SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Since Pride in Fantasy is our June 2019 theme, let's also list scifi books with LGBTQIA+ representation.

These links have both fantasy and scifi:
http://theillustratedpage.net//divers...
https://twitter.com/coolcurrybooks/st...

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For the June 2024 Pride in SciFi theme, these books were nominated. Keep the recs coming!

This is How You Lose the Time War
Some Desperate Glory
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
The Mimicking of Known Successes
We Won't Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories
Cascade Failure
An Excess Male
The Membranes
All That’s Left in the World
Ion Curtain
Seven Devils
The First Sister
A Matter of Oaths

The ones that immediately pop into my head:


From the group bookshelf:
The whole series starting with Planetfall
The whole series starting with Ninefox Gambit
The whole series starting with Ancillary Justice
The whole series starting with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Thw whole series starting with Too Like the Lightning
China Mountain Zhang
A Memory Called Empire
The Stars Are Legion

Not on the group shelf, but many have buddy reads:
The whole series starting with New Moon (BR)
The whole series starting with Killing Gravity (novellas)
Amatka
An Excess Male
Blackfish City (BR)
Carnival (BR)
Shadow Man (BR)
Midnight Robber (BR)
The Prey of Gods (genre-bender)
An Unkindness of Ghosts (BR)
The Light Brigade
Ammonite (BR)
Slow River
A Different Light
Ascension
The Best of All Possible Worlds
Tentacle
Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach (novella)
Barbary Station

Into the Drowning Deep by Seanan McGuire
Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear

Anna wrote: "Sarah wrote: "The Black Tides of Heaven
Dreadnought"

Links added, but I think Black Tides is definitely fantasy?"

I think everything I've listed is fantasy actually- I'm just going to delete the posts lol. Sorry!!

Sarah wrote: "Yes sorry- I'm tired still and not thinking. I'll edit both posts"

All good! I'd love to have these all in one thread, but we decided when we started these book lists for nomination themes, that they'd stay genre specific, so I can't change things all of a sudden.

Anna wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Yes sorry- I'm tired still and not thinking. I'll edit both posts"

All good! I'd love to have these all in one thread, but we decided when we started these book lists for nomination ..."

No worries- I just missed the part where you said SF- this is what happens when I try to be helpful before I've had coffee.

Sarah wrote: "this is what happens when I try to be helpful before I've had coffee."

I know what you mean! I don't know why I insist on doing things like starting lists like these first thing after waking up, when my brain is still groggy. It means I'll have to keep editing my list as I remember all the ones I forgot from my initial post.

Not on the shelf or even buddy reads, but here's a couple of books to add:

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear
The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt

I didn't know Ancestral Night has queer rep? It's on my soon-TBR, yay! The Wrong Stars is an upcoming BR, starting on June 20th. And of course Luminous is also an upcoming September BR.

I haven't read it yet, but heard about Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany

One of my favorite authors, Gail Carriger, just wrote a sci fi mystery romance called the 5th Gender.

Check out this book on Goodreads: The 5th Gender http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44...

Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold. Not the best Vorkosigan book, but interesting.

Also A Civil Campaign of the same has a major transgender character.

Also Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen has a bi POV character, though the only on-screen relationship in that book was heterosexual.

(If we're counting non-POV characters, then the entire Vorkosigan series has an important bisexual character.)

Oh yes I think the main character of ANCESTRAL NIGHT is in a same-sex relationship.

The latest TIAMAT’S WRATH has some minor LGBT characters.

Of course the main character of WITCHMARK is gay and the book has a same-sex romance.

The Dispossessed - bi and possibly gay characters, explorations of the self and the collective.

Digital Divide - lesbian cyborg detective who explores the constitutionality of her abilities!

The Collapsing Empire & subsequent - lesbian ship captain who is hilarious in a fun and punchy space opera.

The Vela - a serial that explores themes of environmentalism, imperialism and morality. It's by mostly (all?) queer authors and there's representation of most of the rainbow.

I haven't read Dhalgren either, but Babel-17 definitely has queer characters.

Trouble and Her Friends and Finders

Additional Le Guin books with significant queer characters include The Telling and The Birthday of the World and Other Stories

Gyrfalcon

Warchild

Heart of Iron - YA Anastasia retelling in a sci fi setting. Two of the POV characters are gay/bi, and there is a lesbian married couple who are a big part of the book. Also deals with the humanity of AI.

We Are the Ants - teenage gay protagonist who has periodically been abducted by aliens throughout his life. This one has very heavy themes of grief and mental illness. It's about teens but is not YA by any means.

Not sure if this counts since it’s a graphic novel, but On a Sunbeam is a beautiful story set in space with almost entirely female/lesbian characters/relationships and one non-binary character.

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe
(The Salvagers #1)
by Alex White
and its sequel A Bad Deal For the Whole Galaxy

Lesley wrote: "Not sure if this counts since it’s a graphic novel, but On a Sunbeam"

Yes, all kinds of stories are welcome! I've been meaning to read this, but it's so long I keep putting it off.

Anna wrote: “Yes, all kinds of stories are welcome! I've been meaning to read this, but it's so long I keep ..."

It looks long (it weighs a ton!), but it was actually a very fast read. There are quite a few places where the story is told through images instead of words. I finished it in a morning even as I was trying to savor the experience.

Bobby wrote: "
We Are the Ants - teenage gay protagonist who has periodically been abducted by aliens throughout his life. This one has very heavy themes of grief and mental illness. It's about teens but is not YA by any means. "

Thank you for this suggestion, Bobby. This sounds very interesting to me.

Gabi I hope you like it. I actually gave it only 2 stars at the time, but I think I was a bit harsh. There was just a certain part that made me angry and now that it isn't fresh I can appreciate the rest of the book more. Plenty of people liked what I hated, so it's definitely a personal thing.

Allison mentioned The Vela above, but Serial Box also has one called Ninth Step Station: The Complete Season 1 that features a bisexual MC. It's a police procedural serial with cool tech and a divided Japan, but I've enjoyed it quite a bit.

Here are a couple other upcoming releases for future reference:

Overthrow (releases Aug 27)
The Seep (Jan 2020)
Scavenge the Stars (Jan 2020)