I'm cheating a little because I got to blurb this but it's a fantastic collection. The original stories are sharp and good and the collected works have been among my favorites perennially. Just a stunning collection that I can't recommend highly enough!

Unique perspectives There is a wide variety of different short stories book, with the common quality of taken from unique points of view. Not every piece is an easy reading but all lead to a deep insight to specific, extraordinary people, groups of people and life situations from Jewish orthodoxy to alien life forms. You can find all kinds of speculative fiction genres as well, science fiction, fantasy or urban mystery just to name a few.Some stories should require short studies around specific

Before reading this it never occurred to me even to want stories taking place in the intersection of queerness and Judaism, so I had no idea how much I needed it. More than a few times I was brought to tears, feeling seen and represented in ways and at depths I never have before.These really aren't stories for normies. This isn't the normative sort of pride that makes straight folk comfortable. The moral of the story isn't "we're all the same so let's all get along." It isn't even that we all sh...

Full disclosure: I received an ebook of this collection from the author, and I know Bogi on here/on Twitter; I think my review is largely unaffected by our acquaintance.This was my last Pride Read, and perhaps the queerest of them all - and that is definitely a compliment. Bogi's writing forces the reader to rethink their perspective, surprises, pushes boundaries, defamiliarises and estranges and at the same time, seems focused on the intimate, the bodily, the sacred. It's very much in step with...

Very creative and very different stories, e can build a world in 4 pages.

Interesting collection of speculative fiction stories highlighting the key theme: the strength of connections. The stories in the second half are a bit better on the whole, than the first half. A few stood out for me, especially having studied a bit of Hebrew terminology in the study of the OT. I found the weaving of Jewish traditions with futuristic space situations fascinating. And it makes perfect sense that all beings in the future might have an official respect for all genders. The use of m...

A stunning, beautiful, and compelling collection of stories. Highly recommended!

I got this ARC ebook from the author when Bogi offered a ARC in exchange for reviews. I know of Bogi from lists of queer books which I have had liked/retweeted into my Twitter feed by those I follow there, and when I saw the title and the cover art, I just had the feeling I *had* to read this book. So I applied to the form, I did not really expect to get a ARC - but I did! I'm excited to share my thoughts on the short stories within. I noticed (and thought it odd) that the trigger warnings were

I forgot to update this when I posted my review -- but here it is https://forestofglory.dreamwidth.org/...

I wrote this! Coming this year from Lethe Press. You totally want more weirdness in your life.Here is my announcement:https://www.patreon.com/posts/25643735Update: Now a Lambda Literary Award finalist book! Yay \O/______Source of the book: I wrote it

Oh how I wanted to love this, I really did. I almost abandoned it halfway through, but I’m glad I finished it as I enjoyed the second half far more than the first. For me I found the majority of the stories somewhat inaccessible- I’m not from a Jewish or Hungarian background, and felt the first half was challenging to read as result. Some of the stories were so short I had just barely begun to understand the universe, and then it was over. The stories that did captivate me I wished were longer,

This is an exciting, smart and overwhelmingly creative collection of speculative fiction stories! I loved reading this book, and was swept away time and again by Takács’ thoughtful and exhilarating writing. Eir stories have such range I’m struggling to integrate it all in a sentence - science fiction, powerful but difficult to control magic, Jewish faith, Hungarian culture, humans both now and in the far flung future, the octopi suggested by the title, magic meets BDSM, warfare and the psycholog...

Review for Twin Cities Geek coming soon!

I had been following Bogi online for months, appreciating eir commentary on trans/nb/intersex issues and representation in science fiction and fantasy. So when I saw e had a book coming out with this FANTASTIC title and cover, of course I had to jump on eir Patreon to sign up for a personally autographed copy.I didn't know at the time that I would get the chance to see Bogi in person at ConFusion shortly after finishing this book, and get to hear eir read from one of my favorite stories in the b...

This is a short story collection, and the title accurately shows how weird and queer these stories are. They have widely varying topics, both fantasy and science fiction- sentient octopuses, resistance against alien invasion, a failing memory archive… Frequent themes are nonsexual kink, Jewish faith, community, disability and, well, all forms of queerness. Read this if you want unconventional queer short stories!

I didn't know there even was a literary nexus between alien first contact stories, body horror, sexual politics, and gender orientation issues, let alone that one book could encapsulate such a gloriously unhinged intersection. But you learn something new every day.I also learned that Bogi Takács is a sui generis talent to be reckoned with. That's two things in one day!

While I was reading this book, I often forgot that I was reading a collection of short stories, and got so immersed in each universe that the end of the chapter surprised me. While I was a little sad to move on from each one, and secretly hoped some of these will turn into novels one day, in the end I am happy that I got not one, but a whole bouquet of universes to venture into, each more fascinating and exciting than the last. Bogi Takács has a knack for creating worlds in concise and eloquent

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: titles don't come much better than this. Takács' debut short fiction collection (I believe e has also released a poetry collection this year) is the very best kind of "does what it says on the tin": the kind where the tin has an exquisite purple octopus on the front and the word "space" in a cursive font and queerness front and centre in the title. Its a cover holding a dense and varied set of stories, ranging from near-future slice of life to magical

This is the first book for which I requested an advanced review copy from the author. I did so because I've been bowled over by the stories of Bogi Takács ever since I read "Four-Point Affective Calibration" in Lightspeed Magazine. I also enjoy their blog and posts on Twitter. As a Hungarian-American immigrant who is agender, Jewish, autistic and physically disabled, Takács finds ways to put all of their selves into the stories in this collection. This is admirable because as the late poet extra...

A marvelous, fiercely original, and compelling collection of short stories that traverse space and time and worlds, where bodies and individuals shapeshift and mingle, and where the boundaries between lifeforms and the world around them might be re-drawn and re-imagined. Bogi Takács has a gift for writing stories that bend and twist speculative fiction in new an unexpected ways, with stories that delve deep into issues of language and identity, exploring the way alien life, technology, artificia...