I got through this book because I felt it was something I should read, as a trans person who is a science fiction and fantasy fan. And there were a couple of stories I did like, but a lot of the stories were utterly incomprehensible, or seemed incomplete: like they were a fragment from something that could have been an interesting story, but nothing at all complete. There was one story that kind of read like a transphobic joke---it was about a man who decides he's really an alien and goes off to...

To have trans and gender-weird narratives normalized is bigger than cisgender people can even imagine.Wow! What an excellent collection of stories from some uber talented people. My favorites were:The Librarian's Dilemma - E. SaxeyThe Shape of My Name - Nino CipriKin, Painted - Penny StirlingBeing able to read about trans people who are more than props and whose narratives are more than about villains and tragedies is an experience trans people crave. That this is speculative fiction with most o...

I loved this collection of stories! Great diversity of plot and characters, across time and space and gender lines - it was a wild ride at times, and I was here for it. 😍Things used to be pure inside me. Separated. When I was a boy, I was wholly a boy. When I was a horse, I was wholly a horse.I laughed out loud at parts, and felt my heart wrenched at others. As with all anthologies, some stories stuck with me more than others, but there were none that I didn't enjoy in some way. ❤️

While Transcendent has the same problem as every short story collection, which is the general difficulty for a single reader to appreciate all stories equally due to plain taste, it's definitely worth reading, mostly because I've been searching for proper representation of trans folks since day one and I've never found it. And while some stories deal with the matter in a rather awkward way, to say with caution, and some others only have it in the background, there are some others that satisfied

A broad range of styles makes up this collection of sci-fi and fantasy fiction by genderqueer authors. Some felt more accessible than others to me. Some involve the experience of being trans or genderqueer in a literal, straightforward manner, while others are more metaphorical. None of them hold your hand--they aren't pedestrian stories attempting to define transgenderism, the process of transitioning, or the struggle to be accepted by one's family, peers, or society. All of those subjects are

Some of these stories will stay with me forever. This is a superb anthology for a taste of many different voices that tackle or subvert the speculative fiction genre in divergent ways. Szpara rocked it with deciding on these stories to include! Among my favorite were these, hands down:-Be Not Unequivocally Yoked by Alexis A. Hunter (probably my favorite overall!)-Where Monsters Dance by A. Merc Rustad (close second favorite!)-The Shape of My Name by Nino Cipri (!!!!!)-The Librarian’s Dilemma by

A great collection! It reminds me of a Best of SFF anthology. It's not an easy or light read--I had to skip a couple stories because they were too poetic, too dense, too smart for me. The ones I did read were excellent, though.

"Librarian's Dilemma" and "Capsule from the past" were my favorites!

Not as good as I hoped it would be; the most engaging stories in this collection were actually all ones I’d read previously. I just felt like there was a lack of stories I could relate to, which seemed odd for a collection of trans spec fic, and while I don’t expect to connect with every story in any anthology, I just felt like there were an awful lot of stories in this one where I could barely follow what was going on let alone connect with the narrative. I’ll give the next volume a try though,...

I primarily read SFF and a fair amount of it, so I'm always wary of short-story collections by multiple authors - not unusual to find one story that's really well written, then a few misses in terms of writing/editing. So, I checked out Transcendent with tempered expectations. I was more than pleasantly surprised; I really enjoyed this collection! I'm not sure how to describe the stories, except to say I was sad when I realized I had reached the end. It looks like there is a series of these anth...

Several of the stories in here are fantastic! Others weren't as engaging for me. Some of my favorites include:Nino Cipri's "The shape of my name"Everett Maroon's "Treasure acre"Bogi Takacs's "The need for overwhelming sensation"B R Sanders's "The scraper's muse"E Saxey's "The librarian's dilemma"Margarita Tenser's "Chosen"A. Merc Rustad's "Where monsters dance"Molly Tanzer's "The thing on the cheerleading squad"

Wow. Wow. I have yet to encounter a more excellent collection of short stories in a single anthology. Each and every one of these babies is so beautiful, heartbreaking, mind-bending. And they are all so different from one another! I had to space them out because each one was so meaty I wanted plenty of time to savor it.It was so thrilling to see trans characters (especially ones with neo-pronouns!) simply mentioned, just as part of the story without any fanfare or the usual acrobatics required t...

A mostly good but never quite outstanding collection of stories featuring trans and non-binary/genderqueer characters. The majority of the stories here are pleasant, moderately well-crafted, and heartfelt, but not very memorable. Exceptions include Nino Cipri's excellent, frequently republished "The Shape of My Name" (I think this is the third or fourth time I've read the story this year), Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam's old-fashioned Asian fairytale "Everything Beneath You", E. Catherine Tobler's vivid...

In comparison with 2 and 3, I think this anthology missed my sensibilities a bit. Some stories struck me as a bit too earnest and sentimental, others - too unnerving ("The Thing on the Cheerleading Squad"). It seemed to skew more towards fantasy and urban fantasy/horror, though, which I liked, as those are my preferred genres.Personal highlights:"The Shape of My Name" by Nino Cipri"The Librarian's Dilemma" by E. Saxey"Chosen" by Margaret Tenser

Absolutely fantastic collection of stories about trans* characters or written by trans* authors, curated by editor K.M. Szpara who did an amazing job of choosing stories that span the speculative fiction field from Lovecraftian horror to hard SF, and spans lengths from almost flash-fiction to novella length.I wish I had the time right now to review every story in the book, because there's not a clunker in the lot. Instead, I'll just list my favorites, in ToC order:"The Shape of My Name" by Nino

Pretty much hit and miss anthology that probably leans more to the miss side. There are a couple of good stories, a lot of just average pieces, and a few totally confusing ones that I found impossible to understand. I’m still not clear about the balance, but felt there seemed a little one sided away from the transfeminine. Of course, I may just be mistaken about that.

like most collections, this was a mixed bag, but definitely more hits than misses in the collection. I especially enjoyed Nino Cipri's time-travel story "The Shape of My Name," the heartfelt magic realism of A. Merc Rustad's "When Monster's Dance," and the high-school horror of Molly Tanzer's "The Thing on the Cheerleading Squad." it's a pleasure to read a bunch of stories featuring trans characters where the primary conflict isn't transition, and it's cool that the collection samples a pretty b...

This inaugural anthology collects the best transgender science fiction and fantasy short stories of 2015. I’ve been wanting to pick it up ever since I saw the author line-up; there’s a ton of great trans authors working in science fiction and fantasy, and this collection has some authors whose work I adore.My favorite story here is actually one I’ve read before. Multiple times actually. That’s how much I love “The Shape of My Name” by Nino Cipri, which fabulous, amazing, splendid, and a whole ho...

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13667162All in all, I found the collection a superior mix of stories with no klunkers. A handful of stories were "merely" slightly more than average but most ranged from great to near perfect. As a whole, the anthology took on more than simple transgender changes and playing with male and female roles. There were totally elevated from the bulk of TG TF stories that I read a steady diet of at the end of the 20th century.