May 26 update: TikTok release post--condensed review without a star rating to encourage readers to try it for themselves.

No spoilers
In these times, with the US and certain other countries going backwards on human rights, I’m grateful this collection exists.
I wanted to be swept away by these stories, transported into visions of the future. TBH, I have mixed feelings about the book due to uneven quality. I expected more science fiction. Many readers are delighted by Amplitudes. These things are a matter of taste.

I enjoyed the detailed bio notes about each contributor and the diversity represented. Beyond that, it’s good to see “stories of “joy and survival" instead of profit-raking trauma-drama, stereotypes, and ignorant misrepresentation written and selected by outsiders.
As with many anthologies, a few of the stories stood out above the others.

Some of the things I found moving:
Positive, zero-shame depictions of sex workers
Early transition transpeople
Wide variety of love: found-family, best friends

It isn’t necessary to have read any speculative fiction, #ownvoices LGBTQIA stories, or futuristic books of any kind to read this collection.
Thank you, Kensington Books / Erewhon for the eARC for consideration. These are solely my own opinions.

Once the novelty of the queer representation wears off, everything that's left is repetition and stories with mid-to-weak ideas and weak executions + characters. Some stories are impossible to understand with the context given, and other have writing quirks that break the reading flow and could've been caught in a round of editing. I asume most of the authors are from the US, because most stories are basic US-inspired dystopias and copagandas where the "good people" have the guns instead of the cops. The order of the stories could've been changed up a little; as it is, the first half is full of smut and hypersexual characters, and the second half has longer stories that are harder to get through.

The ones I liked the most:
-Forever won't end like this, which explores queer rep in tv shows and fandom
-They will give us a home: a good twist on lavender marriages

The ones I'd read a full book of, not because I particularly liked them but because I think they needed more pages to be fully developed:
-MoonWife
-The they whom we remember (apart from genitals and boobs, what happens to people's voices, body hair, illnesses? how are people born? what do the beauty standars, IDs, medical services look like?)
-The garden of collective memory

Before I get into my review, I’d like you to take a look at the two covers for this book. The first (on the left) is the one that accompanied the advance review copy. The second (on the right) is the one that seems destined to accompany the final published book.

https://sallybend.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/9781645660866.webp

https://sallybend.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/9781645660866-1.webp

Can you see what’s missing? Joy and Survival. In a book described as revolutionary and visionary, one that promises to explore the vast potentialities of our queer and trans futures, one that celebrates itself as moving and hopeful, that omission of joy and survival is significant. Had I gone into it without that expectation, been prepared to stoke my anger and my sorrow in light of current affairs, I may have appreciated Amplitudes more on an intellectual level… but when I went into it fixated on joy and hope, the emotional letdown was hard to overcome.

Of the 22 stories chosen by Lee Mandelo, there are only 7 that stood out for me, and they are all lacking in joy and hope.

The Orgasm Doula by Colin Dean does have a romantic twist that gives it a sliver of hope, but it’s about a world where the number of orgasms allotted to you may (or may not) be limited, and the final twist slams the door on what could have been hope. Well-written and interesting, yes, but it suggested this was not going to be the collection I was hoping for.

MoonWife by Sarah Gailey is another well-written, interesting story by an author I’ve enjoyed before, dealing with digital seances, identity theft, death, and grieving… and well, still no joy.

There Used to Be Peace by Margaret Killjoy is where it became impossible to deny the thematic direction of the collection, with a story of a civil war between knights and fascists that felt underwhelming, like too small a slice of the narrative.

Fettle & Sunder by Ramez Yoakeim takes that theme one step further, one step darker, doubling down on the themes of fascism and violence that only space station billionaires can escape. Yeah, hits way too close to home.

They Whom We Remember by Sunny Moraine presents a future I would describe as joyous and hopeful, one where gender is completely fluid, able to be altered and expressed on a whim, but the author turns it into something cynical and tragic by exploring it through the eyes of one person with a desire to permanently fix themselves to a single gender.

