I have kind of reconciled myself to probably not being a short story collection girlie. I struggle with always wanting the stories I connect with to be *more* and find myself feeling ultimately a little unsatisfied when it finishes suddenly.

I am however, a Lee Mandelo fan girl through and through and was fascinated to see what stories he would curate when given the opportunity to select the ones that resonated with him. Mandelo states that "my editorial aim with Amplitudes was to approach queerness and-or transness expansively: as lived politics, experiences, identities, and cultures; as resistance against oppressive systems of power; as sources of self-making and intense connection with others across time and space; as gateways to pleasure, sex, desire, and intimacy".

Mandelo also sets out with the intention that this collection of stories be committed to the goal "that Amplitudes gather stories from writers whose approaches varied in genre, content, and style— but also whose perspectives differed across many intersectional experiences of gender, sexuality, race and-or ethnicity, ability and nationality."

In that sense, I think that this short story collection very much achieves what it set out to do. This is a delightful and esoteric collection of sci fi, dystopian and futuristic stories of queerness and the trans experience.

Some of the highlights for me included:

"The Orgasm Doula" by Colin Dean, which was a sweet little romance about a sex therapist/sex worker who specialises in helping people who have difficulties with orgasming and her new client.

"MoonWife" by Sarah Gailey, a futuristic cyberpunk story where spirit mediums contact the dead through their digital footprint.

and

"Forever Wont End Like This" by Dominique Dickey, the experience of an actor who finds themselves playing a fan favourite trans character on a trashy fantasy TV show. (Maybe this is my own personal tv trauma showing, but this gave me some Castiel from Supernatural vibes)

This was a collection of 22 stories, which I personally found to be perhaps a few too many, I definitely thought the front half of this collection was stronger than the second half. I think, in an ideal world, I would have preferred fewer stories that were slightly longer. But there are some fascinating ideas, worlds and characters contained in these pages.

Given the current political climate in the world I think it's vitally important to support and uplift queer and trans stories and voices, and give them the space they deserve. I think that there is a lot of value in this collection for the right audience.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC and provide my thoughts.

I loved this collection of 23 short stories or essays if you will. The cover caught my attention and I believe I first saw it shared by Harley, who is a fellow Kensington published author. I am so glad I took the recommendation and spent time reading a story each day. This is definitely a book I cannot wait to order and have on my shelf. These stories MUST be shared and told. Thank you!

It's rare for me to give an anthology five stars - regardless of quality, there will always be stories that don't appeal personally in quite the same way as the others. However, there was nothing below a three star read for me in Amplitudes - and there was a run in the middle of five-star story followed by five-star story. As an anthology, Amplitudes is exceptionally well curated - the stories flow well into one another in a nicely planned order, and the tones balance well.

My personal highlights were:
Sarah Gailey's Moon Wife
Dominique Dickey's Forever Won't End Like This
Wen-yi Lee's They Will Give Us A Home

With honourable mentions to the 4.5 stars:
Ash Huang's A Few Degrees
Meg Elison's Bang Bang

Of these favourites, only one was a writer I've read before - finding new writers to seek out further work from is often my main aim when reading a collection like this, so that's a favourable result!
Overall, Amplitudes provides many different takes and tones around the theme, but I found it consistently engaging and at times moving.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

"And when we're truly free, we get to choose which we we are."

Each unique voice, telling a uniquely personal story. There's so much here! And each voice deserves to be heard!

The same is true, in fact, of each individual.

So many stories to be heard, each voice uniquely valid.

In so many respects, it's time to listen.

"That is your choice. Freely chosen."

The stories I ended up enjoying the most were those that I think incorporated the stated theme of the anthology the best. Didn't even realize that until I was tallying my ratings for averages. And even then, the "lower" rated stories still never dipped below 3s, which I always count as a win in a collection.

