 | Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity, edited by Lee Mandela, who describes the anthology’s heart in the introduction: Queerness itself rejects the oppressive status quo of the here and now, offering instead endlessly interconnected ways to imagine the “concrete possibility” of another world, another future. Or many other futures. The same question, of course, underlies some of the most powerful speculative fiction of the last century: but what if things were different? Almost every entry in the anthology was excellent in both content and execution, making this story collection one of the best I’ve read. It was challenging to limit my selections for this review. |
In “Trans World Takeover” by Nat X. Ray, two high school students decide to “out” their trigonometry teacher. It’s a hilarious and heartbreaking story of two kids riding high selling illicit hormones and trying to stage a trans revolution. When their plans go awry, the narrator belatedly learns the importance of loyalty and courage. The story is an insightful and funny look at teen drama, and the writing is top-notch.
 | “The Republic of Ecstatic Consent” by Sam J. Miller Starts with a polyamorous hippie-like group forming and diverging and reforming over the course of a day. The writing is stellar: Because what am I supposed to do with this dull fire, this yawning soaring song inside my chest, this love so strong I’m sometimes afraid it’ll crack me like an egg? What do I do in these moments when I scan the crowded subway car or watch the street trees sigh in the wind and I feel my heart might break from how happy I am . . . how could I want [my old life] when what’s real and here and now is so astonishing? |
Sarah Gailey’s story “Moonwife” is an interesting take on our digital personas. The narrator, Nell, is able to summon people who’ve died from their digital footprint. But so is her unethical crosstown rival, Dino—who uses the dead he summons for his own nefarious purposes. When a young trans kid comes seeking her help to contact and rescue a trapped digital ghost, Nell decides it’s time to take action.
The closing: Nell’s not the kid, and Nell’s not the Moonwife, either. Not anymore. … She’s got a visit to pay. The streetlights are out, but Nell doesn’t mind—the blue-white moon overhead is bright enough to light her way.
The closing: Nell’s not the kid, and Nell’s not the Moonwife, either. Not anymore. … She’s got a visit to pay. The streetlights are out, but Nell doesn’t mind—the blue-white moon overhead is bright enough to light her way.
 | “Forever Won’t End Like This” by Dominique Dickey tells the story of a Black trans actor, Ted, playing a Black trans person. He loathes the press tours with his more successful co-actors—except for the moments when he meets a fan who connects with his trans character. It’s an interesting analysis of the burden of being an icon—in a medium that uses characters to drive drama, with no regard for their importance to vulnerable fans. |
Wenyi Lee’s “They Will Give Us a Home” showcases a couple who’ve leveraged their lives as influencers to get a luxury apartment. To keep the faux-story going, they make a desperate journey to the nether regions of the city's slums. Notice the effortless worldbuilding:
My assistant is on paternity, so it’s just Johnny and me with flashlights for the stretches where the lighting has failed or been stripped out. My beam catches bioluminescent mold more often than people.
Almost no one lives down here.
Almost.
My assistant is on paternity, so it’s just Johnny and me with flashlights for the stretches where the lighting has failed or been stripped out. My beam catches bioluminescent mold more often than people.
Almost no one lives down here.
Almost.
 | “There Used to Be Peace” by Margaret Killjoy imagines a knighthood of queer warriors fighting confederate renegades after the fall of the United States. The narrator, Catalina, has a snarky sense of humor: Israa was on the other side of the enemy line, organizing medical care for the refugee train. You know what they say about us lesbians, hell hath no fury like a sapphic cut off from her lover. So if I had to murder some confederates, I would murder some confederates. The tale is a wonderful mix of heroic action and thoughtful insights. I especially enjoyed the noble tenets of knighthood they aspire to follow. |
Ramez Yoakeim’s “Fettle & Sunder” creates a dilemma: The narrator has earned a berth in space, far from the political unrest making Earth increasingly dangerous, but Juan, their beloved, doesn’t want to go as it means leaving their beloved dogs behind. And Juan knows he won’t have a purpose on the spaceship. As the danger escalates, they finally make a run for the launch site, dodging hateful rogue militia enroute.
The author does a masterful job revealing the narrator’s background and the precarious political situation, escalating the stakes on every page.
The author does a masterful job revealing the narrator’s background and the precarious political situation, escalating the stakes on every page.
“Six Days” by Bendi Barrett is a perfectly written story exploring the simple joys of life after the fall of technology. The narrator runs a communal garden and is part of a threesome relationship. The love scenes are not explicit yet enough is described to charge the text with their erotic energy.
 | The story opens with their truck stuck and the community missing Hieu, one of the threesome who’s gone to help another community for the next six days. The unnamed narrator describes their two lovers: Tam is the opposite of Hieu’s quiet, eager malleability. He’s completely solid, a force in flesh. |
The truck is freed at the story’s close: Twelve of us pulling, straining, and chanting ludicrous work songs heave it free of the mud with a victorious squelch. … We have dinner afterwards and everyone is feeling celebratory. It’s just an old truck, but every win is magnified when it’s hard earned.
