Dangerous Women

By: Gardner Dozois, George R.R. Martin

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Jonathan Frakes, Stana Katic, Inna Korobkina, Lee Meriwether, Claudia Black, Sophie Turner, Janis Ian, Iain Glen, Karen Dotrice, Various

Length: 32 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

All new and original to this volume, the 21 stories in Dangerous Women include work by 12 New York Times best sellers, and seven stories set in the authors’ best-selling continuities - including a new "Outlander" story by Diana Gabaldon, a tale of Harry Dresden’s world by Jim Butcher, a story from Lev Grossman set in the world of The Magicians, and a 35,000-word novella by George R. R. Martin about the Dance of the Dragons, the vast civil war that tore Westeros apart nearly two centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones.

Also included are original stories of dangerous women - heroines and villains alike - by Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Sherilynn Kenyon, Lawrence Block, Carrie Vaughn, S. M. Stirling, Sharon Kay Penman, and many others.

Writes Gardner Dozois in his introduction, "Here you’ll find no hapless victims who stand by whimpering in dread while the male hero fights the monster or clashes swords with the villain, and if you want to tie these women to the railroad tracks, you’ll find you have a real fight on your hands. Instead, you will find sword-wielding women warriors, intrepid women fighter pilots and far-ranging spacewomen, deadly female serial killers, formidable female superheroes, sly and seductive femmes fatale, female wizards, hard-living bad girls, female bandits and rebels, embattled survivors in post-apocalyptic futures, female private investigators, stern female hanging judges, haughty queens who rule nations and whose jealousies and ambitions send thousands to grisly deaths, daring dragonriders, and many more."

Authors: George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

Stories and Narrators (in order of appearance):
“Some Desperado” by Joe Abercrombie; Read by Stana Katic
“My Heart Is Either Broken” by Megan Abbott; Read by Jake Weber
“Nora’s Song” by Cecelia Holland; Read by Harriet Walter
“The Hands That Are Not There” by Melinda Snodgrass; Read by Jonathan Frakes
“Bombshells” by Jim Butcher; Read by Emily Rankin
“Raisa Stepanova” by Carrie Vaughn; Read by Inna Korobkina
“Wrestling Jesus” by Joe R. Lansdale; Read by Scott Brick
“Neighbors” by Megan Lindholm; Read by Lee Meriwether
“I Know How to Pick ’Em” by Lawrence Block; Read by Jake Weber
“Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” by Brandon Sanderson; Read by Claudia Black
“A Queen in Exile” by Sharon Kay Penman; Read by Harriet Walter
“The Girl in the Mirror” by Lev Grossman; Read by Sophie Turner
“Second Arabesque, Very Slowly” by Nancy Kress; Read by Janis Ian
“City Lazarus” by Diana Rowland; Read by Scott Brick
“Virgins” by Diana Gabaldon; Read by Allan Scott-Douglas
“Pronouncing Doom” by S.M. Stirling; Read by Stana Katic
“Name the Beast” by Sam Sykes; Read by Claudia Black
“Caregivers” by Pat Cadigan; Read by Janis Ian
“Lies My Mother Told Me” by Caroline Spector; Read by Maggi-Meg Reed
“Hell Hath No Fury” by Sherilynn Kenyon; Read by Jenna Lamia
“The Princess and the Queen” by George R. R. Martin; Read by Iain Glen

The introduction by Gardner Dozois is read by Fred Sanders and the interstitial author biographies are read by Karen Dotrice.

©2013 Random House (P)2013 Random House Audio

Great way to learn about new authors...

I got this anthology because I already knew I liked about half of the authors, and wanted the opportunity to "read" some new ones without committing to a full-length novel. Sharon Kay Penman, Lev Grossman, Brandon Sanderson, Diana Gabaldon and GRRM's stories stood out on the positive side; the two stories narrated by Janis Ian were good but I just couldn't get into her oddly nuanced narration.

Overall I thought this was an excellent anthology with some very well-written and well-narrated stories. I now know that there are a couple of well-reviewed authors whose works I will probably not purchase, and some others whose work will definitely make its way to my bookshelf.

Fantastic

I highly recommend this book! I enjoyed it immensely as a woman who grew up having many obstacles due to that fact.

The Joy of an Anthology

As did many of the other reviewers, I bought this for the presence of one story - "Virgins" by Diana Gabaldon. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I knew what I was getting into. I'd like to address two points they have made. I'm going to try doing this without spoilers, but be warned: I may slip and spoil.

