The Ninth Rain (by: Jen Williams) (0:39) Elatsoe (by: Darcie Little Badger, Rovina Cai) (2:13) The Crown of Feathers (by: Nicki Pau Preto) (2:39) Black Sun (by: Rebecca Roanhorse) (3:50) Scavenge the Stars (by: Tara Sim) (5:27) Flamefall (by: Rosaria Munda) (the second book of The Aurelian Cycle) (6:33) Labyrinth Lost (by: Zoraida Córdova) (the first book of the Brooklyn Brujas series) (8:34) Winter's Orbit (by: Everina Maxwell) (9:44) Girls of Paper and Fire (by: Natasha Ngan) (the first book of the Girls of Paper and Fire series) (11:07) The Bone Shard Daughter (by: Andrea Stewart) (the first book of the Drowning Empire trilogy) (11:58) Foundryside (by: Robert Jackson Bennett) (the first book of the Founders trilogy) (14:02) Six of Crows (by: Leigh Bardugo) (the first book of the Six of Crows duology) (15:16)
I would recommend, The Binding (fantasy, gay romance), The Raven Cycle (fantasy), Warchild by Karin Lowachee (Sci fi). Warchild isn't an overt gay romance, in fact its not the focus at all, but the main character Jos obviously loves another of the main characters (and I think at one point states his love for him) and is totally devoted to him, fighting for his cause, although they have to be apart from each other a lot of the time in the book, and it is sort of mentor/student relationship and maybe asexual too tbh, because of what Jos has been through as a child. I highly rec warchild btw.
I’m in the middle of a re-read of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet right now! In fact, I just took a break from reading the Coriol Port chapter to watch this video. Such a good book with a heart-warmingly inclusive feel!
@@uptown3636 truly! Glad you’re enjoying it again. It was my 2019 Christmas gift to a lot of friends and not one didn’t LOVE it and go on to read the whole series :)
My favorite sapphic SFF books: The Jasmine Throne (released next week), The Space Between Worlds, & The Unbroken - [from your friendly neighborhood sapphic]
In addition to those mentioned: Romance books with light fantasy: The Last Binding series by Freya Meske (two mlm, one wlw book), The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo (wlw, mlm, bi), Even Though I Knew the End (wlw), Kissing the Witch (wlw), Wild by Meghan O’Brien, Into this River I Drown by TJ Klume (mlm). Light fantasy with a side but meaningful romance- The Great Cities series by N.K. Jemison has mlm and flf romances. Her Inheritance Trilogy has a passionate mlm romance. The Witness for the Dead by: Katherine Addison has flf and mlm. For gay men not to miss: Niclays and Jannart's relationship in The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (not just a flf book- but it is great for that too.) Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow (wlw) has lesbian representation.
I absolutely LOVED Priory. I didn't know it was LGBTQ before reading it, and discovered that not knowing about it until it's there is what I want in books. Made for a nice little surprise.
I don't know if I'm obsessed with your channel but I literally know all of these books already because I saw you talking about them before 😂🧡 I think I'm obsessed
I would also recommend: The Raven Cycle (for a slowburn queer YA romance that carries into the current Dreamer Trilogy), The Starless Sea (for a soft/mysterious standalone romance), and A Universe of Wishes (which is a YA anthology and has a variety of characters). Also, I literally just finished Winter's Orbit and thought it was so good!
My Rec would be “Summer of Salt” it’s a short standalone, contemporary (mild) fantasy! Suuper atmospheric! Reminds me a bit of Practical magic! Also includes LGBTQ representation :)
This is how you lose the time war is a sci-fi novella with wlw, the adult books of V.E. Schwan all have at least one LGBT+ character, the novels of Welcome To Night Vale can be read without knowing the podcast and have a lot of LGBT+ characters too, Starsight (sequel to Skyward) have non binary characters, Vampires never get old is a collection of short stories of LGBT+ vampires Anand Percy Jackson and Magnus Chase both have LGBT+ characters. Those are my favorites!
There's a common tactic to attack diversity, "Their (diverse trait that's been historically underrepresented) has no bearing on how good the story is so it shouldn't matter." For the time being, it does matter. You don't see similar stances about hard sci-fi vs soft, low fantasy vs high fantasy, grimdark vs puppylight: "If it's a good story it shouldn't matter if (insert preference here)." The reason is because the argument has less to do with criticism and more to do with finding a neutral sounding expression for the critic's discomfort with visibility.
