I’m happy to report that after despairing of the dearth of good science fiction that I’d stumbled across lately, the next book I started reading has so far served up nothing but great science fiction! It’s an anthology of short stories by classic sf authors, who all happen to be women. I’m about halfway through it and was trying to wait until I was done to review it on Goodreads, but these stories are making me so excited that I just had to write a gushy post about what I think so far.
“The Indelible Kind” by Zenna Henderson: A schoolteacher in a rural area discovers in one of her pupils a series of strange abilities, most notably telepathic communication and telekinesis. This child also has a strong sense of empathy for the oppressed, and when he picks up the distressed thoughts of an astronaut abandoned in orbit during some maneuver gone wrong, he tries to help him, and ends up getting his whole family, who share his abilities- as well as the schoolteacher, who doesn’t- involved. This is apparently part of a series of stories that Henderson wrote about an alien race called “the People,” and so far it’s my favorite in the anthology. Not only do I love the idea of how the People came to be on Earth, and their caring, empathetic values, I also found the relationship between the teacher and the student to be very heartfelt and human. I definitely want to read more of Henderson’s stories of the People now.
“The Smallest Dragonboy” by Anne McCaffrey: In the land of Pern, the hatching of a group of dragons is imminent, and several boys have been gathered for the dragons to select them as their riders. Keevan, by far the smallest and most overlooked boy, dreams of being chosen, but when a jealous rival causes a setback, will he make it to the hatching grounds on time? I found this to be a sweet story just like the first one, but even though I acknowledge that the Dragonriders of Pern series is indeed science fiction, I just can’t get over my dragons= fantasy mindset, and I feel like I’m reading this about 16 years too late. When I was 11 years old, I used to daydream constantly about riding dragons… not so much now, unfortunately, and I’m kind of gone off anything that reminds me of fantasy fiction. Still, not a bad story, just not exactly my Thing.
“Out of All Them Bright Stars” by Nancy Kress: A waitress on Earth serves an extraterrestrial customer, though her boss and coworkers aren’t happy about it. Then the government men arrive… So far, this is my second favorite story from the anthology. I loved the narrator’s realistic voice and her unfazed attitude towards the alien, and felt that a whole novel could have been written set in this universe. (I hope one has…)
“Angel” by Pat Cadigan: In some dimension (or maybe another planet) where people from other worlds are sent to if they’ve broken the laws of the world that they’re from, one person finds a being called an “Angel,” whose superpowered abilities rub off on them. When a woman with a strange fixation on the Angel starts to follow them, things get… complicated. This is the only story so far that hasn’t clicked for me, although I really liked the queerness of it (the protagonist is intersex and the Angel was outlawed to this dimension for refusing to have “normal” (by his society’s standards) sexual relations- it’s not clear what that means but I’m personally headcanon-ing the Angel as ace) and how these characters were treated sympathetically. But just like “The Smallest Dragonboy,” the setting didn’t jive with me.
“Cassandra” by CH Cherryh: A woman who has daily premonitions about the bombing of the city in which she lives tries to seek out comfort and pleasure with a newcomer, until she realizes that today, her premonitions are about to come true… An utterly terrifying and excellently rendered story. Definitely a downer, but I admired the writing so much.
“Shambleau” by CL Moore: A roguish scamp of a spacefarer discovers a mysterious woman being chased by an angry mob, and takes her under his wing. He soon finds out that perhaps his sympathy was misguided… I absolutely loved this story, even more so for it having been written in the 30’s and still being so powerful. I will say that I thought the protagonist was a reckless idiot who wouldn’t recognize a red flag if it hit him in the face, but I do love that he ended up being a victim who needed to be rescued, whereas judging from the archetype of his character, one would expect him to be the hero saving the day.
So far, I’d rank the stories thus:
1. “The Indelible Kind”
2. “Out Of All Them Bright Stars”
3. “Shambleau”
4. “Cassandra”
5. “The Smallest Dragonboy”
6. “Angel”
And now I can’t wait to read more, because some of the other stories in the collection are by Leigh Brackett (I’ve only read one story by her and it was incredible and sold me on pretty much everything she’s ever written, sight unseen), James Tiptree Jr. (again, I’ve only read one of her stories but her narrative voice and use of language was SO good), and Ursula K. Le Guin (do I even need to say anything?? She wrote Earthsea, that’s all I need to convince me that she’s one of the greatest writers ever. And the fact that I’m still saying that even though I’ve fallen out of love with fantasy speaks volumes).
The only thing I don’t like is that the only quote on the front cover of the book is one that praises the editor as “one of the best writers in the field” and it’s like… yes, but she’s only the editor, none of her stories are in this book, why does this matter. Also, despite the editor’s best efforts to represent her, she couldn’t get a hold of any Octavia E. Butler stories. But I mean… I’m loving the content so far. I love science fiction!!
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