Subject: Review: Not of Woman Born, edited by Constance Ash

From: [email-masked] (P.D. TILLMAN)
Date: 15 Sep 1999 14:11:21 -0400

Not of Woman Born, edited by Constance Ash 
	Review copyright 1999 Peter D. Tillman

Rating: overall "A" -- best original anthology I've seen this year.
Outstanding stories by WJ Williams & Jack McDevitt; excellent stories by
NK Hoffman, R. Silverberg and others.

Theme anthologies sometimes suffer from too narrow a focus and/or carbon-
copy stories. Not this one -- the authors interpreted the theme loosely
enough so that I didn't lose interest, and there are some great stories.

Walter Jon Williams takes a killer look at cybernetic family values in
"Daddy's World," and Jack McDevitt delivers the most interesting look at
gengineering one's progeny since Greg Egan's wonderfully sly "Eugene," in
"Dead in the Water." McDevitt's mother-to-be is particularly well-drawn.
A+ stories both; look for them on the award ballots next year.

"A" stories: Silverberg's 1957 "There Was an Old Woman" is an amazingly
fresh look at cloned lives, even 40 years on. Nina Kiriki Hoffman takes a
sharp look at future retail clerks in "One Day at Central Convenience
Mall." New author Janni Simner cleverly inverts bringing up baby in
"Raising Jenny", and Richard Parks takes a close look at cloning's impact
on showbiz in "Doppels."

"A-" (= flawed but very good) stories by Sage Walker, Susan Palwick,
Patricia McKillip, Wm. F Wu, Doyle & Macdonald, and Kara Dalkey.
Curiously, the weakest story in the bunch is by the editor, and it's not
bad.

Overall: 2 "A+", 4 "A", 6 "A-", 1 "B+", and 1 "B" stories. Highly
recommended

%T Not of Woman Born, edited by Constance Ash 
%O 13 new stories; 1 reprint.
%D 3/99
%I Roc
%O US$7
%P 272 pp
%G ISBN 0-451-45681-5

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