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mxsallybend's review
4.0
Although Brave Boy World: A Transman Anthology is billed as a collection of tales that "explore what it means to be a man, even when one was born female," I think that does it a disservice. This is really an anthology about gender, both male and female, with some valuable insights into both branches of the transgender experience. Michael Takeda has really done a fantastic job of gathering such a deep, diverse collection.
According to His Substance by K.C. Ball was a great opener, a story about suicide, parallel worlds, and gaining perspective, while Spoiling Veena by Keyan Bowes was a sweet story about love, acceptance, and the gender of designer children. It was Fluidity by Eric Del Carlo, though, that really convinced me there was something interesting going on here, inverting our expectations and exploring a world of natural gender transition where the social outcasts are those who do not want to cycle to the next gender.
After a story that just confused me and forced me to move on, the always amazing Brit Mandelo swooped in with Liner Notes For the Crash, a gorgeous story that's less about gender and more about the queer experience, set within the context of music and social rebellion. Boy Rescue by Ace Lo got back to gender with a cute story about a robot who chooses to masculinize himself, which I see as a sort of companion piece to Robinson Faces the Music by Ryan Kelley, which uses aliens rather than robots to explore gender expectations.
Like many anthologies, I felt this had a soft middle with some stories that just did not work for me, but I felt like it got back on track with The Three Ways of the Sword Man by Jaap Boekstein and LGB(T) by Maverick Smith, two stories that use sword-and-sorcery and superheroes to explore gender, sexuality, and relationships. In fact, LGB(T) was one of my favorite stories in the collection, and the final selections that follow it are all strong, well-written pieces with a lot to say. Often strange and confusing, as the best science fiction often is, but they blend big ideas with intimate emotions very well.
Brave Boy World: A Transman Anthology is well worth a read, not just for transgender readers, but for genre fans who are interested in exploring the very construct of gender.
As reviewed by Sally at Bending the Bookshelf
According to His Substance by K.C. Ball was a great opener, a story about suicide, parallel worlds, and gaining perspective, while Spoiling Veena by Keyan Bowes was a sweet story about love, acceptance, and the gender of designer children. It was Fluidity by Eric Del Carlo, though, that really convinced me there was something interesting going on here, inverting our expectations and exploring a world of natural gender transition where the social outcasts are those who do not want to cycle to the next gender.
After a story that just confused me and forced me to move on, the always amazing Brit Mandelo swooped in with Liner Notes For the Crash, a gorgeous story that's less about gender and more about the queer experience, set within the context of music and social rebellion. Boy Rescue by Ace Lo got back to gender with a cute story about a robot who chooses to masculinize himself, which I see as a sort of companion piece to Robinson Faces the Music by Ryan Kelley, which uses aliens rather than robots to explore gender expectations.
Like many anthologies, I felt this had a soft middle with some stories that just did not work for me, but I felt like it got back on track with The Three Ways of the Sword Man by Jaap Boekstein and LGB(T) by Maverick Smith, two stories that use sword-and-sorcery and superheroes to explore gender, sexuality, and relationships. In fact, LGB(T) was one of my favorite stories in the collection, and the final selections that follow it are all strong, well-written pieces with a lot to say. Often strange and confusing, as the best science fiction often is, but they blend big ideas with intimate emotions very well.
Brave Boy World: A Transman Anthology is well worth a read, not just for transgender readers, but for genre fans who are interested in exploring the very construct of gender.
As reviewed by Sally at Bending the Bookshelf
saturniidead's review
1.0
Content warning:
Well, it looks like we can’t escape transphobia, even in the vastness of space- at least according to Brave Boy World. This anthology boldly promises unique trans man representation in the title, summary, and introduction and thereafter does barely that. A more accurate description of this book would be “sci fi exploring gender variance”, as there’s no consistent or explicit trans man representation, though at least trans man characters are present in most of the stories. Yes, some of the stories don’t even directly depict trans men, sometimes just trans women, in this trans man anthology. Not only does it fail to deliver what it attracted you in for, but it does a crude, depressing, or even offensive job at delivering trans man representation when it actually bothers to.
I will say right now, some works in this avoid my brute thoughts, in particular, Liner Notes for the Crash and Coyote Dog Bitten both had strong, vibrant, and honest trans representation that pulled me through this. But unlike those, most stories that had decent trans representation relied on the main plot being trans suffering, outrunning birth assignments and transphobia. This became redundant and just outright dismal to keep repeatedly seeing, making the stories feel the same, just repackaged. On the other hand, some stories lacked representation, substituting in alien gender perception, fictional gender changes, and genderless beings in lieu of actually presenting a trans masculine character. Seeing these two issues scattered practically everywhere emphasized a lack of focus, the former too saturated, and the latter not meeting the criteria to belong. With these problems, the book at best felt blurry and hastily put together with little regard to the intended purpose.
