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melanielocke · 10 months

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Book recommendations: queer adult SFF

It's been a while since I did one of these posts but I'm thinking of doing more regularly. I have read a lot more new books that I hope some of you will pick up and I've made another selection. I'm reading more and more adult SFF lately because lots of YA is getting a little too young for me. But I also find that transitioning to reading more adult can be difficult, and it's not always easy to find what you're looking for. I found YA a far easier market to navigate, so I figured I'd make a post featuring some of my favorite adult SFF books.

The Unbroken & the Faithless I read recently.

This is a trilogy, with book 3 coming out most likely in 2025? Not sure actually. The series focuses on Touraine and Luca. Touraine is a conscript in the Balladaire army, stolen from her homeland and trained to fight from a young age. She is originally from Qazal, a country colonized by Balladaire, but doesn't speak their language or understand their customs. In the first book, she returns home for the first time since she was taken, to stop a Qazali rebellion.

Luca is the princess of Balladaire. Her parents both died when she was young, and her uncle is ruling as regent, refusing to allow her to be crowned Queen until she proves herself. She too is sent to deal with the Qazali rebellion. What makes Luca interesting is that she often means well and is definitely more benevolent towards the Qazali, but she's also very power hungry and wants her throne, and no matter how much she does to help the Qazali she is still the princess of the empire that colonized them, and the author continues to hold her accountable for her role in the empire and some of the choices she makes.

Luca is also disabled, she injured her leg when she was young and uses a cane.

There is a sapphic romance between Luca and Touraine. It is not really the focus on the series but at the same time it is what shapes much of the negotiating between them since Luca has a very obvious soft spot for Touraine and Touraine has to use that to improve things for Qazal.

The world is inspired by North Africa and French colonialism (in Balladaire they speak French so I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be France), and the author themself is Black and North African. The series as a whole is very political.

Next is Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans

This is the first in a duology (I think?) with book 2 coming out this November.

This is set in a world where there are four different planes, and Siyon is a poor man who can delve into the different planes to get ingredients for wealthier alchemists. He wants to be an alchemist himself but can't afford the education. There's also the problem of magic being technically illegal, which means rich people can do alchemy but poor people can't.

Then one day Siyon accidently unleashes wild magic and is thrust into the world of alchemists where he wants to belong but doesn't. And there's also the matter of the four planes being instable and at risk of collapsing, and Siyon might be the only one capable of stopping it.

Siyon is bi/pan and his main love interest is a man, though this is not the main focus of the series.

Then Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

I think I had this one last time too, but not enough people are reading it so I'm going to discuss it again.

Check out the summary, but honestly not sure if that does it justice. Some Desperate Glory is the story of a girl who grew up in a fascist cult and was raised to believe in everything this cult stands for.

The earth was destroyed before she was born, and the Majo, aliens, were responsible. Kyr has been training her entire life for revenge. She wants nothing more than to be the perfect soldier for earth. As a result, she is a terrible person and everyone hates her.

Kyr first starts questioning Gaea station when she is assigned nursery to have babies even though she is the best fighter in her mess. When her brother disappears, she teams up with his friend Avi, a queer genius who works with the station's systems and was always aware of how fucked up Gaea station is. They discover Magnus has been sent on a suicide mission and go after him, and Kyr is confronted with the outside world, including a Majo she grows close to, and has to unlearn everything Gaea station taught her.

This book has a difficult to stomach mc at first, though it is very obvious what she believes is not what you as the reader are supposed to think. But there is some wonderful character development going on in here. It's hard for her to change, and she's thrown into lots of difficult situations before she gets there, but in the end you can see she's nothing like the person she was before.

