The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women

BOOK: The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women
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Alex Dally MacFarlane
is a writer, editor and historian. When not researching narrative maps in the legendary traditions of Alexander III of Macedon, she writes stories, found in
Clarkes-world Magazine, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Solaris Rising 3, Heiresses of Russ 2013: The Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction, The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy: 2014
and other anthologies.
Her poetry can be found in
Stone Telling, The Moment of Change
and
Here, We Cross.
She is the editor of
Aliens: Recent Encounters
(2013) and
The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women
.

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T
HE
M
AMMOTH
B
OOK OF

SF Stories
by Women

Edited by Alex Dally MacFarlane

ROBINSON

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Robinson

Copyright © Alex Dally MacFarlane, 2014 (unless otherwise stated)

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise
circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-47211-166-1 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-47211-171-5 (ebook)

Robinson
is an imprint of
Constable & Robinson Ltd
100 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DY

An Hachette UK Company

www.hachette.co.uk

www.constablerobinson.com

First published in the United States in 2014 by Running Press Book Publishers,

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocophy, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without permission from the publishers

Books published by Running Press are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions and other organizations.

For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the
Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or email
[email protected].

US ISBN: 978-0-7624-5470-9

US Library of Congress Control Number: 2014936347

Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing

Running Press Book Publishers

2300 Chestnut Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103-4371

Visit us on the web!

www.runningpress.com

CONTENTS

Permissions

Introduction

Sofia Samatar
– Girl Hours

Kristin Mandigma
– Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-realist Aswang

Vandana Singh
– Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra

Lucy Sussex
– The Queen of Erewhon

Tori Truslow
– Tomorrow Is Saint Valentine’s Day

Nnedi Okorafor
– Spider the Artist

Karen Joy Fowler
– The Science of Herself

Alice Sola Kim
– The Other Graces

Elizabeth Bear
& Sarah Monette – Boojum

Natalia Theodoridou
– The Eleven Holy Numbers of the Mechanical Soul

Ursula K. Le Guin
– Mountain Ways

Nalo Hopkinson
– Tan-Tan and Dry Bone

Zen Cho
– The Four Generations of Chang E

Élisabeth Vonarburg
– Stay Thy Flight

Carrie Vaughn
– Astrophilia

Hao Jingfang
– Invisible Planets

Nicole Kornher-Stace
– On the Leitmotif of the Trickster Constellation in Northern Hemispheric Star Charts, Post-Apocalypse

Shira Lipkin
– Valentines

Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
– Dancing in the Shadow of the Once

Nancy Kress
– Ej-Es

E. Lily Yu
– The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees

Toiya Kristen Finley
– The Death of Sugar Daddy

Kameron Hurley
– Enyo-Enyo

Genevieve Valentine
– Semiramis

Aliette de Bodard
– Immersion

Greer Gilman
– Down the Wall

Karin Tidbeck
– Sing

Nisi Shawl
– Good Boy

Thoraiya Dyer
– The Second Card of the Major Arcana

Ekaterina Sedia
– A Short Encyclopedia of Lunar Seas

Benjanun Sriduangkaew
– Vector

Angélica Gorodischer
– Concerning the Unchecked Growth of Cities

Catherynne M. Valente
– The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew

Author Biographies

PERMISSIONS

“Girl Hours” © 2011 by Sofia Samatar. Originally appeared in
Stone Telling.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Excerpt from a Letter by a Social-realist Aswang” © 2007 by Kristin Mandigma. Originally appeared in
Clarkesworld Magazine.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra” © 2010 by Vandana Singh. Originally appeared in
Strange Horizons.
Reprinted
by permission of the author.

