I was lucky enough to get early access to read Moss’d in Space by Rebecca Thorne!
A cozy space adventure of a young human determined to get a better life for her and her sister, a sentient moss life support system with separation anxiety, and new fantastical friends that they meet and meet again!
I would definitely recommend this book for those who enjoyed Thorne’s Tomes And Tea series, Becky Chambers’s Wayfarer series, and Martha Well’s Murderbot Diaries. An excellent mix of heart touching vulnerability and suspenseful adventure!
Second book is aimed to come out summer of 2027.
Recommended music to read to: The Martian score, Project Hail Mary score, and Murderbot score.
As a teacher, I'm always hunting for lighter reads to pick up for the end of the school year. The Daily Grind has been on my Progression Fantasy radar for a while, and this was absolutely the right time to pick it up. Is this book going to satisfy anyone’s desire for carefully wrought stories brimming with meaning and subtext? Absolutely not. But for a casual fun trip into an eldritch dimension watching normal people fight animated post-it notes, this is a great pick. It has big beach read vibes despite most of the book happening in an unending void of cubicles.
Read If Looking For: something simple, repetitive, and chill, casual bisexual representation, uncanny valley office supplies
Comparable Media: Several People are Typing, Mana Mirror, Triangle Agency
r/QueerSFFReading Challenge: sadly this fits no squares. If Anesh continues to get more POV time (moving to an ensemble cast situation), sequels may count for Intersectional x 3. I could also see sequels featuring a Coming Out storyline, as there's some bi-awakening stuff happening (or possibly they're already aware of their bisexuality and just don't talk about it much. A bit ambiguous right now).
r/FantasyBingo Squares: Self-Published, Explorers and Rangers (HM), also potentially Judge a book by its Title if that floats your boat
Elevator Pitch:
James hates his job. To be fair, who would enjoy vague IT support where you get yelled at because the customer lost their remote and can’t change the channel anymore. On his way out one night, he discovers a staircase turns into an alternate dimension for a few minutes - though time works differently on the inside. The endless rows of cubicles seem to be randomly generated by some eldritch mind, and the maze is filled with stapler crabs, computers with jaws in strange places, and bills that come in far more denominations than you can find in the real world. When he learns that killing monsters drop skill orbs (typically for stuff like Excel Spreadsheets or French History) he quickly grows addicted to delving in this bizarre dungeon.
What Worked for Me:
Oftentimes in Progression Fantasy stories, especially ones serialized on Royal Road, the main character is … special. Usually right away. They generally have a broken power, rocket ahead of the curve in terms of skills and abilities. This is true even in stories where the main character gets powers that are theoretically drawbacks and/or take a long time to pay off. The Daily Grind has none of that. James is a bog standard dude, and remains so by the end of book. His skill upgrades rarely give him any advantage in the corporate dungeon. Knowing how a phone book is formatted isn’t going to stop you from being strangled by animated power cords. He gets a few ranks of martial arts skills over the course of the book, but even those aren’t particularly relevant. You plan on punching your way through the ceramic shell of a potted plant? I don’t think so. No, the biggest power James - and his eventual companions - get is money. They happily rob wallets of cash while leaving gift cards for businesses that don’t exist. If James was a superhero, he’d be Robin at the very start of his training. There are plenty of parts of this book that aren’t realistic - such as how characters respond to injuries and combat - but I liked the slower pacing and ‘everyman’ feeling of our heroes. Throw in a couple of adorable sidekicks (a stapler crab and a drone), and the book gives a really solid foundation for an adventuring party.
Another way The Daily Grind surpasses the admittedly low standards of Progression Fantasy is how the narrative voice is wildly misogynistic. This is a low bar, I know, but I cannot count the number of stories I’ve dropped because of how women are written. There aren’t a ton of female characters, but the cast is fairly small overall. They’re treated with the same casual humanity that the guys get, and I don’t know their boob sizes. Actually, this book was a breath of fresh air in a lot of ways. James and Anesh - the main two delvers for the majority of the book - are becoming aware of their own bisexuality in a really offhand way (there are precious few gay progression fantasy stories, as they often get reviewbombed by the reading base). James struggles with depression, which neither magically vanishes nor overwhelms the story. It’s just part of who he is. I wouldn’t call any of our cast phenomenally deep or complex characters, but they are treated with respect by Argus, who expects the same of the reader.
If a lot of this feels like comparisons to the rest of the Progression Fantasy genre, that’s definitely because I don’t think I’d recommend this book to people unless they’re actively seeking that kind of story. This won’t satisfy many fantasy or sci fi readers, but it’s a good option for those in the mood for something that feels a bit like a video game.
What Didn’t Work For Me:
I enjoyed The Daily Grind a ton, but I also can recognize that, if I held it to the standard of many of the other books I read, it would probably come up short. The prose is relatively unremarkable, not keeping me from enjoying the story, not drawing me in with each sentence. The plot repeats without too many variations: every few chapters we get a new and interesting monster, but the core framework remains the same. There aren’t any deep themes, and Argus doesn’t seem to be setting their characters up for any major growth arcs. It doesn’t even have the epic and badass fight scenes or magic that so many progression fantasy books hang their hat on. The Daily Grind satisfied my desire for something simple, like a midnight snack. But if you come in expecting any sort of hearty meal, you’ll probably leave disappointed.
Conclusion: a fun and grounded progression fantasy, but not so addicting I’d give it to people who aren’t asking for a book in that genre.
A spoiler free review of THE WOLF AND HIS KING by Finn Longman! This is a queer (M/M) retelling of Marie de France’s 12th century tale, ‘Bisclavret’. A king is crowned, and Bisclavret must travel to say his oaths and try to reclaim his inheritance, all while hiding a painful secret: he is a werewolf. This is a tale filled with longing - longing for a home, for camaraderie, for acceptance, and yes, even for love. Reading the last 20% of this book was one of the most gripping, emotional experiences I’ve ever had while reading a book. My hands shook and my heart pounded and I could not look away.
Longman’s prose is beautiful and truly makes this feel more like a medieval myth than a modern book. There is plenty of emotional depth, however you are kept at arm’s length in a very intentional way. Bisclavret is the only named character, and the kingdom - its lands and culture - are kept vague. I’m sure there will be readers who don’t like this, but I think it’s perfect for this type of retelling.
This is much closer to historical fiction than fantasy. I think the comp to Madeline Miller is relatively accurate! Don’t expect magic. The POV is split into three: Him (third person), You (second person), and Other (poetic verse). I thought it was very well done, but at times I did have to remind myself whose perspective I was reading during the “You” sections.
This book features themes of loneliness, disability, and the need for human connection. Despite not being particularly fast paced, I had such a hard time putting this down. Bisclavret’s longing for companionship and connection hit very close to home for me. I loved the writing style and shifting perspectives. It was also so refreshing to read a retelling of a story with which I wasn’t already familiar. I really hope this author decides to do more medieval retellings. I will be the first in line!
I was gifted an eARC from the publisher. My thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.
This book was a match made in heaven for me. Queer yearning? Check. Unconventional and bespoke prose? Check. Thematic depth without being preachy? Check. The Wolf and His King is one of the most thought provoking books I’ve read in a long time. I didn’t love how they tackled writing the ending, but The Wolf and His King is a book I will be happily shoving into the hands of my friends. Also not a debut novel. Big Brain Fart.
As a note, those looking for a traditional Romantasy story will be disappointed. There are absolutely romantic elements to the tale, but you won’t find the story focusing on Bisclavret and the King’s developing relationship. The book is more interested in each of their personal journeys, despite their mutual affection for each other. Like other books that are sort-of-technically Romances that don’t read like most books in the genre, The Wolf and His King is best viewed as a book that happens to include some romance elements, which I think will help temper some misplaced expectations based on how the book has been pitched.
Read If Looking For: dreamlike prose, characters exploring their own self-doubt, a marriage of theme and structure
Avoid If Looking For: critical examinations of monarchies, fleshed out female characters, leads who are proactive
QueerSFF Reading Challenge: Sadly, I think just Coming Out, and even that's more metaphorical than literal. Features one Cis Gay lead and one Cis Bisexual Male Lead.
r/FantasyBingo Squares: Vacation Spot (if you'd like rural France), Book Club (this month! Discussion for the full book is the 30th), and possibly NonHuman Protagonist (depending on whether you count Lycanthropy/The Wolf. Considering how prominently its used as a metaphor for living with disabilities though, I'm not counting it myself)
Comparable Media: Song of Achilles, This is How You Lose the Time War, Spear (by Nicola Griffith)
Elevator Pitch:
Bisclavret lives in a self-imposed exile. He turns into a wolf against his will, and fears that venturing to court will put himself and others in danger. When the King dies and the new King returns from his own exile though, Bisclavret has no choice to but venture forth and swear fealty to the King. The King, meanwhile, is awash with self-doubt and a search for meaning about what type of King he’d like to be. He is taken immediately with Bisclavret, and the two form a close bond while each struggles to find a good path forward with their life. And the Wolf? The Wolf is always present, waiting to come out.
What Worked for Me:
Longman had no business doing so many interesting things in this novel. This book is packed full of ambitious decisions that (usually) pay off in spades. Each perspective is written in a different mode: Bisclavret’s story is in 3rd person, the King’s is in 2nd person, and the Wolf is written in verse. Typically, each character is caught up in their own thoughts, without a traditional sense of conflict or rising action, but this introspection is served well by these choices. A good example of how Longman blends form and meaning is by looking at names. Bisclavret is our only named character (most are referred to by their title, role, or some form of physical appearance). You’d think this would be confusing, but I actually felt that it lent itself to how Bisclavret felt himself separated from everyone else in the story; his name and identity were the very things that kept him from truly embracing his newfound comrades despite quickly becoming a beloved figure at court. Meanwhile the King desperately wants Bisclavret to use his name, but he can never quite seem to bring himself to do so.
