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Oh my God this is an amazing anthology with a huge variety of incredibly inventive, hilarious, and moving science fiction and fantasy stories by trans authors. I was totally blown away by how great the stories were. There were honestly only a few that I didn't love. It's just an astoundingly good collection. Full review here!
What are we reading?: Meanwhile, Elsewhere, Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers, edited by Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett.Give me the short version: Tired of the same old from your science fiction? Looking for the next read that’ll remind you how it feels to be alive?Back in the good old university days one of the authors published in Meanwhile, Elsewhere used to boggle my mind and pith my nightmares with her tales, so I was lucky enough to nab an advance copy in exchange for a...
I lived with this book, carried it with me like a precious tome, whipping it out to evangelically read passages to various companions who shared my time while I dove in the worlds of these exciting new writers. Not every story was a page-turner, but in every story, the words laid out beckoned to me in strange new ways. Perhaps the most shocking chapter was science fiction only in its premise: one author has imagined a future where being trans is treated as routine by the surrounding characters i...
Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers is, in a word, brilliant. You want other words? Okay, how about fantastic, original, engaging, wondrous, amusing, exciting, arousing, and intellectually stimulating. Fair enough, that last one was two words, but it needed to be said.Multi-author anthologies are always a hit-or-miss proposition, even when built around a theme, but Cat Fitzpatrick & Casey Plett have done an astounding job here. Sure, there were a few storie...
Finished, but I'm not going to review it now, because I'm considering the stories in it for Transcendent 3!Source of the book: Print ARC from publisher
There’s no trans monolith in these pages, or anywhere on this planet. Not all of the characters in this book are heroes, and not all of them are feel good stories, which makes this collection the most human trans book I’ve read in some time. Ultimately, this collection of 25 stories leaves me hungry for more from each of these authors. There’s a whole universe of genre fiction to populate, so they’d better get on it. If you need a book to get you through a fall and winter of dreams, fireplaces,
Despite some stories in here that I really didn’t enjoy, some were pretty good and other were just fantastic. Favs include Imago, Rent, Don’t Sell, No Comment and Kid Ghost.
This was a very strong collection of stories. A few recurrent themes (commodification of the body, for instance) crop up, I assume independently, although some of the authors may know each other, not sure. I did notice that more than one characters shops at No Frills in Toronto. Is this some trans-Canadian joke, or is it a code for being broke? I'd never heard of this chain. Anyway, out of 25 stories there were maybe two I thought were weak and a couple more that I gave up on because they were l...
I have to admit that Meanwhile Elsewhere and I got off to a rough start. I was very excited about reading this book as it's been on my to-read list since it came out. Perhaps my expectations were a bit high. One of the stories really let me down, but I am glad I didn't give up on it, because some of the stories are excellent.The first story is erotica, which is not my bag, but the second story- Delicate Bodies by Bridget Liang- made me put the book down and ask if I wanted to read a collection e...
As always in an anthology, some of these were bigger hits than others, but overall I really enjoyed these. Tons of sapphic stories, too! Some of the first stories were so fascinating, I could easily write essays about them. The stories vary a lot. There are more sci fi stories than fantasy, and more trans women than nonbinary or trans men main characters. The plots vary from someone quietly ruminating in space about microaggressions to intense cyberpunk... cyber post-punk? In fact, quite a few o...
Are you a girl, or a boy?You can't be both.You can't be neither.You can't be one and then the other.You can't—you can't—you can't—Do you want men, or women?You can't want both.You can't want neither.You can't want one and then the other.You can't—But what if? What if you could? What if you can? What if you are?It does no harm to speculate. These are just words on a page, on a screen. They cannot change who you are.But maybe, sometimes, words can help you figure out just who that is.*Here's the t...
Ok tbh I skipped a few stories to make my way through this bad girl.... I promise I'll go back and read them one day when I have a copy of my own and I'm not holding one hostage from a friend. I will! I mean probably.Some thoughts: I love that this exists big time! The afterword made me FEEL. There are some stories in here that I've been thinking about since reading them at some point over the last year. But, there are some stories that I flat out forget. I found it quite challenging to slug thr...
Evocative, prescient, snarky, moving. The authors in this book range in focus and also in genre--from the dreamlike speculative to hard sci-fi to satirical projections of current trends--but are united in providing interesting and fresh stories about gender and life under capitalism. My favorite stories are:-Trish Salah's story "It Can Grow" about a brain-eating amoeba that can only take over the world if she finds a way to have an orgasm, and the trans man who believes it is his mission to rele...
This is one of those I-loved-it-so-much-where-do-I-even-start!?! kind of reviews.First off, it took me almost 4 months to read this anthology of short stories because I did not want the book to end. I savored each and every story. I love speculation fiction, I'm super picky about sci-fi, and I don't have much success with fantasy. But I cannot think of a single story in this book that didn't delight. All of them were fantastic and fierce.Calvin Gimpelevich's "Rent, Don't Sell" (about body switch...
I absolutely loved this collection of science fiction short stories centering trans experiences--which is not to say I loved every individual story (failed out of a few pretty quick), but I loved that there were so many different perspectives and styles included that no one person could possibly approve of them all.Some thoughts on my favorites:"Angels Are Here To Help You" by Jeanne Thornton, about a mediocre programmer in a technocapitalist dystopia who embezzles from her celebrity cat to fund...
MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE is an utterly wonderful collection of fresh, vibrant, and wildly imaginative stories written by trans writers unapologetically focusing on trans characters. Usually I breeze through a book in a day or two, but I’ve been savoring this one so I can appreciate all of the very different stories. As always with anthologies, there were a few stories I didn’t love, but overall I was amazed by the depth and range of the collection and really pleased at the inclusion of so many trans...
It's a wonderful anthology. I love sci-fi, I love the work by trans authors. Sci-Fi is a special genre that tells myths at the same time of projecting futures.
This collection is phenomenal. Most of the stories hit the perfect tone right off the bat, and some have snuck back into my psyche months after I dismissed them too quickly. Quite a few have completely redesigned the way I read science fiction as a whole. It's that good. It's SO haunting. The authors bring varied scifi takes through common trans tropes, so it's familiar for trans readers, yet elevated in unexpected ways. This is the first time these takes have been compiled together, and I hope
Just found out that this is available online.... Excited to give it a read, though hopefully physically :)
2.5 stars. Rounded down for “Delicate Bodies”Like many other reviews have mentioned, short story collections are almost always mixed bags. They’re especially hard to master when they cover such a range of topics and authors. That said. This was my least favorite short story collection of the year. The premise of an anthology authored entirely by trans people is a worthy one- but the quality of some of these were flat out poor. It hurts me to parrot right wing commentators but a marginalized auth...