Title: Love After the End – An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction
Authors and Editor: Joshua Whitehead (Editor), Nathan Niigan Noodin Adler (Contributor), Darcie Little Badger (Contributor), Gwen Benaway (Contributor), Gabriel Castilloux Calderón (Contributor), Adam Garnet Jones (Contributor), Mari Kurisato (Contribuot), Kai Minosh Pyle (Contributor), David Alexander Robertson (Contributor), jaye simpson (Contributor), Nazbah Tom (Contributor)
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
Publication Date: September 1, 2020
Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, LGBTQ+
Length: 192 pages
Source: I borrowed it from the library.
Rating: 3 Stars
Blurb:
A bold and breathtaking anthology of queer Indigenous speculative fiction, edited by the author of Jonny Appleseed.
This exciting and groundbreaking fiction collection showcases a number of new and emerging 2SQ (Two-Spirit and queer) Indigenous writers from across Turtle Island. These visionary authors show how queer Indigenous communities can bloom and thrive through utopian narratives that detail the vivacity and strength of 2SQness throughout its plight in the maw of settler colonialism’s histories.
Here, readers will discover bioengineered AI rats, transplanted trees in space, the rise of a 2SQ resistance camp, a primer on how to survive Indigiqueerly, virtual reality applications, mother ships at sea, and the very bending of space-time continuums queered through NDN time. Love after the End demonstrates the imaginatively queer Two-Spirit futurisms we have all been dreaming of since 1492.
Content Warning:
Review:
What happens after climate change begins to make Earth a difficult place to survive?
The plot twists in “Seed Children” made me smile. I especially liked the way the protagonist, a synthetic person, described her relationships with the children in her life. She was a kind and gentle soul who I wanted to see live happily ever after. The contrast between her sweet personality and the harsh world she lived in provided another layer of meaning as well. Some people are hardened by their circumstances, so to see her remain true to herself only made the ending all that more satisfying.
In “History of the New World,” Em and her family were given a chance to move away from a dying Earth to a habitable planet that scientists had recently discovered. The world building was well done, but there a few things about the character development, especially as it pertained to Em’s wife Thorah, that I would have loved to see developed more fully. The choice Thorah made simply didn’t feel believable to me. Understanding her decision was crucial to a certain moment in the pot, so not having it dampened my enthusiasm for the ending.
My favourite story in this anthology was “How to Survive the Apocalypse for Native Girls” due to how the narrator evolved as she realized what kind of advice she should actually be sharing to future generations. While I can’t go into a lot of detail about that without giving away spoilers, I can say that the character development was fantastic and that I wish this had a sequel. There was so much more I wanted to know not only about this character but also the complex world she lived in!
Love After the End – An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction was an interesting assortment of stories.