Tag reviews Women On the Edge of Space: Lesbian Erotic Science Fiction Stories edited by Cecilia Tan and Danielle Bodnar

I have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of science fiction. There are a million reasons: the cheese factor in sci-fi tends to be higher than my secondhand embarrassment can handle, it’s too sci and not enough fi, or too fi and not enough sci. Science fiction is a careful balance of getting everything exactly right, especially if you’re a picky reader like myself who ends up preferring contemporary.

That said, Women on the Edge of Space has a premise not even my avoidance of sci-fi could ignore. Lesbians in space? Who doesn’t want to read about lesbians in space? Just those three words open up a universe of opportunities. When I began it I had high hopes for cool space adventures and women loving on women, and I’m pleased to say that I wasn’t disappointed.

It’s a short collection at just four stories, but each story has plenty to offer. The writing in each is engaging and fun, like I always expect science fiction to be, and instead of being too embarrassed to go on, I found myself actually drawn in to each of the stories. For me, the one exception to that was in the last story, where it just seemed too short to successfully suspend my disbelief enough to fathom such high-tech things like a virtual reality where a character has sex with the memory of her partner. The coolness of a rift-jumper in a previous story and the emotion of women prepared to die in each other’s arms under alien attack, combined with a generally quick light read make Women on the Edge of Space a sci-fi collection I’m happy to recommend to anyone.