author : Alexander Potter

An interesting collection of stories about women warriors, before, during, or after battle. The ones that worked best for me were ones set in universes I already knew, where I could draw on the consequent depth and background not achievable in a short story. Nevertheless, some of the standalones also manage to be thought-provoking and/or exciting.

Contents (possible spoilers)

• Sharon Lee, Steve Miller. Fighting Chance

A Liaden Universe story. How Miri Roberston was recruited off Surebleak by Angela Lizardi.

• Rosemary Edghill. Painted Child of Earth

A warrior has an enchanted sword that makes her immortal, until it can use her to destroy the world. She fights its influence, saving a lad who wants to be a hero, and realises the benefits of companionship in keeping her humanity

• Julie E. Czerneda. She's Such a Nasty Morsel

A Web Shifters story. How Skalet, one of Esen's Web, became so involved in war.

• Fiona Patton. The Children of Diardin: To Find the Advantage

A pack of Sidhe shape-shifters need to find a battle advantage over the invading giants -- and discover that their mother is a force to be reckoned with.

• Tanya Huff. Not that Kind of War

A Confederation story. Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr has a new, gung-ho Leuitenant to take care of, during a retreat.

• Michelle West. The Black Ospreys

Sometimes to win a war, you have to use desperate tactics. But who do you choose to use them?

• Bruce Holland Rogers. The Art of War

Maybe the destrying alien fleet don't actually want to wage war, maybe they are just unimpressed with our fighting aesthetics.

• Kerrie Hughes. Geiko

A Geiko bodyguard hopes her young charge will become a trader, not a bodyguard too. Then she discovers that an assassin is after her, not her charge.

• Robin Wayne Bailey. Shin-Gi-Tai

What lengths a warrior and her alien lover will go to to stop a war that is destroying both sides.

• Jana Paniccia. The Last Hand of War

A complex story of warriors, and the warrior spirits who bond with them, fighting against a maddened sprit who threatens to destroy them all.

• Lisanne Norman. War Games

An attempt to rescue the President's kidnapped daughter has bizarre consequences that the warriors know cannot old forever. [The sexist subplot seems a bit 1970s, and out of place in this future army.]

• Jane M. Lindskold. Fire from the Sun

Andrasta helps clear a slave clan of a charge of uprising. But the events are part of a larger plot that will change the way of her own clan forever.

• Stephen Leigh. Sweeter far than Flowing Honey

A VR pilot engaged in a war against the Ghastlies keeps having strange dreams about other warriors and their destroyed families.

• Anna Oster. Token

Jun-Li is chosen to be the new Holy Defender, but is she up to the task?

• Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Elites

Rowena's half-way house for PTSD veterans has a great reintegration rate, so why doesn't she want others to use her cure?