Transcendent 3: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction by Bogi Takács

Transcendent 3: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction Reviews

• 
  Jenny (Reading Envy)

  First of all I love this cover! This collection has a wide range of subgenres and tones, from vampires to magical goats. It introduced me to quite a few authors unknown to me. The Charlie Jane Anders story was a punch to the gut.
• 
  Bogi Takács

  I edited this! :) Available for preorder now!
• 
  Ana

  I thought "The Worldless" by Indrapramit Das was going to be the perfect last story of the anthology, because it's about leaving a place that holds no hope or future, even when you have little assurance of finding a home on the other side. But then "The Heart's Cartography" by Susan Bigelow came along, a story about choosing to stay where you are, knowing you can build a future. "We survive," the main character learns. What an incredibly powerful line. Kudos to the editor for the juxtaposition of these stories.
  
  Other stories that really stuck with me: "Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time" by KM Szpara
  where a trans man is nonconsensually bitten by a vampire and then has to choose between death and becoming a vampire himself. Loved the messiness and flailing in this story, how it dealt with choice and consequence, the way vampirification was entirely unromanticized for the main character. Also the grief around both transition and turning, what is lost in the process.
  
  And finally "The Mouse" by Larissa Glasser left an impression because sometimes we *don't* survive. But the main character here makes a significant choice as well. Her life, and her death, *matter*.
• 
  Stacie C

  Actual rating 4.5 stars.
• 
  Mike

  These were, almost without exception, very solid-to-excellent stories. There were only a couple that were good but I almost kind of wish I hadn't read since they were more horrific than expected.
• 
  Heather

  I rarely give multi-author anthologies 5 out of 5, but this one earned it. The stories within range from tales where a character just happens to be trans or genderfluid in the context of a wider stories, to tales where the character’s gender is crucial to the plot. Some trans characters are much as we see them in society now, whereas others are members of alien races (or other groups) that would be new to us.
  
  The collection includes an up-front section of content notes so you can skip the stories that might bother you. I’ll just note a handful: violence, explicit sex, slurs, self-harm, panic attacks, menstruation, murder.
  
  I don’t think there are any stories in here that disappointed me. Maybe there were one or two that I felt ended too soon, with too much left unsaid or unresolved. But it was a mild feeling, not a “hey, did someone leave out half the story?” reaction. I won’t go through each and every story, but I’ll note a few that stood out to me.
  
  The Chameleon’s Gloves by Yoon Ha Lee is one of those stories that isn’t really about the character’s sexuality so much. Rhehan and their partner are working on an art heist when they’re kidnapped and forced to use Rhehan’s haptic chameleon abilities for the benefit of the people who threw them out. This story is tense, tight, and neat.
  
  Ryley Knowles’s Death You Deserve introduces us to Addy, who has an obsession with fearing that she’ll die a horror-movie-style death. This is a surprisingly powerful tale.
  
  Small Changes over Long Periods of Time, by K.M. Szpara contains a non-consensual vampire attack, and then the difficulties of a trans character having to also transition to being a vampire. It’s creative and interesting.
  
  Shweta Narayan’s World of the Three is a fantastical tale of mechanical creatures and their interactions with humans. This is one of the stories where the trans nature of the character is a bit unusual, since mechanicals can have their heartsprings moved into new bodies, which might not be the same gender as the previous.
  
  S. Qiouyi Lu’s A Complex Filament of Light follows Alicia, who’s doing research in Antarctica. They have to come to terms with a suicide in their family, and I shed a few tears over this one.
  
  One of my favorites in here is Susan Jane Bigelow’s The Heart’s Cartography. As soon as Sally moves into Jade’s neighborhood, Jade figures out Sally’s a time traveler. Sally’s able to give Jade, a trans girl, a bit of a glimpse into what the future may hold for people like her.
  
  This is an excellent anthology, with some powerful stories.
  
  
  Original review posted on my blog:
  http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/06/r...
• 
  ashes ➷

  A great collection of trans SFF! I did find myself personally having a difficult time with this one, since I’m really averse to hard/high SFF and many of these stories were emotionally quite destructive. For that reason, I had to put it down a few times and read it more slowly. However, neither of these are negatives in any objective sense, and so the reason I went for 4 stars is solely due to some (I feel) technical mishaps—some stories felt more like near-final drafts.
  
  The collection got off to a rocky start for me, and I do personally wish it had been a little shorter—because many of these stories felt close to incredible, while I know it’s hard to find trans SFF (though getting easier by the minute!) it felt as though this didn’t show the community off as best it could because so many stories were missing just that one final touch.
  
