The Metal Maiden Collection

To Be a Woman, Shepherd, Fly Trap, and Awares

Four novellas in one volume—the thrilling science fiction saga of a female robot who becomes sentient and fights to save humanity from destruction.

With nearly two hundred published works and more than twenty New York Times bestsellers to his credit, Piers Anthony is without a doubt one of the most prolific and creative authors in science fiction and fantasy. Among his most ingenious literary creations are the four books of his remarkable Metal Maiden saga, collected here in one volume: the breathtaking tale of Elasa, the fembot who desires nothing more than to be human.

In “To Be a Woman” we meet Elasa, who is perfect in every way—a female machine created for pleasure, whose newborn consciousness makes her strive for more. The story moves to a distant colony planet in “Shepherd,” in which a young man participating in a student exchange program finds himself in another body and suddenly the caretaker of a herd of telepathic and eminently wise sheep. “Flytrap” brings Elasa’s friend Mona to the colony in the body of a pregnant woman, through which she learns that her work with a young precognitive lamb could have a major impact on more than one existence and more than one world. Finally, in “Awares,” Elasa must work closely with a unique group of environmentally attuned beings in order to protect the earth from an onslaught of gigantic, world-devouring extraterrestrial maggots.