There's an amazing cast of side characters, though not a very big cast. There's her twin brother Magnus who never wanted to be a soldier and is actually very depressed, which Kyr never noticed. Yiso, the cute non binary alien Kyr develops a weak spot for even before she comes to realize Majo are people. And my personal favorite, Avi, who is an unhinged little guy who is way too smart for his own good. He's a great example of how a cult can affect different people in different ways. He doesn't believe in Gaea station like Kyr does and is aware of how fucked up he is, he experienced that first hand as the only visible queer person on the station. But he did internalize their messages of revenge and violence which plays out in interesting ways.

This edition is the Illumicrate edition of the book from April's box, which has the UK cover.

Witch King by Martha Wells is next

This is a confusing book for people who do not have a lot of experience reading adult fantasy. It has a lot of world building that is explained gradually, the book doesn't really hold your hand, so be prepared for that.

Kai is a body hopping demon. He has been betrayed, killed and entombed under water. When he is freed by a lesser mage hoping to hone his power, he kills them and frees himself and his friend, the witch Ziede.

Together, they have to uncover what happened to them, who betrayed them and what is going on with the Rising World coalition. He's not going to like the answers.

Alternating is a past timeline in which Kai and his band of allies rebel against the tyrannical rule of the Hierophants, which happened decades before the present timeline.

The strenght of this book is really in the characters and how they grow and the bonds they have with each other. I loved the relationship between Kai and Bashasa, who is the rebel leader in the past timeline in particular. It's not quite clear what the nature of their relationship was, though it is implied to be romantic and I do think Kai is supposed to be queer. He is a body hopping demon after all, and spends his early life in the body of a girl. There's also a sapphic side pairing between Zieden and her wife Tahren, who they spent much of the present timeline looking for.

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach

This is a science fantasy set in a world inspired by New Zealand and Maori (I think? The author is Maori and a trans woman herself)

The main character is a police officer from a poor background who believes she's making the world better for people like her. She's already been demoted for being queer but believes she can make the police force better from the inside.

Then she's murdered by fellow officers and thrown into the harbor. Unfortunately for them, she comes back from the dead with new magic powers.

She teams up with a pirate crew with similar powers and has to stop a plague from being unleashed on her city.

This book focuses on how police functions in many modern societies to protect the wealthy and harm and restrict poorer, non white communities. The main character doesn't believe this at first but it's obvious to the reader that they're not helping anyone doing their job. Next book is coming out next year.

Last is the Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

Two books are out and book 3 is coming sometime in 2024.

This series is set in a world inspired by India. Priya is a maidservant with a secret. She is one of the few surviving temple children and still has some powers from being once born.

Malini is the princess of Parijatdvipa, the empire that conquered Priya's land. Her religious zealot brother has taken the throne and imprisons Malini because she refuses to be burned alive.

Priya is one of the maidservants sent to take care of Malini in her prison, which is the old temple where Priya grew up. Together, they can change the fate of an empire, but they can never quite trust each other.

This is a sapphic fantasy with magic but also lots of politics and I think if you like this series you'd also like the Unbroken and vice versa. I've talked about this one before but it should definitely be included on a list for adult fantasy.

I hope you can find something you like on here. All these books are not super well known and deserve a bigger audience

@alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer @life-through-the-eyes-of @astriefer @justanormaldemon @ipromiseiwillwrite @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised @amchara @all-for-the-fanfiction @imsoftforthomastair @ddepressedbookworm @queenlilith43 @wagner-fell @cant-think-of-anything @laylax13s @tessherongraystairs @boredfangirl16 @artist-in-soul @aliandtommy @ikissedsmithparker

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scholar-of-yemdresh · 4 months

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Will anybody be interested if I made a list of adult transmasc and Nonbinary/transneutral main/major characters in adult fantasy and Science Books.

Because I'm legit sick of the infantilisation both within and outside the community. Why is so much of the NB and transmasc rep children 😭.

Even outside of the miniscule rep Even less of it are grown adult main characters. None of that side character's love interest is a trans dude business, or a they/them appears for one page and is never seen again.

Anyway I've got a handful of characters in books I've read/on my TBR and I want to share them with others looking for this kind of rep.

