This review is long overdue, considering how much I adore Silk and Steel: A Queer Speculative Adventure Anthology. Published in 2020 and edited by Janine A. Southard, this beautiful collection of seventeen stories contains “big names and bold new voices” (full author list in tags). The book features warriors and gentlewomen and centers queer women’s strength—and most importantly, their love. One of the anthology’s three producers, Jennifer Mace, says it best in the introduction:
“It is not frivolous to take joy in being queer, in loving who we love. There is no one right way to be strong… Above all, we hope to leave you with a joyful celebration that goes beyond the clichés of what it means to be strong while female, and while queer. Stories that allow those who choose not to wield weapons to be just as powerful, just as respected, as those who do.”
So many beloved and unforgettable characters and worlds live on in this volume. Probably my very favorite story is Ellen Kushner’s “The Sweet Tooth of Angwar Bec”. It’s a new Swordspoint tale, and it was an incredibly enjoyable read though I’m (unforgivably, I hear) unfamiliar with the acclaimed universe. Kushner graces the page with brilliant turns of phrase and is stylish and spare alike in all the right places. Let me just say I felt things during that duel between the gracious Katherine, Duchess Tremontaine, and the young upstart swordswoman Angwar Bec.
Yoon Ha Lee’s “The City Unbreachable” is also somehow my very favorite. Don’t ask me to explain how that works. I was delighted by the resplendent worldbuilding (though I’ve come to expect it from Lee), while the seamless disability representation was an unexpected bonus. It’s likely not a coincidence that dueling shows up here, too. We all have our favorite tropes—which reminds me, there’s a sentient city-ship! “The City Unbreachable” has that tantalizing and difficult to achieve fullness you often find in an excruciatingly perfect short story with just the right balance of material and mystique. I wish this was a novel, because I’d read it in a heartbeat, but its brevity is divine.
Other standouts were Neon Yang’s trans fairy tale, “Princess, Shieldmaiden, Witch, and Wolf”, and Alison Tam’s “Margo Lai’s Guide to Dueling Unprepared”, which lent me my latest raison d’etre: “She wanted to be someone else, someone who knew things like how people felt and what to say to them.” Of course, this review would be incomplete without mentioning the lovingly crafted “Positively Medieval” by Kaitlyn Zivanovich, a cyberpunk romp starring a Troll law student and a Human courier.
I return to this book time and again, in all of my difficult seasons. It’s my comfort read, exceptional in its delivery of unbridled queer joy—and in SFF settings, too! I love the originality of the stories, and that while they run the gamut from serious to fluffy, they all end with hope. Grimdark and gritty is fine and all when you’re in the mood, but sometimes you just need to see your queer heroes get their happily-ever-afters, swords and sorcery and lasers and all.
Content warnings: violence, transphobia
Susanne Salehi (she/they) is a queer Iranian writer happiest when reading, cross stitching, gardening, or accumulating silly tattoos. They write queer heroes. More @susannesalehi or susannesalehi.com.
