Books: Moons, Sisters, Keeps, Swords, Women

Artemis by Andy Weir

From the author of The Martian, this is another hard-SF adventure, this time set in a lunar colony. The hero is a young criminal (fairly obviously inspired by several Heinlein heroes) who gets caught up in assorted capers, and ends up pivotal in the future of the colony. I do rather wish Weir had gotten a wider variety of beta readers. The problem with his "using the same water repeatedly over the course of the shower" notion might have been obvious to some of them. Nevertheless, fun, and you can't fault the science.

Sisters In Fantasy, edited by Shwartz & Greenberg

A collection of fantasy stories by women authors, most of them quite good. "Hallah's Choice" by Clayton and "The Way Wind" by Norton both stand out for me, possibly because they're untraditional stories set in somewhat-traditional fantasy worlds.

Quag Keep by Andre Norton

This is usually considered to be the first Dungeons & Dragons novel. Norton played or observed a session of D&D sometime in the mid-70s, went home, and wrote an interesting interpretation of the experience. The protagonists are explicitly people from our world who are transported into a fantasy world by the game, where they each wear a bracer with tiny dice on it that determine their luck. They are gathered together by a wizard to go on a quest to to the titular Keep. But all is not as it seems... Far from the best D&D novel, and farther from Norton's best, but mildly historically interesting.

The First Swords by Fred Saberhagen

An omnibus volume of the first three Books Of Swords, a lengthy series of stories and novels. In them, Vulcan forges a set of twelve swords, each with a unique power, and sends them out into the world. To the shock of the rest of the gods (who expected to have fun watching humans play with these weapons), the swords can also kill gods... The second novel reads a lot like a D&D adventure, and the "fantasy world that is secretly post-apocalyptic" only adds to that. But, certainly, fun and imaginative.

Seafaring Women by David Cordingly

A nonfiction book about "women sailors and sailors' women" including several historical women pirates, women who went to sea disguised as men, captains' wives, and the women who waited at home for their husbands' return. Interesting, recommended.