Gay Science Fiction discussion

Hi all. I am wondering if anyone is up for a gay science fiction group read. If so, please post your nominee here. I will sent out a newsletter on this as well. If there is enough interest, I'll put up a poll and we can pick a book.

Proposed rules:
(1) Only one nomination per person
(2) Please nominate a book that you will read with us
(3) Please don't nominate your own book

My nominee:

Dark Space by Lisa Henry. Reason: I have been wanting to read this book for a long time, but it sounds really intense, and I am a little intimidated. A group read would be just the thing.

I would love to do a group read! Sounds fun.

I'd like to nominate Light by Nathan Burgoine. It's been on my TBR forever.

I'd like to nominate Carnival by Elizabeth Bear. It's not really a romance, although there is a couple and just a little bit of sex. There's an interesting (IMO) conception of a matriarchal society with a different role for "gentle" (ie. gay) males, that could make for discussion.

Charming wrote: "My nominee:

Dark Space by Lisa Henry. Reason: I have been wanting to read this book for a long time, but it sounds really intense, and I am a little intimidated. A..."

I second this one! I've read it, but only once when it was first released. It's one of my favorite books and I'm feeling a re-read. It has a little bit of a BSG feel to it. Good stuff.

Static by L.A. Witt. I have wanted to read this for a while now. :)

I nominate Warchild. I've been meaning to read it for ages now.

Been searching the secondhand bookshops for a copy of Warchild for ages. I've yet to come across a copy so it's still on my to do list.

Haven't heard of any of these other titles or authors. But the idea of finding a good gay SF novel does appeal to me. It's so hard to find a good one.

Warchild is very good, although I liked the third book in the series best. (The series is deeply rooted in social inequity and child abuse BTW, for those who would want a warning). My library has them - you might look into interlibrary loans?

I'm nominating , it has really good reviews and was an Amazon freebie (only $.99 now so easy for people to join in)!

I read Dark Space already. It's really good. I nominate another book, the character is gay, though it's not per se so much MM, but it's a eally good time traveling classic. Worth the rrading: The man who folded himself.

I would like to nominate Seven by Adrienne Wilder :)

David wrote: "Been searching the secondhand bookshops for a copy of Warchild for ages. I've yet to come across a copy so it's still on my to do list.

Haven't heard of any of these other titles or authors. But t..."

Hi David! I have Warchild in both paperback and ebook. I just looked at the lending on the ebook and isn't enabled but if you want the paperback it's yours. Just PM me.

Dark Space seems a good choice and if it isn't chosen I probably read it any way but that's my choice :)

Steph wrote: "I would like to nominate Seven by Adrienne Wilder :)"

LOL; that was our last group read. It's here if you want to relive it. :-)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Jesús wrote: "I read Dark Space already. It's really good. I nominate another book, the character is gay, though it's not per se so much MM, but it's a eally good time traveling classic. Worth the rrading: The Man Who Folded Himself"

A terrific book, probably the first SF book I ever read with a gay guy in it. I'll second this nomination.

It's been a while but Death Head by Mel Keegan was a good read.

Melissa wrote: "Static by L.A. Witt. I have wanted to read this for a while now. :)"

I second this!

I have been searching for a gay sci if book club so count me in.

My problem is that I don't know that many books or authors that fall into this category. I've read a number on amazon but am looking for real sci if not fantasy/romance. I'm open to anything the group decides. And if anyone has some book series or authors to suggest, please send em my way.

Bruce wrote: "I have been searching for a gay sci if book club so count me in.

My problem is that I don't know that many books or authors that fall into this category. I've read a number on amazon but am looki..."

Carnival that I suggested above, would fit. The Star Host and We Are the Ants are YA without a ton of romance (Ants is marginally SciFi); Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artifacts is about a BDSM romance but it has very cool alien culture in it; Ethan of Athos is a bit dated and silly, but also fun IMO; Warchild series (caution for child abuse); Gravitational Attraction is romance but with good SciFi content - It reminded me of the Dorsai in some ways.

