If the editor had stuck to science fiction/fantasy, this might have been a good collection. There were several stories which I don't think qualified for those genres and they were also overwhelmingly the least interesting in the collection--I didn't even finish Songs of War and I only finished Heat Death because it was short. On the flip side, I did enjoy Screwtop by McIntyre and was amused by the Warlord of Saturn's Moons (which I admit to being in a gray genre area and perhaps not the best written, but there was a science fiction story in the story, and as a sometimes writer I was amused in general). When it Changed was both well written and had an interesting feminist twist that simply WORKED in the story very well. Nicely done. The Women Men Don't See was another gray area, but a story that induced thought--it annoyed me when I first read it but has grown on me since then. The other stories were decent. I thought Building Block went from situation is horrible to situation is perfect a bit too fast, but it was still a decent story. Eyes of Amber would make a good story for an English/political science glass--decently written and so many layers that could be poked at.

I wish I could give the collection more stars because there were some good ones in there, but the bad ones were simply so bad that the final impression was not great.

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