When The Devil Comes From Babylon by Mars Deane is another of those stories that I would have loved in a dystopian collection… a weird, almost magical (post) apocalyptic story of belief and transformation… but it suffers under the bludgeoning weight of religious cult-like intolerance that demands suicide over transition.

pocket futures in the present past by Katharine Duckett is a weird, trippy story about time, parallel times, time travel, and paradoxes, one that was fun to read and follow the back-and-forth of cause-and-effect, but it’s almost afraid to commit to making a positive impact.

Thinking of the stories again, reflecting on how they impacted me, that same anger and sorrow I was looking to escape when I picked this collection up washes over me anew. I’ve really had quite enough of stories about trans people suffering, being the targets of hatred and violence, and having to fight just to survive.

Perhaps I’m just on a different wavelength, but if you’ll forgive me mixing metaphors, Amplitudes left me feeling drained when I was hoping for a joyous shock to the system.

As with any anthology, there were some stories I absolutely adored and some I forgot entirely after reading. Standout favourites included Trans World Takeover (Nat X Ray), Moonwife (Sarah Gailey), and Forever Won't End Like This (Dominique Dickey), but I also loved The Garden of Collective Memory (Neon Yang) and pocket futures in the present past (Katharine Duckett).

While I think this would have been a little more successful as an anthology for me with a more limited scope, I can't deny that the majority of my favourites could have taken place last year or next year, rather than in the distant future.

This collection is well-balanced between dystopian futures (They Will Give Us a Home, Fettle & Sunder) and hopeful ones (There Used to Be Peace, pocket futures in the present past, Six Days). Even when it's bleak, queer love and resilience are always near the forefront. No one is these stories is ever alone.

A few of these I felt like I just didn't GET or found a little lacking in plot. I hate to read something and have my reaction just be "okay, cool?" but as with any anthology, every story is not for everyone (except perhaps the editor).

If you read this for nothing else, read it for Forever Won't End Like This by Dominique Dickey, which is a masterfully crafted balance between the plot of its fictional show and the meditations of its trans protagonist and made me feel SO MUCH. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more work by them, and by Nat X. Ray, who captured what teens sound and think like better than anything I've ever read, and for whom this is a debut publication.

A queer short story collection that truly has something for everyone. These stories are wildly different, ranging from more serious and activist to humoristic and light-hearted, and of course at times romantic ;) . Even though I expected them to lean heavy on the science-fiction genre, there are some other genres added to the mix, such as fantasy and magical realism (while all the stories still maintain their overlapping theme of being futuristic). I do have to admit that I thought that some stories were a bit too abstract, due to which I was left confused and without a proper appreciation for these stories, but that was only the case for like 2 of the 22. Overall, this was an anthology that I greatly enjoyed!

My favourites include; "Forever Won't End Like This", " There Used to Be Peace", "A Step into Emptiness" and "Pocket futures in the present past".

P.S did anyone else think that the ending of The Orgasm Doula was a bit anticlimactic?

(I received an ARC from NetGalley)

There are a double handful of great stories here, but only six that (arguably) met the alleged brief: that of HOPEFUL queer futures. The vast majority of these are in no way hopeful (the collection closes with a story in which one can travel the solar system overnight, but there is one queer club in the galaxy and it's been shot up and bombed multiple times) and very few of them try to engage with a thought-provoking future. Multiple stories have no plot or pathetic non-endings (a will-they-won't-they match on tinder, where the mc deletes the app rather than resolve anything; a trek across the city only to decide not to leave despite no plan and no change in the situation: etc). After the introduction about inspiration and hopeful futures, the collection lands like a punch to the face and a kick once the reader is down. The messaging is that the best futures queer people can hope for are ones where we’re still persecuted.

This is a trainwreck, and virtually everyone involved should be embarassed of it.

This collection of short stories is edited by Lee Mandelo (author of Summer Suns and The Woods All Black). It is a fantastic introduction to both new and established queer authors. I really appreciate that this showcases authors from around the world. These pages are filled with different ideas, different desires, and different identities.

