Richard Glyn JonesRezensionen

There is some good stuff in here, although it's very Anglo-centric. The Le Guin is fabulous. Fay Weldon, as always, failed to live up to the warmth and heart in Letters to Alice; Tiptree is Tiptree-awesome.

Also, the biography of Leonora Carrington makes the entire book worth it: "During the War she suffered a breakdown and was rescued from a Madrid asylum by her former nanny, who arrived in a submarine."

Not all to my taste but with a collection of this size and breadth there is plenty to satisfy. Lovely to reread Leigh Brackett's "The Lake of the Gone Forever". Le Guin's "Sur", though to my mind not really speculative fiction of any sort, is a wonderful tale, and Octavia Butler as always is excellent. On one hand I demur at including so many non-genre writers in collections which claim to represent a genre, but on the other hand I am grateful to have read Muriel Spark's gem, "Miss Pinkerton's Apocalypse".½

A well researched book which is not too long winded in the telling and therefore easy to read. There are several subjects I hadn't heard of which was good and the ones I had were still made interesting enough to read about again.

There are a lot of bad people out there...½

There were several of the usual evil females in this book but also quite a few of the not so usual. All in all an interesting and entertaining read.

I approached this book with some pretty high expectations – not all of them prurient. Though by no means an aficionado, I’ve had some familiarity with erotica and even a nodding acquaintance with its more disreputable elder sibling pornography. If anything, I was anticipating a good mixture of styles and approaches. And there is, indeed, some diversity. Hard core is somewhat under-represented; the most “in your face” writing coming from, of all people, Edith Wharton! There are certainly some quirky takes, the most hinky of which has got to be Carol Emshwiller’s “Sex and/or Mr. Morrison”. I guess, on the whole, I most enjoyed the tales with a little lighter touch: “An Old Fashioned Girl” by Joanna Russ, “Where the Bee Sucks” by Ann Oakley, and L.A. Hall’s “Harmonizing Polarities.” Perhaps not surprisingly, the most successful story (at least in terms of entertainment and titillation), is the oldest, and the only one told from the perspective of a man, “Violette”, by La Marquise de Mannoury d’Ectot. Frankly, however, the “erotic” element is a decidedly minor ingredient in far too many of these tales. Regrettably, a good number have a certain sameness about them: lack of profile, incident or personal style. Several are extracts from longer memoirs, and most of these have a certain impressionistic quality that, for me at least, inhibits much of a sense of involvement. Overall, I would identify a theme common to nearly all these tales: a woman (typically, but not always, young) venturing (usually in a somewhat passive way) into unknown territory as she explores the nature of her sexuality. Perhaps that’s the essence of erotic fiction: extending boundaries. But I was anticipating something with a bit more bite and tang, and was, with a few exceptions, disappointed. Not, sadly, unlike some of my own personal experiences. But, then, I'm from Mars.

Foreword (Cybersex) • (1996) • essay by Will Self
Introduction (Cybersex) • (1996) • essay by Richard Glyn Jones
Profit and Lust • (1995) • by Will Self
Bots: A Love Story and a Dream • (1995) • by Michael Hemmingson[Learning About] Machine Sex • (1988) • by Candas Jane Dorsey
The Time Disease • (1987) • by Martin Amis
Artificially Induced Dub Syndrome • (1995) • by Jeff Noon
The Big Space Fuck • (1972) • by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Points of View • (1989) • by Kathe Koja
It's Very Clean • (1972) • by Gene Wolfe
Love Story in Three Acts • (1970) • by David Gerrold
Kiss Booties Night-Night • (1996) • by Storm Constantine
Catman • (1974) • by Harlan Ellison
Love and Sex Among the Invertebrates • (1990) • by Pat Murphy
A Coney Island of the Mind • (1993) • by Maureen F. McHugh
The Girl Who Was Plugged In • (1973) • by James Tiptree, Jr. - excellent
Memories of the Body • (1987) • by Lisa Tuttle
Randy Karl Tucker, or, The Education of a Moldie-Lover • (1996) • by Rudy Rucker
All My Darling Daughters • (1985) • by Connie Willis - good
Pairpuppets • (1976) • by Manuel van Loggem
More Than the Sum of His Parts • (1985) • by Joe Haldeman
Custom-Built Girl • (1996) • by Ian Watson
Bettina's Bet • (1996) • by L. Timmel Duchamp
Closer • (1992) • by Greg Egan
Starcrossed • (1973) • by George Zebrowski
Borovsky's Hollow Woman • (1983) • by Jeff Duntemann and Nancy Kress
Day Million • (1966) • by Frederik Pohl

Sources and Acknowledgements;
Introduction by Joanna Russ;
Editors' Note.
"The Demon Lover" by Elizabeth Bowen;
"The Tooth" by Shirley Jackson;
"The Lake of the Gone Forever" by Leigh Brackett;
"The Old Man" by Daphne du Maurier;
"My Flannel Knickers" by Leonara Carrington;
"The Anything Box" by Zenna Henderson;
"Miss Pinkerton's Apocalypse" by Muriel Spark;
"A Bright Green Field" by Anna Kavan;
"The Ship who Sang" by Anne McCaffrey;
"Marmalade Wine" by Joan Aiken;
"The Fall of Frency Steiner" by Hilary Bailey;
"Cynosure" by Kit Reed;
"The Wall" by Josephine Saxton;
"The Foot" by Christine Brooke-Rose;
"Baby, You were Great" by Kate Wilhelm;
"The Second Inquisition" by Joanna Russ;
"Murder, 1986" by P. D. James;
"The Milk of Paradise" by James Tiptree, Jr.;
"When It Happens" by Margaret Atwood;
"Angel, All Innocence" by Fay Weldon;
"Night-Side" by Joyce Carol Oates;
"Fireflood" by Vonda N. McIntyre;
"Wives" by Lisa Tuttle;
"Red as Blood" by Tanith Lee;
"Sur" by Ursula K. Le Guin;
"Peter and the Wolf" by Angela Carter;
"The Pits beneath the World" by Mary Gentle;
"Two Sheep" by Janet Frame;
"Relics" by Zoe Fairbairns;
"The Evening and the Morning and the Night" by Octavia E. Butler;
"(Learning about) Machine Sex" by Candas Jane Dorsey;
"Prodigal Pudding" by Suniti Namjoshi;
"Boobs" by Suzy McKee Charnas;
"If the Word was to the Wise" by Carol Emshwiller;
"Trial by Teaspoon" by Lynda Rajan;
"In the Green Shade of a Bee-Loud Glade" by L. A. Hall;
"Death in the Egg" by Ann Oakley;
"Kay and Phil" by Lucy Sussex; and
Notes on the Authors.