#queer sff

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Locked Tomb series (Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth, and others) by Tamsyn Muir

Endorsement from submitter #1: "An extremely fun, humorous romp! A heart-breaking, soul crushing catharsis inducing tragedy! A thoughtful piece on imperial structures and trauma. On queerness, Muir flawlessly and without announcement, cracks gender open like an egg and spills its disproven guts across the page. The Locked Tomb does it all also bones, bitch."

Endorsement from submitter #2: "Lesbian necromancers in space. So many fascinating, sort of fucked up sapphic relationships going on."

The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier.

Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die. Of course, some things are better left dead.

Fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, humor, series, adult

The Javelin Program by Derin Edala (Time to Orbit: Unknown series)

When Dr Aspen Greaves signed up for the Javelin Program, humanity's first foray into colonising deep space, they expected to wake up to life in a thriving colony on a distant planet. Instead, they find themself five years away from their destination on a broken spaceship full of complex mysteries, dead astronauts, and a very unhelpful AI.

Aspen wasn't trained for any of this. But if they can't keep themselves alive, get the ship in working order, and find out what went wrong by unravelling a chain of mysteries leading all the way back to distant Earth, then neither Aspen nor the five thousand sleeping passengers in their care will ever see a planet again.

Science fiction, mystery, series, adult

[fozmeadows]

hi! sorry if you've already answered this, but i absolutely adore your tithenai chronicles, and was wondering if you had any favorite queer books to recommend/suggestions for what a fan of your work should read next :) before inevitably restarting my strange and stubborn endurance audiobook again <3 thank you!

Ahh, thank you so much! Regarding book recommendations, two of my all-time favourites are The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (along with the spin-off novella trilogy, The Cemeteries of Amalo, which consists of The Witness for the Dead, The Grief of Stones and the forthcoming The Tomb of Dragons), and The Books of the Raksura series by Martha Wells (which consists of seven books total: a trilogy, two short story anthologies, and then a final duology). However, I'd also like to recommend some works by authors that are less well-known than Addison and Wells, so! In no particular order:

The Bone Universe trilogy (Updraft, Cloudbound and Horizon) by Fran Wilde;

The Broken Trust quadrilogy (Mazes of Power, Transgressions of Power, Inheritors of Power and a still forthcoming title) by Juliette Wade;

The Titan's Forest trilogy (Crossroads of Canopy, Echoes of Understorey and Tides of the Titans) by Thoraiya Dyer; and

The Ascendant trilogy (The Tiger's Daughter, The Phoenix Empress and The Warrior Moon) by K. Arsenault Rivera. Happy reading! :D

[out-of-the-forest-i-come]

SFF Polyamory Recs Part 1

2024 seems to be the year of polyamory in literature and movies, and I've been wanting to read some books featuring polyamory lately, so here is a non-exhaustive list of sci-fi and fantasy books that feature polyamory!

Evocation, by S.T. Gibson - fantasy. first in a series. seems to be f/m/m

Running Close to the Wind, by Alex Rowland - fantasy. standalone. m/m/nb

Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao - sci-fi. first in a series. f/m/m

A Dowry of Blood, by S.T. Gibson - gothic fantasy. standalone. sapphic

Silver Under Nightfall, by Rin Chupeco - fantasy. first in a series. seems to feature f/m/m

In the Ravenous Dark, by A.M. Strickland - fantasy. standalone. seems to feature f/f/m

True Love Bites, by @joydemorra - fantasy. first in a series. seems to be f/m/m

To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers - sci-fi. novella. pairing unknown

The Door Into Fire, by Diane Duane - fantasy. first in a series. pairing unknown

Heliacle Rising, by C.C. Davie - fantasy. first in a series. pairing unknown

[franklyn-newt]

hey there! I'm featured in Dudes Rock! An anthology about queer masculinities in speculative fiction that features, hunky demons, gender affirming werewolf bites, and a spaceship captain called Neptune <3

It's out on the January 10th 2025 and also features Chase Anderson, Johannes T. Evans, Oliver Fosten, Jonathan Freeman, Rick Hollon, Sam Inverts, S. C. Mills, Jay Kang Romanus, Aubrey Shaw, Simo Srinivas, Candy Tan, and Scott Vaughn!

preorder here!

