Sci-fi Reads & Disability

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Good question! I'll let Anna do hers, I imagine her dread fox ears are twitching already.

Into the Drowning Deep also has characters with disabilities.

I made a list at one point, I'll review tomorrow :)

[Kaa]

Accessing the Future: A Disability-Themed Anthology of Speculative Fiction and Uncanny Magazine Issue 24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue come to mind as explicitly disability-themed collections.

[CBRetriever]

The Blade Itself has a hunchback as a main character who is very nuanced (and also one of my favorite characters in the series)

The Game of Thrones series has a dwarf as one of the main characters and later another main character loses a hand
Miles

Miles Vorksogian in Miles in Love = "This volume, "Miles in Love" is the tail end of a wonderful series where the hero finally gets his girl. Starting in the book " Warrior's Apprentice" you meet young Miles, a military hungry man who is denied the military postings he truly desires due to birth deformities. He's short, hunchbacked, big headed, full of charisma and blarney caused his parents to send him off planet to visit grandma and get an education."

[Anna]

I’ll post some recs tomorrow when I’m not supposed to be sleeping! Unless of course other lovely people list all of them before that.

[Rachel]

Borderline and sequels have a disabled main character who also has mental illness- I thought they were pretty good

Oh and Lock In by Scalzi might fit in a way

[CBRetriever]

I was just going to mention that one, but didn't know if it was any good at all

[Bobby]

Manta's Gift by Timothy Zahn has a disabled main character, except he becomes an alien Manta Ray on Jupiter pretty early in the book. That sounds like a spoiler, but it's part of the blurb. It's a weird book, but I enjoyed it.

[Anna]

First links for those already mentioned but not linked:


Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant aka. Seanan McGuire - It's more on the fantasy side, but it has lots of science. She writes lots of different disabled characters in many of her books, so it may be worth looking into her other works as well, depending on what kind of disabled characters you'd like to read about. This one has a deaf character, and ASL is a natural part of the story. I've read that some of her books (October Daye series) have merpeople in a wheelchair!

Borderline by Mishell Baker - This isn't scifi though, it's urban fantasy

Lock In by John Scalzi


Other ones:

On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis - It's YA, but I feel confident in recommending it to people who don't usually like YA. Protagonist is autistic, as is the author.

The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon - Another autistic protagonist, the author's son is autistic.

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson - a novella, protagonist has prosthetics.

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty - One of the POV characters uses prosthetics, crutches and/or wheelchair.

Among Others by Jo Walton - This is fantasy, but there are hundreds of scifi books mentioned and discussed, so it might interest you anyway. Protagonist has one bad leg and uses a crutch.

Planetfall series by Emma Newman - Different types of mental illness.

Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy - Mental illness.

Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi - I haven't read it yet, but the protagonist has some sort of chronic illness.


For more, check out this Goodreads list and this list on Nicola Griffith's website.

[Cheryl]

I may be confused, but what about Helva in The Ship Who Sang? And maybe The Girl with All the Gifts?

[Rachel]

Anna thanks for linking for my stupid IOS phone 😊

[Shomeret]

I just remembered a book about a deaf protagonist who is an ambassador that I loved. It's Silent Dances by A.C. Crispin and Kathleen O'Malley.

[Cheryl]

Shomeret, that looks good, but it's Book Two - should I really read Starbridge first? Am I likely to want to read the next books?

Btw, Crispin is the author of some of the Star Trek books that I've enjoyed... I recognize her name readily.

[Shomeret]

Cheryl wrote: "Shomeret, that looks good, but it's Book Two - should I really read Starbridge first? Am I likely to want to read the next books?

Btw, Crispin is the author of some of the Star Trek ..."



Silent Dances can be read as a standalone. The only other book in the series that relates to it is Silent Songs.

[Cheryl]

ty!

[Karin]

Don wrote: "Hi all. I’m a person with a disability and interested in sci-fi reads that have any sort disability spin or context. Any recommendations?"

Yes, the Locked series (Lock In, etc)

The third book in the y/a trilogy The Illuminae Files has a character in a wheelchair who has a few other physical issues who is integral to the plot. Obsidio

Here is a list of books I found, as well.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

Here is a hidden GR page where you can search for shelves https://www.goodreads.com/genres/list but it can be hard as it tends to be exact, athough I found a few ideas when I tried "disabilities"-- got the above list via a google search for scifi book with characters who have disabilities.

I know I have read others, but can't think of which ones they were.

[Michelle]

I also recommend the Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold. But there's a fantasy book that I have been trying to remember, which isn't going very well! I remember the hero had a speech impediment, and I think he was lame as well. I'll post as soon as I remember the title. I read it more than once, too! They say the memory is the first thing to go...

[Michelle]

The Highwayman, by R.A. Salvatore. Good ol' Google!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I looked at my list and aside from what's been mentioned it's all fantasy =/

[Sarah]

I thought I saw this mentioned already but I don’t see it: A Study in Honor by Claire O’Dell has a disabled protagonist.

[Ariana]

The protagonist of An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors is born with one hand.

[Joelle.P.S]

I recommend Defying Doomsday, an anthology of various apocalypse stories, all with protagonists with disabilities / chronic illness. (It includes stories from 2 of the authors mentioned above: Corinne Duyvis & Seanan McGuire.)

[WTEK]

Kendra Merritt writes mostly fantasy, but always with characters with disabilities. She also includes LGBTQ+ characters. She did recently write a survivalist sci-fi duology last year that starts with Surviving Daybreak. I really enjoyed her Mishap's Heroes series which was a litrpg sort of cozy-ish series.

[Netanella]

Ada Hoffman's The Outside is sci-fi with an autistic scientist as the lead character.

[Michelle]

I just bought a military SF kindle book a few weeks ago called Return to Duty and the protagonist is a double amputee. I haven't gotten to it yet. I'll have to remember to come back to this thread after I've read it!

[Cheryl L]

Hotep in Firewalkers is neurodiverse and tossed off the fancy space hotel by her family because of it.

[Eva]

Godkiller is really great and has at least two characters with a disability (one is the protagonist, who’s lost a leg).

[Brett]

Robert McCammon's Gone South has a couple of characters with disabilities (one is more of a disfigurement, but the other carries the body of his malformed conjoined twin). Not sure if it counts but the MC is (not a spoiler, it's on the back cover) dying from Agent Orange exposure.

[Brett]

ETA: Gone South is more of a horror novel than sci-fi.