Baen is one of the few publishers still producing quality paperback anthologies — and indeed, they’ve had some excellent ones in the past few years. They look to continue that tradition next month with Women of Futures Past, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, which contains 11 classic tales by Leigh Brackett, C.L. Moore, C.J. Cherryh, Pat Cadigan, Nancy Kress, James Tiptree, Jr., Ursula K. Le Guin, Connie Willis, Zenna Henderson, Anne McCaffrey, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Andre Norton.

As usual, Baen offers some free content online, including Rusch’s introduction, and the first two stories. Here’s the complete Table of Contents, with links to the online content.

Introduction: Invisible Women by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“The Indelible Kind“ by Zenna Henderson (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 1968)
“The Smallest Dragonboy“ by Anne McCaffrey (Science Fiction Tales, 1973)
“Out of All Them Bright Stars” by Nancy Kress (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March, 1985)
“Angel” by Pat Cadigan (Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, June 1987)
“Cassandra” by C.J. Cherryh (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1978)
“Shambleau” by C.L. Moore (Weird Tales, November, 1933)
“The Last Days of Shandakor” by Leigh Brackett (Startling Stories, April 1952)
“All Cats Are Gray” by Andre Norton (Fantastic Universe, August/September 1953)
“Aftermaths” by Lois McMaster Bujold (Far Frontiers: The Paperback Magazine of Science Fiction and Speculative Fact, Volume V, Spring 1986)
“The Last Flight of Doctor Ain” by James Tiptree, Jr. (Galaxy, March 1969)
“Sur” by Ursula K. Le Guin (The New Yorker, February 1, 1982)
“Fire Watch” by Connie Willis (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, February 15, 1982)

And here’s the complete description.

[Click the images for bigger versions.]

Meet the Women of Futures Past: from Grand Master Andre Norton and the beloved Anne McCaffrey to some of the most popular SF writers today, such as Lois McMaster Bujold and CJ Cherryh. The most influential writers of multiple generations are found in these pages, delivering lost classics and foundational touchstones that shaped the field.

You’ll find Northwest Smith, C.L. Moore’s famous smuggler who predates (and maybe inspired) Han Solo by four decades. Read Leigh Brackett’s fiction and see why George Lucas chose her to write The Empire Strikes Back. Adventure tales, post-apocalyptic visions, space opera, aliens-among-us, time travel — these women have delivered all this and more, some of the best science fiction ever written!

Includes stories by Leigh Brackett, Lois McMaster Bujold, Pat Cadigan, CJ Cherryh, Zenna Henderson, Nancy Kress, Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, C.L. Moore, Andre Norton, James Tiptree, Jr., and Connie Willis.

Our previous coverage of Baen anthologies and short story collections includes:

Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors by Robert E. Howard (1987)
Unknown, edited by Stanley Schmidt (1988)
John the Balladeer, by Manly Wade Wellman (1988)
The Incompleat Nifft by Michael Shea (2000)
Planets of Adventure by Murray Leinster (2003)
The Omnibus Volumes of Murray Leinster
The Omnibus Volumes of James H. Schmitz
A Cosmic Christmas, edited by Hank Davis (2012)
In Space No One Can Hear You Scream, edited by Hank Davis (2013)
The Baen Big Book of Monsters, edited by Hank Davis (2014)
Shattered Shields, edited by Jennifer Brozek and Bryan Thomas Schmidt
Multiverse: Exploring the Worlds of Poul Anderson, edited by Greg Bear and Gardner Dozois (2015)
The Year’s Best Military SF and Space Opera, edited by David Afsharirad (2015)
The Year’s Best Military & Adventure SF 2015, edited by David Afsharirad (2016)

Women of Futures Past will be published by Baen Books on September 6, 2016. It is 288 pages, priced at $16 in trade paperback and $8.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Christine Mitzuk. See all the online content here.

See all of our coverage of the best upcoming fantasy here.