The Library of America, obvious pleased by the positive reviews and sales of 2018’s first volume of The Future Is Female (you can read my review here), has issued this new volume of SF stories by women from 1971 to 1979.
I had read many of these stories when they were first published. Far and away “The Screwfly Solution” by “Raccoona Sheldon” (aka, Alice Sheldon, and “James Tiptree, Jr.”) is the most powerful and memorable story in this book. Even today, when I reread it, the story made me shiver!
Alice Sheldon is also featured under her “James Tiptree, Jr.” pseudonym with “The Girl Who Was Plugged In,” another story that will stay with you for a long time.
Women were making an impact of Science Fiction in the 1970s. Authors like Kate Wilhelm, Joanna Russ, Pamela Sargent, Ursula K. Le Guin, Marta Randall, Joan D. Vinge, Cynthia Felice, C. J. Cherryh, Lisa Tuttle, and Connie Willis would go on to write SF novels and win awards.
If you enjoyed the first volume of The Future Is Female! you’ll enjoy this second volume even more. And, if you haven’t checked out these two excellent volumes, what are you waiting for? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by LISA YASZEK — xi
SONYA DORMAN HESS
Bitching It (1971) — 3
CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO
Frog Pond (1971) — 11
KATE WILHELM
The Funeral (1972) — 23
JOANNA RUSS
When It Changed (1972) — 59
KATHLEEN SKY
Lament of the Keeku Bird (1973) — 70
MIRIAM ALLEN DEFORD
A Way Out (1973) — 92
VONDA N. McINTYRE
Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand (1973) — 107
JAMES TIPTREE, JR.
The Girl Who Was Plugged In (1973) — 135
PAMELA SARGENT
If Ever I Should Leave You (1974/77) — 185
DORIS PISERCHIA
Pale Hands (1974) — 202
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Day Before the Revolution (1974) — 218
ELEANOR ARNASON
The Warlord of Saturn’s Moons (1974) — 238
MARTA RANDALL
A Scarab in the City of Time (1975) — 251
KATHLEEN M. SIDNEY
The Anthropologist (1975) — 263
GAYLE N. NETZER
Hey, Lilith! (1976) — 287
RACCOONA SHELDON
The Screwfly Solution (1977) — 291
ELINOR BUSBY
Time to Kill (1977) — 321
M. LUCIE CHIN
The Best Is Yet to Be (1978) — 326
JOAN D. VINGE
View from a Height (1978) — 360
CYNTHIA FELICE
No One Said Forever (1978) — 380
C. J. CHERRYH
Cassandra (1978) — 395
LISA TUTTLE
Wives (1979) — 406
CONNIE WILLIS
Daisy, in the Sun (1979) — 419
Biographical Notes — 445
Notes — 489
Sources & Acknowledgments — 488
For me, among the stories I remember, Kate Wilhelm’s “The Funeral” was the most powerful (and the Russ, also from AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS, is close)…and she was already writing and publishing novels in the ’60s, in sf her first was a collaboration with Ted Thomas, expanding and improving his shorter work, THE CLONE (1965), the best Blob story I recall…and a Nebula shortlister. She won her first Nebula in ’68 (though not for a novel till she also picked up a Hugo for WHERE LATE THE SWEET BIRDS SANG in ’77) . But it’s a fine anthology, and I look forward to reading that Sonya Dorman story, among some of the others, for the first time.
Todd, Kate Wilhelm was a rising star in the SF world…and then she switched to writing very good mystery novels! Sonya Dorman is a underrated writer!
Well, George, Wilhelm’s first novel was crime fiction: MORE BITTER THAN DEATH (1963). By the time she began writing crime fiction novels primarily, never exclusively, she had more than made her bones in fantasy and sf…past mistress vs. rising star…Dorman was best known as a poet for most of her life, but she did brilliant work in prose, as well…
Todd, thanks for that clarification on Wilhelm’s writing career. I have about a dozen of her mysteries sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. Hopefully, I can read a few in 2023.
I have read both the Tiptree stories, the Joanna Russ, Lisa Tuttle, McIntyre and the Kate Wilhelm. A couple authors I have never heard of-Netzer, Sidney, Chin and Busby. The only author I have never cared for is C. J. Cherryh.
FWIW, I’ve yet to read Netzer, as well (the included work is her only citation in ISFDB). The others are not too obscure, though Busby was a Big Name Fan before she began writing for the pro markets, similarly her late husband, F. M. Busby. They shared a Hugo, hers the first awarded to a woman, for their fanzine CRY/CRY OF THE NAMELESS.
Todd, I read F.M. Busby’s SF novels and enjoyed them. I forgot about that shared HUGO Award.
Steve, I liked some of Cherryh’s early DAW novels, but her later novels left me cold.
As mentioned when you reviewed the first book in 2018mm we saw an off-Broadway adaptation of Tiptree’s “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” with Jeff & Ann Smith. I will have to read this collection too.
Jeff, Jeff Smith is working on a Tiptree book for Subterranean Press. I will buy it and review it here for sure!
Spell-“correction” Got you again, George…a Tiptree through the tulips for Jeff Smith, clearly (only appropriate for an heir to a Cordwainer, I’d say…as a sprat, I wondered if a cordwainer and a linebarger might be comparable persons, before learning that a cordwainer was a shoemaker…which pairs, so to write, well with smithery).
Todd, I’ll never forget the essay Robert Silverberg wrote declaring “James Tiptree, Jr.” a male.
I believe it was Harlan Ellison, about the same time, who suggested that Ursula K. Le Guin was the best woman SF writer at that point, Tiptree the best man…
Todd, you’re right! Harlan also bought into the Tiptree is a guy movement. That’s why when the identity of Tiptree was revealed…it shocked a lot of people!
This sounds like a terrific book and would be a real eye opener for me. Many of these authors I either have not heard or have not read anything by. I have read a bit by le Guin, but no short stories. I have read several of Willis’s novels and short stories.
Tracy, you would love both volumes of THE FUTURE IS FEMALE! Great writers and great stories!
I saw this one at a bookstore the other day and made a mental note that it is one I might want to pick up. Mary bought me the first one a few years ago and I read some of the stories but have yet to finish it. Around the same time I read a great collection called Women of Futures Past, which I really enjoyed.
I love the covers on both this and the first volume.
Carl, someone at the Library of America did a great job with the covers for THE FUTURE IS FEMALE volumes!
Fond memories!
As soon as I had an IT job in 1970 I started to go to London three times a year for SF shopping and I was surprised how many women were named as authors!
I’ve probably read most of the stories, especially if they appeared in one of the magazines. But my memory is no longer that good …
When I went on business trips and stayed in a hotel I would usually take out my package of magazines – German tv was so boring that I preferred some stories (ok, first I had a beer or two with my colleagues – but not too many!
Wolf, today women SF writers are a powerful force in the genre. But, it took time to break through.