Customer Reviews

The Wind From A Burning Woman

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4 star:		(1)
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"Hardfought" is a fascinating, imaginative story about humans and their eternal battle with the Senexi aliens, a serious work that deserves recognition and dominates this collection. My second favorite was "Scattershot", with its strong lead female character and (to me) a somewhat confusing ending. These two were narrated by a woman, whose performance I enjoyed, whereas the other four had a male narrator whom I found rather dull, without a lot of variation in his presentation, enough for me to knock down the overall rating for the collection.

"The White Horse Child" doesn't really fit as a fantasy entry, although it's relatively modest and interesting enough. The title story may be the weakest of the set. The key concept is fair, with a modified asteroid driven toward Earth as a weapon, but the main character and the interaction between the terrorist (?) and the leaders doesn't engage.

The other two have religious themes, or at least overtones. I never felt comfortable with "Petra", perhaps missing the obvious.

3.5 stars

...I figured that Amazon had made a slight goof, for how could a17 year old hardcopy version of the book still be in print when thepaperback is out of stock? So I decided to order it anyway.

Imagine my surprise when I received notice when it shipped and it arrived.

This collects several early Bear Stories, including the title story (which serves as a prequel to the Eon stories), The White Horse Child (a rare fantasy entry), Hardfought (1983 Nebula winner), Petra (a Nebula Nominee), Scattershot and Mandala (part of his novel Heaven's River).

It's a strong "first stories" collection, and if you can grab it and are a fan of Greg Bear, then you should certainly do so.