So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction

by Steve Berman (Editor), Tom Cardamone (Contributor), Aynjel Kaye (Contributor)

Queer culture meets fey folklore in the pages of So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction, an enchanting anthology of fantastical tales for lovers of Lord of the Rings and all things Tolkien. But these faery stories have a magical twist--every one has an LGBT theme The genre's top writers spin stories of coming out and growing old, of identity and loss, and of hardship, with a focus on youth and beauty, the love of the dance, wild passion and decadence, and the drama of vengeance and spurned love.

Contents:
A faun's tale / Tom Cardamone --
A scent of roses / Catherine Lundoff --
The wand's boy / Richard Bowes --
A bird of ice / Craig Laurance Gidney --
Charming, a tale of true love / Ruby deBrazier & Cassandra Clare --
Three letters from the Queen of Elfland / Sarah Monette --
The kings of oak and holly / Kenneth D. Woods --
Detox / Elspeth Potter --
From asphalt to emeralds and moonlight / Aynjel Kaye --
The price of glamour / Steve Berman --
The coat of stars / Holly Black --
How the ocean loved Margie / Laurie J. Marks --
Isis in darkness / Christopher Barzak --
Touch / M. Kate Havas --
Attracting opposites / Carl Vaughn Frick --
The faerie cony-catcher / Delia Sherman --
Exiles / Sean Meriwether --
Laura left a rotten apple and came not to regret the cold of the Yukon / Lynne Jamneck --
Mr. Seeley / Melissa Scott --
Year of the fox / Eugie Foster --
Ever so much more than twenty / Joshua Lewis --
Mr. Grimm's fairy tale / Eric Andrews-Katz.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, LGBT, Anthologies, Fiction, Queer, Romance

349 pages, Paperback

First published September 19, 2007

About the author

Some tidbits about me...

I turned down a scholarship to Miskatonic University because I heard of the high rate of incidents against the student population.

I briefly worked for Omni Consumer Products in their Marketing Department. Great benefits, nice cafeteria, sadly too prone to executive whim.

Last year I stayed at the noted Mauna Pele resort in Hawaii. The accommodations were impressive but my traveling companion disappeared soon after wanting to attend a pig roast.

I've slept with one minor porn star and with a guy who later became one.

And I happen to have written some fanfic that inspired the memorable holodeck scene in Star Trek: Hidden Frontiers episode "Vigil"

Reviews

[Alia · Rating 4 out of 5]

My fangirling wicked ways (for Laurie J. Marks, of course!) brought me here, so lets see!

- A Faun's Tale by Tom Cardamone ⭐⭐⭐ (Interesting take)
- A Scent of Roses by Catherine Lundoff ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Love how "winning" someone to someone else feels so... weird)
- The Wand's Boy by Richard Bowes ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (I would love to read a longer work from this one)
- A Bird of Ice by Craig Laurance Gidney ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Interesting, but I am still not sure about the point I got)
- Charming, a Tale of True Love by Ruby deBrazier & Cassandra Clare ⭐⭐⭐ (Ok, but it lacked something)
- Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland by Sarah Monette ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (It was going so well, if you ask me, Violet deserves Philip. Maybe it lacked some more solid reasoning beyond her
final choice.)
- The Kings of Oak and Holly by Kenneth D. Woods ⭐⭐⭐ (Editing issues? It was interesting, but lost me with the "accidental slip" 🤭. I couldn't take it seriously after that and I think it was very serious 🙈)
- Detox by Elspeth Potter ⭐⭐⭐ (Funny, but... mmmm)
- From Asphalt to Emeralds and Moonlight by Aynjel Kaye ⭐⭐ (couldn't care for anything there)
- The Price of Glamour by Steve Berman ⭐⭐ (couldn't care for anything there) (so much that I copied the above 🤭)
- The Coat of Stars by Holly Black ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Awesome and rich!)
- How the Ocean Loved Margie by Laurie J. Marks ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (I read this book for the story, damn, it is good! I laughed, was charmed, intrigued and then my heart broke. 🙈)
- Isis in Darkness by Christopher Barzak ⭐⭐⭐ (It was ok I guess)
- Touch by M. Kate Havas ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Uncomfortable but good)
- Attracting Opposites by Carl Vaughn Frick ⭐⭐ (couldn't care for anything there) (so much that I copied the above 🤭 x 2)
- The Faerie Cony-Catcher by Delia Sherman ⭐ (The first part was dragging, I didn't dig the language, but the final arc was nice)
- Exiles by Sean Meriwether ⭐ (Not for me)
- Laura Left a Rotten Apple and Came Not to Regret the Cold of the Yukon by Lynne Jamneck ⭐⭐ (When it started to get interesting, it... ended?)
- Mr. Seeley by Melissa Scott ⭐ (Is this one of the type: racists are cute too?! I am intrigued.)
- Year of the Fox by Eugie Foster ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Traditional but solid)
- Ever So Much More Than Twenty by Joshua Lewis ⭐⭐ (meh?)
- Mr. Grimm's Fairy Tale by Eric Andrews-Katz ⭐ (I just couldn't)