First, there were gender issue complaints, either that the women weren't really dangerous, or that there were too many stories from a man's point of view. I disagree on both counts. I don't think inherently dangerous women are necessarily aware of it. I would imagine, for example, that both of the women in "I Know How to Pick 'Em" thought of herself, not as dangerous, but rather as needy. It is only the narrator that saw the danger in the woman that picks him up, and only the reader that sees the danger in inherent in the narrator's mother. The same is true of "Wrestling Jesus." Only the narrator knows where the true danger lies.

In these two stories, as in several others, the danger seems to be similar to the stance I heard described in North Africa. Boys would tell me, "Women are dangerous." When I asked them to explain, they would only repeat themselves, and perhaps add that I should be well aware of why women were to be feared and avoided. Listening to them I got the feeling that as an American, and a teacher, there were far more dangers about me that made the threat of my gender insignificant. As I lived there, for over seven years, I further came to understand that it was less related to the lure of sex, and more to the power that women had over sons, husbands, and brothers. It was less that they could hold others sexually in thrall, and more that they were not influenced by desire in the same way men were, making them more on top of a situation because of the lack of distraction. The dangerousness of many of the women in these stories is this sort of danger. They are intimidating, although they don't mean to be. They put themselves in danger both unwittingly and on purpose. But it is their logical, systematic approach to the tribulations of their lives that make them dangerous.

Certainly there are some women who were truly dangerous and aware of it, but even they would say they were acting out of necessity and not because of some internal sense of daring-do. In the first story, "Some Desperado," the narrator is just trying to survive, and survive she does. She is ruthless, and certainly dangerous to the men she confronts. But the bottom line is that she does nothing to them that they wouldn't do to her first. Is this truly dangerous? I suppose in the sense that a stove is dangerous, yes, but not in the same way a wolverine is something to be avoided.

This brings me to the second point. There is, among other reviewers, a certain amount of whining about the fact that these are short stories. I will be the first to admit that I buy the longer audiobooks because I like getting lost in a long story. But I buy short story collections on purpose. Often a story is long enough to last me in the car there-and-back. I get a nice sense of continuity and closure there.

The thing I like best about these anthologies, is that I get to sample a variety of writers and readers. Stana Katic, for example, was a fabulous surprise as a reader. I love her on "Castle" but as a reader she has terrific range doing the different characters. The only reader I did not love (and this surprised me) was Johnathan Frakes. Even though he was too slow when doing the "narrator" voice, I enjoyed his change in tone during dialogue.

I use this as an opportunity to revisit authors I have read before, Gabaldon (of course) as well as Landsdale, Butcher, Snodgrass, and Stirling are old favorites. It is also a chance to fine new writers to explore. I was particularly impressed by the three stories with older women as the protagonist and will read more by Lindholm, Kress, and Sanderson because of those offerings. I also found myself quite enjoying "Raisa Stepanova" by Carrie Vaughn. While other of the historic stories seemed to be more of a litany of events, I found myself immersed in the trials of they young fighter pilot. She was certainly dangerous to the enemy, and frequently put herself in danger, but she seemed like many of the young women flying today, passionate about her job, loyal to her family, and patriotic to a fault.

I would heartily recommend this book to anyone. I think I benefited from listening to it. As a print-book reader I would have been tempted to skip some of the stories that have turned out to be gems. As an audio-book reader there was no such temptation. This is the third of George R. R. Martin's anthologies I have gotten. I will get the next one in a heartbeat.

Awesome

Great collection. I was really impressed with the stories and many of the audio performers.

Fantastic listen!

If you're a fan of the Game of Thrones television series, this is a must.

Enjoyable listen

Great authors and great opportunity to listen to authors I am not so familiar with and will definitely check out their books after listening to their works.

Best Collection

Most of the stories were excellent. You don't usually find this kind of consistent quality in any collection.

Only listened to the last story

I downloaded the book for one story, the George R.R. Martin prequel, Dance of Dragons. I found it to be an excellent historical back story for the Westeros world. I needed something to help tide me over until his sixth Game of Thrones book release and this helped a lot. Neither of the other short stories interested me so I cannot comment on them.

thoughtful, sensitive anthology

The selection of narrators is very specific and mostly really high quality. As with any cross-genre anthology, some stories will hit home and others will slide off you, but some of these are really, deeply wonderful. Many worthy of multiple listens!.

Chock full of Good Stuff

While every story in this collection didn’t enthrall me, most of them definitely kept my attention and, the grand finale, was best of all! George R R Martin blesses us with the full story of the Dance of Dragons (spoiler alerts if you are watching House of Dragons on HBO). The last story made the entire collection worth my time. If you are a SciFi or Fantasy fan, this collection will surely satisfy your tastes! Plenty of variety and exceptional storytelling.