BOOK BLURB:
We have always been here. For as long as there's been such a thing as sex, alternate sexual identities have been a fact of life. So why have we been so nearly invisible in recorded history and historical fiction?

Now editor Connie Wilkins, a Lambda Literary Award finalist, has assembled fourteen stories that span the centuries from ancient times to the Renaissance to the modern era and explore alternate versions of our past.

Their queer protagonists, who bend history in ways dramatic enough to change the world and subtle enough to touch hearts and minds, rescue our past from invisibility, and affirm our place and importance throughout all of history, past, present, and future.

BOOK REVIEW:
This is an intriguing theme for an anthology, and the collection doesn't disappoint ~ spanning the globe, the centuries, and interpretations of 'alternate history.' The overall result is a fine collection, with a lot of variety. The authors' notes following each story were a particular joy, shedding light on the process and intent behind each entry.

"A Wind Sharp as Obsidian" by Rita Oakes is a strong, vivid start to the collection. Malianalli's relationship with the goddess Xochi is the twist here, but the story focuses on the critical moment in that relationship, leaving the consequences to take their shape in the reader's imagination. This allows the author to focus on the political, physical, and spiritual world of the Mayan peoples at the cusp of the conquistadors' invasion, and on these two powerful women. The result is both lush and uncomfortable, loving and filled with awe and majesty.

In "The Final Voyage of the Hesperus," Steven Adamson makes the moment of alteration central to the story, blurring the line's between Modhum's dreams and realities as the Hesperus sails between India and the sugar plantations of the West Indies: mixing elements of brutality and wistfulness.

"Roanake" by Sandra Barret is set in one of the early Puritan settlements in North America, where Elizabeth, who isn't comfortable with the rigidly enforced binary gender roles of Roanoke, is fortunate enough to be mentored by Maigan, okitcitakwe to the Croatans, and so find a third path. The author maintains a thread plain, hard-one hope, which is far more effective than the romantic wash of positivity I feared when I saw the setting.

"A Marriage of Choice" by Dale Chase is a perfect 'what if' story, watching Thomas Jefferson debate the terms of the American Bill of Rights through the eyes of his lover, Caleb. I must admit that I found the period tone sustained the discussion of gay marriage well, only to trip a little on the topic of slavery, where it is almost impossible for a contemporary author to maintain both period views and the sympathy of a modern reader.

"The High Cost of Tamarind" by Steve Berman is slight, haunting, juxtaposing two young men's past and present, hopes and fears, but ultimately, was too impressionistic and brief for me to really engage.

In "A Spear Against the Sky," Ericson has chosen to set a story in one of my favourite periods of history, during the Roman settlement of Britannia, featuring two of my favourite historical women, in a story that adds an intriguing and plausible dimension to our existing patchy knowledge of events.

"Sod 'Em" by Barry Lowe is relatively close in setting ~ a few hundred miles, a few hundred years ~ but a world away in tone ~ gay men, to Ericson's lesbians, juxtaposed modernity, to Ericson's period approach, ordinary folk rather than Ericson's great queens, but it's an equally strong story, and very enjoyable. I fear it came too late in the manuscript tradition for Brother Francis' revisions to take root, but the idea of the heretic band it could have fostered would be a rich vein to mine for future stories!

"Morisca" by Erin Mackay brings together great leaders and lowly individuals, in a tale set in the fifteenth century court of Spain. This is classical historical fiction, and a charming filling in of the gaps.

In "Great Reckonings, Little Rooms," Catherine Lundoff dives into literary history, giving life to Woolf's Judith Shakespeare, and showing us the underworld of the Elizabethan theatre through an unfamiliar glass. The net of relationships packed into this short story are convincingly complicated, and the total result very pleasing indeed.

"Barbaric Splendor" by Simon Sheppard is creepy and unsettling, partly because it fits into some gaps in my own knowledge, which creates a disturbing plausibility, and mostly because it is a powerful and disturbing creation.

As soon as I'd finished "Opening Night" by Lisabet Sarai, I wanted to share it immediately with my Gilbert and Sullivan loving friend, to see how they felt about this joyful reading of Ruddigore, one of the more rarely performed works. The world of the Victorian theatre is brought to life with a deft semi-period tone, and the reading itself is deliciously, temptingly, plausible.

"A Happier Year" by Emily Salter, meanwhile, is spun around Forster's Maurice, a novella that I adore, which in reality was hidden away until Forster's death. Salter not only extrapolates how the publication of this pro-gay story might have affected society if it had been published before the Great War, she also creates a beautifully complicated original character in Henry.

"The Heart of the Story" by Connie Wilkins is both alternative history and a sort of urban fantasy, set in the second world war. It's a compellingly solid and active world where mythology and history come together, around a fairytale lesbian love story.

"At Reading Station, Changing Trains," by C.A. Gardner revisits T.E. Lawrence's multiply-revised history to add the construction of gender identity to T.E.'s exercises in self-creation, in a story rooted in T.E.'s internal life.

Given the tight word count that the authors were working with, many of the stories would have benefited from a brief 'place and date' stamp alongside the titles, but that's about the only editorial decision I'd query in this very strong collection.

Overall, the range is impressive, and the quality unquestionable: an intriguing theme and a hugely enjoyable anthology.

(Originally reviewed for Rainbow Reviews - http://www.rainbow-reviews.com/?p=4458) ( )