Off Limits: Tales of Alien Sex

by Ellen Datlow (Editor)

From virtual reality to America's heartland, a provocative collection of stories--by Joyce Carol Oates, Samuel R. Delany, Robert Silverberg, Joe Haldeman, and Elizabeth Hand, among others--explores the mysterious range of human--and alien--sexuality.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Erotica, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Speculative Fiction

316 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1996

About the author

Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited about one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year series, The Doll Collection, Mad Hatters and March Hares, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Edited By, and Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.

Reviews

[Lena · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Reality Trip by Robert Silverberg ★★★☆☆
“She is a cosmic nuisance, but I fear I’m getting to like her.”

Part meaningful story of loneliness, part SNL skit, I burst out laughing at least twice.

Maybe I’m an asshole and I should have seen the despair in more even terms but deep levels of crazy amuse me.

It’s How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days with crab aliens. How could I not laugh?


The Tattooist by Susan Wade ★★★☆☆
Well, you don’t hear that everyday. Tattooist get some strange requests but Claren decides this client isn’t a pervert, he’s someone who needs her help.

Over the next twelve weeks their close relationship changes her desires.


Dolly Sodom by John Kaiine ★★☆☆☆
“He tumbles, headlong, reaching out, deaf to the rattle of coin and his own screaming.”

Short about a desperate needy man who chases a coin operated sex doll down the stairs.
He falls.
That’s it.


The Lucifer of Blue by Sherry Coldsmith ★★★☆☆
Unpleasant, but fair, story of an English prostitute in Franco Spain during WWII.


Queen of the Apocalypse by Scott Bradfield ★★★☆☆
This was a bumpy exploration of a woman trying to understand herself and what it means to be a woman. It didn’t feel like fantasy or science fiction, more like chick lit.


Oral by Richard Christian Matheson ★★★☆☆
Anyone else remember The World is Not Enough? Renard, the baddie, is slowly loosing all of his sensations to the bullet lodged in his brain. Elektra uses the memories of their previous lovemaking to give him pleasure.

This was less successful. What germaphobe lays on a motel bed?


Grand Prix by Simon Ings ★★★☆☆
I can’t decide if this was humorous, possibly insulting, and/or completely strange. A race car driver of the future must jack into his car through a port on his taint. It’s a profoundly emasculating image that he was forced into by his boss, a woman.

I immediately thought of the South Park episode The Entity where energy efficient Segways must be driven in a certain way.


The House of Mourning by Brian Stableford ★★★★☆
That was the best one thus far. STDs of the future as a wasting disease going hand and hand with good ol’ hypocrisy and intolerance.


Fetish by Martha Soukup ★★☆☆☆
I’ve heard of womencutting their hair after breakups (🙋🏻‍♀️) but Susan decides to add hair. While it is true that if you are after different fish you should try different bait, all Susan got was a one night stand. Girl, you could have got that without even washing your hair.


Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones ★★★★☆

Red Sonja was one of my favorite childhood films. There was a good decade where I would have given almost anything to be six-foot redheaded tigress.

The story is about using fantasy therapy to help understand, come to terms with, relationships.

”I want you to walk away from therapy with lowered expectations: I guess that would be a success.”

But, like the protagonist, I think it would be hard to go back from virtual sex as virtually gifted characters. However, as the shrink pointed out exhaustively, reality intrudes if more than one of you is ‘real.’


The Future of Birds by Mike O’Driscoll ★★★★☆

I almost gave up on this strange and unpleasant story told from the point of view of a drag queen (ok gayish?) sex worker in Brazil. But at its core it asks an interesting question:

If there was a new bombshell STD that targeted only women, in the way HIV was perceived to target gay men, what would happen?

O’Driscoll believes it would not get a tenth of the funding of HIV and that men would just turn to drag queens or other gender reassigned versions of women.

He thinks they would let us die.

It was ugly... but frightfully believable.


Captain China by Bruce McAllister ★★★☆☆
“That is how I live - like an animal, on my hands and my knees in a little room full of the sounds each night that animals make.”

