owlribbon's review
challenging
dark
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical content, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Trafficking, War, Alcohol, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Rape, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Body horror, Chronic illness, Drug use, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Slavery
ghilimei's review against another edition
4.0
Much better in my opinion than the first installment, most of the stories in this collection have a strong feminist message and focus a lot on the moral and psychological implications of prostitution. Just like the first collection, these stories are not erotica, so don't read them if that's what you're looking for. The title is quite misleading for those looking for sex scenes between aliens - the alien in most of these stories is the alien in our daily lives: either the alienation, the isolation that is so terribly human, or that which is not your own to begin with, be it your perception, your (sexual) preferences or even your gender.
Reading these stories was an intense experience for me, so intense at times that they seeped into my subconscious, giving me strange dreams that sometimes turned into almost-nightmares. I loved almost every story and I'm glad I didn't give up reading this collection after the negative experience I had with the first installment.
Also, since I couldn't find this anywhere else, here is a short description of each story in this book. I hope someone will find it useful.
The Reality Trip by Robert Silverberg
An alien living incognito in New York, gathering information on the human species and reporting back to the Homeworld three times a day. A poetess drawn to lonely, „wounded things„ like a moth to a flame. What could possibly go wrong?
(for some reason, I kept imagining actress Krysten Ritter as Elizabeth)
The Tattooist by Susan Wade
A beautiful, unexpected and somewhat bitter tale of telepathy and emotional transfer slowly altering one tattoo artist's life and perception while she completes an unusual job.
Dolly Sodom by John Kaiine
A strange man lost in a surrealist brothel. A very short story worthy of Julio Cortázar.
The Lucifer of Blue by Sherry Coldsmith
Could sex sway the outcome of one of the biggest events in human history? A blunt story of prostitution and (somehow) feminism.
The Queen of the Apocalypse by Scott Bradfield
Harriet is broken and she is numb and so she forces feelings into (or out of?) herself by self mutilation. But she is also pathologically incapable of saying NO, so her life slowly stops belonging to herself until one grand, final, yet involuntary act of self mutilation.
Oral by Richard Christian Matheson
Picking off where the last Alien Sex collection left off, this very brief tale wonders yet again what sex really is by exploring the more unlikely forms it can take.
In my mind, it goes hand in hand with Pat Cadigan's Roadside Rescue from the first Alien Sex installment.
Grand Prix by Simon Ings
Less about sex and more about the boundaries of our bodies. Quite a lot of feminism in this one too. 20 years ahead of Pussy Riot and yet the story depicts their perfect predecessors.
The House of Mourning by Brian Stableford
Yet another straight-forward view of the sex industry, compulsion, addiction and the need to point fingers in order to keep the gleaming appearance of our own righteous lives. Corruption always comes from the outside or that's what we so desperately want to believe.
Fetish by Martha Soukup
Tattoos and piercings are a thing of the past; body alterations are now the big fad. Martha Soukup says it best: „This is a story about dealing with the pain from the alien by playacting the alien, incorporating the alien„. Lovely, empowering in a way, with a pinch of bizarre.
Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones
Is it enough to distance ourselves from our bodies to be „safe„ during sex? This story ventures into the world of virtual sex.
The Future of Birds by Mike O'Driscoll
In a future where HIV has been contained, an even more destructive new disease appears, caused by the Hormonal Dysfunction Virus. HDV is hereditary and lies dormant in both males and females until the onset of premature puberty, after which is simply sucks its victims dry and bleeds them out. It appears though that it only activates in women, leaving men as mere carriers.
It's a simple matter of role play, of replacing the „gay plague„ with a „gender plague„ and then laying back to admire the lengths to which the sex industry will go to keep its glowing bubble of indulgence and fake safety. It's a story of use and abuse and the lengths to which people will go to find that fake safety in a golden prison. It's not so much a story of alien sex as a story of alien genders.
Captain China by Bruce McAllister
The excruciating story of a child prostitute who believes in superheroes.
