Tales of Girls and Gadgets (Brave New Girls, #1) by Paige Daniels

Tales of Girls and Gadgets (Brave New Girls, #1) Reviews

• 
  Kelley

  Let’s talk about honeybees. A couple of years ago, my husband the science teacher was talking to my son about bees. My husband is allergic, and we don’t know if my son is because he’s never been stung. But he was trying to assuage my son’s fears by explaining the importance of bees to our existence. How important are they? Very. Like, if the bees go away, there goes the planet. That is simplistic, I know, because bees aren’t the ONLY things that pollinate, but…
  Anyway, bees have been on my mind. So as I started reading Brave New Girls, a short story anthology edited by Paige Webster and Mary Fan, I started with a short story called The Hive, by Kate Lansing. Fi lives in a not-too-distant future where all the trees are dead, replaced by metal sculptures. Protection for the honeybees is Fi’s passion, and she uses all her scientific and hacker skills to achieve it.
  And Fi is my introduction to a whole myriad of young female characters, all of them with the wiles, intelligence, bravery and bravado I can appreciate and expect in my literature these days. These characters come from fictional worlds of now and then and yet-to-be, and they are fantastic representatives for the book’s purpose: increasing STEM opportunities for girls. The book’s proceeds go to a Scholarship fund through The Society of Women Engineers.
  What are these women doing? They are all computer savvy, and many live in futuristic worlds on far-reaching planets. They must survive and thrive with odds against them, (including that predator also known as teenage angst.) Some of the storylines include:
  1) Viala, a girl with scientific genius who has to hide her intelligence because her father used his scientific creations to kill people.
  2) Katie and Rachel, two girls from different eras—one from the 22nd century and one from the 1942 Warsaw Ghetto—working together in a storybook Martian world to save their planet using WWII electronics.
  3) Meg, whose favorite science teacher died of lung cancer and left her a time machine. Which she now hides in her basement.
  4) Philly, hacker extraordinaire who uses her parolee job at the cemetery to fight an evil, greedy, world-killing corporation, playing a little Robin Hood while avenging her friend’s death and her father’s ruination. This story has a cool element in that in Philly’s world, the cemetery has holograms above the gravestones with messages from the loved ones.
  5) Jane Colt, the character from Mary Fan’s Jane Colt sci-fi series, stars in the final story. This tale combines your favorite teen movie themes, human girls with robot parts, virtual reality, a spectacular fight scene, and even one of those examples of karma that leave you smiling and nodding: that’s right, take that.
  It’s interesting to note almost as many male authors writing kickass, badass girls in this collection as women. For example, Stephen Kozeniewski gives us a fabulously fun story called The Keys to the Stars, where the reader follows the life of science nut Judy Kraybill. Judy might be a significant University Professor now, but she used to be a brilliant kid living in the 1950’s who could decipher important messages. From space.
  So my Konundrum for the week is this: WHY aren’t there more kickass, badass girls in literature and film? While there may be some genetic differences between genders in terms of base brute strength, both sides can dominate equally in the brains department. Because of too much history as far as desperately demure damsels in distress, it’s so much more FUN to read stories like these! I only talked about seven of them here, and there are eighteen stories to choose from.
  As a proud owner of everything Buffy the Vampire Slayer since her 1992 inception (plus I just re-watched Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight—girls totally rule in that action flick), I was excited to see Brave New Girls on the bookshelves, and to learn the reasons behind ITS inception. Anyone who wants some fun with science, space, potential pasts and possible futures, all with truly cool female characters running the show should check out Brave New Girls. Promote some STEM in your life, and the lives of girls around you…
  
  Kelley
  
• 
  Kayne Spooner

  This book is great for teens that love science. I teach high school science and just put this in my classroom. The short stories have teens that use science to overcome dystopian societies, crack codes, create inventions, investigate cyberspace, repair robots, work with holograms and even save the honeybees.
• 
  Shay

  So this is a collection of short stories and it's really awesome because they're all about badass girls. What's better than sci-fi settings and badass girls? Nothing I tell you! I had to read this because of the premise, I mean did you see the description? "Let’s show the world that girls, too, can be tomorrow’s inventors, programmers, scientists, and more." Yes, let's.
  
  I'm bad at reviewing short story collections...I never know if I should review each individual story or want and then it's hard! Short stories are harder to review than full ones therefore this will be a short review.
  
  Every story brings something new while keeping the theme of awesome girls in great, if sometimes, odd situations. You have the girl who just got out of jail after trying to rob this big company. The girl who's dad's were just killed and she's determined to prove it was murder. And so on and so forth. And guys, I know you love this, there's SO much diversity!
  
  Obviously, some stories are slightly better than others but there wasn't one I disliked, if I were reviewing them separately on a scale of 1 to 10 none would get less than a five. I did have a couple favorites, Courage Is... by Evangeline Jennings, Lyra by Lisa Toohey, and Graveyard Shift by Kimberly G. Giarratano.
  
  Basically, this was a really fun read that I had to read because it's all about girls being badass. I highly recommend it to girls who are badasses(haha) and anyone who loves sci-fi and short stories and diversity.
  
  *I received a review copy of this book from one of the authors to review honestly*
• 
  Linniegayl

  While I didn't love every story in this anthology, I loved a lot of them, and liked most of the others. This was a fun anthology filled with bright young girls and women who excel in STEM. Truly a fun science fiction anthology. Before I was halfway through with this book I purchased two more in the series. This is an A for me, so five stars here.
  
• 
  Susan Barton

  What a fantastic concept for an anthology. A book that highlights a diverse group of intelligent young heroines is sure to be a hit among youngsters and adults. The stories contained within Brave New Girls (Tales of Girls and Gadgets) are as varied as the contributing authors are. All are unique and all include positive, scientifically inclined role models.
  
