Wilde Stories 2018

Lethe publisher Berman’s final annual anthology of gay speculative fiction contains 14 impressive selections that blend clever premises with mostly subdued queer desires. In Christopher Caldwell’s “Serving Fish,” Eric catches a fish that promises wishes without explaining the steep costs. In Karin Lowachee’s “The Summer Mask,” the tenderness of the relationship between a disfigured, blinded veteran and the mask maker creating his facial prosthesis takes a swerve into horror. Xen’s “Cracks” challenges teenager Asad to seal a dangerous fissure that leads to a parallel world, where he sees that his doppelganger is in love with beautiful Avondre. In the postapocalyptic Spain of Rich Larson’s “There Used to Be Olive Trees,” massive machines only listen to a few cyborg individuals who are styled as prophets. Other stories explore the devastation of hacked programmable matter, a bite-transmitted alien disease that turns humans into murderous reptilians, and a young man’s struggle with body image despite the ludicrous medical treatments and nanomachinery provided by his shadowy employer. Berman’s diverse selections and their sensitive portrayals of gay men in science fiction and fantasy furnishes ample evidence that his series will be missed. (Oct.)