Chicks in Chainmail

I remember enjoying this a lot more as a teen, but tastes change right? Overall some still we're delightful, but most fell a bit flat. Less like they were having fun with the stereotypes and more like they were making fun of them.

Some of the stories in here are pretty entertaining, along with some good writing. However, the collection as a whole is a hit-or-miss of some truly clever stories, and some other stories that relied far too heavily on the cliches one often sees in fantasy. Busty women in chain-mail bikinis, you get the idea... hell, the cover and title of this book make the contents pretty clear, and I have no issue with that most of the female main characters are smart AND strong. But after a while, seeing the same cliche over and over gets old.

I mean, sure, this collection is meant to be light-hearted and fun, with some parodies of said tropes in the fantasy genre, but I feel that some of these stories fell somewhat flat. It could be a matter of show more personal taste, but I can still recommend this book because there's some great lines and jokes in here.

A solid 3.5/5 stars, and worth a look if you like fun sci-fi and fantasy. One thing to note is this was published in 1995, so some of this felt to me a bit dated in 2022. show less

I read this book a long time ago, probably 2007. At that time, I loved it. Reading it a second time, I feel more critical. Some of the stories, particularly "Career Day" and "The Stone of War and the Nightingale's Egg", were very good. Others weren't. I enjoyed the creative storytelling, but for a feminist book I found it odd that pretty much every female protagonist ended up with a man in the end. Why couldn't they stay single? I attribute this to pop culture's tendency to soften down its feminist characters... an un-partnered feminist is too intimidating for most people. Sigh. That said, it was definitely an interesting book. Three stars.

A good-humored take on women's roles in sword and sorcery stories

Chicks in Chainmail is an anthology of stories mocking or satirizing the titular cliche. It is supposed to be fluffy and humorous, but I found less than half of the stories at all amusing and the rest either uninteresting or, more often, appalling. I've never read a book with so many rape jokes (and I hope I never do again). I've also never read a book with so many misspelled words and other typographical errors.

A mixed bag of short stories about empowered warrior women with a sense of humor. At least three use the phrase "bronze bra." Some are quite good; some are okay; one, I can only describe as a terrible Hillary-Sue Clinton fanfic.

Like most anthologies, some weak stories and some very good ones. Friesner is known for her humorous approach in fantasy, so it's not surprising that the collection has more satirical, funny stories than serious ones. Still, a nice change from the stereotypical fantasy worlds.