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nellasbookplanet · 11 months ago

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Book recs: Queer science fiction, part 1

There is a lot of queer sf out there, and I read a lot of sf. When I started working on this list, I quickly realized it was impossible to include all that I've read and enjoyed in one single rec post. Thus, this is the first of so far three queer sci-fi book rec posts.

A note: queer here does not necessarily mean "guarantee of an f/f or m/m ship with a happy ending", but rather simply a significant presence of queerness. Some of the books feature no romance but has a same gender attracted/trans/a-spectrum lead, or features an m/f relationship with bisexual, trans or aro/ace characters, or simply features a world-building which is heavily queer inclusive in ways that don't always compare to our own ideas of sexuality and gender. I have however disqualified works where the only queer presence is along the lines of "gay best friend" or a blink and you'll miss it confirmation that never comes up again.

Previous book rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding, really cool sci-fi worldbuilding, dark sapphic romances, mermaid books, vampire books, many worlds: portal fantasies, many worlds: alternate timelines, robots and artificial intelligences, post- and transhumanism, alien intelligences

For more details on the books, continue under the readmore. Titles marked with * are my personal favorites. And as always, feel free to share your own recs in the notes!

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley*

Dietz is a soldier in the war between Earth and Mars - to travel to the battle front, she and her fellow soldiers are broken down into light to be able to quickly travel across space. But something keeps going wrong with Dietz's travels; her memories don't match up with the mission briefs, as she experiences time itself turning in on itself. Is she going mad? Or are the things she's learning skipping through time the truth - and the war that's stealing her life the lie? A mindfuck of a book that's scathing in its critique of fascism and war. Features a sapphic lead but no romance.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot duology) by Becky Chambers

Novella. Long ago, robots, upon gaining sentience, simply laid down their work and walked into the wilderness. Long after, a tea monk looking for purpose follows after them into the wilds, where they come across one of the robots seeking its own sort of answers. While not plotless, this story focuses more on character and vibes over plot. Also has a nonbinary main character and features conversations on gender between human and robot.

Meet Me In Another Life by Catriona Silvey*

Thora and Santi are strangers, brought together by a coincidence and torn apart just as abruptly when tragedy strikes. But this is neither the first nor the last time they meet - again and again they encounter each other, as friends, lovers, enemies, family, every time recognizing in each other a familiarity no one else carries. But with every new life, a mysterious danger grows ever closer, forcing them to find out the truth of their connection. This is a puzzle-box of a story that goes some entirely unexpected places in a very wild ride, featuring a bisexual co-lead.

The Archive Undying (The Downworld Sequence) by Emma Mieko Candon

In a world where AI gods sometimes lose their minds and take entire populations down with them, Sunai was the only survivor when his god went down. In the 17 years since, he has wandered on his own, unable to either die or age, drowning his sorrows in drink and men. But his attempts to flee his past comes to a stop as he is forced back into the struggle between man and machine. Featuring some pretty wild world building and narrative techniques, this book will definitely confuse you, but it is worth the experience.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

January Cole works security at the Paradox Hotel, last stop for tourists heading for the timeport, which allows them to travel to and witness any moment in time. But years of proximity to the timeport has left its damage on January, making her unstuck in time, letting her relive memories of her dead lover even as her sanity slips away bit by bit. As she starts witnessing proof of a horrible crime in the hotel that no one else can see, January must race against her own mind, a killer, and time itself to solve it before it's too late.

A Fractured Infinity by Nathan Tavares

Hayes Figueiredo is a struggling film-maker who wants to finish his documentary, whose life gets turned upside down when handsome physicist Yusuf Hassan enters his life, claiming an alternate version of him is a great inventor who’s sent a mysterious device to their universe. As Hayes gets drawn deeper into the conspiracy - and his feelings for Yusuf intensify - he has to decide just how far he’s prepared to go to win the life and the love he wants. Featuring a very gay and very morally dubious lead, this is a creative and strange read.

