It takes no small courage to break into this industry editing genre anthologies these days, but that’s exactly what Athena Andreadis has done. Her first book, The Other Half of the Sky — co-edited by Kay Holt — features tales of hard SF with female protagonists. It was released by Candlemark & Gleam in 2013, and proclaimed by Locus as “One of the best SF anthologies of the year.” It contains new fiction by Black Gate fan favorite Martha Wells, plus Aliette de Bodard, Ken Liu, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Melissa Scott, Nisi Shawl, Joan Slonczewski, Cat Rambo, Jack McDevitt, and many more.

Athena followed up with To Shape the Dark in May of this year, featuring 15 brand new tales of daring women scientists by BG author Constance Cooper (“The Wily Thing”), plus Aliette de Bodard, Shariann Lewitt, Vandana Singh, Melissa Scott, Jack McDevitt, Gwyneth Jones, and may others. Publishers Weekly calls it “Extraordinary… [these] imaginative stories feature diverse cultures, intriguing settings, and intelligent plots… will remind readers why they love science fiction.” And the flagship magazine of Hard SF, Analog, said, “Resurrected dinosaurs, philosophical cetaceans, alien invasion, parallel worlds. There’s not a bad story in this bunch… you can’t afford to miss this one.”

[Click on the images for bigger versions.]

Here’s a peek at the back covers.

The Other Half of the Sky was published by Candlemark & Gleam on April 23, 2013. It is 460 pages, priced at $22.95 in trade paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition. The cover artist is by Eleni Tsami.

To Shape the Dark was published by Candlemark & Gleam on May 1, 2016. It is 394 pages, priced at $22.95 in trade paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition. The cover artist is Eleni Tsami.

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