  I especially love the fact that all of the proceeds go to a great cause – a scholarship fund through the Society of Women Engineers. Sharing the idea that girls can excel in male-dominated fields and have the ability to become scientists, inventors, space explorers, programmers, etc. just as boys do is an admirable basis for a book geared towards teens of either sex.
  
  I would recommend this book for teens and lovers of YA SciFi. Brilliantly empowering!
  
  
  http://ebookreviewgal.com received a complimentary copy of this book from one of the authors in exchange for an honest review.
  
• 
  Roan Reedling

  Young heroes bright of intellect and spirit
  
  I ached to write a review after each of this book's fresh and novel stories. But I stomped on the urge 'cause I itched to witness whether the story that followed would bear out my sense that the next always bested the last. And it did, every time, though I'm positive that would've happened regardless of the order read.
  These stories amazed me, one after another, with how much world-building, character development, and human experience the authors could cram into such small parcels of parchment*, on top of the well-plotted tales of their young heroes' brave exploits; young women bright of intellect and spirit. And, though each and every tale brought the hero's quest to a satisfying conclusion, each left me hungry to witness her next move. I'll be on the lookout. In the meantime, I'll have no problem reading them all over again.
  
  *Okay, I read it on Kindle, but parchment's what arced from my fingertips, and I've never been good at measuring cyber-real-estate.
  
• 
  Russ Colchamiro

  This is a great collection of sci-fi shorts for young readers and the young at heart, plus it supports a great cause - we need more women and girls in tech. Brave New Girls is an eclectic mix of stories across space opera, dystopia, cyberpunk, and time travel. Many highlights include Tash McAdam's dystopian thriller "Panic," Kimberly Giarratano's "Graveyard Shift," and George Ebey's take on near-future Mars, "Helen of Mars." If you like sci-fi anthologies that feature female characters in the lead ... buy this book.
• 
  Alejandra

  I really appreciate the motivation of the anthology. Each of the stories includes a short author bio, and thoughts on the theme, and a few of them really resonated with me. It would be nice to get to a world where being a woman in STEM does not make you stand out as if you were a unicorn. This would be a great read for a young girl, as it has strong female role models, as well as plenty of action.
  
  There are some really good stories - I enjoyed particularly "Helen of Mars", "A Little Bit Truer", "The Key to the Stars", "The Mad Scientist's Daughter"and "Courage Is...". "A Little Bit Truer" really stood up for me, with its core theme of choice set in a very well constructed world. Too many of the stories for my taste rely heavily on the hacker girl against evil institutions - I guess I would have liked to see more "constructive" roles for girls with a knack for computers - how about programming ground breaking technology that makes people's lives better?
  
  Revenues from sales of the book are donated to the Society of Women Engineers scholarship fund, so this book actively supports the cause it champions.
• 
  Mike

  This is a charity anthology in aid of getting more girls into STEM, which is something I wholeheartedly support. Like any anthology, it resembles Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, and some stories are more successful than others, but overall I recommend it.
  
  I read a pre-publication copy which I received via NetGalley (in expectation of an honest review). Given that this is presumably still to have another editing round, it's remarkably clean, apart from occasional missing words in some stories--one of the hardest things for an editor to pick up. In particular, I spotted very few homonym errors, which are usually the bane of collections like this. There were a couple, but I noted that "discreet" was spelled correctly in the several places it was used, and getting that one wrong is very common.
  
  Unfortunately, given the target audience of science-savvy young people, there are a few conspicuous science fails in some stories. Particularly noticeable to me were the solar-powered vehicle that was capable of reaching orbit, and the Mars rover which could be controlled with no speed-of-light lag. There are also a few examples of technobabble and technological handwaving which wouldn't fool an informed reader.
  
  Still, as fiction, with few exceptions the stories worked well for me. I was worried when the first two both featured adults ex machina who appeared at the end and rescued the protagonist from an impossible situation, but after those opening stories, most of the protagonists solved their own problems using intelligence and persistence (occasionally with a generous helping of luck, but not too often).
  
  The YA cliches were at an acceptably low level, too. I don't think there was a single love triangle. There was one story in which a protagonist (who was of Asian and Indian descent) had green eyes, as is traditional for YA protagonists for some reason, but otherwise that ridiculous cliche didn't appear.
  
  The same story featured a large, undigested expository lump at the start, a fault most of the other stories avoided, though they did occasionally tell where showing would have worked better.
  
  Overall, though, these are competent authors writing compelling stories of intelligent and resourceful young women solving difficult human problems with science and engineering. Anything which puts more of that into the world gets my support.
• 
  Diana

  So far I've only read Kimberly Garnick Giarratano's contribution "Graveyard Shift", since she is my favorite author! I loved it! I've never in my life gasped while reading a book. Until now! She really caught me by surprise at one point. I did not see that coming! Great story! Great read! I also love that the proceeds from this book are going to be donated to a scholarship fund through The society of Women Engineers! I am really looking forward to reading the rest of this book.
• 
  Lissa

  After coming off of a long series it was hard to get into short stories. I felt like they were just getting started and then BAM they were over. ;) Each stories left me wanting to know more about the characters, even though that story was perfectly wrapped up. I just hated to see them go. Can't wait to look up some of the authors' solo works! :)
• 
  A.A. Jankiewicz

  I picked up my copy of Brave New Girls: Tales of Girls and Gadgets a few years ago at Ad Astra where I had a chance to meet a few of the authors in person and was intrigued by the mission of the anthology. Being myself a girl, or young woman rather, in the tech field, the themes in the stories reminisced with me on a personal level. I was one of a handful of girls in my Contemporary Media Production program and prior to that in high school, the only girl in the Communications Technology class and while this has never bothered me as a tomboy, there was always a twinge in the back of my mind going, there are less boys than girls here.
  
  Rambling a bit so let me get back on topic, the anthology is meant to encourage young women in the STEM fields and the proceeds of it go towards the Society of Women Engineers scholarship fund. The stories are wonderfully diverse and each hold their own, presenting a vast cast of characters. Each story felt like a portal into its own world and I was able to immerse myself within it. I have found in many anthologies that this is not the case and so I applaud the authors and editors who worked with them on this regard.
  