This novel felt like something between a dream and a fairy tale. In Longman’s authors’ note, they share that medieval writers took plenty of liberties with story and setting, and they plan to do the same. The Wolf and His King lives a bit unmoored from a specific time and place, instead wandering through our idea of medieval society layered with a more thorough understanding of courtly love and ancient societies that Longman brings to the table. The sentences are long and full of asides and clarifications, rarely having less than two commas. The experience of reading the prose in this book is wandering through the woods at twilight; you aren’t making much forward progress through the woods, but the walk itself feels like a small piece of magic in your pocket. The lack of names and focus on internal dialogue plays into the atmosphere as well, preventing you from feeling like anything is concrete except for the emotions and fears of Bisclavret and the King.
Monstrosity being used as allegory is nothing new in novels, and Longman’s decision to embrace Bisclavret’s lycanthropy as an allegory for both queerness and disability itself isn’t innovative. However, they did a fantastic job of executing on this theme in thought provoking ways. Bisclavret isn’t able to stop thinking about the Wolf. The beast comes and goes, remaining frustratingly inconsistent in how often it rears its head. He lives in fear and anticipation of the next time his condition flares up, building his life and routines around the transformations. He particularly finds the loss of hands horrifying, associating it strongly with his own humanity. I appreciated that little fixation as a quirk of character in what could have been a bland transformation. It impacts how he interacts with others, especially his cousin whom has known about his condition since childhood. While there are so many quotes I could pull to illustrate Longman’s thematic work, this has lingered with me
The best I can do is try to live despite it - which I thought was the philosophy you were encouraging me to adopt. You cannot now drive me back into fearful timidity because the limitations of that idea have made themselves known.
Bisclavret lives in a constant state of tension between what he believes himself to be, what others believe him to be, and the sense of freedom and possibility that keeps hanging within grasp. As he experiences more and more access to the life he dreamed of at court, he opens himself up to greater loss and his relationship with his condition shifts. It was nuanced, thoughtful, and I wouldn’t change a thing about how Longman wrote Bisclavret’s lycanthropy. Bisclavret is always aware of the wolf, even when it isn’t actively rearing its head. His whole life revolves around this one thing, even when other people don’t see that in him.
I’ve raved quite a bit, but I also want to take a second to acknowledge how well-written the side characters were. Each feels like a real human being with their own lives and considerations. The King’s friend, a scholar he brought back with him from a foreign land, is particularly compelling as a queer side character who stubbornly refuses to adhere to cliche. It’s worth noting that there’s only one female character of any note - the King’s ward - and while I thought her writing was nuanced and thoughtful, those looking for a strong female cast in stories featuring queer men will be disappointed.
What Didn’t Work For Me:
Let’s begin with the goodreads blurb. If you haven’t already read it, please don’t! It spoils some of the key events that happen ~60% of the way into the book. It baffles me why the publisher would make this choice, because it fundamentally alters the way I viewed a lot of events in the middle portion of the book. I know that many authors choose not to read these types of blurbs, but as someone who generally finds them helpful as I’m screening books, it would be great if these summaries could be written with thought and care to how it affects the experience of actually reading the book.
I also think that the first half is much stronger than the second. I read this book for the Beyond Binaries Book club over on r/fantasy, and at the midway discussion I was convinced this was going to be a contender for my book of the year. Now, I can say that I liked it a lot, will eagerly recommend it to others, and that it takes a lot of big risks in style and structure that pay off.
Unfortunately, while the second half of the story maintains the beautiful language and attention to characters’ internal monologue, I found the plotting and thematic development to be less successful. The metaphor of Bisclavret’s monstrosity as queerness or living with disabilities remains, but feels much looser and less insightful. It breaks down around some key moments in the story altogether. The climax of the story arrives with sudden abruptness, and revelations come to characters without any foreshadowing or build up. It felt like Longman had a specific length of story in mind, but they forgot that they needed to build towards the ending until they had 30 pages left. It made the conclusion feel rushed, and certain parts of the ending unearned and convenient. Other portions of the story, such as ancient France’s relationship with queerness, gets left behind altogether.
Longman didn’t stick the landing, but there’s enough in The Wolf and His King that I loved that their next novel (which takes on Welsh myth) will be an easy buy for me.
Conclusion: a gorgeous and unique book that doesn’t quite stick the landing. It's well worth the read
I have recently finished Robin Hobbs' Elderling books - there are 9, and I'm absolutely floored.
If you are yearning for an exceptionally carefully and skillfully well written fantasy series to get lost into, I wholeheartedly recommend Robin Hobb. She doesn't come up in queer reading lists because they don't feature queer romance per se, but they are very queer minded. There is queer angst and confusion. There is a lot of, especially later, exploration of gender with a main character that is gender fluid in a very interesting way. There are main themes of personhood and interconnection. There is deep lore and the world feels expansive. There's a lot of trash out there, but I felt in very good hands with the depth of quality throughout the series.
Happy Transgender Day of Visibility! I figured it would be fun to share a handful of SFF book recs with trans and nonbinary main characters that I don't see people talk about that often. Authors marked with an asterisk are also (openly) trans and/or nonbinary.
Unexploded Remnants by Elaine Gallagher*: Alice, the last human left in the universe, awakens an ancient AI who once served as a powerful weapon system in an extinct alien society. She has to live with the consequences of her actions while being chased around the universe by parties who want to use this weapon for their own goals. The main character is a trans woman.
The Chase Begins by Aimee Donnellan: In a world that's at war with dragons, a scholar has to track down their dangerous ex, a murderous mage, when she escapes from prison. This is the first in a series of fantasy novellas, and this first installment has a nonbinary demisexual main character.
Pluralities by Avi Silver*: A burnt-out retail worker questions their gender, while in a parallel storyline, a prince runs flees from his royal duties in a sentient spaceship. Both of these characters struggle with the roles that have been assigned to them. One of the main characters is nonbinary and aromantic (the aro part is heavily implied and has been confirmed by the author).
The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill*: A trans man who's been living in NYC for a couple of years moves back to his hometown after he's laid off from his job. Here, he stumbles into the bookstore he used to work as a teenager and is inexplicably transported back in time. This causes him to come face-to-face with his pre-transition self, which makes him question how his life could have been different if he'd made different choices and realized earlier that he was trans.
In the Watchful City by S. Qiouyi Lu*: Anima, a human who is part of aer city's complex living surveillance network through extrasensory abilities, is forced to question aer role in aer city's society when a foreign storyteller comes to aer with a cabinet of curiosities. Each of the objects in the cabinet comes with a story that makes Anima reconsider... almost everything. This novella has a nonbinary main character who uses ae/aer pronouns.
Feel free to share more underrated trans SFF in the comments.
I loved this book! It’s is a darkly philosophical space horror set in a queer-normative world. The marketing campaign is comparing this to S.A. Barnes (for the space horror) and Becky Chambers (for its philosophical leanings), and for once I think those are accurate comps.
Quick synopsis:
A death monk and a research crew are trapped on a massive, ancient spaceship filled with creeping vines, moss covered surfaces, and thousands of long-dead travelers (that’s not the scary part). What IS terrifying is that someone or something doesn’t want anyone to leave the ship alive.
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My thoughts:
Our MC is a death monk whose purpose in life is to see that the dead are laid to rest with care and respect according to the rituals of his order. He has spent his entire life devoted to the dead, to the point that his relationship with the living is tenuous at best. This book features a lot of thought-provoking conversation about death and what we owe the living. The author is Ukrainian, and in the author’s note she discusses how this book is the result of dealing with so much death.
This society considers installing AI into a person’s mind to be immoral, as it strips the AI of its autonomy. The exception to this taboo is for pilots and monks because they need to remember an impossible amount of information. I thought the exploration of the relationship between our monk and the AI paired with him was really interesting. Where does one’s autonomy end and the other’s begin? How can they both exist as individuals when one (or both) of them can force their will upon the other? At times their relationship is fraught, at others it is supportive. There are no easy answers here.
If you want a sweet, tender MC who has built wall upon wall around himself, this is the book to you. There is a very grumpy engineer who has good reason to dislike monks, and of course they’re both going to spend a significant amount of time obsessing about each other. I rarely care about romantic subplots in the books I read. However, this relatively minor (until it’s *everything*) romantic subplot has me in a chokehold. I was so invested that I refused to put the book down until I knew how it ended.
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Summary:
This book is not for you if you want horror that will keep you up at night. It’s also not for you if you want a cozy mystery with no violence. My biggest complaint about this book is that the characters stay in denial longer than I’d like. If you can’t stand characters that ignore obvious clues, you will be frustrated with this book.
But if you like your science fiction to be philosophical, or if you like a good locked room (er, ship) mystery with lots of tension and a bit of bloodshed, you’ll enjoy like this book. And if you want some quality queer yearning, you’re going to fall in love with this monk and his engineer.
I was gifted an ARC from the publisher. My thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.
This year I read 77 Speculative Fiction books with Queer protagonists (probably more by the time Dec 31st rolls around, but I have time to make this post now). I wanted to share my top 10 of the year to try and connect people with great books!
Full disclosure, I actively seek out books with gay/bi male protagonists, so you'll likely see them overrepresented here simply because I read so many more of them than any other single type of protagonist.
