Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time

A one-of-a-kind anthology, though hopefully not for long.

I knew the apocalypse had started before he said her name.
“Legends Are Made, Not Born” by Cherie Dimaline

Strange Boy and Shadow Boy realized at last that they had never been alone. They were just the first to free their hearts and fly in their own beauty.
“The Boys Who Became the Hummingbirds” by Daniel Heath Justice

These are not my stories but they touch me, and they make me see the world outside as even more bright and beautiful than I did before I read them, and I know they will for you too.
"Letter From the editor" by Hope Nicholson

I don't know that it's truly one of a kind, but Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time is the first anthology of Indigenous #OwnVoices LGBTQ SF/F show more I've ever come across - and hopefully not the last. The eight stories (and two essays/intros, and one poem) contained within these pages are pure magic, brimming with light and love and starstuff. And don't forget the space puppies!

My favorite was easily né łe! by Darcie Little Badger, in which recently-dumped Dottie King, dvm, impulsively signs up as a veterinarian for a nascent Mars colony. Five months into the nine-month journey, she's pulled out of stasis when the dogs' pods malfunction. She falls in love with the Starship Soto's pilot, Cora, over the care and feeding of forty rambunctious Chihuahuas - and one "defective" Husky. It's sweet and fun and I've got to agree with Cora that rolling around in a dog pile (with dogs who might never die! MAGS I MISS YOU SO MUCH.) sounds like the very best way to pass a day.

Cherie Dimaline's "Legends are made, not born" is impossibly beautiful, in so many ways. Set in a future and on a world that doesn't look too terribly different from our own, the story's protagonist is sent to live with a family friend when his mother dies in a snowmobile accident. Auntie Dave is "a six-foot Cree" who's a little big magic.

Daniel Heath Justice's "The Boys Who Became the Hummingbirds" is strange and lovely, with imagery that will take your breath away. In a dystopia of no obvious time or place, Strange Boy (and, eventually, Shadow Boy) fight against hatred and bigotry to bring color and kindness back to their people, against seemingly insurmountable odds.

With shades of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Karen Thompson Walker's The Dreamers, and Adam Silvera's More Happy Than Not, "Perfectly You" by David A. Robertson a perfect scifi tale about fear and longing and regret. And taking chances and letting go. Some of the post-coma scenes just about tore my heart in two.

I also really loved "Valediction at the Star View Motel" by Nathan Adler, and not just because of the Charlotte's Web references (though that ending did really bring me back: lazy summer afternoons, dog-eared, water-stained paperback clutched tight to my chest while dozing in the hammock out back).

It's hard to say too much about any one story, for fear of spoiling the choicest bits, so best stop while I'm ahead. Suffice it to say that Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time has a little bit of everything: humor, beauty, compassion, ass-kicking. Not to mention androids who long to be human and pretty queer girls who can talk to nonhuman animals.

 


CONTENTS
Letter From the editor | Hope Nicholson 7
beyond the grim dust oF What Was Grace | L. Dillon 9
returning to ourseLves: tWo sPirit Futures and the noW | Niigaan Sinclair 12
aLiens | Richard Van Camp 20
Legends are made, not born | Cherie Dimaline 31
PerFectLy you | David A. Robertson 38
the boys Who became the hummingbirds | Daniel Heath Justice 54
né łe! | Darcie Little Badger
60 transitions | Gwen Benaway 77
imPoster syndrome | Mari Kurisato 87
vaLediction at the star vieW moteL | Nathan Adler 103
ParaLLax | Cleo Keahna 116
bios 118

http://www.easyvegan.info/2019/02/26/love-beyond-body-space-and-time-edited-by-h... show less

The LGBTIQA community is often described as a minority. And while this is true, a world population of 7.5 billion people means that we are not as small as we sometimes feel. In fact, the Intersex Society of North America estimates that 1 in 2000 babies are born intersex, so there is a higher population of intersex people in the world than there are Jewish people. And that’s just for intersex people.

We are a clamouring of colour and a clamouring of voices. We are as diverse as we are numerous. And sometimes, in media, I get frustrated when a single queer character is represented. I know as many queer people as I do straight people and I meet more people every day.

… enter Love Beyond Body, Space and Time, the indigenous LGBTIQA show more anthology. I love queer anthologies because they have a multitude of queer stories that I experience every day.

I loved this collection. It feels authentic. These first nations writers (like Richard Van Camp, Darcie Little Badger, Gwen Benaway and Daniel Heath Justice) bring their characters to life with such care and gentleness. I felt safe reading this collection, because I knew that queerness would not be trivialised, undermined or sexualised.

My heart ached for Emma and Cassie to find each other. Benaway’s story, “Transitions” was visceral and sensual in that I felt it, saw it, touched it, smelled it, tasted it. Darcie Little Badger’s story was slow to build but ultimately satisfying, a quiet triumph amongst the stars.

