In fact, I think maybe the best thing about this collection is that they’re good high fantasy stories. I love this because it plays with one of the most classic tropes- wording has always been important, especially with genies and fey and other magical creatures, who will give you what you asked for, not what you want. It’s just like how Macduff was not born of woman and Eowyn is no man born of woman- specific wording is extremely important to The Magic, so our hero saves the day. The main characters’ trans identities are highly relevant to the plot, because they serve as the loophole in the wording of the prophecy. One of the overarching themes of No Man of Woman Born is prophecies, specifically gendered ones. I’m so happy that Mardoll chose a story collection instead of a single novel, because of this greater opportunity to show variety and diversity of trans characters. Having multiple stories serves to immediately counter the side effects of under-representation: namely, the thinking that there is One True Way to be a trans person, or having so few trans characters that every single one becomes a Commentary on Transgender People instead of being understood as one person out of many ways to be a person.

And best of all, every trans character is a person, with individual personality traits and motivations. There are multiple dragons, of varying moral alignment. There’s some nerdy pontification on the nature of prophecies. There’s one who is both a man and a woman. There’s a character who is neither a man nor a woman. (So much detailed worldbuilding! Times seven! I tip my hat to you!) The wonderful thing about a format like this is how it can demonstrate the wide variety of trans experiences. This book contains seven different tales, all with wildly different settings, cultures, and protagonists. I’m going to try to toe the line between “no spoilers!” and giving a detailed explanation of why I loved this book so much, so bear with me (and feel free to skip straight to reading the book if you don’t want to know any details about it!) It was written by Ana Mardoll, a genderqueer American author. In xer author’s note, Mardoll states that xie “tried to make this collection accessible to trans readers, with cis audiences welcomed but not centered,” and I think xie has achieved exactly that. No Man of Woman Born is a collection of short stories in high fantasy settings featuring transgender characters.

No Man of Woman Born by Ana Mardoll