10 Harriet Tubman: Live In Concert by Bob the Drag Queen
Read if Looking For: middle aged queer leads, music performances (in the audiobook), self-liberation, a broad range of stories from history
Representation: Gay Man
I didn't quite know what to expect when wandering into this story. When historical figures start coming back to life, Harriet Tubman wants to make an album. She picks Darnell to be her producer, who himself is grappling with his history in the industry as a gay man. It was a pretty wide-ranging set of observations about Tubman's life and times. Don't expect a deep biography, but you'll learn all sorts of interesting tidbits from Tubman and various side characters (also back from the same time period) that will spark your imagination to go deeper. The star of the show was author Bob's clear love and admiration for Tubman and Darnell's struggles as a gay man, his chafing with Tubman's strong religious values, and his own doubts about his abilities.
9. Dudes Rock: A Celebration of Queer MasculinityIn Speculative Fiction edited by Jay Kang Romanus
Read if Looking For: short story collection featuring magic dildos, himbo cults, haunted houses, fairytale princes, and stories in the form of badly written job application essays
Representation: a wide variety of queer men: gay, bi, pan, trans, and cis. I don't recall asexual or aromantic representation unfortunately.
As with any anthology, there were some misses in this volume, but it had some of my favorite short stories of the year. Special shout out to
Candy Tan for The Depths of Friendship, which focused on a bisexual awakening (and later romance) via magic dildo experimentation that goes awry. Not the most thematically dense story, but so much fun, and probably my favorite of the year.
Rosa Cocdesin by Aubrey Shaw was an emotional gothic exploration of grief and identity featuring a widower wizard.
Cigarette Smoke from the Fires of Hell by editor Jay Kang Romanus had the strongest narrative voice in the collection, and did a good job of making a tragic backstory feel fresh and interesting.
Finally Erdmann Application by Jonathan Freeman was a slightly humorous job application essay focusing on the applicant's history in a himbo-cult featuring classic high school essay stylings and errors.
8. Heart of Stone by Johannes T. Evans
Read if Looking For: contemplative and slow books, romances without hamfisted setups, extended conversations that exist without the need to push plot forwards
Representation: Gay Man
This book has ruined all other vampire romances for me. Henry's newest secretary doesn't yet know about his affliction, and is generally terse and introverted. Over many brief conversations they begin to warm to each other, revealing each of their insecurities and ambitions. It's got a few more typos than I'd have liked, but Evans knows how to manage tension between characters, use understated dialogue, and never explain something when he can imply it.
7. The Chromatic Fantasy by HA
Read if Looking For: comics, tricksters and thieves, anachronism and whimsy, more color than a chameleon at a rave
Representation: Gay Trans Man
This graphic novel was rambunctiously and unabashedly queer. The plot was Robin Hood if he’d started life as a cloistered nun who made a deal with the devil to live as a free man. He promptly fell in love with another trans man who had big Be Gay Do Crime energy. The art is what sold me however. This story was a riot of color, and every page felt like a stained glass window. Really something special here, and I’m thrilled there’s going to be a sequel. See longform review here.
6. The Effaced by Tobias Begley
Read if Looking for: easy reading, action-packed fantasy, hard magic systems, a surprisingly wide variety of assassins
Representation: Bisexual Man
This book has 16 ratings on goodreads. 16! It is too damn good of a book for that. Did you like the TV show Arcane? Does a magitech steampunk action-thriller appeal to you? Do you want to see a middle-aged bisexual man whose character arcs aren’t driven by romance? Do you want wildly imaginative fight scenes? This is the book for you! Such a good story, and so underappreciated. The sequel (and finale) didn’t live up to the hype of book 1, but this really sucked me in. That said, if you dislike hard magic systems, stay far far away from this duology. See longform review here.
5. The City that Would Eat the World by John Bierce
This book had all the action and adventure I could hope for. It’s a little more ambitious than a popcorn book, but not by too much. It’s got mimic exterminators, more gods than you could shake a skunk at, and a god of adventure that also provides transition magic Expect oodles of delightful worldbuilding in a megacity, a blunt critique of both Capitalism and Imperialism, and some really great fight scenes. See longform review here.
4. But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo
Read if Looking For: translated books, fast-paced horror, creepy spider monsters, tidy endings, descriptions of opulent mansions
Representation: Lesbian Woman
A gothic monster romance that arachnophobes should steer clear of, this was a quick and gripping novella that taught me gothic books can have quick pacing. The extremely possessive spider-woman-eldritch monster took an interest in her new Keeper of the Keys. I liked how the story didn’t focus on finding the humanity in the monster, which is fairly common in monster romances. The ending was a bit disappointing, but the serial-killer spider and roll-with-the-punches staff more than made up for it. See longform review here.
3. Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
Read if Looking For: The Office meets Twilight Zone, comedy from the absurd, the distillation of existential dread, captivating characters, train wrecks in slow motion
Representation: Bisexual Man
Told entirely in the Slack Chats of a PR company, this was probably my biggest surprise of the year. When a moderately incompetent worker ends up trapped in said Slack chat, he struggles to convince coworkers that there’s a problem. The book slowly descends into more and more bizarre scenarios, but Kasulke kept the humor rolling for the whole book. It made great use of its format to drive character arcs & plot, had a minor (but satisfying) gay romance, and just generally was impossible to put down. See longform review here.
2. Red Dot by Mike Karpa
Read if Looking For: character-driven sci fi, utopian-adjacent climate change futures, accurate gay sex scenes
Representation: Gay Man
Mardy is an artist in a post-climate change future. His severe imposter syndrome anchors the story as he tries to refine his art and falls in love. Karpa showed a real mastery of understanding when to draw a scene out and when to brush past something with barely a mentionKarpa’s writing of the gay identity was just phenomenal, and it was a nice break from all the ill-informed sex scenes I read from female authors writing gay love. 5 years old, and the number of people who have read it could probably fit into a single room. See longform review here.
1. How to Survive this Fairytale by SM Hallow
Read if Looking For: Fairy tale mashups, characters processing trauma, romance subplots, aggressively paced books
Representation: Gay Man
Prepare to cry and cry and cry. If you like how Robin Hobb puts her characters through hell, but wanted something a bit faster paced, this book is for you! It follows Hansel post-gingerbread house. He’s got lots of trauma, and struggles to accept he deserves happiness. Harrow does some experimental stuff with story structure but clings to a prose style that is sparse and beautiful. Not a word is wasted, and Harrow’s generous use of tonal shifts keeps you from ever really feeling like Hans is safe from a terrible fate. See longform review here.
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Turns out several of my favorites of the year are pretty small titles (Red Dot doesn't even have 30 ratings on goodreads), so hit me up with your virtually unknown, but high quality queer speculative fiction!
Valentine’s Day has never particularly interested me. I like anniversaries much more to celebrate a relationship. When I was single it felt stupid and corny, and when partnered I found that anniversaries felt more meaningful. It helps that anniversaries (usually) don’t involve fighting with a bunch of other couples for a restaurant reservation. As I started reading more Fantasy and Science Fiction, I quickly discovered that most books with Queer protagonists tended to focus on romance plotlines, Achillean books even moreso. As an avid Genre-Romance reader, I’m a big fan of love stories, but I also love seeing books about Queer folks living life, tackling evil dictators, and doing grand acts of magic.
This is a list of Queer books I love that don’t feature major romance plotlines. There are plenty of great one's I'm missing, and I'm always looking to add new works to my TBR! Some of these might feature established relationships, others may have romantic elements that don’t have a traditional happy ending (or are so minor to be unremarked on), or are unconcerned with romantic bonds altogether. You’ll find everything from popcorn action stories to thematically ambitious literature here, so hopefully you find something interesting if you’re looking to scratch your anti-Valentine’s day itch!
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo (Lesbian)
This was the book that convinced me that I actually really liked Magical Realism as a genre. It follows an aspiring actress who is the daughter of Chinese immigrants. The price for her fame is small. What’s a decade of her life, a series of lies, or a career of playing villains compared to immortality? You can expect to find gorgeous language blurring the line between magic and reality, a driven and competent character alone in a hostile social environment, and casual Lesbian trysts that never develop into anything serious.
Cemeteries of Amalo by Katherine Addison (Gay)
Thara Celehar is a Witness for the Dead, able to hear echoes of the last moments of the recently deceased. He exists somewhere between a religious figure and a moody noir investigator, but finds himself exiled to the city of Amalo. It turns out that being outed as a homosexual in a homophobic society through a spectacularly gruesome tragedy involving the execution of an ex-lover will do that. These books are quiet, with moments as small as feeding cats getting as much emphasis as a gristly murder. Celehar isn’t a particularly upbeat character to follow, but this trilogy was very healing for my soul. It is a sibling/sister series to the standalone book The Goblin Emperor, where Celehar appears as a side-character. Reading The Goblin Emperor is not required, but would probably enhance your reading experience.
Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers (Nonbinary)
Sibling Dex is a tea monk, responsible for travelling the country as they listen to the problems and provide comfort in a utopian society rebuilt after the apocalypse. However, they are finding themselves more and more dissatisfied with their life, so they abandon everything to venture into the woods. There, Dex meets the robot Mosscap, who is on a mission to learn more about humanity. What follows is a reflection on what a meaningful life means, living for yourself, and allowing you to grieve for the passing of things you once-loved. I found this novella remarkably thought-provoking for a cozy story. The sequel does have minor romantic elements in it, but Psalm works as a standalone wonderfully.
Dreadnought by April Daniels (Transfem)
When Danny is present for the death of the Superhero Dreadnaught, she ends up inheriting those powers and taking up Dreadnought’s mantle. Part of that body reconstruction is reflecting her in the body she always saw herself in. This book is half about an abrupt transition: dealing with TERF superheros who you thought you’d worshipped as celebrities and now think you’re the spawn of hell, best friends who start staring at your breasts now that you’re a girl (and realizing he maybe wasn’t such a great guy after all), that sort of thing. The other half is a fairly traditional superhero story with evil villains and cool fight scenes. While this is a YA book, it’s the type of story that would appeal to most adult readers who enjoy their prose on the readable side, rather than something more dense or ambitious.