Happy pride month 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️I got Ninth Rain for cheap recently so looking forward to picking it up :) I might twist some prompts for my current readathon to add it, as I’ve also got Elatsoe and Fireborne on that list. Winters Orbit sounds really cool and I might also give Crown of Feathers a try as the whole Phoenix rider stuff sounds cool. A recommendation I have is Tara Sims first series, Timekeeper, it’s the age old story of boy falls in love with a clock spirit, but is a really lovely and fun adventure series.
Six of Crows duology, King of Scars duology, Daevabad trilogy, We are the Ants (YA sci-fi stand alone), Percy Jackson series, Heroes of Olympus series, Vicious (Villains duology by V. E. Schwab), The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.
It'd be really helpful to know what kind of lgbt+ representation each book has, maybe you could make a note adding that information? It's very important for us in the queer community since it makes it easier to know if there's representation for us personally in the stories or not, since most likely only a couple of labels will apply to us. Something I'd like to recommend and don't see people read or talk about a lot is the graphic novel Heavy Vinyl, it has a mostly female cast of characters and some f/f relationships! The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire has a lot of different queer rep, like asexual, trans masc, intersex, and sapphic.
I thought of saying which form of representation each book had, but I didn’t want it to come across like I was treating the representation as a sort of tokenism, if that makes sense! 😅
@@ebnovels I see what you mean, but that's not the case at all and it is really important! You're not tokenising, you're just giving information. It's already hard enough to find queer rep in books, it often happens that we don't find out a book has ANY KIND of queer rep until years later because nobody mentions it because they consider it a "spoiler" or some other reason. The whole point of talking about them is to make them more accessible to the queer community. For example you wouldn't say "this book has POC rep" and leave it at that, you'd specify if it has Latinx rep or Black rep or Native American rep, etc., because it's important for those communities to know they can find themselves in those books, it's the same thing! Just trying to let you know how it comes off to us, I hope it helps!
@@ebnovels Thanks for being receptive towards it! I always enjoy your videos and since you have a big audicence I thought it was important to let you know what would help 😊
My time has come... Fantasy and SciFi: "Kissing the Witch" by Emma Donoghue is a collection of fairy tale retellings with some w|w romances. "Frog Music" also has the LGBT tag on goodreads, but it's not fantasy. "The Raven and the Reindeer"by T. Kingfisher has a chubby bi mc and a w|w romance. It's an amazing "Snow Queen" retelling. The Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb has a non-binary main character that is in most books and the Rain Wild Chronicles has some gay characters. The novella set in the same world titled "The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince" has a lesbian main character. The Age of Madness trilogy by Joe Abercrombie has LGBT+ characters. The collection of short stories "Sharp Ends" has 2 lesbian characters too. "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller has a main gay romance. So does "The House in the Cerulean Sea" by T.J. Klune and "Silver in the Wood" by Emily Tesh. The comic "Nimona" has gay characters too. "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin has a non-binary race. "Cemetery Boys" by Aiden Thomas has a trans mc and other LGBT+ characters; "Swordspoint" by Ellen Kushner has a gay romance and I think most characters are bisexual in the series. The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin has a trans character and a poly relationship. I didn't really like "Fireheart Tiger", "Huntress" and "Cinderella is Dead" but other people might. All with w|w romances. Not fantasy: Most books by Sarah Waters have lesbian romances. I started with "Fingersmith" and am currently reading "The Paying Guests". She writes historical fiction. "Loveless" by Alice Oseman has an asexual main character and a w|w romance. I think most of her books have LGBT+ characters, including the comic "Heartstopper". She writes contemporary YA. "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker has a lesbian mc and it's a classic. Others: "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Jenkins Reid and "My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness" by Kabi Nagata.
