Maiden, Mother, Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes
This is an anthology of fantasy stories centering around trans femme characters, with each story being by a different author.
Genres
Queer, fantasy
Description
Maiden, Mother, Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes is a Bedside Press anthology of new fantastical short fiction by trans women and trans feminine writers curated by celebrated poet and author Gwen Benaway.
Drawing on high fantasy and other genres of fantasy writing, Maiden, Mother, Crone is the first anthology by trans femme authors to explore the realms of magic, supernatural beings, and alternate universes. Enter a universe of wonder where trans femmes are powerful heroines, sorceresses, and warriors fighting against dark forces in vivid magical worlds.
With celebrated trans femme writers like Kai Cheng Thom, Casey Plett, and Gwen Benaway, and featuring art by Alex Morris, this anthology will transform the landscape of fantasy fiction and offer radical portals into excitement, danger, and transformation.
Review
There was a range of quality, with the stories being very hit-and-miss. Some were excellent. I particularly liked The Vixen with Death Pursuing, as it had a lot of emotion to it which made me attach to the character, caring about her quest.
Another one I liked was Undoing Vampirism, which was very different from the other ones and all the better for it. It was dark, quirky, and funny at the same time.
I forgot the name of another one, but it involved a cast of D&D-like characters who were absolutely lovable. I was charmed by this story; it warmed my heart, and I liked the exploration of dwarf gender.
Some of the stories weren’t very memorable to me. Many have standard fantasy settings, which is fine, but the characters didn’t stand out to me either. There was nothing for me to get attached to in them.
Some were awesome, others bland, none of them horrible though. I liked the range of focus the trans identities are to the story. In some it’s central, others just happen to be trans, which is great. The normalization was a blessing.