  Importantly: some of my favorite stories were the absolutely crushing ones. I would encourage anyone reviewing this collection negatively due to its “depressing” aspects to reconsider what they expect (demand?) of trans writers and why the authors in this collection made those choices. Not one harsh element felt unnecessary or unintentional, and while this made me yearn for an uplifting trans collection… that’s not what this is meant to be. Trans SFF writers prove that SFF isn’t always a daydream—sometimes it’s a shout of terror.
  
  The book included trigger warnings, but the ones I need are never listed, so I largely skipped them (in hindsight: only one story ‘needed’ it, and it was not labeled, in part because there is no official label for it that I know of). I also find it important to offer authors the choice not to warn for triggers, and am happy to see that Transcendent 3 did this.
  
  The word “non-cis” is important to remember—these stories are not all about literally “trans” characters so much as they are about being genderfunky. This will become clear if you read the first few stories in the anthology (which I hope you do!)
  
  Also: I felt that a lot of stories were Almost perfect, so keep in mind when I say “...but I wanted more,” what I mean is “everything else was great and this was not a bad story.” In the absolute worst cases, I merely felt like I was reading a fantastic piece in a workshop instead of a “best of” collection. These are not bad stories, no matter how flippant I am in nitpicking them.
  
  "The Chameleon's Gloves" by Yoon Ha Lee
  
  Like I said, a rocky start. I couldn’t quite grasp the point of this one, despite an obviously carefully built world and a real sense that the characters existed there. There was a lot of implied information, a lot of untold backstory, and a wonderful flow, but I left feeling unsatisfied at the resolution. I think this would have done better a little longer.
  
  "Death You Deserve" by Ryley Knowles
  
  I’d previously read this one in the trans smut anthology I dragged through the mud! I actually called this one out in particular as being a good story, but not porn. It fits much better here, though with a great theme and so little action, I felt as though I wanted a little more once again. The idea is fantastic, but I don’t think it was best used here; it almost might have been better as an essay.
  
  "Fire Fills the Belly" by Noa Josef Sperber
  
  This one was also odd. Again, nicely written, but but I felt like I didn’t get “the point.” I often say it’s obvious an author really cared about a piece, and I just don’t personally know/see why. I don’t get from the story what drew them to this—a desire to understand fire-breathing? mixing circus with gender? the specific trans romance dynamic?—because I personally felt that while all of these were great elements, they didn’t coalesce into one large incredible piece. Again, a great story, just not one I see as the best of the year.
  
  "Small Changes Over Large Periods of Time" by K.M. Szpara
  
  Everything changed for me here. I actually took a break from reading because I was feeling too much from how good this story was. It wasn’t just the dysphoria horror or the romance or the depth of the trans character’s emotion, but the simple fact that this story existed. Trans vampires are here. Well-written trans vampires are here. And yet they’re only here. The combination of seeing something I’ve wanted for so long, and realizing just how long I’ve wanted it, created a feeling I don’t know how to name. I have so far adored two other stories by K.M. Szpara, though, so I have the feeling I’m in for a new favorite author. :)
  
  "Heat Death of Western Human Arrogance" by M. Téllez
  
  I simply didn’t understand this one… another case of wanting a story to be edited just slightly differently. The synopsis online says An engineered humanoid from Mars savors their physical relationship with the Earth human that fought for their rights. But is the feeling mutual? and the story does start like that, but it almost immediately diverges and the rest of the story seems to be counting on my understanding a lot of things… like the only briefly shown relationship and the world and the identity of the MC. It just felt like I didn’t have enough info to understand what was happening on the page, or perhaps what was on the page was the wrong info. I’m not sure. I didn’t understand the overall plot… very clean in terms of the prose, again; just an issue with comprehension.
  
  "Praying to the God of Small Chances" by L. Chan
  
  Short but very cute. ANOTHER one where I felt like it just… didn’t fully convey an entire story to me. It works very well at its length, so I’m not saying I want it to be a novel or anything, but I just didn’t get the sense that I would be thinking about this after I read it (and, true enough, I forgot what it was about when I hit this point and had to look it up again).
  
  "The Mouse" by Larissa Glasser
  
  Really good, if also a little difficult to follow. Definitely a top story for me not only in the emotion and creativity present but also how memorable it has proven. Glasser knows how to make a statement. I hope to reread this shortly and see just how much I like (and understand) it after that.
  
  "Cooking with Closed Mouths" by Kerry Truong
  
  Okay. I have it. So many of these stories feel like sketches. The idea is there, the characters, the well-written gender, the SFF elements. It all comes together, but the plot leaves me wanting. This one was so sparse with such simple goal/motivation/conflict it felt hard to really connect with, and especially hard to view as one of the best stories of the year. It’s not a bad story! I understand why people would really love it! It has this Tokyo Ghoul vibe to me that I love. It’s just... not complete. It feels like it was written in a weekend. I don’t know. I’ll have to keep thinking.
  