[lmsagas]

“It’s okay,” Saint told him, softer than he thought he knew how to be. He was a hard-nosed bastard with a thick skin and a thicker head, but Jal cried like he couldn’t breathe, like he was drowning under all that grief and fear and pain... - THAT SCENE from CASCADE FAILURE

massive thanks to @amikoroyaiart for the absolutely beautiful art!

[cobalt-teal]

I read „metal from heaven“ over the last two weeks, and while my final opinion is still cooking (and that might take a while!), one of the aspects I really loved is the main character, stupid, determined, sexy, slutty Marney. So enjoy some fanart of her!

(Sketch and lineart on paper, color is digital!)

[aquila1nz]

[valentinedagger]

book 1 cover art by @staarcaake

Stardust is a queer, semi-experimental web serial that blends space opera, gothic horror, and dystopia into a color-coded mess of neuroses, hallucinations, teen angst, fucked up family relationships, Judaism, gun kinks, political assassinations, extradimensional tentacles, and bad sex. as of May 2024, we're exactly halfway through book 1, and it's a great time to get caught up!

it updates the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month, and you can read it for free here. readers have suggested you might like it if you're a fan of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Homestuck, Battlestar Galactica (2003), The Locked Tomb, Fortiche's Arcane, Starship Troopers, and/or the music of Ada Rook. readers have also referred to it as "tired middle-aged man yaoi," "yuri shonen," and said they "want to chew on July like a squeaky toy."

[gealach-in-a-misty-world]

Here are my most anticipated books for the first half of the year, in order of publication.

"Hungerstone", by Kat Dunn (pub February 13, 2025)

"The Tomb of Dragons", by Katherine Addison  (pub March 11, 2025)

"The Hymn to Dyonisus", by Natasha Pulley  (pub March 18, 2025)

"Don't Sleep with the Dead", by Nghi Vo (pub April 8, 2025) 

"The Sun Blessed Prince", by Lindsey Byrd (pub May 1, 2025)

"Brighter than Scale, Swifter than Flame", by Neon Yang (pub May 6, 2025) 

"The Incadescent", by Emily Tesh (pub May 13, 2025)

"Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil", by Victoria E. Schwab (pub June 10, 2025)

"The Mercy Makers", by Tessa Gratton (pub June 17, 2025)

"A Treachery of Swans", by A. B. Poranek (pub June 24, 2025) 

[You can find more of my reviews about queer speculative fiction on my blog MISTY WORLD]

[kadoore]

It's here!

It's queer!

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Preliminary Round

Book summaries below:

Shadow Life by Hiromi Goto (illustrated by Ann Xu)

Poet and novelist Hiromi Goto effortlessly blends wry, observational slice-of-life literary fiction with poetic magical realism in the tender and surprising graphic novel Shadow Life , with haunting art from debut artist Ann Xu.

When Kumiko’s well-meaning adult daughters place her in an assisted living home, the seventy-six-year-old widow gives it a try, but it’s not where she wants to be. She goes on the lam and finds a cozy bachelor apartment, keeping the location secret even while communicating online with her eldest daughter. Kumiko revels in the small, daily decorating as she pleases, eating what she wants, and swimming in the community pool. But something has followed her from her former residence―Death’s shadow.

Kumiko’s sweet life is shattered when Death’s shadow swoops in to collect her. With her quick mind and sense of humor, Kumiko, with the help of friends new and old, is prepared for the fight of her life. But how long can an old woman thwart fate?

Graphic novel, fantasy, magical realism, literary fiction, slice-of-life, adult

Hunger Pangs series (True Love Bites) by Joy Demorra

In a world of dwindling hope, love has never mattered more...