#adult fantasy #adult science fiction #adult sci-fi #lgbtq #queer representation #trans #transmasc #nonbinary #transneutral #also I'm not interested in romance so a NB mc in a capital R fantasy romance i don't give. shit about that guff lol #And why are so many grown ass trans(or queer in general) adults so invested in YA #Like Gawd damn all the rep shouldn't regulated to kids books.#by adult the characters need to be 20s and above #because if i used the 18/19 year old legal adult excuse way too much YA BS will clog the list lol #adult sff #books

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fazilareads · 1 year

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WISTFUL ASCENDING (HYBRID HELIX #1) BY JCM BERNE | AUTHOR Q & A | Escapist Book Tours

TITLE : Wistful Ascending (Hybrid Helix #1) AUTHOR : JCM Berne GENRE : Science-Fantasy/Superhero/Space Opera INTENTED AGE GROUP : Adult Pages: 395 DATE OF PUBLISHING : September 5, 2020 PUBLISHER : The Gnost House (Self Published) Welcome to my tour stop for Wistful Ascending (Hybrid Helix #1) by JCM Berne, hosted by Escapist Book Tours. I am so grateful to be part of The Escapist Book…

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misthare-books · 27 days

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This is the science fiction book by Philip K Dick which got adapted into the first blade-runner movie.

There is some interest in the world and situations Philip writes, such as the post apocalyptic world, the off world planet emigration, the extinction of other species and their consequent rarity and value, the androids, the rouge androids, the android bounty hunters, the androids in media, intellectually regressed people due to world pollution, the clutter and 'kipple', the dark, the electric mock animals, the mercer religion etc.

Basically about an android bounty hunter going through his business, and dealing with some challenges which he has to overcome, in form of androids who want him dead. There is also another narrative of a 'Chickenhead' regressed person who is living alone and having to perform well in dealing with his work and boss.

#science fiction #fiction #book #books #blade runner #adult fiction #adult science fiction

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skatesfullofsunshine · 6 months

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Day 2 of me mentioning something I loved about The Phoenix King by Aparna Verma, because I'm already considering a re-read, and I just finished it.

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flaviathebibliophile · 1 year

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The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel (Review)

Title: The Body Scout Author: Lincoln Michel Type: Fiction Genre: Adult, Science Fiction, Mystery, Dystopia Publisher: Orbit Date published: September 21, 2021 A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by the publishers in exchange for an honest review. In the future you can have any body you want—as long as you can afford it. But in a New York ravaged by climate change and…

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dduane · 1 year

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For the holidays: get Diane Duane’s whole (ebook) store for $44!

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With the Shortest Day upon us (in the northern hemisphere anyway), and the festive season in full swing, we thought it’d be nice to give folks a year’s-end chance to grab a whole pile of ebooks—more than two million words’ worth*—for not a whole lot of money.

Maybe you want to give somebody a gift of lots of reading. Or maybe you want to give yourself a present. (And why shouldn’t you? After the last couple of years everybody’s had, you certainly deserve something nice!) There’s a list at the Ebooks Direct “I Want Everything You’ve Got” page of all the goodies you’ll get... including the updated/revised New Millennium editions of DD’s award-winning Young Wizards series, and the groundbreaking (and also award-winning) Middle Kingdoms LGBTQ-centered fantasy series.

As always, all our books are DRM-free and can be moved from device to device at your pleasure. If your computer or e-reader crashes, if you change platforms, or if you just plain lose your ebook files, we’re happy to replace them for you free. (And why not? You’ve already paid for them once. It’s not like we’ve got a space program to support or anything...) And if you want to send one of these packages as a gift, just email our support address and we’ll sort that out for you.

So if you want to take advantage of it and get our whole ebook store for $44, here’s all you need to do.

Go to the following page and follow the directions—

https://bit.ly/HolidayEBDWholeStore

(Our apologies in advance to our UK friends, whom we can’t include in this offer due to Brexit. More info about that over here.)

