Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction

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Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction (Riverside Series 0.5)

by Brit Mandelo (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Ellen Kushner (Contributor), Tansy Roberts (Contributor), Delia Sherman (Contributor), Claire Humphrey (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Catherynne M. Valente (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Sonya Taaffe (Contributor), Keffy R.M. Kehrli (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) , more…

3.4 of 5 stars 3.40 · rating details · 68 ratings · 25 reviews

Speculative fiction is the literature of questions, of challenges and imagination, and what better to question than the ways in which gender and sexuality have been rigidly defined, partitioned off, put in little boxes? These seventeen stories explore the ways in which identity can go beyond binary from space colonies to small college towns, from angels to androids, and fr...more

267 pages

Published May 2012 by Lethe Press

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Jul 16, 2012 Sarah Pi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthologies, queer, speculative-fiction, gender

My flight back from Readercon was delayed by several hours, so I got to read this anthology cover to cover. I usually prefer to break up the reading of a themed anthology, but there was enough variety in this one to keep me engaged. I particularly liked the Kelley Eskridge story. I would have loved to see even more variety, both in the types of speculative fiction and in the expected breadth inherent in the "beyond binary" label. Still, taken individually, most of these stories are strong; taken...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Kit rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: queer, trans

Well, that was overwhelmingly binary.

When an anthology is subtitled "Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction", I'm naturally going to go in assuming a fair number of the stories will be about genderqueer or otherwise nonbinary people, you know? But the vast majority of these stories were either about cisgender queer people (including cisgender queer people whose narratives gave no hint of them being actually sexually fluid) or about binary trans* people. And don't get me wrong, I love...more

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Nov 29, 2012 ambyr rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: acquiredㅡborrowed, authorㅡfemale, authorㅡmale, authorㅡpoc, book-club, bored-now, characterㅡlgbt, genreㅡcyberpunk, genreㅡfantasyㅡcontemporary, genreㅡfantasyㅡsecondary-world, genreㅡhistorical-fiction, genreㅡmagical-realism, genreㅡscience-fiction, ownㅡnever, protagonistㅡmultiple-genders, short-stories, warningㅡrape

Is expecting a book subtitled "Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction" to provide speculative fiction stories about genderqueer characters too much to ask for? Apparently so, if this collection is any indication. It's not that I didn't enjoy any of the stories. It's that almost none of them lived up to the book's label. (Bisexuality is not the same thing as sexual fluidity. Being transgendered is different from being genderqueer.) This is particularly frustrating because this is a co...more Is expecting a book subtitled "Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction" to provide speculative fiction stories about genderqueer characters too much to ask for? Apparently so, if this collection is any indication. It's not that I didn't enjoy any of the stories. It's that almost none of them lived up to the book's label. (Bisexuality is not the same thing as sexual fluidity. Being transgendered is different from being genderqueer.) This is particularly frustrating because this is a collection of reprints hand-picked by the editor. Surely there are others she could have picked instead? How about something of LeGuin's, to start?

I was going to go through all of them, but honestly, I don't have much to say about most beyond "meh." I enjoyed "Sea of Cortez" as a solid atmospheric romance about a transwoman serving in the U.S. Navy during WWII, but it had no speculative content--a poor opener for the collection, or perhaps an accurate herald of what was to come. "Fisherman" was a strong piece of erotica with an interesting voice but, again, no speculative content. "A Wild and Wicked Youth" worked for me because I'm familiar with the characters from Kushner's novels, but I suspect it would fail as a stand-alone piece, and it lacks any genderqueer content.

"Prosperine When it Sizzles" was enjoyable science fiction, but it handled its aliens in a way unpleasantly reinforcing of gender binaries. (In general, I was baffled that a collection of genderqueer speculative fiction featured not a single story about multi-gendered aliens. It seems an obvious place to go. The editor apparently choose to privilege more "realistic" stories, but--the strength of speculative fiction is the way it can make us rethink our society from the outside by showing us societies utterly alien to us, the tools it has that can serve as metaphor. Why waste that toolkit?)

I like the language and world in "Palimpsest"--I think Valente is at her best in short stories--but, again, there's nothing here I would consider genderqueer. "Bonehouse" was solid cyberpunk, but--are you sensing a theme? "Sex with Ghosts" was a fun twist on sexbots (a trope I thought was worn to the bone) and one of the few fictional treatments of asexuality I've encountered that hasn't felt overly preachy to me, but--yeah, that again. "The Metamorphosis Bud" was possibly the only genderswap story I've read where the character's first thought on waking up with an unexpected set of genitals was not "Oh no!" or "Huh, I wonder what sex is like" but "Cool, I've always wondered what it's like to pee as a dude" which was...a little odd to plot an entire story around, but worked out surprisingly charmingly.