Background: The Dream by Lisa Tuttle
Very short story questioning sexual identity and what happens when you feel you're trapped in the wrong body.
Aye and Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany
Another story of sexual identity and fetish on the surface, it goes deeper by exploring the self-sabotaging attraction to something permanently unavailable and the fear of it ever becoming available.
Ursus Triad Later by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg
A very short and bizarre rape story.
Sextraterrestrials by Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen
Short poems imagining sex between various extraterrestrials resulted from a game of „poetry dare„ between the two authors.
The Dream-Catcher by Joyce Carol Oates
The dream-catcher catches an incubus.
His Angel by Roberta Lannes
The author explains that „on the surface, this is the tale of a madman who seeks twisted redemption in the saving of an angel and finds his just reward„. Going deeper, I guess this story asks a question that is not alien to many of us: is God really there, or are we simply blinded by our desire to believe, twisting ambiguous events into irrefutable proof of what we want to see?
Eaten by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman's quite famous prose poem of sexual use and abuse, a rather explicit metaphor of how one can be drawn in and eaten alive by the predators among us.
In the Month of Athyr by Elizabeth Hand
Feminism, sexual identity, genetically engineered sex slaves - the gender war is at a new high. It somehow ties to The Future of Birds by Mike O'Driscoll by investigating a future where women are on the verge of becoming obsolete.
Reading these stories was an intense experience for me, so intense at times that they seeped into my subconscious, giving me strange dreams that sometimes turned into almost-nightmares. I loved almost every story and I'm glad I didn't give up reading this collection after the negative experience I had with the first installment.
Also, since I couldn't find this anywhere else, here is a short description of each story in this book. I hope someone will find it useful.
The Reality Trip by Robert Silverberg
An alien living incognito in New York, gathering information on the human species and reporting back to the Homeworld three times a day. A poetess drawn to lonely, „wounded things„ like a moth to a flame. What could possibly go wrong?
(for some reason, I kept imagining actress Krysten Ritter as Elizabeth)
The Tattooist by Susan Wade
A beautiful, unexpected and somewhat bitter tale of telepathy and emotional transfer slowly altering one tattoo artist's life and perception while she completes an unusual job.
Dolly Sodom by John Kaiine
A strange man lost in a surrealist brothel. A very short story worthy of Julio Cortázar.
The Lucifer of Blue by Sherry Coldsmith
Could sex sway the outcome of one of the biggest events in human history? A blunt story of prostitution and (somehow) feminism.
The Queen of the Apocalypse by Scott Bradfield
Harriet is broken and she is numb and so she forces feelings into (or out of?) herself by self mutilation. But she is also pathologically incapable of saying NO, so her life slowly stops belonging to herself until one grand, final, yet involuntary act of self mutilation.
Oral by Richard Christian Matheson
Picking off where the last Alien Sex collection left off, this very brief tale wonders yet again what sex really is by exploring the more unlikely forms it can take.
In my mind, it goes hand in hand with Pat Cadigan's Roadside Rescue from the first Alien Sex installment.
Grand Prix by Simon Ings
Less about sex and more about the boundaries of our bodies. Quite a lot of feminism in this one too. 20 years ahead of Pussy Riot and yet the story depicts their perfect predecessors.
The House of Mourning by Brian Stableford
Yet another straight-forward view of the sex industry, compulsion, addiction and the need to point fingers in order to keep the gleaming appearance of our own righteous lives. Corruption always comes from the outside or that's what we so desperately want to believe.
Fetish by Martha Soukup
Tattoos and piercings are a thing of the past; body alterations are now the big fad. Martha Soukup says it best: „This is a story about dealing with the pain from the alien by playacting the alien, incorporating the alien„. Lovely, empowering in a way, with a pinch of bizarre.
Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones
Is it enough to distance ourselves from our bodies to be „safe„ during sex? This story ventures into the world of virtual sex.