  I highly recommend this anthology to both young readers and adults. I think there is a lesson to be learned regardless of age or gender: STEM fields are awesome as are those in them!
• 
  Jennifer Lee Rossman

  I'll be honest, not all of the stories grabbed me and I did skip over some. But that's good with an anthology because it means there's a great variety of styles and plots. Something for everybody.
  And the stories I did enjoy, I LOVED. Especially the second to last one, which I think was based on the Kelly-Hopkinsville alien encounter of 1955, if I'm remembering the details correctly.
  (And it was a nice surprise to see a story from my Circuits & Slippers sister, Leandra Wallace!)
• 
  Carola

  I started reading this anthology back in 2015 and then I put it down for 2 freaking years. Why?! My biggest regret is not writing little reviews for each of the separate stories I read back then. All I can say is: some stories spoke to me more than others, but on the whole I really enjoyed this anthology!
• 
  Marie

  I love this set of stories and so do my 13 year old students. My girls especially love getting to see people they can relate to GET STUFF DONE!!!! Go girls!!!
• 
  Karen Eisenbrey

  This delightfully varied collection should appeal to any reader who enjoys concise, fast-paced SF action stories. They're intended to inspire girls to persue STEM careers, but boys (and adults) will not feel left out. Each story has a female protagonist, a girl between 14 and 16 who uses her smarts and tech skills to solve the problem at hand. Some stories are set now or in the near future, others in the far future of deep-space travel and colonization. Some of the heroines are inventing or coding as a matter of course, while others try to hide theirs abilities or inventions in order to fit in, until those abilities are exactly what's needed. Space travel, time travel, artificial intelligence, robotics, hacking -- these are only a few of the themes featured. A few stories have a touch of budding romance, but when these damsels are in distress, they will science their way out of it, not wait around for rescue. In more than one story, a handy screwdriver becomes a weapon -- an apt symbol for girls who use brains and skill to make their tech dreams come true.
  
  It was a nice touch that each story comes with a cover illustration, as if it were a book. Many of them had the feel of an origin story or novel excerpt, so I suspect we may see longer works featuring some of these characters.
  
  I suspect the target audience for this collection is my niece, a brainy, book-loving twelve-year-old with aptitudes in math, engineering, and robotics. But the first person I thought of when I heard about this project was my sister, who got into engineering in the early '80s because of a women-in-engineering fair she attended as a high schooler. Nobody had ever told us women aren't supposed to be good at math and science, but it was the first time we were aware of a shortage of women in what are now known as STEM fields. In a small effort to rectify this shortage, which persists all these decades later, proceeds from Brave New Girls will go to the scholarship fund of the Society of Women Engineers.
• 
  Lianne

  I received a review copy of this book for review. You can read my full review of the book at my blog, eclectictales.com:
  http://www.eclectictales.com/blog/201...
  
  Brave New Girls was an interesting collection that definitely showcases young heroines who are smart and brave, standing up against corporations and constructing suits and programmes along the way. I was hoping for more characters specialising outside of engineering (but still in the sciences) but given the focus of the anthology and where the revenues are going, it’s just a minor thing I noticed. The point is these female protagonists are true to who they are, know what they can do, know what they want, and don’t allow other people to push them down or dampen their ambitions. The possibilities of what these characters can achieve is endless, and it’s an encouraging thought.
  
  Having said that, like any anthology there are going to be hits and misses depending on what kind of stories you’re into. My favourite stories from this collection, or the ones that stood out, were Kimberly G. Giarratano’s “Graveyard Shift”, Lisa Toohey’s “Lyra”, Davien Thomas’ “Robot Repair Girl”, and Leandra Wallace’s “The Mad Scientist’s Daughter.” YA elements like romances and love triangles are on the down low in these stories, focusing instead on the main character, her friendships, her family, and perhaps a mere whiff of a love interest.
  
  Overall I’m glad to have read Brave New Girls. The aim of this collection is fantastic and indeed the stories showcased in it is as the book blurb says. Readers of YA, science fiction, and books featuring great female characters will want to check out this book.
• 
  Ken

  I'm always cautious about reading anthologies, because they can be a mixed bag--I much prefer collections by a single author. However, this anthology sparked my interest because of its theme, and the fact that the proceeds were being used to fund an effort to attract more young women to STEM fields.
  
  Overall, the the quality of the writing was very good. A few stories fell prey to common issues like POV inconsistencies and a tendency to indulge in infodumping, but those could be fixed with tighter editing. Most of the stories portrayed realistic, gritty protagonists without pandering to common stereotypes and the dreaded love triangle that seems to pervade much of YA literature. For the most part, the stories showcased their characters' abilities to use their brains to solve problems, and that's the kind of science fiction I especially enjoy reading.
  
  It's hard to pick favorites when there are so many good stories, but I enjoyed these the most: The Outpost by Paige Daniels; Blink by Kate Moretti; Graveyard Shift by Kimberly Giarratano; and Fledgling by Jason Kucharik. Overall, this anthology will appeal to most lovers of YA science fiction and speculative fiction.
  
  Note: I received a free advance review copy of this book from the publisher.
  
• 
  Trista Borgwardt

  Brave New Girls is an anthology of short stories about cool heroines who are smart, independent and there is usually some cool kind of technology involved. From robots, mars rovers to time machines, this book is sure to have something in it that everyone can enjoy. There are several different stories by many different authors and I truly enjoyed each story that I read. There were certainly some stories that left me wanting more and I could see there being additional shorts or maybe a full novel one day. The others were just as good, they just had a stronger sense of finality to them.
  