Bridge by Lauren Beukes

When she was little, Bridge and her mother Jo used to play a game - one where they traveled to other worlds, inhabiting the bodies of their other selves. Now Jo is dead, and as Bridge is cleaning out her apartment she finds a strange device: a dreamworm, the very thing that supposedly makes inter-dimensional travel possible. Suddenly faced with the possibility that multiverse travel is real, Bridge is struck by a different question: could her mother still be alive? Scifi spiced with a healthy dose of body horror and some absolutely wild twists, Bridge also features a bisexual lead (however this is a blink and you’ll miss it moment) and a nonbinary co-narrator.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper just got a job on the motley crew of the Wayfarer, a spaceship that works with tunneling new wormholes through space. With a past she wants to leave behind, Rosemary is happy to travel the far reaches of the universe with the chaotic crew, but when they land the job of a life time, things suddenly get a lot more dangerous. A bit of a tumblr classic in its day, this is a cozy space opera with an episodic feel and vividly realized characters and cultures. While pretty light on romance and focusing found family, there is a main f/f relationship.

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Life on the lower decks of the generation ship HSS Matilda is hard for Aster, an outcast even among outcasts, trying to survive in a system not dissimilar to the old antebellum South. The ship's leaders have imposed harsh restrictions on their darker skinned people, using them as an oppressed work force as they travel toward their supposed Promised Land. But as Aster finds a link between the death of the ship's sovereign and the suicide of her own mother, she realizes there may be a way off the ship.

Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire trilogy) by Yoon Ha Lee*

Military space opera where belief and culture shape the laws of reality, causing all kinds of atrocities as empires do everything in their power to force as many people as possible to conform to their way of life to strengthen their technology and weapons. It’s also very queer, with gay, lesbian and trans major characters, albeit little to no romance.

The Left Hand of Darkness (Hainish Cycle) by Ursula K. Le Guin

1969 classic. Genly Ai is an emissary sent to the planet of Winter, meant to help facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But he's unprepared for Winter's citizens, who spend much of their time genderless or switching between genders, making for a culture wildly different from that Genly is used to.

Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota series) by Ada Palmer*

Centuries in the future, humanity has deliberatly engineered society to be as utopian as possible, politically, socially, sexually, religiously. Written in an enlightenment style and featuring questions of human nature and whether it’s possible to change it, and what price we’re prepared to pay for peace, this book is simultaneously very heavy and very funny, and written in a very unique style. While still human, the society presented often feels starkly alien.

The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley

This book fucked me up when I read it. It’s weird, it’s gross, there’s So Much Viscera, there are literally no men, it has living spaceships and biotech but in the most horrific way imaginable. Had I to categorize it I would call it grimdark military sf. It’s an experience but not necessarily a pleasant one.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling*

Possibly one of the most unsettling books I’ve ever read, and definitely the most claustrophobic. Gyre, a caver on an alien planet, ventures into the dark and dangerous underground, guided only by a woman who has no compunctions on using and manipulating Gyre as she sees fit to obtain her secretive goals down in the caves.

Escaping Exodus (Escaping Exodus series) by Nicky Drayden

While my feelings on Escaping Exodus were mixed, it cannot be denied that the dynamic between the two leads and the way they go from childhood best friends to enemies on different sides of a class and power struggle is very delicious. It also features some really cool worldbuilding of living, alien generation spaceships and the human culture that has developed inside them.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky*

The Doors of Eden is something of an experiment in speculative biology, featuring versions of Earth in which various different species were the one to rise to sentience, from dinosaurs to neanderthals. Now, something is threatening the existence of all timelines, dragging multiple different people and species into the struggle, among those a pair of cryptid hunting girlfriends and a transgender scientist.

Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

Ascension follows Alana Quick, an expert Sky Surgeon who stows away on a spaceship in hopes of landing herself a job. But the ship and its crew are in deeper waters than she expected, facing threats emerging from a whole other universe, all of them searching for the same person: Alana’s spiritually enlightened sister. Undeniably a bit of an odd read, Ascension is also very creative and features polyamorous lesbian relationship.