Even with its alien hero ending, this story of a child sex worker was damn bleak. Sigh. How could it be otherwise?


Background: The Dream by Lisa Tuttle ★★★☆☆
A girl goes from having phallic dreams to having an actual phallus.


Aye, and Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany ★★★★☆
”I want you because you can’t want me. That’s the pleasure.”

Ooh another story rich with ideas.

In the future, long term space explorers will be gender neutral and neutered. Considering the limited resources, claustrophobic environment, and radiation exposure I can see why this would be preferable.

Voluntarily of course, not drafted.

Speaking of which... did anyone else indulge themselves 20+ years ago and read Cry to Heaven? It is the story of an eighteenth century castrati told in lush prose. The spacers/frelks made me think of the castrati: renowned, glorified, adored, misunderstood and shunned.

Urus Triad, Later by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg ★☆☆☆☆
Goldilocks raped by three bears. That was all I got from that messy soup of words.

Sextraterrestrials by Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen ★★★★☆
A two author poetry challenge of alien sex; people this was fun!


The Dream-Catcher by Joyce Carol Oates ★★★☆☆
I don’t have much to say about this nightmare of maternal instinct slamming into beastiality and violence.


His Angel by Roberta Lannes ★★★★☆
“Females required a firm hand, he thought.”

Just keep telling yourself that douche bag. The ending and the authors notes bumped this story of a madman who gets his comeuppance up to four stars.

Eaten by Neil Gaiman ★☆☆☆☆
File this under Crap Written in College While High.

In the Month of Athyr by Elizabeth Hand DNF
“Because of recent advances in bioengineering, the Ascendants believed that women, long known to be psychologically mutable and physically unstable, might also soon be unnecessary.”

This was another gender bending kill all the women story. I read half and decided I didn’t need this shit in my life.

Overall I completed 19/20 stories that averaged out to three stars. But this has been my least favorite anthology and I feel the stories did not live up to the title. Two stars.

[Tyler Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. The Reality Trip by Robert Silverberg- 4 stars

I really don't know why, but I liked it. Loneliness, crab aliens, a creepy woman who writes bad poetry. And as always Lena, that picture, is perfect. I was imagining her as that meme lol.

2. The Tattooist by Susan Wade- 3 stars

Loved the concept and tattooing process, but found the story lacking over-all. Not sure what I was supposed to get out of it.

3. Dolly Sodom by John Kaiine- 2 stars

I don't get it. A needy man chases a coin operated sex doll down some stairs and falls. That's all.

4. The Lucifer of Blue by Sherry Coldsmith- 3 stars

Truthfully I didn't understand everything, but I liked what I got out of it.

5. The Queen of the Apocalypse by Scott Bradfield- 1.5 stars

tw: fire, self-harm. I was loving it initially. Felt personal and hit close to home in the beginning with the self-harm and depression. But then it felt like it just derailed. I could have done without the talk of her figure and then the pregnancy stuff and all that at the end...if it was supposed to mean something good I completely missed it and just got annoyed at it.

6. Oral by Richard Christian Matheson- 2.5 stars

Without that note at the end though I think i'd have just been confused.

7. Grand Prix by Simon Ings- 2 stars

Because I mostly was just confused and not sure what it was trying to say.

8. The House of Mourning by Brian Stableford- 4 stars

STD's of the future seemed to be caused by forced synthetic highs that go very wrong with a nice spoonful of hypocrisy. Kept my interest.

9. Fetish by Martha Soukup- 3.5 stars

Interesting. I liked it. I would totally rock a beard if I could.

10. Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones- 2 stars

Found it very boring and didn't care for it at all. I do get that people tend to want to "opt for McDonald's" as she put it, rather than handle actual real life human interaction and all that, but I still didn't like the story. It just got under my skin and irritated me and I can't really explain well why.

11. The Future of Birds by Mike O’Driscoll- 3.5 stars

Horrifying, and seems all too real. I could totally see them just letting women die too.

12. Captain China by Bruce McAllister- 4 stars

So sad, but hopeful ending.