Meanwhile,thanks for your interest! (And to those who decide to avail of this offer, thanks in advance for your support of small independent online book businesses.** It’s much appreciated.)

*Oh, all right. 2,685,698 words...

**Especially from the author who’s going to have to go have a spinal MRI right after the New Year. Looks like a few decades spent in a typing chair can take their toll...

ETA AGAIN: Having bumped this.,.. please note that the discount is still in place. We’ll put something more detailed up about this tomorrow. But since @neil-gaiman was kind enough to reblog it, it seemed likely that the post would be in circulation for a while... and so we left the discount running. ...Hey, it’s still the holidays, right?

RIGHT?

(....Also: if over the last few days you somehow paid $55 for the package instead of $44, contact the store (quoting your order number) and we’ll refund you the $11.)

#Ebooks #Ebook sale #sale #holiday sale #Diane Duane #get our whole store for $44 #science fiction #fantasy #young adult fantasy #Christmas #Hanukkah #not for UK residents #unfortunately...

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doctaaaaaaaar · 2 years

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Why everyone who likes sci-fi or fantasy should read Iron Widow by @xiranjayzhao as told by memes:

Everyone should go read it right now. Please.

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haveyoureadthisbook-poll · 2 months

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#maximum ride #james patterson #young adult #science fiction #book poll #have you read this book poll #polls #is that a dig at hp?

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charliejaneanders · 8 months

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This is amazing news!

My YA debut Victories Greater Than Death is part of a program where libraries bring together groups of teens to "study powerful works of young adult literature," and an amazing 29 libraries have signed up!

#books #ya scifi #ya fantasy #ya fiction #young adult science fiction #young adult fiction #young adult #writing #victories greater than death #dreams bigger than heartbreak #promises stronger than darkness

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therobishow · 9 months

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I am once again calling for book rants. It was so much fun the last time, and I crave more.

Do you have a long standing grudge against a book you read in middle school? Have you gotten swept up by hype only to find that everyone lied to you and the book is trash? Do you burn with rage over the way an author portrayed your favorite mythology or folklore? Is there a book or series that you once loved, but now makes you cringe every time you think about it?

Do you want to vent all of it out to someone who won't judge you, or argue with you, but will simply accept all your feelings as their own?

Hi, that person is me. Send me an ask, anonymous or not, and tell me everything you've wanted to say. Offer me your anger, your frustration, your hatred. I will hold it for you. I will take it into my heart and make it my own.

It can be any genre you want, any demographic. I will accept it all. Even if James Patterson gets involved again. (I'm not scared of you, James!!)

#literature #books #ya fiction #ya fantasy #ya dystopia #fiction #Reading #middle grade books #adult fantasy #science fiction #fantasy #literary fiction

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ahb-writes · 2 months

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(from Inside Job, S1E04: "Sex Machina")

#writeblr #bechdel test #inside job #shion takeuchi #reagan ridley #novel writing #writing tips #writing advice #fiction writing #writing #workplace comedy #test passed #paranoid fiction #science fiction #adult animation #netflix #cognito inc #shadow government organization

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scholar-of-yemdresh · 3 months

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This Post.

I'm finally doing it! A list of Adult (20s+) Nonbinary/Genderqueer/Transneutral and Trans men rep in SFF books(no romantasy). This will only be limited to main or major characters.

I've not read everything on this list, so some information could be inaccurate or missing e.g I might not know that a character is actually a POC or 40s+. I will also advise to check content warnings because some of the books listed here can get pretty gnarly.

