrator about whom we learn little beyond their indiscernible motivations - and that the title character is their object of desire. Beyond that, though, the writing is less concerned with conveying information about the characters and more concerned with expressing the fetishized desires of the POV character. It's not that I particularly disapprove of the characters desires - I just don't understand what they are, what they expect to happen, or what Mr. Morrison might think of the whole affair. (1/5 stars)

Vaster Than Empires and More Slow, Ursula K. LeGuin (1971) - As stories about the exploration of gender roles and politics go, this was hands down the strongest of the bunch. Other than the central character's autism (which, considering the time this was written, was a little known and poorly understood condition), I found most of the characters' idiosyncrasies to be interesting and understandable. The main weaknesses of this story stemmed from the lack of a single protagonist - the ensemble nature of the ship's crew and the omniscient third-person point of view made it unclear until the back third of the story who the "main character" was supposed to be. Still, LeGuin's imagination and craft are on full display here. (3/5 stars)

False Dawn, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1972) - Setting aside my personal distaste for post-apocalyptic dystopias, and for stories which focus on sexual assault, I found this tale to be grim and truncated. It wasn't at all clear to me that the male lead (a one-armed revolutionary) is the protagonist until the female character was raped - up to that point, when her agency was ripped away, she seemed to be the driving character of the story. But unless this was an excerpt from a larger work, the world built for us here is incoherent and spends too much time talking about politics and revolutions that don't really enter into the story at hand. (2/5 stars)

Nobody's Home, Joanna Russ (1972) - The extended/blended family in this story is probably the most fully realized future society in this collection. And while the central conflict is a little obscure and sets the stakes very low, I found it to be the most poignant and relatable problem of all. (3/5 stars)

Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand, Vonda N. McIntyre (1973) - Easily my favorite story of the bunch, this sketched out a world in which medicine is seen as magic, and in which trust is the most difficult commodity to come by. This story managed to make a strong feminist statement by appearing to not to comment on gender at all, while coding itself around tropes like the witchcraft and witches, the symbolism of snakes, and the unspoken burden carried by the central character. This story functioned well as a standalone, but still gave the impression of being part of a larger, more complex world. (3/5 stars)

[Temucano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante antología sobre ciencia ficción femenina que abarca varios temas clásicos del género. Mi relato favorito, "La nave que cantaba" de Anne McCaffrey, emocionante relación que trasciende el espacio. También me gustó "Mas vasto que los imperios y más lento" de Úrsula K. Le Guin, excelente exploración en planeta desconocido con otra versión de la hiperempatía a considerar. Mención rara avis para "Sexo y/o el señor Morrison" de Carol Emshwiller, delirio que poco tiene de cf pero sí una prosa desquiciada.
Otros buenos fueron "Chica, eras grande" de Kate Wilhelm, "Bruma, Hierba y Arena" de Vonda N. McIntyre, y "Los habitantes del viento" de Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Ah, y la introducción es un extenso estudio de la presencia femenina en la CF con multitud de datos sobre autoras y cuentos, lo que siempre se agradece.

[Dion · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent collection. The introduction isn't fantastic since it reads more like a massively long selection of short story reviews and grows boring.

The stories themselves are a bit of a grab bunch. One of them has an explicit (and unnecessary) rape scene and while it's told from a woman's POV, it's really all about the man she meets and the people after *him*. Another story has every woman on a ship falling in love/lust with some red-headed colonist. A third has a son falling in lust/love with his mother who is denying that the natives of the planet exist even though she was impregnated by one.

There was one really chilling story about childhood mutations and paternal infanticide, but that was it.

I'd say it's worth reading if you have nothing better to do.

[Su · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo que más rescato de esta antología es la introducción. "Mujeres en la Ciencia Ficción". Me resulta tan apasionada y conocedora. incluso diría que queda chico, tengo la impresión de que Pamela Sargent podría explayarse más e incluso publicar un libro entero dedicado a ella. Motivo para una tesis quizás. Los relatos que incluyen son variados sin relación entre sí. Plumas independientes. Tengo mis favoritos como "La nave que cantaba" el poema "La niña sueña". Y algunos que no logro, todavía entender, por ejemplo "El sexo y el Sr. Morrison" (si no me equivoco de titulo) no dejo de pensar en ese porque no le encuentro sentido. Sin duda, ha sido bueno conocer tantas autoras desconocidas.

