An extremely dated anthology of mid-70s science fiction stories. It's interesting for the light it sheds on the writing of the time, especially on the prevalence of the male gaze no matter how hard they were trying to embrace female writers and women's perspectives. The only story that I really felt had true power behind it was John Varley's 'Beatnik Bayou'; the gender fluidity seems well ahead of its time, and and there is some very disturbing commentary about children's sexuality. Brenda Pearce's 'Haute Falaise Bay' is a fairly forgettable alien encounter (meant to be funny??). Suzy McKee Charna's 'Scorched Supper on New Niger' has some interesting ideas about gender and race, but constantly undercuts them at every turn. The two Brennert stories ('Stage Whisper' and 'Queen of the Magic Kingdom') were very well-written, but I'm scratching my head as to how they can actually be considered SF. 'The Wishes of Maidens' by Felix C Gotshalk is yet another story about women ruling the world that tells it from the male perspective (sigh - at least its gleeful focus on sex is actually quite entertaining). I quite enjoyed P.G. Plaguer's 'Virtual Image', though its protagonist becomes increasingly idealised and AI stories are a dime a dozen. Also: cheesiest cover ever? What is that woman *doing*?! ( )