Will occasional be updated

Keys: 🏳️‍⚧️=Trans Author,✊🏾= Author of Colour,🌈=POC,🧓🏾=40s+, ♂️= Trans man , ⚧️= Nonbinary,🎨=Comic

Claude from The Chatelaine by Kat Heartfield ♂️

Tarquin Mercator from The Devoured Worlds by Megan E. o'keefe ♂️

Yari from Master of Poisons by Andrea Hairston ⚧️🧓🏾🌈✊🏾

Sol Katz from Dead Collections by Issac Fellman 🏳️‍⚧️♂️🧓🏾

Rosie from Persephone Station by Stina Leicht ⚧️🧓🏾

Rafe from Viscera by Gabrielle Squailia🏳️‍⚧️♂️

John Wyndham from The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall 🏳️‍⚧️♂️

Casey Ravel from the Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings ♂️🌈✊🏾

Ardent Violet from The Starmetal Symphony by Alex White🏳️‍⚧️⚧️

Gyen Jebi from Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee ⚧️🏳️‍⚧️✊🏾🌈

Shock Pao from Shock Pao by Ren Warom ♂️

Firuz-e Jafari(+ others) from the Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia 🌈✊🏾🏳️‍⚧️⚧️

Iktan from Between Earth and Sky by Rebecca Roanhorse ⚧️🌈✊🏾

Chih from the Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo ⚧️✊🏾🌈

Brennus from Wolf Among the Wild Hunt by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor ⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

Dex from Monk & Robot by Becky Chambers 🌈(?)⚧️

Anima from In The Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu ⚧️🌈✊🏾🏳️‍⚧️

Eolo from The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie ♂️

Ridley from No Gods,No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull 🌈✊🏾♂️

Enae & Qven from Translation State by Ann Leckie⚧️🌈🧓🏾

Penfield R. Henderson, Aiden Chase, Blithe + others from Future Feeling by Joss Lake 🏳️‍⚧️♂️

Ilan from The Faithful Dark by Cate Baumer♂️

Various from The Tensorate by Neon Yang 🏳️‍⚧️✊🏾🌈⚧️♂️

Alex Easton from What Moves the Dead by T.Kingfisher⚧️

Edie from Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🌈✊🏾

Nameless Man from The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg🌈🏳️‍⚧️♂️

Arén from A Promise Broken by S.L. Dove Cooper♂️

Erígra Lilún from The Unbalancing by R.B. Lemberg 🏳️‍⚧️⚧️

Claire|Claude from Baker Thief by Claudie Arseneault ⚧️

Dianthus from The Fate of by J.E. Lynn ⚧️

Asa from The Forgotten Lyric by Carolina Cruz⚧️🌈

Sal Hernandez from It Took Luke by Mark Bouchard & Bayleigh Underwood 🎨⚧️🌈🏳️‍⚧️

MCs from Time Will Devour His Children by Otava Heikkila🎨🏳️‍⚧️♂️🧓🏾🌈

Jonah from Dominion of Blades by Matt Dinniman♂️

Tet Sang from The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho♂️or⚧️🌈✊🏾

Marcus from Lesser Known Monsters by Rory Michaelson♂️🌈

Scorn from Emergent Properties⚧️

Misery Nomaki from The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang✊🏾🏳️‍⚧️🌈⚧️

Taigan from The Worldbreaker Saga by Kameron Hurley⚧️🌈

Leiander from The Stones Stay Silent by Danny Ride♂️🏳️‍⚧️

The Plauge Doctor from The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw⚧️🏳️‍⚧️✊🏾

Aleph Null from Test by Christopher Sebela & Jen Hickman🎨⚧️

Joel Lodowick from My Heart Is Human by Reese Hogan🏳️‍⚧️♂️

Jules from Finna by Nino Cipri 🌈⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

Dax from Shatter Minds by L.R Lam🌈♂️

Scout from The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August⚧️

Avery Ryu from Dead Space by Kali Wallace🌈⚧️

#books #adult fantasy #adult science fiction #trans #trans men #nonbinary #transmasc #transmaculine #transneutral #trans men of color #nonbinary poc #trans representation #queer representation #adult fiction #adult books #booklr #book recs #Lgb #lgbtq

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