Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction in Lambda Sci-Fi

Sep 25, 2012 ambyr rated it it was ok

Shelves: authorㅡmale, authorㅡfemale, genreㅡfantasyㅡsecondary-world, book-club, characterㅡlgbt, warningㅡrape, authorㅡpoc, short-stories, acquiredㅡborrowed, protagonistㅡmultiple-genders

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 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. ...more

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Dec 09, 2011 S.B. (Beauty in Ruins) rated it liked it

Shelves: transgender

Brit Mandelo is something of a queer genre celebrity, having served as the senior fiction editor for Strange Horizons Magazine, while also leading the discussions on Queering SFF for Tor Books. It was actually an early piece of her on Tiptree Award Winners that first brought her to my attention, and I’ve been relying on her to expand my bookshelf ever since.

Beyond Binary is a collection of previously published Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction stories that I'd been looking forwa Brit Mandelo is something of a queer genre celebrity, having served as the senior fiction editor for Strange Horizons Magazine, while also leading the discussions on Queering SFF for Tor Books. It was actually an early piece of her on Tiptree Award Winners that first brought her to my attention, and I’ve been relying on her to expand my bookshelf ever since.

Beyond Binary is a collection of previously published Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction stories that I'd been looking forward to for quite some time. While I found it a bit of a stretch to tag some of the pieces as speculative fiction, and was disappointed in the extent to which some of the authors attempted to queer the concept of gender, it’s still an interesting collection.

Nalo Hopkinson's “Fisherman”' was definite highlight of the collection for me. In keeping with the sense of oral storytelling that permeates her novels, the story presents us with a languid revelation of gender, and a remarkably sincere exploration of sexuality. The relationship that develops within the pages is a delight to experience, presenting us with an understanding whore who politely respects her client's chosen gender, while smartly accommodating his birth gender in their intimacies.

Ellen Kushner's "A Wild and Wicked Youth" was another strong addition to the collection, a longer story about very personal expressions of gender, and some unusual expressions of sexuality. It’s not quite the mannerpunk sensibility of her Swordspoint novels, but it’s close. 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 from an author who is new to me. Full of haunting imagery, it only strains the gender binary with one of its relationships, and it's never satisfactorily explained how it could work. All in all, a lovely bisexual romance, but not necessarily something I’d classify as genderqueer.

Sarah Kanning's "Sex with Ghosts" was another favourite of mine, from an author I’d certainly like to read more of. Her tale features a robot sex worker with a flair for English poetry. Deeper and more intellectual than the concept 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 deliberately 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. It’s not the best flowing story in the collection, but one of the smartest.

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.

Overall, it’s 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. I can certainly think of some stories that I would have included in place of some of the material here, but there are definitely some stellar entries that make this worth a read, especially if you're new to the stories.

As published on Frock Magazine ...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Greg rated it it was ok

Shelves: structure-short-stories, bookclub, fiction-lgbtq, format-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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