[Billy ⋆｡･☽･⋆* (semi-hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book! 4-4.5 🌟 rating. Some more complex than others, but still fantastically crafted
I felt more connected to some more than others. And those ones, my favorites, I still think about them today.

There two quotes on the beginning of the book. There're so in theme with book (that I had to share them with you!):

Illusion is the first of all pleasures. -Oscar Wilde

Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables. -Sappho

About the beautiful queer fairy fiction tales:

1-"A Faun's Tale" by Tom Cardamone - 4/5

2-"A Scent of Roses" by Catherine Lundoff - 3/5

3-"The Wand's Boy" by Richard Bowes - 3.5/5 (great world-building; it gives LOTR vibes if it were in a steampunk era 😅)

4-"A Bird of Ice" by Craig Laurance Gidney - 10/5! (my ultimate favorite from the whole book! the writing, the characters, the world-building! OMGx! I will definitely find more of this great author works! I mean where there's Japanese folklore and mythology, count me in!!!)

5-"Charming, a Tale of True Love" by Ruby deBrazier & Cassandra Clare - DNF (couldn't possibly capture my attention, it bored the heck out of me with just the first pages - also too many futile/superficial details!)

6-"Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland" by Sarah Monette- 4/5

7-"The Kings of Oak and Holly" by Kenneth D. Woods - 5/5 (although a great beautiful story, it does end with tragic events)

8-"Detox" by Elspeth Potter - 1/5 (I didn’t enjoy this one, it was about food and detox or wtv, but I felt it was rather insensitive for people who have ED, too gratuitous)

9-"From Asphalt to Emeralds and Moonlight" by Aynjel Kaye - 1/5 (the only reason why it a 1 star rating is bc the author unnecessarily and insistently described all the elfs present in the story with "very pale complexion and silver hair" [AS IF]- and that was an extremely unnecessary ridiculous detail to insist on! Which ruined the obviously already mediocre story.
!oh right I almost forgot, the M/F incest between the MCs elf royal twins!🤮 it had too little context for it to be "overlooked". )

10-"The Price of Glamour" by Steve Berman - DNF/5 ( although Steve Berman is the editor of this book, I could not connect with this one, and lost complete interest)

11-"The Coat of Stars" by Holly Black - 5/5 (this was a great story! Rafael is amazing! And the Latinx family dynamic is so well written, I got so involved in his story. I would most definitely read a book on this story alone!)

12-"How the Ocean Loved Margie" by Laurie J. Marks - 4/5 (I mean, I am a complete and utter sucker for selkies! But besides that, it's a great story, that completely captured me, as I read this tale in one sitting)

13-"Isis in Darkness" by Christopher Barzak -3.5/5

14-"Touch" by M. Kate Havas - 5/5 (Oooh! This one ended up being so creepy! But oh so very fun to read!)

