Wilde Stories 2011: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction

Edited by Steve Berman. Lethe (www.lethepressbooks.com), $18 trade paper (289p) ISBN 978-1-59021-303-2

Berman's fourth reprint anthology of gay speculative fiction frequently leans toward the creepy and discomfiting, but even horror fans will find few of the 14 stories satisfying. In Alaya Dawn Johnson's macabre, darkly humorous "Love Will Tear Us Apart," a young man is gleefully driven to murder and cannibalism. Sandra McDonald's "Beach Blanket Spaceship" recalls Star Trek: The Next Generation's holodeck-gone-awry episodes, trapping a NASA colonel in a 1960s summer beach movie. In Jeffrey A. Ricker's "Lifeblood," a doomed love is so strong it causes a vampire's heart to beat, while Peter Dub%C3%A9's "Blazon" manifests fire from a young man's fear of his sexuality. More typical of the included stories, unfortunately, are Laird Barron's interminable "Mysterium Tremendum" and Nick Poniatowski's depressing "How to Make Friends in Seventh Grade." (Aug.)

Featured Fiction Reviews

Joseph Earl Thomas

The magnificent first novel from Thomas (Sink, a memoir) centers on an Iraq War veteran who works in a Philadelphia emergency room. Joey, who grew up in poverty, relies on Continue reading »

Briony Cameron

Cameron debuts with an exciting and multidimensional story inspired by the women pirates who sailed the Caribbean in the 17th century. Jacquotte Delahaye, who is of Haitian and Continue reading »

Marcela Fuentes

Fuentes debuts with the astonishing story of two malas, or women who challenge traditional Mexican gender norms. The year is 1951 and Pilar Aguirre, who is eight months pregnant Continue reading »

Scott Preston

Preston’s blistering debut takes place in the farthest reaches of northern England, on “cloud-eaten” fells battered by wind and inhabited mostly by sheep. There’s nothing much Continue reading »