13. Background: The Dream by Lisa Tuttle- 2 stars

The heck was that?

14. Aye, and Gomorrah ... by Samuel R. Delany- 1.5 stars

I am so confused. I don't understand a word of this.

15. Ursus Triad, Later by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg- 1.5 stars

Uhm...I mostly just got beastiality out of that story.

16. Sextraterrestrials by Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen- 4 stars

Well that was fun!

17. The Dream-Catcher by Joyce Carol Oates- 3.5 stars

Disturbing nightmare but made me think, creeped me out, and has a way with words.

18. His Angel by Roberta Lannes- 1.5 stars

I'm sorry but it's so Christian based and I know the author's note said he gets his just rewards but...it just seemed to me that he got saved? That he was killed after he was saved so he could go to heaven before it was too late for him again (reading as a sick serial killer redemption story just made me so angry) is how I read it before I read the authors note and saw I must have got it all wrong. I wanted to punch the sicko. As much as I can see I read the ending wrong the extreme Christian tones just soured it for me. It just wasn't for me.

19. Eaten (Scenes from a moving picture) by Neil Gaiman- 2.5 stars

Weird, gross, disturbing. Slightly interesting. Liked the author notes.

20. In the Month of Athyr by Elizabeth Hand- 2 stars

Very confusing. Made me think at points and then I thought I knew where it was going, but I didn't and the ending just left me very confused. Didn't hate it but didn't really like it over-all either.

I read this as a group read and those were what I wrote about each story. Not that it says a whole lot but...yeah. Also, side note, I had to make sure I didn't miss 2 stories because the cover says there is 22 stories but there are only 20.

Average 2.68. Over-all I didn't like the anthology but there were a few I liked.

[Fiona Knight · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book and I clearly disagree on the meaning of "alien". Thank you to the good folks over at Spells, Space & Screams for a great and sanity-maintaining buddy read though!

[VANGLUSS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthologies are a tricky thing to touch for anybody, especially reviewers. The quote, "One rotten apple spoils the whole barrel," applies to many anthologies I have read. When reviewing anthologies, it would be realistic for me to judge the stories on an individual basis. Trust me, reality does ensure. Trying to read an anthology of swingy quality is like trying to eat a cherry pie where every other delicious slice is filled with granite pebbles disguised as cherries: It leaves a broken, bloody taste in your mouth.

Off Limits isn't like that. Out of the twenty stories in this book, I can easily say only two are likely to disappoint, and the second story I disliked probably wasn't my personal cup of tea. Like it says on the tin, these stories are just as varied as they are whacked out, which is “very.” You got far-future, near future, something future, and all the goodness in between only speculative fiction can provide.

One thing that bothered me was the title versus its contents, though. I only expected pages of naughty aliens getting intimate with each other and humans. Instead, I got that and a lot more extra. Sometimes too much more extra. In short: Sometimes you get the aliens, and sometimes you get “the alien” where things are weird and often uncomfortable.

Now to begin.

The 1st: The Reality Trip by Robert Silverberg. This one is a charming, funny, and lighthearted start to the book. In it, a socially stunted alien infiltrator in NY gets dotted on by a weirdo poet girl. Interestings things like polyamory occur.

The 2nd: The Tattooist by Susan Wade. This one is a wondeful examination of body image, the intimacy of tattoos, and changing tastes. Lots of character development in this piece.

The 3rd: Dolly Sodom by John Kaine. A noir-inspired piece with lots o’ hair. This one had an rich sense of surrealism to me. The atmosphere of forbidden desires is well done and abstract. Still, I didn’t “get” this one.

The 4th: The Blue Lucifer of Blue by Sherry Coldsmith. The only part I liked about this one was the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War for the story (Hail Catalonia!). Other than that, this one could’ve done better. A lot better. This story in a nutshell: A bunch of horrible, unexplained things happen and the average protagonist with a forgettable voice goes back home as if nothing happened. I felt bad after reading this one.

