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A Girl’s Guide to Guns and Monsters
The main idea behind this anthology is strong women with the ability to find the weapon most necessary at the time and the courage to use it. Not all of the stories have guns—in fact, most don’t—and the monsters come from a wide field, although at first there seemed to be a dominance of vampires. Overall, each story was good, although a few had endings I felt uncomfortable with for one reason or another. My favorites were Jim C. Hines’ and Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s. Check it out if you like urban fantasy or strong women characters. The stories range from the Old West all the way up to a future sci-fi with spaceships. A nice little anthology to whittle away a few hours.
The Drifter by Jane Lindskold: This story is set in the west, with the main character drifting into a small town chasing after a monster. Good western feel, with a surprise twist on the monster she’s in search of. She does carry a gun, but circumstances force her to use other weapons when the two finally meet. A good story.
Our Lady of the Vampires by Nancy Holder: We’ve moved to the Great Depression here, with a young girl put into an orphanage as the stock market crash takes its toll on one wealthy family. Of course, there’s something preying on the girls in the orphanage, and with some help, the main character decides to take action. A decent story, but I felt like it was really the introduction/prologue to something larger. No gun in this one.
Best Friends by Lilith Saintcrow: We get vampires again in this one, with one moving in on Becca’s girlfriend and her mother. When it becomes obvious that he’s feeding off of them, Becca sets out save them . . . but things don’t always go as planned. A fairly typical vampire story, with a minor twist in the end. There is a gun in this one, and it does play a crucial role.
Elizabeth and Anna’s Big Adventure by Jeanne C. Stein: The main character here is merely 8 years old, but she still keeps her wits about her when monsters break into her house while her parents are away at a party. With the help of her babysitter, she manages to overcome her own fear. The author caught and kept the character’s youthful voice well here.
Lupercalia by Anton Strout: Finally a story that doesn’t have a vampire as the big bad guy. In fact, the big bad guy here is Love. Literally. Jilted too many times by the same guy, Leis goes after him with a vengeance, crossbow and chains in hand. I think everyone can relate to both of the women characters in this story, although I will say I wasn’t thrilled with the ending.
Murder, She Workshopped by Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Another story where the bad guy isn’t a vampire. Here, we have an assassin who really wants to be a writer attending a writer’s workshop. She’s there to kill a . . . well, I’ll keep that hidden, but secretly is trying to learn everything she possibly can at the critique sessions so she can pursue her writing career. Of course, things don’t go as planned. I liked this story because the main character learns something about herself as the story unfolds—something she may not really want to admit, but is forced to once the plot begins to thicken, so to speak.
Heart of Ash by Jim C. Hines: I initially groaned because I thought this would be a vampire story—its starts out with a vampire—but thankfully it’s not. The main character is a nymph who becomes whatever her lover wants. In this story, she’s essentially a superhero, taking out supernatural bad guys. But as the story progresses, the relationship changes and suddenly Lena finds herself changing as well, even though she doesn’t want to. Another good story, with a nice subtle point.
Jiang Shi by Elizabeth A. Vaughan: This story is actually part of a sequence begun in previous anthologies. We get another vampire here, but a Chinese one, along with the ninja rats and possum mage from the previous stories. It’s obviously a “to be continued” story though, with a complication brought up in the last few lines. No gun here; lots of blades.
No Matter Where You Go by Tanya Huff: The main protagonist here is a vampire, so the monsters end up being . . . well, something else. A couple of surprising things happen in this one, which kept me on my toes, although none of the surprises really involved the plot. Completely different monsters, which was nice, and there’s an actual gun, too!
Signed in Blood by P.R. Frost: This one is set in P.R. Frost’s Tess Noncoire universe and features . . . well, Tess. She’s on her own this time though, her imp Scrap gone on a personal quest. She gets a call from a filker friend, because something seems to be draining her audiences of their energy and she wants Tess to figure out who or what it is. No gun. Something mightier instead.
Broch de Shlang by Mickey Zucker Reichert: A mother defends her two daughters, and herself, from escalating snake attacks . . . only to find out that perhaps these attacks are a little more personal than she thinks. I have to admit that I was a little . . . uncomfortable with the ending on this one.
The Wooly Mountains by Alexander B. Potter: Something in the woods of New Hampshire is killing off chickens and sheep and one herder intends to find out what. It can’t be werewolves or any of the known Uncanny in the area though, they’ve signed agreements to integrate into society. So what could it possibly be? A unique monster (or two) made this an enjoyable story, along with the main character, who’s not afraid to use those guns . . . or even her skills in the fiber arts.
Invasive Species by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: The final story in this anthology takes us into sci-fi territory, with a pest controller becoming a passenger on a luxury space liner in order to figure out what’s been munching on some metal in order to eradicate the problem. It turns out to be something other than metal mites.
