Monday, June 16, 2008

One Woman? Really?

I thought Eclipse One, edited by Jonathan Strahan and published by Night Shade Books was a great anthology. Not quite as full as awesome as, say, Fast Forward 1, it was still a damn solid anthology and I enjoyed reading it. So much so that I looked forward to Volume Two.

Then I saw the table of contents posted over at SF Signal.

I remember the debate last year regarding the lack of female names on the cover Eclipse One (despite women making up nearly half of the anthology). The debate is summed up here and is wrapped up in regards to a panel at Wiscon.

The table of contents is nearly final, with one left to be determined, but here is the list courtesy of Strahan's website.
  1. The Hero, Karl Schroeder
  2. Turing’s Apples, Stephen Baxter
  3. Invisible Empire of Ascending Light, Ken Scholes
  4. Michael Laurits is: Drowning, Paul Cornell
  5. Elevator, Nancy Kress
  6. The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm, Daryl Gregory
  7. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, David Moles
  8. The Rabbi’s Hobby, Peter S. Beagle
  9. The Seventh Expression of the Robot General, Jeffrey Ford
  10. Skin Deep, Richard Parks
  11. Ex Cathedra, Tony Daniel
  12. Truth Window: A Tale of the Bedlam Rose, Terry Dowling
  13. We Haven’t Got There Yet, Harry Turtledove
  14. Fury, Alastair Reynolds
Now, I'm willing to accept that I may be missing androgynous names here, but I checked and Terry Dowling is male.

One woman? Seriously.

Think that argument last year was rough?

One woman? I'm not sure how that happens. You'd think accidentally Strahan would have selected a second woman. Like, by mistake and all.

Ouch.

That's embarrassing. I'm sure each of the stories are great and all, but I'm going to have a difficult time looking at Eclipse Two and not consider the fact that only woman was included. Conscious decision or blind selection / submission process, it's a slap in the face.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

The recent Mind Meld on up and coming writers seriously underrepresented women as well. Makes you wonder what the hell is going on in SF publishing lately.

Joe said...

Do you think that the mind meld thing had something to do with an assumption of SF writers over fantasy? Or, am I generalizing, too?

I know that's not fair because it's like I'm assuming "women write fantasy and not SF", and I don't believe that.

RobB said...

Is it at all possible that not as many women submitted to Eclipse Two?

Joe said...

Rob: Absolutely. And, I understand Strahan responded to my comment over at SF Signal (currently down at the time of this comment), so I'll find out more soonish.

I may be wrong about this, and I'm more than comfortable being so, I thought Eclipse was something of an invite anthology. Strahan opened up a spot or two to open submissions, but it's still kind of weird and uncomfortable.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that Strahan posted his own list of up and coming authors after the Mind Meld and all were male.

Joe said...

You know, I didn't notice that.

Strahan did post a response to me over at SF signal which I thought was more than fair and reasoned.