  "World of Three" by Shweta Narayan
  
  I didn’t remember this one, either, and now I recall why... I skipped it. I just couldn’t do it. It was, again, really confusing, and it expected me to take the 80% of words I knew and infer the meanings of the other 20% while also decoding the worldbuilding context, and it wasn’t giving me a story I felt invested enough in to really make an effort. This is probably a great story for a specific type of high SFF person... it just wasn’t for me :(
  
  "A Spell to Signal Home" by A.C. Buchanan
  
  Much more complete than some of the rest, while still remaining simplistic. Perhaps I am judging these stories too harshly in a world where just including a trans character inherently means publishers will demand the story be “about” being trans, so there isn’t much space for anything beyond “magic… but they are trans, and trying to fit themself into the magic.”
  
  "Feed" by Rivers Solomon
  
  GIVE ME A FULL STORY I BEG YOU. Certainly in the top class of stories I wanted “just a little more” from, though—the use of race and gender here is top notch and the narrative honestly works. I just wish there was more!
  
  "Hello, World" by Polenth Blake
  
  I loved this one. Then again, perhaps it is just my robot-loving tendencies. It felt nicely contained and like a full story—perhaps because the robot MC is not forced to do “X but trans” so much, since they’re not a human to begin with. And: fish!
  
  "A Splendid Goat Adventure" by Rose Lemberg
  
  Another favorite. This is just complete nonsense from start to finish, and with such fun gender! I really loved how this story did its worldbuilding, and like I said, I’m not a worldbuilding type by any means. Just a great, well done, warm piece.
  
  "A Complex Filament of Light" by S. Qiouyi Lu
  
  Again, a really interesting idea—familial suicide, which the nonbinary MC is doing their best to handle—which I wish was fleshed-out into a full plot of some kind. It’s a great kernel and it deserves to be a more complete story.
  
  "Minor Heresies" by Ada Hoffmann
  
  Oh my God no wonder this one was confusing it is part of a larger novel situation and just a side story for a canon I have no context for. Maybe this was the case for a lot of the pieces here? Again, didn’t remember it until I looked it up, and when I read the author’s statement I realized I just hadn’t gotten any of that from the story.
  
  "The Heavy Things" by Julian Jarboe
  
  Okay. THIS is how you tell a short, powerful story without a Freytag triangle. It’s SFF, it’s trans, it’s concise, it’s effective. I just don’t have anything to say because it was that good and that well-integrated. It also happened to coincide with some similar things I’ve been experiencing lately (not menstruating screwdrivers) and while completely different from my thoughts on the matter nonetheless made me feel like someone had gone in there and turned those shapeless emotions into a gorgeous piece of prose. Of course, Jarboe makes it look easy.
  
  "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue" by Charlie Jane Anders
  
  The best story in this anthology, without contest. Dysphoria horror at its peak, with well-fleshed-out characters and a genius touch to the prose. I will absolutely be looking for more from this author; this was one of the best short stories I’ve read in a long time, period.
  
  "The Worldless" by Indrapramit Das
  
  That last was a hard story to follow—I put the book down entirely to process all of my emotions—but this does not disappoint. We’re treated to a wonderful take on futuristic slang (or, perhaps, simply language), along with a sweet plot and amazing characters who don’t ignore gender so much as they show another side of it.
  
  "The Heart's Cartography" by Susan Jane Bigelow
  
  And I loved this as an ending! Cute, sweet, warm YA just like what I would have wanted as a teen. It doesn’t try to be more than it is, and it doesn’t have to. Just like the MC, I wanted to know everything about the future, and the nature of this story—the YA “about being trans” type of story—made it feel lovingly nostalgic, almost timeless in its simplicity. I liked that here; it’s one of the ones where I felt the “about being trans” nature was for trans readers, not cis ones. A great piece that will age well.
  
  ***
  
  If you came here hoping to skip around and get the absolute best: I recommend ”Small Changes over Long Periods of Time” by K.M. Szpara, “The Mouse” by Larissa Glasser, "Hello, World" by Polenth Blake, "A Splendid Goat Adventure" by Rose Lemberg, "The Heavy Things" by Julian Jarboe, "Don't Press Charges and I Won't Sue" by Charlie Jane Anders, "The Worldless" by Indrapramit Das, and "The Heart's Cartography" by Susan Jane Bigelow. And that’s 8/19! I really didn’t cut down much.
  
