I was eagerly anticipating this anthology because SciFi is so infrequently found in gay romance, and it is my favorite genre. This collection has a mix of F/F and M/M romance. Unfortunately, this collection doesn't live up to expectations. Short stories are already challenged by time/length constraints when it comes to character development, and these are no exception. And Science Fiction is even more difficult to carry off because it requires some kind of "world-building" to support the theme. Most of these stories fell into two categories:

1) the "aliens" (or something similar) were thrown into the mix to make it "scifi," rather than being a meaningful structure for the story. Or,

2) the SciFi was overly detailed and failed within the short story format. In short, the authors tried to cram so many details in that it became jumbled, and the romance and characters suffered.

Excellent SciFi short fiction is rare even for established authors in traditional (eg non-romance) SciFi. I think M/M romance just needs more space to be both romance (with the requisite character development and intimacy) and SciFi (with the otherworldly aspect). Some of the stories here do stand out, and a few had the potential to be good novels, but overall the anthology is weak. Readers who are not fans of Science Fiction, or unfamiliar with it, may find a lot here to appreciate. The stories are different from the standard gay romance short stories. Lifelong fans of SciFi may be disappointed. ( )

The Night Hunters by Jacques L. Condor: “Lights in the sky, circles in the snow and stolen moose carcasses…in the Alaskan wilderness two former lovers stand together in the face of the unknown.”

Frank and Pete are more than 80 years old and former lovers. They are still living together on the account that they haven't any other place where to go. At the beginning of the XX century they moved to Alaska, built an isolated cabin and probably started a life together in a place where no one cared if they were lovers. In the '60 they 'divorced', meaning that they decided they were no more in love and tracked a red line in the middle of the cabin. For the following years they continued to live together bitching and questioning, but, for me still loving each other, they have only to find a reason to understand that the love is stronger than the habit.
The 'sci-fi' elements in this story are only a nice side effect, the main focus are Frank and Pete and their story. In few words the author told us a whole lifelong experience, and Frank and Pete came out as two wonderful characters. At the beginning, I was thinking for them to be only supporting characters, I'm true, I didn't think to more than 80 years old men as possible 'lovers', and so I thought it was their friend Dill to be the hero. And instead Frank and Pete, with all their years, and with their past history, stole the scene and headed together towards a very nice happily ever after... again!

Borrowed by R.J. Bradshaw: “In Borrowed, Pete’s average working day takes a bewildering turn when his hot neighbour pays him an uncharacteristic visit.”

This a very short story and it’s quite funny actually. Pete is a 20 years old guy living in a small country farm village, and he has nothing to do if not fantasizing on his neighbour, Walt. Problem is that Pete has not courage to come out, at least with Walt, and so his situation is without hope. But then he receives an unexpected help from an alien who borrows Walt’s body. As in the previous story, I had the feeling that the sci-fi element was not the main aspect; more in this case, I even felt an old-fashioned taste, like an alien’s story of the ’50, when the alien were still “simple” creature and not the monster of recent imagination.

The Communion Fields by Trent Roman: “Around the world, a group of people find themselves in a strange dreamland when they go to sleep, where the laws of physics are suspended and something lurks over the horizon.”

In Trent Roman’s story, the gay character represents only one of the various examples of misfits in the real world. Michael, as others, sometime awakes in a different world, what he calls the Communion Fields. It’s not a dream, he actually made friends with some of the people he met there, persons he had the chance to meet also in the real world. But till this night, he didn’t understand why him, or the others, have this particular experience. Maybe this story is a bit more alternative dimensions than the previous ones, but still, it’s a very sophisticated type of sci-fi, and again it has an old fashioned feeling, this time more ’70 type, like 2001 Space Odyssey or some other cult movies.

Stargazing by Inga Gorslar: “The journey might just be the reward.”

In a world where soldiers were turned in half human half beast for being better at fight, Jack has no more a place where to stay. The war is ended, and Jack at 36 years is too old to go back home, a place he left 20 years before. He is now a drifter, without a place, and only a friend, Andy, an android he saved from destruction. Jack and Andy are at the opposite, Jack was a ground trooper and to be so he was given claws and special sight, and scales instead of skin, they made him loose his humanity. Andy instead has the body of a perfect man, but it’s a robot. Both of them now don’t have a reason to exist, if not that they are the only other contact for each other. Wandering together from small town to small town, Jack is trying to regain his humanity and Andy to learn it; in the meantime, they maybe will find also something else, that where no real human will want to be with them, they can be for each other also lovers other than friends.