I have nothing positive to say about the other stories, so I think I'll stop here. Not recommended.(less)

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Jun 10, 2013 Carol Holland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Review for Beyond Binary.

I really enjoyed this collection of stories about people redefining sexual identity and gender. The stories are all speculative fiction, reprinted from a variety of speculative fiction magazines and anthologies. They range from the slightly different to the quite strange, and some are more accessible than others, but all are well written and worth reading. The choices are a good selection of the editor calls “sexually fluid”, one of my current favorite phrases. Several...more

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Dec 09, 2012 A.C. Wise rated it 5 of 5 stars

Beyond Binary is an incredibly strong reprint anthology, showcasing tales of fluid gender and sexuality. Of the stories I'd read elsewhere, the two stand-outs were Kelly Eskridge's Eye of the Storm and Catherynne M. Valente's Palimpsest. I was delighted to see both included, particularly Eskridge's piece, as it has lingered with me since I first read it years ago, and it perfectly encapsulates the theme of the collection. The stories which were new to me that really stood out were Nalo Hopkinson...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Cow rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: rainbow, short-story

I was so excited when I first read about this book and the early reviews.

But no.

There are a few good pieces in here. "Eye of the Storm" by Kelley Eskridge was both amazing and mind-blowing, and made up for so much of the rest of this book. But at that point, you should probably just pick up her own personal anthology, Dangerous Space. A few of the stories toward the end were good, too, although none super stand-out.

Aside from the one story above, the best thing I can say is that most of these ar...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Beans rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 kee...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories, science-fiction, fantasy

This is a fascinating and much-needed anthology. While I thought some of the stories were less daring than others--or, for whatever reason, less appealing to me personally--the majority were excellent: well-written, thought-provoking, and a pleasure to read. I'd like to talk just a little bit about my favorites, focusing on those that worked exceptionally well both as stories and as considerations of gender and sexuality.

"Sea of Cortez" is barely SFF--there's precognition or prophesy that doesn'...more This is a fascinating and much-needed anthology. While I thought some of the stories were less daring than others--or, for whatever reason, less appealing to me personally--the majority were excellent: well-written, thought-provoking, and a pleasure to read. I'd like to talk just a little bit about my favorites, focusing on those that worked exceptionally well both as stories and as considerations of gender and sexuality.

"Sea of Cortez" is barely SFF--there's precognition or prophesy that doesn't always work--but it has the tone of slipstream and is a beautifully written exploration of a transgendered sailor who can use the war to find the romance (or at least sex) that she craves, but lives with the knowledge that even this more permissive atmosphere won't allow her full expression of herself. It's lush and atmospheric, grounded in specific detail but dreamlike all the same--appropriate for an experience that seems doomed to be fleeting.

"Eye of the Storm" has, in its protagonist Mars, one of those rare literary characters whose gender is never apparent or important; even if you never noticed that, however, you would still see the loveliness with the prince, and Mars's atypical way of making love, and the way the revelation of the self isn't, as Mandelo talks about in the introduction, something that causes repulsion, but rather something that leads to fuller understanding, and therefore is all to the good. Also, it's physical and gritty and emotionally real; I'd like to read all the other Mars stories now.

"Fisherman" is one of the most explicitly genderqueer selections, and one of my favorite stories in the collection; it does an excellent job of avoiding binary positions with its protagonist, who is physically female and mentally/emotionally... more/other/else. A fisherman, rather than a man or a woman or even a "mannish woman." The voice is terrific and provides just as much setting as the physical details like the smell of fish and the texture of skin, and it specifies KC in a way that a lesser story would have left its character a bland representation of nothing but gender expression. KC has personality to spare.

"Sex With Ghosts" features an asexual protagonist who takes special orders for fully customized sex bots, and who makes a startling discovery about fantasy. She's an instantly likeable narrator and one that I would happily read a whole novel about (there are too few definitively asexual characters in literature, anyway), and her situation is unique and compelling.

There are a handful of other stories that I loved as stories while not necessarily thinking that they stretched the binary definitions too far and there are a handful of others where I appreciated the redefinitions and political elements without ever coming fully into the story; in these cases, though, there was still pleasure of some kind being taken. It's a strong anthology with a wide variety of story types, and it should be on the bookshelf of anyone interested in these subjects. (Also, because I like to mention this where I can, it's a beautifully designed book, from the cover to the page layout: kudos to Lethe.)
(less)

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Jan 30, 2013 Samuel rated it 4 of 5 stars

For those who're TLDR - I suggest reading the book, because it's good.