  I think after all that it’s easy to ask why I’m giving this a 4 star instead of a 3 star review, when I connected with relatively few of the stories. The answer is pretty simple—I recognize the difficulty of compiling this collection, the objective skill in even the stories I had nitpicks with, and the fact that in some ways I simply wasn’t the target audience of the collection. When in doubt, be charitable.
  
  A few notes that didn’t merit any star-docking: I don’t know why, after all this time, Lethe Press is still unable to print their logo correctly. I searched around, but couldn’t find any complaints on this, so maybe it’s just my eyes that are seeing it as blurry—but aside from that, there were a few typos, and it was especially sad when these typos occurred in places like author’s name on the back cover. Lethe Press is indie, but these are important places to get things right.
  
  Honestly, I’d still wholeheartedly recommend this, either with my list of best stories or without to a hard SFF fan. This is all great work, even if I didn’t deep-down love all of it personally. And, of course, the stories I like make it a must-read.
  
• 
  Artur Nowrot

  I don’t really keep up with what’s going on in SFF or trans literature (or intersections thereof), so I appreciate the work done by Lethe Press and editor Bogi Takács even more. It feels great to be able to dive into a selection of highlights from the field.
  
  “Transcendent 3” casts the net fairly widely in terms of genre and amount of trans content. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror are represented fairly evenly and while I gravitated more towards the stories that placed a particular focus on various experiences related to being transgender, I also quite enjoyed the opportunity that trans men and women and non-binary characters had to just be themselves (and *them*selves) while having various other adventures and struggles. This diversity of approaches makes even seemingly stale or problematic tropes, such as having the non-human characters be non-binary feel interesting. I really liked the gender fluidity of the mechanical main character of “World of Three” and the shapeshifting powers of the protagonist in “Minor Heresies”.
  
  If there was one thing that bothered me in particular about a few of the stories it’s how they felt the need to explicitly state what they were about. I don’t mean that in the Message Fiction sense that reactionaries often talk about, but rather in the sense that some of the authors felt the need to really spell out the Themes of their stories. This caused me to bounce off of some of the stories I otherwise quite liked (like the aforementioned “Minor Heresies”).
  
  This is a small quibble, though. Overall, “Transcendent 3” was a pleasant refreshment after my recent reading slump. While there were some stories that felt a little same-y (it might also have been me not really gelling with sci-fi), the collection overall was varied enough in terms of themes, settings, and styles not to feel monotonous. I’ll definitely dive into previous installments in the series and I cannot wait for “Transcendent 4”.
  
  Personal highlights include (in order of appearance):
  “Death You Deserve” by Ryley Knowles
  
  “Small Changes over Long Periods of Time” by K.M. Szpara
  
  “Heat Death of Western Human Arrogance” by M. Téllez
  
  “The Heavy Things” by Julian K. Jarboe
  
  “Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue” by Charlie Jane Anders
• 
  Caroline

  A wonderful compilation with a wide range of characters, topics, and tones. From the deeply haunting to the humorous, the stories are compelling.
• 
  celia

  I was particularly excited for this anthology not for the premise (I found the second volume to be... hit or miss, to say the least), but for the authors I recognized would be in here.
  Yoon Ha Lee's "Chameleon Gloves" will probably only make sense to a reader who has read Nine Fox Gambit or other shorts from the Hexarchate universe, but it was a favorite of mine.
  Rivers Solomon and S. Qiouyi Lu will always lead me to pick up an anthology– and it was well worth it here.
  The breakout surprise that delighted me here was the short "Hello, World" by Polenth Blake – short entries from an AI on its way to Mars, keeping watch over... fish. It's poignant and a not-to-be-missed short story!
• 
  Smehur

  This was hit and miss. Some of the stories (Death You Deserve, Heat Death of Western Human Arrogance, Feed, Hello World, The Heavy Things and The Heart's Cartographer) were an absolute pleasure to read. Most others were unremarkable. I wish trans-men were better represented, only one or two stories feature such characters, the rest are mostly trans-women or non-binary. Overall, I liked the collection enough to consider getting the past and future installments too, but not enough to look up individual authors.
• 
  iltatee

  Tässä oli upeita tarinoita! Sellaisia, joista sai uusia näkökulmia, ja sellaisia, joissa jokin oma juttu oli ekaa kertaa kirjoitettuna. Oon niin iloinen tästä kirjasta. Monet näistä jäi elämään mun mieleen.
• 
  Vanessa Ricci-Thode

  Too many of these stories were way too dark and/or depressing. The last one was the only one I really loved.
• 
  Simon

  Not every story called to me the way they did in Vol. 4, but many, many did.
  
  Some I'd read elsewhere and am delighted to have now in book form.
  
  Admirable collection of stories.
• 
  Mills College Library

  Fiction T7722 2018