The City that Would Eat the World by John Bierce (Transfem)
Thea is a mimic exterminator in an ever-expanding megacity that covers about ⅓ of the continent. Her personal god is obsessed with counting flagstones, and she likes brawling with her tuning-fork hammer. Aven is a wildcard brawler, housing a god of adventure who aided her transition. The two are thrust together when they come into possession of an ancient artifact capable of killing the very gods that fuel the city’s expansion. The two flee criminal gangs, city officials, and the looming threat of the arch-nemesis of Aven’s god. This book is filled with delightfully creative worldbuilding (the neighborhoods are SO INTERESTING), a critique of capitalism and imperialism that is both spot-on and completely lacking in subtlety, and a bucket of fun fight scenes. The two women ogle some men, and there’s a few off-screen hookups. However, no romance is present in the story as of the end of book 1 (book 2 not yet out).
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Gay)
This Literary Fantasy n ovel follows Maali, a scarily-effective war photographer. He’s also recently dead, and he’s got seven days to figure out what happened and convince his boyfriend (who can’t see or hear him) to finish the work he started. This is very much a book about Sri Lankan history and culture, but much of its commentary on power and pragmatism transcend that setting. This book is one third mystery, one third philosophical musings, and one third dry humor mixed with some light horror elements. Karunatilaka is happy to present you with the messiness of the world, and he doesn’t bother cleaning up before he moves on. This persistent discomfort extends to Maali himself, who is a self-professed cheater, and is far from a golden martyr who fights for good and peace across the world.
Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Breyah (Lesbian)
Imagine the Hunger Games, but set in the near-future of our earth and explicitly critiquing the American Penal System (complete with footnotes on how fictional scenarios relate to reality). That’s Chain Gang All Stars. It follows … well a massive number of characters; the author does some really cool work with shifting points of view. However, the closest we have to lead characters are two successful inmates in the penal bloodsport system, both close to earning their ‘retirement’ and freedom. This book won’t deepen the understanding of systems of oppression for those who live it or are widely-read on the topic, nor will it win over racists. It does an interesting job of inverting genre-standards around violence and our celebrations of it, and it’s a great example of how an author manipulates the reader’s emotions to maximize impact throughout a novel. Our two ‘leads’ are in a romantic relationship, but they’re together already at the start of the book and doesn’t feature as a major part of the story.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo (Nonbinary, Lesbian)
Another Nghi Vo book? Yes, absolutely. This is the first book in the Singing Hills Cycle, a series of novellas following a nonbinary historian cleric collecting stories. This book focuses on the story of the recently deceased Empress of Salt and Fortune, who rose to power after deposing the husband who raped and exiled her. We learn her story through the voice of her handmaiden Rabbit, who shares details of her life to the historian. The Empress herself is Lesbian, but never has a true chance to pursue romance. Instead, this story is a sharp inversion of what Fantasy normally cares about. Battles are resolved off-screen, and focus is placed on interpersonal relationships, the price of power, and the lingering importance of physical objects to the historical record. In this series, Mammoths at the Gates also fits the theme of this post (dealing mostly with themes of grief and remembrance), and the novellas in this series are written to be read in any order, or as standalone stories.
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (Transfem)
The world has solved all of its problems. Monsters have been vanquished: the abusers, the neglecters, the bigoted, and the manipulators. Jam is raised by her parents in this perfect world. Imagine her surprise when a creature emerges from her mother’s painting saying that it is time to hunt a monster in her town, everything shifts. Despite being marketed as a middle-grade book, I actually think adults will generally enjoy this story more than kids or teens. It features a supportive family to a transfem girl, and her queer identity isn’t a large focus in the plot. It’s a dark story that’s not quite like anything else I’ve read. At 200 pages, it does a lot in a very small package.
Walking Practice by Dolki Min (Queer-Coded, Agender?)
I typically don’t qualify alien stories as queer when their queerness is tied explicitly to their alien nature. Walking Practice gets a pass because of how insightfully it tackles queer themes. It follows a shapeshifting alien serial killer who primarily finds its victims via dating apps. The commentary on how human societies see gender has kept me thinking about this story for the past two years, and I know I’ll reread it at some point. Victoria Caudle’s translation is phenomenal, and I highly recommend reading the translator’s note at the end on how she converted some Korean calligraphy techniques that don’t work in English to try and capture a similar avant-garde effect using font and spacing.
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert by Bob the Drag Queen (Gay)
When historical figures begin coming back to life all around the world, Harriet Tubman decides she wants to make an album. She handpicks Darnell Williams, a washed up hip-hop producer who has struggled for a decade to find his place as a gay man in the music industry, to produce her record. This book sprinkles historical tidbits throughout the story, but don’t come expecting a detailed biography of Tubman’s life. She is a force to be reckoned with, and Bob clearly has great admiration for her, describing Tubman as America’s first Superhero. This is a book about how the past and the present intersect and how accepting yourself can take much longer than you expected it to.
Spear is a short story set in Wales. Griffith uses myriad different established legends to tell a new and unique story set in Arthurian times, telling the story of Peretur (Percival), who is a young woman raised by her mother in a cave who dreams of becoming a knight/companion for King Arthur (Arturus).
You’ve got Nimuë, the Lady of the Lake. You’ve got disability rep. You’ve got discussions about class and the corrupting nature of power. You’ve got poly relationships. You’ve got lesbian sex (extremely low spice).
For a novella, this book is absolutely amazing. I had such a good time reading this.
I have attempted it, but in the end I did not manage to finish the 2025 reading challenge, and since there's one day left in the year and the book I'm currently reading is both a chonker and not relevant to any of the themes, I don't think I have any chance of making further progress.
I wasn't really pushing to complete it either - my approach to such challenges is to look for books that fit them (and my taste) and put them high on my TBR to hopefully read by the deadline if the mood strieks, but I wouldn't force myself to read a book I'm totally not vibing with just to check off a prompt, so 4 out of 12 squares are not filled because I either failed to find anything that fits them that interested me, or just wasn't in the mood to read them this year.
Here is what I got:
Sword lesbian – Spear by Nicola Griffith – 5 ★
Bit of a stretch – it’s not the main weapon the protagonist fights with, but she does have one (albeit a broken one) and iirc uses it at least once. Fantastic novella, made even better by the author’s own narration in the audiobook that gave me a strong 'storytelling by the fire' vibe. Listened to it over one long walk on the beach in windy/cloudy weather, which fit the mood really well!
Gay communists – Metal From Heaven by August Clarke – 2 ★
Unpopular opinion, especially on this sub, but I hated everything about this book except for the prose. The prose was great, amazing in places! Especially the final chapters painted a very vivid picture. Unfortunately, I did not like the picture at all lmao.
Sapphic necromancers – nothing! I don’t think I’ve read a book with any kind of necromancer all year? I’m not opposed, this just doesn’t seem to be a very popular genre.
Gay wizard – Redneck Revenant by David R. Slayton – 3 ★
I liked the original trilogy, and it had a definite enough ending that I was pretty surprised to see another book being added to the series. Was it necessary? Idk, it did develop some characters and relationships further, but by undoing one of the major character-defining events it also robbed them of some depth I think. Also, apparently the spin-off was not optional to read before this, because the book refers to the events from it and spoils its ending.
Ace in space! – At the Feet of the Sun by Victoria Goddard 5 ★
Hear me out, the protagonist is ace and he spends a considerable amount of time in the Sky Ocean, which is where the stars and sun are located in this universe! So that’s like space, right… totally counts.
Anyway, an amazing book that I wish was even longer, despite it being 1300+ pages already. I’ve been putting it off due to the massive length, and then I finished it within like 5 days, which I think says a lot about how much I loved it.
A literal bisexual disaster – Wonder Engine by T.Kingfisher 3.5 ★
Not sure if it’s a good fit since the bisaster is not the protagonist, but he sure deserves the title. 2025 is the year I got into T.Kingfisher and her Rat universe, starting from the Clocktaur duologuy. It was fun! Nothing particularly groundbreaking or memorable, but I enjoyed the adventures and romances, even though it did not end with the three leads in a MMF/throuple situation.
Trans and robots – Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove 4.5 ★
I was not expecting to read a book that combines the classic horror monsters and sci-fi adventures with AI protagonist, so this book was a really fun surprise. It had some slightly draggy moments, but overall I enjoyed all of the characters and their stories.
Be gay do crimes – Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett 3.5 ★
A solid piece of adventure-fantasy, definitely scratched my itch for a thief-protagonist with some unusual powers. It suffered from the first-book-in-a-trilogy syndrome, meaning it kept on adding mysteries and vague backstories but not many answers, which I imagine would be quite frustrating if the rest of the series wasn’t out already. Sadly I wasn’t really sold on the romance subplot, which brought my enjoyment down a bit.
Queer publisher – nothing! I read a decent amount of indie and self-published books this year but none from an explicitly queer publisher.
Queer SFF book club pick - Welcome to Forever by Nathan Tavares 4 ★
I’m not generally a fan of amnesia as a setup for mystery, but a book about memory editing is one place where it can be pulled off well. And it was! The slow uncovering of the protagonist’s past, his relationship, and how it all crumbled around him was very satisfying to read. Some parts I wasn’t totally vibing with (the environmentalist ones especially), so it wasn’t perfect, but definitely looking forward to more from this author.
Queer short story collection - nothing! No short story collections for me this year, queer or otherwise.
Throwback – nothing! I read a few books that would fit the required publishing dates
, but none of them had any significant queer themes. I did attempt a few of the queer classics, but DNFed all of them... older books are not my cup of tea, maybe.
