Warrior Wisewoman, edited by Roby James

In the introduction to Warrior Wisewoman, editor Roby James explains that the anthology is meant to offer stories with strong female protagonists—not characters that could as easily be male as female, but strong women, whose gender informs their actions but does not define them. It seeks to show women protagonists who are both strong and wise.

Warrior Wisewoman opens with Douglas A. Van Belle’s “Ungraceful Cliff Dwellers,” in which the protagonist shares a strong telepathic bond with hundreds of her peers. This young woman has become the spokesperson for “the us,” adept in the nerve-wracking task of posing questions to “God,” otherwise known as Bueford. As the protagonist explores her debilitating fear of losing the bond with her peers, Bueford explains her true purpose. This great purpose, shared with everyone she knows, calls her to confront her fear for the good of all.

This is an intriguing tale, and I found it especially so in the beginning as the nature of the characters and their situation unfolded. It is well-written, with engaging, sympathetic characters and a believable plot. My only quibble is with the last line, which seems anticlimatic in light of the heroic action the protagonist has just taken.

In “To Find Home Again” by Rose Lemberg, Ria is a soldier, but the war is over. She is skilled in battle and has served her master valiantly. But now, there are only menial repair tasks for her to do, and she no longer works shoulder-to-shoulder with her beloved master. Her precarious position as the only slave on a ship filled with freeborn men leads her on an unexpected journey of loss and loneliness, culminating in Ria’s decision to take a grave risk to regain all she held dear.

Lemberg does an exceptional job of drawing the reader into a society that will be quite foreign to most readers. This is not a story of slavery from our perspective, but the story of a woman, a slave, from her own point of view. Ria’s desires for love, friendship, and self-worth are the same as ours, but the means by which she seeks to attain them are quite different. In Ria, we have a protagonist who is humble in the extreme but not pathetic, powerless and yet strong. These seeming contradictions lend the character authenticity and take her story beyond the ordinary.

The unnamed narrator in Catherine Mintz’s “Heaven Shed Tears” reflects on her life and her sacrifices as she carries out a forbidden water ritual with her daughter. A member of the middle generation traveling from Earth to a pair of water-rich planets, she never saw the home planet, now dead and lost, and probably won’t see the destination. But she is the “link that makes the chain,” determined to do her part to better the lives of the next generation.

Reading “Heaven Shed Tears” brought to mind ancestors perhaps two or three generations back who suffered and scrimped so that my parents, and I, might have a better life. This is a quietly affecting piece told with the lightest touch—a jewel.

Charunee is “An Ashwini Apart” in a tale of intrigue by Bhashkar Dutt. The bulk of the story follows Charu on her nervous journey to Seattle and her meeting with Isabella, with whom she hopes to bond. With the death of her twin, Charu is not only emotionally bereft, but unable to practice the ki strengthening medicine that she and other Ashwini were genetically engineered to do. The two women find that they are compatible, but events suddenly take a shocking turn.

Charu is well-drawn and sympathetic, drawing the reader into her sad tale from the beginning. Then the crisis arises in the middle of the story, pulling us along with a rising sense of urgency. However, this tension is relieved too early, as the key to the story is revealed about five pages before the end. This promising piece then concludes not with a startling reveal, but in a long, slow denouement.

In Nancy Fulda’s “A New Kind of Sunrise,” a teenage girl about to be apprenticed as a healer finds a man a little older than herself, languishing from a fever beside a rock. Her nomadic clan takes the stranger along with them on their journey, and Mikki learns strange new ideas from him, ideas that may change her world and her way of life.

This tale seems a bit out of place among the others in this anthology, as it reads like a piece from a larger saga, possibly one intended for teen readers. It is well-written, but as a coming of age story it left me a bit flat. Although the theme of conflict between new ideas and tradition is raised, it is left to some future meeting of these characters to be fully explored.