Captain Nathan J. Northland had no idea what to expect when he returned home to Lorehaven injured from war, but it certainly wasn't to find himself posted on an island full of vampires. An island whose local vampire dandy lord causes Nathan to feel strange things he'd never felt before. Particularly about fangs.

When Vlad Blutstein agreed to hire Nathan as Captain of the Eyrie Guard, he hadn't been sure what to expect either, but it certainly hadn't been to fall in love with a disabled werewolf. However Vlad has fallen and fallen hard, and that's the problem.

Torn by their allegiances--to family, to duty, and the age-old enmity between vampires and werewolves--the pair find themselves in a difficult situation: to love where the heart wants or to follow where expectation demands.

The situation is complicated further when a mysterious and beguiling figure known only as Lady Ursula crashes into their lives, bringing with her dark omens of death, doom, and destruction in her wake.

And a desperate plea for help neither of them can ignore.

Thrown together in uncertain times and struggling to find their place amidst the rising human empire, the unlikely trio must decide how to face the coming darkness: united as one or divided and alone. One thing is for certain, none of them will ever be the same.

Fantasy, romance, paranormal, series, adult

[fozmeadows]

Hey, question: who’s the best character you’ve ever written and why is it Qiqa?

I'm glad you like thim! Thei were very fun to write :D

[out-of-the-forest-i-come]

SFF Polyamory Recs Part 2

You can find Part 1 here.

Darker by Four, by June C.L. Tan - fantasy. first in a series. seems to be f/m/m

Godly Heathens, by H.E. Edgmon - fantasy. first in a series. seems to be f/nb/m

Death's Country, by R.M. Romero - fantasy. standalone. f/f/m

Thornfruit, by Felicia Davin - fantasy. first in a series. seems to be f/f/f

Little Heart of Stone, by Clio Evans - fantasy. standalone. f/f/m

A Rational Arrangement, by L. Rowyn - fantasy. first in a series. f/m/m

Strange Grace, by Tessa Gratton - fantasy. standalone. f/m/m

Road to Ruin, by Hana Lee - fantasy & sci-fi. first in a series. seems to be f/f/m

The Compass Rose, by Gail Dayton - fantasy. first in a series. pairing unknown

[franklyn-newt]

It's finally here ! Dudes rock, your new favourite anthology of queer speculative masculinity is here in ebook and paperback 💜🌌📚

Featuring gender affirming werewolf bites , trans space guys, and hunky aliens featuring stories by Chase Anderson, Johannes T. Evans, Oliver Fosten, Jonathan Freeman, Rick Hollon, Sam Inverts, S. C. Mills, Jay Kang Romanus, Aubrey Shaw, Simo Srinivas, Candy Tan, Scott Vaughn, and myself !

Thanks so much to CircusLit and Jay for organising this project and getting it in your hands 💜💜💜

Available in ebook and paperback!

[the-descolada]

Spoiler-Free Advance Review:

Exordia by Seth Dickinson

I could not put this book down, my god. Staying up super late multiple nights because I couldn’t stop reading is such a great problem to have, and Exordia gave me that problem more than any book I’ve read in a few years.

This is a very different book than Baru, but Seth’s evocative prose and dark humor is familiar from page one, and the laser focus on defamiliarizing real world injustices is again the core of the work. Despite being far more immediate (Exordia is set during the Obama administration in our world, with an alternate history beginning from the moment the book starts), the heaviness of the topics never gets overwhelming. There’s some incredible (and extremely fitting) tonal dissonance here, with every perspective character having their own sense of disaffected humor about the apocalyptic situation they’ve been thrown into.

I described this to my friend after just starting as “if the Books of Sorrow were written with Gideon the Ninth’s tone and just straight up in our world,” and I think that remains true throughout. There’s a huge amount of references peppered in, and it helps maintain that lighter tone to balance the despair of what is essentially a doomsday clock ticking down throughout the book - and it helps keep things grounded, honestly. I never felt it took away from the gravity of things, or was unnatural - after all, if I, an early 21st century sci fi nerd, was thrown into some fucked up alien bioweapon mystery, it’s hard to say my first thought wouldn’t be “oh shit, this is just like the Andromeda Strain!”

