Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century

This is one of the best sf anthologies I’ve read, not just because it features an excellent selection of stories, ranging from 1927 to 2002 and so providing a really good historical spread of feminist sf, but also because every story is followed by a critical essay, discussing either the story, writer, or the science fiction of the time of the story’s publication. There are some favourite pieces of short fiction in here: ‘ The Heat Death of the Universe’ by Pamela Zoline, ‘And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill Side’ by James Tiptree Jr, and ‘Wives’ by Lisa Tuttle; and some favourite writers, such as Gwyneth Jones and Karen Joy Fowler – and the latter’s ‘What I Didn’t See’ is, I suspect, a bona fide show more classic of the genre. Also note-worthy is ‘Created He Them’ by Alice Eleanor Jones, the only Jones story ever collected, and though it may remind readers of Merril’s ‘That Only A Mother’, it definitely should be better known. I’ve since tracked down more stories by Jones – she had five stories published in sf mags in 1955, but wrote fiction for the “slicks” up until 1966. Also in the anthology are Claire Winger Harris, Leslie F Stone, Kate Wilhelm, Pat Murphy and Octavia E Butler. A must-have for any self-respecting sf fan. show less

Daughters of Earth is far more than a critical text of the genre. It's a short story anthology. There are eleven short stories in this volume, each with a companion critical essay discussing the story itself, the author and her other work, and the feminist and historical times in which the story was written. And I must say, this was fascinating stuff. I'd kill to find more critical texts like this one, because not only did it give me access to stories I may have never found otherwise, but it allowed me to read the story, make my own judgments, and then put those judgments in context.

It's a fantastic format. I learned a lot, and gained a new appreciation for how history and the feminism at the time impacted the stories being written. show more And I'll be the first to say it's not a perfect survey of the 20th century: due to the nature of how the stories were selected, anything from the 40s was regrettably left out, and several prominent authors aren't in here either. I was fine with that, and it makes me wish that there'd be a volume two of this series, even though I know, based on her blog, that Larbalestier has left her scholarly days of feminist SF behind.

I would definitely recommend this text to anyone interested in the history of women writing in SF. Feminism, as noted in Larbalestier's introduction, is often in the eye of the beholder, and what a reader may view as feminist or not might directly conflict with what the essay sheds light upon. I'll stress again what a fantastic format this really is, with the stories and their companion essays. Like I said earlier, I'd love to see a volume two of this sucker, but I'd also love to see more SF (or fantasy) critical texts done in this manner. It's enlightening and it makes you think a little harder about the stories than you might otherwise, which I think is always cool. :)

For a full, story-by-story review, please click here: http://calico-reaction.livejournal.com/43871.html show less

My reactions to these stories were occasionally, "Is this really science fiction?" and occasionally, "I wouldn't call that feminist!" But that's one of the great things about an anthology that spans a century of social change, scifi, and feminist theory. Still my favorites were almost all at the end with the more recent writers. Standouts for me were "Wives" by Lisa Tuttle and "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" by Octavia Butler. (I really have to read more Butler.) I've seen some complaints that there were omissions, but as I've read Le Guin, but almost none of the others, I was happy to see a variety of authors.

I stumbled upon this book one day when I was desperate for something to read, and was soon fascinated with such a wonderful collection of sci-fi writing that I was swept away. I had no idea there were so many women writers who were such sci-fi lovers. I am usually scorned because of my love for sci-fi, so I have never found any one who appreciates it like I do.

The ratings are for stories with 3stars or more:

The fate of Poseidonia, by Clare Winger Harris
4stars
This story is about a martian come to Earth looking for water for his planet. Martians find a way to take away approximately 2 million tons of ocean water to their planet. The Martians are depicted as looking like native Americans, their headdresses are part of their skin. It's a racist story, otherwise I would have given it 5 stars. Poseidonia is a ship that was spirited away to Mars.

The Conquest of Gola, by Leslie F. Stone
4stars
Definitely a feel-good story for misandrists. A matriarchal society on the planet GOLA Is visited by men from Earth, who want to exploit their planet and"put the men in charge." The queen puts them in their show more place. Ah, sublime!

Created He Them, by Alice Eleanor Jones
3stars
A bleak after-apocalyptic story about housewives and marriage in an over-the-top patriarchical society. Children are mostly born deformed from the radiation left from WWIII, so those who breed healthy children don't get to pick who their spouses are, in a society already devastated by shortages of food, electricity, uncontaminated water, and areas of Earth that can sustain human life.