Now, for the darker side of what was presented, the outright offensive. Spoiling Veena presents you with a perspective you wouldn’t imagine seeing in a book like this, as it puts you in the shoes of a transphobic mother. The stereotype reliance, superficial support, and blatant transphobia depictions from it could easily make readers who have difficult relationships with their families uncomfortable, so its inclusion confused me. Deadhead Chemistry is a dangerously written story that spends its entire duration deadnaming and misgendering the trans man protagonist, while constantly pinning his want to transition as dangerous, unstable, and nightmare-like. It relies heavily on tropes and sexism to make its points, to quote, so it being included at all was a colossal misstep. Trans Mare Cognitum was by far the worst of all, as is deeply needed some kind of trigger warnings for existing as what I’d describe trans specific horror.
A strange, but familiar woman stared back at him.”
Nothing could redeem this book without a massive undertaking, be it a complete rebrand or total clean out. I went in thrilled to see such a book exist, and left absolutely relieved that it was finally over, disappointed I read it in the first place. Thoroughly, I’m speechless in whatever motives and oversight lead to this book being published, as violently harsh as it is. I want better for the strong stories in here, and I hope this criticism hits the right ears to prevent something like this from happening again. Trans men representation deserves significantly better than this.
Summary:
Readability: ★☆☆☆☆, This book has a remarkable amount of direct and gendered anatomy and pregnancy references with direct deadnaming and misgendering for a trans man anthology, which can easily alienate or even deter trans readers. Really, this could have benefited severely from some sort of content warnings guide, since many of the stories have extremely heavy topics, and most involve transphobia. Some of the entries by cis authors are possibly unreadable with how they crudely treat the topic of dysphoria and transphobia, which highlights a severe weak point in the filtering job done. Because of the sci fi theme mixed with the short story format, some of the stories are fairly complex from the get go, making them very difficult to follow.
Entertainment: ★★☆☆☆, This was an exhilarating read, but I say it as unflatteringly as possible. It resembled Russian roulette on what kind of story you would get, something sci fi, something that actually lived up to what the book initially promised, or something jaw-droppingly offensive and graphic. I was able to enjoy a few stories, but the sheer amount focused on transphobia or riddled with upsetting attempts at representation absolutely degraded the overall experience. Because of the shocking contents this constantly teetered on becoming a DNF, sheer spite being the only reason I completed this.
Audience: Sci fi fans could potentially enjoy this, but this really doesn’t benefit readers looking for dedicated and impressive trans representation. The most beneficial audience honestly could be aspiring trans-focused writers and editors as a series of examples to either follow or avoid, emphasis on the latter. Trans readers could easily become disgusted or distressed from most of what this book upsettingly offered. Because of that, I see no benefit at all for casual cis readers with this book. Overall, I strongly don’t recommend this.
Spoiler
suicide, transphobia, violence, incest mention, guns, unaccepting parents, genderswap, forced transitioning, car accident, death, gendered body language, slurs, masturbation, vomit, abusive relationship, cheating, pregnancy, abortion, smoking, drug usage, graphic dysphoria description, arranged marriage, possible cannibalism?, deadnaming, misgendering, self harm, unsafe binding, animal abuse, murder, adultery, grief, running away, implied racism, poverty, starvation, graphic wounds, body weight mentions, sex, ableism, phalloplasty mocking, kidnapping, forced detransitioningWell, it looks like we can’t escape transphobia, even in the vastness of space- at least according to Brave Boy World. This anthology boldly promises unique trans man representation in the title, summary, and introduction and thereafter does barely that. A more accurate description of this book would be “sci fi exploring gender variance”, as there’s no consistent or explicit trans man representation, though at least trans man characters are present in most of the stories. Yes, some of the stories don’t even directly depict trans men, sometimes just trans women, in this trans man anthology. Not only does it fail to deliver what it attracted you in for, but it does a crude, depressing, or even offensive job at delivering trans man representation when it actually bothers to.
I will say right now, some works in this avoid my brute thoughts, in particular, Liner Notes for the Crash and Coyote Dog Bitten both had strong, vibrant, and honest trans representation that pulled me through this. But unlike those, most stories that had decent trans representation relied on the main plot being trans suffering, outrunning birth assignments and transphobia. This became redundant and just outright dismal to keep repeatedly seeing, making the stories feel the same, just repackaged. On the other hand, some stories lacked representation, substituting in alien gender perception, fictional gender changes, and genderless beings in lieu of actually presenting a trans masculine character. Seeing these two issues scattered practically everywhere emphasized a lack of focus, the former too saturated, and the latter not meeting the criteria to belong. With these problems, the book at best felt blurry and hastily put together with little regard to the intended purpose.
