The Future Is Queer
Science-fiction anthology; lesbian, gay, transgendered, and bisexual protagonists. Some GLBT-positive worlds.
. Not Recommended.
January 18, 2010 | Revid 458 < prev | next >
A science-fiction collection boasting such notable contributors as Neil Gaiman, Rachel Pollack, Candas Jane Dorsey, Hiromi Goto, and L. Timmel Duchamp—but with only one worthwhile story.
Pollack's transliberatory "The Beatrix Gates" was a pleasure to read, even if the main fairy-tale seemed to cool the initial fire of the story, and her decision to end with an anecdote about her time editing the comic book Doom Patrol was a bit of a jolt. I enjoyed the story a great deal, however, taking pleasure in both the lyrical mythology and science references alike. The description of one larger-than-life transgendered hero as "a treasure map to another universe" was lovely.
Unfortunately, I had to plow through the other seven stories before I got there. Most of these were amateurish or too tedious to keep my attention. Candas Jane Dorsey's "...the darkest evening of the year..." was experimental in more ways than just its title format as, for some inexplicable reason, she refused to put her dialog in quotation marks. Hiromi Goto's "The Sleep Clinic for Troubled Souls" was unfocused and rambling. And the theme of Neil Gaiman's comic, "From Homogenous to Honey," seemed curiously dated—until I realized it was a reprint from 1988.
Definitely not a collection to put any effort into tracking down. But if you do come across it, Rachel Pollack's delightful trip into past and future mythology is good for a smile or two.
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