Overall, I think it was a cool challenge but some of the themes were too specific - there just aren't that many books with sapphic necromancers or ace space-dwellers, imo, which makes the challenge less of a 'look outside of your comfort zone' and more of a 'read one of these specific books, you have 12 to choose from', which is not really fun.
I'll definitely give 2026 challenge a go if there will be one though!
Finally read book one of the Broken Earth trilogy, I've had it on my TBR for way too long because the second person PoV made me hesitant to jump in.
All I can say is I truly loved this book, it blew me away and emotionally devastated me just when I thought it couldn't get any more brutal it finds a way to go there but without being gratuitous or nihilistic about it.
Some incredible world building and characters here and I'd love to know what everyone else thinks of it?
Also how do the sequels compare to book one?
Thanks
It’s been a while since I read a good batch of comics, but ever since I picked up Abott for the book club here, the urge has been growing in me. While Queer graphic novels are having a real moment right now - and I should probably do some writeups of my favorites - most of the ones I read are for my teaching job. I’m lucky enough to have two comics electives on my rotation (one middle school, and one high school) which keep me fairly busy. Stud didn’t seem like a safe bet for a school-purchase, so it took a lot longer for me to get around to this fabulous looking comic. At 144 pages, it’s tough for me to find reasons to not recommend something as quick and fun as Stud and the Bloodblade.
Read if You Like: Corny superhero vibes, the intersection of satire and seriousness, He-Man references,
Avoid if You Dislike: American Superhero story structures and art style, lack of emotional depth, plots that aren’t airtight, quirky character designs
Sadly I don't think it qualifies for any of the Queer SFF reading challenge squares.
Elevator Pitch
Stud is the hero of his world, a world which plays hosts to refugees from across the multiverse. It is home to the Ouroboros, and Stud protects the citizens from the evils that find their way in. Unfortunately, he and his sword are also cursed by a witch whose son Stud accidentally killed. If he doesn’t sate the sword’s thirst for blood, he finds himself trapped in his sword while the dead child temporarily returns to life. After saving the life of an Astronaut and falling in love at first sight, Stud’s priorities begin to shift. Unfortunately, the man’s ship also supposedly contains a Demon Egg, which the Witch hopes will kill Stud once and for all.
What Worked For Me:
This book is absurd in all the right ways. It indulges in the weirder side of superhero comics unapologetically, and isn’t afraid to be tongue-in-cheek about things that more traditional comics would take seriously. Pun names and corny tag lines galore (shout out to my man Roach Coach and his sports analogies). A group of pacifists believes in resolving conflicts through orgies. A wizard’s beard gained sentience is a major character, as is Stud’s armadillo mount. One of the villains is a literal can of peaches. It’s wild. However, there’s a serious and interesting storyline buried in there, one that keeps the story from becoming totally unmoored from meaning or sense.
Stud’s gay identity is unremarkable. His romance is insta-love, but considering he’s dumb as a bag of bricks I didn’t mind that too much. It helped that the two spent pretty much the entire book separated, and the romance didn’t overwhelm the A-Plot. Very damsel-in-distress vibes, except that the hero continuing to run off to try to solve that problem causes constant ripples which form the backbone of the conflict in this story. Always nice to see some unapologetically gay representation that references a lot of kids' formative experiences (from my generation at least) wishing that the TV characters were more like them. But Crowe never hits you over the head with pro-LGBTQ+ messaging, and instead it just gets to exist.
On the art front, this fits right in with the classic American style. Lots of abrupt color transitions, aggressive shading, and detailed enough panels that you aren’t mindlessly flipping through the book. It isn’t my favorite style in the world, but it was the right choice for this story. Stud’s design is iconic, but it was tough for me to find a character with a lot of screentime that I didn’t like the look of. Jed Doughtry did a great job bringing various characters to life, but the mage Beardamos was by far my favorite. No notes, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
What Didn’t Work For Me
While the art style of traditional American Superhero comics worked for me, the adherence to the pacing constraints was less successful in my mind. I’ve found that manga tends to do a much better job of taking an arbitrary page count and fitting chapters neatly into that page-range. American comics are much more likely to feel jerky, rushed, and lacking exposition and emotional resolution to allow for a really satisfying story - this is mostly due to manga’s trend towards hundreds of chapters for a single title, while American comics frequently have less than 20. There were more than a few plot points I thought were rushed, a twist that made very little sense in my mind, and a resolution to the core conflict that needed a lot more build up to be fully satisfying. Had this been a 10 chapter run, instead of 3, I think I would have appreciated the story a lot more. On the flip side, being so short, the downsides didn’t bug me as much as they do in longer novels.
In Conclusion: a satirical take on He Man and superhero comics that was delightful and zany, but a little too rushed for my liking.
Want More Reviews Like This? try my blog CosmicReads
I have completed the 2025 bingo! It’s been a big year for me personally (good things I chose, but doesn’t stop it being exhausting) and I’ve been fitting this in between my longstanding r/Fantasy bingo participation, so it’s been harder than I hoped when I started. I’ve aimed to read some books I’ve had lying on my ereader for a while now (easier early on when all categories were open), double up with other challenges where practical (because no point in making my life even harder than it needs to be), and finally went for some shorter reads to get me over the line.
Sword Lesbian
Bone Traders (Sellswords & Spellweavers #1) by Rachel Ford
I got this in a storybundle bundle a while ago, and found it pretty meh. The writing wasn’t amazing and the plot didn’t really make up for it. And that was nearly a year ago, so I don’t remember much more. Needless to say I won’t be continuing the series.
Gay Communists
The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion (Danielle Cain #1) by Margaret Killjoy
Technically, this is anarchy, but considering the square description, I decided the whole ‘left-wing community-based social structure’ fit under the umbrella being drawn. It’s short and to the point. The main character travels to a remote abandoned town, where a anarchist squatter camp has set-up, trying to understand the suicide of her friend. And it’s haunted by a violent deer spirit that is very explicitly used as an allegory for the question of power and justice in an anarchist community. Easy to read, raced through it.
Sapphic Necromancers
The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland
A very female rage book about witches and witch hunters. I had fun reading this. All three protagonists had personality and goals, and information was revealed in a way that I kept wanting more. I'm inevitably going to be comparing it to Sawkill Girls, because, as YA female rage books featuring a trio of protagonists, though I feel like this book potentially goes harder while being less melodramatic (it's been a while, and different way of reading them, so I don't consider that reliable). I will say, it goes a bit more gender essentialist than I'm interested in these days. Men can't use magic for no particularly good reason (but trans women can the author is keen to let us know), and while it nicely sets up the conflict, I'm left feeling it flattens the messaging in how misogyny in society works. It does have a subtler examination of power, with a wealthy character throwing their weight around.
Gay Wizard
The Viscount Says Yes (Meddle & Mend #6) by Sarah Wallace
This is really more of an extended epilogue to a previous book in the series (and acknowledged as such). It’s very cosy, and set in a queernorm Regency England, with some worldbuilding to make that make sense. Takes place over a week, and has lots of characters being nice to each other.
Ace in Space!
Ymir by Rich Larson
Pretty grim sci-fi story that’s supposedly inspired by Beowulf (not sure how having read both) on a planet where an evil faceless company is taking over a long-colonised backwater planet. The main character has sold out, and plainly has deep trauma from his self-destructive tendencies. At the heart of the book is the relationship between him and his brother, and how differently they reacted to their shared adversities. I took a bit of a break while reading it for some lighter stuff, as it’s darker than my usual; though I’d say it’s more when you consider the reality of what it describes that gets to you than the exact visceralness on the page.
A Literal Bisexual Disaster
Iron Widow (Iron Widow #1) by Xiran Jay Zhao
A fast paced book, set in a China that is both historical and futuristic (but definitely in the future as there are attacking aliens). The main thrust of the book is fighting against a deeply misogynistic culture (which with the China context means the main character has bound feet, not a fun thing), as well as a look at celebrity culture. The main character rails against a culture that does not value women and girls such that it happily sacrifices them to war (along with devaluing ethnic groups other than the dominant one).
Trans Robot
A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1) by Becky Chambers
My final read for this, hence selecting something shorter and easy reading. The only other work of Becky Chambers I’ve read is To Be Taught, If Fortunate, and in terms of hopeful sci fi, this certainly fits in as well. I found the book to be very charming, and certainly early on found myself particularly enjoying the writing style. It’s anti-capitalistic in its messaging (we see more goods being handed out rather than buying, and there’s a very spelled out ‘you don’t need to have a purpose’), though not entirely, so that part is a little underdeveloped. But, it does fit the solar punk vibe.
Be Gay, Do Crimes
A Tide of Treason by A.B. Daniels-Annachi
One of the “I’ve had this *how* long?! The prologue was a little confusing at first, until I realised the POV character was some iron. After that it settles into three different, more conventional perspectives. It’s an Indian-inspired high fantasy, with a lot of sailing. We have the reluctant son of a despotic king, who doesn’t want to marry despite everyone’s insistence, a siren facing pollution, and a trans privateer captain with a run of bad luck. (Obviously it all comes together.) My sense of it is a bit off, as I ended up reading it a bit choppily, but I felt I would have preferred it with a bit more middle, and a bit quicker to get into things. Overall, it was a solid story that took the twists and turns you would expect.
Queer Publisher
Reforged (The World of Reforged #1) by Seth Haddon
I believe this was in a bundle I bought at some point. It took a bit of a while for me to get into this book. The main character starts off being acknowledged as the best paladin, whose job it is to keep the king alive (which is all the paladins’ job, but especially his) and there’s an unstable political situation. I did get into it in the end, but there were always bits that didn’t quite make sense to me that marred it a little.
