Customer Reviews

Up for Grabs: Exploring the Worlds of Gender

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The possibilities are endless when you combine science fiction and sexual ambiguity, the ability to choose your own gender or not have to pick just one. The five stories in this anthology each take a very different approach, but each invariably plays with the restrictive limits that society places on gender. Here nothing is as simple as female or male, or being stuck with the gender you're born with when you know with every cell in your body that it's the wrong gender. These stories provide a more fluid approach to gender identity and sexual awareness that is sometimes serious and touching and at other times playful and over the top.

"Only for Myself: Japan, 2043' by Zachary Jernigan introduces Masami who is enjoying a brilliant orgasm when she is interrupted by young `herman' Katsumi who wants to share the experience with her. This is a futuristic tale with a twist, where people can be rewired, and our main character, with the help of a pill, conjures up Masa who answers Masami's ultimate desires. The story is a play on the teacher/student dynamic where the young student doesn't understand the relationship the teacher is in, and the teacher is unwilling to give up the relationships that fulfills all her needs.

"Fair Play" by David D. Levine is a quick fire conversation between two people, one being a very unusual girl with a new adaptation that she decides to play with. The conversation goes back and forth very quickly and is over before you know it, and it's easy to miss something if you're not paying attention. In just a few pages, Levine sets up an alluring premise that sends the imagination running wild to fill in more details once the conversation ends.

"Transplant" by Ellen Tevault is based in a futuristic world where the US is split into the Right Republic and the New Repbulic, where all of the `freaks' have been sent. The story focuses on Katrina, formerly Lance, as she reflects back on her life leading to where she has been matched for a sex reassignment transplant. Her match is Chad, and when they meet just before their surgeries they decide to spend the night together, getting to know one another better. Katrina and Chad come from very different backgrounds, but they bond over the shared desire to change their bodies so they can feel complete.

"Passage" by Anya Levin begins the night before Maya's Second Passage as she worries that her partner Sira will no longer be attracted to her after the change. They enjoy each other and celebrate one another, while Sira reassures Maya that their love will remain, despite how Maya is changed. No details of the technicalities of the Second Passage are given, and what this story focuses on instead is the emotional and physical changes that result and the bond between two people that overcomes.

The final story "The Ontolocial Engine, or, the Modern Leda" by Vinnie Tesla is set in the Victorican era, and Daedalus Tesla is carrying out bold experiments using a Ontological Engine, powered by the `Vital Energies' emitted upon sexual orgasm. It's impossible to anticipate what this story holds in store for readers and it is a unique tale filled with twists and turns, orgasmic peaks and the generation of new and strange creatures. The voice and style of the story is perfectly in tune with a Victorian novel and it's impossible to avoid making comparisons to The Prestige. The ending is shocking yet humorous and ends the anthology on a high note.

All of the stories in Up for Grabs are very well written and quite thought provoking. Each author has a thrilling take on exploring the world of gender, and the stories are all intensely erotic and some are beautifully romantic. It's impossible to anticipate what's coming next with any of these stories, and that's a large part of the fun while reading. You simply sit back and enjoy the wild ride as the stories just get better and better.

My personal favorites from this collection are "Transplant" and "Passage," each of which explores a world where there is a unique option available to transgendered individuals. Each story delves into the emotional needs of the person to have a body that matches the soul, and the ramifications of making that change on other relationships. In "Transplant," Katrina has been disowned by her mother while Chad's mother is the exact opposite. In "Passage," Maya is concerned about her lover still being attracted to her new body. The physical changes are one thing, but these stories choose to delve into the other changes that are inevitable and as such are extremely engaging and moving.

This is a wonderful anthology with stories that cover a wide spectrum yet each share a common theme. Readers who are open to the flexibility of gender will surely enjoy this collection of stories. These stories will stay with you for some time after reading, and I definitely recommend this book.

The story that bothered me most was "Transplant." While a futuristic surgery to swap sex organs is certainly an interesting premise for sci-fi genderbending erotica, I can't imagine why anyone would transplant a trans man's breasts onto a trans woman estrogen supplements will grow natural ones. I felt like the author saw trans people as some exotic foreign race, and didn't take any time to do research (sci-fi doesn't need research, right? it's all made up, right?).

I also don't think it's sexy to throw dubious-consent in "backstory" like it's not worth mentioning. That's hitting a little TOO close to home for the lives of actual trans people. I read erotica for sexy distraction. Not so I can be reminded how some folks are still treated like dirt.

The other stories were kind of lackluster. "Passage" and "Fair Play" are interesting, but not terribly sexy. "All For Me" just left me wondering more about the setting.

The real star of the show is Vinnie Tesla's "The Ontological Engine, or, The Modern Leda," and I wouldn't exactly consider it gender-bending. Mysterious creatures shaped like penises with legs don't really cut it, especially if most of the action is focused mostly on the interactions between ordinary men and ordinary women. The story is excellent, though.

If you like gender-bending, and you like creative, entertaining, and sexy erotica, just get Vinnie Tesla's book The Erotofluidic Age. It includes "The Ontological Engine" in its entirety, so you're not missing anything. It's hot, it's funny, it's interesting, and all done up convincingly in the style of vintage Victorian erotica.

Delicious, delirious, delightful! I couldn't put down this collection of five thought provoking, totally fresh and completely hot stories of gender turned on its ear (or some other body part).

"Only For Myself" by Zachary Jernigan leads off the collection with a very surprising twist. "Fair Play" by David D. Levine is a brief transgender tale told entirely in dialogue. Ellen Tevault's "Transplant" puts us in the skin of Katrina, formerly Lance, who looks forward to her gender reassignment surgery, made possible through a body parts swap with Chad, formerly Char. "Passage" by Anya Levin has lesbian Maya worrying her lover won't want her once Maya undergoes a passage from female to male.

The real crown jewel in this treasure chest of sci-fi, though, is Vinnie Tesla's magnificent "The Ontological Engine, or, The Modern Leda." In this tongue-in-cheek (pun intended) tale set in the Victorian era, Daedalus Tesla (cousin of the famed Nikola) carries out bold sexual experiments. It has all the turn-of-the-last century charm and magic of the novel or film The Prestige, but with many more saucy ejaculations.

This collection is simply a must-read.