Queer/Trans Sci-Fi and Fantasy

[antigonedied4oursins]

Hi! Does anyone have any recommendations of books/movies/comics/etc. with queer themes? I'm looking for things to read/watch that are very queer and trans centric.

 

[Danny McG]

Try these!
IIRC the males are all lifelong conditioned to be gay

Walk to the End of the World (Holdfast Chronicles, #1)

The men of the Holdfast had long treated with contempt the degenerated creatures known as "fems." To give themselves the drive to survive...

www.goodreads.com

 

[Mouse]

That's very broad...

If you want a daft, queer, space romp try this by me.

Struggling to recommend anything because there's so much and it really depends what you want! I mean, I can tell you what I like, but that might not be helpful!

For example, one of my fave films is To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. Very queer, very heartwarming, lovely little film - not trans, though the three main characters are drag and stay in drag throughout. One of my fave books is Glitterland by Alexis Hall but some people find the love interest annoying (I'm all about the annoying characters, myself). TV shows - Queer as Folk (the original UK version, obvs). But I'm a Cheerleader is a great queer film. Breakfast on Pluto is a good trans film. If you want a really good, older (published in the 50s by a black author) book, you could try Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, though the end is sad. Gia starring a young Angelina Jolie is also a good film, but again sad ending.

I think you might have to narrow down what you're after.

 

[The Judge]

Can't help you myself, but I'll move this thread over to Book Discussion where it might gain more attention. (Book Search is for those of us with failing memories trying to recall the title and author of work we read years ago.)

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Becky Chambers, Kameron Hurley and Laura Lam (I think?) are all ones to look out for.

 

[Abernovo]

Becky Chambers, Kameron Hurley and Laura Lam (I think?) are all ones to look out for.

Becky Chambers, starting with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, includes a good range of sexualities and gender issues, including a convention on using gender neutral pronouns for all sapient lifeforms until they let you know what is preferred. I'll admit to being a bit of a fan. Kameron Hurley is good, although I've mainly read her shorter stuff. Laura Lam writes great fiction, with central characters across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, often bi, intersex or trans - Pantomime works particularly well as an alternate world fantasy with an intersex MC. (She's also a rarely-visiting Chronner.) M Evan MacGriogair/Emmie Mears (depending on the book) has a full range, as well.

Sarah Gailey is on my TBR list. Cheryl Morgan is more of one for academic research, and essays, but has produced some short stories. Foz Meadows, Aliette de Bodard, Corinne Duyvie (On the Edge of Gone is amazing). Charlie Jane Anders, obviously. I could go on.

For film, it gets a bit more difficult, if you want to stay within sff. Neil Jordan's Byzantium was good, iirc. My favourite for TV has to be Wynonna Earp (what, have I mentioned this before? ) and Supergirl, and Pose (but that's not sff).

As Mouse says, what are you looking for? Give an example of what you've enjoyed, or the sort of thing you would want to read, and it might help. And, of course, YMMV - I'm not a fan of Breakfast on Pluto, but A Fantastic Woman was great. And, of course, web series are producing some cutting edge programming now, including Her Story, and that's not even that recent.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Actually I’ll also mention Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series which isn’t perhaps an obvious call out but

Spoiler

Aral Vorkosigan is revealed a bisexual despite his originally masculine image as the series goes on. I have no doubt this was intentional not convenient, given Bujold’s focus in general.

Bel Thorne is one of several hermaphodite characters portrayed - not the same I know but the issues that face Er are relevant.

there are other elements - a secondary story is concerned with a planet where gay relationships form the basis of the community and children are brought up, there is a planet (where Cordelia is from) which is very accepting of all things Quiltbag which is used to contrast against the repressive Vor culture and it’s much more nuanced than maybe known

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The Volstov series by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennet includes among its cast of viewpoint characters across the series three gay men and one trans woman. They aren't really books that deal with issues so much (though the authors are married lesbians) but I wouldn't say that they are entirely ignored, either. They are just light, adventurous stories (with magical/mechanical dragons!) for the most part, with a range of characters I found to be a lot of fun and all of them lovable in their various ways (even Rook who is the very definition of toxic masculinity) in spite of or because of their individual strengths and flaws and vulnerabilities.

 

[Danny McG]

Is there a line where they stop being a science fiction story and instead just become a romance in a starship story?

I seem to recall a discussion on that issue somewhere in a thread in here.
If you could take away the SFF trappings and still have the same tale then IMO it's romance faking it up as genre

(unless you're Captain Kirk of course)

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Is there a line where they stop being a science fiction story and instead just become a romance in a starship story?

I seem to recall a discussion on that issue somewhere in a thread in here.
If you could take away the SFF trappings and still have the same tale then IMO it's romance faking it up as genre

(unless you're Captain Kirk of course)

I think that’s up to where you put your own personal line of sff. I certainly include romance in a space ship within mine. But there’s absolutely no reason why the level of science should be a barrier, frankly. Because just like every straight character in sff doesn’t have a relationship element in that story, nor does every LGBT/trans character. But I think it would be very important to consider the whole of any character’s person and life before writing them, as always.

 

[Danny McG]

Fair enough Jo, good points.
Back to Antigone wanting trans centric recommendations, we got a recent review here of a book by Charlie Jane Anders

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders Human colonists have settled the planet January, a tidally-locked world where it is too cold to survive on the nightside and too hot on the dayside. Instead, the few human settlements are located in a narrow band of twilight, struggling...

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[Abernovo]

@dannymcg , I am so tempted to introduce you to Captain Kirk slash fiction, right now.

