Story reviews for The Future is Female

Introduction by LISA YASZEK 3/5
Adds some very interesting context to the collection of stories, and the history of women in SFF.

CLARE WINGER HARRIS The Miracle of the Lily (1928) 3/5
The first of many stories to show me that some common sci-fi concepts/tropes are older than I would have thought. Doesn't hold up to current scientific knowledge, but interesting story nonetheless.

LESLIE F. STONE The Conquest of Gola (1931) 3/5
This is the kind classic pulp sci-fi story I was expecting, with humans visiting other planets and finding things mostly the same but a little bit different. A fun story with something to say about gender roles, but I'm not quite sure what the message was.

C. L. MOORE The Black God’s Kiss (1934) 1/5
This was was just weird and trippy. More horror than sci-fi, which doesn't fit my tastes.

LESLIE PERRI Space Episode (1941) 5/5
Very compelling POV character, clearly influenced by the "fly girls" pioneering female aviators of the immediately preceding decades.

JUDITH MERRIL That Only a Mother (1948) 3/5
The reveal in this one was very well done, but the message strikes a strange tone to my modern outlook.

WILMAR H. SHIRAS In Hiding (1948) 4/5
Very slowly building revelations in this story make it very compelling. A hopeful ending, which I liked.

KATHERINE MACLEAN Contagion (1950) 4/5
Completely outdated biology, but an interesting premise nonetheless. June is an interesting POV character.

MARGARET ST. CLAIR The Inhabited Men (1951) 3/5
A bit confusing. Not quite the shocking reveal I think the author was going for. Interesting and well written though.

ZENNA HENDERSON Ararat (1952) 4/5
Excellent world building and cultural descriptions here. I immediately had a sense of the place and the people.

ANDREW NORTH All Cats Are Gray (1953) 4/5
Such a fun story with a great Mos Eisley Cantina feeling. Two excellent characters in a spacefaring cat and an extremely sharp woman. Not a fan of the ending, since there's no reason given that the two characters should be at all interested in one another.

ALICE ELEANOR JONES Created He Them (1955) 4/5
One of the most depressing, desolate stories I’ve ever read. Very vivid depiction of a very, very unhappy life. Felt completely real.

MILDRED CLINGERMAN Mr. Sakrison’s Halt (1956) 3/5
A little boring, but with a nice message and very good imagery and characters.

LEIGH BRACKETT All the Colors of the Rainbow (1957) 4/5
Very interesting reveal a few pages in, followed by some very upsetting (but believably written) events. Another story with a big message. After thinking about it for a bit, I think it's a wrong-headed message too.

CAROL EMSHWILLER Pelt (1958) 5/5
Wow. This story has the same sort of feel I remember from *The Mount*. It has a real sense of suspense and managed to make me feel completely inside the mind of a dog.

ROSEL GEORGE BROWN Car Pool (1959) 3/5
I didn't care for the bit about the housewife wanting to be less "respectable", or the two women pitted against one another. But some very interesting ideas here around an alien child integrating into human child groups.

ELISABETH MANN BORGESE For Sale, Reasonable (1959) 3/5
Still very timely as we are continually debating when we will be "replaced" by robots/AI/automation. I'm a sucker for fake footnotes as well.

DORIS PITKIN BUCK Birth of a Gardener (1961) 3/5
This story had an interesting twist, but the husband in the story was such a condescending jerk that I could barely manage to make it through the whole thing.

ALICE GLASER The Tunnel Ahead (1961) 3/5
This has a very original take on how humans might respond to the impending overpopulation crisis. I haven't seen anyone doing the "overpopulated future" trope in quite this way before. But I didn't like any of the characters in the story so it was hard to connect with.

KIT REED The New You (1962) 4/5
It's pretty depressing to me that the idea of completely replacing yourself to be prettier and more outgoing still feels so relevant today. But I really liked this take on the idea and how clever Martha ends up being in the end. Such a satisfying ending!

JOHN JAY WELLS & MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY Another Rib (1963) 3/5
The idea of having to repopulate the human race without any women should be an obvious one and should have been done to death by now. But this is one of only a few attempts at the trope I've seen. It's interesting to see how much the focus is on the outraged and disgusted reaction of the captain and how the authors dance around descriptions of the actual transformation. The homophobia and transphobia here, as well as the complete ignorance around both topics, is shocking to this modern reader.

SONYA DORMAN When I Was Miss Dow (1966) 2/5
Some interesting ideas here about other kinds of sentient beings. But it was a bit confusing to figure out what was going on and the characters weren't striking.

KATE WILHELM Baby, You Were Great (1967) 4/5
This story is chilling. Given what we've seen from the current institution of "celebrity", this terrible possibility is all too real. Very clearly written with good characters.

JOANNA RUSS The Barbarian (1968) 4/5
Another great main character here who I could really identify with. And some ideas that are all too close to home for any woman trying to make her way in system set against her. "The fool doesn't even know I hate him," indeed.

JAMES TIPTREE JR. The Last Flight of Dr. Ain (1969) 4/5
Not so fun to read an unexpected pandemic story with COVID still raging across the world. But a well written story with some very entertaining descriptions of academics and conferences.

URSULA K. LE GUIN Nine Lives (1969) 5/5
Of course this Le Guin story is just absolutely engrossing and gutting. She's made me rethink the way that I view the world and others, yet again. A very strong story to end the collection with. ( )

This is a collection of science fiction stories written by women in the 1940s - 1960s. The stories have all the weaknesses of science fiction from that era. In some cases even the lack of female characters.

I found the science aspects to be really weak. A medical 'cure' that kills all non-human cells in a person? That is a very fast way to kill them. An astronaut can leave but not reenter a spaceship through a destroyed air lock? But how can the inner door be opened and reclosed to let the person out?

I did not finish this book. The 8 stories I read were just too bad. ( )

Well, this is a pretty awesome collection. I found a lot to like about it, with stories spanning forty years and visiting a variety of worlds. The stories were chosen and even put together in a good order. Of particular note was placing a shorter story (“Space Episode”) immediately after a longer one (“The Black God’s Kiss”), and placing two with similar themes beside each other so that the reader could compare the approaches taken (“That Only a Mother” and “In Hiding”).

I liked most of the stories in this collection or could at least appreciate what was being done. My favourites were ones that had realistic details about space travel (“Space Episode”), were told compactly (“All Cats are Gray”), and ones that showed that the real monsters are right here on Earth (“All the Colors of the Rainbow”; this one is right up there with the Doctor Who episode “Rosa” for showcasing that). I also liked the stories that switched traditional gender roles (“Another Rib” and “The Conquest of Gola”).

The introduction to the collection is very good, and there are biographical notes about each author at the end of the book. This is a great collection and I would definitely recommend it if you like SFF and stories written by women. ( )