“The Queen of Erewhon” © 1999 by Lucy Sussex. Originally appeared in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s Day” © 2010 by Tori Truslow. Originally appeared in
Clockwork Phoenix 3
(ed. Mike Allen). Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Spider the Artist” © 2008 by Nnedi Okorafor. Originally
appeared in
Seeds of Change
(ed. John Joseph Adams). Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Science of Herself” © 2013 by Karen Joy Fowler. Originally appeared in
The Science of Herself.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Other Graces” © 2010 by Alice Sola Kim. Originally appeared in
Asimov’s Science Fiction.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Boojum” © 2008 by Elizabeth
Bear & Sarah Monette. Originally appeared in
Fast Ships, Black Sails
(ed. Ann & Jeff VanderMeer). Reprinted by permission of the authors.

“The Eleven Holy Numbers of the Mechanical Soul” © 2014 by
Natalia Theodoridou. Originally appeared in
Clarkesworld Magazine.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Mountain Ways” © 1996 by Ursula K. Le Guin. Originally appeared in
Asimov’s Science Fiction.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Tan-Tan and Dry Bone” © 1999 by Nalo Hopkinson. Originally appeared in
Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Four Generations of Chang E” © 2011 by Zen Cho. Originally appeared in
Mascara Literary Review.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Stay Thy Flight” © 1998 by Élisabeth Vonarburg. Originally appeared
in
Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction
(ed. Nicola Griffith & Stephen Pagel). Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Astrophilia” © 2012 by Carrie Vaughn, LLC. Originally appeared in
Clarkesworld Magazine.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Invisible Planets” © 2013 by Hao Jingfang & Ken Liu, © 2010 by Hao Jingfang. Originally appeared in English translation in
Lightspeed.
Originally
appeared in Chinese in
New Realms of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“On the Leitmotif of the Trickster Constellation in Northern Hemispheric Star Charts, Post-Apocalypse” © 2013 by Nicole Kornher-Stace. Originally appeared in
Clockwork Phoenix 4
(ed. Mike Allen). Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Valentines” © 2009 by Shira Lipkin. Originally appeared
in
Interfictions 2
(ed. Delia Sherman & Christopher Barzak). Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Dancing in the Shadow of the Once” © 2013 by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz. Originally appeared in
Bloodchildren
(ed. Nisi Shawl). Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Ej-Es” © 2003 by Nancy Kress. Originally appeared in
Stars
(ed. Janis Ian & Mike Resnick). Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees” © 2011 by E. Lily Yu. Originally appeared in
Clarkesworld Magazine.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Death of Sugar Daddy” © 2009 by Toiya Kristen Finley. Originally appeared in
Electric Velocipede.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Enyo-Enyo” © 2013 by Kameron Hurley. Originally appeared in
The Lowest Heaven
(ed. Anne C. Perry
& Jared Shurin). Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Semiramis” © 2011 by Genevieve Valentine. Originally appeared in
Clarkesworld Magazine.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Immersion” © 2012 by Aliette de Bodard. Originally appeared in
Clarkesworld Magazine.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Down the Wall” © 2006 by Greer Gilman. Originally appeared in
Salon Fantastique
(ed.
Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling). Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Sing” © 2013 by Karin Tidbeck. Originally appeared in
Tor.com
. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Good Boy” © 2008 by Nisi Shawl. Originally appeared in
Filter House.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Second Card of the Major Arcana” © 2012 by Thoraiya Dyer. Originally appeared in
Apex Magazine.
Reprinted
by permission of the author.

“A Short Encyclopedia of Lunar Seas” © 2008 by Ekaterina Sedia. Originally appeared in
Journal of Mythic Arts.
Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Vector” © 2013 by Benjanun Sriduangkaew. Originally appeared in
We See A Different Frontier
(ed. Fabio Fernandes & Djibril al-Ayad). Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Concerning the Unchecked Growth of Cities”
© 2003 by Angélica Gorodischer & Ursula K. Le Guin, © 1983 by Angélica Gorodischer. Originally appeared in English translation in
Kalpa Imperial
. Originally appeared in Spanish in
Kalpa Imperial I: La Casa del poder
. Reprinted by permission of the author.

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