This collection of science fiction and fantasy stories was built around the single premise that the main character must be a woman warrior. There’s an interesting mix of stories here, some about war, some about the battles of real life.
A couple of the sci fi stories featured some flavor of war being fought remotely, almost as a video game, and the implications of removing violence from everyday experience, and how that might ultimately make war worse, when people are so desensitized that they can’t realize how bad war is. I did enjoy those viewpoints.
On the fantasy front, I enjoyed “The Children of Diardin”, a tale of supernatural siblings fighting with Fin McCool’s army in Ireland. It was straight out of my favorite Irish myths and legends, and I enjoyed it immensely.
I also enjoyed “Fire from the Sun”, an interesting tale where a princess of a conquering people learns to respect one of the clans they’d taken as slaves. “The Black Ospreys” was an interesting meditation on redemption.
This is overall an enjoyable collection, and being published in 2005 still has some very relevant viewpoints on conflict to consider.