@@ThePurpleBookWyrm is it? Sorry. It has been some years since I have read that book. I only remember that gender wasn't a big deal to them and that the mc found it odd. Edit: Ok, I went to check because I didn't remember it that way and I found this which does click for me "Gethenians and their interesting states of kemmer (of either gender for a few days a month) and somer (neuter for the majority of the time.)" and then found this "Gethenians are is unique among the humans known by the Ekumen in that they are intersex and, for most of the time, agender. Once each month, all Gethenians enter a state called “kemmer” in which they become sexually active and in which their bodies change based on the partner they choose and their specific relationship with them." So, it's more complicated to label them but either way the book presents an interesting perspective about gender. Also, the word intersex should be used, I think, in this case. "There is growing momentum to eliminate the word "hermaphrodite" from medical literature and to use the word "intersex" in its place. While some intersex people do reclaim the word "hermaphrodite" with pride to reference themselves (like words such as "dyke" and "queer" have been reclaimed by LGBT people), it should be generally avoided except under specific circumstances."
I love all the representation in SFF! Thanks for sharing your recommendations, Elliot. I would love to hear your recommendations for SFF books that represent people on the autism spectrum. You are well-read and empathetic enough to make such a video, and I can’t think of another book tuber who could pull it off. ❤️
Just finished Dreams of the Dying, as far as rep goes the main POV is a bisexual dude. It's not the focal point but it definitely affects his interactions and romances etc. The story itself was really good. Horror Fantasy with a sort of Inception/Murder Mystery set up in a tropical climate which I found pretty unique. I have to read Black Sun, Song of Achilles is up there for me too.
Happy Pride Month! 🏳️🌈 Red, White and Royal Blue is a romance novel by Casey McQuiston that I'm excited to get around to this month (hopefully this week). And I'm excited to get around to the Six of Crows duology this month too 😊
Thank you! Im always looking for lgbtq fantasy recommendations on booktube but its just not easy to find and I appreciate your opinions. Will be picking some of these up
I want to get to so many of these. Elatsoe has been on my list for a while! CRown of Feathers is just fantastic, and I can't wait to see what the 3rd book has to offer soon!
Yay, the Bone Shard Daughter and Black Sun recently arrived in the mail! Looking forward to it! My recommendations are The Story of Silence, following a person who is born as a girl but raised as a boy and tries to find their identity throughout the book. Another one is Sistersong where you follow three siblings and one of them is born as a girl but they feel different and try to find their place in this Medieval world. The entire Nightrunner series focusses on Alec and Seregil, a spy duo but they are also lovers. The last one I have on the list is the Once and Future Witches which has a sapphic romance. I didn't like the last one but I know a lot of people do so I thought I'd throw it in there as well!
Yes! Love this! Some recent-ish favorite SFF sapphics: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and Gideon the Ninth (and sequel) by Tamsyn Muir. Gideon the Ninth is commonly described as "lesbian necromancers in space". It's great!
Middle Grade contemporary: Zenobia July (trans MC, also lesbian, NB, other), Spin With Me (NB MC), The Pants Project (trans MC), Ana on the Edge (NB and trans characters) YA contemporary: Can't Take That Away (gender fluid MC), Heartstopper series (mlm) SFF: Burning Roses (sapphic) , Into the Drowning Deep (sapphic/bi), Girls of Paper and Fire (sapphic), The Wayward Children series (so many!! there is ace, intersex, sapphic, just lots)
The last herald mage trilogy by mercedes lackey. Published in the early 90s. All or nearly all of her books in the velgarth(valdemar) world have lgbt+ characters. Earliest publications to have lbgt characters i have found.
I would recommend: 1) The Truth About Keeping Secrets. (f/f rom) 2) Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. 3) Carmilla. (lesbo version of Dracula) 4) Red White and Royal Blue. (this book needs no say) 5) Aristotle and Dante Discover the secrets of the universe [book 1], Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World [Book 2]. It's a fantastic series. I absolutely adore it. 6) Cinderalla is Dead. (f/f rom but the story is so much more than that.)
Obviously, I recommend The House in the Cerulean Sea which is such a wonderful, cozy fantasy. I'd also recommend The Deathless Girls which is YA fantasy about two of Dracula's brides, the dark sisters. They are twins and are also Romani which is not representation that I see very often.
I totally forgot about Winter's Orbit I meant to check that one out. I mean a super recent one with a sapphic POV is The Bladed Faith by David Dalglish
House in the Cerulean Sea Song of Achilles Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Wolfsong by TJ Klune Magic is for Liars by Sarah Gailey Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes Shades of Magic trilogy by VE Schwab Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin The Mysterious and Amazing Blue Billings by Lily Morton Wicked Saints by Emily A Duncan The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
Yeah I was waiting for her to sort of expound (at least a little) on each books lgbt character relationship. This was a decent list suggestion but I had to go behind and do a lot of looking up to see which would really interest me.
