Customer Reviews

Don't Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear

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This is a nice collection of stories that deal with "mothers" of all types. One of my favorite was "Return in your space suit or on it", where a young man finally decides that the military is more likely to let him do his own thing than Mom. After having read the "chicks & mail/male" series recently I found the stories less cheeky and less amusing, but they are good nonetheless.

I'm a sucker for themed anthologies; they range from surprisingly good to rather dire. Unfortunately, this collection falls closer to the latter end of the spectrum. As you might have guessed, the stories all tie in somehow to motherhood within the sci-fi/fantasy genre.

The overbearing martyr-mom appears in annoying abundance, going over the top in a few stories. Of the pieces that use a "twist" (Hey, wait! These aren't humans!), one handled it well, while the other was rather clumsy. There were a few standout stories: "Don't Go Near the Water" (Terry Beckett & Chris Power) and "Accidents Don't Just Happen -They're Caused" (Elizabeth Moon) were two that took the approach more seriously, and (IMHO) with better results. Of the stories taking a more light-hearted tone, Nye's "What's the Magic Word?" and Esther M. Freisner's "Just Wait Until You Have Children Of Your Own" were two of the more enjoyable ones. I think the last story, "Don't Put That in Your Mouth" by Diane Duane was perhaps my favorite.

I doubt more than a couple of these stories will make it to many other anthologies besides those of the author's own work. It was a decent way to pass the time, but probably not a collection I'd bother reading again (although I may consider following up on a few of the authors). I think I'll be turning it in for credit at the local used book store.