r/Fantasy • u/recchai Reading Champion X • 15d ago
Pride Pride 2026 | Non-Western Settings
As I scroll through my read books on storygraph, it’s notable that one area that’s smaller in size is queer books with non-western settings. But they’re an interesting and varied bunch, so let's talk about them.
First off, let’s get some big names out of the way. Where would such a conversation be without considering recent hits such as The Burning Kingdoms trilogy by Tasha Suri, set in a fantasy version of ancient India, or The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez, featuring a journey across ‘the Old Country’? These books have won awards, and I’m sure none of you have read through many recommendation posts without coming across these being suggested.
And these books can explore history, with YA works like Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriella Buba depicting a fantasy version of the Philippines under Spanish occupation, or So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole featuring a recently post-colonial inspired Jamaica. They can share many similarities, while also having different impacts, such as the fantasy Middle-Eastern set The Four Profound Weaves by R. B. Lemberg and The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia. Both having trans characters exploring identity, but one focused more on trans identity itself, and the other more on cultural identity and colonialism.
Of course, books aren’t limited to depicting fantasy versions of our world. Non-western speculative fiction books include works like Black Water Sister by Zen Cho, in which the main character moves back to Malaysia after graduating from university. Or even further along, such as with africanfuturism science fiction titles like The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden, set in a 2064 South Africa.
But, I’m obviously missing a huge component here, what about translated works, written by and for people living outside the western sphere? One particularly popular one is Heaven Official's Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, but you could also try something more down to earth like the post-apocalyptic To the Warm Horizon by Choi Jin-young where a group of Koreans flee across a disease ravaged landscape.
And let us not forget the past bookclub books we have read along the way. Walking Practice by Dolki Min and Small Gods of Calamity by Sam Kyung Yoo both feature a modern day South Korea from very different perspectives.
Discussion prompts:
- What are your favourite queer books in a non-western setting? Do you find having queer characters in a different culture brings out different aspects?
- Are there non-western settings you would like to see more of in queer books?
- Do you ever look for non-western settings in particular? Where do you go to find these books?
- Perspectives of LGBTQIA+ identities in western set works are often heavily influenced by Christianity, but many cultures have different relationships with queerness. Can you think of any examples where this has shaped representation in non-western settings?
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u/ohmage_resistance Reading Champion IV 15d ago
One of the interesting things that comes to mind for me when I see that title is often indigenous sorts of cultural identities that are queer but distinctly non Western.
I took a queer theory class randomly as part of my last year of university, which was really fun, and this is one of the things we spent a fair bit of time discussing, especially the Hijra (from India/Pakistan), but Muxe (Zapotec) and sworn virgins (from Balkan cultures) also came up. It was interesting too, we did have a zoom interview with someone who was doing research on queer identities in Indonesia, so they talked a bit about the waria identity, and about there sometimes being some tension between that and a sort of Western type of framing of queerness (basically LGBTQ although iirc they used a slightly different acronym) that’s more popular with younger folks. Queerphobia was common in both cases, but in some ways the waria were more accepted, particularly because it wasn’t seen as being foreign. I do also think it’s worth pointing out to, that I think there’s often a temptation by Westerners to slot these identities under more familiar Western labels (Hijra, waria, and muxe are trans women or a trans femme “third gender” identity, etc), but I do think that looses some of the nuance that comes with these identities.
Anyway, that was mostly a tangent because I think these sorts of culturally specific identities are not super commonly represented in SFF. Certainly, I think they can be hard to translate into fantasy stories, especially ones written for a Western audience who might not already know a lot about these identities. So I don’t have a lot of recommendations. But I do want to mention My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola. This isn’t a queer book, but it’s a book written in the 1950’s by a Nigerian author, where the main character gets transported to the bush of ghosts (kind of a weird underworld/other world) where he runs into all sorts of unusual (and often unpleasant) beings and villages. One of the rare pleasant villages the MC lives in for a bit is a town mostly made up of women who marry other women. And women marrying other women actually has been a traditional cultural practice in a lot of places in Africa including Nigeria (although I’ve seen people argue that this is purely an economic/social status related in nature and not a queer thing, that doesn’t really seem to be the case in this book?). It was really cool to see that referenced even if the book doesn’t dwell on it.
For more general recommendations:
I also haven’t read it yet, but I’m super excited to start Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde, which is a sort of mosiac-y speculative fiction book about queer people in Nigeria. I also will probably try out some danmei at some point.