Contagion (Contagion duology) by Erin Bowman*

Young adult. After receiving an SOS, a small crew is sent on a standard search-and-rescue mission. But what they find are not survivors awaiting help, but an abandoned site, full of dead bodies and crawling with something... monstrous. No romance, but features one sapphic co-lead and one who can easily be read as demisexual (however this doesn't show up until book two, which has more romance).

A Memory Called Empire (Texicalaan duology) by Arkady Martine

Mahit Dzmare is an ambassador sent to the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire, where she discovers that her predecessor has died. Trying to protect her home, an independent mining station, from being taken over by the empire, Mahit struggles to find out the truth of her predecessor's death while carrying the voice of his ghost in her head, guiding her as best he can. Light on the romance but does feature a sapphic relationship.

The Outside (The Outside trilogy) by Ada Hoffman*

AKA the book the put me in an existenial crisis. Souls are real, and they are used to feed AI gods in this lovecraftian inspired scifi where reality is warped and artifical gods stand against real, unfathomable ones. Autistic scientist Yasira is accused of heresy and, to save her eternal soul, is recruited by post-human cybernetic ‘angels’ to help hunt down her own former mentor, who is threatening to tear reality itself apart. Sapphic main character.

Dawn (Xenogenesis trilogy) by Octavia E. Butler*

After a devestating war leaves humanity on the brink of extinction, survivor Lilith finds herself waking up naked and alone in a strange room. She’s been rescued by the Oankali, who have arrived just in time to save the human race. But there’s a price to survival, and it might be humanity itself. Absolutely fucked up I love it I once had to drop the book mid read to stare at the ceiling and exclaim in horror at what was going on. Queer in the sense that the Oankali doesn't follow human ideas of gender and relationships, which is mirrored in their romantic relationships with humans. It is, however, pretty dark, with examinations of agency and consent, so enter with caution.

Remnant by Kate Genet

One day, Cass wakes up and finds everyone else is gone. Not dead, just gone, leaving her in a world which nature starts taking back with a dangerous, unnatural speed. But as she tries to survive this new normal, Cass realizes she may not be alone after all - but who else is out there, and are they a threat?

The Scorpion Rules (Prisoners of Peace duology) by Erin Bow*

Young Adult. Featuring a dystopian future in which an AI forcibly keeps world peace by holding the children of world leaders hostage. If anyone attempts to start a war, their child will be executed. Greta is one of these children, kept in a school with others like her. But things start to change one day when a new, less obedient hostage arrives. A unique, slowburn take on the YA dystopian craze, also featuring a bisexual love triangle.

Iron Widow (Iron Widow series) by Xiran Jay Zhao

Young adult. Zetian is a citizen of Huaxia, where mecha aliens are constantly trying to breach the Great Wall. To keep them at bay, couples of men and women pilot so called Chrysalises, giant transforming robots. But the pilots are not equal - the women almost always die, sucked dry by their co-pilots. When Zetian sets herself up to become a concubine-pilot, she does so with the plan to assassinate the male pilot who caused her sister's death. Features a polyamorous main relationship.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool:

Survival Instincts by May Dawney

Lynn Tanner has been surviving the post-apocalypse alone with only her dog for a long time, trusting no one. But when she's forced to travel the dangerous remains of New York City alongside another woman, her priorities are challenged. Is staying alone really the best way to stay alive?

These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs

When con-artist Jun Ironway gets her hands on possible proof of the powerful Nightfoot family, controllers of interplanetary travel, committing genocide, she has in her hands a chance of taking them and their monopoly down. But the family and their allies won't go down easily, and sends two brutal clerics to stop her.

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

A neo-victorian alternate history, in which a part of Congo was kept safe from colonisation, becoming Everfair, a safe haven for both the people of Congo and former slaves returning from America. Here they must struggle to keep this home safe for them all.

