I don't read much short fiction—I am not subscribed to fiction magazines or the like—but I will occasionally pick up a compilation if it looks interesting. So far I have not been disappointed, and Meanwhile, Elsewhere is no exception.The stories within vary widely in style and substance, but all share similar themes. Weather we are traversing space, living through all manner of apocalypse or post-apocalypse, or simple struggling to survive in whichever dystopia we have found ourselves in, the characters we follow through these journeys are trying to discover themselves as much as they are trying to survive.
And I do not mean that in a vague sense; the characters are trans, as are their authors, and much of the soul-searching they must do is to simply find out what being a man or a woman or neither means in a world where technology can swap people's minds (Rent, Don't Sell by Calvin Gimpelevich), or transforming the body is as simple as downloading an app (Angels Are Here To Help You, by Jeanne Thornton), or body modification is treated the same as switching out parts on a computer (Cybervania, by Sybil Lamb).
Even in the more mundane futures, much of the stories' tension centers around the protagonists' identities and how they navigate the word as it reacts to those identities. Several authors meditate explicitly on the intersections of race, culture, or disability on sexuality (such as Delicate Bodies, by Bridget Liang, No Comment, by Ayşe Devrim, or Schwaberow, Ohio by Brendan Williams-Childs) and how the struggle against the prejudices they face affect them.
Now, I do not want to oversell this point about theme—the book is not just about "trans angst" or any sort of misery porn. As much as their trans identity shapes their stories, it does not limit them or portray stereotypes. There are twenty-five different stories here, penned by twenty-five different authors. Each has a unique voice, and each story feels fresh and original, even as it explores ideas similar to a few others.
I was honestly not sure what to expect when I bought the book, but this is some of the most creative sci-fi I have read. Imago, by Tristan Alice Nieto, imagines a technology that can temporarily revive the recently-deceased, and follows a corpse with memory problems as she tries to solve her own murder. The results are as gripping as they are tragic. Cybervania is an exhilarating blend of Mad Max, Neuromancer, and a rock opera that does more with it characters in 24 pages than many novels can do in their entire length. Notes From A Hunter Boy, by Beckett K. Bauer, is perhaps my favorite of this collection. It has some of the most artful world-building, and uses its framing in a very cleaver way to formulate its thesis. I could go on about these and many more (Kid Ghost, by Nat Buchbinder, The Heat Death Of Western Human Arrogance, by M Téllez), but I want to focus on the book as a whole, and each of these stories are worth experiencing on your own.
There are a few weak stories. Delicate Bodies and Satan, Are You There? It's Me, Laura, by Aisling Fae were both too 'silly' for lack of a better word, and the writing did not give much depth to either of the protagonists in the stories. A few other stories were too short, in that I felt characters were underdeveloped or a larger story was simply stopped halfway through. After The Big One, by Cooper Lee Bombardier is a pretty good story, but there is an almost-rape scene which I felt was somewhat gratuitous. Yet even in the 'weak' cases, there is still a great deal of creativity. They were all memorable.
The one criticism I have of the book as a whole is structural. I felt a few stories were not up to par with the others, but I have felt that way about all the short story compilations that I have read. What is different about this one is that they put a lot of the weaker stories at the start of the book. The first five stories (67 pages) in the book, while not bad, are not as gripping as many of the later ones, I felt. Both Delicate Bodies and Satan, Are You There? are in these five, and the very first story (Control, by Rachel K. Zall) is a short erotica scene. It's a good erotica scene, and there is a lot of thematic depth in those nine pages, but as the very first story it set a weird tone for the rest of the book. By the time I was done with Satan, Are You There? (frankly the weakest story of them all) I was starting to feel a twinge of disappointment. Thankfully, the rest of the book balances the scales. If you pick it up for yourself, I suggest jumping to one or two of the better stories from the above paragraph if you have the same reaction.
Meanwhile, Elsewhere, as its title suggests, is about some of the people we rarely see in fiction. It is a fantastic collection of worlds and characters both familiar and strange, struggles that are all too real even as they are intertwined with the fantastic. If you are interested in sci-fi, fantasy, or short fiction at all, I highly recommend picking this up.
Meanwhile, Elsewhere, is available wherever books are sold, as well as a free PDF via one of the editor's blogs, here.
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