Wilde Stories 2017: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction

by Steve Berman, Sam J. Miller, Steve Carr

A man named Turing visits a museum to see its rarest automata; during the Plague Years, three artists seeking to express a voice for their friends lost to AIDS unwittingly create life; a far-future restaurant offers patrons questionable cuisine; an immortal assassin may be one step closer to a paranoid king, despite his unspeakable precautions; the very existence of a mysterious and ancient golden android challenges a clergyman's faith...

Wilde Stories showcases the previous year’s best offerings in gay short fantasy, science-fiction, and horror. This edition includes award-winning and critically acclaimed authors Sam J. Miller, A. Merc Rustad, A.C. Wise, Martin Pousson, and more.

The stories in this, the latest volume in this annual series, challenges the definition of life and infamy, existence and reputation, were chosen by Steve Berman, the premier editor of queer speculative fiction for more than a decade.

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

335 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 9, 2017

About the author

Some tidbits about me...

I turned down a scholarship to Miskatonic University because I heard of the high rate of incidents against the student population.

I briefly worked for Omni Consumer Products in their Marketing Department. Great benefits, nice cafeteria, sadly too prone to executive whim.

Last year I stayed at the noted Mauna Pele resort in Hawaii. The accommodations were impressive but my traveling companion disappeared soon after wanting to attend a pig roast.

I've slept with one minor porn star and with a guy who later became one.

And I happen to have written some fanfic that inspired the memorable holodeck scene in Star Trek: Hidden Frontiers episode "Vigil"

Reviews

[Jeraviz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historia cortita muy curiosa sobre unos artistas que pueden dar vida a sus obras. Tiene algo que hace que sigas leyendo, aunque el final es un poco apresurado. La podéis leer en Cuentos para Algernon: Año VI.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fantastic grouping of stories about the fantastic and the queer. Several standout stories, here, but my favorite was the crisp near-Noir prose of Rich Larson's "Carnivores." Also a standout is the dark humor of A C Wise's "It's The End Of The World As We Know It." All in all, a collection that is worth your time.

[Richard Parent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent anthology series. The stories are thought-provoking, imaginative, and affecting. These days it feels as though gay culture has been largely assimilated into the mainstream (at least, it feels this way up here in progressive-ish northern New England), and for those of who remember how liberating and exhilarating it felt to finally discover that there were others like us and a whole culture of novels, movies, and songs about our experience, this series feels like a homecoming.

By curating this series, Steve Berman scratches an itch I didn't know I had. If you're gay and if you like speculative fiction, you owe it to yourself to check this series out.

[penwing · Rating 4 out of 5]

some really good stories, but the highlights are definitely "Das Steingeschöpf", "Angel, Monster Man" and "The Tale of the Costume Maker".

[Jake Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and varied collection of stories from some very talented writers. Stand outs for me include: The Gentleman of Chaos; Das Steingeschöpf; Angel, Monster, Man; Ratcatcher; and Turing Test.

[Josh Epstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love sci-fi short story collections like those of PKD, but wanted to find something more modern with a Queer point of view. This collection is just what I wanted! It’s a diverse set of short stories from a gay male perspective.

The stories have a range of categories, with fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian, folklore, and lite-horror. Some stories included beautiful themes/allegories about discrimination, queer love, while others are just plain fun and a bit sexy. Like any story collection, there were a few that weren’t my favorite or the writing style was hard to follow, but as a whole, the selections of authors is excellent. I started several that I absolutely loved so I can read them again and look up the authors to find their other works. I just ordered the 2018 volume and plan to start that one next.

We need more collections like this from Queer authors!

[Baily]

Placeholder for "Carnivores" by Rich Larson

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking for short stories to read for bingo so I decided to see which ones won awards. This one won the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story in 2017. I hadn't heard of it before and I haven't read anything by the author before and decided to throw it on my list. I'm glad I did.

This story was excellent. It reminded me of Realms of The Elderlings by Robin Hobb actually. The memory sculptures magic aspect I found to be similar. But here Anderson brings it to a more intimate and personal level. Now, I have only gotten through the first two trilogies of Hobb's work so please forgive me fans if I am missing out on anything that happens in the many books that follow. I will get to them. But in "Das Steingeschöpf" the intimate memories of Herr Hertzel that come up as he is working on Ambroise took me through a wide range of emotions. It was a poignant experience with wonderful characters and great writing. I will have to read more of Anderson's work.

[Alemanita · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75/4