Lightspeed: Women Destroy Science Fiction

At the back of the short story anthology I read recently, Women Invent the Future, was a list of recommended titles, one of which was this special edition of Lightspeed magazine, which featured all female science-fiction writers. It came out four or five years ago, but unfortunately I don't think much has changed since in relation to gender parity in science fiction.

It had 31 stories, all of which I thought were extremely well written and very interesting. There were about four I wasn't especially keen on for one reason or another, but they were all excellent. The whole set covered a vast range of sci-fi themes - gender politics, art, commercialism, exploitation, love, ambition, oppression, revolution, etc. They presented a huge array of different visions of both possible and impossible futures, and I really enjoyed reading them because they also all followed individual personal stories within those worlds, making them both fantastical and very relatable.

The fiction was followed by a number of essays and articles about being a female science-fiction writer, the nature of science-fiction and where it might be heading. These were also really interesting, and a good counter-point to the fiction.

Excellent stuff all round, and highly recommended.