I'm not sure if we have a "Looking for recommendations" thread but maybe Charming can suggest where to ask, so people can hopefully recommend others.

I don't have a recommendation but I'm happy to join in the group read!

Bruce wrote: "I have been searching for a gay sci if book club so count me in.

My problem is that I don't know that many books or authors that fall into this category. I've read a number on amazon but am looki..."

The Man Who Folded Himself was a pleasure to read...also, if you're game to move sideways to fantasy, Lynn Flewelling wrote a very matter-of-fact gay hero in Luck in the Shadows and its two sequels; also Samuel Delaney wrote Tales of Nevèrÿon featuring the pansexual Gorgik...I'm bound to think of something else, but that'll get the brainwaves on the right frequency.

That is a good idea to have a recommendations thread, so I started one here:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

In the meantime, Bruce, please check out the group bookshelves. We have subshelves for realistic/hard scifi and gay lit scifi, which might have books you would like.

Ethan of Athos was quite fun and I do love her Vorkosigan series.

Luck in the Shadows has more than two sequels. The author picked it up again after a long hiatus. But has now finished the series.

Luck is great, but definitely fantasy not SciFi. There is also a book of short stories associated with the series. I know a lot of fantasy with gay MCs that's not romance, if anyone wants more of those.

Charming wrote: "Steph wrote: "I would like to nominate Seven by Adrienne Wilder :)"

LOL; that was our last group read. It's here if you want to relive it. :-)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/......"

Darn, I guess that will still have to stay on my TBR for right now :( Well, then I will recommend with high hopes, My Fair Captain by JL Langley.....

Alex wrote: "Ethan of Athos was quite fun and I do love her Vorkosigan series.

Luck in the Shadows has more than two sequels. The author picked it up again after a long hiatus. But has now finished the series."

I didn't know that! Thanks for saying so, he said as he scurried off to one-click the rest of the series.

A member recommended The Left Hand of Darkness in a PM.

Not sure how to do this. I think these are the official nominations (let me know if I missed any - we got sidetracked into recommendations so I am not sure):

Dark Space
Light
Carnival
Static
Warchild
Barbarian
The Man Who Folded Himself
Death Head
My Fair Captain
The Left Hand of Darkness

Which is great! I am really happy to get so much response. But it seems like a lot for a poll. What do people think about asking for seconds for recommendations in order to make the poll? Or I could put them all in a poll (if that many choices are allowed) and perhaps do a runoff with the top couple of choices?

Charming wrote: "Not sure how to do this. I think these are the official nominations (let me know if I missed any - we got sidetracked into recommendations so I am not sure):

Dark Space
Light
Carnival
Static
Warch..."

Every other group read I've been involved in requires a second nomination for a title to be included, and sets a maximum number of nominations (six or so) to keep the field reasonably sized. Then comes the poll and if necessary a run-off.

We have a limit of 12 and no seconds in my group, so this isn't totally out of range IMO, but unless you have a good number of voters it can end up with a few votes per book and ties.

I'd say put them all in (you can add as many choices as you want to a GR poll - I think in the M/M group best-of polls they hit a limit at 100) - see what happens. If the top three or four are very close and there's not a clear winner, then do a run-off. In future you could cap the noms and take the first 6 or 7, or do seconds.

I would question whether The Left Hand of Darkness, amazing as it is, fits the group theme. It's an ambitious and intricate exploration of both sexuality and gender in a SciFi novel, though.

Kaje wrote: "I would question whether The Left Hand of Darkness, amazing as it is, fits the group theme. It's an ambitious and intricate exploration of both sexuality and gender in a SciFi novel, though. "

I feel like Light is more urban fantasy than scifi too. I don't want to change rules in the middle, so I am going to put everything up in the poll and see what happens. We can organize it a little better next time. Here is the poll:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

My to-read list includes:
* Clockwork Tangerine
* Maze-Born Trouble
Both SciFi Romance have a good rating in Goodreads.

