Kit Reed has been one of science fiction's strongest voices since she published her first short story in 1958, a tale called "The Wait" that appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Much of her work since has focused on women and women's issues, subjects Reed both has a passion for and has much to say about. As the title of this book suggests, it's a collection of Reed's stories dealing with women--a total of 19 starting with "The Wait" and ending with "Whoever." Although Weird Women, Wired Women has been described as a "needed contribution by an important feminist fiction writer," on a more basic level it's an excellent collection by a gifted author. Reed's crisp prose and focused plots complement her insights into society, whether she's dealing with the treatment of women in a male-dominated culture or the relationship between a mother and daughter. --Craig Engler

From Publishers Weekly
Reed has been writing what she calls "speculative" stories for 40 years, and this is a collection of 19 short narratives that specifically focus on the problems of women during those four decades?particularly on the fraught relationships between mothers and daughters. These range from the early "The Wait" (1958), in which a mother who has always been protective but conventional yields to a horrifying new convention that will sacrifice her daughter, to last year's "Whoever," in which a terminally trendy teenager tries to choose between the parent who adopted her (as a sperm-bank baby) and two other women who may be the "real" mother she craves. These stories hover on the brink of science fiction and have a strong element of fantasy. They embrace, with fearful lucidity, contemporary trends like the passion for the perfect house ("Cynosure," 1964); the all-enveloping beauty contest ("In Behalf of the Product," 1973); the fiercer side of feminist combativeness ("Songs of War," 1974); and the obsession with fashion ("Like My Dress," 1993). There is no doubt about the prescience of Reed's earlier stories, or about the despairing sense of the consumerist media culture that infuses the later ones. Her writing is always crisp and to the point. There is, however, a kind of unrelenting obsessiveness not unlike that of Reed's characters. The lack of contrast to offset the prevailing darkness becomes unnerving, and the total effect, while impressive, is somewhat cold. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The 20 short stories in Reed's collection smash the facade of straight, white, middle-class suburban life. All previously published, they span Reed's prodigious 30-year career?she is the author of six previous short-story collections, 13 novels, and four books written under a pseudonym?and assess conventional gender roles and everyday sexism. But that is the only thing conventional about Reed's writing. Her take on these well-worn subjects is fresh, and her ambivalence about both marriage and motherhood is refreshing. Anger, resentment, love, and obligation blur in tales that blend pathos and irony with the downright weird. "Unlike pneumonia, motherhood is an irreversible condition," Reed writes in "The Mothers of Shark Island," a surreal look at the disrespect afforded mothers who become burdensome to their children. "Last Fridays" introduces a group of eight, all mothers of convicted serial killers. Reed calls her stories "womanist" and is clearly using fiction as a vehicle for social criticism. Moving and eerie, sharp and scary, these are stories to knot the stomach and boggle the mind. Highly recommended.?Eleanor J. Bader, New Sch. for Social Research, New YorkCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, Enid Shomer
While Reed calls these stories "speculative fiction," they are less fantastic than visionary, uncovering humor and horror where others have seen only clothes, make-up and recipes snipped from the newspaper.

From Booklist
Kit Reed notes in the introduction that her fiction is hard to categorize, rejecting the generic label "science fiction." Her humorous, ironic prose could best be described as The Feminine Mystique meets The Twilight Zone. Her surreal short stories provide a unique commentary on the role of women in America from the 1950s, when she first began writing, to the present. She is versatile as well as prolific, with her prose evolving over the years from brief comic sketches ("The Wait") to layered, nuanced novellas (War Songs). She seems transfixed on the conflicting roles of modern women: mother and wife, breadwinner and homemaker. The complex relationship between mothers and daughters is also a frequent theme of her fiction, entertained in such clever stories as "The Weremother" and "The Mothers of Shark Island." Reed revisits these themes again and again, and the work suffers from repetition. However, her unique blend of humor makes the book definitely a worthwhile read. Ted Leventhal