[Laura Gaelx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como en toda antología, los relatos incluidos son muy diversos, tanto en su estilo y longitud como en su calidad. Lo que se merece cinco estrellas (o más) es la labor de curadora de Pamela Sargent. El extenso prólogo en el que repasa la presencia de las mujeres en la ciencia ficción, tanto como autoras como entre sus personajes, es impagable. Está repleto de referencias a novelas y relatos (todos previos a 1974, cuando se publica originalmente esta antología). Además, cada trabajo seleccionado se incluye por mostrar alguna faceta de la experiencia social de ser mujer actual (o, para el caso, de la década de los 70) en su vertiente especulativa.

[Cocodras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha encantado. Algunos me han parecido brillantes, me han dejado con la boca abierta y sin respiración. Imaginación al poder, bien construidos, con ritmo, tensión, haciéndonos pensar sobre temas todavía actuales y alguno de estos relatos tienen ya unos cuantos años. Me han fascinado casi todos: Los habitantes del viento, La nave que cantaba, Más vasto que los imperios y más lento (en este me costó entrar, pero luego... tremendo y fascinante), Bruma, Hierba y Arena... Por mencionar algunos.

Sé que la ciencia ficción es un género que aleja a muchas lectoras y lectores, pero esta antología va más allá del género, es literatura de la buena.

[Jose Granado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recopilación de relatos de la época de la "Nueva Ola", todos de geniales autoras y todos impregnados de esa "rareza" que podemos encontrar en los relatos de los 60-70 de ciencia ficción. La calidad es altísima y le quito una estrella simplemente porque por mi culpa no he sabido conectar al 100% con alguna de las historias.

Para mi gusto han destacado por encima del resto los relatos de Le Guin, Vonda McIntyre, Joanna Russ y el de Ann McCaffrey.

[Omaira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reseña completa a falta de caracteres

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the classic from 1974, the first anthology featuring women writing science fiction. Considered to be a part of Second Wave Feminism, it features authors such as Le Guin, Yarbro, Merril, McCaffrey, Reed, Emshwiller, McIntyre, and Russ.

There are some seminal stories here. The Le Guin story prefigures and anticipates the connectivity of plants and trees, something only recently proven by Suzanne Simard and others. McIntyre submits 'Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand' which she later developed into the novel 'Dreamsnake'. Yarbro has a grim and grisly post-apocalyptic story, very Cold War feeling. McCaffrey has 'The Ship Who Sang', which was developed into a novel series.

Editor Pamela Sargent has a lengthy (56 page) introduction on 'Women and Science Fiction', a treatise on the history of women in SF and the current state of the art as of the early 70s.

The success of this anthology spawned later 'Women of Wonder' anthologies, but this is the original.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing anthology that traverses a whole host of topics in sci-fi. Sargent's introduction is incredible and gives great insight into the history of female writers of the genre, and the subsequent stories are both entertaining to read and evocative. I highly recommend this.

[Frida A · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐. Este libro lo empecé por ahí de septiembre/octubre y apenas pude terminarlo porque no me provocaba continuarlo. Hay varios relatos aquí que no envejecieron bien. Creo que los únicos que recomendaría leer son:
*Contaminación de Katherine MacLean
*Más vasto que los imperios y más lento de Ursula K Le Guin (por supuesto)
*Bruma, hierba y arena de Vonda McIntyre

De estos 3 relatos hice video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wim7R...