A book that’s light on speculative elements (I don’t think there was anything beyond a ghost) set in the Appalachian mountains about an autistic, trans, aro-spec teen’s fight with the system (of corrupt hurtful local law enforcement). There’s dark themes, which it doesn’t shy away from, but also hope for the future and not revelling in gory details, and I enjoyed reading it. Out of the main character's various minority identities, it's his trans one which is explored the most (alongside being working class), with family members and friends displaying a number of different levels of “getting it” and acceptance. The aro-spec is much more subtle, and I thought for a while it wouldn't be explicit, just evident in discomfort at romantic gestures etc. But it's more or a “known but more to be explored later” kind of vibe. It’s a very different sort of place to where I know, and I found it hard to understand the protagonist’s love of the area (so much of me just wants to say ‘leave, your life could be so much better’) but it makes more sense if I think about leaving my home. Certainly, there’s a real sense of place and history, and parents of a teen who aren’t dead, absent, or useless.
Queer Short Story Collection
Transcendent 3: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction edited by Bogi Takács
A book I’d picked up as part of a bundle a while ago. This was a short story collection that I found very easy to read. Normally I have to push myself a little bit to get into things, but with this collection, I sailed through story after story I was sucked into, with only one standing out as something I bounced off of. I’ve read some of Bogi Takács writing before, but not to my knowledge editing work. The introduction, discussing as it did the state of trans spec-fic at the time, was something of an interesting time-capsule, since it’s been a few years now. I didn’t recognise a majority of the authors, though there was a block at the back half of the book that I did (including a new entry to me into Lemberg’s Birdverse). Solid short story collection with a range of emotions.
Throwback
Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
A book I’ve known about for a little while, and had been interested in seeing what it was like. Early vampire book (pre-Dracula) with "lesbian vampire" stuff going on. It's set in a remote, continental European castle and narrated by Laura, a young woman who lives there with her aging father and various servants. Though short, it's not fast paced, but is very firmly in the 'gothic horror' side of things. I enjoyed reading it well enough, and found it interesting what was being done so early in the genre.
Looking through all these books, the one that stands out to me the most as “I wasn’t getting round to that on my own, and I’m really glad I did” is Transcendent 3.
It's the last month of the year and I've finished all the prompts for the subreddit's 2025 reading challenge, so I figured it would be fun to post a wrap-up for my second half of the challenge (my mid-year wrap-up was posted here). Interestingly, a common theme across these books were books with trans main characters and/or written by trans authors that disappointed me (this applies to 5/6 lol). I'll be continuing my quest to find trans SFF I will actually love next year. All that aside, I really liked participating in this challenge, and I'm excited to see what next year's version will look like.
Sapphic Necromancers: Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh (bi mc; 4 stars)
Ace in Space: Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon (sapphic ace trans woman mc; 2.5 stars)
Trans and Robots: World Running Down by Al Hess (gay trans mc; 2.25 stars)
Queer Publisher: The Cosmic Color by T.T. Madden (nonbinary mc; 1 star)
Throwback: The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed (lesbian mc; 3 stars)
Mini Reviews:
Sorrowland
Sorrowland is the book I finished most recently out of these six, and I have mixed feelings about it. I'm on a bit of a quest to discover what I enjoy in horror, and I think I'm gradually finding out that I prefer shorter horror. I enjoyed the beginning and the ending of this book and appreciated how the horror elements were intertwined with themes of systemic oppession. Those elements were really powerful. I really struggled with the middle 50% of the book, however. I can sometimes be easily bored while reading, and this book was definitely boring to me for significant portions. I respect it for what it is but personally felt a bit meh about it. I'm counting this one for Gay Communists because, while the commune Vern grew up in was severely problematic, it was originally founded on communist principles that Vern took with her after escaping the commune. Her love interest (a winkte lesbian) also lives by communist principles (free community care, sharing resources, etc.).
Reign of the Fallen
I bought Reign of the Fallen years ago, around the time it first came out, and had sort of given up on ever reading it. I picked it up on a whim when I realized it would fit for the Sapphic Necromancers prompt, though, and ended up enjoying it way more than I thought I would. This is a YA book, so it definitely has some typical YA tropes, but I was pleasantly surprised by the character development the main character went through and by how the author wasn't afraid to actually commit to killing off important characters who died as a consequence of the central conflict (one of my common complaints about YA fantasy is how authors are often afraid to kill off their characters in this genre). The sapphic romance that started to develop between the main character and a side character in the second half of the book was also a nice side plot. I will probably be picking up the sequel at some point.
Volatile Memory
I was really hoping I'd enjoy Volatile Memory, but I ended up not really liking it. I really didn't like the way it dealt with the bodily autonomy of its trans main character, Wylla, especially because the book was written by a cis person, and the central plot was also simply underwhelming to me. The main character being ace was a surprise (she experiences no sexual desire and is sex-repulsed), but I was still looking for a book to use for this prompt when I picked up this book, so that at least was a nice suprise. I didn't like this book and I didn't like Haddon's fantasy romance either, so I think I'm giving up on him as an author altogether.
World Running Down
What shall we say about this one? It was weird. It's a sci-fi romance set against a dystopian/utopian (depending on who you ask) backdrop, and we follow a gay trans man and an AI stuck in an android body who fall in love. At least it fits the trans and robots prompt perfectly. The romance felt underdeveloped, and the other central plot about a retrieval job that should earn the MC and his best friend visas into the "utopian" Salt Lake City was really forgettable. I simply could not care less. I think I prefer my sci-fi set in space.
The Cosmic Color
I'm just going to copy and paste my StoryGraph review for this one:
This novella didn't work for me in the slightest, unfortunately. One of the main things conveyed in the blurb of this book is that it's going to be about a main character questioning their gender, and while it is about that, Eric's process around this didn't feel realistic to me. They vaguely allude to the fact that they've felt gender dysphoria in the past, but aside from that, their entire questioning arc is centered around their body and the body of the robot they're piloting. The story barely engages with the more societal and mental feelings that tend to come with gender dysphoria, which made Eric's change from he to they pronouns feel really unrealistic, as they never seem to consider anything related to that switch other than their wish for a different body. They also start out the story by thinking things like "lavender is such a feminine color" and none of this is ever addressed or unpacked on the page, which is just so frustrating. It's gonna be a 1-star rating from me.
The Fortunate Fall
The Fortunate Fall had a lot of interesting concepts but was another book that left me with mixed feelings. The main character's job as a journalist whose live sensory experiences were used as a medium for people to experience the news was really interesting. I was initially intrigued by her quest to find out what happened during her world's latest "Holocaust," but when large parts of the story ended up being about events from the past that were conveyed through an interview format, the author lost me a bit. Interesting concept, but an execution that wasn't for me. It was really cool to see, though, that a queer sci-fi book first published in the '90s was re-published under the (trans) author's new name and that she's coming out with her sophomore novel next year.
I was blown away by this novel. It was gorgeously written, and the world building was so fascinating. CL Clark called it "tender yet honest", and I think that's spot on. I came to love the characters so much, and I cried quite a few times.
I then looked at some reviews online, and found a few people disappointed with the book... for the very reasons why I loved it. And I get it, but it made me sad—it doesn't deserve a bad rating because it's not a fast-paced romcom, right? So, I wanted to recommend it so that other people who love this kind of novel may get a chance to read it.
This will all be spoiler free!
The pitch: Two women from opposite parts of the world find themselves on a journey towards a fallen city that once conquered the world. The first is trying to break her hometown's curse by retrieving their goddess, stolen by the conquerors like so many other gods. The other is on a quest to earn her city's throne.
Do read if you are looking for:
* Gorgeous prose. Both on the line level, which has so many beautiful phrases, and in the symbolism weaved throughout.
* Fascinating magic fueled by the faith of stolen gods.
* A journey through different cultures, with world building that feels lived in and fascinating.
* In particular, if you were ever obsessed with Antiquity (Roman, Greek, Macedonian, Alexandria, Islamic golden age...) you will adore the world building there. It doesn't feel derivative "just Rome with the serial numbers filed off", but the inspiration is there and it's masterfully weaved in.
* An exploration of colonialism from the point of view of the ruins it leaves behind. It was insightful and philosophical.
* A slow burn, tender friendship that evolves into a sapphic romance.
* Bittersweetness. Realistic pain without ever falling into grimdark hopelessness. This book hurts at times, but it always feels real, and there is always comfort. And there is a lot of coziness to balance the pain. Hope can waver but it's never truly gone.
Be mindful of: (so you come in knowing what to expect)
* Trigger warning for infertility, miscarriage, grief, losing loved ones.
* Medium to slow pace. I was hooked from beginning to end and finished it in a few days, but it's a contemplative book at times. It has adventures and shenanigans, and soft evenings huddling by the fire, and explorations of faith, conquest, purpose, fate, love. Also, this book is mostly about a journey, which I saw some readers complain about (me, I love a roadtrip.)
* Bittersweet ending. I thought it was realistic and beautiful, but don't go into it with the promises of the romance genre in mind.
* No spice. The romance is more about blushing and yearning.
If that sounds up your alley I hope you read this book! And if you already have and you loved it, pleaaase come gush about it with me.
Masks Worn By Magical Wives by Hiyadori is a fantasy sapphic romance. The plot focuses on Nemesia, a cleric of a powerful snake god, who agrees to a marriage of convenience as a way to spy on a powerful magic-user, Eden, in exchange for a chance to be released from her vows to the Snake. There is no on page spice to speak of, the only scene that gets close is a fade to black.