15-"Attracting Opposites" by Carl Vaughn Frick - DNF/5 (lost interest)

16-"The Faerie Cony-Catcher" by Delia Sherman - DNF/5 (lost complete interest, besides the author's writing style is not one that I appreciate)

17-"Exiles" by Sean Meriwether -5/5 (intense and fantastic at the same time, and so well written! when I say intense it's because the story begins with a homophobic hate-crime, but it only goes for 2 to 3 pages max, and the mc has emotional support through physical rehabilitation

17-"Laura Left a Rotten Apple and Came
Not to Regret the Cold of the Yukon" by Lynne Jamneck- 5/5 (great great story!)

18-"Mr. Seeley" by Melissa Scott - DNF/5

19-"Year of the Fox" by Eugie Foster - 5/5 (asian fox lore! With foxes that can transform into humans! Yes pls!)

20-"Ever So Much More Than Twenty" by Joshua Lewis - 3/5

21-"Mr. Grimm's Fairy Tale" by Eric Andrews-Katz - DNF/5 (it could not capture my attention enough to finish it)

Conclusion: when re-reading this anthology, I'll definitely be sticking to my favs! It was definitely a fun experience.

[Just_ann_now · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection. Some of the stories were quite original while others were contemporary takes on the Thomas the Rhymer/Tam Lin legends. Holly Black's "Coat of Stars" was a standout - how have I never read any Holly Black? Laurie Marks' "How the Ocean Loved Margie" was creepy and disturbing in a very good way, while Christopher Barzak's "Isis in Darkness" had a deliciously Bordertown feel to it. (And I see that he'll have a story in the upcoming Welcome to Bordertown book - hooray!)

The thing I love about anthologies is how they provide tasty samples of wonderful writers' works for me to try. I definitely hit the jackpot here!

[Elfscribe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of short stories all dealing with gay or lesbian characters and the realm of fairy. This is a particularly apt combination, not only for the play on the term "fairy" but because of the association of gay as being outside boundaries, much as the faery world is.

The approaches to the topic were creative and varied, mostly dealing with modern day humans encountering strangeness in various ways. I was particularly delighted by The Wand's Boy by Richard Bowes about a mortal world bordered by Faery in which the main character is descended from both a faery and a mortal. I wanted to read a whole novel in that world.

Also Delia Sherman's The Faerie Cony-Catcher featured a wonderful lusty young man out to seek his fortune who wins a bride from the Faery Queen and takes her home only to discover that things aren't what they appear. The Elizabethan style language in the Cony-Catcher is the principal delight. "How now, my friend, you look wondrous down i' the mouth. What want you? Wine? Company? -- all with such meaning look, such a waving of her skirts and a hoisting of her breasts that Nick's yard, fain to salute her, flew its colors in his cheeks." And I loved her clever, eager for experience Nick.

Well written, imaginative, the collection will not disappoint those who enjoy fantasy and gay themes.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

What I learned from this book: editing as a profession is truly going straight to hell. reek=/=wreak. You absolutely DO NOT "reek havoc". And I wish that were the only mistake the editor didn't catch.

Anyway, the stories were also mostly pointless or dull or predictable, given the nature of the anthology. I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to run into any good short stories this year.

[Fey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic collection of short stories, a little bit of a mix of mostly fantasy and urban fantasy and fairytale. And each of them contain a gay or lesbian relationship, but all are done to varying degrees. No two stories are similar.

There were so many really good stories packed into this anthology, and it would be really hard to comment on them all, so I shall restrain myself to mentioning just a few favourites.

"The Coat of Stars" by Holly Black
Rafael is a costume designer for stage productions, when he goes home to visit family he is remembering a long lost love from his boyhood: Lyle, who believed in fairies, and died tragically young. Then Rafael wonders if Lyle might never have died at all, but been taken by the fairy. This story blended modern day into fairytale so wonderfully, I loved everything about it. I will be looking for more novels by Holly Black in the future.

"Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland" by Sarah Monette
Violet is a young woman who catches the attention of the fairy Queen Nix, and becomes her lover. The story is broken up by a look at three letters that Nix wrote to her human lover. I'm extremely in love with Sarah Monettes writing, and I was so thrilled to find that she'd written lesbian characters, as in fantasy thats a rarity. And Sarah Monette writes so uniquely and beautifully, no review does it justice. I really hope she writes a full length fantasy with lesbian characters in the future!