Having seven (eight?) different protagonist (or deuteragonist, I don’t know which they qualify as) PoVs is pretty wild but works perfectly here. Every character has such a unique outlook that you can instantly figure out whose head you’ve popped into even before any identifying names or things are mentioned - Seth’s mastery of the tonally cohesive PoV shifts was something I had loved in Tyrant, especially, and they’re equally impressive here. The characters are lovable, hatable, and everything in between - and each as mentioned is so distinct and compelling that I can’t say there was a single character who I was unhappy to get into their head. And that’s saying something, given who some of these characters are, but I’ll leave the specifics a surprise. Predictably, my favorites were the dysfunctional autistic butch-femme lesbians, but I really loved all of them in the end.

The base premise is almost comical in how small it starts to how much it escalates - a cynical, disillusioned Kurdish genocide survivor, Anna Sinjari, meets a terrifying (and yes…very hot. I’m a simple woman) alien in Central Park, and this seemingly chance encounter sees her roped into a small group of scientists, soldiers, and her own mother in a desperate countdown to solve an otherworldly mystery and save their world. The twists and turns of the plot are intense, so engaging that I was bouncing up and down at times (there’s plenty of sci-fi insanity that I absolutely eat up), and tightly paced.

Seth seems to really enjoy writing ethical dilemmas to great effect, and Exordia is ruthless in that area, taking the base concept of the trolley problem and the moral justification for what someone would sacrifice for the greater good and carving it apart for narrative weight. What greater good does the sacrifice serve? Is it actually good? Who gets to make the choice, and do they have a choice but to make it? There’s a lot to dig into here, and Exordia is a four course meal.

One aspect of this simply taking place in our world, rather than being an alternate universe like Baru, is that the defamiliarized commentary is even more on the nose. Whereas Baru is a commentary on empire and homophobia as a whole, transparently pulling from primarily American history of genocide and imperialism to shape a culture unlike our own in many ways to defamiliarize this moral exploration, Exordia is just literally about real world American imperialism and enabling of genocide in the MENA region, primarily the ramifications of the military industrial complex’s usage of drone warfare and the extremist regimes armed and encouraged by “counterterrorism.”

All this sets the stage for the question of what happens when a bigger fish arrives, one just as hell bent on empire building and justifying its own atrocities. The sci-fi intervention into this banal evil is at the same time a reflection of that evil, and asking if the world has the capacity for resistance to both. Exordia’s answer is profound, and far from easy, but entirely fitting for the ethical dilemma that runs throughout the book, creeping up on you slowly as you start to recognize what shape it takes in this story.

The central material conflict of the book, a locked box mystery of sorts that you piece together with the characters, is fucked up and fun and scary, a reality shifting threat that treads the line between body horror, meta-narrative, and lovecraftian math. It’s extremely cool, and I think it’ll be right up the alley of fans of The Andromeda Strain, The Locked Tomb, The Books of Sorrow and other parts of Destiny lore, and a lot of other SFF stories where ethics, horror, and mystery mix together.

I don’t want to say too much about the climax and the ending - going into this book without knowing too much was an incredible experience that had me on the edge of my proverbial seat - but the ending left me asking myself some very similar questions as I had at the end of Traitor, and I cannot wait for a reread when the physical book is in my hands to see what little foreshadowed things I can pick up on.

I don’t think people are going to be quite as completely emotionally Destroyed at the ending of this one as Traitor, but…it is very much a Seth Dickinson book, and they have quite the talent for making every thread tie together at the end to make the reader feel every emotion at once and realize that this could never have gone any other way. I cried, I laughed, sometimes simultaneously, and a book that can do that to me is entirely worth the experience - and what an experience this was.

Absolutely fucking incredible, I want more of these characters and everything they’re wrapped up in, 10/10.

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.