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erinys's review
5.0
This was one of several books I picked up recently while trolling the library system for queer speculative fiction. "Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction" was edited by Brit Mandelo and released in 2012.
I cracked the cover of this and was immediately struck by the high quality of the stories. I'm not sure about the process of selection, but I suspect that most of these stories are re-prints and that the editor was taking the absolute cream of an already distilled crop of excellent fiction.
The Table of Contents features some genuinely stellar authors, including Kelly Eskridge, Nalo Hopkinson, Catherine Valente, Liu Zhen Wuang, Delia Sherman, and Ellen Kushner.
Side note: a lot of these stories of gender-fluid identity are also openly erotic. They deal very frankly with same-sex desire, as well as desires that don't have such easy labels.
Overall I'm really glad I picked this one up, and it is one of the better queer anthologies I've read.
I cracked the cover of this and was immediately struck by the high quality of the stories. I'm not sure about the process of selection, but I suspect that most of these stories are re-prints and that the editor was taking the absolute cream of an already distilled crop of excellent fiction.
The Table of Contents features some genuinely stellar authors, including Kelly Eskridge, Nalo Hopkinson, Catherine Valente, Liu Zhen Wuang, Delia Sherman, and Ellen Kushner.
Side note: a lot of these stories of gender-fluid identity are also openly erotic. They deal very frankly with same-sex desire, as well as desires that don't have such easy labels.
Overall I'm really glad I picked this one up, and it is one of the better queer anthologies I've read.
legs_mcgee's review
4.0
Although I wish there were more stories that focused more heavily on genderqueer protagonists/genderqueerness, I really liked this collection of speculative fiction. As in all collections, some stories were better than others, but I've now been turned on to authors I've never read before, writing about stories that I haven't seen much of elsewhere!
I would definitely recommend this collection to those who like speculative fiction, but wish there were greater representations and explorations of gender/sexual queerness.
I would definitely recommend this collection to those who like speculative fiction, but wish there were greater representations and explorations of gender/sexual queerness.
endymionshawk's review
2.0
Over all, the writing throughout the book is decent, but not at all "genderqueer," "sexually fluid," or "speculative." if you're looking for that kind of thing, you won't find it here. further review as follows:
warnings: transphobia, cocsa, lesbophobia, ...
- trans fetishism, a misunderstanding/misrepresentation of trans experiences
- there isn't a single non-binary character, only fetishised binary trans characters
- calling binary trans people genderqueer or non-binary is misgendering them.
- literally there's a story with very young boys licking one another's toes. wtf. why would you include that.
- there's a story in this "genderqueer and sexually fluid" collection about lesbians. lesbians aren't either of these things? stop fetishising lesbians to suit your ~~queer~ ideals
- one story is very hinted at being about a lesbian coming to terms with compulsory heterosexuality. again, no non-binary characters or sexually fluidity. just a young lesbian.
- another reviewer pointed out very rightly that these stories aren't sexually fluid. most of them are just bi/pan experiences, and occasionally just gay.
warnings: transphobia, cocsa, lesbophobia, ...
- trans fetishism, a misunderstanding/misrepresentation of trans experiences
- there isn't a single non-binary character, only fetishised binary trans characters
- calling binary trans people genderqueer or non-binary is misgendering them.
- literally there's a story with very young boys licking one another's toes. wtf. why would you include that.
- there's a story in this "genderqueer and sexually fluid" collection about lesbians. lesbians aren't either of these things? stop fetishising lesbians to suit your ~~queer~ ideals
- one story is very hinted at being about a lesbian coming to terms with compulsory heterosexuality. again, no non-binary characters or sexually fluidity. just a young lesbian.
- another reviewer pointed out very rightly that these stories aren't sexually fluid. most of them are just bi/pan experiences, and occasionally just gay.
declaired's review
4.0
As usual with short story anthologies, it's a pretty mixed bag, but a better bag than usual- I did read everything in the collection!
