Dangerous Women. Part III

Dangerous Women. Part III
George Raymond Richard Martin

Gardner Dozois

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 third volume features an original short story by Joe Abercrombie. 'Some Desperado' centres on Shy South, the protagonist of Abercrombie’s novel RED COUNTRY. Having robbed a bank, Shy is carrying 2,000 silver pieces, and she's on the run when her horse catches an arrow. Marooned in a dusty ghost town, she faces up to a trio of murderous, flea-bitten criminals…

This volume of stories about hard-living bad girls, killers and superheroes also includes contributions from worldwide bestselling authors Jim Butcher, Melinda Snodgrass and Pat Cadigan.

DANGEROUS WOMEN 3

[ul]Gardner Dozois’s introduction

Joe Abercrombie, ‘Some Desperado’

Diana Rowland, ‘City Lazarus’

Sherlynn Kenyon, ‘Hell Hath No Fury’

Melinda Snodgrass, ‘The Hands That Are Not There’

Pat Cadigan, ‘Caretakers’

Cecelia Holland, ‘Nora’s Song’

Jim Butcher, ‘Bombshells’[/ul]

Dangerous Women

PART III

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

The author of each individual story asserts their moral rights, including the right to be identified as the author of their 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: 9780007549443

Ebook Edition © November 2014 ISBN: 9780008104962

Version: 2014-08-22

Copyright Acknowledgments

“Some Desperado” copyright © 2013 by Joe Abercrombie

“City Lazarus” copyright © 2013 by Diana Rowland

“Hell Hath No Fury” copyright © 2013 by Sherrilyn Kenyon

“The Hands That Are Not There” copyright © 2013 by Melinda Snodgrass

“Caretakers” copyright © 2013 by Pat Cadigan

“Nora’s Song” copyright © 2013 by Cecelia Holland

“Bombshells” copyright © 2013 by Jim Butcher

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.