Transcendent 4: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction

by Bogi Takács, Nino Cipri, Everett Maroon

A non-binary teenager may be from a small town but they remember at least a dozen past lives; a young trans woman auditions as an anime voice actor while the world is ending; in a future of constant change and transformation, one person is hesitant to undergo the next metamorphosis; a trans man comes back home to discover his parents have added to the household an android that has his deadface installed. Award-winning editor Bogi Takács has assembled a stellar line-up of stories that explore the frontiers of gender - using the imaginative tools of speculative fiction.

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

335 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 16, 2019

About the author

Bogi Takács is a Hungarian Jewish author who writes short-form speculative fiction, poetry, nonfiction and weird unclassifiables. Eir work has been published in a variety of venues like Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Apex, Lightspeed and more.

Reviews

[Carien · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very cool anthology with a myriad of stories to capture your imagination and to make you think.

In front of the book there are trigger warnings with each story, so people can skip the stories that would be too confronting or emotional.

The stories themselves range from magical realism to straight out SF. There are those that explore possible futures, family relationships, love, friendship, etc. Some of the stories made me cry, others made me angry, others offered hope.

All in all this is an anthology that will stay with you long after you've finished it. I can recommend it to everyone who loves speculative fiction and anyone looking for a diverse read.

[Bogi Takács]

I edited this and very soon it will be available! (I am told some copies are already out in the world!)

[Artur Nowrot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sadly, this is the final installment of the series that aimed to gather the years' best in trans SFF short stories and which for me served as a useful gateway to more trans fiction: through the names of the authors, the original publication credits, and editor Bogi Takács’ forewords presenting an overview of the field of trans speculative fiction in a given year, I would discover creators to follow, venues publishing queer fiction, other anthologies worth reading. There will probably still be people doing twitter threads and blog round-ups (again, Bogi Takács does a lot of stellar work in this regard), but I think the role of Transcendent, as a more permanent record, is hard to overstate.

In light of the above, it is worth noting that Transcendent 4 contained stories that were originally published on Medium, the authors’ own websites, or even as Twitter threads. There are many inclusive SFF magazines, but a lot of trans creators publish independently, by choice or by necessity – it was great to see that represented in the anthology, as those creators might be the hardest to find.

Thematically, there were several strands running through the whole anthology: family, abuse, love, disability all appear in various permutations, giving the whole a unified feel, even though the stories take on pretty varied topics. The fact that most of the stories take place in a broadly contemporary or near-future settings also makes the anthology feel fairly cohesive (although there are a few stories set in space and one after a nuclear apocalypse) – on the other hand, there was some formal variety: I mentioned the story written as a Twitter thread, and among the stories tending towards the longer word count, there were a few shorter ones that utilised denser language or displayed a more playful spirit.

I enjoyed the tonal balance here; in Twitter discourse, there is often a strict binary between fluffy “tenderqueer” stories and edgy “misery porn”, with one or the other valued as the more worthwhile queer art. But Transcendent, in true trans fashion, shows how porous the boundary really is – there are maybe some stories that lean more one way or the other, but most tend to mix difficult topics and drama with at least a little optimism and perseverance. As Mallorie Beans said on Twitter, “Being trans isn’t always easy, but it IS a gift”.

In the end, I feel like this is a solid selection with a very strong editorial vision. As usual, I am left with new authors to check out and new publications. I will keep searching for more trans art on my own, but it was the Transcendent series that gave me a start and I appreciate that a lot.

Personal highlights include:
“Ad Astra Per Aspera” by Nino Cipri
“The Substance of My Lives, the Accidents of Our Births” by José Pablo Iriarte
“The Sixth World” by Kylie Ariel Bemis
“Of Warps and Wefts” by Innocent Chizaram Ilo
“Control” by Davian Aw
“Ghosts” by Blue Neustifter

Thank you to the editor for providing me with an electronic copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

[Mere Rain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astonishingly high quality and variety of stories.
I'll have to find the back issues from this series.
(I got this volume because one of my books was in a queer sci fi book bundle that included this one.)

Authors include (NOT limited to - I didn't write them all down as I went, sorry)
Nino Cipri
José Pablo Iriarte
Kylie Ariel Bemis
Innocent Chizaram Ilo
Davian Aw
Blue Neustifter
Margaret Killjoy
Matthias Klein
L Chen
Andrew Joseph White

[Solly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthologies are always a little bit scary for me because, well, it's hard to like more than 10 authors' work equally. However, I've been writing more shorts myself and I found my interest in short stories renewed. This was a really cool anthology! I can't say I loved all the stories equally but that's rarely going to happen with anthologies anyway.