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amchara · 2 years ago

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Damn, this is absolutely compelling and fascinating backstory between Rose, a character we don't see in canon (but I think we see hints of, with Terra) and Andreas and the others of his generation in all their morally ambiguous glory. I absolutely adored this ficlet and def adding it to my headcanon backstories!

I'm not really sure that it can be considered as a prompt but what if one day Sam decides to introduce Bea to his mum? And it turns out that she's familiar with her.. like Rose helped Andy to raise her somehow or other? Perhaps, they've been still good friends or Rose just took pity and helped him.

Of all people to befriend, Rose just had to befriend Andreas, of all people. It wasn’t her fault, really. She came from a wealthy family, they saw each other often enough as children and while Rose was a spitfire, bubbly woman, her humor mashed well with Andreas’ loud mouth, offending personality. They were both people who thrived on attention, with thick skin who didn’t get offended that easily, but when they did.... Oh boy.

It was easy to like Andreas. Never too close, never best friends, but old friends. the worst part was that it was mutual. He cursed off dudes when they got handsy with Rose when she was drunk - which sadly happened far too often, considering just how much they both liked to party - and she helped him pass his herbology classes and they ate together at the cafeteria, exchanging quips over food and chatting about their respective roommates, Saul and Farah.

When she had started dating Ben, Andreas hadn’t commented on it. He had simply eye rolled, pursed his lips in distaste and moved on with his life. When she had told him Ben had done that awful of a job gloving up and she was pregnant, he had wrinkled his nose and said “you know better than to have children with Harvey, he’s gone half bald and he’s twenty one, baby.”

She had bitten the inside of her cheek, rolled her eyes, “kinda late for that advice, Ands”

It had broken her heart when he died. Not a best friend, a brother. An annoying person she couldn’t shake off her life, but whom she felt so protective of- And now he was dead.

Saul, Farah and Ben returning from Aster Dell two weeks later than they should have, heads bowed in grief. She had assumed she was a widow, after such an extended period of radio silence, and she had crossed the gardens and slapped Ben across the face, because how dare he!? How dare he just up and disappear for two weeks after the place he was sent to fucking exploded, leaving her with a tear stained Sammy clutching at her pants and another baby in her belly!? Was he fucking-

“-Where’s Andreas? Where’s Rosalind?” she interrupted herself mid rant and then collapsed down to her knees on the garden as Ben broke the news of Andreas and Rosalind’s death.

Burned Ones, he told her. Saul and Farah left silently, no doubt to deal with everything this deaths would mean. Andreas had a son, a freshly turned two year old orphan of mother... And now of father too. It was sickening.

She shelved his memory in the following years. Soon learned that Ben hated when Rosalind or Andreas were brought up, that so did Farah, so she stopped bringing him up at all. Every day she saw more and more of him all over Sky, but when she told Saul that, he stopped bringing Sky around.

So she never mentioned him again, shelved the memories and the grief and the love.

Until five years later. Sam was across the living room, mimicking his favorite superhero on TV and Terra was on her hip, sniffling with a cold, her feverish forehead pressed to Rose’s shoulder, cranky like no tomorrow. Then her phone started ringing.

No, not her house phone, not even the ugly looking phone that she had been forced to buy a couple years before. Her old cellphone, a blocky, heavy think that could surely kill a person if thrown at their head. A cellphone she hadn’t used ever since she stopped going to the field, after Aster Dell, after Terra came along.

It was so old that the battery hadn’t died, unlike this modern ugly phone she had to recharge every night. There was no display screen. She hesitated to pick it up, then Terra scoffed and grumbled “mommy, make it stop” and Rose sat down on her master bed and pressed the phone to her ear.

“Hello?”

Panting, static crackling, then a voice she hadn’t heard in eight years spoke, “Rosie? I need you help.”

She didn’t even think, she wasn’t sure she heard the rest of his words. Only the address and the fact he needed her and that he was alive, he’s alive, alive, alivealivealive-

“Don’t tell Ben. Come alone.”

