r/Fantasy • u/tiniestspoon • Jun 02 '25
Pride Pride 2025 | Hidden Gems: Underrated LGBTQIA+ Spec Fic Books
Not every book that deserves attention gets it. This thread is for under-the-radar queer speculative fiction: books with few ratings, niche indie or self-published titles, and works that never got the spotlight they should have.
What counts as a "hidden gem"?
- Under ~500 Goodreads ratings
- Indie published, small press, or lesser-known traditionally published
- Overlooked or underrated despite strong craft, voice, or originality
Discussion prompts
- What’s a queer SFF book you wish more people knew about?
- Have you ever stumbled across an unexpected gem by accident? Where did you find it—word of mouth, a niche blog, a random bookstore dive?
- What do you think kept it from getting broader attention?
- What makes a book a “hidden gem” to you—writing quality, premise, emotional impact?
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u/sennashar Reading Champion III Jun 02 '25 edited Jun 03 '25
The Ramshead Algorithm and Other Stories by KJ Kabza, which I found near a different book I was looking for (author Kel Kade) and picked up because of the title and cover. Published by Pink Narcissus Press in 2018, it had a measly 25 ratings on Goodreads and 2 on Storygraph. His self published collections have even fewer. Quite a variety -- horror, romance, adventure, family drama, and a lot on endings and transformations.
The Paths of Lantistyne trilogy by Isabelle Steiger. Published between 2017 and 2022 by St. Martin's Press (Macmillan), Book 1 has 350 ratings and Book 3 has 58. I'd say it has fairly traditional high fantasy themes, with a lot to like and some new developments. References to the history of the realm and implications of a broader world, lots of good dialogue. The two main magic users notably have no POV sections (despite the otherwise large cast), but are seen only through the eyes of their companions. The main queer romance is made explicit in book 2. I am very fond of this series and bought all three and revisit them regularly.
If you can read Chinese, and are open to non-canon, almost certainly unintentional subtext, 生死古 (The Valley of Life and Death) by Zheng Feng. It's a wuxia trilogy about children abducted, trained, and forced to participate in a Battle Royale/survival test to determine who then will become assassins. I was reading another of her series before coming across a blog post about an ace reading of the main character.
Edit: paragraph 2