Stories rated 4¾+:

Trans World Takeover by Nat X Ray

MoonWife by Sarah Gailey

They Will Give Us a Home by Wen-yi Lee

There Used to Be Peace by Margaret Killjoy

pocket futures in the present past by Katharine Duckett

Bang Bang by Meg Elison

This is an important collection of novellas. They all hold a high level of quality and I enjoyed almost everyone. recommend! Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for a chance to read this book.

"Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity" is a sci-fi/dystopian fiction anthology edited by Lee Mandelo that contains 22 stories about queer joy and survival. Many of the stories were good and some were less so as happens in many anthologies. I appreciated the note by Mandelo in the beginning about trying to get stories from multiple points of view in the queer and trans community. I had hoped for a bit more joy in the anthology and for more stories of queer and trans people thriving in a future, but the darker stories weighed me down. This is an additional purchase for fiction collections where sci-fi and dystopian anthologies are popular.

short story collections are always going to have high highs & low lows, though i did think this one’s lows were still fairly good ! there was nothing in here that i outright hated, though some stories definitely require another read to fully sink in. overall, an incredibly important anthology in these times— let’s hope to see more queer futures envisioned in and out of fiction !

This book is advertised as a futuristic book, but it really isn't. Out of 22 stories, less than half are actually futuristic. There are sci-fi and fantasy elements to some of the others, but not enough to make it sound like a futuristic society.

It is also advertised as "queer and trans" stories. I am not entirely sure why there is the distinction, but I do know that very few of the stories are about trans people (which was the reason I read this anthology). Even when there are trans characters, there is questionable content, such as suggesting people can be forced to be transgender or that you're not "really" your gender until you medically transition. It is possible I misinterpreted these stories, as I am sure at least the former is meant as humor, but as a trans person too this feels questionable. There are trans people who don't transition, and there are too many people who think we force people to be trans for me to be able to laugh at this.

Furthermore, many of these stories are in dystopian settings. Not that they have to be lighthearted, but given the political climate and the fact I thought this book was supposed to give us hope for the future, I really did not like that.

Mandelo says in the beginning he edited stories from both amateur and professional writers, and quite honestly you can really tell. There are stories in this anthology that feel more in place on Wattpad than they do here. For example, the second story "Trans World Takeover" has very bland storytelling, with absolutely no dialogue punctuation. I know there are books by professional authors that publish that way, but it is a pet peeve of mine at the very least.

I normally am fine giving ratings to anthologies, but there were some in this that I really liked and some I really did not. The 2 stars is for the anthology as a whole as the few I liked did not really make this worth it.

gorgeous read with an awesome cover and interesting stories. would definitely recomnend. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

I got this as an arc on Netgalley and it will come out in May. Not all stories were my cup of tea but overall very interesting and very well written too. Especially queer followers who enjoy Sci fi might be interested.

Fantastic range of stories here from both authors I know, and authors I haven't heard of yet (and Mandelo went out of his way to get authors in translation too, which is not normally an angle I see anthologies go for as a baseline). This comes out in May, and I highly recommend using your Christmas money to make a preorder now.

This was a pretty good book! I do love it when a book covers queer topics and calls out items and topics that may not be talked about enough. It was pretty good, but the author needs to improve the writing with more show not just telling

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

This was lovely. Usually with short story collections and anthologies it feels like there’s a lull mid-book, either because of the quality of the writing or the quality or the editing. That was not the case here. Most of the stories were fantastic and would stand up all on their own, and they were ordered in a really thoughtful way so that the whole ends up being greater than the sum of its parts. This collection gave me some new authors to follow, the explorations of soon-to-be dystopian (or possibly utopian?) futures was incredible creative, and overall it was super entertaining.

This is an extremely important read. The cover is gorgeous and creative. The stories are creative, dark, and almost hard to comprehend as they are other worldly. Some of them draw on current events and speak for important injustices as well. I heavily enjoyed the stories in this book and will be purchasing a physical edition to treasure forever.

Thank you immensely for allowing me to read these works of art.

I received an advanced copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This is an excellent book.