The Future of Birds by Mike O'Driscoll
In a future where HIV has been contained, an even more destructive new disease appears, caused by the Hormonal Dysfunction Virus. HDV is hereditary and lies dormant in both males and females until the onset of premature puberty, after which is simply sucks its victims dry and bleeds them out. It appears though that it only activates in women, leaving men as mere carriers.
It's a simple matter of role play, of replacing the „gay plague„ with a „gender plague„ and then laying back to admire the lengths to which the sex industry will go to keep its glowing bubble of indulgence and fake safety. It's a story of use and abuse and the lengths to which people will go to find that fake safety in a golden prison. It's not so much a story of alien sex as a story of alien genders.
Captain China by Bruce McAllister
The excruciating story of a child prostitute who believes in superheroes.
Background: The Dream by Lisa Tuttle
Very short story questioning sexual identity and what happens when you feel you're trapped in the wrong body.
Aye and Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany
Another story of sexual identity and fetish on the surface, it goes deeper by exploring the self-sabotaging attraction to something permanently unavailable and the fear of it ever becoming available.
Ursus Triad Later by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg
A very short and bizarre rape story.
Sextraterrestrials by Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen
Short poems imagining sex between various extraterrestrials resulted from a game of „poetry dare„ between the two authors.
The Dream-Catcher by Joyce Carol Oates
The dream-catcher catches an incubus.
His Angel by Roberta Lannes
The author explains that „on the surface, this is the tale of a madman who seeks twisted redemption in the saving of an angel and finds his just reward„. Going deeper, I guess this story asks a question that is not alien to many of us: is God really there, or are we simply blinded by our desire to believe, twisting ambiguous events into irrefutable proof of what we want to see?
Eaten by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman's quite famous prose poem of sexual use and abuse, a rather explicit metaphor of how one can be drawn in and eaten alive by the predators among us.
In the Month of Athyr by Elizabeth Hand
Feminism, sexual identity, genetically engineered sex slaves - the gender war is at a new high. It somehow ties to The Future of Birds by Mike O'Driscoll by investigating a future where women are on the verge of becoming obsolete.
emitchellwrites's review against another edition
I read a few of the stories in this one, and I was impressed, one in particular was really shocking. All in all if you like the odd and science fiction creep then you should love this.
tyler_j's review against another edition
2.75
1. The Reality Trip by Robert Silverberg- 4 stars
I really don't know why, but I liked it. Loneliness, crab aliens, a creepy woman who writes bad poetry. And as always Lena, that picture, is perfect. I was imagining her as that meme lol.
2. The Tattooist by Susan Wade- 3 stars
Loved the concept and tattooing process, but found the story lacking over-all. Not sure what I was supposed to get out of it.
3. Dolly Sodom by John Kaiine- 2 stars
I don't get it. A needy man chases a coin operated sex doll down some stairs and falls. That's all.
4. The Lucifer of Blue by Sherry Coldsmith- 3 stars
Truthfully I didn't understand everything, but I liked what I got out of it.
5. The Queen of the Apocalypse by Scott Bradfield- 1.5 stars
tw: fire, self-harm. I was loving it initially. Felt personal and hit close to home in the beginning with the self-harm and depression. But then it felt like it just derailed. I could have done without the talk of her figure and then the pregnancy stuff and all that at the end...if it was supposed to mean something good I completely missed it and just got annoyed at it.
6. Oral by Richard Christian Matheson- 2.5 stars
Without that note at the end though I think i'd have just been confused.
7. Grand Prix by Simon Ings- 2 stars
Because I mostly was just confused and not sure what it was trying to say.
8. The House of Mourning by Brian Stableford- 4 stars
STD's of the future seemed to be caused by forced synthetic highs that go very wrong with a nice spoonful of hypocrisy. Kept my interest.
9. Fetish by Martha Soukup- 3.5 stars
Interesting. I liked it. I would totally rock a beard if I could.
10. Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones- 2 stars
Found it very boring and didn't care for it at all. I do get that people tend to want to "opt for McDonald's" as she put it, rather than handle actual real life human interaction and all that, but I still didn't like the story. It just got under my skin and irritated me and I can't really explain well why.