Now, for the darker side of what was presented, the outright offensive. Spoiling Veena presents you with a perspective you wouldn’t imagine seeing in a book like this, as it puts you in the shoes of a transphobic mother. The stereotype reliance, superficial support, and blatant transphobia depictions from it could easily make readers who have difficult relationships with their families uncomfortable, so its inclusion confused me. Deadhead Chemistry is a dangerously written story that spends its entire duration deadnaming and misgendering the trans man protagonist, while constantly pinning his want to transition as dangerous, unstable, and nightmare-like. It relies heavily on tropes and sexism to make its points, to quote
Spoiler
“Layer by layer, the skin of Cordelia tears into bloodied ribbons; bone by bone, fragility is replaced with resilience; follicle by follicle, fertility is replaced with ferociousness.”Spoiler
The parallels to conversion therapy, and depictions of forced reverse surgeries, graphic transphobic violence were startling without warning, to quote, “He refused to look as they peeled back the surgical tape and unwound the bloodstained bandages, revealing the shadows of sutures dissolving into his newly softened flesh. With fingers like iron, they gripped him by the hair and forced him to regard their handiwork in the mirror.A strange, but familiar woman stared back at him.”
Nothing could redeem this book without a massive undertaking, be it a complete rebrand or total clean out. I went in thrilled to see such a book exist, and left absolutely relieved that it was finally over, disappointed I read it in the first place. Thoroughly, I’m speechless in whatever motives and oversight lead to this book being published, as violently harsh as it is. I want better for the strong stories in here, and I hope this criticism hits the right ears to prevent something like this from happening again. Trans men representation deserves significantly better than this.
Summary:
Readability: ★☆☆☆☆, This book has a remarkable amount of direct and gendered anatomy and pregnancy references with direct deadnaming and misgendering for a trans man anthology, which can easily alienate or even deter trans readers. Really, this could have benefited severely from some sort of content warnings guide, since many of the stories have extremely heavy topics, and most involve transphobia. Some of the entries by cis authors are possibly unreadable with how they crudely treat the topic of dysphoria and transphobia, which highlights a severe weak point in the filtering job done. Because of the sci fi theme mixed with the short story format, some of the stories are fairly complex from the get go, making them very difficult to follow.
Entertainment: ★★☆☆☆, This was an exhilarating read, but I say it as unflatteringly as possible. It resembled Russian roulette on what kind of story you would get, something sci fi, something that actually lived up to what the book initially promised, or something jaw-droppingly offensive and graphic. I was able to enjoy a few stories, but the sheer amount focused on transphobia or riddled with upsetting attempts at representation absolutely degraded the overall experience. Because of the shocking contents this constantly teetered on becoming a DNF, sheer spite being the only reason I completed this.
Audience: Sci fi fans could potentially enjoy this, but this really doesn’t benefit readers looking for dedicated and impressive trans representation. The most beneficial audience honestly could be aspiring trans-focused writers and editors as a series of examples to either follow or avoid, emphasis on the latter. Trans readers could easily become disgusted or distressed from most of what this book upsettingly offered. Because of that, I see no benefit at all for casual cis readers with this book. Overall, I strongly don’t recommend this.
granite's review
4.0
I enjoyed this more than I enjoy most short story compilations, and a BIG jump more than I usually enjoy queer and trans anthologies; I often find that they're not tightly limited via theme enough, and the quality varies wildly. Because this was all spec-fic/sci-fi/future stories, it felt a lot more vibrant and immersive. The cover was gorgeous, also. Specifics below --
While there was no story I didn't finish, there were definitely ones I enjoyed a lot more. It's really hard to pick a favorite, but the story that inspired the cover, Sindali, was easily at the top of my list. I want to read the novel that's coming out of that short story, and I want it Very Badly. Liner Notes for the Crash was breathtakingly written, and strange, and gorgeous. I needed about an entire novel more of Coyote Dog Bitten.
Somewhat predictably, all but one of the stories written by cis writers left me... kind of cold. It's not that I don't think cis writers can't write trans characters; it's that they felt less deep and less complex, and relied more on Look, A Trans. Normally I'd say confirmation bias; but you don't find out anything about the writer until after the story, and I did not read ahead. I enjoyed only one of the stories written by cis folks; I didn't enjoy only one of the stories written by trans folks.
Overall, though, a great collection and a physically lovely book to own.
While there was no story I didn't finish, there were definitely ones I enjoyed a lot more. It's really hard to pick a favorite, but the story that inspired the cover, Sindali, was easily at the top of my list. I want to read the novel that's coming out of that short story, and I want it Very Badly. Liner Notes for the Crash was breathtakingly written, and strange, and gorgeous. I needed about an entire novel more of Coyote Dog Bitten.
Somewhat predictably, all but one of the stories written by cis writers left me... kind of cold. It's not that I don't think cis writers can't write trans characters; it's that they felt less deep and less complex, and relied more on Look, A Trans. Normally I'd say confirmation bias; but you don't find out anything about the writer until after the story, and I did not read ahead. I enjoyed only one of the stories written by cis folks; I didn't enjoy only one of the stories written by trans folks.
Overall, though, a great collection and a physically lovely book to own.
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