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Title:Dangerous Women
Editors: George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Genre: SF/F anthology
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: An anthology about women who are dangerous, but not necessarily rounded. Except in the obvious way.
Thoughts: I had a lot of trouble deciding how to evaluate this anthology.
Taken individually, most of the stories in this anthology are good. Many of them very good.
The theme is...problematic, however. In the intro, we're told that a lot of the early science fiction and fantasy stories included women only as damsels or scientists' beautiful daughters, included to be rescued or to be a hero's reward. We're assured that the state of things has dramatically improved, and that the editors have gone to some lengths to get stories in which the women are allowed to be dangerous themselves, from all different genres.
I should have been tipped off by the references to noir.
I had picked up this anthology thinking (hoping?) that "Dangerous" meant "strong and interesting and full of agency". But it appears that about half the authors saw "Dangerous" as meaning simply "not to be trusted".
The first four stories are all excellent, in their own way. Only none of them have a woman who is both powerful and also transparent to the reader. "Some Desperado" features a female outlaw who's rather outclassed by her situation, and kind of pathetic. Interesting, but pathetic. "My Heart Is Either Broken" is a gorgeous description of a marriage breaking under the pressure of a missing child, but it's from the husband's perspective and features a wife who is unreliable and completely opaque to us. "Nora's Song" about Eleanor of Aquitaine makes it quite clear how powerless even the most powerful woman in the land is. And "The Hands That Are Not There" is a science fiction horror story featuring a classic femme fatale, who again is completely opaque to us. It's not until we get to the Dresden Files story "Bombshells", featuring Molly along with a couple of her female friends, that we are allowed to both get the perspective of a woman and also see her win.
Really, there is no theme here. All that seems to be necessary is to have a woman somewhere in the story, which doesn't seem like much to ask when we're over 50% of the population.
But some of the stories themselves are quite good. I also particularly liked "Neighbors", about a woman coming to terms with her aging and dwindling abilities and also the parallel universe on the other side of the fence, "The Girl in the Mirror", featuring a Brakebills prank gone awry, and "A Queen in Exile", about the lengths a historical queen went to ensure the succession she wanted.
Some of them are more problematic, however. In "Wrestling Jesus", there's only one female character and (mild spoiler) she literally doesn't do anything. She was sexy a couple decades ago. Today--she stands there for awhile. It's entirely about the relationship between men. "Pronouncing Doom" does have a strong female character--unfortunately, it has no conflict. A post-apocalyptic village council meets to discuss the sentencing of a rapist. They say at the beginning what is going to happen. (More spoilers) It happens. That's it. We just watch the logistics of doing what they say they are going to do.
And "I Know How to Pick 'Em"...I don't even know what to say about this one. Yuck. Also, way to miss the point.
The featured novella, a piece of Westeros history called "The Princess and the Queen, or the Blacks and the Greens", may be the most disappointing of the lot. It's unclear how much Game of Thrones fans need to read this to understand Westeros politics, but it reads like a mediocre history book. It's mostly a summation of events, deliberately written in the voice of a scholar, without dialogue or characterization. It could have been a full book if fleshed out, but presumably Martin's editor would have killed him if he wrote this instead of the next installment, so we got a fairly dry explanation of how politics in Westeros have always sucked and everyone generally ends up dead, or at least brutally maimed. Enjoy!
Editors: George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Genre: SF/F anthology
Thingummies: 3
Synopsis: An anthology about women who are dangerous, but not necessarily rounded. Except in the obvious way.
Thoughts: I had a lot of trouble deciding how to evaluate this anthology.
Taken individually, most of the stories in this anthology are good. Many of them very good.
The theme is...problematic, however. In the intro, we're told that a lot of the early science fiction and fantasy stories included women only as damsels or scientists' beautiful daughters, included to be rescued or to be a hero's reward. We're assured that the state of things has dramatically improved, and that the editors have gone to some lengths to get stories in which the women are allowed to be dangerous themselves, from all different genres.
I should have been tipped off by the references to noir.
I had picked up this anthology thinking (hoping?) that "Dangerous" meant "strong and interesting and full of agency". But it appears that about half the authors saw "Dangerous" as meaning simply "not to be trusted".
