{"id":7679,"date":"2013-01-30T20:20:05","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T01:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?page_id=7679"},"modified":"2016-04-30T23:05:09","modified_gmt":"2016-05-01T03:05:09","slug":"the-other-half-of-the-sky-endorsements","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/?page_id=7679","title":{"rendered":"The Other Half of the Sky: Endorsements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/other-half-web.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-7471\" src=\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/other-half-web.jpg\" alt=\"other half web\" width=\"253\" height=\"379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/other-half-web.jpg 878w, https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/other-half-web-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/other-half-web-682x1024.jpg 682w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 253px) 100vw, 253px\" \/><\/a>\u201c\u2026women as radiant and merciless as the dawn\u2026\u201d \u2014 Sem\u00edra Ouran\u00e1kis, landfall captain of the <em>Reckless<\/em> (<a href=\" http:\/\/crossedgenres.com\/archives\/013\/planetfall-by-athena-andreadis\/\">&#8220;Planetfall&#8221;<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Cover art and design: <a href=\"http:\/\/planewalk.net\">Eleni Tsami<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Kim Stanley Robinson<\/b><\/p>\n<p>It is a great pleasure to see such a strong collection of stories about women and men in space, focusing on women who are dealing with problems in reality-based ways. \u00a0The stories are not only fun, but interesting. \u00a0This is what science fiction should be!<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the <i>Mars <\/i>trilogy and <i>Galileo\u2019s Dream<\/i>, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy and Campbell awards<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Gwyneth Jones<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In <i>The Other Half of the Sky <\/i>editor Athena Andreadis has brought together a splendid assembly of writers, both rising stars and established names, and a fascinating collection of new stories, promising serious entertainment for SF fans of all genders. I loved Vandana Singh&#8217;s thoughtful and lyrical <i>Sailing The Antarsa<\/i>, Kelly Jennings&#8217;s, crisp, wisecracking cyberpunk tale, <i>Velocity&#8217;s Ghos<\/i>t; Christine Lucas&#8217;s richly layered Martian encounter with the unconscious past, <i>Ouroboros<\/i>; and Aliette de Bodard&#8217;s painful revisioning of an old story about a &#8220;ship who sang<i>&#8220;.<\/i> Every entry here, bar none, engaged me emotionally, entertained me and\u00a0 made me think.\u00a0 If there&#8217;s a theme, maybe it&#8217;s in a refreshing approach to the SF short story that&#8217;s about opening doors, and not closing them; about scenes and episodes that tell the reader a great deal about some strange world, some frantic situation, but offer few neat solutions and no finalities. The extraordinary lives we&#8217;ve visited continue, out of our sight, as unfinished and complex as our own.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve been here before, but it never hurts to tell the world again, and show the world again, that women can and do write excellent, challenging and satisfying science fiction.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Gwyneth Jones, author of the <i>Aleutian<\/i> trilogy and the <i>Bold as Love<\/i> cycle, winner of the World Fantasy, Tiptree, Clarke and Dick awards<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Vonda McIntyre<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Treacherous, colorful, heartbreaking. Work, play, symbiosis. Survive, evolve, transcend. These stories deserve your time, your attention, your appreciation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Vonda McIntyre, author of <i>Dreamsnake<\/i> and <i>The Sun and the Moon<\/i>, winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards<\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>James Patrick Kelly<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Sure, science fiction moved out of its boys-only clubhouse years ago, but that was just a first step.\u00a0 If we\u2019re really going to have a grownup literature of the future, then we don\u2019t just need women writers; we must cast more women as vital characters in our stories.\u00a0 The editors of <i>The<\/i> <i>Other Half of the Sky<\/i> have assembled here sixteen hard science adventures for your enjoyment.\u00a0\u00a0 All feature capable professional women &#8212; engineers, scientists and <i>yes<\/i>, starship captains among them \u2013 with love interests, if any, very much on the side.\u00a0 While this anthology definitely has a modern feminist sensibility, the emphasis here is most often on good old-fashioned interplanetary fun.\u00a0 Check your preconceptions at the air lock and strap in for a wild ride because <i>space sisters kick ass<\/i>!<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; James Patrick Kelly, winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Pamela Sargent<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i>The Other Side of the Sky <\/i>grew out of an obvious question, but one that we apparently have to rediscover and ask yet again: What if there were many more female characters in science fiction who weren&#8217;t restricted by gender and inhabited a wide variety of cultures unlike the Western male-centered model that has predominated? The writers in this anthology have answered the question with stories that provoke thought, offer original speculation, and provide great entertainment. What a treat this book is&#8211;I&#8217;m only sorry I&#8217;m not here with a story myself.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Pamela Sargent, author of <i>Earthseed <\/i>and <i>The Shore of Women <\/i>and editor of <i>Women of Wonder<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Lavie Tidhar<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A constellation of dazzling stories forms <i>The Other Half of the Sky<\/i>. It is an important anthology, original and bold. Not to be missed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Lavie Tidhar, World Fantasy Award winning author of <em>Osama<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Nick Mamatas<\/b><\/p>\n<p>On back cover:<\/p>\n<p>Hard SF that is lyrical, evocative, and provocative. Finally.