The 5th: The Queen of the Apocalypse by Scott Bradfield. A sickly-sweet interspecies romance story for the ages. Weird meets terrible with interesting results in this story. A too-patient-for-this-world alien meets an abused woman with a taste for maried men. Not sure if this story bordered on “magical healing cock” territory, but even if it did, it did so in a sensitive, alien way.

The 6th: Oral by Richard Christian Matheson. Very short, mostly dialogue. This one is an intimate conversation of a short story. It’s all about sensations and touch. I want to steal all the imagery in this story and cram into my skull forever. It’s so rich.

The 7th: Grand Prix by Simon Ings. Those Frenchies and their academia, beatnik cultures, and biopunk racing cars. One of the more uncomfortable pieces that still manage to be relatable. Get through the odd characters in their dystopian world, and you’ll reward yourself with a cheeky ending.

The 8th: The House of Mourning by Brian Stableford. Hey, another biopunk story. This is one of those “technology goes wrong” sci-fi stories with a sexually-charged twist. One thing I wanted out of this story was to see how the MC’s family dealt with their daughter turning herself into a literal mistake. Excellent, sensitive portrayal of a prostitute with a whacked-out body.

The 9th: Fetish by Martha Soukup. After a nasty, break-up, a scorned woman decides to grow a beard. Why? I’m not sure, but reading this piece as a character reclaiming their body as their own makes it a satisfying weird. A minor nitpick is that this story had minimal sci-fi influences beyond a relatively normal woman growing a beard through existing technology.

The 10th: Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones. A somber piece about intimacy in the digital age, escapism, and killing virtual bandits with your dreamy scholar-warrior traveling companion. Enjoyable, but I’m not sure what (or if there is one) message I should’ve taken from the ending.

The 11th: The Future of Birds by Mike O’ Driscoll. City of God meets Tangerine. But for real, this one is by far the most disturbing and visceral story of this collection. So much graphic sex and violence wrapped in a story of desperation. The usage of birds in cages as a symbol is painfully beautiful. This one made me want to cry a little. Mildly weird treatment and portrayal of trans issues as a whole, but the MC is handled with a deft hand

The 12th: Captain China by Bruce McAllister. Nothing like a one-two punch of raw emotions to my stomach. This one is fucked. Really really fucked. Never have I wanted to get into a story so badly to hug the protag while feeding them homemade soup. I had to catch my breath after reading this one.

The 13th: Background: The Dream by Lisa Tuttle. Not really a short story per-se, but a weird peep into somebody’s dream. The Freudian elements were on point.

The 14th: Aye, and Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany. The hallmark of an excellent short story is ability to say a lot with a little. Delany does this with a small cast consisting of a gender-bender astronaut and a weird girl part of a community that adores said gender-bender astronauts. The interpretations one can extract from this story are endless. Every line of dialogue felt meaningful. Probably one of the best stories in this book.

The 15th: Ursus Triad, Later by Kathe Koja & Barry N. Malzberg. This is one of those slices of cherry pie filled with disguised pebbles. Good points: This was the purest example of xeno-fiction in this entire book. It’s from the viewpoint of a female bear who gets funky with it. That’s new to me. Bad Points: Good God, did the writing style of this story get old. The confusing, overly dense purple prose is terrible. I didn’t understand what was going on at all, so I decided to skip the story. Simple as that.

The 16th: Sextraterrestrials by Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen. Painfully cheesy title aside, this piece wasn’t a story, but instead a collection of short poems written with strict rules. These rules led to some funny, touching, and downright bawdy poetry. A nice thing to read after the previous flounder.

The 17th: The Dream-Catcher by Joyce Carol Oates. This piece took more of an urban fantasty approach. An odd but accepted turn of events in a mostly sci-fi based anthology. I didn’t understand most of the MC’s action through the story, but they were entertaining to read. Another thing that bothered me are the funky racial portrayals. I’m not saying Oates is a racist or anything like that, but this piece made me uncomfortable at times. All in all, its an okay piece.

The 18th: His Angel by Roberta Lannes. What is a weird anthology without a serial killer piece? Nothing, so Lannes comes in to prevent that nasty fate. I wanted more character out of the dubious “angel” of this story. This one had a nice Southern gothic feel to it despite having overt supernatural entities.