11. The Future of Birds by Mike O’Driscoll- 3.5 stars
Horrifying, and seems all too real. I could totally see them just letting women die too.
12. Captain China by Bruce McAllister- 4 stars
So sad, but hopeful ending.
13. Background: The Dream by Lisa Tuttle- 2 stars
The heck was that?
14. Aye, and Gomorrah ... by Samuel R. Delany- 1.5 stars
I am so confused. I don't understand a word of this.
15. Ursus Triad, Later by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg- 1.5 stars
Uhm...I mostly just got beastiality out of that story.
16. Sextraterrestrials by Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen- 4 stars
Well that was fun!
17. The Dream-Catcher by Joyce Carol Oates- 3.5 stars
Disturbing nightmare but made me think, creeped me out, and has a way with words.
18. His Angel by Roberta Lannes- 1.5 stars
I'm sorry but it's so Christian based and I know the author's note said he gets his just rewards but...it just seemed to me that he got saved? That he was killed after he was saved so he could go to heaven before it was too late for him again (reading as a sick serial killer redemption story just made me so angry) is how I read it before I read the authors note and saw I must have got it all wrong. I wanted to punch the sicko. As much as I can see I read the ending wrong the extreme Christian tones just soured it for me. It just wasn't for me.
19. Eaten (Scenes from a moving picture) by Neil Gaiman- 2.5 stars
Weird, gross, disturbing. Slightly interesting. Liked the author notes.
20. In the Month of Athyr by Elizabeth Hand- 2 stars
Very confusing. Made me think at points and then I thought I knew where it was going, but I didn't and the ending just left me very confused. Didn't hate it but didn't really like it over-all either.
I read this as a group read and those were what I wrote about each story. Not that it says a whole lot but...yeah. Also, side note, I had to make sure I didn't miss 2 stories because the cover says there is 22 stories but there are only 20.
Average 2.68. Over-all I didn't like the anthology but there were a few I liked.
I really don't know why, but I liked it. Loneliness, crab aliens, a creepy woman who writes bad poetry. And as always Lena, that picture, is perfect. I was imagining her as that meme lol.
2. The Tattooist by Susan Wade- 3 stars
Loved the concept and tattooing process, but found the story lacking over-all. Not sure what I was supposed to get out of it.
3. Dolly Sodom by John Kaiine- 2 stars
I don't get it. A needy man chases a coin operated sex doll down some stairs and falls. That's all.
4. The Lucifer of Blue by Sherry Coldsmith- 3 stars
Truthfully I didn't understand everything, but I liked what I got out of it.
5. The Queen of the Apocalypse by Scott Bradfield- 1.5 stars
tw: fire, self-harm. I was loving it initially. Felt personal and hit close to home in the beginning with the self-harm and depression. But then it felt like it just derailed. I could have done without the talk of her figure and then the pregnancy stuff and all that at the end...if it was supposed to mean something good I completely missed it and just got annoyed at it.
6. Oral by Richard Christian Matheson- 2.5 stars
Without that note at the end though I think i'd have just been confused.
7. Grand Prix by Simon Ings- 2 stars
Because I mostly was just confused and not sure what it was trying to say.
8. The House of Mourning by Brian Stableford- 4 stars
STD's of the future seemed to be caused by forced synthetic highs that go very wrong with a nice spoonful of hypocrisy. Kept my interest.
9. Fetish by Martha Soukup- 3.5 stars
Interesting. I liked it. I would totally rock a beard if I could.
10. Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones- 2 stars
Found it very boring and didn't care for it at all. I do get that people tend to want to "opt for McDonald's" as she put it, rather than handle actual real life human interaction and all that, but I still didn't like the story. It just got under my skin and irritated me and I can't really explain well why.
11. The Future of Birds by Mike O’Driscoll- 3.5 stars
Horrifying, and seems all too real. I could totally see them just letting women die too.
