Wilde Stories 2008 is the first in an annual anthology series reprinting gay-themed fantasy, horror, and science fiction stories published the previous year. Steve Berman’s introduction makes his reasons for this series clear: “As the ‘interstitial’ and ‘slipstream’ literary movements gain momentum, more and more authors are interweaving their traditional gay themes—coming out, homophobia, and self-as-other—with a bit of the strange and weird.” Gay culture, according to Berman, as seen in glossy magazines and graphics-heavy websites, is one that only claims to welcome differences. Despite the value of the alien/monster as a metaphor for outsiders, “any guy who shows a deep-seated interest in dragons or rocketships is a social reject, a nerd,” someone who finds himself lingering in a different kind of closet.
Hal Duncan’s witty “The Island of the Pirate Gods” and Joshua Lewis’ “Ever So Much More Than Twenty,” a touching fantasy about time and love, are among the collection’s best. In “Lycaon,” Peter Dubé has something new to say about werewolves, desire, and memory. “The Emerald Mountain,” by Victor J. Banis and “An Apiary of White Bees,” by Lee Thomas are also not to be missed. On the strength of these five I look forward to Wilde Stories 2009.
The remaining entries include conventional ghost stories, and some less predictable tales involving time travel and magic mushrooms, extraterrestrial sex-tourists, more werewolves, and a pair of kinky thieves. Finally, a short excerpt from a novel presents a coming-of-age story with magical realist elements. Recommended for general collections with an interest in gay or imaginative literature.
Reviewed by Joyce Meggett
Division Chief for Humanities
Chicago Public Library