She didn’t tell Ben, taking orders from a ghost. Shoved her cold stricken daughter on Doris’ arms, because “don’t tell Ben” was code for “don’t tell Saul, don’t tell Farah”, and while her husband might not notice how shaky she was, there was no way Farah and Saul would ignore that. Paranoid fuckers.

She had to drive for five hours to Eraklyon and by the time she arrived at the given address, it was already night. It was a house she hadn’t been to before, but that she already knew by heart, because she had been to an Eraklyan safe house before and they all had the same design.

All the lights were off, safe for a single one, a very faint glow behind closed curtains. This could be a trap, a voice whispered in her head, but what kind of person would want to trap a healer-turned-housewife? What kind of person would know she’d make the drive for Andreas, other than Andreas himself?

She knocked once, took a step back in case anything sprung up to hurt her, but when the door opened it was just a ghost. Just a man.

She had a vivid memory of him from five years before and he looked the same, except not really. He had aged too, just like her. His beard was longer, his eyes had the start of wrinkles next to them, his hair was longer than ever before.

“Andreas?” Rose choked out and Andreas let out a little, noncommittal noise.

“Come in, Rosie - She’s in the bedroom.”

He was alive, not a ghost, flesh and bone standing tall before her. Alive.

“How?”

“Please, Rose... Just help her, then I’ll answer whatever you want. Please,” alive and begging.

He guided her in, to a single bed where a five year old was tucked under blankets, burning up a fever. She was ginger, with a heart-shaped face and freckles across her nose bridge; She was dressed in an oversized specialist sweater, that looked particularly ridiculous on her.

A daughter.

“Is she yours?”

“Yes,” he nudged her in, “I don’t know how to make the fever go down. She’s been like this for days now, I don’t know- I don’t know what to do anymore.”

It was cold season, Rose knew because Terra herself was down for the count, but this wasn’t a common cold. She pressed her ear to the back of the little girl as she coughed, holding up on her father’s arms and grumbling she was sleepy. Pneumonia.

“She needs a hospital.”

“I can’t. We can’t... I called you for a reason,” he glared at her, smoothed the kid’s auburn hair back with one huge hand, that could cover her entire face, “Rose, c’mon...”

Because she was a healer. Not because he missed her, not because he cared, because he loved her. She had grieved his death and he had been alive, the entire time... Playing house with some child, who looked nothing like him, while his son had nightmares about his father.

She used her powers on the kid, coaxed the water out of her lungs, held her in the bathroom while the tub full of hot water steamed up the place and pounded on the girl’s - Bea, her name is Beatrix - back until she coughed up and could breathe better.

It was past midnight when they manage to tuck Beatrix back into bed, her fever down to manageable level. Andreas hoovering near the door, full of worry, like he didn’t know where to put his large body.

“She’ll live, just let her rest and keep doing the tub trick... I’ll bring you antibiotics in the morning,” she bit out the last part, furious. How dare he? How dare he ask for her fucking help, put the girl’s life on her hands, when he had been gone-

“You died," she told him once they went back to the hallway, "they told me you died. You and Rosalind... Burned Ones..." Her glare intensified and Andreas let out an ugly scoff.

"I did die," he tugged up the black ratty t-shirt he was wearing, "but not by a Burned One."

There, under his left peck, there a nasty looking scar. A sword wound. She had seen too many of those to ever forget.

“...What happened?”

“Saul happened, and your precious Ben and Farah, they covered it up. Buried me in a shallow hole, in a box, not even a coffin. That’s what happened.”

“No,” she pushed away from him and went to the living room, “Ben would never-”

“Ben lied to you, Rose. They all did, about me, about Rosalind-”

“How are you alive? I think that’s a more pressing matter than the fact my husband lied about your death.”

“After I was stabbed by my best friend, I woke up in a box. Clawed my way out... Rosalind had seen it coming, Rosie. She had told me they’d try something like that... What happened in Aster Dell...”

