Saturday 12 April 2014

Dangerous Women anthology

All new and original to this volume, the 21 stories in Dangerous Women include work by twelve New York Times bestsellers, and seven stories set in the authors’ bestselling continuities—including a new “Outlander” story by Diana Gabaldon, a  tale of Harry Dresden’s world by Jim Butcher, a story from Lev Grossman set in the world of The Magicians, and a 35,000-word novella by George R. R. Martin about the Dance of the Dragons, the vast civil war that tore Westeros apart nearly two centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones.

Writes Gardner Dozois in his Introduction, “Here you’ll find no hapless victims who stand by whimpering in dread while the male hero fights the monster or clashes swords with the villain, and if you want to tie these women to the railroad tracks, you’ll find you have a real fight on your hands.  Instead, you will find sword-wielding women warriors, intrepid women fighter pilots and far-ranging spacewomen, deadly female serial killers, formidable female superheroes, sly and seductive femmes fatale, female wizards, hard-living Bad Girls, female bandits and rebels, embattled survivors in Post-Apocalyptic futures, female Private Investigators, stern female hanging judges, haughty queens who rule nations and whose jealousies and ambitions send thousands to grisly deaths, daring dragonriders, and many more.

My thoughts:
- Introduction by Gardner Dozois
Yawn

- “Some Desperado” by Joe Abercrombie - A Red Country story
Eh, I mean not bad, but not good either, just kind of eh

- “My Heart is Either Broken” by Megan Abbott
First it was kind of meh, but then it got better as the husband, and I, started to wonder if the mother had killed the child.

- “Nora’s Song” by Cecelia Holland
*yawn* One of Queen Eleanor's kids is watching things unfold and as she does not know anything, she sees nothing. Meh

- “The Hands That Are Not There” by Melinda Snodgrass
It started off very meh but gradually got better.

- “Bombshells” by Jim Butcher - A Harry Dresden story 
This one was dull and skimworthy

- “Raisa Stepanova” by Carrie Vaughn
Eh, ok I guess...at times.

- “Wrestling Jesus” by Joe R. Lansdale 
Boring. No memory of it

- “Neighbors” by Megan Lindholm
It was very meh, but the end was cool

- “I Know How to Pick ’Em” by Lawrence Block
I have NO idea what happened in this one, yawn, skim. Boring as watching a ball of yarn

- “Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell” by Brandon Sanderson 
Kind of good. Cool world

- “A Queen in Exile” by Sharon Kay Penman 
Interesting cos made me google Constance

- “The Girl in the Mirror” by Lev Grossman 
A Magician's story, boring. Did not work as audio

- “Second Arabesque, Very Slowly” by Nancy Kress 
Very interesting and creepy world

- “City Lazarus” by Diana Rowland 
Very dull. Did not keep my attention

- “Virgins” by Diana Gabaldon - An Outlander story 
Did NOT make me wanna read Outlander. Boring

- “Hell Hath No Fury” by Sherilynn Kenyon 
Slept through like 90% of it

- “Pronouncing Doom” by S.M. Stirling - An Emberverse story 
Ok story 

- “Name the Beast” by Sam Sykes
I really should have written about these when I still remembered them...something elves, humans, forgettable 

- “Caretakers” by Pat Cadigan
Sure it was ok but rather dull

- “Lies My Mother Told Me” by Caroline Spector - A Wild Cards story
Did not work for me

- “The Princess and the Queen” by George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire story 
Omg, so duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuull! I had to give up, I was all 4 hours of this shit? No, I an take 1 hour but not any more. So I clicked to the end. The whole book was all about blah bla had this dragon and blah blah that one and the king's cupbearer was named bla, son of x and x, lord of, well you get the idea.

Short stories on audio feels like a fail. Also wtf dangerous women? Where?! There were a few, and then I mean a few. Many stories were about men and then  a woman was mentioned but they were about men. And those about women were not dangerous at all.

Conclusion:
I would NOT recommend this book

Hardcover, 784 pages
Published December 3rd 2013 by Tor Books (first published December 2013)
Fantasy/ sci-fi/ Historical fiction well bloody everything I do not give a f*ck
Library

39 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Sorry. I posted that before I was done.
    "Oooooooooh sounds interesting....but a let down. Sighs. Here...have a cookie *hands plate of cookie over*"

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  3. Love the one line reviews... I wouldn't pick this up too, it's too long & I don't know most of the contributors!

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    1. I did know a lot of them but audio was just baad

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  4. Oh I actually want to read this! I know there's a lot of problems with the short story format, but I'm a fan of a lot of authors there. You're right, audio probably wouldn't be the best format though.

    ~Mogsy

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    1. I am fan of a lot of them too, but yes reading would have worked a LOT better. Cos audio sucked

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  5. it's difficult with so ma,y stories I think. I was curious about some and I didn't know most of the authors so I passed.

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    1. At least it kept me semi entertained and half asleep for 2 months

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  6. I really want to read the Sharon Kay Penman story. Haven't read anything about Constance.

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    1. Neither had I so it was interesting cos of that

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  7. I have this book to read a couple of the stories by authors I like. Sorry it was blah for you.

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    1. Some were good, but honestly for a Dangerous women anthology it was pretty silly

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  8. This type of book can be hard, sometimes there are some stories that make it worth it.

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  9. 'My heart is either Broken' was absolutely stunning. But I knew people who followed the Casey Anthony trial way to closely, so I just got the story.

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    1. Yes that one was one of the few that kept me alert

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  10. Wow that started to sound interesting, and then ... not. Dull. I am sorry.

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  11. I love it how you dispatched a book full of short stories in an even shorter review. Novellas *shrug*. Novellas audiobooks *emphatic shrug*.

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    1. Haha, thank you ;) Novellas can be such a miss but here, f it, on audio it was just bad

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  12. Aww, it's a shame this left so much to be desired - especially GRRM's novella! Maybe he should just be working on the sixth and seventh Song of Fire and Ice books instead of writing novellas? Grr...

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    1. It was so boring, it was truly a dry telling of events

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  13. Anthologies aren't my favorite under the best of circumstances,so Ima pass on this. Thanks for the heads-up on all the boring ;)

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    1. It's weird, it might be that it
      s anthologies I can't do. I used to think it was novellas, but lately those work, but anthologies, no

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  14. Plus it has a boring cover.

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  15. I got so excited when I read "The Magicians" and I am so glad you've saved me the time of finding this now. Loved the brief reviews!

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    1. Thanks :) I am glad you liked the reviews

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  16. goodness - everything was either dull, meh or boring. Alright I'm convinced now I won't be buying this collection after all.

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    1. It was really bad and boring so no recommendation from me

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  17. I've never tried short stories on audio, but this collection sounds totally not worth my time.

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    1. I am not gonna try shorts again on audio

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  18. Anthologies/collections are so hit and miss. There are always a few that suck, but it seems the majority of these had you banging your head on the proverbial wall. It doesn't seem like this book has gotten very good reviews the few I have seen. Such a shame. So much potential for a collection like this.

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    1. It was truly the worst one so far, there were a lot there, and only I few I actually liked.

      They could have done better

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  19. Haha I'm so glad I read this review because I so wanted to buy a copy of this, just based on the title. You'd think it would be badass right? But it just sounds kind of meh and boring. Glad to know I should save my $ and skip it.

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    1. One would think so but trust me, and some of their "dangerous women" were just normal women. I guess any woman who dares to step outside her house instead of standing barefoot and preggers before the stove is dangerous

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  20. Really!?! Wow. I would have expected so much better. Sorry to hear it was flatter than flat for you.

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