The first four stories are all excellent, in their own way. Only none of them have a woman who is both powerful and also transparent to the reader. "Some Desperado" features a female outlaw who's rather outclassed by her situation, and kind of pathetic. Interesting, but pathetic. "My Heart Is Either Broken" is a gorgeous description of a marriage breaking under the pressure of a missing child, but it's from the husband's perspective and features a wife who is unreliable and completely opaque to us. "Nora's Song" about Eleanor of Aquitaine makes it quite clear how powerless even the most powerful woman in the land is. And "The Hands That Are Not There" is a science fiction horror story featuring a classic femme fatale, who again is completely opaque to us. It's not until we get to the Dresden Files story "Bombshells", featuring Molly along with a couple of her female friends, that we are allowed to both get the perspective of a woman and also see her win.
Really, there is no theme here. All that seems to be necessary is to have a woman somewhere in the story, which doesn't seem like much to ask when we're over 50% of the population.
But some of the stories themselves are quite good. I also particularly liked "Neighbors", about a woman coming to terms with her aging and dwindling abilities and also the parallel universe on the other side of the fence, "The Girl in the Mirror", featuring a Brakebills prank gone awry, and "A Queen in Exile", about the lengths a historical queen went to ensure the succession she wanted.
Some of them are more problematic, however. In "Wrestling Jesus", there's only one female character and (mild spoiler) she literally doesn't do anything. She was sexy a couple decades ago. Today--she stands there for awhile. It's entirely about the relationship between men. "Pronouncing Doom" does have a strong female character--unfortunately, it has no conflict. A post-apocalyptic village council meets to discuss the sentencing of a rapist. They say at the beginning what is going to happen. (More spoilers) It happens. That's it. We just watch the logistics of doing what they say they are going to do.
And "I Know How to Pick 'Em"...I don't even know what to say about this one. Yuck. Also, way to miss the point.
The featured novella, a piece of Westeros history called "The Princess and the Queen, or the Blacks and the Greens", may be the most disappointing of the lot. It's unclear how much Game of Thrones fans need to read this to understand Westeros politics, but it reads like a mediocre history book. It's mostly a summation of events, deliberately written in the voice of a scholar, without dialogue or characterization. It could have been a full book if fleshed out, but presumably Martin's editor would have killed him if he wrote this instead of the next installment, so we got a fairly dry explanation of how politics in Westeros have always sucked and everyone generally ends up dead, or at least brutally maimed. Enjoy!
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Date: 2014-07-22 03:13 pm (UTC)From:"Wrestling Jesus" and "Neighbors" while both enjoyable short stories, did not belong in this anthology. In the latter, how can the protagonist be considered "dangerous" at all? Does she count due to her encroaching senility?!
"Pick em" was gross, pointless, how the hell did this even get published?! Lawrence Block normally writes much better stuff.
I have not read any prior Magician's book, so I found "The Girl in the Mirror" meandering and pointless with an obnoxious protagonist. Perhaps someone familiar with the series would appreciate it more.
"Bombshells" started out strong, then withered fast under Molly's POV. Every time she thought about the Power of the Rack I cringed. However, I did like how she approached problems so differently from Harry. I don't think story would be comprehensible to anyone not up to date with Dresden - GEEZ SPOILERS IN THE FIRST LINE!
I liked "The Princess and the Queen". I found it the GRMMiest he's written to date. I suspect that this piece of Westerosi history will matter in the main series, and those books are bloated enough, so I did not mind the textbook style infodump here. Hey, I like reading history textbooks! Btw, recently a follow-up anthology, "Rogues" was published, which includes a much shorter story nominally about Daemon Targaryen, the Princess's uncle-husband. That story was a disappointment, it offered little new information, and made the characters in TPATQ even uglier than they already were. Martin, finish Winds of Winter already!!!!
My two favorite stories in the anthology were "Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell" and "Lies my Mother Told Me". I found "Shadows" to be the strongest entry in the anthology - thematically relevant, tightly written, action packed, with intelligent, competent women. I don't know if this setting already exists in one of Sanderson's series, but it fully stands alone, without hand-holding exposition. After the end of WoT debacle, which I am still bitter over, this makes me willing to read more Sanderson!
"Lies" is a story set in the modern-day Wild Cards universe. I enjoyed this so much I went and devoured a bunch of Wild Card books. I strongly recommend them. "Lies" actually takes place AFTER the most recently trilogy arc (Inside Straight, Busted Flush, and Suicide Kings). There are loads of characters, character development, genuinely surprising plot twists, and tearjerkers. My favorite installments were written by Snodgrass, and they are so much better than what she submitted for "Dangerous Women". I should write my own Wild Cards post ...