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic anthology, one of the first to focus on women SF writers, including a wonderful survey and appreciation by the editor for the largely ignored, if not forgotten until the time of this anthology, contribution of women in the field. But, like any anthology, there are stories that really wow you and some you don’t understand; those may be different for you than my take, but here’s what I thought:

***** Women in Science Fiction • essay by Pamela Sargent
**** The Child Dreams • poem by Sonya Dorman
***** That Only a Mother • (1948) • short story by Judith Merril
***** Contagion • (1950) • novelette by Katherine MacLean
** The Wind People • (1959) • short story by Marion Zimmer Bradley
***** The Ship Who Sang • [The Ship Who ...] • (1961) • novelette by Anne McCaffrey
** When I Was Miss Dow • (1966) • short story by Sonya Dorman
*** The Food Farm • (1967) • short story by Kit Reed
***** Baby, You Were Great! • (1967) • short story by Kate Wilhelm
*** Sex and/or Mr. Morrison • (1967) • short story by Carol Emshwiller
**** Vaster Than Empires and More Slow • [Hainish] • (1971) • novelette by Ursula K. Le Guin
* False Dawn • (1972) • short story by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
*** Nobody's Home • (1972) • short story by Joanna Russ
***** Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand • [Snake] • (1973) • novelette by Vonda N. McIntyre

“The Child Dreams,” Sonya Dorman — A nice poem about girls escaping boundaries.

“That Only a Mother,” Judith Merril — While our worries about nuclear war and its aftermath have subsided somewhat (although the current state of Russia makes one wonder), for a time in the 40s and 50s, it was household fodder. As one of the few women writing SF at the time, Merril tackled subjects men avoided: pregnancy, childbirth, and rearing. The mother in the story, unfortunately, does show an irrational tendency common to how male writers portrayed women, although in this case, there’s plenty cause. The ending is devastating and quite effective.

“Contagion,” Katherine MacLean — I really enjoyed this story although it took a bit for it to get going and I won’t comment on the worldbuilding which reflects the ideas of the time. Instead, I’ll compare it to Philip K. Dick’s “Colony” in how it develops a situation into something creepy and uncanny, without all the death in MacLean’s case. I’ve read a number of stories by MacLean in the last couple of years and think it’s unfortunate how she’s been forgotten by most in the field, as her stories are easily some of the more thought-provoking ones from that time period.

“The Wind People,” Marion Zimmer Bradley — I’m a tough critic of MZB for several reasons, some of it due to having submitted stories to her magazine only to receive rejections with personal notes that were neither kind nor constructive (the fact I can remember the phrasing of some of these after twenty years attest to their impact on me). I find the setup for this story to be facile and unbelievable, but the point of it is just to justify having this young mother and her child stranded, alone, on an alien planet. What follows from there is an ambivalent story about whether or not the woman is insane a la The Yellow Wallpaper. It’s well written, just not to my personal taste.

“The Ship Who Sang,” Anne McCaffrey — I know I read this back when I was a teen, but I don’t remember much about it. It’s a wonderful tale, something similar to what James Tiptree, Jr. would write a decade later. A love story, of a kind, between brain and brawn, a spaceship and its human scout, and what happens when one of them eventually dies. Quite affecting and charming. Highly recommended, especially if all you’ve read by McCaffrey is her dragon tales.

“When I Was Miss Dow,” Sonya Dorman — A new wave story in which aliens take on the forms of humans. The protagonist loses her—him—itself in the process, becoming connected with the scientist it works with. There’s lots of metaphor and analogy going on here, like any good New Wave story, but I’m old school and while I appreciate the style and the idea, the execution didn’t excite me much.

“The Food Farm,” Kit Reed — I’ve read a bunch of strange stories in my time, and this has to take its place as one of the strangest. I’m not even sure where to begin to describe this story about a woman and the singer she adores, that the nation adores, and how all he wants is the largest woman possible, and she could have been it, except her parents send her to a food rehab school, which upsets her ability to eat and now she’s all about creating some other woman for him, so he will sing again. Everything about this story is weird: the food fascination, the hold the singer has, what it all means. It’s fascinating, but I’m not sure I liked it much.

“Baby, You Were Great,” Kate Wilhelm — This is a pretty high concept story, but Wilhelm focuses on the characters more than the concept and that makes it work. The idea: a scientist figures out how to record emotions from someone and transmit those to an audience. So, instead of watching and listening to an actor, you get to feel. This, of course, means actors have to actual feel things, thus presaging the whole “reality television” phenomena by a couple of decades. The problem is finding “actors” who can actually pass on emotions, and then, to feed a voracious audience, provide that actor more opportunities to feel different ones, including the ones you might not want to experience, for some people do like to experience fear or worse. The motivations of the characters here make for a fascinating study. Recommended.