12. Captain China by Bruce McAllister- 4 stars
So sad, but hopeful ending.
13. Background: The Dream by Lisa Tuttle- 2 stars
The heck was that?
14. Aye, and Gomorrah ... by Samuel R. Delany- 1.5 stars
I am so confused. I don't understand a word of this.
15. Ursus Triad, Later by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg- 1.5 stars
Uhm...I mostly just got beastiality out of that story.
16. Sextraterrestrials by Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen- 4 stars
Well that was fun!
17. The Dream-Catcher by Joyce Carol Oates- 3.5 stars
Disturbing nightmare but made me think, creeped me out, and has a way with words.
18. His Angel by Roberta Lannes- 1.5 stars
I'm sorry but it's so Christian based and I know the author's note said he gets his just rewards but...it just seemed to me that he got saved? That he was killed after he was saved so he could go to heaven before it was too late for him again (reading as a sick serial killer redemption story just made me so angry) is how I read it before I read the authors note and saw I must have got it all wrong. I wanted to punch the sicko. As much as I can see I read the ending wrong the extreme Christian tones just soured it for me. It just wasn't for me.
19. Eaten (Scenes from a moving picture) by Neil Gaiman- 2.5 stars
Weird, gross, disturbing. Slightly interesting. Liked the author notes.
20. In the Month of Athyr by Elizabeth Hand- 2 stars
Very confusing. Made me think at points and then I thought I knew where it was going, but I didn't and the ending just left me very confused. Didn't hate it but didn't really like it over-all either.
I read this as a group read and those were what I wrote about each story. Not that it says a whole lot but...yeah. Also, side note, I had to make sure I didn't miss 2 stories because the cover says there is 22 stories but there are only 20.
Average 2.68. Over-all I didn't like the anthology but there were a few I liked.
vangluss's review against another edition
4.0
Anthologies are a tricky thing to touch for anybody, especially reviewers. The quote, "One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel," applies to many anthologies I have read. When reviewing anthologies, it would be realistic for me to judge the stories on an individual basis. Trust me, reality does ensure. Trying to read an anthology of swingy quality is like trying to eat a cherry pie where every other delicious slice is filled with granite pebbles disguised as cherries: It leaves a broken, bloody taste in your mouth.
Off Limits isn't like that. Out of the twenty stories in this book, I can easily say only two are likely to disappoint, and the second story I disliked probably wasn't my personal cup of tea. Like it says on the tin, these stories are just as varied as they are whacked out, which is “very.” You got far-future, near future, something future, and all the goodness in between only speculative fiction can provide.
One thing that bothered me was the title versus its contents, though. I only expected pages of naughty aliens getting intimate with each other and humans. Instead, I got that and a lot more extra. Sometimes too much more extra. In short: Sometimes you get the aliens, and sometimes you get “the alien” where things are weird and often uncomfortable.
Now to begin.
The 1st: The Reality Trip by Robert Silverberg. This one is a charming, funny, and lighthearted start to the book. In it, a socially stunted alien infiltrator in NY gets dotted on by a weirdo poet girl. Interestings things like polyamory occur.
The 2nd: The Tattooist by Susan Wade. This one is a wondeful examination of body image, the intimacy of tattoos, and changing tastes. Lots of character development in this piece.
The 3rd: Dolly Sodom by John Kaine. A noir-inspired piece with lots o’ hair. This one had an rich sense of surrealism to me. The atmosphere of forbidden desires is well done and abstract. Still, I didn’t “get” this one.
The 4th: The Blue Lucifer of Blue by Sherry Coldsmith. The only part I liked about this one was the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War for the story (Hail Catalonia!). Other than that, this one could’ve done better. A lot better. This story in a nutshell: A bunch of horrible, unexplained things happen and the average protagonist with a forgettable voice goes back home as if nothing happened. I felt bad after reading this one.
