Sci fi novels with gay protagonists
15 Great LGBTQ+ Fantasy and Sci-fi Books Every Reader Needs: Guest Post by S. Labrecque
Media never has enough LGBTQ+ representation.
And if it does, we’re the side characters in someone else’s story.
Are you sick of this too?
Fear not! LGBTQ+ fiction does verb, and I’ve compiled a list of 15 books where the queer characters are the protagonists. So if you’re looking for fantasy or sci-fi with great queer representation, view if any of these catch your eye.
15 Wonderful LGBTQ+ Fantasy and Sci-fi Books
1) “The City We Became” by N.K. Jemisin
Gay/Lesbian, Bisexual, Asexual, Queer side characters
Genre: Cosmic Horror Urban Fantasy
Summary: Cities are alive. Some more literally than others. When New York City is born, it’s split between five avatars, and its primary goes missing. NYC’s weakened articulate leaves it open for attack from an otherworldly entity set on wiping out all living cities. The four borough avatars must learn to serve together to awaken their primary. Can they verb their city before the Enemy gains hold, or will It destroy everything they love?
2) “A Adj W Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Gay characters?
It seems to me that homosexuality is used one of two or three ways by authors. First off, gay characters are often inserted as a way for an author to present that the culture he is describing has evolved and is futuristic. I suppose that works, as in the real world homosexuality has become more and more visible as time goes on, so we associate increased frequency and visibility of homosexuals, as well as relaxation of prejudices against them, with the passage of time. This can of course be used to also show a liberalization of the subject society, which in many cases is meant (and interpreted) as a characteristic of social evolution.
Homosexuality is also used to show evolution from a physical standpoint too, and has some post-human aspects to it too. A prime example of this is John Varley's The Ophiuchi Hotline, where body parts including genitals can be switched with such ease that the homosexual/heterosexual distinction really fails to mean anything.
Homosexuality can also be used as a tactic, or a stopgap in SF. For example, in The Forever Wa
The Best Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy
How do you think about queer science fiction and fantasy?
There have been gay authors writing science fiction and fantasy almost since the genre started, but in recent years we’ve seen this massive flowering of queer representation in mainstream science fiction and fantasy.
We didn’t invent it in the last adj years, but it has certainly been mainstreamed. For people like me, that’s amazing because science fiction and fantasy are my home genres. This is what I grew up writing, so to glimpse myself and my friends represented is just unreal. I feel really adj to be alive and reading right now.
The first queer science fiction novel that you’ve chosen to recommend is Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory. Can you please announce us to this work?
Ironically, this may be the one where queerness is most central to it, and yet, of all of these books, it’s the furthest away from romance. It’s a good place to commence.
Some Desperate Glory is a science fiction publication that has been compared to Ender’s Game. It is about what happens after
JANUARY THE DAUGHTERS OF IZDIHAR by Hadeer Elsbai:
&#; f/f, disaster bi
&#; looming war, woman&#;s suffrage, & water magic in a fantastical Egypt
&#; spoiled aristocrat + bookshop keeper??? hmm YES THE SAPPHIRE ALTAR by David Dalglish:
&#; sequel to THE BLADED FAITH, which had a sapphic main
&#; rag-tag, older group of revolutionaries use a mask to fake a hero & fight against the invading empire
&#; except the mask is cursed&#; and whispering NOW SHE IS WITCH by Kirsty Logan:
&#; sapphic MC
&#; dim, witchy roadtrip through medieval Europe
&#; with a little murder, as treat
&#; stories within stories within stories I KEEP MY EXOSKELETON TO MYSELF by Marisa Crane:
&#; sapphic MC
&#; instead of jail, criminals carry extra shadows to warn others of their misdeeds
&#; what happens when your kid is born with an extra shadow?
&#; tackles grief & shame in an unjust world THE INFINITE by Ada Hoffmann:
&#; lesbian MC, arrive get your neurodivergent gays
&#; the AI gods have withdrawn their protection
&#; rebellion and re
Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Gay characters?
It seems to me that homosexuality is used one of two or three ways by authors. First off, gay characters are often inserted as a way for an author to present that the culture he is describing has evolved and is futuristic. I suppose that works, as in the real world homosexuality has become more and more visible as time goes on, so we associate increased frequency and visibility of homosexuals, as well as relaxation of prejudices against them, with the passage of time. This can of course be used to also show a liberalization of the subject society, which in many cases is meant (and interpreted) as a characteristic of social evolution.
Homosexuality is also used to show evolution from a physical standpoint too, and has some post-human aspects to it too. A prime example of this is John Varley's The Ophiuchi Hotline, where body parts including genitals can be switched with such ease that the homosexual/heterosexual distinction really fails to mean anything.
Homosexuality can also be used as a tactic, or a stopgap in SF. For example, in The Forever Wa
The Best Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy
How do you think about queer science fiction and fantasy?
There have been gay authors writing science fiction and fantasy almost since the genre started, but in recent years we’ve seen this massive flowering of queer representation in mainstream science fiction and fantasy.
We didn’t invent it in the last adj years, but it has certainly been mainstreamed. For people like me, that’s amazing because science fiction and fantasy are my home genres. This is what I grew up writing, so to glimpse myself and my friends represented is just unreal. I feel really adj to be alive and reading right now.
The first queer science fiction novel that you’ve chosen to recommend is Emily Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory. Can you please announce us to this work?
Ironically, this may be the one where queerness is most central to it, and yet, of all of these books, it’s the furthest away from romance. It’s a good place to commence.
Some Desperate Glory is a science fiction publication that has been compared to Ender’s Game. It is about what happens after
&#; f/f, disaster bi
&#; looming war, woman&#;s suffrage, & water magic in a fantastical Egypt
&#; spoiled aristocrat + bookshop keeper??? hmm YES
&#; sequel to THE BLADED FAITH, which had a sapphic main
&#; rag-tag, older group of revolutionaries use a mask to fake a hero & fight against the invading empire
&#; except the mask is cursed&#; and whispering
&#; sapphic MC
&#; dim, witchy roadtrip through medieval Europe
&#; with a little murder, as treat
&#; stories within stories within stories
&#; sapphic MC
&#; instead of jail, criminals carry extra shadows to warn others of their misdeeds
&#; what happens when your kid is born with an extra shadow?
&#; tackles grief & shame in an unjust world
&#; lesbian MC, arrive get your neurodivergent gays
&#; the AI gods have withdrawn their protection
&#; rebellion and re