Dangerous Women. Part II

Dangerous Women. Part II
Gardner Dozois

George Raymond Richard Martin

Commissioned by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, these tales of dangerous women by the most stellar names in fiction are available for the first time in three-volume paperback.

George R.R. Martin is the bestselling author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the inspiration for HBO’s hit series GAME OF THRONES.

This second volume features an original short story by Megan Lindholm (who also writes as Robin Hobb). In the bittersweet ‘Neighbors’ Sarah, a rather strange widow, lives isolated and alone, surrounded by young families. But is the old lady afflicted by dementia – or by something far more odd?

Other contributors to this volume of stories of formidable women include worldwide bestselling authors Diana Gabaldon, with an Outlander story, Sharon Kay Penman and Lev Grossman.

DANGEROUS WOMEN 2

[ul]Gardner Dozois’s introduction

Megan Lindholm, ‘Neighbors’

Lev Grossman, ‘The Girl in the Mirror’

Sharon Kay Penman, ‘A Queen in Exile’

S. M. Stirling, ‘Pronouncing Doom’

Caroline Spector, ‘Lies My Mother Told Me’

Sam Sykes, ‘Name the Beast’

Diana Gabaldon, ‘Virgins’[/ul]

Dangerous Women

Part II

Copyright

HarperVoyager

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

77–85 Fulham Palace Road

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)

First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2013

Copyright © George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois 2013

Dangerous Women / Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

Jacket layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2014

Jacket photograph © Royal Armouries

George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007549436

Ebook Edition © October 2014 ISBN: 9780008104955

Version: 2014-08-26

Copyright Acknowledgments

“Neighbors” copyright © 2013 by Megan Lindholm

“The Girl in the Mirror” copyright © 2013 by Lev Grossman

“A Queen in Exile” copyright © 2013 by Sharon Kay Penman

“Pronouncing Doom” copyright © 2013 by S. M. Stirling

“Lies My Mother Told Me” copyright © 2013 by Caroline Spector

“Name the Beast” copyright © 2013 by Sam Sykes

“Virgins” copyright © 2013 by Diana Gabaldon

Dedication

To Jo Playford, my dangerous minion.

    George R.R. Martin

Introduction by Gardner Dozois

Genre fiction has always been divided over the question of just how dangerous women are.

In the real world, of course, the question has long been settled. Even if the Amazons are mythological (and almost certainly wouldn’t have cut their right breasts off to make it easier to draw a bow if they weren’t), their legend was inspired by memory of the ferocious warrior women of the Scythians, who were very much not mythological. Gladiatrix, women gladiators, fought other women—and sometimes men—to the death in the arenas of Ancient Rome. There were female pirates like Anne Bonny and Mary Read, and even female samurai. Women served as frontline combat troops, feared for their ferocity, in the Russian army during World War II, and serve so in Israel today. Until 2013, women in the U.S. forces were technically restricted to “noncombat” roles, but many brave women gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan anyway, since bullets and land mines have never cared whether you’re a noncombatant or not. Women who served as Women Airforce Service Pilots for the United States during World War II were also limited to noncombat roles (where many of them were nevertheless killed in the performance of their duties), but Russian women took to the skies as fighter pilots, and sometimes became aces. A Russian female sniper during World War II was credited with more than fifty kills. Queen Boudicca of the Iceni tribe led one of the most fearsome revolts ever against Roman authority, one that was almost successful in driving the Roman invaders from Britain, and a young French peasant girl inspired and led the troops against the enemy so successfully that she became famous forever afterwards as Joan of Arc.

On the dark side, there have been female “highwaymen” like Mary Frith and Lady Katherine Ferrers and Pearl Hart (the last person to ever rob a stagecoach); notorious poisoners like Agrippina and Catherine de Medici, modern female outlaws like Ma Barker and Bonnie Parker, even female serial killers like Aileen Wuornos. Elizabeth Báthory was said to have bathed in the blood of virgins, and even though that has been called into question, there is no doubt that she tortured and killed dozens, perhaps hundreds, of children during her life. Queen Mary I of England had hundreds of Protestants burnt at the stake; Queen Elizabeth of England later responded by executing large numbers of Catholics. Mad Queen Ranavalona of Madagascar had so many people put to death that she wiped out one-third of the entire population of Madagascar during her reign; she would even have you executed if you appeared in her dreams.