  Overall, if you want to read about some pretty amazing heroines while supporting a charity, this is the book for you! Of course, the fact that Stephen Kozeniewski makes an appearance in this book is all the motivation I need to read it. This though, led to the discovery of many other new authors whose work I also enjoyed.
• 
  Steph Bennion

  I really liked this collection. The stories, though all science fiction, cover quite a lot of ground, from technological traumas on Earth to short slices of space opera. Some worked better than others, while one or two seemed more like 'chapter one' of longer stories. Girls and gadgets have been neglected by sci-fi writers for too long.
• 
  Cameron Currie

  A good, solid anthology; there wasn't a single story (there were 18 in there!) that I didn't enjoy. Despite having a very specific niche, the main characters were all unique and interesting.
• 
  Eisah Eisah

  I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
  
  (Spoilers within)
  
  "The Outpost" wasn't bad but it took me a while to get into it, and in the end I was left with mostly questions. Maybe because it reads more like the first chapter to a book than a short story (I wouldn't at all be surprised if there is a book). It's the setup of a story rather than a complete story in and of itself. I think it overdid it with the techno-babble, too. But, if there was more to the story, I would have been interested in continuing to read. Instead I'm mostly left with questions like, "How did her dads know the pilot?"
  
  "Blink" was about a girl who inherited a time travel machine and some of her misadventures trying to stop an embarrassing moment from happening to her. This one suffered a bit from being short, too. It was okay, but different things weren't explained well. I'm confused if, when she time travels back a day, the other versions of herself who traveled back are also still there. Some parts seem to imply "no", and other parts seem to imply "yes".
  I thought they did, but then one of her past selves bumped into a girl, and when she went back again that didn't happen anymore. Also, because of the short length, the time travel aspect starts confusing the main character long before it confused me. About the second time she's using it she starts getting overwhelmed with how many realities she has to remember, while I didn't find it difficult at all to remember what she'd done so far.
  It was an all right story.
  
  "Courage Is" I really liked. It's set up on a massive space ship type scenario, with billions of people flying to some destination. There's an advanced AI, Rostom, that takes care of everything, and when people turn 16 they're hooked up to the AI and become like a hivemind. The main character, Gracie, is 15 and her friends have turned 16, so she's feeling alone.
  But, she happens to see something odd in a building, and decides to investigate. In this case investigating means hooking up to the network. There, she meets up with another girl she knows, Georgie, who is comatose in real life but able to interact with others by having her brain hooked up to the network. As they investigate together a real threat seems to appear and goes after Georgie, who can only defend herself by using the network. She lives out of bounds of the rest of society, so Rostom won't protect her, and it's up to Gracie to find and save her.
  I really liked this one. It's good that it focused on a few things - the main characters, Gracie and Georgie, and Rostom as an everpresent side character who can be anywhere at anytime. It gave the short story enough focus. In the end, when Gracie gets to Georgie, I think it had a wonderful setup for more story. Georgie and Gracie had a good reason to have a close relationship, and it could be very interesting for the pair to work as a ream, with Georgie being nothing but a hologram and able to control the ship with her mind and Gracie able to take care of other things. I thought it integrated what it would be like to be comatose in the future in an interesting way, and because the story spends the majority of the time with just them it gives the reader a chance to get attached.
  
  "Of Cat's Whiskers and Klutzes" confused the heck out of me. The main characters are in some sort of universe that exists based on a story that one of them wrote, but they're from completely different time periods. I don't know why this universe exists because of a story. The main character is building a transistor. I'm also not sure why. Then one of the storybook characters who helps them out gets attacked. They go to try and help her, but it turns out the warning message they tried to send earlier got there in time and she's fine. And that's about it. I almost don't know how to describe this story. A million things are thrown at the reader and none seems to really go anywhere, nor does much of anything happen.
  
  "Robin Hacker" was probably the longest in the book, being several chapters long. There were little issues. The main character was trying to hide for example, and complained about a ship she was trying to buy looking like a typical merchant ship. If you want to hide, wouldn't it be good to blend in? I didn't see why that would be a complaint. Overall, though, it was fine. It probably could have been condensed into a shorter story. The concept was simple enough: a genius girl discovers they're being deceived and used in order to do bad things. She abandons school and family, and runs away to fight against them. The entire story covers her running away, and might go into more detail than necessary. It never quite grabbed me. Maybe it had too many characters in a short time to feel connected to them, but there wasn't anything particularly wrong with it.
  
  "Panic" is basically characters with psionic powers in training trying to fight off an infiltration of other characters with psionic powers. It sets up a tense situation and has some interesting worldbuilding. I wish I got to know more about Kion.
  
  "Graveyard Shift" started me off on the wrong foot with the main character. She showed up late to work, then insulted her boss/coworker in her mind, and was jerk about it. It didn't get me rooting for her. The story itself is fine with her uncovering a conspiracy, getting in trouble and getting out. It had an unearned ending, though, with her suddenly being promoted to assistant manager for no reason. The rest of the ending was fine, but that part stuck out to me, I even wrote a note that simply said, "Why?"
  
  "A Little Bit Truer" is pretty solid. It focuses on a mother and daughter. The daughter was born with health problems and was blind, so her mother had to leave her behind to pursue her career traveling the universe. She finally comes back now that Zay is older and has been given her eyesight back with an operation, but she and Zay are disconnected and while her mother wants to have her live the high life with her, Zay is more interested in pursuing her own career as a scientist. She becomes even more suspicious when she reads that their re-uniting will be good for her mother's ratings. It's focused, so it works out pretty well.
  
  "Lyra" went in a way I wasn't expecting when I started it. It's very Cinderella-like, with the main girl being abused by her family and her only friend being the house's AI. But they replace the AI with a new one, named "Lyra", who claims to have been made by her long-missing mother in order to protect her.
  But it turns out to be over-enthusiastic in how it protects her. At one point she's riding in a car with a boy, who has been nice to her, and Lyra takes over the car, throws her out and crashes it. Maybe something was just wrong with the program, but I didn't get how something like that was protecting her when he had only ever tried to help her, and throwing her out of the car could seriously injure or kill her.
  I thought it was too over the top with the abuse she received. It leaves things unexplained, like how Jeremy is a threat, but maybe it just considers everyone a threat. I think it also went too fast from the AI arriving and Elizabeth distrusting it. She immediately doesn't like it, for no particular reason. It probably would have been better if she trusted it at first and then realized something was wrong.
  It was okay, but there was just too much abuse from almost every character for me.
  
