Sword and Sorceress III by Marion Zimmer Bradley

(Her meaty bio-critical notes on each story’s author are a very worthwhile feature, as well!) She very rightly outlines an equalitarian perspective that explicitly differentiates her purpose from “feminist propaganda” and Woman-uber alles male-bashing the female perspective here is rightly seen as an essential part of the human perspective, that includes both genders as important, needed and responsible contributors to the world and the human story.Įven so, I would differ with her on one point. Saunders’ alternate-African warrior woman Dossouye, are series characters who appear in a number of stories elsewhere by these authors.) Some of my favorites here are “The Valley of the Troll,” “Gimmile’s Songs,” “Severed Heads” (which isn’t as grisly-gory as the title makes it sound), “Child of Orcus,” “Daton and the Dead Things” and “Sword of Yraine.” But virtually all of these are worth reading the only one here that I felt was a little weak is “House in the Forest.”īradley’s substantial introduction is an added benefit of the book she provides a good historical sketch of the role of female characters in sword-and-sorcery fantasy fiction, and some really insightful comments on the appeal and value of strong, three-dimensional heroines in this field. (Some of them, like Charles de Lint’s bounty huntress Aynber, and Charles R. Some of the latter can be rough-edged, and may sometimes do some things I wouldn’t do, or recommend but all of them have good hearts at their core, and earn the reader’s goodwill and respect.

The 15 stories in this volume come in great variety, as do the settings, and the heroines. (Though that doesn’t mean that they all necessarily have none of the latter and a couple would have been at home in the later series as well.) That doesn’t reduce their entertainment value, and often makes them more compelling. The quality of writing (at least in the initial volumes) is high in both the main difference being that Bradley’s series tends to feature tales that are more serious in tone, with less humor. In the series of anthologies of original stories which began with this volume, the late editor Bradley mines similar territory, and deals with similar strong female protagonists, as does Esther Freisner in the later Chicks in Chainmail series.

Sword and Sorceress III by Marion Zimmer Bradley