The Prettiest Girl in the Room by Mallory Path: “Duster Mann adores women–especially when they have XY chromosomes like the woman he fell for at first sight and has been searching for ever since. ”

This is probably the most “futuristic” of all the previous stories, the one I usually refer to as “Apocalypse Now”. The setting is an oppressive and dark future world, that I really hope we will never reach. The difference between people are thinner, there are no more men or women, black or white, but there is still the sex. Duster is a man with a mission, and is mission is called Lyre. Lyre is a whore, she/he works with Faye and they are responsible for Lolly. All of the three “girls” are in between, not yet men or women, not yet adult but no more boys. Probably the story is not your classical M/M romance, as I said, the gender of the characters are very much “uncertain”, and so you can’t define it as gay, lesbian or transgender, it is all of it and at the same time no one of them. It’s also quite sad, I’m not sure if I liked the sadness, I would have probably preferred for an happily ever after, at least a “for now” one.

Time Now by C.S. Fuqua: “Mattie will do anything to change the past… but what if the past won’t let her?”

This is quite a strange story. Mattie and Abby are lovers, but Abby is not stable, she is always on the brink of suicide till the day Mattie arrives too late to save her. But Mattie and her college professor, Dr Davies are working on a time portal and maybe Mattie is not really too late to save Abby. Again another perspective in how you look at sci-fi: here is more a psychological one, and also, probably, the affirmation that destiny somewhat is stronger than science.

The Man in the Mirror by Lacey Louwagie: “In a world of declining male birth-rates, Gina moves to a Ranch searching for love. When Gina’s marriage fails, her best friend Andi takes drastic steps to make sure Gina’s dreams of love still come true.”

This is probably the most sincere of the stories: what are you willing to do for love? Not always the answer is everything. Andi loves Gina since forever; they went school together, they grew up together, and Andi thought Gina was everything she wanted, but for Gina was not the same. In the future world where they live, women outcome men 10 to 1, and finding a man is a so small chance that lesbian couple are an ordinary thing. But Gina wants an old fashioned relationship, doesn’t matter if there is no love in that. She is wrong obviously and in the end she comes back to Andi, with a daughter they can bring up together. But again, Gina is not happy, and Andi thinks that she can do the latest sacrifice, loosing herself for the love of Gina.

The Toti by Michael Itig: “Where can the gay man who has everything find fulfilment? There’s only one possible place: in the arms of a toti....”

This is a very cute story. In a world were everything is synthetic and “fake”, people give birth to people through clones. You are what your “fathers” or “mothers” are, and so, if your father is gay you are gay. Being homosexual is common, as it’s having open relationship. Jay, our hero, has 6 husbands and he is such a good husband himself that he has never had a divorce. But he is lonely. When the story starts, the reader has the idea that Jay isn’t accepting what society is expecting from him, to be gay. He is having payed sex with a woman, but there is something more of sex that he is searching, and only at the end the reader will find his answer, one that is surprisingly as it’s simple: Jay wants to be a normal man, and this doesn’t mean that he doesn’t want to be homosexual.

The Visitor by Fiona Glass: “Can love follow a person through time? When Madoc meets a man from the future he little realizes it will be the catalyst to change his world.”

The Visitor is a strange silver romance. Madoc is a fifty years old man who is searching for a dream. Thirty years before he falls in love for a man, Josh, who was a visitor from the future. He couldn’t stay and when he left, Madoc was only 20 years old and full of life. The world was a bad place where to live and Madoc fought to make it better. Now, 30 years after, the world is better, and Madoc is still alive, but will his love for Josh be enough? I liked a lot this short story, in a way, I think Josh would have been the right man for 20 years old Madoc. Now Madoc is a more interesting man, and maybe, this is exactly what Josh wanted.

Zoogarish by John Randall Williams: “Cole’s panic attacks aren’t about to keep him from a Zoogarish. He fights his fears only to find the hallucinations generated by this Zoogarish are something different, something deadly.”

Cole is living in a world that it’s not real, probably a place where he can be what in reality he has not the courage to be. And in that fake world, Cole is able to do things that real Cole will never do. I don’t know if I like so much “fake” Cole, I think I prefer real “Cole” and his stuttering, and his simple crush for simple and ordinary Johnny.