The 5th: The Queen of the Apocalypse by Scott Bradfield. A sickly-sweet interspecies romance story for the ages. Weird meets terrible with interesting results in this story. A too-patient-for-this-world alien meets an abused woman with a taste for maried men. Not sure if this story bordered on “magical healing cock” territory, but even if it did, it did so in a sensitive, alien way.
The 6th: Oral by Richard Christian Matheson. Very short, mostly dialogue. This one is an intimate conversation of a short story. It’s all about sensations and touch. I want to steal all the imagery in this story and cram into my skull forever. It’s so rich.
The 7th: Grand Prix by Simon Ings. Those Frenchies and their academia, beatnik cultures, and biopunk racing cars. One of the more uncomfortable pieces that still manage to be relatable. Get through the odd characters in their dystopian world, and you’ll reward yourself with a cheeky ending.
The 8th: The House of Mourning by Brian Stableford. Hey, another biopunk story. This is one of those “technology goes wrong” sci-fi stories with a sexually-charged twist. One thing I wanted out of this story was to see how the MC’s family dealt with their daughter turning herself into a literal mistake. Excellent, sensitive portrayal of a prostitute with a whacked-out body.
The 9th: Fetish by Martha Soukup. After a nasty, break-up, a scorned woman decides to grow a beard. Why? I’m not sure, but reading this piece as a character reclaiming their body as their own makes it a satisfying weird. A minor nitpick is that this story had minimal sci-fi influences beyond a relatively normal woman growing a beard through existing technology.
The 10th: Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones. A somber piece about intimacy in the digital age, escapism, and killing virtual bandits with your dreamy scholar-warrior traveling companion. Enjoyable, but I’m not sure what (or if there is one) message I should’ve taken from the ending.
The 11th: The Future of Birds by Mike O’ Driscoll. City of God meets Tangerine. But for real, this one is by far the most disturbing and visceral story of this collection. So much graphic sex and violence wrapped in a story of desperation. The usage of birds in cages as a symbol is painfully beautiful. This one made me want to cry a little. Mildly weird treatment and portrayal of trans issues as a whole, but the MC is handled with a deft hand
The 12th: Captain China by Bruce McAllister. Nothing like a one-two punch of raw emotions to my stomach. This one is fucked. Really really fucked. Never have I wanted to get into a story so badly to hug the protag while feeding them homemade soup. I had to catch my breath after reading this one.
The 13th: Background: The Dream by Lisa Tuttle. Not really a short story per-se, but a weird peep into somebody’s dream. The Freudian elements were on point.
The 14th: Aye, and Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany. The hallmark of an excellent short story is ability to say a lot with a little. Delany does this with a small cast consisting of a gender-bender astronaut and a weird girl part of a community that adores said gender-bender astronauts. The interpretations one can extract from this story are endless. Every line of dialogue felt meaningful. Probably one of the best stories in this book.
The 15th: Ursus Triad, Later by Kathe Koja & Barry N. Malzberg. This is one of those slices of cherry pie filled with disguised pebbles. Good points: This was the purest example of xeno-fiction in this entire book. It’s from the viewpoint of a female bear who gets funky with it. That’s new to me. Bad Points: Good God, did the writing style of this story get old. The confusing, overly dense purple prose is terrible. I didn’t understand what was going on at all, so I decided to skip the story. Simple as that.
The 16th: Sextraterrestrials by Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen. Painfully cheesy title aside, this piece wasn’t a story, but instead a collection of short poems written with strict rules. These rules led to some funny, touching, and downright bawdy poetry. A nice thing to read after the previous flounder.
The 17th: The Dream-Catcher by Joyce Carol Oates. This piece took more of an urban fantasty approach. An odd but accepted turn of events in a mostly sci-fi based anthology. I didn’t understand most of the MC’s action through the story, but they were entertaining to read. Another thing that bothered me are the funky racial portrayals. I’m not saying Oates is a racist or anything like that, but this piece made me uncomfortable at times. All in all, its an okay piece.