There's a Richard St. Vier backstory for the Tremontaine/ Riversiders that I was delighted to find. (I should come back with the book for a better breakdown of authors to look for)
There's a Richard St. Vier backstory for the Tremontaine/ Riversiders that I was delighted to find. (I should come back with the book for a better breakdown of authors to look for)
yoominbean's review
2.0
For a book called "Beyond Binary," this book was ... really binary. There were two or three stories where the narrator or main character is not assigned a gender but most are either male or female - and often it's not a particularly large component of the story if the character identifies or is identified as trans* in any way.
Beyond that, I wasn't particularly impressed with any of the stories. There were a handful I enjoyed but none that really stood out to me. It was kind of a struggle to keep reading this but I kept hoping that I'd come across a story that would make it worth it. That didn't really happen, unfortunately. Ultimately I was pretty disappointed with this anthology.
Beyond that, I wasn't particularly impressed with any of the stories. There were a handful I enjoyed but none that really stood out to me. It was kind of a struggle to keep reading this but I kept hoping that I'd come across a story that would make it worth it. That didn't really happen, unfortunately. Ultimately I was pretty disappointed with this anthology.
tc_mill's review
4.0
Recently, I’ve started seeking out fiction, especially speculative fiction, about trans and genderqueer characters. A call out for ideas on Twitter resulted in this book being recommended to me. As several other reviewers have said, Beyond Binary isn’t always as “beyond binary” as it could have been, and I’m puzzled at the inclusion of some of these stories, but it does form a diverse and excellent sampler of LGBT fiction from leading authors in the field. Some names I recognized before going past the table of contents, and some I’d like to get to know more.
On the whole, I would definitely recommend this anthology as a great sampler of LGBT spec fic. Sometimes erotic, often thought-provoking, and not infrequently fun, its stories offer a diversity of experiences and subgenres and seem like a great place to start exploring further.
See the full review.
On the whole, I would definitely recommend this anthology as a great sampler of LGBT spec fic. Sometimes erotic, often thought-provoking, and not infrequently fun, its stories offer a diversity of experiences and subgenres and seem like a great place to start exploring further.
See the full review.
ekfmef's review
1.0
I wish I had checked out the goodreads reviews before ordering this book immediately after reading Mandelo's terrific reviews on tor.com. Based on the description and the introduction I was expecting a wholesome collection of stories about people like me. Instead, most of the stories didn't even feature a trans character. But many entries were so badly written that it was impossible to determine what they were about - so I might have missed something. I was surprised to see that all stories were written by accomplished authors and had been published elsewhere. It definitely doesn't show in the quality of the writings.
Judging by the GR reviews I'm not alone, though, in thinking that this collection was kind of lacking in the beyond binary department. There wasn't a single nonbinary character, there were no neopronouns, etc. Additionally, there was one super weird story about a binary trans person that felt like a TERFy ad. It does feature lots of explorations of sexuality and genitals, though, so people who enjoy reading fiction about that may like this book.
Judging by the GR reviews I'm not alone, though, in thinking that this collection was kind of lacking in the beyond binary department. There wasn't a single nonbinary character, there were no neopronouns, etc. Additionally, there was one super weird story about a binary trans person that felt like a TERFy ad. It does feature lots of explorations of sexuality and genitals, though, so people who enjoy reading fiction about that may like this book.
singlecrow's review
4.0
I got this on a whim and really liked it. As with all anthologies it's hit and miss; some stories seem a little short on the speculative element (there was at least one where I couldn't make it out at all) and others seem a little short on the stated theme of the anthology. I don't want to make this latter criticism too harshly as an author's notion of what they set out to write might be different from mine, and what reads to me as other elements of the queer umbrella might well be meant as a genderqueer story. The one that did seem a little self-indulgent in this regard however was the Valente story, "Palimpsest". There's also one story that struck me as actively amateurish, "Self-Reflection". However on the whole it's way more hit than miss, and I liked the book very much taken as a whole. Particular favourites were "Sea of Cortez", by Sandra McDonald; "Fisherman" by Nalo Hopkinson, "Spoiling Veena" by Keyan Bowes and "The Metamorphosis Bud" by Liu Wen Zhuang.