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mothreadsbookssometimes's review against another edition
3.5
Average rating: 4/5 stars
None of the stories really stood out to me. There were a few that I enjoyed for the representation or I found the concept interesting, but speculative fiction has never been my thing, and I ended up mostly confused.
CW: queerphobia; bullying; medical content; violence; death; colonization
None of the stories really stood out to me. There were a few that I enjoyed for the representation or I found the concept interesting, but speculative fiction has never been my thing, and I ended up mostly confused.
CW: queerphobia; bullying; medical content; violence; death; colonization
bookishmillennial's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial
I need to read more anthologies of short stories to truly get into the rhythm and familiarity of them, but overall, I enjoyed reading most of these! Some of them were not my jam (I hated the story of the person who got so upset with their ex for breaking up with them over pretty reasonable incompatibility differences. That felt churlish and incredibly self-centered. I recognize we maybe are not our best selves when we are broken-hearted but there was a complete lack of accountability on their part, which I dislike). Besides this, most stories were quick reads & I read this anthology series out of order, oops!
I need to read more anthologies of short stories to truly get into the rhythm and familiarity of them, but overall, I enjoyed reading most of these! Some of them were not my jam (I hated the story of the person who got so upset with their ex for breaking up with them over pretty reasonable incompatibility differences. That felt churlish and incredibly self-centered. I recognize we maybe are not our best selves when we are broken-hearted but there was a complete lack of accountability on their part, which I dislike). Besides this, most stories were quick reads & I read this anthology series out of order, oops!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, and Transphobia
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Violence, Medical content, and Colonisation
punkystarshine's review
4.0
This one had a wider range in stories re: how much they appealed to me specifically than some other anthologies I've read, but overall it was a good time, and the ones I liked the most made the ones I liked the least worth it.
thebookberrie's review
I heard queer sci-fi stories I thought oh cool, queer teens falling in love on a spaceship with an alien or something. Not every other story being "oh the earth is dying, the atmosphere exploded, the sky is dust, and its all our fault". Like yes I know we are absolutely fucked in the future but bro you said sci-fi not "everyone is dying in the future lol"????
Simply cannot count how many were like this and then there were so many that were so depressing. Also multiple time loops and people disappearing, did they not talk to each other about what they were wearing that day or??
It wasn't really queer teens falling in love, it was queer teens in shitty sci-fi situations but also they gay. I will give credit that it was very diverse and that was the best part. But saying "oh yeah queer teens can also be dying from a dust cloud in the future while the rich leave on a spaceship" is not the book I was looking for. I do understand now the assignment was future and not fun space stories lol rip.
Also every story was trying too much?? It was like it was the beginning of a full novel instead of a short story and I feel like... all of these could have been saved by being an actual novel.
But like all anthologies there were a couple that absolutely clapped my ass:
Beauty Sleep was a sapphic Sleeping Beauty retelling and it was fucking DOPE. It had so many nods to the fairytale and how they tied in was so cool. I can't express how cool it was like Maleficent had a dragon mech and the fairies were drones. It was giving Cinder but also giving me everything and I'll be up at night crying because this wasn't a full story.
H O M E is about a girl and an intersex alien that get stuck in a frozen time loop at a planetary airport. This one really touched my cold dead heart because over the years of them in the time loop together, they grow old together (while not aging at all). The romance was just so well done and I'm emotional just thinking about them.
Present: Tense in this all the cishet people disappear (Thanos snapped fr). It was weird but also fun.
Reshadow I'm still not even sure I liked this one because it ended up depressing me but basically a boy is in an escape room / time loop situation. It was very trippy and very Black Mirror.
Simply cannot count how many were like this and then there were so many that were so depressing. Also multiple time loops and people disappearing, did they not talk to each other about what they were wearing that day or??
