Dangerous Women Author:Gardner Dozois (Editor), George R. R. Martin (Editor) Anthology of specially-commissioned stories from the most stellar names in the genre, set in a number of readers' favourite fantasy worlds. Writes Gardner Dozois in his Introduction, "Here you'll find no hapless victims who stand by whimpering in dread while the male hero fights the monster or clashes swords with the villain, ... more »and if you want to tie these women to the railroad tracks, you'll find you have a real fight on your hands. Instead, you will find sword-wielding women warriors, intrepid women fighter pilots and far-ranging spacewomen, deadly female serial killers, formidable female superheroes, sly and seductive femmes fatale, female wizards, hard-living Bad Girls, female bandits and rebels, embattled survivors in Post-Apocalyptic futures, female Private Investigators, stern female hanging judges, haughty queens who rule nations and whose jealousies and ambitions send thousands to grisly deaths, daring dragonriders, and many more."
Contents:
Introduction (Dangerous Women) (2013) • essay by Gardner Dozois
Some Desperado [The First Law Universe] (2013) / Joe Abercrombie: All about a woman, from her perspective. She's bad-Ass with a capital 'A'.
My Heart is Either Broken (2013) / Megan Abbott: From a guy's point of view, and the woman in question doesn't end up having killed anyone, but she might-at some point-in the future...and the protagonist needs to watch her.
Nora's Song (2013) / Cecelia Holland: A lot of royal players. Something is definitely up and the Queen appears to be messing with the King.
The Hands That Are Not There (2013) / Melinda M. Snodgrass: Male protagonist telling a story about a Stripper who was secretly a covert rebel and plotting to overthrow the government.
Bombshells [The Dresden Files] (2013) / Jim Butcher: THREE leading women shaking off their "girlfriend" roles. Capable women go in with a plan and save the day without tears or blubbery bullshit usually associated with women characters.
Raisa Stepanova (2013) / Carrie Vaughn: Female fighter pilot in WW2, ends with her crippled and the most she can get is a job teaching.
Wrestling Jesus (2013) / Joe R. Lansdale: A coming-of-age story about a boy and a retired boxer and a good-looking woman who only dates the winning boxer.
Neighbors (2013) / Megan Lindholm: A portal to a post-apocalyptic world that only elderly Women can see. Two decide to go there instead of being put in a home by their worthless children.
I Know How to Pick 'Em (2013) / Lawrence Block: Male protagonist kills the woman who wanted to get him to kill her Husband.
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell [Cosmere] (2013) / Brandon Sanderson: Female bounty hunters, a mother and business owner.
A Queen in Exile (2013) / Sharon Kay Penman: The Queen gives birth and breastfeeds in public to prove that her children are actually hers. Even when she knows her husband is a wanker, she doesn't stand up to him.
The Girl in the Mirror [Fillory] (2013) / Lev Grossman: Smart girl in magic-school plays a prank that kinda gets away from her and she almost gets eaten by a ghost.
Second Arabesque, Very Slowly (2013) / Nancy Kress: Post apocalyptic world where women are property and worth only the children they might bear.
City Lazarus (2013) / Diana Rowland: A woman using sex to get a guy to do her killing for her. She takes it up a notch for having a big picture plan.
Virgins [Outlander] (2013) / Diana Gabaldon: The protagonists stop to watch a woman chased down and then raped in public. No one batts an eye. Male protagonists hired to escort a woman to marry against her will. She decides to do something about it and escapes to marry who she wants. She tips off bandits to try and raid her Grandfather's goods so she can still live wealthy.
Hell Hath No Fury (2013) / Sherrilyn Kenyon: Ghost story. Woman cursed a town and kills anyone not possessing of Native American blood who comes near.
Pronouncing Doom [Emberverse I] (2013) / S. M. Stirling: Post-apocalyptic clans have reformed to try and get some semblance of humanity. Blatant rapist is being tried and sentenced by High Priestess who has to remind everyone that they really should have put a stop to his bullshit month's ago. She sentences him to death and he's executed.
Name the Beast (2013) / Sam Sykes: A woman is a trained hunter and killer from a tribal people who are kills anyone who enters her territory. She can go up to unarmed, untrained people and kill them. She starts to question towards the end and decides that maybe her daughter isn't as totally worthless as she'd thought by not being as good at the slaughtering as she is.
Caretakers (2013) / Pat Cadigan: Two sisters bust an "Angel of Mercy" type serial killer and then one of them might decide to enlist in this type of work? but maybe not. but maybe so?.
Lies My Mother Told Me [Wild Cards] (2013) / Caroline Spector: Awesome female super heroes.
The Princess and the Queen, or The Blacks and The Greens [A Song of Ice and Fire] (2013) / George R. R. Martin: Battle history account. Queen just refuses to surrender and then sends everyone she knows to die or kills them herself when her paranoia of being betrayed takes over. The whole war can be traced back to the Princess showing up the Queen in a better dress at a ball decades earlier.