Bending the Landscape : Science Fiction

Rating:
Summary: An eye-opening anthology.
Review: A seemingly simple setup: combine two science fiction templates: an alien landscape - outer space, another planet, the fifties; and an Other - an alien, a foreigner, a renegade, a stranger in a strange land; now, the twist - the Other must be homosexual. How much can be written based on this premise? Volumes.

Start with the brilliant "Sex, Guns, and Baptists" by Keith Hartman, a wicked story of a world gone fundamentalist and a gay detective hired by a jealous wife to find out her husband's sexual orientation. Continue on in the same vein to Bassingthwaite's "Who Plays with Sin", a cyberpunk yarn as good as if not better than anything Gibson has ever written. Plunge into Klages' "Time Gypsy" and discover that the mindset of the fifties is just as alien as that of the previous stories. Examine the adage of "looks don't matter" in Wendy Rathbone's masterful "The Beautiful People." Nancy Kress contributes a thought-provoking tale of survival - at the cost of total isolation, in her "State of Nature." The cost that the artificial intelligence in Shariann Lewitt's (her "Rebel Sutra" is at the top of my reading list as I write this) "A Real Girl" must pay for her humanity is mind-boggling. The viewpoint character in Bamberg's "Love's Last Farewell" has already paid the ultimate price - he is the last gay man on Earth. Tiedemann's "Surfaces" dissects the popular tendency to partition humans into characteristics - and assign blame and praise to them instead of the person underneath. Steele's "The Flying Triangle" and Sperry's "On Vacation" take a more relaxed approach and depict a more accepting - or at least redeemable - humanity.

Out of the twenty-one stories in this volume, more than half deliver much more than promised, and none are really disappointing. In a few cases the authors choke on a message that is too large and fail to communicate it well, but these are rare. Overall, the original subject matter lends a new degree of richness, of credence, of power to the well-worn genre. Each character is so much more an expression of the author's mind, better fleshed-out and rounded because of the innovative undertones. An excellent, eye-opening anthology.

Rating:
Summary: Skillfully Subverting Genres
Review: Bending the Landscape: Science Fiction, is the first of a three-part series of "original gay and lesbian writing" edited by Nicola Griffith and Stephen Pagel (not very coincidentally, a participant in Outworlders, a local Atlanta GLBTQ sci fi / fantasy fan group and the parent group to a book group I belong to.) After choosing Storm Constantine's The Sign for the Sacred as our group's first fantasy selection, we turned to Bending as a book that would cover science fiction but also appeal to a variety of tastes. Also playing into the selection was the fact that the book had been awarded a number of extremely prestigious awards and Stephen Pagel would possibly come to our meeting to discuss it (which he did!)

When I started on Bending, I really didn't quite know what to expect; most of my affection for science fiction comes not from books but from movies and television, so I really didn't know how much of it I would enjoy. I soon discovered that my wariness was unfounded, for not only did I enjoy the science fiction, but the designation "science fiction" didn't really cover what I was reading -- I found a lot of what I considered "fantasy" as well. I also discovered that Griffith and Pagel made some truly excellent story selections.

Bending features stories which, so Pagel told us himself, cover the full spectrum of science fiction -- everything from futuristic private eye stories to time travel escapades to stories of alien worlds to explorations of cyber consciousness and gender identity. Clearly, this was not a book simply thrown together or with the lowest common denominator in mind. Instead, it's a book in which writers of all sexual orientations explore situations that explore one of science fiction's enduring themes, "the Alien, the Not-Self, the Other," with the "other" a lesbian or gay man (interpreted, so the book's introduction admits, "liberally.")

There were a lot of stories in Bending that I loved and several which actually reminded me strongly of Storm's stories. For example, "The City in Morning" by Carrie Richardson reads like a chapter from a lost Storm Constantine novel. "On Vacation" is a subtly hilarious tale of aliens living on earth a la Men In Black. Far and away my favorite story, which I must have reread a dozen time the day I first read it, was the beautiful, elegant and sweetly heart-rending "Silent Passion" by Kathleen O'Malley. Set in A.C. Crispin's StarBridge universe, to which O'Malley has contributed two books), the story is one I summed up to a friend as featuring "giant gay, signing, alien crane-creatures" and their interaction with gay human couple, whose relationship turns a new corner when the narrator is finally able to move beyond the pain of human intolerance. It's a beautiful, life - and love-affirming story which I doubt I will ever forget and which I plan to lead me on to O'Malley's two StarBridge novels, which, so Pagel tells me, feature these same amazing crane-aliens.

Knowing there are two more Bending anthologies (fantasy and horror), I am sure I have many more great tales ahead of me.

Rating:
Summary: Ugly cover; Great anthology
Review: I really enjoyed the first anthology in this series. After seeing the cover of this second book, I was afraid the series had taken a turn for the worse. The first volume was so expansive!and this cover seems so focused and limiting. I bought it anyways: everything Nicola Griffith has worked on has exceeded my expectations, and I decided to trust her.

Boy was I justified.