"Sex and/or Mr. Morrison," Carol Emshwiller — A well-done character study of how little we know about others, and ourselves.

“Vaster than Empires and More Slow,” Ursula K. Le Guin — This is big idea SF: a mind that is made up of all the plant life on one world. What would that mind think? What would it think when it “felt” people on it, among it, when it had never encountered anything other than itself before. Le Guin’s way of getting to this idea, and examining it, is fairly unique as well. The survey ship is made up of ten people, one of which is an empath who the others immediately take a dislike to creating a very untenable grouping. But that’s necessary to get to the understanding of what the planet is like. The ending is somewhat hand-waving, but Le Guin’s style makes this a very compelling story.

“False Dawn,” Chelsea Quinn Yarbro — I’m somewhat a fan of Yarbro’s, having discovered her Saint Germain books while in high school. But this is the exact kind of post-apocalypse story that I dislike greatly, wherein the survivors are just animals in a very dog-eat-human world. Not my thing at all.

“Nobody’s Home,” Joanna Russ — I’m not totally sure I understand this story. In the future, the population has been reduced (doesn’t say how) and people’s intelligences have been enhanced. Matter transmitters allow people to flit over the world, so that they could watch the sunrise 22 times in one day if they wanted to. Work is accomplished by tax, but really, everybody is free to do what they want to do. Monogamous relationships have changed into family groups, that bond and unbond frequently. (The depiction of this hedonism is close to Michael Moorcock’s Dancers at the End of Time books.) Into the protagonist’s family marries Leslie Smith, who is stupid, i.e., the intelligent equivalent of you and I. She can’t get the jokes of the others, makes mistakes, and doesn’t really have anything going for her. And…that’s the story. I sense that it may have been meant as a condemnation of our current social mores, depicting a utopia that, like any good utopia, always has an unravelling thread. Interesting, but…

“Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand,” Vonda N. McIntyre — We talk a lot in SF about worldbuilding, the creation of a unique setting for a book that is different from the world we live in. Of course, there’s always some connection to our world, for it would be impossible to understand a world that was completely new, but good worldbuilding is about changing enough for us to find a new way to examine our own thoughts and beliefs. This story by McIntyre does that splendidly and does it by showing you the world, never telling you. When writing teachers advise students to “show, don’t tell,” they should use this story as an example. Snake, the protagonist, is a healer, but of a different group than the family and sick child, and that means they struggle to understand even though they’ve asked for her help. Highly recommended.

[Warwick Stubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never have I read a short-story book where the introduction was longer than any of the short-stories. But it is worth reading, and shines a light on the state of women and their stories, both as writers and as fictional characters, in the world of 70s science fiction.

First story 'That Only a Mother' is memorable for the type of reaction that might have been expected from the parents of a newborn that was "different". Hopefully the world has moved on and today the title might reappear as 'That Both Parents'. 5/5

'Contagion' was an interesting story that delves into genetic appearances and the prejudices that go along with that, while asking the always important question "just how important are our looks when relating to one another? 4/5

'The Wind People' had a great premise with a fantastic story that turned into a massive cop-out at the end. Disappointing. 3/5

'The Ship Who Sang' reads like a draft for an incomplete and unfleshed out novel. When I saw the "book" in a shop, I rejoiced thinking that Anne McCaffrey had taken the time to rewrite and expand the short-story, only to discover the book was a fix-up of more stories. There's great ideas here, but McCaffrey seems incapable of expanding those ideas. Unsatisfying. 2/5

'When I Was Miss Dow' - an alien inhabiting the body of a human and dealing with two brain hemispheres instead of one. Interesting. 4/5

'The Food Farm' Not sure how I feel about this one. It's about food. But it also about fat people. 3/5

'Baby, You Were great' by Kate Wilhelm I was looking forward to but it was ultimately not very interesting. I think it was a bout fame. Can't quite remember. 2/5

'Sex and / or Mr Morrison' Weird. In a good way. But also leaves you wondering "wtf???" 3/5