Most stories were delightful. There was a few that weren't my cup of tea, but overall I enjoyed myself a lot reading this. It's also just incredibly nice to go into a book knowing you're going to get to read only about trans characters!

I won't review each story, but I'm going to talk a little bit about a few of my favourites!

Assistance made me feel Feels. It was a story about a non-binary MC dealing with anxiety and panic attacks and internalized ableism, with the help of a sort of robot specialized in mental health and it felt real and sweet.

When The South Wind Whispers had two autistic main characters, shields protecting the Earth, and an IA that sounds like a too-nice British grandma. It was super interesting and I loved it.

Into The Gray was about a murderous mermaid and the almost as murderous girl who loves her a bit too much. It was really good and I really liked the ending.

Chokechain I had already read elsewhere a while ago, but it was just as good the second time! The SF aspect is used in such an interesting way to explore transphobic families. Very very nice.

Sandals Full of Rainwater was amazing! As a bilingual non-binary person, I just really loved the focus on language, pronouns and gender. The sweet polyam family was an excellent bonus.

Ghosts made me So Emotional. It uses "you"/2nd person and it does it so well! It's a really short one, which I usually struggle more with, but it was absolutely amazing and so well-executed and got me really emotional.

Nuclear Disassociations had a kind of post-apo/body horror feeling to it that I really enjoyed. I feel like this is one of those stories that could have been longer and explore things in more depths? But the whole concept and the main character won me over anyway.

So yeah, I had mostly a very good experience, and it made me want to pick up more (queer) anthologies in the future, so that's good!

TWs are provided for each story at the beginning of the book!

[Catherine Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, imaginative anthology of speculative fiction starring trans and LBGTQIA characters. Exciting plots, unusual, far-off settings, and characters that breathe life onto the pages and the worlds they inhabit make great stories that reflect humanity, bravery, and a longing for a better, more egalitarian future.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every story in here a win for me. Especially fond of the stories by Matthias Klein, L Chen, Andrew Joseph White, Blue Neustifter.

[Jack Lyell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible collection of transgender speculative short fiction. The opening piece, "Ad Astra Per Aspera", is perfect exactly where it is (anyone else lose their gender lately?). Other standouts include the vampire lesbian romance of "You Inside Me", the electrifying body horror of "The God of Small Chances" and its immense capacity for raw wonder, "Into the Gray" with its delicious mermaid work, "The Art of Quilting" and its painful escape from abusive family across the solar system, the tenderness of "Ghosts", and the fantastical (as in, like. Fantasy lore) pronouns of "Sandals full of Rainwater". My favorites are actually "Chokechain" (which explores some really FUCKED UP implications of android technology and has this great, immensely satisfying end-twist) and "Apotheosis" (some of the most gorgeously lucid prose I've read recently-- Kim is a voice to watch) These aren't even all the ones I think about on the regular, it's one of those anthologies where you just can't get enough-- with a solidly diverse selection. Well-curated. An absolute fuck yes.

[Cathal Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any anthology, there are some hits and some misses. I did find more of the latter for me personally with this anthology, but they’re still by authors I want to find other work by and try that instead. Andrew Joseph White’s story was definitely one of my highlights, and was the reason I picked up this collection, and I recommend Margaret Killjoy’s story too. I read this collection very haphazardly, even for a short story collection. I’ll definitely read more of this series tho!
Rep: Queer, trans and non-binary MCs and SCs
TW/CWs: Transphobia, misgendering/deadnaming, DV, abusive families, medical detail, SA, s*icide, dysphoria, death, violence, trauma/PTSD

[q-bert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using this to post a review for ‘CHOKECHAIN’ by Andrew Joseph White-

Super short but interesting read by White, exploring the possibilities of future tech, and what could be deemed morally good or bad. Would genuinely enjoy a full book-length version!! (Will be coming back to this to read other author’s entries!)

[Martina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This last volume was more misses than hits.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites yet. The only downside to this book is the next installment isn't out yet.

[Mary Biz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of thought-provoking stories, some more memorable than others.

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good anthology and now I definitely want to read the other three in the series.

One of my two favourite stories in this collection is What the South Wind Whispers, about an autistic trans man who works at a remote station that maintains a protective shield around part of the earth. My other favourite is Chokechain, about a trans man who comes home to realise that his parents have bought a robot that looks just like his pre-transition self. Both are brilliant and (to me) very touching in completely different ways.