SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Anyone have any suggestions?

Tayla
Closest I can come are the Delnoids of Nuldoid. They're neither male nor female, and live a cherished life. The Wheel of Nuldoid

The one that springs to my mind is Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold, in which she makes gender roles stand on their heads and do acrobatics...

Tayla - I haven't read much that falls within this category, but I did a search on the Lists section here on Goodreads, and folks have compiled several lists that look like they might have some titles that fit the bill.

Best Science Fiction Books with Gay Main Characters

Best Fantasy Books with Gay Main Characters

Look through the list of James Tiptree Jr. Award winners - sf/f books that "expand or explore one's understanding of gender" and which frequently have gay characters. James Tiptree Jr. Awards


You might also sift through the Lambda award winners (LGBT fiction awards), as they sometimes feature sf and fantasy titles. Lambda Winners


Good book hunting!

Edit to add:
I've heard really good things about Slow River by Nicola Griffith. It's said to be a great read regardless of the protagonist's sexual preference; she just happens to be a lesbian.

I have been meaning to read China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh for ages now. It features a gay main character (male). Also: The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman has a main character who has a lesbian relationship that is central to the story. Both of these are intelligent, well-crafted books, and the sexual preferences of the characters are not simply gratuitous.

Candiss

Thanks for these list! Just what I was looking for

Tayla - I edited in a couple of other lists and single books. I kept finding stuff that looked interesting!

Fantasy

Through a Brazen Mirror: The Famous Flower of Servingmen
Swordspoint, The Fall of The Kings, The Privilege of the Sword

Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise, Magic's Price

SF

Ammonite
Solution Three

The Shattered Chain, Thendara House, City of Sorcery;
The Heritage of Hastur

Carnival

Oh, and it's not exactly a focus (the gay character is not the protagonist), but sex and gender are very important, and it's one of my favorite books: Golden Witchbreed.

Also, there's Cyteen and its sequel Regenesis, which include a pair of gay couples. But unless you like information-dense books with lots of setting-specific politics, I wouldn't read them.

Edited to add another one — The Magicians and Mrs. Quent. (Though it's not really evident until nearly the end of the book.)

Also, there's Cyteen and its sequel Regenesis, which include a pair of gay couples. But unless you like information-dense books with lots of setting-specific politics, I wouldn't read them.

Oh, I know. I got about halfway through Cyteen and put it aside.

I'm surprised nobody's mentions The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan. It's pretty nasty though.

There's also The Lambda Recommended Reading List, which is pretty comprehensive up to 2001 when it was last updated: http://www.lambdasf.org/lsf/books/rec...

One highly recommended lesbian fantasy novel isGossamer Axeby Gael Baudino.

11: I thought The Steel Remains was pretty good, but yes, if you have any aversion to very graphic sex and violence, it's not the book for you. I recommend it if you're fine with those things though.

There's also Lust: or No Harm Done by Geoff Ryman, although this seems more like magical realism than fantasy. I haven't read it yet, but I've enjoyed Ryman's other writing (Air, Was, a short story here and there), so it looks promising.

Try The Red Tree, by Caitlin Kiernan. It's borderline fantasy/psychological thriller, but it handles middle-aged gay characters well.

Candiss wrote: "Tayla - I haven't read much that falls within this category, but I did a search on the Lists section here on Goodreads, and folks have compiled several lists that look like they might have some tit..."

thanks for the list, very useful.

however i noticed Dune on the scifi list and for the life of me i can't recall any characters being gay or lesbian in that one. in the film version, the harkonnen clan had a pretty gay vibe - but i don't recall that being in the novel either, thought that was lynch just being lynch.

It's been a while since I read Dune, but ... let's see. There was something about Baron Harkonnen hating women and not being interested in them sexually. "Once in his youth the Baron let himself be seduced" or something like that. So the implication was there, though I don't recall anything more obvious than that. And, well, if that matters, you can't exactly call the Baron sympathetic.

Interesting to see that Harry Potter ended up in one of those lists too!

You could check the writings of Mark Alders.
Mark Alders

Clive Barker's Sacrament

Brain Plague has an explicitly bisexual protagonist. Bone Dance: A Fantasy for Technophiles looks at gender.

I just remembered this one: An Alien Light by Nancy Kress.