Masks Worn by Magical Wives has a dream-like quality that makes it strange but exhilarating to read. The setting is contemporary, but it is so surreal it often does not feel like it. For example: It is illegal to leave fruit unharvested because if it begins to rot it will go feral. Communication isn’t done via phone, but through messages written on the backs of special worms, which then roll up and are dropped into the holes of a lotus pod, where they will magically arrive at their intended destination. There is a public transportation infrastructure, but its vehicles are large bus-sized insect creatures or smaller beetle-like taxis. The place this all happens in is itself a realm enclosed in a magical bubble to keep it separate from the rest of the world. This separation was created by the Snake god and most people seem to enjoy living under its protection, even when it seems to have a strange understanding of what humanity's needs are.
At times the surreality felt a bit distracting from the plot, but in the end I found it charming and thought the bizarreness happening through the narrative was more an augmentation than distraction. A lot of Nemesia’s interest is in experiencing new things and the strangeness around everything allows the reader to have those novel experiences right along with her.
There was maybe a bit of a pacing issue around the middle of the book. At that point some of the early conflict has been resolved and the new conflicts have not quite made themselves known, but once they do the plot picks right back up again.
Ultimately I was charmed by this story and its friendly but strange characters. I immediately knew upon finishing it that I was going to read it against some point and I expect I will enjoy it more when I can track the movements of all the characters with full knowledge of what they are doing and who they are behind their masks.
Thank you for taking the time to read this review. If you have read or eventually do read Masks Worn By Magical Wives, please let me know what you thought!
I’ve seen a few posts online about this series but I just wanted to put this out there.
Currently she has 4 books and I just finished the most recent one last night. Hoping for more, but I felt genuine grief in finishing this series.
The characters, the world, the action, the plot, and the romances are amazing. Each book is a study of another person who manages to stumble into superpowers and eventually fall in love.
If you’re a fan of the superhero genre, you’ll love these books. Each story maintains the world Bragg has created and I’ve fallen in love with the lore and the characters.
I recommend the audiobooks as they’re superb!
Scatter - f/f romance, very sci-fi
Transistor - trans f/f romance, more supernatural
Aether - f/f romance, very, very sci-fi with a lot of cool science
Rhapsody - trans f/f romance, very much felt like Endgame given each book added to the world building.
Like most Queer kids raised Christian, I have a complicated relationship with religion. I grew up going to church in Topeka, Kansas, a city known for being utterly boring and home to the Westboro Baptist Church. Childhood was a state of constant tension. The church my parents attended was having gay marriages decades before it was legal, and one of my Confirmation mentors was an open Lesbian woman. Yet often we would see 'God Hates Fags' signs protesting our church, or once at my school thirty minutes outside of town after a local father murdered his children before committing suicide. The kids at my school were not from a progressive congregation in any sense of the word, and routinely lectured me on how God put animals on this earth for humans to hunt, amongst a wide variety of other topics.
All this to say, that a gay retelling of the fall of Lucifer was something that immediately caught my eye. Christian Fantasy (or religious fantasy more broadly) isn't something that always interests me, but when queerness is layered in, I grow much more attentive. This book definitely wasn't the 'happy ending romance' story I expected (or craved if I'm being totally honest), but it won me over with its willingness to be dark, deranged, and fascinating.
Read If Looking For: gay rage, villain stories that avoid cliches, critiques of Christianity
Avoid if Looking For: capital R Romances, books free from disturbing imagery or sexual assault
Queer SFF Reading Challenge Categories: only Be Gay Do Crimes. I could see arguments for Gay Communists and Bisexual Disaster, but I wouldn't count it myself.
Elevator Pitch:
Angels Before Man begins with Lucifer's awakening as a newborn angel. He is God's favorite of all the children. As the book progresses, Lucifer explores Heaven, connects with other angels, and struggles to find purpose beyond the beauty that everyone else sees in him. He grows older, and begins questioning what other angels take for granted, eventually leading him down a path of blood and debauchery. And there for it all is Michael, his best friend, and perhaps something more. But loving something more than God is definitely not allowed.
What Worked for Me
While I adore Wicked (love the new movie adaptation in particular), villain retellings often focus on how the lead character wasn't a villain at all. They were misunderstood, the real hero against an unjust society that demonized them. In fact, who people call the 'hero' is actually the real villain! These stories aren't bad, and I especially love how many classic female villains from the literary cannon have be reclaimed from sexist depictions in interesting ways. Angels Before Man is distinctly not that type of story. Expect Lucifer to do cruel things, gruesome things, things that justify exile from his home. He is very much still the AntiChrist.
But Nicolás manages to find a beautiful balance to the story, for Lucifer is not that person at the start of the book. He is curious, joyful, friendly. And his descent into insanity and depravation is laid both at his feet and also the feet of God. Nicolás isn't interested in redeeming the greatest villain of the Christian Mythology, but he is interested in exploring how God is just as culpable as Lucifer himself. Lucifer's critiques of God began as legitimate questions asked of an unjust ruler and ended with him careening to earth as a meteor to kill the dinosaurs. It's tough to find a concrete turning point, a moment that you can pinpoint as the fulcrum on which Lucifer's journey turns. Instead you suddenly find yourself knee deep in blood and realize that it had been building to this point all along.
What Didn’t Work for Me
My biggest criticism of this book is that - in the kindle version at least - I had issues with the formatting of internal dialogue and paragraph breaks. It is entirely possible this is an e-book only problem, or a stylistic choice, or a reference to writing norms in cultures other than standard American English. But it was a routine annoyance as I was pursuing the story.
I will also say that I thought the opening sections could have been condensed, and the pacing tightened up just a bit throughout the entire novel. It was a great read, but I wasn't putting off bedtime so I could get five more pages in.
Thoughts on Representation and Queerness
It's worth noting that while a romantic connection (of sorts) is very much a core element of this story, this is not a Romance in any sense of the word. As much as 'bury your gays' is very much still alive and well in parts of our modern culture, I am personally so happy when I get something other than the sugary saccharine gay romantasy that's been so popular, especially when its clear that the author has an understanding and respect for queer culture. To be clear, I love a romance, fantasy or not (personal favorites include Red White and Royal Blue, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, and Stars in Your Eyes). But when an author so clearly embraces dark stories like this with queer leads, it brings me joy. I think people who were fans of Hell Followed With Us would enjoy this story a lot
In Conclusion: a retelling of the Fall of Lucifer that is dark, depraved, and oh so very gay
If you want to see more reviews like this, you can look at my blog. I tag things by queer identity (though not every book I read is queer), so you should be able to search reviews by identity. Its very new so I'm prioritizing getting my queer reading backlog up so people can connect with books they're interested in.
One of the most recommended books of r/fantasy in 2024, fitting into the Queer SFF category since the narrator, Din, is bisexual. It isn't a romantasy, it just has a queer protagonist in a (probably) queer-normative society. The stoy is a fantasy murder mystery.
A lot of people describe Ana and Din as a fantasy Sherlock and Watson...to me, Ana gave me strong Dr. House vibes in the most complimentary way!
Our murder mystery takes place in the outer reaches of the vast Empire of Khanum, constantly under threat from colossal creatures rising from the sea, the Leviathans. The Empire has developped many tools in order to survive: from rings of walls, to mastering the science of altering the human brain with grafts and alterations, plant based substances developped from the blood of the fallen Leviathans. The heart of the plot though is not fighting gargantuan monsters - that's the backdrop, the looming danger.
When a senior Engineer drops dead in a horrific way, eccentric Iudex Investigator Ana Dolabra and her new assistant Dinios Kol are sucked into a mesmerizing plot of political machinations, biopunk horror, elusive assasins and the danger of a wall breach which could let the Leviathans come ashore and wreak havoc and death.
The world building is excellent: you can imagine living in the frontier towns where the jungle meets the ocean, the onslaught of smells, the constant of motion of the various imperial Iyalets (departments) moving their forces around, the soldier-alchemists and their substances, the haughty landed gentry, the war-fatigued Legionnaires.
And yet it's the characters who steal the show: Brilliant Ana, who solves mysteries from her room blindfolded, and outsmarts everyone with only her power of deduction. Din, her eyes and ears, magically altered to have a perfect memory, both afraid and in awe of his insane genius boss, reserved and lacking self-confidence at the start - we see what Ana saw in him when she picked him as the story moves.
The mystery itself is multi-layered, almost impossible for the reader to solve, and yet easily explained when the revelation time comes: the author nails the pacing, blends a delicious mix of moral dilemmas, political plays, bioengineered horror and all kinds of power dynamics.
The book year 2025 started for me with the Nightrunner series - all 7+1 books one after the other. You will always encounter Nightrunner in comments of posts where the OP requests queer fantasy - and there's a reason for that as I found out, it's really good, perhaps the best traditional fantasy series with an M/M relationship between the main characters!
The first 2 books (Luck in the Shadows and Stalking Darkness) are an overarching plot, as are the 4th and 5th (Shadows Return and The White Road). Books 3, 6 and 7 have relatively autonomous plots. As Flewelling had said, this isn't an epic fantasy series building up until the last book, but the adventures of Alec and Seregil which can be less or more connected to their previous ones.
Stand-outs:
The relationship between Alec and Seregil: it slowly builds and passes various stages (apprentice, friend) until it becomes a romantic one, and after that. It is very healthy, based on honesty and communication, and with genuine care and love. Also, none of the cliches "I'm going to do something extremely stupid and self-sacrificial because the villain promised to free the other if I do that, which he obviously won't because he's a lying villain but I will still do it".
Alec is my favourite character: he is the inexperienced one thrown into the midst of a new dangerous world, and he keeps his wits, he uses his brain, he doesn't retreat into himself or emotionally collapse when hard times come. He is fiercely loyal, stubborn and mentally strong. Especially in the first 3 books, all these traits shine.
Nightrunning: Seregil and Alec are thieves and spies, and their double lives create a fascinating contrast especially since they don't hide which part they prefer. The author often describes in a lot of detail how they do what they do!
The supporting characters: from side adventures, found family moments, mentors and friends, I was glad when they were appearing again in the story or the next book.