No Light in the Window, by Kate Wilhelm
3stars
A story that answers back to all the times men (smugly) say that a woman can't do (blank) because she's too emotional.
A finite number of humans on a military base will be chosen to be included in a ship to the stars. They are all being watched and psychologically tested, and many are eliminated. No one knows what are the characteristics they are looking for, so there is no use pretending, and the strain is making all of them brittle enough to snap.

And I Awoke and Found Me Here, by James Tiptree, Jr.
3stars
This strange story makes an analogy between the destruction of Polynesia by its contamination by white men, and the destruction of humans by the intermingling of alien races with humans. Its particular emphasis is on the sexual allure of aliens for human men and their following ruination, read: karma.

Wives, by Lisa Tuttle
3stars
A planet and its natives are hunted, subjugated and exploited by men from Earth. The few remaining survivors are forced into the role of"wives" by the male humans inhabiting the planet. They wear skinsuits, binding their third breast, makeup, wigs, perfume, to act the part of human females.

Rachel in Love, by Pat Murphy
4stars
This is a bittersweet tale, about a chimpanzee who believes she is a human girl. Her father was a scientist who taught her ASL, and they lived happily together in a ranchhouse in the desert. But one day her father dies, having succumbed to a heart attack (he was a drinker and a smoker), and as he had made no preparations in the case of his death, Rachel is thrown on her own resources. Captured by workers from a Primate Resource Center, the evil place that Rachel calls her home for the next few weeks, she makes plans for her escape, and for her plans to live"happily ever after."

Balinese Dancer, by Gwyneth Jones
3stars
A puzzling story, containing as characters a married couple--Spanish wife and American husband--on the outs, and their boy Jake. They are camping out in their yurt in the countryside in France because the English channel tunnel is blockaded, the beaches are blockaded, because France and England are in some trade-and-otherwise dispute. Tensions are running high, people are uneasy, and Anna has lost her University biology lab job because of some paper she and her team published. (This paper is the puzzling part.) At a lonely campground, an abandoned Birman cat (sort of like a Siamese) attaches himself to them. The story got an extra star for reminding me of my Siamese cat Arnulfo.

What I Didn't See, by Karen Joy Fowler
4stars
A story carefully crafted by the author that has much in common with"The Women Men Don't See," by Alice Sheldan (James Tiptree Jr). In this story where the ugly dualisms of white imperialism against black African natives, female against male, and gorillas against humans is played out within a group of scientists who journey into the jungles of a part of Africa with their 200 native porters. show less

• Introduction
• Story: "The Fate of the Poesidonia" – Clare Winger Harris (1927)
• Essay: Illicit Reproduction: Clare Winger Harris's "The Fate of the Poiseidonia" – Jane Donawerth
• Story: "The Conquest of Gola" – Leslie F. Stone (1931)
• Essay: The Conquest of Gernsback: Leslie F. Stone and the Subversion of Science Fiction Tropes – Brian Attebery
• Story: "Created He Them" by Alice Eleanor Jones (1955)
• Essay: From Ladies' Home Journal to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction: 1950s SF, The Offbeat Romance Story, and the Case of Alice Eleanor Jones – Lisa Yaszek
• Story: "No Light in the Window" – Kate Wilhelm (1963)
• Essay: Cold War Masculinity In The Early Work Of Kate Wilhelm – Josh Lukin
• Story: show more "The Heat Death of the Universe" – Pamela Zoline (1967) - excellent
• Essay: A Space of Her Own: Pamela Zoline’s "The Heat Death of the Universe" –Mary Papke
• Story: "And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill Side" – James Tiptree, Jr. (1972) - excellent
• Essay: (Re)Reading James Tiptree Jr.'s "And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill Side" – Wendy Pearson
• Story: "Wives" –Lisa Tuttle (1976)
• Essay: The Universal Wife: Exploring 1970s Feminism with Lisa Tuttle's "Wives" —Cathy Hawkins
• Story: "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" – Octavia Butler (1987)
• Essay –Andrea Hairston
• Story: "Rachel in Love" –Pat Murphy (1987) Essay: Simians, - very good
Cyborgs and Women in "Rachel in Love" –Joan Haran
• Story: "Balinese Dancer" – Gwyneth Jones (1997) - excellent
• Essay: "Prefutural Tension": Gwyneth Jones's Gradual Apocalypse –Veronica Hollinger
• Story: "What I Didn't See" –Karen Joy Fowler 2002
• Essay: Something Rich and Strange: Karen Joy Fowler's "What I Didn't See" –L. Timmel Duchamp
• Bibliography show less