From Kirkus Reviews
0-8195-2255-4 Novelist Reed's (J. Eden, 1996, etc.) sixth sheaf of stories, covering more than 30 years of her darkly speculative fiction. Though a handful of these are fresh to print, and all are chosen to hew to the titular theme of women, it's not clear whether most have been drawn from earlier collections. In any event, the volume offers a definitive, indispensable sampling of Reed in top form. These are unconventional stories, the kind that make most editors wince and tremble unless they're longtime impresarios of the far-out--such as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which first published many of these tales. Still, not all of Reed's work really goes beyond the pale. Among the standouts, for example, is ``The Wait,'' a piece not so distant from Shirley Jackson's now classic ``The Lottery.'' In Reed's telling, the ill of a small town in Georgia are made to lie down outdoors in the village square until someone passes through who can offer them a cure; young virgins (and not-so- young) are made to wait in a field until. . . .when? A bit stranger is ``The Weremother,'' a story about a mother werewolf whose love proves to be so strong that she'll break through steel to get to her son--and yet she worries, too, about whether his fiance will know how to iron his shirts. No silver bullet or stake can stop her, for even when dead she still wields--guilt! Yet more matriarchs people ``The Mothers of Shark Island,'' but these get eaten--by sharks--after they try to escape from prison. For such martyrs, no doubt, the only final resting place can be The Tomb of the Unknown Mother. For your five most wanted list. And don't miss ``The Bride of Bigfoot.'' -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Kir Reed has been delighting and terrifying readers for over 30 years with her darkly comic fiction. "Her writing is a treasure house of gems", writes Washington Post Book World. This collection of short stories, drawn from a lifetime's work, shows Reed at the top of her form. First published in venues ranging from The Missouri Review to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Fiction, these 20 stories deal with women's lives and feminist issues from the kitchen sink and pink dishmop era through the warlike years of the women's movement to the uneasy accommodation of the present.

SYNOPSIS

Visionary stories expose the humor and horror of contemporary women's lives.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Reed has been writing what she calls "speculative" stories for 40 years, and this is a collection of 19 short narratives that specifically focus on the problems of women during those four decades particularly on the fraught relationships between mothers and daughters. These range from the early "The Wait" (1958), in which a mother who has always been protective but conventional yields to a horrifying new convention that will sacrifice her daughter, to last year's "Whoever," in which a terminally trendy teenager tries to choose between the parent who adopted her (as a sperm-bank baby) and two other women who may be the "real" mother she craves. These stories hover on the brink of science fiction and have a strong element of fantasy. They embrace, with fearful lucidity, contemporary trends like the passion for the perfect house ("Cynosure," 1964); the all-enveloping beauty contest ("In Behalf of the Product," 1973); the fiercer side of feminist combativeness ("Songs of War," 1974); and the obsession with fashion ("Like My Dress," 1993). There is no doubt about the prescience of Reed's earlier stories, or about the despairing sense of the consumerist media culture that infuses the later ones. Her writing is always crisp and to the point. There is, however, a kind of unrelenting obsessiveness not unlike that of Reed's characters. The lack of contrast to offset the prevailing darkness becomes unnerving, and the total effect, while impressive, is somewhat cold.

Library Journal

The 20 short stories in Reed's collection smash the facade of straight, white, middle-class suburban life. All previously published, they span Reed's prodigious 30-year career. She is the author of six previous short-story collections, 13 novels, and four books written under a pseudonym and assess conventional gender roles and everyday sexism. But that is the only thing conventional about Reed's writing. Her take on these well-worn subjects is fresh, and her ambivalence about both marriage and motherhood is refreshing. Anger, resentment, love, and obligation blur in tales that blend pathos and irony with the downright weird. "Unlike pneumonia, motherhood is an irreversible condition," Reed writes in "The Mothers of Shark Island," a surreal look at the disrespect afforded mothers who become burdensome to their children. "Last Fridays" introduces a group of eight, all mothers of convicted serial killers. Reed calls her stories "womanist" and is clearly using fiction as a vehicle for social criticism. Moving and eerie, sharp and scary, these are stories to knot the stomach and boggle the mind. Highly recommended. Eleanor J. Bader, New Sch. for Social Research, New York

Kirkus Reviews

Novelist Reed's ("J. Eden", 1996, etc.) sixth sheaf of stories, covering more than 30 years of her darkly speculative fiction. Though a handful of these are fresh to print, and all are chosen to hew to the titular theme of women, it's not clear whether most have been drawn from earlier collections. In any event, the volume offers a definitive, indispensable sampling of Reed in top form. These are unconventional stories, the kind that make most editors wince and tremble unless they're longtime impresarios of the far-out—such as "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction", which first published many of these tales. Still, not all of Reed's work really goes beyond the pale. Among the standouts, for example, is "The Wait," a piece not so distant from Shirley Jackson's now classic "The Lottery." In Reed's telling, the ill of a small town in Georgia are made to lie down outdoors in the village square until someone passes through who can offer them a cure; young virgins (and not-so- young) are made to wait in a field until. . . .when? A bit stranger is "The Weremother," a story about a mother werewolf whose love proves to be so strong that she'll break through steel to get to her son—and yet she worries, too, about whether his fianc￯﾿ﾽe will know how to iron his shirts. No silver bullet or stake can stop her, for even when dead she still wields—guilt! Yet more matriarchs people "The Mothers of Shark Island," but these get eaten—by sharks—after they try to escape from prison. For such martyrs, no doubt, the only final resting place can be The Tomb of the Unknown Mother. For your five most wanted list. And don't miss "The Bride of Bigfoot."

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

A significant and needed contribution by an important feminist fiction writer who has the guts and the wits of Joanna Russ and James Piptree Jr. — Marleen S. Barr