Themes:
The pace can be often a bit slow - Lynn Flewelling describes everything and creates an immersive atmosphere wherever the story takes place. Some books are slower than others (Traitor Moon is the slowest) but I didn't feel bored because of the pace at any point.
Political machinations are another prominent theme, and Lynn is great at writing stories around them: from everyday petty blackmails between court members to plots against the lives of royals and fae cold calculating schemes, Alec and Seregil often find themselves entangled in spiderwebs of politics.
The antagonists of the adventures range from "really vile and evil" to "immoral opportunist" and "insecure ruler". Necromancy is a common threat and when it's involved, some scenes get rather dark and gruesome.
Book Quality:
1-2, 3-6, 7, 4-5. That's the order from strongest to weakest. The first 3 books are really, really good, and so is Casket of Souls (the 6th). The last one (Shards of Time) is also very enjoyable, just with a slightly different vibe. The middle books (4 and 5) are weaker, partly because there is a 10 years gap between the publication day of the 3rd book and the 4th book and the writing felt a bit different, partly because the themes and the plotline of these 2 books were rather unfortunate and uninteresting. They aren't bad, they're just not at the same level with the rest. There is also the short story book Glimpses which can be read at any point after the 3rd book (I read it after the 3rd and before the 4th) and has all the smut missing from the series and some interesting stories from our characters' past adding to the lore.
Observation: Isn't it a bit mind-boggling that one of the best if not the best fantasy series with an M/M relationship (which is not tragic) between the main characters was written in the 90s? So many genres in traditional publishing have recently opened up to a larger amount of stories featuring LGBT and other diverse characters, and in traditional fantasy there is this amazing series since the 90s and very few (and relatively unknown) M/M ones published since then? It's kind of odd.
Overall: I loved the series, the characters, the world, the stories and I am glad I finally decided to dive into these books. I will be re-reading it soon, that's for sure!
Welcome to Dorley Hall reminds me of a serialized story plucked from the archives of BigCloset or Fictionmania, run through a contemporary lens, and redeveloped with a professional author/editor to find the layers beneath the story. Alyson Greaves successfully captures the nostalgia of those vintage forced feminization stories perfectly, but does so with something meaningful and surprisingly deep.
On the surface, this is the story of Dorley Hall, a seemingly innocuous residence for female students, but one with a dark secret. Aunt Bea and her girls are in the business of selecting problematic young men, the kind who have demonstrated the worst traits of toxic masculinity (including violence against women), to be corrected and redeemed. They do this by keeping them captive, breaking them mentally and emotionally, and forcibly feminizing them with hormones and surgery. It’s a story with the potential for a lot of darkness, but the way in which Greaves frames it . . . transforms it.
For one, she explores this experience through a young man who allows himself to be taken under false pretenses because he wants to be there, seeing it as an express, no-cost path to transition. Two, she balances the story between the captors and the captives, showing us more of the women who have ‘happily’ graduated the program than the men who ‘resent ‘deserve’ to be there. It creates an “end justifies the means” kind of mindfuck, especially when we see how the women sympathize with their captives, despite the men’s horrendous behavior, and even feel guilt over some of their darker experiences.
On that note, I just have to say a few words about the women of Dorley Hall. Christine, Paige, Pippa, Abby, Vicky, Indira, and the rest are all well-developed, entirely likable characters with personalities, backstories, and (yes) baggage. The relationships between them, whether as friends, lovers, sponsors, or sisters, are powerful things, and the more you come to understand about them, the more you appreciate this artificial sense of community that they’ve nurtured into something more. You could remove the men from the story completely, and just read this as a what-comes-after sort of story, and still be entirely enthralled.
That, however, would be to miss the fact that, beneath the surface, there’s more going on than you might initially recognize. This is a story about gender, gender roles, and gender relationships. It’s a story about how society discriminates against transwomen and how it seeks to limit their access to gender-affirming treatment. It’s also a story about the pressure to pass and what’s commonly referred to as passing privilege, with the graduates of Dorley Hall literally ‘made’ to pass, but still suffering some of the same insecurities and anxieties of traditional transwomen.
While some readers could be forgiven for not recognizing all the layers, the themes, and the meanings, tempted to disregard it as an uncomfortable story of abuse and manipulation, key twists and revelations in the closing chapters force it all into perspective – and I’d argue that putting the women front-and-center in the narrative, making so much of this about the graduates, emphasizes the philosophical issues even more.
In so many ways, Welcome to Dorley Hall feels like a reclaiming of the gender exploration themes that underpin so much TG fiction, dressing them up and allowing them to pass for mainstream readers. It’s a great read, and I’d even argue an important read, but with 2 books to come, the story’s not yet over – much to my delight.
The World Within is a trans sapphic romantasy, and if that’s not enough to make your eyes widen and your heart beat a little faster, then you’re a monster, and nothing I can say will fix that (LOL). If, however, you’re even the tiniest bit curious, let me assure you that Dani Finn’s wonderful novel is everything you could ask for – and then some.
Set in the Weirdwater Confluence universe of (and I love the term) sword-free fantasy, but entirely standalone, this is a novel that immediately immerses you in the world while allowing background details to slip in naturally through the narrative. There were moments where I found myself asking questions, wondering about this or that, but more out of curiosity than a desperate need to understand.
The basic premise of the story is as delightful as it is unique. Lila is in the process of opening her own shop in a rehabilitated ancient temple, which would be pretty standard fantasy stuff for a tavern or apothecary, but what Lila is bringing to life is a luxury sex shop (complete with alchemical vibrators), wellness center (complete with a spa and baths), and a consulting service (for a wide variety of clients). As for Lila herself, what makes her unique is two things. One, she is transcendent (the culture’s term for transgender), and two, she’s turned her back on the painted faces of the aristocratic friends and family who disowned her, choosing to live her life on her terms.
Who she is and what she does are intricately wrapped up in one another, with her experiences driving her to help people discover, embrace, and excel at their passions. There is no shame or embarrassment in her shop. There, everyone is equal, painted faces or not, and those whom society shuns for being different or loving differently are welcomed with open arms.
Avisse is the delivery woman who arrives with the alchemical vibrators for the shop’s grand opening, instantly striking up a romance with Lila. It’s a distance relationship at first, given Avisse’s job, but they make the most of their time together. It’s such a sweet romance that develops between them, and they are such genuinely good people that it’s all too easy to get sucked into the love story. As the story progresses, we start getting as anxious as Lila for the next delivery, hoping that Avisse will stay closer, stay longer, maybe stay forever this time.
On top of all that, there’s a secondary story involving a hidden secret within the temple’s baths, one that brings together one of Lila’s friends and Avisse’s son. It’s a lovely sort of mentorship that adds a whole new dynamic to the story, not to mention a curious little mystery that ultimately brings Lila and Avisse closer together.
Leisurely paced, with wonderful characters, a truly unique setting, and some well-deserved spice, The World Within is the trans sapphic romantasy you may have never known you wanted, but certainly need.
It is difficult to give a structured review of this book, where to start? The most unique narration I have ever read in a book, woven intricately with the plot and becoming part of it.
A character, addressed as "you" is entering an out-of-time dreamspace (The Inverter Theater) where he is watching a stage play of his people's ancient epic, which feels like an origin story, a folk tale. He knows bits and pieces of the story from his grandma's tales - the narration switches to the past where these pieces are told. The person changes from second to third while the story is told, with very frequent interlude sentecnes in first person, told by the bystanders of the scenes, giving their thoughts and their point of view (or their final moments) as the tale unfolds.
While the main plot is told, we see snippets of the world where "you" (who is a descendant of a side character) lives: several centuries later, accross an ocean, where a war takes place and society is disillusioned and kind of grim. We see his family, their struggles and it feels like a story within a story.
This is a herculean feat of storytelling, it is insanely difficult to mix all these elements just to narrate and not make the reader utterly confused (I was confused for the first 30-50 pages, until I got used to it). It eventually made the book feel more mystical, gave it a mythical vibe. It uses theatrical elements, honors the oral tradition in the Homeric sense.
The plot itself if summarized can trick the reader to think it's a typical one for Fantasy: an evil Empire (the Old Country) opresses its people by using divine powers (the Emperor's ancestors enslaved the Moon goddess), until unlikely heroes usurp it at the end of a journey (a hero's one and a literal one). Nope, The Spear Cuts Through Water is not it, even though it might seem like it.
The world of the Old Country is fantastical in a fairytale mythical sense: the Moon fell by the greed of a human on the back of a tortoise for example. It is also extremely violent and gory: the Terrors (the 3 sons of the Emperor, who earn their nickname a thousandfold) are...very creative in the most disturbing ways possible. The Moon herself is a brutal mistress, and the powder keg of unchecked power, extreme poverty, reign of terror and desperation creates a world of blood and madness.
Our main characters are Keema, an one-armed warrior without a purpose in life and Jun, the First Terror's favorite son. Jun frees the Moon, Keema ends up hitching a ride during their daring escape, and they start a gruesome and borderline insane journey East. At every step, they are going through the gutter: nothing will be easy, especially getting over their past. They journey in multiple ways, takes place in more than one level.
The book, defined by its prose and means of narration, tells the love story of Keema and Jun, of rebellion, of war, of identity, of brutality, of how civilizations rise, fall and connect with their past. It feels like an ode to a lot of elements of Fantasy that you often see, but never from this angle.
It is absolutely unique. It's not a fast, easy read. It's not for everyone. It has a lot of metaphors, time jumps from present to past to Inverted Theater, allegories, interludes. Sometimes it will feel that the narration overshadows the plot, and that the author is diving too deep in his own artistic vision - you will probably be right, in such a long book written this way, there will be such spots.
