Plot: 2/9. It’s not a story because it just contained one scene! Although it indeed entertained me so much with its interesting opening and settings. I would give a higher score if it could end in women beating the intruders out and declaring with self-confidence that they didn’t need any men and their so-called sexual equality.

The narrator served as the translator of the men coming into the city for the first time. The man looked pole-axed at the fact that men here were extinguished owing to the plague and women here propagated through the scientific method of merging ova.

Feeling insulted by those arrogant man who wanted the women’s genes but discriminated their parthenogenetic culture and women’s professional abilities, and at the same time, claimed they required men’s correction or salvation, Katy, the wife of the narrator, shot them out of rage, which was stymied by the narrator.

The story ended in the narrator’s boring anguish on a world inevitably changed by those men.

Core: 4/9. Toast to feminism at that time! Still, I would give a higher score if they had any military system to drive away those males because I don’t appreciate weak woman’s meaningless sensibility.

The narrator in the end declared, “Take my life but don’t take away the meaning of life.” Then why didn’t Russ embody the rebellious spirit in plots? Why did Russ intentionally arrange a female-only culture without any military forces to fight against invasion in a supposedly brutal society where the duel was allowed to kill the opponents?

Character: 6/9. I like Katy in these few words.

  • She didn’t use guns because she knew she could not control.
  • She was good at car and machinery.
  • She went hiking in dangerous forests without any firearm.
  • Laconic and powerful
  • Humanity is unnatural.

  • She resorted to violence the moment she knew she was insulted.

World and Others: 5/9. An apocalyptic world where women could give birth to their own daughters and maintain their own city without men’s interference was striking.

Overall: 4/9. I would like to read more interesting stories on feminism instead of scenes without action. Why did most feminist stories in this book always possess little humour, bad world building, or poor storyline? However, I wouldn’t reject Russ’ work for her good characters and striking setting. At least, she had potential talents in writing lively characters and intriguing stories.