The 18th: His Angel by Roberta Lannes. What is a weird anthology without a serial killer piece? Nothing, so Lannes comes in to prevent that nasty fate. I wanted more character out of the dubious “angel” of this story. This one had a nice Southern gothic feel to it despite having overt supernatural entities.
The 19th: Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture) by Neil Gaiman. Another piece that wasn’t a short story. Instead, we have ourselves a profoundly disturbing script to a movie I’d pay to see - twice. Seriously, this is some Clive Barker tier material. I had to double check if Gaiman really wrote this. There’s a vague plot of a man looking for his lost sister, and things go off the rails and straight into some hellish beast’s mouth. Side note: I’m one hundred percent certain that Gaiman has a fetish for men being consumed by women now.
The 20th: In the Month of Athyr by Elizabeth Hand. A fitting end to an excellent anthology. It seems to take many aspects from the previous stories and fit them neatly into a mish-mash of emotions. I ached with nostalgia while reading this piece. The ending made me say, “Ah, come on,” in a good way. The treatment of trans issues in this one felt a bit off, though. The exposition dumps could’ve been worse.
Off Limits isn't like that. Out of the twenty stories in this book, I can easily say only two are likely to disappoint, and the second story I disliked probably wasn't my personal cup of tea. Like it says on the tin, these stories are just as varied as they are whacked out, which is “very.” You got far-future, near future, something future, and all the goodness in between only speculative fiction can provide.
One thing that bothered me was the title versus its contents, though. I only expected pages of naughty aliens getting intimate with each other and humans. Instead, I got that and a lot more extra. Sometimes too much more extra. In short: Sometimes you get the aliens, and sometimes you get “the alien” where things are weird and often uncomfortable.
Now to begin.
The 1st: The Reality Trip by Robert Silverberg. This one is a charming, funny, and lighthearted start to the book. In it, a socially stunted alien infiltrator in NY gets dotted on by a weirdo poet girl. Interestings things like polyamory occur.
The 2nd: The Tattooist by Susan Wade. This one is a wondeful examination of body image, the intimacy of tattoos, and changing tastes. Lots of character development in this piece.
The 3rd: Dolly Sodom by John Kaine. A noir-inspired piece with lots o’ hair. This one had an rich sense of surrealism to me. The atmosphere of forbidden desires is well done and abstract. Still, I didn’t “get” this one.
The 4th: The Blue Lucifer of Blue by Sherry Coldsmith. The only part I liked about this one was the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War for the story (Hail Catalonia!). Other than that, this one could’ve done better. A lot better. This story in a nutshell: A bunch of horrible, unexplained things happen and the average protagonist with a forgettable voice goes back home as if nothing happened. I felt bad after reading this one.
The 5th: The Queen of the Apocalypse by Scott Bradfield. A sickly-sweet interspecies romance story for the ages. Weird meets terrible with interesting results in this story. A too-patient-for-this-world alien meets an abused woman with a taste for maried men. Not sure if this story bordered on “magical healing cock” territory, but even if it did, it did so in a sensitive, alien way.
The 6th: Oral by Richard Christian Matheson. Very short, mostly dialogue. This one is an intimate conversation of a short story. It’s all about sensations and touch. I want to steal all the imagery in this story and cram into my skull forever. It’s so rich.
The 7th: Grand Prix by Simon Ings. Those Frenchies and their academia, beatnik cultures, and biopunk racing cars. One of the more uncomfortable pieces that still manage to be relatable. Get through the odd characters in their dystopian world, and you’ll reward yourself with a cheeky ending.
The 8th: The House of Mourning by Brian Stableford. Hey, another biopunk story. This is one of those “technology goes wrong” sci-fi stories with a sexually-charged twist. One thing I wanted out of this story was to see how the MC’s family dealt with their daughter turning herself into a literal mistake. Excellent, sensitive portrayal of a prostitute with a whacked-out body.
The 9th: Fetish by Martha Soukup. After a nasty, break-up, a scorned woman decides to grow a beard. Why? I’m not sure, but reading this piece as a character reclaiming their body as their own makes it a satisfying weird. A minor nitpick is that this story had minimal sci-fi influences beyond a relatively normal woman growing a beard through existing technology.