The cover of this book suggests that it's "gay fiction." It is, but more importantly it isn't. What it is is a series of remarkable stories that deal with queer themes, from the points of view of straights, queers, and all those real people who lie somewhere inbetween or beyond these labels. Regardless of the themes, you aren't going to be reading a better SF anthology this year. If you're at all interested in having your notions of gender and sexuality expanded, then READ THIS BOOK (and if SF isn't about the expansion of notions, then what is it?).

Rating:
Summary: Difference in gay/str/bi authors point of view telling
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'm not a fan of Nicole Griffith's writing but as a co-editor she really hits the mark. Especially telling were the different perspectives of the authors. In one of the stories the narrator is a heterosexual male telling of a gay man's heroics. The literal distance of the narrator mirrored that of the writer to the subject of gay male sexuality. While reading, intuition told me of the writer's point of view, clearly that of a heterosexual male telling the reader, "I know the gay guy who...." I enjoyed this story more for the insight into what this writer can and can't see about queerness and how close he was willing to go as a writer.

The choice of a straight narrator here functioned to keep the reader and writer at a distance whether due to comfort with the subject of queerness or of the author's personal choice. All the stories (except Powertool) certainly stand on there own merit as good writing but also provide an opportunity for the reader to look at the portrayal of queerness by the writers.

There were several moments when I was engrossed in well-written stories I didn't want to end. "Sex, Guns, and Baptists", "On Vacation", "Time Gypsies", "Half in Love With Easeful Rock and Roll", and "Silent Passion" were the cream of the crop. The book is a great reference for those looking for good authors to read.

The many moods of the anthology add to its appeal. At times the book was funny even hilarious and at others somber, thought provoking or even sad. My interest never waned and I wanted to read more.

Well written, thought provoking and most of all entertaining science fiction and one I want in my personal library.

Hopefully there will be a sequel to this science fiction series.

Rating:
Summary: Difference in gay/str/bi authors point of view telling
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'm not a fan of Nicole Griffith's writing but as a co-editor she really hits the mark. Especially telling were the different perspectives of the authors. In one of the stories the narrator is a heterosexual male telling of a gay man's heroics. The literal distance of the narrator mirrored that of the writer to the subject of gay male sexuality. While reading, intuition told me of the writer's point of view, clearly that of a heterosexual male telling the reader, "I know the gay guy who...." I enjoyed this story more for the insight into what this writer can and can't see about queerness and how close he was willing to go as a writer.

The choice of a straight narrator here functioned to keep the reader and writer at a distance whether due to comfort with the subject of queerness or of the author's personal choice. All the stories (except Powertool) certainly stand on there own merit as good writing but also provide an opportunity for the reader to look at the portrayal of queerness by the writers.

There were several moments when I was engrossed in well-written stories I didn't want to end. "Sex, Guns, and Baptists", "On Vacation", "Time Gypsies", "Half in Love With Easeful Rock and Roll", and "Silent Passion" were the cream of the crop. The book is a great reference for those looking for good authors to read.

The many moods of the anthology add to its appeal. At times the book was funny even hilarious and at others somber, thought provoking or even sad. My interest never waned and I wanted to read more.

Well written, thought provoking and most of all entertaining science fiction and one I want in my personal library.

Hopefully there will be a sequel to this science fiction series.

Rating:
Summary: A Welcome Surprise
Review: I was prepared to be disappointed by this anthology, for so many sci-fi stories that deal with gays are not very imaginative, but there were only a half-dozen or so stories in this collection that missed the mark. Nancy Johnston's "The Rendez-Vous" deals with a woman who may or may not be the victim of nocturnal alien abductions. Kathleen O'Malley's "Silent Passion" shows us that even beings from another planet can teach us a thing or two about humanity. Charles Sheffield's "Brooks Too Broad for Leaping" is a surprisingly shocking view of what it would be like if the only place for gays and lesbians were the military. Elisabeth Vonarburg's "Stay Thy Flight" is the true gem here: a story almost incomprehensible in the beginning which goes on to depict a form of life we could never imagine, and how it is drawn to a human female. A thought-provoking anthology in the truest sense of the word.

Rating:
Summary: Great read!
Review: I worried that this collection wouldn't be as good as the fantasy collection. I love science fiction and would have hated to be disappointed. But no need to worry, I wasn't. Again we get to read very different and very good stories with a gay bent. I usually find anthologies to be a mixed blessing, but this time I hardly found any weak stories. As with last years fantasy collection the editors have done a great job when choosing the stories. And the authors have risen to the challenge.

Rating:
Summary: a very enjoyable collection
Review: There was only one story in here that I didn't like, though I don't remember the title. The rest of the stories were all accessible, easy to read, and very interesting. "Time Gypsy", about a scientist who travels back in time to the 1950's, was one of the best, along with "Dance at the Edge", which was a little more far-out, but with the same depth of concept and character. None of the stories in this anthology is lacking: they are all mature, and deal with their collective theme in a nuanced, enlightened manner. The first story, "Sex, Guns, and Baptists", and Shariann Lewitt's "A Real Girl" are also standouts.

Bonus: read Lewitt's bio in the end of the book. She always seems to have fun writing "About the Author" segments.

Rating:
Summary: Nebula-nominated story!
Review: This is an overall great anthology, and one of its stories, "Time Gypsy" by Ellen Klages has just been nominated for a 1999 Nebula Award.