Reviews

Silk & Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology by Claire Bartlett, Elizabeth Davis, Jennifer Mace, Alison Tam, Django Wexler, Cara Patterson, Chris Wolfgang, Ellen Kushner, K.A. Doore, Neon Yang, Aliette de Bodard, Ann Leblanc, Yoon Ha Lee, S.K. Terentiev, Freya Marske

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deana_reads's review

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

I’m very picky with short stories and this anthology was only okay. I was really excited for the cover and the idea of queer fantasy/sci fi power couples but as I’m guessing most anthologies are, some stories fell flat.

There was a lot of dueling in this??? Which based on the cover and the apparent inspo pic, okay, but only one story actually had the two women dueling each other and it had extremely minimal tension and payoff for me. My standouts were Elinor Jones vs the Ruritanian Multiverse, Plan Z, and The Parnassian Courante (prize for being my absolute favorite).

mint_the_muffin's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-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

3.75

pickled_pisces's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

I am genuinely surprised at how much I loved almost every story within this book. I will say by the 60% mark it felt like the plots got very repetitive with story ending with 2 main characters kissing despite not having any previous romantic interactions. The one story that I thought was fantastic was The Parnassian Courante.

accidentalspaceexplorer's review against another edition

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3.0

There's nothing wrong with this book, it's just that I almost DNF'd it like a million times. I'm pretty sure that anthologies are just not my thing at the moment. A lot of these stories were interesting but reading them in a row made them all run together.