The Future of Dr Lole San Paulo by A.J. Astruc: “High above the morals and laws of the civilized world, a disgraced geneticist finds a new lease on life when an unusual thief comes to him with an indecent proposal.”

Lole isn’t whole and Bink isn’t real. Lole is a genetic scientist, the type of man that will not stop in front of anything, above all not life. He is quite the mad scientist and he got punished for one to many mistakes with the amputation of his limbs. When Lole meets Bink, he doesn’t know if loving or hating him, Bink is a clone and he can grow again flesh and bones. Together they have a dream, to make enough money to realize their dreams, but the problem is that their dreams don’t match, and the border between love and hate is too thin. More than a sci-fi, this is almost a futuristic Frankenstein and it has an horror side that overcome everything.

The Sister Bush by Joel Best: “A young woman from the distant future, plagued by strange dreams, learns that love and profit can be at odds with one another.”

I think the most interesting aspect of this short story it’s that it’s like reading poetry in prose. It’s not an easy story to read, and I think it has very little hope in the future; it’s also very dark and oppressive, but it’s a lyrics in it that made for a very strange experience to read.

Plumbing the Depths by Angelia Sparrow & Naomi Brooks: “Washed-up Space Exploration Rangers, Cliff Cody and his husband Jake, are sent on a mission to the earth’s core, only to have the nature of their world and relationship shaken.”

Cliff and Jake were space warriors and both of them got seriously injured during a fight. They survived but other than losing limbs and other exchangeable body part, they lost something irreplaceable, their third husband Frank. Now retired officers, they survive but they don’t really live. Jake is resenting Cliff, but above all himself to be alive and Frank not. When they are called back into service, Jake thinks it will be the end of their relationship, and instead, maybe, it will be their only chance to happiness. I really liked this story, above all since it focused more on the relationship between Cliff and Jake than on their space adventure, that, in the end, was even more funny than dangerous.

Off Course by Logan Zachary: “Disaster leads to a close encounter of the best kind.”

Paulis is a space traveller, he flights alone with the only companionship of his computer Martha. He is the perfect man of the future, but there is nothing of futuristic in his passion for Ruark, a very much old fashioned big and strong man who helped him when he is derailed from his original route. I like how from a very aseptic and futuristic setting the story evolves in a very familiar and sexy story, with even the appearance of a mother, who proves that Paulis is not at all so modern as he at first appeared.

Eurydice by James EM Rasmussen: “Eurydice: a world filled with fanatics, lunatics and isolationists where they’d rather kill you than say hello. The perfect holiday stop, only if you’re still young enough to feel immortal…”

This is a very complicated story, but basically I think that Micael doesn’t accept himself, he is always searching for something more, something different. And even if he can have the love of Dary, a perfect man, for that exact reason he can be content with it: Dary is perfect and Micael is not, he wants to change, he wants to be a different man.

Whatever the Risk by Erastes: “Paroche is one planet Teless never wants to go to. When his partner and Captain announces that they are going to be trading there on their next jump, Teless knows it can only end badly.”

Here be Gardens by David Edison: “Jaime’s been living off world when the death of an ex-lover draws him back to Earth–or does he have a different motive for leaving the herbaceous Dyson Sphere he’s called home for two years?”

Jamie’s travel is accompanied by Henry’s letters, the letter of a dead lover. It’s a strange relationship, but stronger than the one Jamie is having in real life, where whose he thinks to be a friend is instead a traitor. Is Jamie’s coming back home to fulfil the last desire of a man he loved, or to find instead his true path?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1920441026/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

BOOK BLURB:
Visit the unexpected futures ... where queer flowers bloom on strange new worlds even when that world is our own ... Queer Dimensions presents queer futures in an exciting collection of 17 science fiction tales from both new and established authors.

BOOK REVIEW:
After the excellent Queer Wolves collection, I was really looking forward to this science fiction anthology, and Rasmussen and his authors did not disappoint!

The opening story, "The Night Hunters" by Jacques L. Condor, sets the bar high, with an endearingly concrete and real-feeling pair of grumpy old Alaskan hunters and some unwelcome visitors. The dialogue, the setting, the whole situation and conceit of the story had me hooked right from the first page, although there were a couple of slightly clunky gear changes (I believed them seeing aliens more than I did them talking about their feelings).