Sunny Moraine’s story, “The They Whom We Remember,” is set in a world where people can and do modify their bodies in numerous ways, experimenting with multiple variations of gender. The narrator wonders what it would was like in the past, when people were locked in one, unchanging body, unable to freely play with physical gender. A fascinating story.
 | “When the Devil Comes from Babylon” by Maya Deane is set in a restrictive Christian community. The narrator wrestles with their “sick lusts.” By daylight I can usually crush down my wickedness, but it always bubbles up again at night. The narrator is a boy who prefers to do girl work, much to the disgust of his mother and the other righteous believers. At his grandfather’s deathbed he witnesses the angelic “Devil” everyone fears. The story is a masterful balance of the beliefs we inherit and the truths we must learn for ourselves. The ending is especially beautiful. |
“A Few Degrees” by Ash Huang is an entertaining story about a herd of warmth-seeking cats tilting a critical satellite dish off-center, and the human determined to uproot them. It's a fabulous example of expressing emotions indirectly:
A cat didn’t spend its days wondering what it was for, ruing that it hadn’t gone into space. A cat puked and left the mess on the floor, already forgotten. A cat would not aspire to leave the planet. It understood the joys of warm satellite dishes and cuddling with neighbors.
A cat didn’t spend its days wondering what it was for, ruing that it hadn’t gone into space. A cat puked and left the mess on the floor, already forgotten. A cat would not aspire to leave the planet. It understood the joys of warm satellite dishes and cuddling with neighbors.
 | In “The Garden of Collective Memory” by Neon Yang, people can sell their memories. The story’s narrator has a potentially lucrative memory to sell. Running throughout the story is an undercurrent of jealousy toward her single and professionally successful friend, and dissatisfaction with her boring married life with her wife, Natalie. It takes an angry confrontation to help her see what she’s overlooking: A dozen years from now I’ll look back on these moments and wonder how I ever found them dull. What do I care what other people think of the memories I’m making, so long as they make me happy. |
Aysha U. Farah’s story, “Sugar, Shadow,” is a gritty noir tale of a private detective hunting a rich couple’s drug-addict son. The drug is called sugar and heavy users hive off into doppelgangers called “shadows.”
When the son goes into withdrawal, the detective calls on an old friend to help save him—but the price includes dealing with the worst of the city’s criminal underworld.
When the son goes into withdrawal, the detective calls on an old friend to help save him—but the price includes dealing with the worst of the city’s criminal underworld.
 | Paul Evanby layers emotion and spy-thriller action in his complex story, “Blueprint for the Destruction of Solitude.” The opening lines: The rain is wet again. Has been for weeks. I like the feeling of moisture on my skin, but water from heaven is not going to win this war. The narrator meets his “contact” in a dance club and they exchange chemical data via a kiss. As the data transmits: We speak of loneliness and the fear we experience every day when we move through the city streets. … Of the corrosive certainty that a single mistake is enough to condemn us. |
The anthology closes with Meg Ellison’s “Bang Bang,” a sci-fi riff on the B52’s song, “Love Shack.” The narrator describes parties that pop-up in different parts of the universe:
Rooms writhe and spin around and around, like a single animal that’s in love with itself. Everybody is so kind to one another. There’s no wrong body [and] the whole Shack shimmies.
The stories in Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity are wide ranging, yet consistently well written and with thematic depth. A 2026 Ignyte Award Finalist. Highly Recommended.
Rooms writhe and spin around and around, like a single animal that’s in love with itself. Everybody is so kind to one another. There’s no wrong body [and] the whole Shack shimmies.
The stories in Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity are wide ranging, yet consistently well written and with thematic depth. A 2026 Ignyte Award Finalist. Highly Recommended.
Read more science fiction short stories:
Even Greater Mistakes; The Best of World SFF; The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories;
Pump Six; The Mammoth Book of SF by Women; Dispatches from Anarres
Read more fiction featuring trans and queer characters:
The Four Profound Weaves, Light from Uncommon Stars,
The Bruising of Qilwa, Sistersong, Spear, Most Ardently
Even Greater Mistakes; The Best of World SFF; The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories;
Pump Six; The Mammoth Book of SF by Women; Dispatches from Anarres
Read more fiction featuring trans and queer characters:
The Four Profound Weaves, Light from Uncommon Stars,
The Bruising of Qilwa, Sistersong, Spear, Most Ardently