The 10th: Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones. A somber piece about intimacy in the digital age, escapism, and killing virtual bandits with your dreamy scholar-warrior traveling companion. Enjoyable, but I’m not sure what (or if there is one) message I should’ve taken from the ending.
The 11th: The Future of Birds by Mike O’ Driscoll. City of God meets Tangerine. But for real, this one is by far the most disturbing and visceral story of this collection. So much graphic sex and violence wrapped in a story of desperation. The usage of birds in cages as a symbol is painfully beautiful. This one made me want to cry a little. Mildly weird treatment and portrayal of trans issues as a whole, but the MC is handled with a deft hand
The 12th: Captain China by Bruce McAllister. Nothing like a one-two punch of raw emotions to my stomach. This one is fucked. Really really fucked. Never have I wanted to get into a story so badly to hug the protag while feeding them homemade soup. I had to catch my breath after reading this one.
The 13th: Background: The Dream by Lisa Tuttle. Not really a short story per-se, but a weird peep into somebody’s dream. The Freudian elements were on point.
The 14th: Aye, and Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany. The hallmark of an excellent short story is ability to say a lot with a little. Delany does this with a small cast consisting of a gender-bender astronaut and a weird girl part of a community that adores said gender-bender astronauts. The interpretations one can extract from this story are endless. Every line of dialogue felt meaningful. Probably one of the best stories in this book.
The 15th: Ursus Triad, Later by Kathe Koja & Barry N. Malzberg. This is one of those slices of cherry pie filled with disguised pebbles. Good points: This was the purest example of xeno-fiction in this entire book. It’s from the viewpoint of a female bear who gets funky with it. That’s new to me. Bad Points: Good God, did the writing style of this story get old. The confusing, overly dense purple prose is terrible. I didn’t understand what was going on at all, so I decided to skip the story. Simple as that.
The 16th: Sextraterrestrials by Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen. Painfully cheesy title aside, this piece wasn’t a story, but instead a collection of short poems written with strict rules. These rules led to some funny, touching, and downright bawdy poetry. A nice thing to read after the previous flounder.
The 17th: The Dream-Catcher by Joyce Carol Oates. This piece took more of an urban fantasty approach. An odd but accepted turn of events in a mostly sci-fi based anthology. I didn’t understand most of the MC’s action through the story, but they were entertaining to read. Another thing that bothered me are the funky racial portrayals. I’m not saying Oates is a racist or anything like that, but this piece made me uncomfortable at times. All in all, its an okay piece.
The 18th: His Angel by Roberta Lannes. What is a weird anthology without a serial killer piece? Nothing, so Lannes comes in to prevent that nasty fate. I wanted more character out of the dubious “angel” of this story. This one had a nice Southern gothic feel to it despite having overt supernatural entities.
The 19th: Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture) by Neil Gaiman. Another piece that wasn’t a short story. Instead, we have ourselves a profoundly disturbing script to a movie I’d pay to see - twice. Seriously, this is some Clive Barker tier material. I had to double check if Gaiman really wrote this. There’s a vague plot of a man looking for his lost sister, and things go off the rails and straight into some hellish beast’s mouth. Side note: I’m one hundred percent certain that Gaiman has a fetish for men being consumed by women now.
The 20th: In the Month of Athyr by Elizabeth Hand. A fitting end to an excellent anthology. It seems to take many aspects from the previous stories and fit them neatly into a mish-mash of emotions. I ached with nostalgia while reading this piece. The ending made me say, “Ah, come on,” in a good way. The treatment of trans issues in this one felt a bit off, though. The exposition dumps could’ve been worse.
supatrey's review against another edition
3.0
The audiobook reader mispronounces soooooooo many things.
moreadsbooks's review
2.0
I have finally found it! And I have read it! Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture)! It could not possibly have lived up to my expectations, but it was still pretty cool. And the rest of the book was meh.
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