A review by taylesium
The Other Half of the Sky by Athena Andreadis, Kay T. Holt
4.0
I originally bought this anthology just for Martha Wells's story from the world of the Raksura. Although I enjoyed that story, it was not perhaps the most interesting one of hers that I've read. However, I found that reading all of the stories more than made the purchase of the book worthwhile.
This book is a collection of hardcore science fiction short stories, focusing on feminine and/or minority view points. Quite an amazing range of subgenres and styles are covered, ranging from cyberpunk treasure hunting stories, to lyrical mythology-style stories, to a story involving NASA that verges on being entirely realistic. Basically, this anthology holds a little something for every taste, with opportunities for readers to expand their interests (and personal lists of authors they find engaging). Especially heartening, for me, was finding a total lack of common cliches and a guarantee of new ideas in every story. In my opinion, this was speculative fiction at its best.
However, I found that I couldn't read many stories in a single sitting. Each story had its own potent emotional weight that made it difficult to read all at once (in particular, I found the stories about worlds being destroyed or indigenous species being overwhelmed difficult). Based on my experience, I recommend reading the anthology slowly over time, returning to read a new story whenever the mood takes you. The stories are rewarding and stick with you, but they each have their own challenges.
This book is a collection of hardcore science fiction short stories, focusing on feminine and/or minority view points. Quite an amazing range of subgenres and styles are covered, ranging from cyberpunk treasure hunting stories, to lyrical mythology-style stories, to a story involving NASA that verges on being entirely realistic. Basically, this anthology holds a little something for every taste, with opportunities for readers to expand their interests (and personal lists of authors they find engaging). Especially heartening, for me, was finding a total lack of common cliches and a guarantee of new ideas in every story. In my opinion, this was speculative fiction at its best.
However, I found that I couldn't read many stories in a single sitting. Each story had its own potent emotional weight that made it difficult to read all at once (in particular, I found the stories about worlds being destroyed or indigenous species being overwhelmed difficult). Based on my experience, I recommend reading the anthology slowly over time, returning to read a new story whenever the mood takes you. The stories are rewarding and stick with you, but they each have their own challenges.