Day 8 of #PrideLibrary19 – 10 LGBTQ+ Sci-Fi Recommendations

Somehow, the purple books prompt for #PrideLibrary19 immediately had me think of sci-fi books. Maybe because I’m a space ace? (Sorry, asexual joke.) Anyway, I couldn’t help but imagine beautiful purple galaxies right away, so I thought I’d recommend you some fun LGBTQ+ sci-fi novels!

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Lauren James – The Quiet at the End of the World

A pretty new, and pretty underrated, release, is The Quiet at the End of the World by Lauren James. This book has a bisexual main character, who, along with her Chinese best friend, is one of the only two children left in the entire world. Humanity is dying out, or is it? I loved this book a lot, and it deals with very interesting themes of what it means to be human. Often, I find sci-fi novels to be pretty anxiety-inducing, what with the suspense and the high stakes, but this is a calmly paced and very hopeful novel.

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Patrick Ness – More Than This

I guess More Than This is speculative fiction rather than sci-fi, but it’s a blurry line at best. Like most (I think?) of Patrick Ness’ novels, this one has a gay main character, who finds himself waking up alone in a deserted place and has to figure out where he is and what happened to him. I found it to be a very thought-provoking, emotional read.

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Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy – Once & Future

I read Once & Future as an eARC and I enjoyed it so much! It’s such a fun space opera, full of queer characters. Oh, and both of the authors are non-binary! You can read my full review here.

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M.K. England – The Disasters

Okay, I haven’t actually read The Disasters yet. I’m participating in a travelling book project for it, so I have to wait until it’s my turn to read it. I did however listen to the first part of the audiobook already, and I had such a fun time doing so that I wanted to recommend this book anyway. It seems to be sort of similar to Once & Future and Light Years by Kass Morgan, both of which I had a really fun time reading!

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Ashley Poston – Heart of Iron

With the sequel coming out soon, I also wanted to recommend Heart of Iron! If I’m correct, the author has confirmed that the main character is aspec, and there’s a gay side character as well. This is basically Anastasia, but as a Star Trek episode.

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C.B. Lee – Not Your Sidekick

No. No, I’m not going to stop raving about Not Your Sidekick. I love it, okay? The characters are just so amazing, and it’s an incredibly fun read. I know I’ve talked about this before, but if you’re looking for The Incredibles but sapphic, this is the book for you!

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Shaun David Hutchinson – The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried

And yes, I’ve talked about Shaun David Hutchinson’s books before as well. But I believe I haven’t talked about his latest YA book yet (not counting his memoir, Brave Face, which I’ve reviewed here!). The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried has pretty much all you could want from a speculative novel: it’s weird, the main character is gay, there’s  a trans love interest, and the best friend dies but comes back to life. Okay, these may not be your usual demands when it comes to speculative fiction, but you can’t deny that sounds pretty awesome. And it’s just so morbidly funny!

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Heather Kaczynski – Dare Mighty Things

I read Dare Mighty Things a few months ago, and I have been so excited to recommend it to you ever since! I haven’t gotten to read very many books with asexual main characters, so it’s incredibly awesome to see such a badass one. And honestly, this is one of the best sci-fi dystopians I’ve read in a while. It reminded me a little bit of Nyxia, but I actually prefer this one. I think most of us have read our fair share of dystopians, and they all tend to have this competition/test in the first installment, and the book ends when the competition ends. Then often, I’m completely disoriented by the sequel, because there’s suddenly a completely different story going on. But not here! There was actually a lot more to the story once the initial competition ended, and I really appreciated that.

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Becky Chambers – The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

I don’t think it’s possibly to recommend queer sci-fi without mentioning The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. It read kind of like an elaborate Doctor Who or Star Trek episode (or well, an entire season) to me, where there isn’t a lot of conflict going on, but there’s more focus on the characters and the world building. And that makes this such an interesting read!

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Natalie Riess – Space Battle Lunch Time

My last recommendation is a graphic novel: Space Battle Lunch Time! Basically, it’s MasterChef in space. And it’s just a really fun, quick read, with super lovely art work. I should really pick up the second volume soon, actually!

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What is your favourite LGBTQ+ sci-fi novel?