Amazons!


Amazons! is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, with a cover and frontispiece by Michael Whelan. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in December 1979, and was the first significant fantasy anthology of works featuring female protagonists by female authors. It received the 1980 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. A follow-up anthology, Amazons II, was released in 1982. The story "Agbewe's Sword" by Charles R. Saunders was adapted into the 1986 film Amazons.

Summary

The book collects 14 short stories, novelettes and poems by various fantasy authors, with an introduction by Salmonson and an essay on additional reading by Salmonson and Susan Wood.

Contents

  • "Amazons"
  • "Introduction: Our Amazon Heritage"
  • "The Dreamstone"
  • "Wolves of Nakesht"
  • "Woman of the White Waste"
  • "The Death of Augusta"
  • "Morrien's Bitch"
  • "Agbewe's Sword"
  • "Jane Saint's Travails "
  • "The Sorrows of Witches"
  • "Falcon Blood"
  • "The Rape Patrol"
  • "Bones for Dulath"
  • "Northern Chess"
  • "The Woman Who Loved the Moon"
  • "Additional Reading"

Awards

The collection won the 1980 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology/Collection, placed fourth in the 1980 Locus Poll Award for Best Anthology, and was nominated for both the 1980 and 1981 Balrog Award for Collection/Anthology.