No Man of Woman Born

August 13, 2018
Mardoll (Pulchritude), who uses xie/xer pronouns, explores how a variety of gender identities undo prophetic expectations in xer provocative fantasy collection. In “Tangled Nets,” impoverished nonbinary fisher Wren chooses to be the annual sacrifice to a boastful dragon who claims no man or woman can kill it. The exceptional “King’s Favor” pits an insignificant hedge-witch spy with minor herbalist skills against an evil witch queen who has barricaded her borders and purged the land of all other magicians. Nocien avenges the slaughtering of his father’s other sons and wives in the violent “His Father’s Son.” Though most stories avoid angst and are casually queer-affirming, the trans heroine of “Daughter of Kings” has to retrieve her grandmother’s sword in the stone before her politically besieged father begrudgingly accepts her chosen name and identity. The gender specificity of the “Sleeping Beauty” curse in “Early to Rise” founders on Claude’s daily fluidity and possible asexuality. Among the many outstanding stories are a few that fall a little flat—such as the overly literal “The Wish-Giver,” in which a young child fights a dragon for the boon of having everybody see her true gender—but on the whole this is a strong and highly original collection. Readers yearning for more diverse representations of gender in fantasy will be more than pleased with these fresh, humanizing stories.