fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2659 ]

[ SECRET POST #2659 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2659 ⌋

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Notes:

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Mainly fantasy! Just got an e-reader and want to put some new books on it. I like fantasy, especially high fantasy (not too big into urban fantasy). I also like science fiction, but more on the, err, "high science fiction" end of things, if that makes sense - far off from the real world.

What are your favorites in the genre? To be honest, most of what I have read is not very famous (or at least doesn't seem to have a fandom) so chances are if you recommend it, I likely have not read it.

Bonus points for any fantasy/sci-fi with gay characters, male or female! (I haven't yet read any gay fantasy/sci-fi that was particularly good) Thank you for your recs!

Check out the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms & sequels by N. K Jemisin imo! It's a trilogy about a fantasy world, there's like fallen gods that live among the people and stuff, and each book is from a different character's perspective so you get different looks at things. Idk I really loved the worldbuilding, I found it super engaging, and the protagonists are always super cool!

I'm also really big on Finnikin of the Rock & sequels by Melina Marchetta, it's about fantasy and prophecy and a cursed city and a missing prince, but really it's just about all these characters and their different relationships, and like different kinds of love-- romantic, familial, friendship, etc. I just really loved all the characters' relationships, it gave me a lot of emotions about families and people who love each other.

Yeah idk that's what I can think of off the top of my head, those are just some that are a little less commonly known that really stuck with me!

Second the first one and adding: There's also various gay side characters in the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms trilogy, and the main character's romance in the third book is m/m.

I quite like Patrick Rothfuss' series-- the Name of the Wind is the first one, I think, and then Wise Man's Fear. It's fairly standard fantasy, I guess, but I found it very enjoyable. I also enjoyed Blood Song by Anthony Ryan.

I'll scrounge around in my Amazon wish list and try to come up with some other recs :) Would love any of your recs as well!

ayrt

Ooh, I did read The Name of the Wind, but I haven't read the second one yet. Is it good?

My recs? Hmm, I quite liked Katherine Kerr's Deverry series. It's very layered, jumping around in patches here and there of the same characters in different reincarnations. Kind of confused at first, but it's interesting how it all comes together over the course of the series.

Re: Fantasy/sci-fi book recommendation?

(Anonymous) - 2014-04-15 00:38 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy/sci-fi book recommendation?

(Anonymous) - 2014-04-15 01:02 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy/sci-fi book recommendation?

(Anonymous) - 2014-04-15 01:28 (UTC) - Expand

This probably won't be to your taste, but it's pretty much the literary origin of 80s cyberpunk: William Gibson's Neuromancer trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive.) Some of my favourite books in the world.

Most of the fantasy I read is contemporary stuff, but you might like Patricia McKillip. Very colorful and enjoyable. Also I'm like constitutionally incapable of not recommending Little, Big by John Crowley.

For science fiction, Iain M Banks fits the bill for someone whose work is really far removed from the present day.

Iain M Banks is one of my favourite writers.

I reccomend his Culture series, especially Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games and Use of Weapons.

I'll take on the gay characters stuff. Quality may vary, but I've at least enjoyed all of them, even if they're not Great Literature:

Fantasy:
The Stepsister Scheme and its sequels, by Jim C. Hines. YA fiction involving Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White as essentially elite spies in a fairy tale kingdom. Sleeping Beauty is re-imaged as a gay woman.

Swordspoint and its sequels/short stories, by Ellen Kushner. Political scheming in a renaissance-y world. Pretty much every major character is at least a bit queer.

The Last Herald-Mage trilogy (first book is Magic's Promise) by Mercedes Lackey. It's set in her Valdemar universe, which has something like 50 books at this point, but each trilogy is fairly standalone. I *loved* them when I was 13, and even now they're still fun, if a bit silly. I recommend this trilogy, since the main character is a gay man.

On the Sci-Fi front, I'm having trouble coming up with specifics. I do recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga books. I can't recall any explicitly gay characters, but there's a bisexual man who ends up in a relationship with a woman, but his past relationships with men are fully acknowledged, and a couple other queer-friendly relationships.

Seconding Stepsister Scheme. One of Hines' more recent novels, Libriomancer, has a lesbian/bi pair as well. It's more urban fantasy, but a very tongue-in-cheek, lighthearted kind.

I tried the Vorkosigan books and found them boring. However, I know others who loved them and they do have good gay representation in the character mix.

