Dangerous Women

By: Gardner Dozois, Joe Abercrombie, Megan Abbott, Cecilia Holland, Melinda Snodgrass, and more, George R.R. Martin

Narrated by: Claudia Blak, Scott Brick, Karen Dotrice, Jonathan Frakes, Iain Gren, Janis Ian, and more

Length: 32 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Twenty-one original stories of dangerous women by top genre writers, brought together in a new anthology edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois. Intrepid warriors, far-ranging spacewomen, formidable superheroines, hard-living bad girls, embattled survivors, private investigators, seductive femmes fatale and haughty queens; as Gardner Dubois writes in his introduction, 'if you want to tie any of these women to the railway tracks, you'll have a real fight on your hands!'

This thrilling collection features both standalone tales and familiar worlds and characters, including Joe Abercrombie's Red Country backdrop; Jim Butcher's world of Harry Dresden; Lev Grossman's Magicians; Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series; and a story by Caroline Spector in the Wild Cards shared universe. Return to Westoros in The Princess and the Queen, a new novella from George R. R. Martin about the Dance of Dragons, a bitter civil war that divided the kingdom nearly two centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones.

©2013 Random House (P)2013 Random House Audio

Restored my faith in short story format

Where does Dangerous Women rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is the first collection of short stories I've listened to and I was impressed. Each author has taken their own interpretation of what "dangerous women" means and while some of the stories are not to my taste, the ones I did like were well written.

What did you like best about this story?

I enjoyed the short story format immensely - studying English literature had put me off the format in the past, but this showed that you can have layered world building, character development and complex plot in a short story without it being a painfully dry academic experience.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narration by different actors helped to separate the book into the different tales, and automatically told you what kind of tone the story had through narration style.

A full box of chocolates

It's seldom that a collection of short stories and novellas of such a vast array of authors pulls a listener time after time into its narrative worlds. While I bought the book because of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire Novella, I was pleasantly surprised by the 20 other stories.

Though not sticking to only fantasy and SciFi the various authors are seasoned and upcoming writers who have staked their claim in the SciFi/Fantasy world. My favourite stories in this anthology are: Joe Abercrombie's “Some Desperado” (when chasing a 'cow girl' the danger is immanent), Megan Lindholm's “Neighbors” (danger lurks in the woman with Altzheimers), Sharon Key Penman's “A Queen in Exile” (when a queen refuses to be just a queen), Diana Gabaldon's "Virgins" (a feline take on Jamie Fraser) and George R.R. Martin's "the Blacks and the Greens" (a war prequel to the Game of Thrones). However there are many more that is probably just as good.

This anthology is like a full box of chocolates, the novellas and short stories might not all be to your taste... but they are delicious and worthwhile to listen too.

I don't think that you can go wrong. In "Dangerous Women" the adjective 'dangerous' is explored in depth. Almost every time you are challenged by the idea of what could be dangerous in a woman.

I really enjoyed it. It is one of a very few anthologies where you cannot go wrong. It is especially worth your while if you are seeking for new authors to listen too. It comes highly recommended!

My worst purchase in 4 years

Aside from the first novel (Abercrombie; so great as you would expect) all of these are bad, and with lots of narrators that should not narrate, some have such loud mouth noices I had to skip the entire novel. And the last one from R. R. Martin was a disapointment, I actually quit with only 45 minutes left, not worth it.