The Custard Protocol by Gail Carriger with the Parasol Protectorate thrown in for good measure. This is more steampunk, though. Across The Journey River would be more of a murder mystery with a native American bend.
I would definitely recommend Gideon the Ninth, which is pitched as lesbian necromancers exploring a haunted palace in space, and is super engrossing and between genres, and has incredible world building
The Cloud Roads (Raksura Series) by Martha Wells. Basically the whole culture is bisexual. It's so good great world building and character building. One of my favorite reads.
I would add Crier's War by Nina Varela, The Last Magician series by Lisa Maxwell (YA sci fi and YA fantasy) and The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin (Adult) to the list
I really enjoyed scavenge the stars I'm also planning on reading the count of monte Cristo this year and black sun I have never heard of labyrinth lost
I've seen people say Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus but no one say Trials of Apollo, which has the most LGBTQ rep IMO Also the Captive Prince trilogy is one of my favorites, but look up trigger warnings for it first. Lastly is The Skybound series starting with Black Wings Beating. Gay AND asexual rep.
My favourite adult lgbtq fantasy book is The Lightning-Struck Heart by TJ Klune. It’s absolutely hilarious and heartbreaking and heartwarming. It is the first book in a series but is a stand alone too. Wizards, magic, kings and castles, love, talking dragons and a fabulously gay hornless unicorn. What’s not to love 😊
Hi Elliot, when talking about main characters could you instead of saying 'they' say 'he' or 'she' if those are the character's pronouns? I kept thinking perhaps some of these stories had nonbinary characters who used they/them pronouns. That aside, thank you so much for this video and recommending so many wonderful books! I adore your videos!
A couple of decades since I read them, so can’t remember the exact title, but at least one novel in Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series, features LGBTQ+ characters.
Gideon the Ninth and the sequel are strong 💪 recommends - it's YA lesbian necromancers in space, but no... no wait, it's funny, self-deprecating and kind of metal. Every character seems to have a plot twist, to the point that there's so many you inevitably won't see *all* of them a mile off. Although the first book suffers from too closed a focus on a tropey right of passage trial, the characterisation is strong enough that the closed setting slasher movie plot still has legs and the setting goes to some interesting places too.
I was browsing the forums, and I saw someone say that Brandon is making one of the side characters in Stormlight archive gay. Ah whats his name.... the parshendi guy that fights on Kaladins side and is in bridge 4. But Brandon is Mormon...so you know...
Yup, Drehy from Bridge 4 is gay. You see more of it in Oathbringer and RoW. Rlain or the parshendi from bridge 4 is queer and I believe it has been confirmed by Sanderson that Renarin has feelings for Rlain.
One of the main characters, Shallan, is bi. Others mentioned Bridge4 members, and Renarin and Rlain, they are now side characters but in the second five books Renarin will be one of the main protagonists. Jasnah is asexual and there is a trans knight radiant but only mentioned in passing. Other cosmere series are a bit behind in this regard, Mistborn era2 has a lesbian side character, tho.
In the ravenous dark by a.m Strickland the main character rovan is amazing she is basically in a polyamorous relationship I just finished the book I instantly loved it one of the best books of this year 😘😍🥰💖💝🌈🤩
This is How You Lose the Time War. While I personally didn't enjoy it, as I found it pretentious in trying to be "too smart for the reader" and then get their science wrong (a mathematician here, and fractals simply don't work the way authors explained it 🙄), the love story I found insta love-y and the twist was the most obvious way, imo, to solve a time traveling story - yes, the one you're probably thinking of right now; still, many people do find it beautiful and poetic which is I am posting it here.
In your reviews, you did really say what was LGBTQ+ about these books. I couldn’t tell anything about the gay characters. I couldn’t even tell if the gay characters were male or female.
I said at the beginning that there are povs in all these books that are LGBTQ, but none of the books are specifically about being LGBTQ. I think there’s an unfortunate stereotype that any book with an LGBTQ character is pushing an “agenda” and it’s important to me that people understand that for many books out there, a character being gay, bi, etc, is simply a part of the character.