The main idea behind this anthology is strong women with the ability to find the weapon most necessary at the time and the courage to use it. Not all of the stories have guns—in fact, most don’t—and the monsters come from a wide field, although at first there seemed to be a dominance of vampires. Overall, each story was good, although a few had endings I felt uncomfortable with for one reason or another. My favorites were Jim C. Hines’ and Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s. Check it out if you like urban fantasy or strong women characters. The stories range from the Old West all the way up to a future sci-fi with spaceships. A nice little anthology to whittle away a few hours.
The Drifter by Jane Lindskold: This story is set in the west, with the main character drifting into a small town chasing after a monster. Good western feel, with a surprise twist on the monster she’s in search of. She does carry a gun, but circumstances force her to use other weapons when the two finally meet. A good story.
Our Lady of the Vampires by Nancy Holder: We’ve moved to the Great Depression here, with a young girl put into an orphanage as the stock market crash takes its toll on one wealthy family. Of course, there’s something preying on the girls in the orphanage, and with some help, the main character decides to take action. A decent story, but I felt like it was really the introduction/prologue to something larger. No gun in this one.
Best Friends by Lilith Saintcrow: We get vampires again in this one, with one moving in on Becca’s girlfriend and her mother. When it becomes obvious that he’s feeding off of them, Becca sets out save them . . . but things don’t always go as planned. A fairly typical vampire story, with a minor twist in the end. There is a gun in this one, and it does play a crucial role.
Elizabeth and Anna’s Big Adventure by Jeanne C. Stein: The main character here is merely 8 years old, but she still keeps her wits about her when monsters break into her house while her parents are away at a party. With the help of her babysitter, she manages to overcome her own fear. The author caught and kept the character’s youthful voice well here.
Lupercalia by Anton Strout: Finally a story that doesn’t have a vampire as the big bad guy. In fact, the big bad guy here is Love. Literally. Jilted too many times by the same guy, Leis goes after him with a vengeance, crossbow and chains in hand. I think everyone can relate to both of the women characters in this story, although I will say I wasn’t thrilled with the ending.
Murder, She Workshopped by Kristine Kathryn Rusch: Another story where the bad guy isn’t a vampire. Here, we have an assassin who really wants to be a writer attending a writer’s workshop. She’s there to kill a . . . well, I’ll keep that hidden, but secretly is trying to learn everything she possibly can at the critique sessions so she can pursue her writing career. Of course, things don’t go as planned. I liked this story because the main character learns something about herself as the story unfolds—something she may not really want to admit, but is forced to once the plot begins to thicken, so to speak.
Heart of Ash by Jim C. Hines: I initially groaned because I thought this would be a vampire story—its starts out with a vampire—but thankfully it’s not. The main character is a nymph who becomes whatever her lover wants. In this story, she’s essentially a superhero, taking out supernatural bad guys. But as the story progresses, the relationship changes and suddenly Lena finds herself changing as well, even though she doesn’t want to. Another good story, with a nice subtle point.
Jiang Shi by Elizabeth A. Vaughan: This story is actually part of a sequence begun in previous anthologies. We get another vampire here, but a Chinese one, along with the ninja rats and possum mage from the previous stories. It’s obviously a “to be continued” story though, with a complication brought up in the last few lines. No gun here; lots of blades.
No Matter Where You Go by Tanya Huff: The main protagonist here is a vampire, so the monsters end up being . . . well, something else. A couple of surprising things happen in this one, which kept me on my toes, although none of the surprises really involved the plot. Completely different monsters, which was nice, and there’s an actual gun, too!
Signed in Blood by P.R. Frost: This one is set in P.R. Frost’s Tess Noncoire universe and features . . . well, Tess. She’s on her own this time though, her imp Scrap gone on a personal quest. She gets a call from a filker friend, because something seems to be draining her audiences of their energy and she wants Tess to figure out who or what it is. No gun. Something mightier instead.
Broch de Shlang by Mickey Zucker Reichert: A mother defends her two daughters, and herself, from escalating snake attacks . . . only to find out that perhaps these attacks are a little more personal than she thinks. I have to admit that I was a little . . . uncomfortable with the ending on this one.
The Wooly Mountains by Alexander B. Potter: Something in the woods of New Hampshire is killing off chickens and sheep and one herder intends to find out what. It can’t be werewolves or any of the known Uncanny in the area though, they’ve signed agreements to integrate into society. So what could it possibly be? A unique monster (or two) made this an enjoyable story, along with the main character, who’s not afraid to use those guns . . . or even her skills in the fiber arts.
Invasive Species by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: The final story in this anthology takes us into sci-fi territory, with a pest controller becoming a passenger on a luxury space liner in order to figure out what’s been munching on some metal in order to eradicate the problem. It turns out to be something other than metal mites.
