Wilde Stories 2012: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction

Last year I loved the Wilde Stories 2011 anthology, so picking up Wilde Stories 2012: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction edited by Steve Berman was a no brainer for me. In this year's edition, I again found excellent creative speculative fiction by favorite authors plus new-to-me authors whose works I'm going to explore in the future.The anthology begins with an excellent introduction by Berman, followed by fifteen stories and showcasing the wide range and variety he discovered in gay speculative fiction. Personally, I think that variety is what I love and enjoy the most about reading speculative fiction. That and the fact that there's no placing most of these stories into a neat little box even when certain genres are used as a base in their construction.I'll give you a few samples of the variety found in this anthology. There are two stories that really touched me, "Ashes in the Water by Joel Lane and Mat Joiner," and "Hoffman, Godzilla and Me by Richard Bowes." These tales are quite different in setting, mood, atmosphere and writing styles, yet pain and loss oozes out of the pages while that darkness and other worldliness that comes with a speculative fiction story is central to both. And while one story is edgier than the other, they both leave the reader in deep thought while chilled to the bone.There are also fun tales such as "The Peacock by Ted Infinity and Nabil Hijazi," a science fiction based love story, between a spambot program and a man, that made me snort and laugh from beginning to wonderful over-the-top end, and Tom Cardamone's very short excellent Chinese mythology-based story, "The Cloud Dragon Ate Red Balloons," which surprisingly left me with a smile at the end. These two stories while very different are both excellent, quite creative, and fun!Of course a speculative fiction anthology would not be complete without the all popular horror-based tale, and this year Berman features great stories I enjoyed, his own creepy contribution "All Smiles," featuring young adults, is one of them. And while Steve Berman's story is full of dread and quick action followed by a hopeful ending, in "The House By The Park," Lee Thomas contrasts the bliss of a gay couple as they find love and lulls the reader with everyday life details while all along dark evil slowly hunts them.Both horror tales are nightmare worthy, but compare that horror to the magic found in Justin Torres' creative fable "Fairy Tale," Ellen Kushner's fantasy-based tale of swordsmen "The Duke of Riverside," or another favorite, "We Do Not Come In Peace by Christopher Barsak" where Peter Pan-like young men in a familiar Neverland-like setting battle the Fair Ones, and you get the idea as to the variety of stories included.I enjoyed reading this anthology slowly, savoring each tale on its own. It is interesting to note that even as personal taste led me to find favorite stories, it is also easy to say that the quality of the stories and writers, gay themes, plus the variety found in Berman's Wilde Stories 2012: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction make this anthology an overall well-balanced, rock solid read.

When I cracked the spine on this book I was not really sure what to expect as I have realized that the term and category of speculative fiction can mean vastly different things to different people. By the end of the the delightful and playful introduction/preface by the editor Steve Berman I no longer cared what the term meant, I was simply convinced I was indeed in good hands for an enjoyable selection of writing. The stories are an excellent blend of strange, scary, moving, and playful. I think some of the stories stood out for me as more my kind of writing than others. Two of the stories I found particularly enjoyable came early on in the book. One was the eerie but beautiful account of the family whose proclivity to grow wings and the ways various members of the family handles (or does not handle or confront the presence of) the appendage, with the sinister undertone of one of the elderly family members use of them. Another pleasure was what I interpreted in part as an interesting commentary on the potential perils of suburban living with the story of Dunbar and Mason. While as with any compilation, there were some stories I just could not get into The whole compilation itself was just so well executed and put together; from the intro to the quotes to the wide range of styles and subject matters covered in this latest edition of speculative fiction. I would not hesitate to seek out earlier editions. A great find.

These are hauntingly beautiful and intricately detailed stories with a twist. Each story is engaging and unexpected. The byte-size stories also make for a quick read.