Book list: Pride in Fantasy (June 2019)

[Anna]

We're celebrating Pride in June! Fantasy books with (at least one) LGBTQIA+ main character. This is the list of books that were nominated. Please continue recommending fantasy books with LGBTQIA+ main characters! Nomination rules no longer apply, so there are no ineligible authors, and short fiction, graphic works, etc. are also welcome.

https://theillustratedpage.wordpress....

Witchmark
The Raven and the Reindeer
City of Strife
The House of Shattered Wings
Swordspoint
When the Moon Was Ours
Magic's Pawn
The Magpie Lord
The Way of Thorn and Thunder
Amberlough
The Fire's Stone
When Fox is a Thousand
The Bird King
The Root
In Other Lands
The Alchemists of Loom
Ship of Smoke and Steel

If you have scifi recommendations, please post them here.

[Anna]

Let's get some well-known ones out of the way:


Nightrunner series starting with Luck in the Shadows
Tamír Triad starting with The Bone Doll's Twin
Parasol Protectorate world starting with Soulless
Tensorate series starting with The Black Tides of Heaven
Broken Earth starting with The Fifth Season
Wayward Children starting with Every Heart a Doorway
Black Magician series starting with The Magicians' Guild
The Arcadia Project starting with Borderline

These are perhaps slightly less known:

The True Queen, which is a companion/sequel to Sorcerer to the Crown - Regency politics with POC and Malaysian flare, the queer rep is barely there, even if you know to look for it, but
The Terracotta Bride - novella in the Chinese afterlife, by the same author, and the same rep is strong here, I love this one

Troll: A Love Story - translated from Finnish, won awards, I personally don't love it
Peter Darling - Peter Pan retelling

[Sarah]

One of the newer ones out is The Priory of the Orange Tree. It wasn’t for me but it might be for someone else. (Sorry I can’t link, I’m in the app.)

[Kaa]

Here's your link, Sarah: The Priory of the Orange Tree
The Raven Tower is another new one
I think someone else mentioned Gossamer Axe in the nomination thread
An Accident of Stars - great portal fantasy
A Taste of Honey and The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps
Daughter of Mystery
Point of Hopes

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

The other one we were damn sure someone was going to nominate (but didn't!) was Black Leopard, Red Wolf

[CBRetriever]

Kaa wrote: "Here's your link, Sarah: The Priory of the Orange Tree
The Raven Tower is another new one
I think someone else mentioned Gossamer Axe in the nomination..."

I mentioned it but didn't nominate it because it's both out of print in the US and not available to US Amazon users. I do have a paper copy of it though

[Anat]

new release: The Binding is really beautiful.

[thalassic]

Girls of Paper and Fire

Dreadnought

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening

[Meredith]

Ascension, by Jacqueline Koyanagi
Into the Drowning Deep, Mira Grant
Passing Strange, Ellen Klages
River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow, Sarah Gailey
Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear, plus Stone Mad (novella sequel)
Ammonite, Nicola Griffith
Carnival, E. Bear
Provenance, Anne Leckie
Shadow Man, Melissa Scott

[Christine]

Also by Tanya Huff, the urban fantasy trilogy "The Gale Women":

#1- The Enchantment Emporium
# 2- The Wild Ways
#3- The Future Falls

(Sorry nit to link; I'm on my phone app)

[Raucous]

The Redwood Revenger. I'm not quite done with it yet but I'm enjoying both the main characters and a post-dystopian setting that's a place I'd actually like to live.

[Anna]

I stumbled upon this wonderful Twitter thread full of LGBTQ+ SFF for adults (as in non-YA), most of which is fantasy. There was only one new-to-me book, but everything isn't listed in this thread, so maybe others will find something new. And I love that there's a short description of why it's on the list.

https://twitter.com/coolcurrybooks/st...

[CBRetriever]

the free Tor book of the month is

https://www.tor.com/2019/06/04/happy-...

The Lamb Will Slaughter The Lion by Margaret Killjoy
Passing Strange by Ellen Klages
A Taste of Honey by Kai Ashante Wilson
The Black Tides of Heaven by JY Yang

[Anna]

I started a scifi list here.

[Sarah]

Okay: from the other thread and stuff that hasn't been mentioned yet:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
The Thousand Names by Django Wexler

Not on the shelf or buddy reads, but still ones I love:
The Wolf in the Whale
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

[Bill]

Book of the Ancestors by Mark Lawrence. I’m about to start reading these so not sure if it is in all books.
Ink and Shadows by Rhys Ford
The Devourers by Indra Das
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Inda by Sherwood Smith

[Jain]

Spectred Isle by K.J. Charles -- I considered nominating this book, but didn't want to risk splitting votes between it and the already nominated Magpie Lord by the same author. For my money, though, this is the best historical fantasy novel Charles has written yet, a magical alternate history exploration of British involvement in WWI and the post-war years.

The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox -- The story of a vintner in 19th century France who discovers an angel in his family's vineyard. (According to friends, it's best to give the sequel a miss.)

An Arrow's Flight by Mark Merlis -- A retelling of The Iliad set in the 1970s-80s gay club scene.

The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth by Sarah Monette -- An interconnected short story collection set in interbellum America, though exactly which wars is left ambiguous.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver -- More horrific than this group usually reads. A historical fiction ghost story set in the Arctic.

Maplecroft by Cherie Priest -- Lizzie Borden battles Lovecraftian horrors.

Death by Silver and A Death at the Dionysus Club by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold -- Mysteries set in an alternate history Victorian England with magic.

The Cloud Roads and the rest of the Books of the Raksura series by Martha Wells -- Secondary world fantasy with really fun worldbuilding. The protagonist is bisexual, and while I don't think it's ever explicitly stated, bisexuality seems to be the norm for his species and/or culture.

[Sarah]

So these are all upcoming releases that I'm super excited about, but I figure it can't hurt to add them here too:

The Monster of Elendhaven (Sept 24)
Gideon the Ninth (Sept 10)
Lady Hotspur (January 2020)