Seconding Stepsister Scheme and its sequels. Also, Hines' new series, Magic Ex Libris (starting with Libriomancer) is great, too. I'd also recommend his Jig the Goblin series, though none of the main characters have any sort of stated sexuality at all, if I'm remembering correctly. They're too busy trying not to die and/or trying to kill each other to have any sort of romantic thoughts. Also, there's a fire-spider named Smudge who is so cool and adorable that he's one of two fictional spiders that I would not smush on sight (the other, of course, being Charlotte).

I do recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga books. I can't recall any explicitly gay characters, ...

Ethan.

Fantasy:
China Mieville - specifically The City and The City, which combines fantasy and crime fiction (less high fantasy but imo more accessible), and Perdido Street Station, which is amazing but hard to digest sometimes.
Sharon Shinn - the Samaria series, but mainly Archangel and Jovah's Angel. Much lighter fare, though not entirely light-hearted.
Sci-Fi:
Philip Jose Farmer - To Your Scattered Bodies Go (and the rest of the Riverworld series). After dying, all the people who ever lived on Earth before it was destroyed by a group of aliens in 1985 (including one of the aliens) wake up on the Riverworld, an artificial world encircled by a single long river. They're all young again, they each have a renewable source of food, and every time they die they are resurrected again. An old series, and it does read like it, so it is very much not for everyone.
Hannu Rajaniemi - The Quantum Thief. A thief is sprung from prison in the far future in order to steal something for his rescuer's employers. First he has to recover his memory, which he hid from even himself. (Book one of an unfinished trilogy)
Frank Herbert - Dune. One of my favourite books. Betrayal, politics, destiny, addiction.

I loved the Riverworld series. Mark Twain as a main character! Great fun.

Dune is one of my all time faves. Read it so many times. How did I forget that on my list?

The first good fantasy with gay characters that comes to mind is the Doctrine of Labyrinths. It wasn't really my thing, but a lot of people loved it. (There's also Palimpsest, but I think that one's overrated.)

Might as well add that the protagonist of Doctrine of Labyrinths is basically Fanon!Snape, only pretty and with good hair.

For fantasy, The Emperor's Soul and The Rithmatist, by Brandon Sanderson, are good. Unfortunately I can't speak to any gay characters. Emperor's Soul won the 2013 Hugo for novellas, so there's that in its favor.

I tend to read urban fantasy, but I did fairly recently enjoy the first two books in The Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks. (Which is high fantasy. I forgot to mention. :P ) The characters were interesting, the plots were interesting, and I really liked the way he set up the way the magic system worked. It intrigued me.

Edited 2014-04-15 02:06 (UTC)

Strata by Terry Pratchett is a really good sci-fi novel and quite different than the rest of his output. It's my favourite of his by far.

Other all-time sci-fi favourites include:
Foundation series by Isaac Asimov
Augmented Agent by Jack Vance
Space Opera by Jack Vance
(any other Jack Vance book ever, although he's not to everyone's taste)
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
The Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe (and sequels) by Douglas Adams
The Culture series by Iain M Banks (the only one on this list with major gay/bi characters, I think)

Jack Vance is fantastic! His style is distinctive but I really love it. Seconding that one. He's also a very good fantasy writer, so OP could check those out as well, especially if they like his style.

Re: Fantasy/sci-fi book recommendation?

inevitableentresol - 2014-04-15 03:06 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy/sci-fi book recommendation?

cushlamochree - 2014-04-15 03:15 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy/sci-fi book recommendation?

inevitableentresol - 2014-04-15 03:47 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy/sci-fi book recommendation?

cushlamochree - 2014-04-15 04:33 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy/sci-fi book recommendation?

inevitableentresol - 2014-04-15 11:59 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Fantasy/sci-fi book recommendation?

dreemyweird - 2014-04-15 06:48 (UTC) - Expand

The Outremer series by Chaz Brenchley is the best set of fantasy books I've read that star gay characters. I'd also second the rec for Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner.

I really enjoyed When Women Were Warriors. The first part is available for free on Kindle.

Re: Fantasy/sci-fi book recommendation?

darkmanifest - 2014-04-15 04:08 (UTC) - Expand

Bujold's Chalion series (at least the first two).
N. K. Jemisin
Karen Lord
Joan Slonczsewski
The translated Spanish anthology Terra Nova was surprisingly queer (more from the Science Fiction side.)

C J Cherryh's 'Fortress' series is quite excellent, five books in all, wonderful world-building.

Also her 'Rusalka' series (that's the first book), which is about Russian folk-lore/ghosts/magic. Sadly, no gay characters, though the friendships are intense and easily lead to headcanon shipping (she has canon gay characters in some of her sci-fi books).

It's been ages since i read any really good fantasy stuff, sorry, so that's all i got.

Oh - A Companion to Wolves is excellent if a bit gory.

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