Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers edited by Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett

Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers edited by Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett is a collection of short stories written by trans writers that centered on trans readers.  I was clearly not its target audience.

The first story was an erotica story in which the sex scenes were graphic, but not sexy. The second story was a zombie story in which a trans woman becomes a zombie and proceeds to rape her way through the living human men she runs into.  And this was only the start of the book. 

I appreciate that the book gave authors a chance to switch around the stereotypes in ordinary tropes of much sci-fi and fantasy.  I appreciate that I'm not the audience for this book.  But most of these stories left me cold and wondering if I could just skip to the end to the next story.

But let me tell you about some of the stories I did like.

"Rent, Don't Sell" by Calvin Gimpelevich tells of the story of a future world in which people can trade "skins" for periods of time. So a fit woman takes on the skin of an overweight woman and works out in the overweight body. After a period of time, the overweight woman is no longer overweight. Of course, there's a lot that can be done with other people's skins besides fitness training. It's a great premise the execution is well done, too.

"Control Shift Down" by Paige Bryony is an interesting look at a dystopian future filled with sex work and addiction.  I found it the most interesting in the story about day to day life in one of these worlds. The main character is desperate to get ahead but the class structures have forced her onto a path she can't get off.  Well conceived and well written.

"Thieves and Lovers" by Emma Addams is another story of sex work, which is a theme that weaves its way into many of the stories in this collection. In a world in which fantasies can be acted out in whatever way you imagine, thanks to technology that allows physical spaces and people to be virtually transformed, it gets harder and harder to find the line between reality and fantasy. 

So, it's a mixed bag, as is any short story collection. I wouldn't not recommend it, but I would say that if a story doesn't grab you within the first page or two, you should definitely skip to the next story.