[1] In 1988 it was republished by Plume as a "classic of early feminist literature" with an introductory essay by science fiction and fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin.

They are the only survivors, and their chances of being rescued are remote as a storm had driven their ship into uncharted waters before smashing it against rocks.

After coming to terms with their predicament, the men begin collecting what they can from washed-up wreckage from the ship: food, clothes, tools and materials.

With the women now domesticated, the men start paying less attention to them and spend long periods inland building a new camp near the lake.

Back home, the five women, led by Julia, had rebelled when their people decided to migrate south, and flew north instead.

Julia decides to marry and her final triumph comes years later on her death bed when she gives birth to a son with wings.

[5] Science fiction and fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin, in her introduction to the 1988 edition of the book, reminded the reader that at the time of its original publication in 1914, women could not vote.

[6] Eric Leif Davin in Partners in Wonder: Women and the Birth of Science Fiction, 1926–1965 described Angel Island is a "radical feminist Swiftian fantasy".

[2][7] Angel Island's entry in Science-fiction, the Early Years called it as a "sexual Robinsonade with a strong element of allegory".

[9] In Utopian and Science Fiction by Women: Worlds of Difference Jane L. Donawerth felt that she is not convinced of Julia's "greatest glory" at the end of Angel Island.

[11] The reviewer concluded that it is a worthwhile read because of its "subtle liberal feminist insistence that regardless of our gender, we all have a right to fulfil our potential – to fly".