Publisher's Weekly Review
In her introduction to this volume, master anthologist Datlow (Blood is Not Enough) observes that science fiction ``has traditionally been a bit hesitant about dealing with sexual and gender themes,'' but this collection of 20 short stories gives it a try and often succeeds in evoking the ``alienness'' of all sexual relationships. The best stories rely not upon interstellar orgies or futuristic sex toys but upon the sexual foibles of human beings on 20th-century Earth. ``Oral,'' by Richard Christian Matheson, concerns a man who interacts with the physical world only through somebody else's description, and the woman who tries to provide that description. Matheson takes everyday, neutral objects like wine glasses and sea shells and infuses them with a sensuality that makes them seem alien and fantastic. In Bruce McAllister's present-day ``Captain China,'' a young boy forced into prostitution faces a bleak reality that has timely and disturbing overtones. Of the more traditional SF stories, Neil Gaiman's darkly humorous poem/screenplay, ``Eaten,'' features a PI whose search for a missing woman leads him literally to hell, while Simon Ings's ``Grand Prix'' is an action-filled account of a man who can neurally link himself to his race car. A few stories lose themselves in an attempt to be differentlike ``Sextraterrestrials,'' an eccentric but boring record of an E-mail poetry competition between Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen. Overall, however, this is provocative reading not just for SF fans but for all those who sometimes feel that the opposite sex is just too strange to be from the same planet. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Twenty-one entries, most appearing for the first time, reprising Omni editor Datlow's 1990 anthology, Alien Sex. The best is a reprint: Robert Silverberg's ``The Reality Trip,'' about a shy, unhappy alien hiding out in a servomechanism that looks like a man. He tries to escape the advances of an exuberant hippie who writes hilariously awful poetry, then falls in love with her. Sherry Coldsmith turns in the lyrical ``Lucifer of Blue,'' a story told from the point of view of a prostitute serving the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War. Here, the alien is a slimy, satanic customer representing fascists or maybe just war. Susan Wade's ``The Tattooist'' concerns a woman who reluctantly tattoos an alien penis--the moral being, no doubt, that all penises are alien. That's the conceit here: Sex itself is what's alien. Unfortunately, though, most of the gathered tales are mediocre: John Kaline's ``Dolly Sodom'' is just a transcribed dream, while Joe Haldeman and Jane Yolen's collaboration, ``Sextraterrestrials,'' is not a story at all but some poetry the two wrote while playing around on the Internet. Other pieces, such as Scott Bradfield's ``The Queen of the Apocalypse,'' show promise but seem unfinished. It's as though Datlow were bored with her smooth productions of the past and wanted a more experimental feel. The result, however, is extremely uneven.
Library Journal Review
From Susan Wade's hypnotic tale of a tattoo artist's strangest client ("The Tattooist") to Bruce McAllister's disturbing story of a captive child's dream of freedom ("Captain China"), the 18 selections (including four previously published titles) in this anthology explore the alien dimensions of exotic sexuality. Although only a few stories deal with interspecies relationships, each selection explores the boundaries of love's strange territories. Large libraries might want to take into account the work's explicit language before adding to their sf or short story collections. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