"I feel like Light is more urban fantasy than scifi too."

Really? That's a bummer. I've had it on my TBR forever, as a sci-fi bok I want to read, because it was on the Best Gay Science Fiction Romance list. Now I'm sorry I nominated it. I didn't know it was UF rather than sci-fi.

It turns out that "My Fair Captain" is not currently readily available for sale (publisher went out of business) so anyone who voted for that should probably move their vote. I tried to remove the option, but I can't see a way to do that.

Erica wrote: ""I feel like Light is more urban fantasy than scifi too."

Really? That's a bummer. I've had it on my TBR forever, as a sci-fi bok I want to read, because it was on the Best Gay Science Fiction Rom..."

I read it a while back, so I am not sure there isn't any scifi in it. Does anyone else remember?

Someone added the psycop books to the Best Gay Science Fiction Romance list too, and they are definitely paranormal. I should probably weed them out ...

Dark Space and Left Hand of Darkness are neck and neck in the poll. Anyone who hasn't voted has one more day.

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

And the winner is ... Dark Space, with 22 votes! But Left Hand of Darkness made it a close race with 19 votes. And every book nominated had at least three votes. I am really excited that 88 people voted on the poll.

So how would people like to work this? I would be happy to help moderate a discussion or just read with the group if others want to jump in. With Seven, we divided the reading into four sections like this:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I like that because I think it feels more communal and sparks more discussion. I think I stole it from Josh Lanyon's group actually. But that's just my preference. I will put up a thread now to let people know it's coming, but wait to do a group announcement until we have some details ironed out.

I think 4 sections is good, to make sure we're all reading at the same pace. Can't wait, this has been on my TBR shelf forever!

I'm good with whatever the group decides. I went ahead and got the book and looked at the table of contents. It's broken down into 4 headings, could I suggest we read one heading per week (except that we combine the last 2)? The whole book is only 207 pages and the estimated reading time for the entire book is a little under 5 hours. If we want to make the experience a total of 4 weeks, we could do an overview discussion or something.

Here are the headings, just to be clear:
A Deal with The Devlin (chapters 1-6)
Undercover (chapters 7-13)
Ghost Ship (chapters 14-15)
Defiant (chapters 16-23)

Anyway, as I said, anything works for me.

That makes sense. I don't know about everyone else, but personally I read a lot, so we could break it down in a shorter time frame than 4 weeks certainly. But we want everyone have time to read each section and discuss, so I'm fine with whatever.

Bruce wrote: "I'm good with whatever the group decides. I went ahead and got the book and looked at the table of contents. It's broken down into 4 headings, could I suggest we read one heading per week (except t..."

I like this proposal. Would anyone like to help moderate? I am happy to set it up.

Bruce wrote: "I'm good with whatever the group decides. I went ahead and got the book and looked at the table of contents. It's broken down into 4 headings, could I suggest we read one heading per week (except t..."

So this chapter list is for the Jasper T. Scott book. I think you got the wrong book. :-(

So sorry everyone! That's what I get for reading ahead in classs.

I had to buy a print version of the correct book, so can't tell you anything regarding sections until it arrives.

Bruce

So, I've read a few chapters, and the scifi feels 50's or 60's-ish. I have to admit, I'm pretty disappointed with the scifi and the mentality of the characters portrayed. I'm hoping things get better as we go...

My copy should arrive in the post on Monday. I'm super excited to start reading it! 😁

I've actually finished the book (no spoilers! hehe). The early chapters did a good job of developing the characters and focuses a lot on their emotional states. Some fun exploration of interesting concepts too.

Overall, the book was pretty well done, but the SciFi definitely left me wishing that had been done better.

Got my (correct) book today. Do we have dates and chapter assignments yet?

There's no table of contents, so I guess that we go chapters?

Bruce

I put in a request to borrow on Kindle, hopefully should have it in a day or two.

Got my copy, just let me know when we start reading!