So I kick off this year's speculative fiction challenge with an anthology that caught my eye at the bookstore. Technically, I didn't see it at all; I was browsing around in the fantasy and sci-fi section thinking "What I want right now is a good book with a nice, kick-ass heroine that kicks serious butt." I expressed this to my friends, who were getting rather bored with my prolonged browsing, when one said "Hey - what about this?" And that's how I found this book.
After having read the book, let me say this: I wish I'd never found Chicks Kick Butt.
It counts among its authors Rachel Caine, L.A. Banks, Karen Chance and Lilith Saintcrow. Of these, I've only read Saintcrow, who is great when you want a fast-paced, exciting, but a little trashy kind of read.
None of the short stories stuck out to me. None of the short stories left anything but a momentary impression. These aren't short stories that send me to bed wondering what the heck happened, or that shed new light on old ideas, or send me to the computer so I can research critiques of a particular author earlier on, like some of Neil Gaiman's work has done. These stories don't make me really angry, or really inspired, and they don't get me excited or happy or make me want to explore more of an author's work, the way the Wizards anthology did. They're just not memorable. I read the book less than two weeks ago, and I can't even tell you the basic plot of even one of the short stories.
What the remember most is being disappointed. I wanted a read with a kick-ass heroine who works for justice and gets in danger and bails herself out with her own strength, intelligence, charm, wit, whatever. What I got was a bunch of heroines who were "special." Like werewolf-girl. Or uber-powerful-sorceress woman. Or vampiress. Or half-vampire-vampire-slayer. Or, my personal favourite, the "normal girl" who is actually stronger than normal because her boyfriend is a vampire who has passed some of his blood onto her. There is exactly ONE heroine in this book who does not have some sort of special ability or special power like this, and I didn't even understand the short story she was in, because it was a chaotic mess. And that is all I remember about it.
Look: I don't care that I'm reading fantasy. I want a protagonist that I can relate to, that I can look up to and get encouragement from. I want a protagonist that is human, human all the way through, and who succeeds because of or in spite of her humanity. If they have special powers, it needs to be VERY clear to me that in the world she is in, that is normal. Don't give me this BS about how she's fighting vampires and werewolves and djinni and it's okay because she's a uber-powerful-sorceress who's still at a crazy disadvantage and she needs those powers because normal women wouldn't survive, etc. I'm not even sure the basic plots of these stories even that make sense. Give me a normal woman who survives because she's smart and she outwits them, or because she trains hard to succeed at what she does, or something, anything that I can actually aspire to. Something that I can recognize and appreciate.
I don't find these heroines inspiring. I wouldn't look up to these protagonists as heroines and this book was a waste of the $12 I spent on it. If you're into a quick trashy read, get it at the library.
After having read the book, let me say this: I wish I'd never found Chicks Kick Butt.
It counts among its authors Rachel Caine, L.A. Banks, Karen Chance and Lilith Saintcrow. Of these, I've only read Saintcrow, who is great when you want a fast-paced, exciting, but a little trashy kind of read.
None of the short stories stuck out to me. None of the short stories left anything but a momentary impression. These aren't short stories that send me to bed wondering what the heck happened, or that shed new light on old ideas, or send me to the computer so I can research critiques of a particular author earlier on, like some of Neil Gaiman's work has done. These stories don't make me really angry, or really inspired, and they don't get me excited or happy or make me want to explore more of an author's work, the way the Wizards anthology did. They're just not memorable. I read the book less than two weeks ago, and I can't even tell you the basic plot of even one of the short stories.
What the remember most is being disappointed. I wanted a read with a kick-ass heroine who works for justice and gets in danger and bails herself out with her own strength, intelligence, charm, wit, whatever. What I got was a bunch of heroines who were "special." Like werewolf-girl. Or uber-powerful-sorceress woman. Or vampiress. Or half-vampire-vampire-slayer. Or, my personal favourite, the "normal girl" who is actually stronger than normal because her boyfriend is a vampire who has passed some of his blood onto her. There is exactly ONE heroine in this book who does not have some sort of special ability or special power like this, and I didn't even understand the short story she was in, because it was a chaotic mess. And that is all I remember about it.
Look: I don't care that I'm reading fantasy. I want a protagonist that I can relate to, that I can look up to and get encouragement from. I want a protagonist that is human, human all the way through, and who succeeds because of or in spite of her humanity. If they have special powers, it needs to be VERY clear to me that in the world she is in, that is normal. Don't give me this BS about how she's fighting vampires and werewolves and djinni and it's okay because she's a uber-powerful-sorceress who's still at a crazy disadvantage and she needs those powers because normal women wouldn't survive, etc. I'm not even sure the basic plots of these stories even that make sense. Give me a normal woman who survives because she's smart and she outwits them, or because she trains hard to succeed at what she does, or something, anything that I can actually aspire to. Something that I can recognize and appreciate.
I don't find these heroines inspiring. I wouldn't look up to these protagonists as heroines and this book was a waste of the $12 I spent on it. If you're into a quick trashy read, get it at the library.
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