  "Flight of the Zephyr" was another okay story. By this time I was a bit tired of the desolate future stories, especially with ones where an evil government kills people for no reason and somehow no one can oppose them. The main character discovers that the government is having people work with material that they know poisons them, and she attempts to expose them. There wasn't anything particularly wrong.
  The only thing I noticed was a part where she was "walking gingerly on the heeled shoes she'd forgotten how to wear", which didn't seem to fit the setting. In this world they were issued clothes, and she was essentially issued miner's clothes her entire life. When did she ever wear heels before?
  The main issue for me was that I felt like I'd seen this scenario a million times before and nothing new was done with it.
  
  I didn't like "The Data Tourist". It was hard to read because it was boring. When it described what was happening it was mostly tech-babble and a bland list of things the main character was doing. Other times it was just awkwardly telling stuff that happened. Plus the present tense was awkward. I usually dislike present tense. It tends to take me out of the story immediately and then I have to overcome that to get into the story, and in this case I was never able to get to that point.
  
  "Robot Repair Girl" was a nice, complete story. I liked the setup of robots wanting to escape and her helping them. I'm not wild about girls who are into clothes constantly being against tech girls, but otherwise I didn't have any issues.
  
  "The Hive" was pretty good. It's a solid setup and gets through the main point of the story. Bees are being kept in short supply by the government in order to create a false epidemic and control through fear. The main character teams up with another woman, and brings in the son of one of the government workers.
  
  "Fledgling" was about a hot-headed girl who is picked out by a military man to join a program that uses advanced technology. It reminds me of a sentai show, where she and others are given power suits to fight evil dictators or something. Who they're fighting isn't a big deal. The story revolves more around their group and the fact that they think they're being drugged and used by the government, and trying to escape that. Each character had a personality in a short span of time. It was pretty enjoyable.
  
  "The Mad Scientist's Daughter" genuinely felt like a short story rather than the first chapter of a book. I liked the lizard, Cika. Viala is the daughter of a man who supposedly went crazy and killed a lot of people with his inventions, and now she's dealing with the consequences of his actions and hide the fact that she's a scientist, lest people believe she's just like her father. It was a good story.
  
  "Helen of Mars" had a boring start but became a decent story with some good action. The main character's father invested in an android in order to mine on Mars, but his android was destroyed and his caches stolen by mercenaries. In a fit he throws away his remote, but his daughter retrieves it in order to repair it and see if she can reboot the android. With the action happening so far away, it lowered the stakes and made it harder to get invested because there was no danger to her. In the end she decides to use the droid to fight off mercenary droids and help others, though the android has been damaged and isn't particularly built for fighting, so I'm not sure how far she'd really get. It wasn't bad, though.
  
  "The Keys to the Stars" was decent. Judy, the main character, gets a call for help from an alien when she's younger. After helping, she agrees to meet them again much later in her life. The aliens are interesting, and I like that the alien was retired at the end.
  
  "Takes a Hacker" is about a girl named, Vieve, who begs for help from the main character, Jane. Vieve was in a horrible accident and had much of her body replaced with cybernetic parts. Because of that she's shunned. When their school is having a large contest, Vieve's entry is sabotaged and she's set up to look like a cheater. No one believes her, so she asks for Jane's help to clear her name.
  Jane's boyfriend, Zared, was a bit of a strawman, but other than that it was fine.
  
  As you can probably see from the review, this book was fairly long. The stories in it had a large range of quality.
  
  My two favorites were "Courage Is" and "Fledgling". These two stood out to me as something I'd liked to follow. "Courage Is" has a great setup for a pair of girls who fly through space completing missions. "Fledgling" had a good setup for something like a sci-fi sentai show. They weren't perfect, but they were both written well and I was invested.
  
  My least favorites would be "Of Cat's Whiskers and Klutzes" and "The Data Tourist". The first was just a confused mess, and the second was boring.
  
  The rest mostly fell in the middle of the road for me. Some had the issue of not setting up the "girls with gadgets" parts very well. They would be more, "And she was super good with gadgets because" instead of putting together a reason why, or it could feel like they were interested in it because the story required it. It's hard to explain why, so I'm not even sure if people would get the same feeling.
  
  Would I recommend it? I suppose so. There's a few good ones in there, and many that weren't a bad read. I'd actually be interested in hearing other people's opinions of "Of Cat's Whiskers and Klutzes", just because being as confused as that makes me wonder if I missed something. I don't think I did, but it would be nice to have it confirmed.
  
  
  Read more reviews here.
• 
  Phillip III

  I recently received a copy of the newest sci-fi anthology, BRAVE NEW GIRLS. I have stated a few times that I am not a fan of short stories, and for that matter, anthologies. However, I will admit this was a book of shorts I was looking forward to reading. I just hoped I wouldn't be disappointed.
  
  Let start by describing the book itself. At just over 380 pages (paperback), the collection of eighteen stories is edited by Paige Daniels, and Mary Fan. The cover, by Streetlight Graphics, is compelling enough to pick the book up and flip through the pages. There are amazing illustrations that start off each story as if it were a novella. The artists are very talented, and also deserve a shout-out: Hazel Butler, Ken Dawson, Adrian DeFuria, Evelinn Enoksen, Mary Fan, Christopher Godsoe, Kayla Keeton, Jason Kucharik, Jennifer L. Lopez, Tash McAdam, and Josh Pritchett. There is no identified publisher (which might be worth creating if this is to become an annual publication).
  