If I had to pick a single word to describe "The Man in the Mirror" by Lacey Louwagie, that word would be 'creepy.' Creepy, excellent, and unsettling. Digging into gender identity and the nature of love, this was really hard to read, but well worth it. Similarly, while being quite different in theme and setting, "The Sister Bush" by Joel Best is an eerie, suggestive, dystopic and disturbing tale.

As with any anthology, though, there were a few stories that didn't entirely delight me, although none that I thought were bad or didn't deserve a place here. "Eurydice" by James E.M. Rasmussen presents a rounded cast, fabulous world, and genuine conflict, but somehow, just didn't set me on fire, and "Plumbing the Depths" by A. Sparrow & N. Brooks never quite took off for me, although it's nicely plotted, and I was rooting for the relationship to flourish.

I must admit that "The Toti" by Michael Itig didn't gel for me at all, and "Off Course" by Logan Zachary struck me as pure 70s space cheese in both setting, tone, and body-types, which just isn't to my taste. The issue, though, is more one of taste than quality ~ it really is me not them! "Whatever the Risk" by Erastes is also quite a traditional sci-fi setting, but managed to hit more of my buttons, and offers a good, solid world, and a very engaging relationship.

"The Visitor" by Fiona Glass seemed to be trying to cram a lot ~ time travel, the engineering of social change, reverse-racism, all while setting up two eras of 'new earth' plus the relationship elements. The ideas were good, but the net effect was unfortunately rushed.

"Zoogarish" by John Randall Williams similarly seemed a bit cramped. Excellent idea, engaging characters (despite the 'new language' sci-fi tropes that are a little off-puttingly Trekish for me) but another one that just stopped ~ would be a great starter to a longer book, or as part of a series of pieces.

"Borrowed" by R.J. Bradshaw I thought was a good, solid, if very brief, story, and had a wonderful way of setting up a relationship!

"Here be Gardens" by David Edison is packed with beautiful language and interesting ideas, but I could not care for any of the characters, who are very distanced, and, well, they're just not that nice. Lines like, "If his heart could hold a razor she'd be smiling straight across her throat" though, kept me reading.

"The Communion Fields" by Trent Roman is built around a truly fascinating idea, delicately and deftly explored. Although both plot and style are quite different, it somehow reminded me of Scarlett Thomas's "The End of Mr. Y." The only black mark I could put against this story was that it felt more like the first chapter of an excellent novel than a fully complete short story.

"The Prettiest Girl in the Room" by Mallory Path is not immediately the kind of story that appeals to me, but the writing was flawless, and this tale of genetic mods, the sex trade, and gender identity grew on me as I read. The story's end is at once a surprise and entirely inevitable ~ beautifully done. To develop not just a pair of main characters but a whole engaging ensemble, along with a world quite different from our own, within a short story takes real craft, which Path clearly possesses in abundance.

"The Future of Dr. Lole San Paulo" by A.J. Astruc is pure brilliance and also creepy as hell ~ genetic mutation and blackmail, and not diluted at all for a happy ending romance, which just made me enjoy it more. Fabulous stuff!

No emotional punches are pulled in "Time Now" by C.S. Fuqua either, which focuses around time travel and inevitability, friendship, love and suicide, and it is uncomfortable and scratchy, exactly as a story dealing with those issues should be.

There are a lot of great stories in this anthology, but I think "Stargazing" by Inga Gorslar was my favorite. It is not only lovely in every way, it's also one of my favorite types of sci-fi, where the science shapes the society, and we see that through the eyes of 'regular guys.' The two main characters ~ ex-military Jack, with his combat mods, and android Andy ~ may not on the surface look that 'regular' but they're delightfully solid, real feeling characters, and the trials they face just trying to make their way back on boring old earth makes its point without ever feeling labored or staged. Their difference is such a beautifully drawn part of them as whole people, and the sparse, taut, language is perfect for them.

The collection as a whole ranges from the strong to the brilliant, and comes highly recommended.

(Originally reviewed for Rainbow Reviews - http://www.rainbow-reviews.com/?p=1932)

Personal notes: Another really strong anthology - not all the stories were to my tastes, but a lot were, and the quality was high throughout. There are a couple of stories I've already been back to re-read, and, as with all good sci-fi, some ideas that will linger on in the back of my mind. ( )