“What happened in Aster Dell?” she echoed, blood turning into ice. How many secrets did her marriage hide?

He talked and he talked and talked. Genocide, Aster Dell still full of people... Burning. Rosalind foreseeing the coup, Farah and Ben overtaking her, Saul killing him...

“That’s bullshit,” Rose raised her chin in defiance, braced herself, “I’ve known Ben, Saul and Farah for a decade now. They’d never do what you telling me, now Rosalind... I never trusted her, Ands. You knew better than trust her.”

His eyes darkened, “Rosie, what are you saying?”

“Either you’re stupid or you think me stupid. My husband might’ve lied to me and caused me insane pain with your death, but he was not hiding himself after said crime, for five years. Whatever you’re doing in the shadows, you have reasons, an agenda, to not come forward... And I’m not stupid.”

Andreas took a step forward, menacing. Those same big hands that had been cradling his daughter’s face, now curled up in fists. A promise of what would happen to her if she continued down that questioning line.

“You’re wrong, Rosie. Think about it. They have Luna, I have nothing. I just have a kid-”

“You have a son!” she yelled, causing him to jump back, “a son I had to comfort about your death so many fucking times. Where were you? Raising some kid Rosalind left you?! You left Sky, you left me. YOU. Not Ben, not Saul, not Farah. If you want me to believe they’re murderers, then come with me. Come back with me, we’ll go to Solaria, bring them to court-”

“I can’t do that,” he moved then. Not toward her, to the door. A barrier. She wasn’t going to leave, his posture told her.

“That’s what I thought”, she pointed back to Beatrix’s room, “I saved your daughter’s life tonight, Andreas. I’m going to keep your secret. But you’re dead to me now. I owe nothing... And this path, that you’re on,” she glanced down at his hands, then his face. Those blue eyes she had seen staring back at her so many days, in the child’s face, “when it inevitably leads you down more pain and destruction, you’ll trail it alone. If you come for me or my family, or my children, and this does include your son, then you’ll regret it Andreas. Consider this me being merciful on you.”

“I could kill you, Rosie,” he said flatly, eyeing her up and down, “you’re just a woman. I can take you.”

She curled her fist, eyes sparkling green and stopped the air in his lungs, causing Andreas to gasp and then clutch at his chest, starting to cough.

“No, you can’t,” Rose sighed, mournfully, “goodbye, Andreas. You should’ve stayed dead... At least then you wouldn’t be such a huge disappointment.”

By the time she made it home, at 4 AM, Ben was waiting in the living room. Dark circles, arms crossed.

“I called you, a million times.”

“My phone was off,” she shrugged, holding it up, “ran out of battery, I told you this brand sucks.”

“Rose, where were you-”

“How did Andreas die, Ben?” She stood straight, looking at him straight. She loved him, flaws and qualities and all. Her husband, father of her children, who had been lying to her everyday for the past five years. He had seen her cry, grieve and had stayed mute.

Either he didn’t love her, not in the way she wanted to be loved, or... Or he didn’t know.

“Burned Ones got to him... We didn’t have enough zanbac or men power to save him. By the time we reached him, he was already dead.”

“Did you bury him?”

“Of course, honey,” he frowned, “Rose, you up and left- What are these questions? I’m the one who should be asking questions. Where were you?”

With a corpse.

“I had a call to help a friend out. His daughter was sick, they needed a healer. I lost track of the time...” she looked down at his hands. The same gentle hands that had so many times cupped her face, were they stained red too? “I’m sorry.”

“Rose,” Ben glared at her, “really? Are you lying to me?”

He had some fucking nerve, “I’m going to bed, Ben”, she answered softly, instead, circling him and then pausing, shoulder to shoulder, “I’m not lying to you. I’d never lie to you,” she turned her head, pressed a kiss to his bicep, “come to bed.”

#fate the winx saga #fate fanfic rec #rose harvey #andreas of eraklyon #beatrix of eraklyon #the light brigade #long post

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