<\/p>\n<p>Inside the book:<\/p>\n<p>Melissa Scott&#8217;s &#8216;Finders&#8217; is as rock-ribbed as the hard SF from any so-called master, but without the baggage associated with the genre. Sue Lange&#8217;s &#8216;Mission of Greed&#8217; is as evocative as it is provocative. What else can one say about this anthology but this: Finally.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Nick Mamatas, Hugo-nominated editor.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Kate Elliott<\/b><\/p>\n<p>An excellent science fiction anthology whose many fine stories feature strong women from all walks of life, a diverse range of culture and background, and an essential blend of gripping story, real science, and a serious look at how competent people function in the world. My particular favorite, Vandana Singh\u2019s \u201cSailing the Antarsa,\u201d to me represents the epitome of what a science fiction short story can unfold in its brilliant weave of speculative cosmology and compassionate insights into human emotion and culture. There is plenty of sense of wonder within the pages of this anthology: Highly recommended.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Kate Elliott, author of the <i>Spiritwalker<\/i> Trilogy, the <i>Crossroads<\/i> Trilogy, the <i>Crown of Stars<\/i> series, and the <i>Novels of the Jaran<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Paul Gilster<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Good science fiction stands on its own, notwithstanding the politics of its editors or the gender of its protagonists. Readers expecting a jolt of didactic feminism will not find it in The Other Side of the Sky, which focuses instead on the human experience of distant worlds and the even stranger territories of the spirit. Biology, sociology and poetry take precedence over physics in stories that at their best display an elegance of conception and execution that enriches the genre. From doors that mysteriously open to other places and minds running starships who have forgotten who they are, to giant trees with orbit-reaching seeds, the tales in The Other Half of the Sky impart a new spin to classic science fiction tropes and, as the field is prone to do, conjure them afresh.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Paul Gilster, founder of the Centauri Dreams web site and co-founder of Tau Zero Foundation<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Jeanne Cavelos<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Bold, brave, struggling, erring, redeeming, failing, overcoming, dying, transcending&#8211;the female characters in THE OTHER HALF OF THE SKY explore the full, rich spectrum of human nature, and at the same time, they take readers on moving and memorable adventures.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Jeanne Cavelos, bestselling author of <i>The Passing of the Techno-Mages<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0Jetse de Vries<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b>In <i>The Other Half of the Sky<\/i>, space travel is seen, experienced and driven by women. And while it certainly does not avoid politics, power games, \u00a0conflicts, and controversies (rather the contrary), it also rekindles a kinder sense of wonder, where people\u2014and other creatures\u2014are part of a nature that stretches across the whole Universe.<\/p>\n<p>The stories in this anthology are stand-alone but also\u2014like the women in its pages\u2014part of a larger whole: a series in each author\u2019s Universe. So if you want more, there is plenty to explore. Therefore, <i>The Other Half of the Sky<\/i> not only shows you how SF can be done differently, but is also a portal to more diversity: I highly recommend it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Jetse de Vries, editor of the <i>Shine<\/i> anthology and ex-editor of <i>Interzone<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0Mark W. Tiedemann<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The stories gathered together in this collection, varied and entertaining as they are, share a simple idea that in many places, for many people, is radical&#8212;that women are people.\u00a0 For those who have always known this and lived accordingly, these stories show us as well that women are remarkable people, that they are heroes (and villains), human (and alien), special (and ordinary), and contain the full measure of all that we are.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Mark Tiedemann, author of the <i>Secantis Sequence<\/i>, Tiptree and Dick award shortlist nominee<\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0Mike Shepherd<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Delightful and thought provoking reads, ever single one of them.\u00a0 Your head will say let\u2019s think about that as you fingers demand you turn the page and read more!<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Mike Shepherd, author of the nationally best-selling <i>Kris Longknife Saga<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Laura Mixon<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Athena Andreadis and Kay Holt have teamed to achieve an amazing feat with <i>The Other Half of the Sky<\/i>. \u00a0They have snagged exciting, mind-boggling tales of space exploration and interstellar drama by women heroes from an array of talented science fiction writers, and the result is a storytelling repast. \u00a0I have been delighting in these stories. \u00a0Some of my favorite writers are here. There is \u00a0Melissa Scott\u2019s Cassilde Sam on the Burntover Plain and Terry Boren\u2019s Alakie on a planet somewhere in post-singularity space; there are stories from Martha Wells and Alliette de Bodard, Joan Slonczewski, Ken Liu, Jack McDevitt and others&#8211;I can&#8217;t resist saying it: this anthology achieves orbital velocity with the first story and it just gets better from there.<\/p>\n<p>When I was a kid, a lover of science fiction hungry for stories of women heroes, I would have crawled over broken Denebian glass to get my hands on an anthology like this. \u00a0In fact, heck, I still would. \u00a0Run, do not walk, to get a copy for yourself.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Laura Mixon (Morgan J. Locke), author of <i>Burning the Ice<\/i> and <i>Up Against It<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c\u2026women as radiant and merciless as the dawn\u2026\u201d \u2014 Sem\u00edra Ouran\u00e1kis, landfall captain of the Reckless (&#8220;Planetfall&#8221;). Cover art and design: Eleni Tsami &nbsp; Kim Stanley Robinson It is a great pleasure to see such a strong collection of stories about women and men in space, focusing on women who are dealing with problems in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7679","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}