The hubs and I had a conversation the other day about Sigourney Weaver's role in Alien. It was my position that Ripley was written in such a way that the gender of the actor wouldn't have mattered. The character and the story were strong enough on their own that acknowledging gender would have been unnecessary and would likely have been a distraction. He disagreed and pointed to the scenes with the kid as evidence that a female would be better to perform those scenes.

o.0 seriously?

This book is not a single story but a series of snapshots into the lives of people who do extraordinary things. I enjoyed some more than others, but I found value in each of them. My only critique is that the main character's difference was the pivotal information rather than just a facet of the character's identity. And maybe this is me, seeing this through the eyes of a cis-gendered person, but I have always felt that "otherness" stops being so other, when one stops making a big deal about it. When I think about friends of mine who are gay or transgender, those aspects of them are not what come to mind first. I immediately think of X's sharp ass wit or M's phobic aversion to Jello. I missed seeing characters handled like that.

All said, I am grateful for the insights that I got by reading this. It's made me want to seek out more stories, especially about non-binary people. I thought I had a pretty good handle on what that means, but I realize I have no idea. I imagine it's kind of like trying to explain color to a person born blind, but I look forward to learning.

This is an anthology of fantasy stories where the main characters are transgender or nonbinary people. Some of the stories use neo-pronouns (for example, xie instead of he/she and xer instead her/him) which took a few pages to get used to but I quite liked it by the end. In some ways it was easier for me than using them/they pronouns because I have a constant grammar battle in my head. I think this is an incredibly valuable book because there is nothing quite like the feeling of isolation of never seeing yourself reflected in popular culture, screens and books.

There’s a lovely analogy in one of the stories that illustrates that feeling of being ‘other’ beautifully:

“How do you know when a shoe doesn’t fit quite right? It covers your food and it’s better than nothing at all, because you’re not getting burrs stuck in your heel when you walk, and no shoe is perfect. Maybe if you just wear thicker socks, it’ll feel right. Maybe all shoes are bad and you just need to accept it and stop complaining that your feet hurt.” Kie grinned, shaking kir head. “And then one day you take the shoe off and try on a different one and it’s like you’re seeing sunshine for the first time. And you realize shoes can be comfortable, you were just wearing the wrong one.”

In terms of the stories, there are some that I enjoyed more than others and I find that I enjoy a story more when there is more dialogue. Stories with long descriptive narrative don’t engage me quite as much. A story with a twisty re-take of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ comes with a trigger warning of non-consensual kissing which initially I was amused by but then thought about it a bit and realised that I was raised believing that it is okay to kiss an unknown, unconscious person in the name of ‘true love’. Interesting.

I enjoyed ‘No Man of Woman Born’ and I think readers of LGBTQIA fantasy will too. For a more in-depth and thoughtful point of view, read Shira Glassman’s review.

Book received from Netgalley and Acacia Moon Publishing for an honest review.

No Man of Woman Born is a fabulous collection of fairly/fantasy stories written representative of Trans/Non-binary people. This is a must read. The writing is spot on.

Wonderful and engaging fantasy fromm Ana Mardoll. This is a book that does credit to the genre and I especially enjoyed getting the context of the author's thoughtful introduction.