The 19th: Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture) by Neil Gaiman. Another piece that wasn’t a short story. Instead, we have ourselves a profoundly disturbing script to a movie I’d pay to see - twice. Seriously, this is some Clive Barker tier material. I had to double check if Gaiman really wrote this. There’s a vague plot of a man looking for his lost sister, and things go off the rails and straight into some hellish beast’s mouth. Side note: I’m one hundred percent certain that Gaiman has a fetish for men being consumed by women now.

The 20th: In the Month of Athyr by Elizabeth Hand. A fitting end to an excellent anthology. It seems to take many aspects from the previous stories and fit them neatly into a mish-mash of emotions. I ached with nostalgia while reading this piece. The ending made me say, “Ah, come on,” in a good way. The treatment of trans issues in this one felt a bit off, though. The exposition dumps could’ve been worse.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what I expected. There wasn't much 'alien', at least not in the SF sense, at all. Some sex, but nothing graphic which was OK. Still, I finally gave up on this. Silverberg's story was OK, but I didn't even care for the one by Matheson & I usually love his stories. Datlow's taste & mine must be too different. I couldn't have picked worse stories if I tried & I just dreaded picking it up only to be disappointed yet again.

[Kaa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved Sextraterrestrials, by Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen, which was one of the only pieces in the whole book that was actually about alien sex. These poems were amusing and very inventive when it came to how they described and characterized both sex and alien species.

Unfortunately, I found most everything else disappointing, upsetting, or just boring. I had a feeling based on the forward and introduction that this might not be the right book for me, and that proved to be the case. Most of the stories, as Datlow warns in her introduction, are stories about sexual relations between humans and are "tinged with a paranoid view of male-female relations." In other words, not only are these stories not actually about alien sex, most of them are also incredibly straight and very traditionally gendered. Ugh.

[Mariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Reality Trip - 3,5 estrelas

The Tattooist- 3 estrelas

Dolly Sodom- 2 estrelas

The Lucifer of Blue- 2, 5 estrelas

The Queen of the Apocalypse- 5 estrelas

Oral-2 estrelas

Grand prix- 1 estrela

The House of Morning-2 estrelas

Fetish- 2 ,5 estrelas

Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland- 3 estrelas

The Future of Birds- 2,5 estrelas

Captain China- 2, 5 estrelas

Background:The Dream- 3 estrelas

Aye, and Gomorrah...- 2,5 estrelas

Ursus Triad, Later- 4,5 estrelas

Sextraterrestrials- 2,5 estrelas

The Dream-Catcher- 5 estrelas

His Angel- 4,5 estrelas

Eaten-3,5 estrelas

In the Month of Athyr-4,5 estrelas

[Trey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The audiobook reader mispronounces soooooooo many things.

[Fábio Fernandes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is part of my roster of books acquired in Seattle (I bought a reasonable bunch of them, which makes me think I should create a list form them). I wanted to read it for a long time now, but it was worth the wait. Since the first story, Robert Silverberg's The Reality Trip, to the last (and delightfully creepy one), Elizabeth Hand's In the Month of Athyr, to the classic Aye, and Gomorrah, by Samuel Delany, these are all stories that celebrate sex in its beauty, its strangeness, its filth, its humanity. I hope they are as good for you to read as they were to me.

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second instalment of short stories under this title. Perhaps not quite as good as the first one, but there are a few that are well worth buying the book. I read the poem "Eaten: Scenes from a Moving Picture", by Neil Giaman, in a college speech class. I think I almost got kicked out of the university for that one...

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this collection, though I found the editor's paragraph before each story to be unhelpful. I enjoyed things much more once I started ignoring that paragraph altogether and allowing the story to stand alone.

This is not erotica. These stories are about the boundaries of sexuality and gender.

[Sara]

The future of birds
a high price
what a pinfit of my diseases
in old paradise
just to woman
haigh paied
with owl rare
in storm dream
high price
to woman
beuty or poor
sex old aka tradition
with many blood
old dieases
for a woman
without drug
many dream bult
but gain the price
hush talking
its beuty thing

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't even understand why I even read this. I don't even understand how this book came into my hands.

