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Finalist for Hugo Award for Best Related Work

Anyone familiar with Liz Bourke's work knows she isn't shy about sharing her opinion. In columns and reviews for science fiction and fantasy website Tor.com and elsewhere, she's taken a critical eye to fantasy and SF, from books to movies, television to videogames, old to new. This volume presents a selection of the best of her articles. Bourke's subjects range from the nature of epic fantasy - is it a naturally conservative sort of literature? - to the effect of Mass Effect's decision to allow players to play as a female hero, and from discussions of little-known writers to some of the most popular works in the field. A provocative, immensely readable collection of essays about the science fiction and fantasy field, from the perspective of a feminist and a historian, Sleeping With Monsters is an entertaining addition to any reader's shelves.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword
• Introduction by Kate Elliott
• Part 1: Moving Forwards, Looking Back
  • Discussions of books by Susan R. Matthews, R.M. Meluch, Nicola Griffith, and Melissa Scott
• Part 2: Future Imperfect
  • Discussions of books by Elizabeth Bear, Aliette de Bodard, Jacqueline Koyanagi, Stephanie Saulter, Karen Lord, Lauren Beukes, Kameron Hurley, Jaine Fenn, Ann Leckie, Nnedi Okorafor, and Carolyn Ives Gilman
• Part 3: The Fantasy of Political Agency
  • Discussions of books by Stina Leicht, Molly Tanzer, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Seth Dickinson, P.C. Hodgell, Martha Wells, Kate Elliott, Violette Malan, Barbara Hambly, Kari Sperring, Sherwood Smith, Amanda Downum, Katherine Addison, Mary Gentle, Marie Brennan, Elizabeth Bear, and Beth Bernobich
• Part 4: And Yet - God Guide Them - Young
  • Discussions of books by Karen Healey, Amalie Howard, Michelle Sagara, Tamora Pierce, Gwenda Bond, Cassandra Rose Clarke, and Rae Carson
• Part 5: Playing Female - Or Not
  • Mass Effect, Tomb Raider, and Dishonored
• Part 6: In Which I Am Wrong on the Internet: Views and Shorter Pieces
  • Discussions of Canons, Queer Female Narratives, Older Women in SF, Fantasy Films, Endurance and Persuasion, Cop-out Arguments, Divine Possibilities, and the Clash of Expectations
• Afterword
• Works Cited