'Vaster Than Empires and More Slow' A well written tale about understanding and communicating that which is most alien to us. But I did find it a little boring to begin with. 4/5

'False dawn' Can't remember anything about this story. ...something to do with an apocalypse? ?/5

'Nobody's Home' Not the best thing I've read from Joanna Russ 2/5

'Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand' Though I didn't enjoy this story all that much, my partner did, and found it well-written. It details a post-apocalyptic world where a healer uses snakes to cure people. It is memorable though, and a number of images remain glued to my thoughts. 4/5

Overall, I think the Introduction by Pamela Sargent is the most interesting work in this collection, and none of the stories are classics, even if 'The Ship Who Sang' may have that status (or not - I personally think it's a clunker). All of the stories are well written and serve the purpose of presenting female viewpoints through the pages of science fiction.

[Alexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engaging collection of short stories, with an introduction worthy of reading all by itself. Many of the stories are rather grim and need to be taken in small bites. There were two variations on the theme of motherhood that I enjoyed. The two pieces of genius were Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Vaster Than Empires and More Slow,” and Vonda N. McIntyre’s “Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand,” which (I believe) later became the novel Dreamsnake.

[Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neat collection of short stories. Not all were enjoyable - in fact, I was bored with over half of them - and not all really offer much in regards to 'Women studies'. The only stories I enjoyed are ones that all deserve five-star ratings: "Contagion" was a masterpiece, "The Ship Who Sang" which was equally as epic, "Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand", and "Vaster Than Empires, and More Slow". The rest were, to be honest, boring and tedious in that they were capable of so much more, but still enjoyable enough to not be rendered completely turned off by the idea of continuing on until the end.

[Shamsia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recopilación de relatos cortos de ciencia ficción sobre mujeres, de mujeres y con mujeres. Sea un mundo post apocalíptico donde se cura con serpientes, un mundo más o menos actual donde a las chicas adolescentes rellenitas se las envía a adelgazar a la fuerza a un convento, un planeta donde va un grupo de gente peculiar con reminiscencias de "Solaris", una madre haciendo lo que puede para que su hija sea feliz, y una larga lista, el tema es el mismo. Y hay un relato para todas en este volumen.

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin estaría orgullosa de ustedes, chicas.

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fabulous collection of classic SciFi short stories containing feminist themes which enhance the individual stories.

New to the SciFi genre I couldn't put this collection of shorts down. Given the classic nature, these stories seem ageless. Great writing, huge fan of the feminist theme and it was great exposure to various authors. Variety was appreciated, definitely looking to exploring more of the writings from the authors featured.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Debo admitir que no me gustaron todas las historias. La última novela corta de esta recopilación y La nave que cantaba son algunas de mis nuevas favoritas. Sin embargo, debo admitir las obvias pero importantes diferencias de estos cuentos con respecto a los escritos por hombres. Hay preocupación por temas como la maternidad, el romance, la apariencia física y son casi tan importantes en la trama como la ciencia, los viajes, el descubrimiento de nuevos ecosistemas. Recomiendo muuucho este libro.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book contains 12 stories. I would say I liked, or really liked 8 of them. I few I didn't enjoy that much but they certainly weren't bad. There was one that was absolutely horrible though and I really don't even know what it was doing in the book. Besides that one anomaly (The Food Farm) I thought this book was well worth reading!

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection reminded me why I love science fiction! These are disturbing, thought-provoking and heart-wrenching stories representing sci-fi at its best. The introduction is a little dated when read today but it provides interesting insight into the world with which these authors had to contend.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of stories which, not only through their explicit themes of exploration and empathy, but also in their pairing of boldness and sensitivity, feel current, even timeless. A book that triggered a reading binge when it was starting to wane, I'm finally reading for curiosity and discovery again.

[Bookshark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard book to rate, because even though some of the stories are great, several of them are not very good or are not science fiction.

The best of the actual sci-fi stories:
- Contagion, by Katherine MacLean
- The Ship Who Sang, by Anne McCaffrey
- Baby, You Were Great, by Kate Wilhelm
- Vaster Than Empires and More Slow, by Ursula K. LeGuin