[Bernie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not sure why this is classified as science fiction.

[Salamanderinspace · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really nice anthology. Engages with the topic in a broad variety of stimulating ways. Datlow prefaces the stories by warning that they are paranoid and pessimistic, but I don't think that's always true. Some of the tales have love. Some are quite erotic.

The introduction by Silverberg almost scared me away, as well. I don't think Silverberg's assertion that the point of sex is reproduction holds scientific weight; obviously sex has a social purpose which is even more central to survival than the pure transmission of gametes. I thought I might skip the first story, the Silverberg story, but I'm so glad I didn't. I related so hard to the protagonist. His physical discomfort. His loneliness. And the romance was funny and beautiful. Title was "the reality trip."

The next story, "The Tattooist," is also erotic and strange and pleasing. Then a couple stories that are very well written but too horror adjacent for my tastes. I do like that there's a rather heroic depiction of a sex worker in "The Lucifer of Blue." Many of the other stories depict sex work in more tiresome, standard ways. Suffering and abuse and etc.

I skipped most of "Grand Prix." "Fetish" is brilliantly transgender. Lots of stories deal with trans bodies, in various levels of acceptance. Sad to say I skipped much of the Delaney story. I wasn't interested in the level of work it demanded. I did skim it, though, enough that the authors notes on it made sense and were interesting to me.

A quote from one particularly erotic story:

"In the rapid metronomic shudderings of Bach, she now found earlier or later, but now-that some deepened surge of her own entrails, her own wordless wants was smoothed, rhythmic engaged to response by the motions of the bear and so it was no surprise at all when, yielding in sudden spasm, Bach broke from that complex rhythm and, balancing perilously on one paw, began a fragmented, syncopated movement which she first accommodated and then seemed to pass through, as a light passes through window, as semen passes through the tubing flesh and in that passing she ascended, risen as Bach, like Brahms, fell to snuffling and somehow troubled silence beside her, before himself rising to shamble away in unaccustomed ursine muttering."

- Ursus Triad, Later by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg

I liked the Roberta Lannes story enough to add her to my tbr. I skipped the Neil Gaiman story because the format annoyed me.

The last story in the book - something about Athyr - is a bittersweet tale of a young boy finding connection. I liked it. Subversive and tragic with notes of hope.

[Tomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're thinking about reading this BE AWARE:

- This is not a collection of erotic literature. If you're looking to be turned on, read something else.
- There are almost no aliens of any kind in this book. The title Alien Sex refers to sex(uality) that is alien to us, not sex with aliens.
- These stories are designed to push boundaries and some will likely make you feel uncomfortable.
- This is a fascinating read, not a light read. There is a general dark undercurrent to most of the stories here. Don't expect happy or easy endings.

This book caught my eye while browsing through the library and I figured why not. Especially noting it had a decent GoodReads score. While I'll admit I was grabbed by the titillating title I doubt I would have read much of the book if it had just been a bunch of horny sex stories.

The stories in this book tend to be darker and explore a lot of the greyer areas of human sexuality. If you're interested in digging deeper into that complicated world then this is actually a very interesting book. While I can't say I loved every story I always appreciated what the story was trying to do, and all of the stories made me think. This was very welcome but it didn't make for the lightest of reading. Definitely glad I read it, but wouldn't consider it essential.

I would recommend this to people interested in exploring sexuality but who aren't squeamish or easily disturbed.

[Ghilimei · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better in my opinion than the first installment, most of the stories in this collection have a strong feminist message and focus a lot on the moral and psychological implications of prostitution. Just like the first collection, these stories are not erotica, so don't read them if that's what you're looking for. The title is quite misleading for those looking for sex scenes between aliens - the alien in most of these stories is the alien in our daily lives: either the alienation, the isolation that is so terribly human, or that which is not your own to begin with, be it your perception, your (sexual) preferences or even your gender.