Some of these stories are fun, others are dark and painful. But all of them are filled with queer joy, even in settings where joy is in short supply.

Like many short story collections, not every story will work for every reader. But I promise you will find something in these pages that speaks to you.

Personal Favorites:
- “They Will Give Us a Home” by Wen-yi Lee
- “When the Devil Comes From Babylon” by Maya Deane
- “Blueprint for the Destruction of Solitude” by Paul Evanby
- “Sugar, Shadows” by Aisha U. Farah
- “pocket futures in the present past” by Katharine Duckett
- “Bang Bang” by Meg Elison

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!!

I love a good anthology. I should have known this would be more sci-fi leaning, and that was my bad for not noticing. Unfortunately I couldn’t connect to a few of these people of that, but they were still very fun reads. My favorite two of the bunch were Forever Won’t End Like This by Dominque Dickey and When the Devil Comes From Babylon by Mays Deane. These stories focus on queer and trans lives/experiences and they were very interesting. Seeing different authors contribute gave a lot of different perspectives. This was a solid collection and I’m excited to see more from these authors! I was familiar with a few but not most of them.

Absolutely loved this! Such an amazingly written collection of stories and definitely one of my new favourite anthologies

I honestly tend to loathe short story collections but this one was a lot of fun! Each author curated here by Lee Mandelo has a very distinct voice.

I particularly enjoyed “The Republic of Estatic Consent” which takes place in NYC but reminded me a lot of my friend group in Chicago... something comforting about thinking that your people could and can exist in any city.

&

“Forever won’t end like this” (“It doesn’t matter if a show is good as long as it’s fun”) I strive to let people enjoy things (even when I think it’s dumb)

I was unfamiliar with the authors except Neon Yang prior to reading but thankfully there is a wonderful bio section at the end of the book with hyperlinks to check out the queer and trans voices amplified in this anthology.

I'm not a huge fan of short stories but I am always so excited to find queer/trans stories and authors so I decided to give this one a go. Many of the stories were excellent but there were quite a few that I didn't really care for. I think this is a very important collection and for fans of short stories it will be a huge hit.

There is nothing a love than queer genre fiction, and the stories in Amplitudes more than deliver. Between deep scifi tales to adventurous fantasy journeys, this collection is a delicious presentation of how queer stories can traverse genres.

Loved it.
Amplitudes is a book about queer future, it explores the interseccional aspects of living in an increasingly advance world and how nuanced it is to be queer in this times (or in near future ones). Science fiction, magic realism, and dystopian are the three genres used as a medium to tell a story that is relevant now, especially in a political environment such as the one we're living in. I'm a Chilean queer woman and every story resonated with me one way or another, even the ones I'm not entirely part of. Lee Mandelo did a great job curating these amazing pieces of art. I could feel them in my bones and picture every scene like I was in it. The one-star less-than-perfect it's due to many of the stories blending together in my mind in the second half of the book, I had to take a day in between stories to stop that from happening.
My favorite ones were Moonwife by Sara Gailey, Forever Won’t End Like This by Dominique Dickey, and There Used to Be Peace by Margaret Killjoy.

I decided to DNF this after not liking the first 3 stories. The stories so far haven't been what I expected from the collection. I thought that they would be more sci fi futuristic.

What a wonderfully delightful collection! There is an unabashed optimism in exploring a queer futurity, even when some of those futures take place in dystopian settings, or under oppressive regimes, or in other less than ideal environments. I think the strength of this collection, for me, is that the stories share a kernel of hope, of possibility, which is a powerful and compelling response to the state of the world. The stories are diverse, not just in terms of characters and identities but in terms of genres and settings, from cyberpunk criminals to interstellar lovers to repressive high school classrooms, from cities living under the ocean to life-affirming dance parties in outer space. Regardless of the setting, dystopia or not, there is a spirit of resistance and solidarity, a sense of personhood and community that is inspiring and just fun to read.