  While there is no way I can (well I could) review all eighteen stories, I am going to review a few I liked best. I will start off by saying that I read the entire book, but not cover to cover. Instead picked stories out in my own personal order, for my own personal tastes at the time I sat down to read until I had read them all! Let me tell you this -- wow. There was not one story I did not like. I may even begin to look at anthologies and short stories more favorably on the whole because of BRAVE NEW GIRLS. They are perfect bite-sized tales that I can devour in very little time, and yet feel satisfied. These stories are a lot like a Snickers Bar. I mean --how can someone NOT like that?
  
  As a long time fan of Stephen Kozeniewski, I decided to start with "The Keys to the Stars." Judy is a busy college professor who receives an odd phone call, but agrees to take it because the message consists of prime numbers. She remembers back to a time when she was just a child and helped space aliens in their time of need. She is afraid that the terms of their agreement are up. Will civilization on earth come to an end as she knows it?
  
  This short story shows Kozeniewski's diversity as an author. I've read his novels. Trust me. "The Keys to the Stars" is completely different from anything else he's written. Don't get me wrong, the short still contains tension, and action, suspense and drama. It is just ... different. Not bad different. But different. I enjoyed it very much.
  
  The next story I tackled was Mary Fan's "Takes a Hacker." Now I have known Fan for a year or two. We don't talk much. Not sure why. She is busy. I am busy. It happens. Aside from "Takes a Hacker," I have not yet read any of her novels. However, that is about to change. Fan has smooth talent that seems to flow effortlessly through her writing. She makes the complex simple for readers. She uses enough description to put you there, and enough tension and suspense to keep the ride in motion. (For what it is worth, I believe I will be checking out her latest releases, Artificial Absolutes ... just FYI).
  
  Anywho ... I loved this conspiratory tale. Vieve is an unfortunate teen involved in a crash and can't help feeling ostracized by her peers for having survived. During a school competition when she submits her entry, the judges want her arrested for creating something too close to A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), and the only person she can trust is a non judgmental student, Jane. Can they figure out if someone is jealous of Vieve, or has Vieve purposefully broken the law and deserving of a prison sentence?
  
  Paige Daniels tells an emotionally gripping story in, "The Outpost." Sixteen year old Lyvia dreams of being a pilot. Her fathers expect her to become a scientist. They move from asteroid to asteroid on the tail end of mining digs. When Lyvia's life is suddenly turned upside down. Was it an honest accident that left her alone, or were sinister groups against mining responsible for the havoc wreaked on the asteroid? With a close-knit group of friends, Lyvia is going to get to the bottom of the mystery!
  
  Daniels is the author of the NON-COMPLIANCE trilogy, an engineer, and a mom. Not a bad life, and not a bad writer. Her dialogue is fantastic. I think spot-on for kids from the future. The narrative is clean and concise. She grabbed my attention from the opening line. Bravo!
  
  Philly Ramirez is on parole for the internet theft of millions. As a seventeen year old convicted hacker it would seem things could only get better. Putting her electronic skills to better use, Philly works in a cemetery, maintaining holograms of those who have passed. The emitter allows the grieving to see and hear recorded broadcasts from the departed. Unfortunately, when a hologram is purposely tampered with, it looks as if the company she stole from is up to more than just commerce. Thrust into a murder mystery, with a list of unanswered questions, Philly tries to figure out why a powerful CEO went to the trouble of killing his own son, and if she is lucky, find out what really happened to her brother in Kimberly G. Giarratano's "Graveyard Shift."
  
  Giarratano is the other of two novels, and dreams of moving to the Keys where she can write in a small studio just like Hemmingway. I hope that dream comes true for her. She has a nice way with words. She crafted characters I connected with, a plot that was engaging, and a story that mattered. "Graveyard Shift" is a kind of futuristic Robin Hood tale, take from the rich, give to the poor --except, it is nothing like a Robin Hood tale. If I had three thumbs, I'd give this story three thumbs up. I don't. I have two. So two will have to do.
  
  As I have stated, I cannot possibly review all eighteen short stories. Unfortunately, they all deserve review. The entire book is wonderful, and beautifully put together. The editors have assembled a collection that is worthy of awards. I hope my brief glimpse into the anthology are enough to whet your appetite for more. It should. It really should. I have discovered new authors because of this book, and will be adding more novels by each of them to my Amazon shopping cart. If anything, that is the best part for me. Reading stories that make me want more from the writers. But please, don't take my word for it. Check out BRAVE NEW GIRLS for yourself. I don't think you will be disappointed at all.
  
  Phillip Tomasso,
  Author of YOUNG BLOOD and DAMN THE DEAD
  
  www.philliptomasso.com
• 
  Sheilah

  I prefer works of long fiction, but when asked to take a chance on this anthology of science fiction tales and advanced AI, I couldn’t resist the urge to know what lay inside.
  
  I am happy to report that as I read, each story was better than the last. A truly well written assortment of quality writers that spoke to me as a current STEM student myself.
  
  Readers will not be disappointed as robots, hackers, aliens and interstellar space travel fill these pages.
  
  Need a quick read in-between classes? Or looking for something inspiring and fun? I highly recommend this collection.
  
  While I liked all the stories, some stood out to me more than others. A Little Bit Truer by Valerie Hunter, a tale of a girl having to make a choice between her personal career ambitions and her absent mother’s desires, proved to be an emotional story for me. The choice between family and personal growth, haunts many of us and not all of us choose the same.
  
  Lyra by Lisa Toohey, a creepy, suspenseful take on AI’s capabilities that can go to far. A computer on a mission, a deadly one at that. I was sucked into this story fast, instantly connecting with the protagonist and her horrible plight.
  
  Fledging by Jason Kucharik, could have easily become a full-length story. A girl with skills that run from intelligence to bravery and her quest to seek the truth behind the secret organization she works for.
  