Reading these stories was an intense experience for me, so intense at times that they seeped into my subconscious, giving me strange dreams that sometimes turned into almost-nightmares. I loved almost every story and I'm glad I didn't give up reading this collection after the negative experience I had with the first installment.

Also, since I couldn't find this anywhere else, here is a short description of each story in this book. I hope someone will find it useful.

The Reality Trip by Robert Silverberg
An alien living incognito in New York, gathering information on the human species and reporting back to the Homeworld three times a day. A poetess drawn to lonely, „wounded things„ like a moth to a flame. What could possibly go wrong?
(for some reason, I kept imagining actress Krysten Ritter as Elizabeth)

The Tattooist by Susan Wade
A beautiful, unexpected and somewhat bitter tale of telepathy and emotional transfer slowly altering one tattoo artist's life and perception while she completes an unusual job.

Dolly Sodom by John Kaiine
A strange man lost in a surrealist brothel. A very short story worthy of Julio Cortázar.

The Lucifer of Blue by Sherry Coldsmith
Could sex sway the outcome of one of the biggest events in human history? A blunt story of prostitution and (somehow) feminism.

The Queen of the Apocalypse by Scott Bradfield
Harriet is broken and she is numb and so she forces feelings into (or out of?) herself by self mutilation. But she is also pathologically incapable of saying NO, so her life slowly stops belonging to herself until one grand, final, yet involuntary act of self mutilation.

Oral by Richard Christian Matheson
Picking off where the last Alien Sex collection left off, this very brief tale wonders yet again what sex really is by exploring the more unlikely forms it can take.
In my mind, it goes hand in hand with Pat Cadigan's Roadside Rescue from the first Alien Sex installment.

Grand Prix by Simon Ings
Less about sex and more about the boundaries of our bodies. Quite a lot of feminism in this one too. 20 years ahead of Pussy Riot and yet the story depicts their perfect predecessors.

The House of Mourning by Brian Stableford
Yet another straight-forward view of the sex industry, compulsion, addiction and the need to point fingers in order to keep the gleaming appearance of our own righteous lives. Corruption always comes from the outside or that's what we so desperately want to believe.

Fetish by Martha Soukup
Tattoos and piercings are a thing of the past; body alterations are now the big fad. Martha Soukup says it best: „This is a story about dealing with the pain from the alien by playacting the alien, incorporating the alien„. Lovely, empowering in a way, with a pinch of bizarre.

Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland by Gwyneth Jones
Is it enough to distance ourselves from our bodies to be „safe„ during sex? This story ventures into the world of virtual sex.

The Future of Birds by Mike O'Driscoll
In a future where HIV has been contained, an even more destructive new disease appears, caused by the Hormonal Dysfunction Virus. HDV is hereditary and lies dormant in both males and females until the onset of premature puberty, after which is simply sucks its victims dry and bleeds them out. It appears though that it only activates in women, leaving men as mere carriers.
It's a simple matter of role play, of replacing the „gay plague„ with a „gender plague„ and then laying back to admire the lengths to which the sex industry will go to keep its glowing bubble of indulgence and fake safety. It's a story of use and abuse and the lengths to which people will go to find that fake safety in a golden prison. It's not so much a story of alien sex as a story of alien genders.

Captain China by Bruce McAllister
The excruciating story of a child prostitute who believes in superheroes.

Background: The Dream by Lisa Tuttle
Very short story questioning sexual identity and what happens when you feel you're trapped in the wrong body.

Aye and Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany
Another story of sexual identity and fetish on the surface, it goes deeper by exploring the self-sabotaging attraction to something permanently unavailable and the fear of it ever becoming available.

Ursus Triad Later by Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg
A very short and bizarre rape story.

Sextraterrestrials by Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen
Short poems imagining sex between various extraterrestrials resulted from a game of „poetry dare„ between the two authors.

The Dream-Catcher by Joyce Carol Oates
The dream-catcher catches an incubus.

His Angel by Roberta Lannes
The author explains that „on the surface, this is the tale of a madman who seeks twisted redemption in the saving of an angel and finds his just reward„. Going deeper, I guess this story asks a question that is not alien to many of us: is God really there, or are we simply blinded by our desire to believe, twisting ambiguous events into irrefutable proof of what we want to see?