"How the Ocean loved Magie" by Laurie J Marks
Another beautiful UF/fairytale in which a young woman pregnant by donor finds herself inexplicably drawn to the seashore and a far away island, and there becomes the lover of a beautiful mysterious woman with deep black eyes and a love for the ocean. To say more would spoil the mystery.. This was a very moving tale, beautiful and romantic and quite heartbreaking. This is another Author I have to investigate now.

Those were my favourite three of the entire book. But honourable mentions go to "The Price of Glamour" by Steve Berman and "Ever so much more than Twenty" by Joshua Luis.

The only one I found I didn't quite like was "Mr Grimm's fairy tale" by Eric Andrews, and in part because I wasn't sure at all what was supposed to be Queer about it (used the homosexual sense), I couldn't for the life of me spot a hint of gay relationship.. perhaps I'm missing something..? It seemed a little bit out of place tacked onto the end of anotherwise amazing collection of stories.

All in all VERY highly recommended for lovers of Fantasy and fairytales with lgbt themes. And I'm very pleased I found a whole bunch of new authors to check out!

[Sana Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not perfect, but definitely good.

I was wavering between 3 and 4 stars but ended up going high based on my love for faeries, queerness, and short stories. On a technical level, the formatting of this book on Kindle was kind of weird, likely due to its age, since I don't think it was originally intended as an ebook. There was a lot of variation in the stories included, in tone, setting, and interpretation of what "faerie" means, and a nice balance between cute queer romance and fae mystery and creepiness, even if one of two stories inevitably didn't grab me as much as the others.

Favourite stories: "A Bird of Ice", "From Asphalt to Emeralds and Moonlight", "The Coat of Stars", "Year of the Fox".

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really, really enjoyed this anthology (and not just because I'm a contributor to it :-). There are some great stories to be found in here, by an impressive list of writers including Holly Black, Melissa Scott, Lynne Jamneck, Christopher Barzak and others
A new edition will be released in a couple of months from Prime Books.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a huge variety in quality among these stories. I recommend the stories by Ruby deBrazier, Sarah Monette, Holly Black, Christopher Barzak, Delia Sherman, Sean Meriwether, Melissa Scott, and Joshua Lewis.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steve Berman is quickly becoming my go-to-guy for anthologies of short fiction. This collection focuses on faerie fiction and runs between pure escapist fairy-tale to romantic fantasy to romance to urban-magic to dark fantasy to horror. Some of the selections are better than others, of course, but they are all excellent contributions of contemporary fiction.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been a long time...I shouldn't have left you...

I got this from the library back in...oh wow...2008/2009 and I bought it on Kindle last month.

I needed the time. There was a lot of pain, a lot of hate (not against the LGBTQ community but some of the adult-themes in this book)

If anyone's going to Faeriecon in 2020 will you let me know? I'd love to go!

[Alice Anne]

22 Stories Including:

"Year of the Fox" by Eugie Foster

"A Bird of Ice" by Craig Laurance Gidney

"Isis in Darkness" by Christopher Barzak

"Detox" by Elspeth Potter

"The Kings of Oak and Holly" by Kenneth D. Woods

"How the Ocean Loved Margie" by Laurie J. Marks

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collected short stories that weave elements of homosexuality into tales of enchantment. There is little to shock within these pages, the inclusion of sexuality is in many cases extraneous.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially liked the stories by Melissa Scott and Joshua Lewis

[Stevie Harrington · Rating 3 out of 5]

While some of these stories were exceptional, I found myself skipping more than a couple of them because I simply couldn't get into them. Also, this needed a couple more rounds of copy edits; it was a little out of hand!!!

I think these stories were overall fine, but i don't foresee myself reading the collection as a whole.

rep: characters of color, queer characters

spice: none

[Ben Francisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent anthology of LGBTQ-themed stories about faeries. I enjoyed every story, and especially loved the stories by Rick Bowes, Elspeth Potter, Steve Berman, Holly Black, Lynne Jamneck, and Joshua Lewis.