It wasn't really queer teens falling in love, it was queer teens in shitty sci-fi situations but also they gay. I will give credit that it was very diverse and that was the best part. But saying "oh yeah queer teens can also be dying from a dust cloud in the future while the rich leave on a spaceship" is not the book I was looking for. I do understand now the assignment was future and not fun space stories lol rip.
Also every story was trying too much?? It was like it was the beginning of a full novel instead of a short story and I feel like... all of these could have been saved by being an actual novel.
But like all anthologies there were a couple that absolutely clapped my ass:
Beauty Sleep was a sapphic Sleeping Beauty retelling and it was fucking DOPE. It had so many nods to the fairytale and how they tied in was so cool. I can't express how cool it was like Maleficent had a dragon mech and the fairies were drones. It was giving Cinder but also giving me everything and I'll be up at night crying because this wasn't a full story.
H O M E is about a girl and an intersex alien that get stuck in a frozen time loop at a planetary airport. This one really touched my cold dead heart because over the years of them in the time loop together, they grow old together (while not aging at all). The romance was just so well done and I'm emotional just thinking about them.
Present: Tense in this all the cishet people disappear (Thanos snapped fr). It was weird but also fun.
Reshadow I'm still not even sure I liked this one because it ended up depressing me but basically a boy is in an escape room / time loop situation. It was very trippy and very Black Mirror.
violet_pages's review
Wasn’t invested in it - will probably go back to it at a later date.
talidolly's review
4.0
Good anthology with a great premise. I only DNFed 2 of the stories, 1 because of the narrator and 1 because I really couldn’t be dealing with the homophobia the main character experienced at the time I was reading it. The rest I thoroughly enjoyed! I need more queer sci-fi in my life.
My favorites:
Beauty Sleep
Home
Translating for the Machine
My favorites:
Beauty Sleep
Home
Translating for the Machine
tiffani_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Doublers by Alex London - 3 stars
- interesting concept but would be more suited to a full novel.
Aesthetically Hungry by Mato J. Steger - 2.5 stars
- just okay
The Rift by Claire Kann - 4 stars
- would love to see this as a full novel or novella
Renaissance by Emma K. Ohland - 2 stars
- It felt like the queer element of this story was added as an afterthought to make it fit in this anthology.
Like Sunshine, Like Concrete by Z. R. Ellor - 3 stars
- Transgender super soldiers!?!?
Translating for the Machine by Nita Tyndall - 2 stars
- I loved that the non-binary main character couldn’t be coded by the computer in this story but the addition of the queer relationship in this story felt like it was added in case people didn’t find it queer enough.
Reshadow by Adam Sass - 4 stars
- super interesting concept
The Department of Homegoing Affairs by Kalynn Bayron - 3 stars
- cool concept but it could have been a bit more futuristic to be believable
The Undeniable Price of Everything by Z. Brewer - 1 star
- This story left me confused and feeling like I just wasted my time
Present: Tense by Jim McCarty - 4 stars
- The rapture but only for straight people, I dig it.
Nick and Bodhi by Naomi Kanakia - 1 star
- How did this story even get selected for this anthology!? This is a story about a trans person bullying the queer group at their school because they couldn’t guess that they were trans. Nope, hard pass.
Crash Landing by Mason Deaver - 3 stars
- An alien giving romance advice, well that’s something that I thought I’d never read
Beauty Sleep by Alechia Dow - 2 stars
- Scene for scene retelling of Sleeping Beauty but with a Sci-fi twist
Concerto by Abdi Nazemian - 3 stars
- classic love transcends time and space story with literal time and space involved
H O M E by K. Ancrum - 5 stars
- stuck in a time loop for 20+ years, simple but well done.
Fractal Eyes by Ugochi M. Agoawike - 2 stars
- I was bored the entire way through this story.