The collection is curated really well, in terms of having a diverse set of stories that complement each other and are well-paced throughout the anthology. Obviously, similar ideas and underlying themes can be found throughout numerous stories, but it never once felt like simply reading the same story again and again with a new coat of paint; every story brought something new to the table. I personally enjoyed the front half a little more than the back half, but I think that is more to my reading preferences than to the individual stories or the way the anthology is mapped out. I think the size is just about perfect, too. There are enough stories to make it feel like a substantial collection but not so many that it feels like reading through it takes forever, with a good balance of story lengths, too. While there were not many stories that really blew me away there weren’t any that I would rate below three stars, and the overwhelming majority would be resounding four stars. That is to say not only were they well written but they had characters I felt invested in, rich world-building (especially considering the economy of words the format allows), and stories that gave me something to think about.

These stories are not content with how things are and instead are filled with an insistence on joy and potential, a celebration of strength, resiliency, courage, exploration, and passion. The collection is eclectic in tones but has a strong thematic resonance across stories, and it was not just uplifting but mobilizing to read.

I want to thank the editor & authors, the publisher Erewhon Books, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I think that in general, I am usually going to be rating an anthology with 4 stars just because there will always be stories that I like and those that I don't quite understand. This is one such anthology. I like reading short stories as bedtime stories, so this took a little longer for me to read than a novel of the same length.

This is a collection of 22 speculative short stories with queer and/or trans characters.

1. The Republic of Ecstatic Consent by Sam J. Miller- One day in the life of a giant polycule squatting in an old office building, this felt like a fluffy drabble to kick us off.
2. Trans World Takeover by Nat X Ray- A couple of teens get access to illegal hormones and start dealing to other trans kids at school.
3. The Orgasm Doula by Colin Dean- An orgasm doula gets a new client.
4. The Shabbos Bride by Esther Alter- A trans lesbian learns to welcome Shabbos as a bride.
5. Moonwife by Sarah Gailey- A digital medium helps a new client say goodbye to his deceased best friend.
6. Forever Won't End Like This by Dominique Dickey- An actor playing a fan-favorite trans character on a fantasy show thinks about what it means to represent a beloved trans character.
7. They Will Give Us a Home by Wen-yi Lee- An influencer in a lavender marriage won the lottery and now feels trapped by the very fame & rules that gave everything she'd ever wanted.
8. There Used to Be Peace by Margaret Killjoy- In a future America, the Elegian Knights fight against the fascist and Christian nationalist New Confederacy.
9. Fettle & Sunder by Ramez Yoakeim- A gay couple goes on the run from a homophobic militia.
10. Six Days by Bendi Barrett- Life in camp when one of our narrator's partners leaves for a week to help another camp.
11. The They Whom We Remember by Sunny Moraine- A person with a more futuristic body with the ability to change experiences what it's like to live in our bodies.
12. When the Devil Comes from Babylon by Maya Deane- A deeply closeted trans girl raised in a family cult worries that the Devil will tempt her into being trans.
13. Copper Boys by Jamie McGhee- A butch lesbian clearing the wilderness after a natural disaster discovers her coworker on the local dating app.
14. A Few Degrees by Ash Huang- Two lesbians are living and working at a Colorado monitoring station outpost that's monitoring for space station signals.
15. Where the World Goes Sharp and Quiet by Ewen Ma- Freak storms send literal iron stabby rain, and Avon has been brought back to life.
16. Circular Universe, an excerpt from the sequel to The Membranes by Ta-wei Chi- Climate change sent all the humans down to life at the bottom of the ocean, and now Mitsuko is using her dream memories of surface life to recreate holograms for the biosphere before she dies.
17. Blueprint for the Destruction of Solitude by Paul Evanby- I think this is about cyborg spies and technology and possibly mushrooms?
18. The Garden of Collective Memory by Neon Yang- Bridge is introduced to an archive of memories where you can once again smell or taste or experience something long gone.
19. Sugar, Shadows by Aysha U. Farah- A private detective bails a drug addict out of jail and discovers just how bad this drug is.
20. A Step into Emptiness by Aiki Mira- A neurodivergent (and medicated) Earth-dweller remembers their neurodivergent and free space-dwelling lover.
21. pocket futures in the present past by Katharine Duckett- A time traveler sends notes back to their friends in 2029 on "unfucking the future."
22. Bang Bang by Meg Elison- How to get to a secret queer party in space.