  The Keys to the Stars by Stephen Kozeniewski, a short tale on alien invasion and the girl the Martians connect with. A fan of Kozeniewski’s longer works of sci-fi/horror, I was happy to see he kept in tune with the style I have grown to enjoy. A neither happy nor sad story, but one that leaves you wondering about the future to come and what that may hold.
  
  There are many other stories in this collection and I enjoyed every single one. I highly recommend this collection for any Science Fiction lovers out there. In addition, the sale of this book goes to support funding scholarships from the Society of Women Engineers.
  
  
  https://cellardoorbooks.wordpress.com
• 
  Mariana Nguyen

  4.5 stars
  
  Brave New Girls is a great sci-fi anthology. Beside the fact that this book is for a great cause - all proceeds go to a scholarship for the Society of Women Engineers, but the concept for the anthology is also very fascinating and unique. I mean, who doesn't love badass girls who use their brains to do awesome things, right?
  
  Overall, Brave New Girls is a great book. As an anthology, Of course not every story is as great as the other. But if Brave New Girls' stories are good, then they would be way over the roof kind of good. Not only this book points out the fact that girls can be as good as (I mean "better than") boys, the book itself is awesome! "Let’s show the world that girls, too, can be tomorrow’s inventors, programmers, scientists, and more." Way to go girls! And the way each author puts their characters through challenges after challenges, and how those characters develop and change themselves throughout the story, that is very amazing.
  
  Each story in this book has its own very unique little background detail, which I found absolutely captivating. A girl with two fathers, friendship challenges, cheated in school's science fair, etc. I mean, how awesome the stories are to delicately reflect normal life issues, right? And beside, I love love love the fact that each story has its own cover and illustrations, and those are really cool! It gives the readers the feeling they are reading each individual book itself.
  
  I really enjoy this book, and it will definitely be a more than awesome present for my sister on her birthday (until she can read). Love it and totally recommend it!
  
  Check it out on Book Is Glee:
  Brave New Girls: Tales of Girls and Gadgets [Anthology]
• 
  Sam

  Thank you to the author,
  Kimberly G. Giarratano, for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!
  
  I have to admit I didn't read the whole anthology (and it's actually been a couple of months), but I just realized I never got around to reviewing it, so here I am!
  
  I love that the stories inside are focused on girls who are technologically gifted. Whether they live on a different planet, or in an alternate reality where everything is machine-driven, these girls are no pushovers. They use their smarts and are never considered "outsiders" or "nerds" because they happen to know how to code.
  
  I read Kimberly Giarratano's contribution first, "Graveyard Shift", and if you've read (and liked) any of Kim's other books, you'll definitely enjoy the story of hacker-parolee Philly and her cemetery full of holograms. There are also stories of time travel and mini space operas - basically, there's something for everyone, even if you're not normally a sci-fi fan. The girls in each story are, for the most part, fleshed out and, in addition to dealing with technological crises, often have to contend with the perils of adolescence.
  
  My only problem with the anthology is the fact that, as someone who isn't much of a sci-fi reader, there were some terms or concepts that confused me. Usually they were explained over the course of the story, but this occasionally meant that the story slowed down until we were given all the information we needed. Nonetheless, I'm always impressed with people who can write short stories (I generally prefer writing long-form), and these ladies - and gentlemen - did a fine job representing the different STEM aspects.
  
  Read this if you're feeling the lack of techie girls in YA, or pick it up for the young techie in your own life.
• 
  Christine

