BENDING THE LANDSCAPE

A companion volume to 1997’s gender-bending BTL: Fantasy with, this time, science fiction themes and ideas given a gay/lesbian perspective—though the contributors include non-gay/lesbians and mainstream writers. As before, there’s a welcome diversity of subjects and approaches in the 21 stories here, ranging from the destruction of an intelligent alien species and a disturbing modern ghetto to the military, time travel, space travel, virtual reality, surgery, and religious fundamentalism. Immediately recognizable authors include Rebecca Ore, Stephen Baxter, Allan Steele, Charles Sheffield, Nancy Kress, and Shariann Lewitt. A respectable assemblage. The problem—by no means particular to this series—is the difficulty of producing distinctive, original work within previously defined parameters. Annoying, too, how often the phrase “deliciously sly” crops up in the editorial bits.