aka the books I recommend again and again, in all those posts where people ask for queer speculative books
I have a problem. On the one hand, I gravitate toward queer books and I massively prefer science fiction and (non-epic, non-paranormal) fantasy. On the other, I’m an excessively picky reader and can’t make myself finish books at all unless they’re so good they grab me by the throat AND are written in a style I like.
That just doesn’t leave a lot for me to enjoy. There’s a ton of good queer SFF coming out these days, compared to how it was even ten years ago, but it is still a much narrower category than non-queer SFF, or non-SFF queer books. So I’m in a tiny little pond and I still keep throwing half the fish back because I couldn’t focus on them. I blame twitter for destroying my attention span.
But there are several queer SFF books that I do keep recommending over and over. Not all of them have queer romance in them, but all of them feel noticeably queer—I’m not including books that just happen to have a queer side character, though I like those as well.
The best and gayest of all the good and gay. They’re sometimes described as space opera, but I disagree—the first is almost pure fantasy, the second maybe ¾ fantasy, and while the third has more sci-fi vibes, it still involves more soul swapping than rockets.
Tamsyn Muir does what I do, which is create a queernorm future and then make it horrifically dystopian in non-homophobia ways. Yay? There are many smaller romances and one big one which the fandom all prays fervently will end happily. It says a lot about Muir’s talent that we’re still completely in doubt.
Gays are buried. Gays are unquiet. Gays burst forth from their locked tombs. This one’s for the ex-Catholics.
Is it really queer? That’s a matter of opinion, I guess, in a universe where everyone uses the same set of pronouns (she/her/sir) and we rarely hear anything further about their gender identity. But that alone makes it feel pretty dang queer.
This book: imagine the Borg. And then imagine the Borg was the Count of Monte Cristo. Basically that. There is a tragic romance in it, but that’s not the main plot. The main plot is Revenge. The MC’s gender is Retribution.
I read this recently and was like—wow, FINALLY. Finally a queer space opera that is exactly what I am looking for when I go looking for one. A book whose twists I didn’t see coming, with a heroine with a major stick up her butt and a heaping helping of cult trauma. There isn’t much romance in it, but there’s a lot of queerness.
Everything Becky Chambers writes is a very particular brand. It’s cozy, in that action is not a major part of any of their plots, but she isn’t afraid to dig into trauma and awfulness. You can read them in any order. My personal favorite is A Closed and Common Orbit, which is also probably the darkest. (It still ends okay, but boy it’s a dark path to get there.) A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is the first one, and the one with a sapphic romance in it. Neurodivergent, nonbinary, and polyamorous characters abound. This is the gay space utopia you’ve always wanted.
This Is How You Lose the Time War
I had to mention it, but after what happened with Bigolas Dickolas, I don’t think I have to say any more about it. It’s short. I inhaled it in a couple of hours. I wish it had more worldbuilding and more action, but it does have an epic sapphic romance in it. There are not enough of those.
Queernorm world with a misanthropic, ace, agender killer robot. I find them pretty good fun. I could not relate harder to the main character and its burning desire to stay home and watch TV instead of saving the day.
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
Along with far-future books, I also really love historical ones. This book is set in the Victorian era with just one tiny magic/weird science element. It’s twisty and turny and gorgeous, and there is a subtle m/m romance I didn’t see coming. The sequel, The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, is also an absolutely necessary read. There’s an autistic orphan child and I would die for her.
I never hear about this book. Picked it up randomly at the library and loved the worldbuilding. It’s pretty grim and gross. There’s a sapphic romance. Read it for the weird biology and the polygamous matriarchy. There’s a sequel, but I didn’t like that one as much.
The City in the Middle of the Night
Absolutely trippy worldbuilding and I love it. The science works, I think, but so does the culture. How would life be in a city where time . . . didn’t happen? Would you create an artificial time and stick to it like glue, or would it all ooze together?
There’s an incredibly relatable queer heartbreak in it. I wouldn’t call it a happy ending though.
I happened to read the sample of this and bought it immediately because the style was so zippy. Just plowed through the whole thing. The plot keeps moving, and big twists happen throughout.
It’s a dystopian future where everything is awful, and our MC travels between dimensions doing jobs for a corporation. But she’s hiding a secret from everyone about her own past. I love parallel worlds because they ask the question, what could you have been if a few little things had gone differently? There’s a bi heroine and a sapphic romance.
This book read like a series of gorgeously written short stories, but there is a central plot we follow through different times and characters. It’s not a very happy story, but it was one of those tragedies that felt worth it. There is a sapphic romance in it as well as several other romances which I don’t remember as well.
Is that enough? I think I’ll stop there, or I’ll be writing this all day. These are some of the top queer SFF books I recommend when people ask. There are also lots of great queer SFF books I don’t recommend because I haven’t read them, or because I tried and my brain wouldn’t focus on them long enough to finish. But you can find that stuff out from other people, like KA Doore, Goodreads lists, and so on.
Why not more indie books? I feel bad that I don’t recommend more indie books, because of course I love and support them. Unfortunately I can’t afford to buy many books, so my reading is pretty reliant on what the library has. I do buy some indie books, but then I own them. You know what happens with books I own? They don’t have a deadline on them, so I read the library books first. I dunno I just live here.
Anyway if you want some queer indie books of course I recommend the books my small press puts out. If you wrote a queer indie book and want me to review it, send me the first chapter (or three, I’m not fussy—end it on the most convenient cliffhanger) at sheilajenne2112@gmail.com. If the style suits my brain, I’ll reach out for a review copy. That saves us both the disappointment of you wasting an ARC on me and me not finishing it.
Sheila Jenne, author 