There were so, so many beautiful and articulate voices, how can I describe them all to you? Reading this collection felt like looking up at the stars. An ocean of little lights, and I wanted to read them all.

The best part about this collection (apart from the idea that a young, LGTBIQA Two-Spirit person might read this and recognise themselves in a way they can feel to the marrow of their bones) is the fact that I now have an army of First Nations authors to recommend people.

There is a future for indigenous, two-spirit people and what a glittering beast it is.

Now, if someone could pluck a second volume from thin air, that would be perfect. ❤ show less

This was an uneven collection with which I have a few bones to pick, but it finished up strong enough that I'm quite glad that I read it.

Complaints first: I wish they'd titled this a speculative fiction anthology rather than a sci-fi anthology, as this collection contained much more urban fantasy and only a few stories I'd actually call sci-fi. Plus, this tiny little book effectively had three introductions, only one of which was actually labelled as such. I wish the editor had been a little clearer communicating where the non-fiction left off and the fiction began.

Once we get to the actual stories, like I said, some were weaker than others, and some I probably would have liked better had I not been waiting for the sci-fi elements to show more emerge. The first story that I really liked was "Né łe!" (not coincidentally, one of the two actual sci-fi stories in the collection), a charming story of a lesbian Apache veterinarian caring for a bunch of dogs whose stasis units failed on the way to Mars. Good characters and intriguing world-building. The other sci-fi story was "Imposter Syndrome," which I also enjoyed, despite remaining confused about some details. It is a fairly ambitious story examining "passing" through the lenses of gender identity, android/biosynthetic versus "natural" humans, and citizenship.

I don't want to get really into individually reviewing every story, so let's just say I did find something I liked in each of the stories, but my two favorites that weren't sci-fi were "Transitions" and "Valediction at the Star view Motel." show less

A really solid collection from a pretty wide variety of authors; many of the stories are pretty good and the few I didn't love are pretty skippable. I especially enjoyed the pieces by Darcie Little Badger and Daniel Heath Justice! But overall a very good anthology, and one I'd recommend to any people interested in sci-fi/fantasy and in diversifying who they read in those genres.

If you can’t tell from the title, Love Beyond Body, Space and Time is a short story collection focused on LGBT and two-spirit science fiction and fantasy and written by all indigenous authors. I always have an eye out for queer SFF, and I also haven’t read much by Native American authors. I want to correct this flaw in my reading, and this anthology looked like it would introduce me to a number of relevant authors.

The only author in the anthology I’d heard of before was Daniel Heath Justice, although this was my first chance to read his work. As I’d hoped, I enjoyed several short stories in this collection and will seek out more of those author’s work.

The collection had several introductions which took up a hefty chunk of the show more page count. In retrospect, I wish I’d skipped them and headed straight for the stories instead. Unfortunately, I didn’t like the first story, “Aliens” by Richard van Camp. The experimentation with POV didn’t work for me, and I don’t know how well it fit in with the theme of the collection. It also has some iffy treatment of intersex people as plot points.

“Legends are Made, Not Born” by Cherie Dimaline was an improvement over the first story, but I still felt like it was missing something. I think the core idea was interesting, but the story could have used more development. Perhaps expanding it some?

Daniel Heath Justice’s story, “The Boys Who Became the Hummingbirds,” was all right but not really what I was looking for – it was very much in the style of a myth. The writing however was lovely, and I still plan to read more by Justice.

My favorite story of the collection was “Né łe” by Darci Little Badger. This story was adorable! A vet travels to a new life on Mars, but she’s woken up partway through the journey to take care of some dogs whose sleep pods have malfunctioned. Basically, this story has a f/f romance and dogs in space. It’s no wonder I loved it so much.

My second favorite of the collection was probably “Impostor Syndrome” by Mari Kurisato, which tells the tale of a cyborg who wishes to be human. The story was excellently constructed and managed to combine classic tropes with a modern feel.

Other stories in the collection include “Transitions” by Gwen Benaway, “Perfectly You” by David A. Robertson, “Valediction at the Star View Motel” by Nathan Adler, and a poem, “Parallax” by Cleo Keahna. These stories were all perfectly decent but didn’t stand out much to me one way or the other.

While I think the beginning of the collection was weak, I’m glad that I ultimately stuck with Love Beyond Body, Space and Time.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. show less

I loved this collection. It was unlike anything I had ever read before. Also I am not used to reading queer or indigenous fiction that is so positive which I really need sometimes.

Like most anthologies- I liked some stories, others not so much. A couple I really enjoyed. This book gets a thumbs up from me (especially since it turned me on to some new authors!)