Eaten by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman's quite famous prose poem of sexual use and abuse, a rather explicit metaphor of how one can be drawn in and eaten alive by the predators among us.

In the Month of Athyr by Elizabeth Hand
Feminism, sexual identity, genetically engineered sex slaves - the gender war is at a new high. It somehow ties to The Future of Birds by Mike O'Driscoll by investigating a future where women are on the verge of becoming obsolete.

[Maga Torres · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pesar de que hay algunos cuentos bastante buenos, me molesta mucho el sofisma que implica el título. Esperaba encontrar más Foster, una indagación muchísimo más profunda de lo que implicaría la sexualidad con razas completamente distintas. Aquí, en cambio, encontramos más una mirada sobre el otro que habita en lo humano y una exploración recurrente sobre el tema de la prostitución y el abuso sexual que se ejerce sobre lo femenino. Por supuesto, esos temas son importantes e interesantes y está muy bien que se trabajen en la ciencia ficción (casi toda en este libro relacionada con aspectos genéticos o alteraciones corporales), pero simplemente no es lo que promete. Y eso me mantuvo todo el tiempo esperando esa historia que respondiera a la espectativa. Creo que se podría disfrutar mucho más este libro en general si tuviera otro título, pues hay algunas historias que de verdad valen la pena.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a huge short fiction person - but some authors I loved were in this volume so I gave it a go. Some of the stories were great but others not my cup of tea - but this has more to do with my personal tastes than anything else I suspect. If you are a short fiction fan, then I think this would be a good, lively place to spend some time reading. I always just feel like when I get into a short story and am ready to really dive in - poof - its over.

[Asani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than the title!

No it’s not Martian soft Porn. These are actually thoughtful stories by good writers. There are some alien sex scenes and they’re quite interesting. There’s one between an angel and a man, and another between a sex robot and a boy, that may get you to think twice about trying anything exotic in the future. None of the stories blew me away. But some did keep me engaged.

[Kina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I had expected more stories about sex with actual aliens or at least with creatures that weren't considered human. Some were very disappointing, like the one about a cis woman doing a body mod to grow a beard. But the ones I liked tended to be longer and actually more thoughtful to both parties.

[David Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of this world.

A stellar collection, stimulating and thought provoking. Rarely erotic with excellent writing. I especially enjoyed the poems. A special mention for The Lucifer of Blue by SHERRY COLDSMITH.

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are pretty mediocre IMHO.

Almost none of the stories are about people having sex with aliens or aliens having sex with each other; they are instead about people having sex in ways that are unconventional or currently impossible with our level of technology.

[Tiffany Balagna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part of all sci-fi, am I right?

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Any time spent typing a review is more time spent with a book that didn't really provide anything much worth spending the time reading in the first place. A good story, maybe two, the rest...meh.

[Satu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather uneven anthology.

[Shomeret · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the book because it was a BOM for a GR group. This anthology didn't meet my expectations. I only read two stories. The one that I liked was "The Lucifer Blue" which dealt with prostitution during the Spanish Civil War. I thought the premise was interesting. The other story I read seemed to be a misfire. Several were unengaging, but there were a number of others that were downright repellent to me and the cumulative impact made me nauseous even without finishing them. Ugh! It would have been one star, but I gave it an extra star for "The Lucifer Blue".

[Ellis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have finally found it! And I have read it! Eaten (Scenes from a Moving Picture)! It could not possibly have lived up to my expectations, but it was still pretty cool. And the rest of the book was meh.

[Kay Baird]

I like this collection! but though it holds my interest better than Best Women's Erotica, it doesn't turn me on either... mostly ... maybe Gwyneth Jones' "Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland" ?? but it disturbs me more... and Delany's "Aye, and Gomorrah ..." comes the closest.

[Elizabeth Mitchell]

I read a few of the stories in this one, and I was impressed, one in particular was really shocking. All in all if you like the odd and science fiction creep then you should love this.