Bogi Takács

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 her eir read from one of my favorite stories in the book!

Anyway, I know I have a tendency to be super critical of short story collections, but something about this collection just worked for me, even when a few individual stories left me feeling nonplussed or unmoved (sometimes it felt like my unfamiliarity with Judaism/Hebrew was a significant barrier -- but only for a few stories). I enjoyed the themes of body modification and integration/community issues with "alien" species, as well as relationships with power differentials, some of which had BDSM elements (nothing really explicitly sexual or erotic, though). Many of these stories had real staying power in my head, and I can bring many scenes easily to mind months later.

Some favorite stories: "Forest spirit Forestspirit" in which a conscious cluster of automata decides to protect a bit of forest from a networked intelligence which has decided to destroy it, and "Standing on the Floodbanks" a longer piece (the one I heard Bogi read from) about magic, control, and respect.… (more)

Read full review on my blog.

I received a copy from the editor, Bogi Takács in exchange for an honest review.

Number of stories: 16
LGBTQAI : Every story in this anthology has trans and other queer characters with various identities.
Sex on page: No

First of all, it was wonderful to see so many trans characters with various identities and experiences, including but far from being limited to various pronouns. There were characters with singular they, characters switching between he and she, and characters using several different sets of neopronouns.

That being said, this anthology was a bit of a mixed bag. There were some stories that I really enjoyed, but a disappointing number of them just didn’t really work for me for reasons that are difficult to verbalise.

Perhaps I should start by mentioning that this anthology had a short story by one of my favourite authors, RoAnna Sylver. I’ve read Happy REGARDS before in the Life Within Parole collection, and I adored – I still adore – it. Still, I was surprised and a little conflicted that it was included in this anthology, for one simple reason: I am not sure it can stand on its own. It has a wonderful cast of characters, but they exist within a world full of many stories – and when you read only one of those stories, things can get hectic and even confusing.

On a smaller scale, I felt this way about several of the other stories – like I was only getting part of the picture. Of course, there is nothing wrong with leaving things up to the reader’s interpretation, but in this anthology, a little too many stories left me baffled or yearning for a little more clarification. This might just be a personal preference, though.

What I really would have appreciated at the beginning is a list of trigger or content warnings for each story, since many of them deal with heavy topics like suicide, suicidal thoughts, depression, bullying… And probably others I either missed or suddenly can’t remember. A few of these are mentioned in the introduction, but I feel like a comprehensive list could have been useful.

I wanted to get those thoughts out of the way, but I also want to talk about the parts that I genuinely enjoyed, so here are a few words about my favourite stories:

Because Change Was The Ocean And We Lived By Her Mercy: My favourite story in this collection, honestly. (Other than Happy REGARDS, of course, but that should go without saying at this point.) Because Change Was The Ocean is a solarpunk-ish story about community and belonging and I would gladly give it five out of five stars. Or more.

Skerry-Bride: This was one of the shortest stories I think, but it had wonderful descriptions about the POV character’s shapechanging lover. There are also many Norse mythology elements.

Transitions: This story was interesting because it started out as a completely ordinary, present-day story about transition, and by that I mean lacking any speculative elements – then some aspects of Indigenous culture were worked into the story and it fit together beautifully.

and, of course, Happy REGARDS: If you follow me on any kind of social media, you have probably seen me scream about Chameleon Moon and RoAnna’s other works before. Happy REGARDS is a wonderful short story that focuses on Evelyn, Danae and Rose’s family, including some siblings, in-laws, and found/chosen family as well.

My rating: ☄☄☄☄/5… (more)