Circular Universe confused me but I enjoyed it so much that I ordered a copy of The Membranes, which was published in the 1995 but just translated into English in 2021. I guess The Membranes is about Mitsuko's estranged daughter who lives on the surface.

I requested this ARC specifically for the Sarah Gailey story, and it delivered. I thought this particular way of calling back a ghost was interesting.

They Will Give Us a Home was a fascinating story that could be expanded very nicely into a novella at least. It's perfect as is, but I want more!

And the teens trying to trans their teacher in Trans World Takeover made me giggle.

Thank you to Netgalley and Erewhon Books for this ARC. This was a good mix of stories in a genre I don't read a ton of, and I want to read more from some of my favorite authors in the collection.

Thank you to NetGalley, Kensington Publishing, Erewhon Books and Lee Mandelo for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I find it hard to review the entire collection as the stories are all so different from each other, while staying on theme. I didn't enjoy the majority of them unfortunately. I found them a lot heavier and denser than expected.

The stand-outs for me would have to be 'The Orgasm Doula' by Colin Dean, 'MoonWife' by Sarah Gailey and 'pocket futures in the present past' by Katharine Duckett (my favourite). However, 'A Step into Emptiness' by Aiki Mira, translated by CD Covington was so moving to me I have to gush. I have never read anything written in the second person before and was a bit weary but it worked so well here! I didn't expect to cry but I did! So beautiful and definitely worthy of reading even if the rest doesn't interest you.

Overall, kind of underwhelming for me as a relative newbie to Science Fiction. If you are more familiar with this genre, I'm sure it won't be as difficult to get through.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

Lee Mandelo serves as editor for Amplitudes, a speculative anthology exploring the potentials of queer and trans futures. 22 authors contribute with a broad variety of takes on the theme. This anthology is definitely for an adult audience as it includes mature content and themes not intended for younger readers.

This anthology has a lot of variety in style and in approach, which absolutely means there is a high likelihood not all of the stories will strike true for all readers. Some stories I actively disliked where others I rather enjoyed. Some edged into very weird and strange areas of speculative fiction and others played things a little more upfront. My individual story ratings varied between 2.5 and 4 with the following stories being highlights from the collection for me:

MoonWife by Sarah Gailey,
There Used to Be Peace by Margaret Killjoy,
Copper Boys by Jamie McGhee, and
The Garden of Collective Memory by Neon Yang

Gailey, Killjoy, and Yang are all authors I have enjoyed work from previously, but McGhee is a new author to explore for me which is a win.

Ultimately, I enjoyed taking my time with this anthology and would happily encourage others to pick it up if the theme appeals. If the story you're currently reading isn't the one for you, the next one will be vastly different :)

There were several stories I loved in this anthology, such as "MoonWife," "Fettle and Sunder," and "They Will Give Us a Home" - delicious bite-size stories that drew me into their worlds. Others dragged on and never captured me, such as "Forever Won't End Like This" and "There Used to Be Peace." The sex in the book is just the right amount - I enjoyed "Blueprint for the Destruction of Solitude" for its innovative and immersive approach to it, while others treated sex more like part of the fabric of their worlds. Special thanks to the editor for including both queer AND trans stories, as many anthologies focus on only some aspects of the community, and as someone who is both I appreciate the opportunity to see myself in nearly every story.

This is an excellent short story collection. Each one has a different take on Queer and Trans futurity and overall the stories encompass a wonderful range of nuanced experiences and thoughts. My favorite story was MoonWife by Sarah Gailey, where a spirit medium uses technology to speak to the dead; and helps a queer couple find closure and revenge on another spirit medium who's been harmful to spirits. A huge thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this eArc in exchange for my thoughts!