Nobody Cares Who we Kiss at the End of the World by Leah Johnson - 3 stars
- By the time I made it to this story I was just so ready for this anthology to be done. This was fine but it didn’t wow me.
mialicia's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
It's hard to rate a short story collection, if only because the stories are all so varied. I loved the diversity of all of them, getting to hear the different voices of all the authors. The stories in the beginning and ending were the best, with the stories in the middle being a little more unforgettable. My favorite stories were:
- The Rift by Claire Kann; I loved Kiara's hard personality, and this is one world I'd really enjoy reading more about.
- Renaissance by Emma K. Ohland; a simple story of a chance meeting and a sweet love, with hope at the end.
- The Undeniable Price of Everything by Z Brewer; another story I need more of, ending way too soon.
- Concerto by Abdi Nazemian; love through music is beautiful, speaking through time.
- Fractal Eyes by Ugocho M. Agoawike: beautiful writing, aching love story.
- Nobody Cares Who We Kiss at the End of the World by Leah Johnson; a story about fear, and a love that hurts, and happy endings.
estanceveyrac's review
4.0
Some stories were very good, but more than a handful I really have nothing good to say about. I am disappointed, mostly because of my high expectations, but more & more I see the limitations of an US dominated international publishing industry where the US based writers are meant to represent the entire world when in fact they really do not & the publishing industry congratulates itself on being diverse & inclusive when the vast majority of the stories take place in that one country like that's a universal experience & the vast majority of the writers that do get published have to write in English to get published because the strong publishing industry is only strong in the US, to the point where we have more books translated from English to be published then published in the original languages in many many countries.
I'm tired of reading these stories. I'm tired of the same stories. Especially in an anthology about the future of queerness. This is not the future of queerness. It's not even our present. The future is not gonna be "christianity based homophobia" for a few more centuries, the future isthe formation of family with new family structure, the transition outside of the patriarchal system with the breakdown of the transmission of wealth & power from fathers to sons & without that rigid patriarchal system that was designed to transmit wealth, how do we live, how do we organize community?
The future of queerness is how with advances in medicine, will people transition medically the same way, how will puberty as a whole be medicalized & treated like a process that will be to be monitered & guided, like we use metal to make teeth straighter, how will we use better knowledge of hormones to treat everyone, cis or trans, to better monitor our health.
The future of queerness is a reclaiming of the past, of the history of queerness that predates colonisation, people taking back the narrative that was stolen from them. It's political queerness, with movements leading to changes in legislation, it's fights that will be fought, that will be hard, that will eventually be won.
It will be a shit-ton more non-binary people, a shift in how people address each other when they meet. If fiction doesn't show what we already do of introducing ourself with our prounoms or how we want to be gendered, how are kids supposed to see what's possible. If fiction about the future of queerness is the same as fiction about the now, then there is no point in calling it the future.
I'm tired of reading these stories. I'm tired of the same stories. Especially in an anthology about the future of queerness. This is not the future of queerness. It's not even our present. The future is not gonna be "christianity based homophobia" for a few more centuries, the future isthe formation of family with new family structure, the transition outside of the patriarchal system with the breakdown of the transmission of wealth & power from fathers to sons & without that rigid patriarchal system that was designed to transmit wealth, how do we live, how do we organize community?
The future of queerness is how with advances in medicine, will people transition medically the same way, how will puberty as a whole be medicalized & treated like a process that will be to be monitered & guided, like we use metal to make teeth straighter, how will we use better knowledge of hormones to treat everyone, cis or trans, to better monitor our health.
The future of queerness is a reclaiming of the past, of the history of queerness that predates colonisation, people taking back the narrative that was stolen from them. It's political queerness, with movements leading to changes in legislation, it's fights that will be fought, that will be hard, that will eventually be won.
It will be a shit-ton more non-binary people, a shift in how people address each other when they meet. If fiction doesn't show what we already do of introducing ourself with our prounoms or how we want to be gendered, how are kids supposed to see what's possible. If fiction about the future of queerness is the same as fiction about the now, then there is no point in calling it the future.
franklyfrank's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0