In which I give this one four out of five stars.

I received Down these Dark Spaceways as a SFBC selection not too long ago, and read it this weekend.

Yum.

It’s a collection of novellas in the mystery sci-fi genre, but instead of being your standard fare there was a theme of modern or reversed sex roles in it. I love my sci-fi, but it’s not always on the bleeding edge of social change, being as myopically involved in science as it is.

The first story was good, but not memorable. (So not memorable, in fact, that I can’t even write about it.)

The second story was the first time travel mystery story I’ve ever read with a gay spin to it – the protagonist worked for an agency and was looking for a killer, all typical, except that the victims were young twinks in the late 50’s and he ended up getting involved with one, which is totally unexpected if you know anything at all about the genre.

The third story was your typical military-guy-is-hired-to-rescue-a-kidnapped-princess story, except the military guy was a woman and the princess was a totally gorgeous prince being held by bad guys – er, bad girls – who were torturing him and doing nasty things to his royal virtue. Super fun read with fantastically nasty weaponry featured.

The last two stories were tight, but not surprising in any fashion.

All in all, a highly recommended anthology – not just for the craft, but for the twists.