Customer Reviews

Women at War

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3 star:		(1)
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I read this book a good two years ago, but I loved this book and feel I have to respond to the other person's review.

I don't know if the other reviewer doesn't like the concept of women in combat, is misogynistic, or just doesn't know women and the world very well. Or maybe s/he doesn't read much sf or much else either.

That s/he would call Margaret Ball's "Notes During a Time of Civil War" one of the worst when it struck me like Atwood's _Handmaid's Tale:_ Both are like a hard blow to the solar plexus. Perhaps many men and some women don't get that fear. "Flambeaux" is a beautiful, tragic, lovely story about the ties that unite and destroy us. It's also the best story about women combatants in this anthology. I used it in a lesson plan to teach about war fought by outsiders.

This in my opinion is an excellent anthology of war fiction. Please read it: you'll be glad you did.

What we have here is an interesting but erratic collection of short stories that range from very good to very bad. All are by woman authors. Sometimes it is the author who is at war instead of the characters. Some at least realize that going to war can get anyone killed. Since the stories are separate, they should be reviewed separately.

Best: Traitor - a witty modified mystery that keeps the reader smiling while thinking and wondering. 2nd Best: A Few Good Men - good character building on a humorous premise. 3rd Best: Lizard - a spirited adventure with a balanced view of females. ... 3rd Worst: Fugitives - glorifies rottenness; if a man acted like that he would be a villian. I guess the point is that a woman can be rotten. 2nd Worst: Notes During a Time of Civil War - starts with a serious analogy then flies off on an irrelevant tangent. Worst: Flambeaux - Simultaneously horrific and nonsensical; horrendous.