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lovelife1008's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
joti's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
A collection of short stories, so a bit hard to rate. There were some stories I really loved (I think 'Perfectly You' was my favourite and I highlighted the most quotes in 'the boys who became the hummingbirds', with people "seeking to destroy in others what they could not bear in themselves") and others I was less impressed by. But I do think the collection as a whole is wonderful and it's nice to see so many often underrepresented voices together writing a genre I wouldn't necessarily think of. I love how ancient native culture is mixed with futuristic sci-fi elements.
tenderbench's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia
Minor: Rape and Sexual assault
loungeking's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
beefmaster's review against another edition
3.0
Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time was our queer bookclub pick this month and it was a mixed bag. Three of the stories I outright hated, two I was indifferent, and only two did I actually like. The anthology is Indigenous-written and queer-focused and perhaps if the anthology had been left in the realm of realism, I might have found it more successful. However, the theme is science fiction and therein lies the problem. Many of the stories felt as if their science fictional elements tacked on, after the fact, without much thoughtfulness. "Legends Are Made, Not Born" by Cherie Dimaline depicts a young Indigenous person being brought into the world of Two Spirit by Auntie Dave, a memorable character unto themselves. However it's not until the end when Auntie Dave clumsily reminds the protagonist and therefore the audience the setting is New Earth, as Old Earth was abandoned. What's the point? The first story, "Aliens," is over-written, didactic, and diagrammatic to a fault. It's awful. The worst story is the most science fictional, "Imposter Syndrome", by Mari Kurisato. Imagine somebody who doesn't read science fiction trying to write a parody of all the worst tropes of science fiction. That's this story. It made me think of Raymond Chandler's famous dismissal of science fiction:
Did you ever read what they call Science Fiction? It's a scream. It is written like this: "I checked out with K19 on Aldabaran III, and stepped out through the crummalite hatch on my 22 Model Sirus Hardtop. I cocked the timejector in secondary and waded through the bright blue manda grass. My breath froze into pink pretzels."...They pay brisk money for this crap? (here)That's what reading "Imposter Syndrome" felt like. However, not all is terrible. Gwen Benaway's "Transtions," a very lightly science fictional story, weighs the scientific method against the traditional methods. It's the story most accomplished and most writerly. Benaway, of whom I've only read some poetry, writes professionally, writes expertly, knowing how to pace a story, which details to include and exclude, and how to end. It's terrific. The other story I liked was "Néle," by Darcie Little Badger, an extremely fluffy F/F romance set on a Seed Ship taking dogs to the new colony on Mars. The protagonist is a vet, woken up from stasis to take care of the dogs, an extreme luxury item. She falls in love with one of the pilots. It's cute and it has zero dramatic stakes. Wonderful stuff. It's also the only story in the entire anthology which needs science fiction in order to tell its story. The premise and setting completely depend on the Fantastic. A mixed bag but those two stories were great.
katiegrrrl's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing short stories written by Indigenous writers that are SFF and queer!
bexrecca's review against another edition
3.0
More like 3.5. Like many short story collections, this one was uneven. A couple stories don't seem to really fit the sci-fi title, but most do. Some very incredible works and definitely worth your time.
booksandladders's review against another edition
4.0
Overall I really enjoyed this but I would have liked for the stories to be more similar in length. I didn't enjoy the super long to super short structure to this anthology. however I felt like I learned a lot and it was Canadian which I didn't know before starting so I was very impressed. Review to come on Books and Ladders!
jugglingpup's review against another edition
4.0
To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.
I got an ARC of this book.
Like any anthology there are stories that are amazing and some that just don’t do it for me. There were stories that were so fantastic I would have read full length novels of them without blinking like they were than engrossing.
One of my favorite stories has a bunch of dogs, which if you know me is the exact way to get to my heart. The dogs were a great way to get the love story going. It allowed an older woman and a younger woman come together in a way that I wasn’t expecting. I love seeing older women getting love stories and getting the spotlight. It is so rare that the media wants to show that, that when I find a story or a show about that I am beyond excited. That story was my favorite in the anthology by far. The cute interactions with the dogs didn’t hurt either.
There were so many stories that featured queer love and even more that featured gender as a focus. So many trans women and two spirit people. My heart was going to explode from all of the representation love I was experiencing. There was one story that didn’t quite sit well with me, but I think it comes more from my own issues of being told that I shouldn’t medically transition. The story seemed to be more about the different paths to being a woman and coming home to being yourself, but my mind latched on to the idea that a medical transition was wrong as one of the themes. It was very clearly not the theme by far, but it was a knee jerk reaction from my own transition. So please keep an open mind when you read these stories, they don’t play out the way you would expect and they are so much more complex than I hoped for.
I am not a big sci-fi fan, but this anthology made me want to read more. It isn’t so sci-fi it loses me. Instead it solidified this idea of speculative fiction for me. It was a mixture of everything and finally made that genre have flesh for me instead of just being thrown around by smart people around me talking about it. I am definitely a fan of speculative fiction. I heard a rumor that this editor was putting out a new book and that there would be one of my favorite author’s stories in it. I can’t say if this is true or not, but the chance that it is true makes me really excited. So I highly suggest keeping an eye out for more collections edited by Nicholson and suggest you grab a copy of this book.
I got an ARC of this book.
Like any anthology there are stories that are amazing and some that just don’t do it for me. There were stories that were so fantastic I would have read full length novels of them without blinking like they were than engrossing.
One of my favorite stories has a bunch of dogs, which if you know me is the exact way to get to my heart. The dogs were a great way to get the love story going. It allowed an older woman and a younger woman come together in a way that I wasn’t expecting. I love seeing older women getting love stories and getting the spotlight. It is so rare that the media wants to show that, that when I find a story or a show about that I am beyond excited. That story was my favorite in the anthology by far. The cute interactions with the dogs didn’t hurt either.
There were so many stories that featured queer love and even more that featured gender as a focus. So many trans women and two spirit people. My heart was going to explode from all of the representation love I was experiencing. There was one story that didn’t quite sit well with me, but I think it comes more from my own issues of being told that I shouldn’t medically transition. The story seemed to be more about the different paths to being a woman and coming home to being yourself, but my mind latched on to the idea that a medical transition was wrong as one of the themes. It was very clearly not the theme by far, but it was a knee jerk reaction from my own transition. So please keep an open mind when you read these stories, they don’t play out the way you would expect and they are so much more complex than I hoped for.
I am not a big sci-fi fan, but this anthology made me want to read more. It isn’t so sci-fi it loses me. Instead it solidified this idea of speculative fiction for me. It was a mixture of everything and finally made that genre have flesh for me instead of just being thrown around by smart people around me talking about it. I am definitely a fan of speculative fiction. I heard a rumor that this editor was putting out a new book and that there would be one of my favorite author’s stories in it. I can’t say if this is true or not, but the chance that it is true makes me really excited. So I highly suggest keeping an eye out for more collections edited by Nicholson and suggest you grab a copy of this book.