Read this book. Come on. Do it. Get it at the link in the title. Are you doing it yet?
Swords, Sorcery, and Self-Rescuing Damsels
In short, this is good stuff.
This is an epic gathering of authors for a collection of sword & sorcery short stories about women, and it is an absolute thrill.
Editor Lee French’s editor’s note says everything, noting that the term “damsels in distress” reduces women to poorly-dimensioned plot points “useful as nothing more than a prize for defeating the enemy.”
“This depiction sucks,” Lee adds.
The authors here include some of my personal favorites such as Jody Lynn Nye and Dawn Vogel. Like a properly good anthology, the book will introduce you to a plethora of writers that you can consume later. In my case, Elmdea Adams, who contributed “Yendy Loves Rattlescale,” my favorite story in the collection as of this writing.
It stars a dragon. Case closed. Buy the book. There are almost two dozen other stories, but this one stars a dragon.
The only drawback: Not enough room for maps of the fantasy realms at the beginning of each story. I’ll let this one slide because the book would be about a zillion pages longer. You have to make sacrifices sometimes.
All the stories are old-fashioned fantasy tales, and I mean that as a compliment. They’re cathartic, empowering, and frequently just plain hilarious.