A review by singlecrow
Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction by Lee Mandelo

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.