Anthologies

Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex edited by Ellen Datlow.

St. Martin's Press: New York, 1996.
Foreword by Robert Silverberg, Introduction by Ellen Datlow. "The Reality Trip" Robert Silverberg; "The Tattooist" Susan Wade; "Dolly Sodom" John Kaiine; "The Lucifer of Blue"; "The Queen of the Apocalypse" Scott Bradfield; "Oral" Richard Christian Matheson; "Grand Prix" Simon Ings; "The House of Mourning" Brian Stableford; "Fetish" Martha Soukup; "Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland" Gwyneth Jnoes; "The Future of Birds" Mike O'Driscoll; "Captain China" Bruce McAllister; "Background: The Dream" Lisa Tuttle; "Aye, and Gomorrah..." Samuel R. Delany; "Ursus Triad, Later" Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg; "Sextraterrestrials" Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen; "The Dream-Catcher" Joyce Carol Oates; "His Angel" Roberta Lannes; "Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture)" Neil Gaiman; "In the Mnoth of Athyr" Elizabeth Hand.

Sequel to Alien Sex.

Not an explicitly feminist anthology, but most of the stories deal in some manner of with constructions of gender and sex. (For the most part, not explicitly sexual, either; this is not a book of erotica/porn.) Maybe half the stories deal with constructions of prostitution, slavery, and exploitation of Third World people. The overall quality of this anthology is very good; almost all the stories, I thought, were excellent. A few stories stood out for me: Coldsmith's "The Lucifer of Blue" looks at heroism, evil, sex, prostitution, and revolution in the Spanish Civil War. Gwyneth Jones' "Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland" was excellent. O'Driscoll's "The Future of Birds" treats the fear of plagues, misogny, Third-world exploitation. Hand's "The Month of Athyr," influenced by Connie Willis' "All My Darling Daughters," posits a dystopic future in which women are no longer necessary, as artificial breeding and gene-engineered creatures designed for sex have replaced them. -- lq, 5/11/97

Once Upon a Time: Erotic Fairy Tales for Women, edited by Michael Ford.

Masquerade Books, 1996.
Includes: "Introduction" by Michael Ford; "The Snow Queen's Robber Girl" by Dorothy Allison; "Sleeping Beauty" by Francesca Lia Block; "The Butch's New Clothes" by Isobel Bird; "Go Tell Aunt Tabby" by Wickie Stamps; "Puss in Boots: Or, Clever Mistress Cat" by Carol Queen; "The Nightingale" by Cecilia Tan; "Svya's Girl" by Katya Andreevna; "Hungry Wolf and the Three Capable Femmes" by Cristina Salat; "The Little Macho Girl" by Kate Bornstein; "The Girl Who Loved the Wind" by Christa Faust; "Hans and Greta" by Linda Smukler; "Rapunzel" by Shar Rednour; "Saint George and the Dragon" by Pat Califia; "The Piper" by Jennifer Levin; "Gammer Ermintrude's Revenge: A Love Letter from Snow White" by Joan M. Schenkar; "Avi Shmacha and the Golden Yidlock" by Karen X. Tulchinsky; "The Story of the Youth Who went Forth to Learn What Fear Was" by Heather Lewis; "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" by Dorsie Hathway; "The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces" by Red Jordan Arobateau; "Taking Flight: The Secret of the Swan Maiden" by Mam'selle Victoire; "Iron Hans" by Corrina Kellam; "Down in the Cinders" by Marcy Sheiner; "The Changeling" by Lee Lynch; "The Legend of White Snake" by Kitty Tsui; "The Little Urban Maid" by Laura Antoniou; "Jackie and the Giant Lez Beanstalk" by Robin Sweeney; "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" by Robin Podolsky; About the Authors.