This collection first came to my attention because it’s got “Eye of the Storm – Kelley Eskridge” in it; I love the story so I decided to buy the collection. It turned out, though, to have many more stories I ended up enjoying! I’ve decided to review the collection story by story, since I’m unsure how to discuss theme without spoilers. While I won’t be giving plot specific spoilers, I do mention my emotions/impressions of the s...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Greg rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub, glbt, short-stories, ebook, 2012

For a book that claims to be "beyond binary" and "genderqueer," the almost complete lack of either in this anthology is astonishing. (Doubly so since it's full of reprints.) Most stories paid lip service at best via some bisexuality (and often fleeting at that), and for a book that promised no surprise reveal of genitals as a punch line, one of the stories in fact does just that.

The best thing about this book is Kelley Eskridge's "Eye of the Storm" which really is just reminding me that I've had...more

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ambyr Oh thank god, it's not just me. Story after story that leaves me going "...and the point of that was?" It's not even necessarily that they're bad stor...more
Sep 27, 2012 09:25am

Greg I can get when it's the first problem, but considering that this is all reprints, the second one is a bit troublesome and puzzling for me... Ah well.
Sep 27, 2012 10:01am

ambyr I was baffled at the lack of stories that used aliens to explore non-binary possibilities, ala LeGuin (who she even mentions in the introduction) and...more
updated Sep 27, 2012 10:30am

Jun 27, 2012 Sally rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: transgender, transcending-gender-reading-challen

Brit Mandelo's Beyond Binary is a collection of previously published Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction that I'd been looking forward to for quite some time. Having finally had a chance to read it through and go back to revisit a few of the stories I felt weren't quite so deserving of the tag speculative fiction, I have to say it's an interesting enough collection. There are some stellar entries that definitely make this worth a read, but overall I was disappointed in the extent...more Brit Mandelo's Beyond Binary is a collection of previously published Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction that I'd been looking forward to for quite some time. Having finally had a chance to read it through and go back to revisit a few of the stories I felt weren't quite so deserving of the tag speculative fiction, I have to say it's an interesting enough collection. There are some stellar entries that definitely make this worth a read, but overall I was disappointed in the extent to which the authors attempted to queer the concept of gender.

Nalo Hopkinson's "'Fisherman'' was definite highlight of the collection for me, with it's languid revelation of gender and its remarkably sincere exploration of sexuality. The relationship that develops here is a delight to experience, with an understanding whore who acknowledges and respects her client's chosen gender, while equally accommodating and his birth gender in their intimacies.

Ellen Kushner's "A Wild and Wicked Youth" was another strong addition to the book, a longer story about very personal expressions of gender and unusual expressions of sexuality. If you never thought fighting could be sexy, or that enjoying the thrill of victory could be orgasmic, then you need to read this. Very clever, and very well-done.

Sonya Taaffe's "Another Coming" was a beautifully written piece, full of haunting imagery, but it only strains the gender binary with one relationship, and it's never satisfactorily explained how it could work. A lovely bisexual story, but not necessarily genderqueer.

Sarah Kanning's "Sex with Ghosts" was another favourite of mine, featuring a robot sex worker with a flair for English poetry. Deeper and more intellectual than the idea of a robot sex worker might have you suspect, this definitely played into my love for authors like D.B. Story who explore gender and sexuality through those artificial constructs who exist outside the binary.

Keyan Bowes' "Spoiling Veena" lacked something in the storytelling that would have elevated it to favourite status, which is a shame because the subject matter was so compelling. Bowes explores a future in which parents can choose their child's gender, and looks at how things can develop when your child doesn't like the choice you made.

Liu Wen Zhuang's "The Metamorphosis Bud" is one of the oddest stories in the collection, but an interesting read. We've all had fantasies about waking up with something new in the way of sexual equipment, but I doubt any of us would handle it quite as wonderfully as the old woman who wakes up with a penis.

Not quite as breathtaking a collection as I had hoped for, it still offers a good mix of stories, genders, and sexualities with which to draw in readers and maybe, possibly hopefully introduce them to something new. Worth checking out, especially if you're new to the stories.

As published on Bending the Bookshelf(less)

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Jan 13, 2013 Kim rated it 1 of 5 stars

What a disappointment. This collection was alleged to "explore the ways in which identity can go beyond binary", but I don't think that a single one of the seventeen stories did that at all! Many of the stories didn't have anything to do with gender at all. Those few that touched on gender fluidity only did so within the binary of male or female. Two of them were barely even written in English (actually, intentionally perverted English).