There are a lot of sff stories with romance in them, going back to Flash Gordon in the 1930s, and beyond. However, don't make the mistake that LGBTQ+ inclusivity must result in romance. It doesn't have to at all, and I'm sure there's at least one aro/ace story in one of the sff anthologies I have on my Kobo. But I welcome romance where it appears. And Mouse's Space Jam does have some good, silly sexiness to it.

 

[tachyon]

There's a lot of it out there nowadays. Here's a few as I think of them, in no particular order.

Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower, fantasy novel, trans MC.
Ariah by B.R. Sanders, fantasy novel, just super gay from cover to cover.
Witchmark by C.L. Polk, fantasy novel, gay MC
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden, scifi webcomic turned printed graphic novel, all female cast, f/f romance.
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan, fantasy, queer (bi maybe, I don't remember) MC.
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden - scifi/urban fantasy - queer characters, m/m romance
The Tiger's Daughter by K Arsenault Rivera - queer MC, f/f romance.
The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood - fantasy novel, (spoiler: f/f romance, queer mc)
The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders - scifi novel, queer characters

That's what comes to mind immediately, there's definitely more out there.

 

[Danny McG]

@dannymcg , I am so tempted to introduce you to Captain Kirk slash fiction, right now

Is that where him and Spock are a couple?
I've seen a few, but can't envisage it happening.
Kirk will, in my mind, always be the guy who gets the hot chick in every third episode.

 

[Vince W]

Is queer/trans romance a requirement? If not then I would recommend Samuel Delany's books. Not overtly gay for the most part, but it's certainly part of the subtext.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The books I mentioned are unmistakably science fantasy. There would be no story there without the speculative element. The romances of the characters—not all the characters are involved in romances anyway—are just part of their stories. Romantic relationships are a large part of the human experience. Whether it is a part that a particular reader might be interested in reading about is another matter—we all have our preferred things we like to read about and things we would rather skip over as not of personal interest—but for a writer to entirely avoid that part of life in a story with any variety of characters and depth of characterization gives a pretty skewed idea of what the human race is actually like. A smaller story, focussed on a single event in the lives of a few characters is necessarily selective, and a different matter entirely. But wide landscapes and large casts bring other expectations.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Is queer/trans romance a requirement? If not then I would recommend Samuel Delany's books. Not overtly gay for the most part, but it's certainly part of the subtext.

I think that fits with the OP

 

[antigonedied4oursins]

Becky Chambers, starting with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, includes a good range of sexualities and gender issues, including a convention on using gender neutral pronouns for all sapient lifeforms until they let you know what is preferred. I'll admit to being a bit of a fan. Kameron Hurley is good, although I've mainly read her shorter stuff. Laura Lam writes great fiction, with central characters across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, often bi, intersex or trans - Pantomime works particularly well as an alternate world fantasy with an intersex MC. (She's also a rarely-visiting Chronner.) M Evan MacGriogair/Emmie Mears (depending on the book) has a full range, as well.

Sarah Gailey is on my TBR list. Cheryl Morgan is more of one for academic research, and essays, but has produced some short stories. Foz Meadows, Aliette de Bodard, Corinne Duyvie (On the Edge of Gone is amazing). Charlie Jane Anders, obviously. I could go on.

For film, it gets a bit more difficult, if you want to stay within sff. Neil Jordan's Byzantium was good, iirc. My favourite for TV has to be Wynonna Earp (what, have I mentioned this before? ) and Supergirl, and Pose (but that's not sff).

As Mouse says, what are you looking for? Give an example of what you've enjoyed, or the sort of thing you would want to read, and it might help. And, of course, YMMV - I'm not a fan of Breakfast on Pluto, but A Fantastic Woman was great. And, of course, web series are producing some cutting edge programming now, including Her Story, and that's not even that recent.

Ah, thank you so much! These are awesome recommendations, sorry I was so broad! I love Rocky Horror Picture Show, Barbarella, and all campy sci-fi, and I pretty much love anything in the fantasy genre!

@dannymcg , I am so tempted to introduce you to Captain Kirk slash fiction, right now.

There are a lot of sff stories with romance in them, going back to Flash Gordon in the 1930s, and beyond. However, don't make the mistake that LGBTQ+ inclusivity must result in romance. It doesn't have to at all, and I'm sure there's at least one aro/ace story in one of the sff anthologies I have on my Kobo. But I welcome romance where it appears. And Mouse's Space Jam does have some good, silly sexiness to it.

Spock and Kirk are one of my favorite couples, their love story is so incredibly well done throughout TOS!

Is queer/trans romance a requirement? If not then I would recommend Samuel Delany's books. Not overtly gay for the most part, but it's certainly part of the subtext.

I wouldn't say so at all! I've been especially looking for trans-centric stories, in particular science fiction and fantasy, and Delany's books are a fantastic recommendation! Thank you so much!

Is that where him and Spock are a couple?
I've seen a few, but can't envisage it happening.
Kirk will, in my mind, always be the guy who gets the hot chick in every third episode.

I second checking some Spock and Kirk slash out! Writers are impressively able to put their dynamics and relationship in a context where it's more explicitly romantic, and less coded, and I know a lot of people who have been turned on to them as a couple by slash!

 

[Mouse]

Just realised it says SFF/Fantasy in the thread title, but still super broad. You need to check out publishers of trans/queer stuff and you'll be spoilt for choice. Ninestar Press is a good place to start. Here: https://ninestarpress.com/product-category/genre/sci-fi-fantasy/ LGBTQA+ books galore.

 

[soulsinging]

Not explicitly queer, but James Tiptree (the pen name for Alice Sheldon) writes some very out there sf that plays with notions of gender in interesting ways.

Also, doesn’t le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness deal with non-binary sexuality? I’ve only read the Dispossessed so far.