Heiresses of Russ 2015: The Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Stories about lesbians, women who choose women as primary partners, lovers, playmates, and co-conspirators, tend to go where few men have gone before. Most of the real-life issues that lesbians must deal with, as women and as members of non-mainstream communities, appear in these stories in metaphorical form or as plausible scenarios in a future or alternate world. Lesbianism itself was routinely described by the conservatives of the past as "impossible." The formula of "woman + woman" is thus logically connected with other phenomenon formerly considered impossible: magic, witchcraft, folk cures, scientific discoveries, alternate methods of producing offspring, space travel, communication with beings who are not human or not living in human bodies, historical accounts that have been suppressed or denied. The Heiresses of Russ series seeks to offer readers the best lesbian-themed speculative fictions stories published the prior year.

Jean Roberta, M. Bennardo, Melissa Moorer, Susan Jane Bigelow, Ruthanna Emrys, Ken Liu, Darcie Little Badger, Seanan McGuire, Shannon Connor Winward, Nicola Griffith, B R Sanders, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Sarah L. Byrne, Vivien Jackson, Annabeth Leong, Stacia Seaman, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Seth Dickinson, Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Language: English

Pages: 300

Format: Kindle Edition

Publisher: Lethe Press

Release: October 21, 2015

Heiresses of Russ 2015: The Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction

Melissa Moorer

4.1/5 ( ratings)

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Language: English

Pages: 300

Format: Kindle Edition

Publisher: Lethe Press

Release: October 21, 2015

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Reader Reviews

Cheyenne Blue

(5/5)

4

May 10, 2025

I unreservedly love this collection of short speculative fiction. The majority of stories have a lesbian theme, but some take a broader slant over female relationships. It’s hard to pick favourites from this collection, but here are a few of the ones that grabbed me the most:The Highwayman Come Riding by M Bennardo is a thoughtful tale about a woman dying in a society where death largely passes women by. It’s introspective and quietly beautiful. Made Light by Melissa Moorer has a young adult vib...
Mark

(5/5)

4

May 10, 2025

A uniformly excellent collection of wildly varied and diverse spec fiction!
Corrie

(4/5)

3

May 10, 2025

The fifth installment of The Heiresses of Russ delivers on what I have come to expect of this anthology of Lesbian Speculative Fiction series – a highly diverse collection of quality short stories.Some are great and some just a tad too weird for my tastes but that’s speculative fiction for you. It does stretch your mind and I love that.Something for everyone!Available on Scribd.f/f Themes: superb storytelling4 Stars
Kat Heatherington

(3/5)

3

May 10, 2025

For a book of short stories, this is really pretty good. I am not at all a short-story person -- they are just not long enough to really develop anything at all, and so I tend to see them as seeds of larger stories -- if they're not expressing an idea larger than they are, I'm completely unimpressed. Most of the stories in this collection do express an idea larger than themselves. The collection is highly varied, with a good mix of fantasy, science fiction, and liminal sorts of speculative ficti...
Rachel

(4/5)

2

May 10, 2025

I really enjoyed this collection. There is a ton of variety which I really appreciate in a short story collection. I think almost anyone is going to find a story or two they like here. Or, like me, you'll find you like almost all of them.
aspeccharactersoftheday

(4/5)

1

May 10, 2025

https://aspeccharactersoftheday.tumbl...
Kristīne Vītola

(4/5)

1

May 10, 2025

"Nkásht íí" http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/nk...Aro ace MC

Cheyenne Blue

(5/5)

May 10, 2025

I unreservedly love this collection of short speculative fiction. The majority of stories have a lesbian theme, but some take a broader slant over female relationships. It’s hard to pick favourites from this collection, but here are a few of the ones that grabbed me the most:The Highwayman Come Riding by M Bennardo is a thoughtful tale about a woman dying in a society where death largely passes women by. It’s introspective and quietly beautiful. Made Light by Melissa Moorer has a young adult vib...

Mark

A uniformly excellent collection of wildly varied and diverse spec fiction!

Corrie

(4/5)

The fifth installment of The Heiresses of Russ delivers on what I have come to expect of this anthology of Lesbian Speculative Fiction series – a highly diverse collection of quality short stories.Some are great and some just a tad too weird for my tastes but that’s speculative fiction for you. It does stretch your mind and I love that.Something for everyone!Available on Scribd.f/f Themes: superb storytelling4 Stars

Kat Heatherington

(3/5)

For a book of short stories, this is really pretty good. I am not at all a short-story person -- they are just not long enough to really develop anything at all, and so I tend to see them as seeds of larger stories -- if they're not expressing an idea larger than they are, I'm completely unimpressed. Most of the stories in this collection do express an idea larger than themselves. The collection is highly varied, with a good mix of fantasy, science fiction, and liminal sorts of speculative ficti...

Rachel

I really enjoyed this collection. There is a ton of variety which I really appreciate in a short story collection. I think almost anyone is going to find a story or two they like here. Or, like me, you'll find you like almost all of them.

aspeccharactersoftheday

https://aspeccharactersoftheday.tumbl...

Kristīne Vītola

"Nkásht íí" http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/nk...Aro ace MC

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Heiresses of Russ 2015: The Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction

Heiresses of Russ 2015: The Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction

Heiresses of Russ 2015: The Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction

More books from Melissa Moorer

Reader Reviews