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Nov 23, 2012 Melinda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: inclusive-scifi-fantasy

Overall, I really liked the anthology. There where stories I didnt like because the plot wasn't of interest to me. A good example was the pirate story. I like the idea of computer hackers as pirates but I couldn't connected with the drinking of rum as a medium to reincarnation and possession. I liked Fisherman by Nalo Hopkinson. It was grounded in a reality of experience that I believe could have existed in a different era. I also really adored Spoiling Veena! Veena knew that Vikrum was truly wh...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Valerie rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of speculative fiction, fans of "Swordspoint"

Recommended to Valerie by: Amazon Daily blog

Shelves: reading-on-kindle

Meh. A couple of good stories and quite a few that are so oblique they are almost incoherent (and I'm not interested enough to invest the time to decipher them). Starts stronger than it finishes...and if I hadn't read the title of the anthology or the introductory essay, I wouldn't have guessed the common theme.

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Jan 07, 2013 Tommy Carlson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting set of short stories promising to smash the boundaries of traditional relationships. But, honestly, it didn't feel all that ground-breaking. I'm a straight white guy from the suburbs. Okay, I'm more open-minded than most. Still, nothing here made me sit back and think "wow." So, I think, given the title, the collection is more tepid than it should be.

That said, most of the stories are good. As with any collection, each reader will find some which really resonate and some which fall f...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Sumayyah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

Decent selection of stories, some that I have read before in other collections. However, I found myself confused as to why several of these stories were included as I was unable to figure out their connection to gender.

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Apr 23, 2012 Lora Maroney rated it 4 of 5 stars

Some really fascinating looks at gender and sexuality; I just wish I'd known ahead of time that so many were going to be erotica. One or two I just skipped completely because I had no interest in reading that detailed an account of sex, no matter who it's between. Ah well.

Still a good read, though!

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Jul 20, 2012 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

A great collection, though it's somewhat unbalanced--as a whole, the stories in the beginning are much better. I found myself wishing that more of the stories dealt with elements other than sex, because gender identity doesn't have to hinge on the type of sex you are having or who you're having it with. There's only one asexual protag, and there seems to be a preponderance of lesbians. For my money, the stand out stories are:

Sea of Cortez
Eye of the Storm
Fisherman
The Faerie Cony-Catcher
Bleaker C...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Richard Larson rated it 5 of 5 stars · (Review from the author)

I'm in this book, but don't let that stop you. These are urgent, important stories, and I hope they get read by lots and lots of people.

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Aug 27, 2012 Christopher rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this back in June but forgot to rate and review. The selections are all good to great, but I got my money's worth from Delia Sherman's "Faery Cony-Catcher" and Richard Larson's "The Ghost Party". Valente's story, "Palimpsest," was nice to see here, too, particularly since her novel of the same name often eclipses the story that was its seed. The Kelly Eskridge story was one I had not come across before, and it was wonderful, as were the Sandra McDonald and Ellen Kushner stories.

Kudos to...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Bobbi Cinaede rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: genderqueer, transgender

From my RR comments:
This was a hard one to evaluate. There were some really good stories, that accomplished the spirit of the collection, but there were several that seemed as if they must have been reluctantly chosen to fill space. Overall, I was more confused by the story choices than I was entertained, and only a few of the characters really seemed to have any heart and soul.

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Sep 16, 2012 Marty rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm not that into short stories, but a few were pretty intertin.

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Sep 23, 2012 Ana added it

This is a collection of speculative fiction, each with characters that don't fit the gender binary in some way or another. What fun, and what imagination the writers show! And thanks to the Livejournal friends-of-friends network that alerted me to its publication.

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Jun 05, 2012 Kate O'Hanlon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, anthology

There were a handful of stories here that I loved (and one that even made me tear up) and then a bunch that were a bit 'meh' and two I skipped.

Someday I will read an anthology that I like all of.

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Dec 25, 2012 Heron rated it 4 of 5 stars

Two bright highlights: Kelley Eskridge's Eye of the Storm and Katherine Sparrow's Pirate Solutions. Also loved: Fisherman, Prosperine When it Sizzles, Palimpsest.

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Jun 18, 2013 tfc marked it as to-read

Jun 17, 2013 Jasmine marked it as to-read

Jun 13, 2013 Ellie marked it as to-read

Shelves: bisexual-book-award-winners, bisexuality, science-fiction-and-fantasy, queer-womens-fiction, glbt-fiction

Jun 12, 2013 Robin marked it as to-read

Jun 11, 2013 Heidi marked it as to-read

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