The Future is Queer: A Science Fiction Anthology

by Richard Labonté (Editor), Lawrence Schimel (Editor)

In a world increasingly complicated by questionable technologies and factional poli-tics, what does the future hold for gays, lesbians, and transgender people? In this anthology, the first of its kind in over ten years, provocative stories and comics posit a queer future of limitless possibilities, covering issues like cloning, gene manipulation, and gender assignment. It includes contributions from best-selling author and comic book creator Neil Gaiman (Anansi Boys, The Sandman), World Fantasy Award-winner Rachel Pollack, and cult UK comic artist Bryan Talbot.

Genres: Queer, Science Fiction, LGBT, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction, Queer Lit

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

i read a lot of books. i review many of them. i edit many anthologies. i edit technical writing so it reads more like real english. i live on a small island with a man and a dog (tiger-lily, r.i.p). once upon a time, i was a bookseller.

Reviews

[Nat Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

disappointing. I think one story was trans-phobic, treating a "everyone is queer so no one is queer" future world as facist and community-erasing. Which is definitely a possibility, but I think can also be damaging for queer liberation struggles. overall, it was not what I hoped. But I think there are plans for another, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that the next one is more developed.

[Ben Truong · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Future is Queer: A Science Fiction Anthology is an anthology of ten short stories collected and edited by the team of Richard Labonté and Lawrence Schimel. It is a collection of science fiction or science speculative short stories, which encompasses a variety of forms and styles, which offers a satisfactory peek into science fiction from a queer perspective.

For the most part, this collection of short stories was written rather satisfactory at best and subpar at worse. The Future is Queer: A Science Fiction Anthology is a somewhat moderate collection of short stories that was rather mediocre, which was a shame as I truly wanted to enjoy this collection of short stories. The only standout – comparatively speaking was "The Sleep Clinic for Trouble Souls" written by Hiromi Goto with "The Beatrix Gates" written by Rachel Pollack a close second.

Like most anthologies there are weaker contributions and The Future is Queer: A Science Fiction Anthology is not an exception. As a science fiction aficionado, I really wanted to like this anthology – truly. Although impeccably edited, this collection was mostly rather monotonous and lackluster. Furthermore, it boggles the mind how "Instinct" by Joy Parks made it into the anthology as it reeks of trans-phobia and bi-phobia.

All in all, The Future is Queer: A Science Fiction Anthology is unfortunately, a subpar collection of science fiction short stories from a LGBTQ+ perspective.

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed in this one - I wanted more 'story' than was offered in this anthology. I enjoyed the Goto and Pollack stories, but found the other pieces less solid and prone to being remarkably distopian, not always for any particularly good reason. It's always hard to appeal to a broader audience with this short of an anthology, though, and I'll hope for better things with the next round.

[Heron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quirky little volume. A few great stories, Goto's, Dorsey's, and Pollack's particularly. Parks' story smacks of trans- and bi-phobia, unfortunately.

Overall, I wish this volume had enjoyed a stronger editing hand. But it was enjoyable to glimpse a few queer futures.

[Vera · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really did not enjoy this book, except for the story by Hiroma Goto. Especially the story by Joy Parks is a transphobic and biphobic mess that was painful to read, and the others were just not that interesting and often had little to do with science fiction.

[Katelynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible actually.

This collection is a mess and not even a hot one. Several stories have absolutely no redeeming qualities. The rest are just boring. (With one exception, which I rated 3 stars.)

I actually want to fistfight the author of the second story because of the biphobia, transphobia and horrendously offensive nostalgia goggles. The premise essentially amounts to: The past was better even if you got murdered for being queer because at least you could be a "real lesbian". This future is boring because everyone is accepting and has blanket permission to experiment with sexuality/gender and wah wah what happened to being authentic.

Actually get fucked.

Anyway, this is a terrible collection and I have zero respect for the editors who compiled it. I might actually put it in the trash instead of donating it because it was that bad.

[Juniper Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much as some of the stories have problematic language, I absolutely adored this anthology. As mentioned in another review one of the stories is problematic in is trans/queerphobic-ness, but beyond that I found the rest to be delightful in scope and diversity.

[Ceren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average stories about the future involving queer characters.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this, but as usual, some really weird stuff.

[Dillon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this anthology series, but it was mostly dull. There were some very interesting ideas that just didn't flourish, not to mention yet more stories of depressing queer life and unhappy endings. 'Instinct' by Joy Parks had some interesting commentary on a future where queerness is widely the norm, until it took a trans-phobic turn that really soured the story. I think the stand outs were the graphic 'From Homogenous to Honey' by Neil Geiman and Bryan Talbot, 'The Sleep Clinic for Troubled Souls' by Hiromi Goto, and the final story 'The Beatrix Gates' by Rachel Pollack.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was incredibly disappointed in this anthology - SF has traditionally been overwhelmingly heterosexual and, not surprisingly also very homophobic - Theodore Sturgeon wrote one short story with a gay/queer theme and he was perceived as a 'gay/queer' writer by the bulk of SF fans, writers and critics - and they didn't mean that perception in a nice way (he wasn't in his personal life just in case you wondered) so an anthology like this was exciting - when it came out. But the contents was poor SF with a dollop of gay sex in most cases - no thought, no imagination, no nothing - just a jumping on a bandwagon and a marketing exercise to make money.

[Jo Bennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection of stories and one piece of graphic fiction by a variety of authors, all queer visions of the future for LGBTs. As with all good science fiction, each story reflects on a different aspect of gay or lesbian society and issues such as identity by differentiation from the 'norm', self esteem and how a sense of self is refracted through the lens of sexuality. Thought provoking and interesting.

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mediocre collection. There were only two stories that stood out to me as particularly good: Hiromi Goto's "The Sleep Clinic for Troubled Souls" and Rachel Pollack's "The Beatrix Gates." The ten stories they selected *were* widely varied, which was interesting, but I also wanted more authors.

[Jordan Lombard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic collection of stories dealing with LGBTQ issues of the future. Some were odd, and others not so much. But I have to say, my all time fav of the bunch was the last one. It's the perfect story to help create an understanding of acceptance by taking things slightly out of context. Instead of man and woman we have red and green. Beautiful story for sure!

[erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok, so i've read much better queer and/or feminist science fiction. honestly, there are so many good anthologies out there, i'm not sure i can recommend this one. there are a couple interesting stories if you hunt for them.

[Wolverina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull and disappointing for the most part. Poorly structured, poorly explained and just plain unlike able stories.

The exception being the last two stories which are genuinely good and interesting. a shame only Pollack and Goto could live up to the promise of the title.

[Scott]

not my thing and generally awful.

[Keita Ito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly only a few of the stories jumped out to me in this Queer Sci-fi anthology but I love sci-fi so much I couldn't help but to love it!