Almost 20 years after the publication of Future Females: A Critical Anthology, feminist science fiction pioneer Marleen S. Barr, together with a talented crew of the field's established and emerging theorists, reveal new critical insights in Future Females, the Next Generation. This groundbreaking collection includes contributors from across the globe who find effective venues for imagining feminist thought experiments. A multinational perspective runs through this innovative volume, focusing on the latest dynamic trends in feminist science fiction. These include such issues as race, gender, cyberfeminism, the media, and new writers in the field. Future Females, the Next Generation, which establishes the generational continuity characterizing a vibrant area of feminist literary and cultural inquiry, boldly goes where no feminist science fiction critical anthology has gone before.

Some storytellers use the distant future as the setting to make fantastic extrapolations and to explore compelling ideas. In this volume, however, the writers look forward a mere decade and present stunning scenarios, reveal exciting possibilities and warn against the harrowing pitfalls that may lie just a few steps ahead of us. What will life be like ten years from now? Sixteen extraordinary writers offer their own mind-bending answers to that question, their spectacular 2020 Visions...

THE SHAPER EXILE, VOLUME II

Exiled from Earth for their radical experiments in the biogenetics, the Venn scientists took their illegal craft to a new world they called Llia. Here the immortal Venn redesigned mankind into races unlike anything their accusers could have imagined, then watched and manipulated as their inventions began fashioning societies fit for themselves.

Nearly six hundred years later, the shape-shifting Llanis and the ingenious Ganus have forged a truce. Together, despite the Venn's meddling, they are becoming one people, becoming Llian. But Rhodaru warriors -- men rumored to possess the truth-sense and to be able to see in the dark -- have camped in the hills on Ganu land. Superstitious and ignorant of their origins, Rhodarus know only one way to unite Llia ... war.

THE SHAPER EXILE, VOLUME III

The strange races of the planet Llia were created by the Venn, genetic engineers banished from Earth for tampering with human lives. Centuries later, the peoples of Llia have begun the struggle for control of their own destiny. In a world torn asunder by war and rebellion, a courageous young woman of mixed heritage holds the key to Llia's future as the last of the Shapers face justice at the hands of their creations.

"An engrossing work that brings to science fiction a genuine sense of the evolution of a strange society. With grace and pace, the novels move toward a satisfying climx without stinting on action or idea. A remarkable work" -- Gregory Benford

There was something strange about Ann Bonney's mission to the unexplored world called Chameleon. Though only women were judged fit for space, Earth's Central Computer had for some reason placed a man among them ... an artist who was not docile like other men.

For Language Specialist Gia Kennedy, the answer lay in the baffling rituals of the planet's primitive natives -- an answer that hovered just out of reach. There, in the heart of an alien wilderness, Gia would defy her culture and discover an ancient truth.

Banished to an uninhabited planet, a handful of genetic scientists prepare to live out eternity. Here, beyond the reach of their accusers, theory becomes reality. Experimenting with stolen human germ plasm, they shape mankind into races unlike anything Earth has ever seen: the whimsical Llani metamorphs, the inventive but rebellious Ganus, and the Rhodaru warriors with the truth sense. Once their great test has begun, the immortal geneticists agree never to interfere.

But like the races they invent, the scientists are human. Still, nothing they do prepares the Llanis for the Ganu uprising 500 years later. Queen Sivell is young, but she possesses an unerring wisdom -- a trait rare in Llanis of any age. As she ascends to the throne, war has already begun. Sivell's own unique parentage and her newfound knowledge of her people's origins could bring peace to her world -- or death to her people

"An intriguing look at bioengineering from the point of view of the engineered" -- Gregory Benford.

ALTERNATE REALITIES

This is the tale of the many possible lives of Anastasia Valerie Stein which come to touch one another through a twist in the fabric of space-time: Ann, unhappy wife and mother in a world much like our own; Val, independent teacher in a timeline of scarcity; Stacey, a free spirit with two lovers, and Tasha, strangest of all, a professional sorceress in a world where the Third Reich rules England. Together they join to confront a force that manipulates all their worlds, and discover a truth that transcends their individual lives.

Finch combines compelling, believable characters, the ancient magic of the Tarot, and quantum physics to weave a spellbinding tale of the infinite possibilities of space and time.