In “Faith” by Fran LaPlaca, Lucia, a Navy commander hardened by war and personal loss, is back on the planet of Rideen after 12 years, this time to recruit fighters for an ongoing conflict. Although the locals welcome Lucia and her group, the soldiers are tense. When the townsfolk sneak away en masse in the night, the soldiers follow them and witness a ceremony marked by what seems to be a supernatural presence.

“Faith” asks difficult questions around war and personal loss, and how we can maintain hope when deeply held beliefs are called into question. The story gives no pat answers, but honestly faces the questions.

April’s son, Tam, falls victim to an accident in Mary Catelli’s “Among the Wastes of Time,” but his rescue is preempted for another emergency, one affecting the Last, the sole surviving member of an alien race that humans all but destroyed. Tam was not the only one. The Last is protected by a law that diverts emergency personnel to its aid, no matter who else might die. But April has the necessary knowledge, and through her job, the access to do something about it.

Overall, I found this is an interesting, thought-provoking tale—that is, until the end, when things resolved a bit too easily and too sentimentally for my taste.

One hundred years in the future, a group of Native Americans have separated themselves from “digiter” society to go back to the old ways in Anna Sykora’s “Keepers of the Corn.” Soldiers have come to buy corn seed, but the elders are reluctant to trust them. Curious and precocious, young Water Child finds herself central to the outcome of this situation and learns an important fact about herself in the process.

The conflict in this story is interesting and the characters strong, but again, the resolution seems to come a little too quickly and easily in the end.

In Peg Robinson’s “As Darwin Decreed,” Thomasin is providing necessary gene manipulation work on Earth species on a planet settled by a sect uncomfortable with gene science. A die-off among a certain species of birds on her property and a simmering argument with her brother-in-law remind her of her lost husband and child, and lead her to further research.

Like “Faith,” this piece deftly explores tensions between religion and science. But in this tale, a secondary character is the one forced to make the difficult choice.

A post-apocalyptic setting won’t spoil Mel’s “Christmas Wedding” in this poignant story by Vylar Kaftan. Corie and Mel have long planned to marry, but Corie suffered a traumatic brain injury the day Yellowstone erupted and the world changed. They have traveled hundreds of miles, finding danger along the way, as well as love and support from an unexpected source. Despite all they have been through and their current struggles, the women are determined to marry.

This is the moving and well-told story of the survival of three women, banding together to build a new life amidst the ashes of the old.

In “Ice Queen” by Colleen Anderson, Janie Blue is an “icebreaker” entering the virtual world of a system she’s been hired to repair. Two others, another icebreaker and a “netwalker,” have already suffered serious injury trying to repair the same system, and Janie Blue suspects that she hasn’t been told everything she needs to know. A recognized expert in her field, she concentrates on her work and keeps people at a distance. But inside this system, she meets something—or someone—beyond anything she’s ever encountered.

The premise of this story is fascinating, and the tension is high. Anderson expertly conveys the lonely, claustrophobic other-world in which Janie Blue operates, to satisfying effect.

In Sally Kuntz’s “Only a Personal Tragedy,” Hyacinth has grown up in a world embroiled in a seemingly endless war. She finds the war and the “thing called national pride that fuels it” senseless. But she doesn’t rail or complain or agitate. She watches, waits, and when they come, takes her opportunities to change her world.

Evocative language and surprising yet apt metaphors characterize this well-written piece. But most impressive is the intriguing protagonist herself. Hyacinth is quiet and watchful, but never inactive. She is at times terribly naïve, yet faces certain death with clear-eyed courage. These qualities are fully believable due to Kuntz’s clear and unsentimental portrayal.

Overall, Warrior Wisewoman succeeds in presenting strong, wise women to its readers. What makes these women strong and wise? At least some element of self-sacrifice is evident in six of the 12 stories here, suggesting this as a strong theme. However, other qualities such as courage, conviction, and concern for others are evident as well. Perhaps every woman can be strong and wise in her own way.

Publisher: Norilana Books (June 2008)
Price: $10.95 U.S./£7.50 UK
Paperback: 276 pages
ISBN: 1934169897