[L.A. Fields · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something about fairy magic brings out the fanciest language like, “huge in his ceremonial armor, striding in mid-air, wreathed in fire,” and “a queer, giddy feeling, as if her blood had turned to glowing champagne.” Enchant your evenings with this collection.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

SlashReaders: So in this case the back of the book really doesn't tell you much about what is inside it. However, I suppose it can't be easy to write the back of a book for an anthology of short stories. I don't normally enjoy reading short stories, mostly I've decided: because, they are short. I prefer something longer, something I can sink into for long periods of time. A world and characters let my mind revolve around for days or weeks in some cases.

In this case, I found that my mind began to revolve around the fey, and the faerie though. So it served the same purpose. I've always loved fairy tales. A few of the stories in this anthology made no sense what so ever to me. However, for the most part it is a wonderful collection of short stories. My only complaint would be that I wish there were more dealing with other cultures. As expected there are a great many dealing with the fey. A few revolving around Japanese mythology which was nice but that was one of the only ones that really stood out as being different. There is a wide range of cultures and folklore out there, it would be interesting to see some branching out. Though I suppose there is always hope for that should another one come out.

In looking back at this review. I just wanted to say that I have been a fan of Steve Berman's anthologies ever since reading this one. :)

[amymarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me 6 years to finish reading this anthology - literally. I would start the book and soon thereafter abandon it, before trying again months later. Bearing that in mind, there were a few good short stories (The Coat of Stars, Ever So Much More Than Twenty, Mr. Grimm's Fairy Tale, and a couple others) The rest? Not so much.

I have to mention A Bird of Ice in particular. While the premise of this story was interesting and at first seemed so promising, it was painful to read. The gratuitous grammatical errors, typos, fragments, and incongruous statements detracted greatly from the plot line. The only way I was able to get through it was to write a significant amount of edits and comments in the margins. I found myself asking if this story was ever edited at all. Perhaps the biggest issue is that the author seemed to have a considerable lack of understanding of Buddhism thereby undermining the story at its core.

[Tony J]

A friend lent me this book, with a caution that not *all* of the stories were that good... I'd pass that same caution on to any potential readers, as well. While there are some real gems (A Bird of Ice, Charming..., Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland, The Coat of Stars, How the Ocean Loved Margie, and Ever So Much More Than Twenty), some of the others fall short of being exceptional.

With that said, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well some authors interwove the 'gay' piece into the stories. Other gay fiction that I've read has seemed contrived or made the fact that a character was gay the main focus of the story. One or two of these works did a wonderful job of showing the... normalcy... of gay life. Definitely worth reading...

[Cass · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of fairy/fae fiction tends to be very mysterious. A lot of LGBT fiction tends to be very tragic. This anthology has someone combined them both. At first, I couldn't figure out if this really, really annoyed me, or if it was actually a good thing because I was curled into a ball, sobbing. I still haven't quite figured it out.

However, this anthology has a really large range of stories; there's got to be something for everyone. There's stories set in the modern world, in the fairy world, in the past and maybe in the future too. There's stories about the sidhe, fairies of the high court, brownies and the Holly and Oak kings. I didn't like all of the stories, but as an anthology, I adored the mix and the juxtaposition of the different ones next to each other.

[Monika · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's difficult rating a collection of stories by so many authors. I would have awarded 'The Kings of Oak and Holly' (Kenneth D. Woods) and 'Ever so much more than Twenty' (Joshua Lewis) ***** and 'The Coat of Stars' (Holly Black) deserves ****.

[Crystal Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is an interesting collection of stories and I really enjoy the queer take on the fantastical. I enjoyed ome of these stories very much and some of them left something to be desired. Overall though, I really did like the collection.

[Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some awesomeness, some disappointments. See my full review at http://booksaremyhomeboys.blogspot.com/

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mostly just read the stories about women :-) and they were moderately enjoyable.

[Oreotalpa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very, very mixed bag--stories range from transcendent to so terrible it's amazing they made it into print.

[Sarah]

I mostly only read the stories about women, but I enjoyed them alright!

[Deidre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved Christoper Barzak's story and I'd love to read more like that, just enough mystery to leave you wondering

[Readin'ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great anthology of queer fantasy.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this solely for the Cassandra Clare story, which was pretty cute.