Women of Other Worlds is a feminist science fiction
collection that includes stories, book excerpts,
critical
articles, poetry, memoirs, and even a recipe Conceived
at
WisCon 20 many of the pieces were readin first draft
format
panels. The result is a book that conveys the energy of
a
good convention to readers who were unable to attend.
Edited by Helen Merrick and Tess Williams, Women of
Other
Worlds contains stories by (among others): Kelley
Eskridge,
Nalo Hopkinson, Suzette Haden Elgin, Candas Jane
Dorsey,
and Karen Joy Fowler. It also has essays by writers
including Nicola Griffith, Pat Murphy, and Jessica
Amanda
Salmonson. The non-fiction topics range from the
history of
feminist fandom to gender identity and the many
personas of
James Tiptree Jr. The information is presented in
formal
academic essays and in excerpts from online
discussions.
Ursula Le Guin's guest of honor speech addresses her
identity as an older woman in a youth-worshipping world.
Other women SF writers are indirectly included: Rebecca
Holden's essay talks about the cyberpunk of Pat Cadigan
and
Melissa Scott, and Jennifer Stevenson examines
potential
therapeutic uses of Suzy McKee Charnas' novella "Beauty
and
the Opera." Octavia Butler and Lois McMaster Bujold's
work
undergo similar scholarly examination. And for readers
whoupon reaching the end of the book wish for still
more,
there is a supplementary bibliography and a recommended
reading section that lists a variety of books from
Chicks
in Chainmail to the works of Connie Willis.The range of
material in Women of Other Worlds means, naturally,
that no
reader is destined to enjoy every single piece in the
book.
However, the general tone of the works in this
exceptional
collection is playful without being frivolous. This is
a
book that takes itself seriously without losing its
sense
of fun. The Le Guin essay is laugh-out-loud hilarious,
as
is a deconstruction of gender identity by Rosaleen
Love.
This collection offers political subversion at its best-
-
sly, cheerful, ready and capable of undermining old
myths
through the time-honored device of making them
obviously
ridiculous.Much of the fiction included in the
collection
is fabulous.Elisabeth Vonarburg's Home by the Sea
succeeds
in capturing the tricky dynamic of mother-daughter
relationships. The real show-stealer is Kelley
Eskridge's
And Salome Danced, a horrific and erotic tale that
plays
with readers' expectations of gender. An on-line
analysis
of the story by a number of writers is included
afterward,
enabling readers to first experience the story and then
illuminate and inform their reactions to it.
Having said that, this collection is not for everyone
readers who aren't interested in gender politics should
stay far away. Additionally, the playful spirit of most
of
the included works leaves the few serious essays
looking
dry and out of place. But Women of Other Worlds is for
the
most part a glorious success, the kind of book to be
devoured whole and then revisited again and again