  A young adult sci fi anthology where the protagonists are all girls and young women showing off their techno-chops, Daniels and Fan have squished together some strong offerings and entertaining stories. There are a few weaker tales in here; a plot or two that could use some minor stitching to patch the holes or a character that could stand to be a bit more three-dimensional. Overall an enjoyable read.
  The Outpost by Paige Daniels – A young woman's parents die unexpectedly after discovering something unusual in the mine shaft of the gutted planet they are living on. When she discovers evidence of foul play, it has implications not just for her life, but the lives of her friends and the corporation that rules them all.
  Blink by Kate Moretti – What if your biggest secret was that you had a time travel machine? And what if you accidentally told your entire school?
  Courage Is by Evangeline Jennings – A story where what seems at first to be a simple mystery – who snuck in to the unoccupied apartment and used a small mirror to signal Gracie, and why – turns into a battle for life and death. Some parts of the setting are a little confusing, I had to read them over a few times before I felt like I grasped the salient points.
  Of Cat's Whiskers and Klutzes by Martin Berman-Gorvine – The main characters are either related to royalty and living on Mars, or they are living on Earth in the 1940's and have created a fantasy world where they live on Mars because their Earth lives are terrible. Only one of these ideas supports the story line, but I'm gonna mention both because the author felt they both needed to be brought up. Don't ask me why. Also has the cheesiest bumpkin dialect I've ever read.
  Robin Hacker by Ursula Osborne – You can guess the plot of this one from the title. Move Sherwood Forest into space, upgrade your horses for space ships, swap the Sheriff of Nottingham for corporate bigwigs, and you've got the basics.
  Panic by Tash McAdam – Gets content warnings for guns and violence against children. Abial is a trainee in the underground ARC school, fighting the omnipotent Institute that controls everyone's lives. She's gone to unwind in the gym after a test when the unthinkable happens.
  Graveyard Shift by Kimberly G Giarratano – Philly's parole after being caught robbing an evil corporation involves her maintaining the hologram emitters in the local graveyard; it's an update to photos and tombstone messages that allows the deceased to leave personal messages to anyone. The emitter on a friend's grave is vandalized immediately before someone she knew from prison shows up, and the plot only gets twistier from there.
  A Little Bit Truer by Valerie Hunter – Zay has a busy week ahead. Her mom is dropping by for the first time in four years, taking a break from her popular interplanetary nature program (think Steve Irwin but he travels the galaxy) and her school is announcing the winners of various competitive internship programs that will lead to full-fledged scientist status, running labs of their own. But why is Zay's mom really here? Does she just want to spend time with Zay? Or does she have another motive?
  Lyra by Lisa Toohey – Take Cinderella. Make her a tech-whiz. Now throw in a malevolent AI and you've got Lyra. Not a combination I ever thought of, but it really works.
  Flight of the Zephyr by Aimie K Runyan – If Runyan ever turns this into a novel I'd be very excited to read it. Wynn and her father have finally perfected a Barylian crystal refinement procedure and they are going to present it to the Council when his health takes a turn for the worse and she has to travel off-planet alone. Suspicious of the Council from the outset, Wynn learns some disturbing information from an unimpeachable source and decides to make a stand.
  The Data Tourist by Davien Thomas – Another complex set up, rife with secret data caches and sinister government/corporate agents. An has come to Las Vegas ostensibly for a medical conference, but truly for a hacker conference. Everything she is doing is illegal and if she is caught she will never be allowed to leave Earth.
  Robot Repair Girl by Josh Pritchett – Madison's father has always believed that robots are just like people, and he taught Madison to believe that too. Along with how to repair and revamp damaged bots better than almost anyone. A revelation about her father leads her life in a completely new direction when she discovers he did much more than just repair robots.
  The Hive by Kate Lansing – Honeybees are the target of a corporate conspiracy in The Hive. But Fi and Vienna have a plan – and the guts – to save the bees.
  Fledgling by Jason Kucharik – Possibly my favourite story in the anthology, although Lyra, The Hive, and Graveyard Shift are all close seconds. Sarah is recruited for a top secret military experiment, designing and testing flight suits. She leads a team of intelligent, accomplished youths as they push the boundaries of their suits. But the most dangerous thing they discover winds up being inside the building with them.
  The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Leandra Wallace – Viala has a bit of a reputation. After her father's experiments caused the death of 12 people, most of the ship's citizens treat her with suspicion, as if madness is genetic. She hides her intelligence and spends her days on kitchen duty. But she's also crafted a secret lab and made a neural link to allow her to talk to coma patients in the hospital. When she finally tests it, she learns something unexpected.
  Helen of Mars by George Ebey – Marauders trash her family's remote Martian mining robot and destroy their hopes of a comfortable future. So Helen decides to try to fix it. From Earth.
  The Keys to the Stars by Stephen Kozeniewski – Aliens are disappointed by humanity's inability to count by primes, but decide not to destroy the planet after Judy correctly identifies the contaminant killing one of the visitors as embedded shotgun pellets missed by their fancy healing machine.
  Takes a Hacker by Mary Fan – One more prestigious school competition for internships. Jane receives an unsigned call for help in the middle of the desperate coding competition the president of the Cyber club – her boyfriend – nominated her to represent their school at. It turns out someone is framing one of the contestants, Vieve, and if Jane can't figure out whodunit Vieve will be at best disqualified and at worst imprisoned. The characters are a little over the top sometimes, but it's a strong close to a good selection of stories. A little extra polish on a story or two and this would be a first class book.
• 
  Nicole

  I received an ARC from the publisher via a NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I liked several stories in this anthology, particularly the last three, and I think there is enough variety that most readers will be able to connect with many of them as well. While I wasn't interested in every story, I thought there was a nice mix of personalities, conflicts, and reading levels. Because this is a collection meant to inspire, the stories are upbeat and hopeful, but some of the endings feel a little contrived. I may just be super suspicious about so many happy endings in one place due to my natural pessimism, though. You half full types might not be bothered in the least. What I did find interesting was how many of the stories managed to communicate universal lessons beyond the theme (which means it is a read that both genders can enjoy). One example was "Robot Repair Girl" by Josh Pritchett which introduced a lesson about bullying that could easily translate to a classroom read aloud for older elementary students. "A Little Bit Truer" by Valerie Hunter addresses the age old journey of choosing your own path and finding your own happiness that many of my high school students could relate to. Any teacher, librarian, or mentor should consider adding this collection to their resources because it has a potential for a lot of applications. I commend the authors who contributed to such a cool project, and I think that many girls and young women will be inspired by these smart and determined characters.
• 
  Diane Rapp

  Grandmothers will want to share this with their girls
  
  This is such a clever anthology. I remember growing up in a world where girls were never good at math and science, so I made sure to hide my report card (with its straight As) from friends on the bus. I loved school, excelled at math and science, but felt embarrassed to let anyone know. The most popular girls looked beautiful and tried to sound dumb. UGH! If we'd had stories like the ones in this book to encourage us to stretch our brains and do incredible things, just think how much more we'd have accomplished.
  
  Women fought to be equal in everything and made fantastic strides. Too bad many of their preconceived ideas of which subjects they'd tackle left them out in the cold. As the world changes and girls read incredible stories like the ones in this book, their self images will allow them to tackle any kind of problem with gusto.
  
  I found it interesting that many of the short stories in this collection were written by men. They obviously want their daughters to live in a world where anything is possible for them. Kudos! I'm going to make sure my granddaughter reads this collection. Yes. I'm a grandmother and writer, and I enjoy reading YA fiction because it's full of life. Get a copy of this book for yourself and then share it with your favorite girls.
• 
  San

  This is a charity anthology written for children and teenagers and my rating shall reflect that.
  
  
  The stories are a mixed bunch in quality and depth; there are stories which fall quite flat for me at 34, but I would have loved to read at 8 or 12.
  
  My favourite stories were:
  
  "A little bit truer" by Valerie Hunter about Zay, whose mother is a famous travel-journalist and left Zay with her scientist sister and now wants her daughter to come and travel the stars with her after seeing her only sporadic for all of her life.
  
  "The mad scientist's daughter" by Leandra Wallace, is about Viala, who lives on a spaceship and hides her intelligence and abilities, because her father used his to hurt people.
  
  
  All stories are written by capable authors about very different girls, in very different scenarios, who use (mostly) their brains to solve complicated situations.
  
  
  While note quite my cup of tea, I will buy this book for my niece and I know she will love it.