A review by theknightswhosaybook
Hath No Fury by Michael R. Underwood, Eloise J. Knapp, Elizabeth Vaughan, Margaret Weis, Elaine Cunningham, Carol Berg, Anton Strout, Bradley P. Beaulieu, Shanna Germain, Robin Hobb, Lian Hearn, M.L. Brennan, Nisi Shawl, Dana Cameron, Erin M. Evans, Django Wexler, Elizabeth Vaughn, Diana M. Pho, Melanie R. Meadors, J.M. Martin, Delilah S. Dawson, Gail Z. Martin, S.R. Cambridge, Seanan McGuire, Sarah Kuhn, Marc Turner, Philippa Ballantine, William C. Dietz
3.0
*I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
This rating is the average of all the ratings I assigned for the individual stories (and those ratings varied widely. I had some of each star ranking, from one to five, with most being about 3).
A few notes to begin with:
The blurb notes that the anthology contains "approximately 20 meaningful stories". There are actually thirty pieces here, and they include short biographies of historical women, creative nonfiction, and scifi/fantasy short stories. I didn't realize that going in, so I was caught off guard to suddenly be reading basically an except from a textbook about Harriet Tubman when I thought this was a fiction anthology.
I wouldn't have minded these nonfiction bits so much, once I got used to them, except that the biographies tended to be, well, boring. They weren't written to be detailed, so if you already know about these women (and I had read about most of them before, in more detail) they don't offer anything new. They also weren't written to tell their histories in entertaining ways; they were simply dry. Again, they might offer more interest to a reader who hadn't studied any of these women before, but I didn't find them interesting.
The creative nonfiction pieces were more promising, and I did enjoy some of them.
I won't review each short story individually here — just check my status updates on the book for the thoughts I left as I finished each one. As an overall review, I will say that they varied widely in quality. Some were original and well-written, others felt like something I'd read plenty of times before, and still others were wildly creative but written with no skill or explanation for anything (*cough* shapeshifting half-snake dragon-riding Cleopatra *cough*). Maybe it was just that I was reading it as an ebook (not my favorite book form), but the book seemed to crawl by at a snail's pace. If I were in the editor's place, I would have severely cut the book down. Plenty of these stories deserved to be weeded out.
The book has strongish bent toward diversity and representation, which it should as a self-proclaimed feminist anthology, but I probably wouldn't read it specifically seeking representation. For example, while there were a few stories about gay women, I can't think of a single one that ended with both of those women alive (while plenty of male-female couples survived intact to the ends of their stories).
Rather than end on a negative note, I'll pick out my favorite pieces here so everyone can bask in their glory.
Riding Ever Southward, in the Company of Bees by Seanan McGuire: in a dystopia where bees are all but extinct, guarded caravans of the last surviving hives cross the country to sell pollination for a profit.
A Wasteland of My God's Own Making by Bradley P. Beaulieu: a gifted warrior is tortured by the hunger of a god trapped inside her, punishment for a childhood mistake.
She Keeps Crawling Back by Delilah S. Dawson: a young woman arrives in a New York City ravaged by giant crocodiles and even huger killer robots and befriends a trainer with a haunted past — but neither women is exactly as they seem.
The Unlikely Turncoat by Michael R. Underwood: a genre-hopping secret agent must prevent a tear in the very fabric of the universe by thwarting a betrayal in Cold War-era Copenhagen.
This Is Not Another "Why Representation Is Important" Essay by Monica Valentinelli: the only creative nonfiction piece to make it onto my favorites list, and a good start for explaining the movement for diverse books to people who havn't thought about it much
This rating is the average of all the ratings I assigned for the individual stories (and those ratings varied widely. I had some of each star ranking, from one to five, with most being about 3).
A few notes to begin with:
The blurb notes that the anthology contains "approximately 20 meaningful stories". There are actually thirty pieces here, and they include short biographies of historical women, creative nonfiction, and scifi/fantasy short stories. I didn't realize that going in, so I was caught off guard to suddenly be reading basically an except from a textbook about Harriet Tubman when I thought this was a fiction anthology.
I wouldn't have minded these nonfiction bits so much, once I got used to them, except that the biographies tended to be, well, boring. They weren't written to be detailed, so if you already know about these women (and I had read about most of them before, in more detail) they don't offer anything new. They also weren't written to tell their histories in entertaining ways; they were simply dry. Again, they might offer more interest to a reader who hadn't studied any of these women before, but I didn't find them interesting.
The creative nonfiction pieces were more promising, and I did enjoy some of them.
I won't review each short story individually here — just check my status updates on the book for the thoughts I left as I finished each one. As an overall review, I will say that they varied widely in quality. Some were original and well-written, others felt like something I'd read plenty of times before, and still others were wildly creative but written with no skill or explanation for anything (*cough* shapeshifting half-snake dragon-riding Cleopatra *cough*). Maybe it was just that I was reading it as an ebook (not my favorite book form), but the book seemed to crawl by at a snail's pace. If I were in the editor's place, I would have severely cut the book down. Plenty of these stories deserved to be weeded out.
The book has strongish bent toward diversity and representation, which it should as a self-proclaimed feminist anthology, but I probably wouldn't read it specifically seeking representation. For example, while there were a few stories about gay women, I can't think of a single one that ended with both of those women alive (while plenty of male-female couples survived intact to the ends of their stories).
Rather than end on a negative note, I'll pick out my favorite pieces here so everyone can bask in their glory.
Riding Ever Southward, in the Company of Bees by Seanan McGuire: in a dystopia where bees are all but extinct, guarded caravans of the last surviving hives cross the country to sell pollination for a profit.
A Wasteland of My God's Own Making by Bradley P. Beaulieu: a gifted warrior is tortured by the hunger of a god trapped inside her, punishment for a childhood mistake.
She Keeps Crawling Back by Delilah S. Dawson: a young woman arrives in a New York City ravaged by giant crocodiles and even huger killer robots and befriends a trainer with a haunted past — but neither women is exactly as they seem.
The Unlikely Turncoat by Michael R. Underwood: a genre-hopping secret agent must prevent a tear in the very fabric of the universe by thwarting a betrayal in Cold War-era Copenhagen.
This Is Not Another "Why Representation Is Important" Essay by Monica Valentinelli: the only creative nonfiction piece to make it onto my favorites list, and a good start for explaining the movement for diverse books to people who havn't thought about it much