@@ebnovels I understand. I didn’t mean to offend. I don’t know what povs is, but I guess I was just looking for fantasy books with gay male characters in them. Not necessarily the main character, but still there. I just couldn’t determine which, if any, of the books to read. Do any of them have gay male characters?
i recently researched some books with aro rep but haven't gotten around to reading many of them so idk if they're good. here are some that are on my tbr though: East Flows the River by Michelle Kan (Tales of the Thread Series) The Black Veins by Ashia Monet Werecockroach by Polenth Blake A Promise Broken by S. L. Dove Cooper Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman The Thread That Binds by Cedar McCloud Common Bonds by Claudie Arsenault and others Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace Immoral Code by Lillian Clark Royal Rescue by A. Alex Logan
Jacqueline Carey has the Kushiel's Legacy series where a major theme is 'love as thou whilst'. Love and sexuality is explored in many varieties - trigger warnings for graphic content including non-consensual. Also by Jacqueline Carey is Starless - close to YA so tamer in graphic content than the other series, has a non-binary character. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner The Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan
The House by the Cerulean Sea. The Song of Achilles. The Starless Sea.
I love all those books!!
The starless sea is so amazing omg 😌
The song of achilles has such good writing
I would highly recommend A Memory Called Empire! (also this pink shirt looks absolutely amazing on you Elliot)
I second this recommendation. I just finished this and the second book, Desolation of Peace. Both books were excellent.
Started my readthrough a little bit ago and just continued it tonight. Some of my absolute favorite writing/prose already.
The Ninth Rain (by: Jen Williams) (0:39)
Elatsoe (by: Darcie Little Badger, Rovina Cai) (2:13)
The Crown of Feathers (by: Nicki Pau Preto) (2:39)
Black Sun (by: Rebecca Roanhorse) (3:50)
Scavenge the Stars (by: Tara Sim) (5:27)
Flamefall (by: Rosaria Munda) (the second book of The Aurelian Cycle) (6:33)
Labyrinth Lost (by: Zoraida Córdova) (the first book of the Brooklyn Brujas series) (8:34)
Winter's Orbit (by: Everina Maxwell) (9:44)
Girls of Paper and Fire (by: Natasha Ngan) (the first book of the Girls of Paper and Fire series) (11:07)
The Bone Shard Daughter (by: Andrea Stewart) (the first book of the Drowning Empire trilogy) (11:58)
Foundryside (by: Robert Jackson Bennett) (the first book of the Founders trilogy) (14:02)
Six of Crows (by: Leigh Bardugo) (the first book of the Six of Crows duology) (15:16)
Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is a must
On a Sunbeam is a great Sci-fi Graphic Novel
Another recommendation: Percy Jackson + Magnus Chase --> Basically the Riordian-verse
I would recommend, The Binding (fantasy, gay romance), The Raven Cycle (fantasy), Warchild
by Karin Lowachee (Sci fi). Warchild isn't an overt gay romance, in fact its not the focus at all, but the main character Jos obviously loves another of the main characters (and I think at one point states his love for him) and is totally devoted to him, fighting for his cause, although they have to be apart from each other a lot of the time in the book, and it is sort of mentor/student relationship and maybe asexual too tbh, because of what Jos has been through as a child. I highly rec warchild btw.
The Binding is magical - I loved it!
I rarely see people mention The Binding, it is such a great read
This is exactly how I wanted to find about the books. Main plot in brackets along with the title
I recommend: “The Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet” by Becky Chambers and of course, “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by TJ Klune!!
I’m in the middle of a re-read of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet right now! In fact, I just took a break from reading the Coriol Port chapter to watch this video. Such a good book with a heart-warmingly inclusive feel!
@@uptown3636 truly! Glad you’re enjoying it again. It was my 2019 Christmas gift to a lot of friends and not one didn’t LOVE it and go on to read the whole series :)
My favorite sapphic SFF books: The Jasmine Throne (released next week), The Space Between Worlds, & The Unbroken
- [from your friendly neighborhood sapphic]
Cemetery Boys & Song of Achilles are my favorites.
In addition to those mentioned: Romance books with light fantasy: The Last Binding series by Freya Meske (two mlm, one wlw book), The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo (wlw, mlm, bi), Even Though I Knew the End (wlw), Kissing the Witch (wlw), Wild by Meghan O’Brien, Into this River I Drown by TJ Klume (mlm). Light fantasy with a side but meaningful romance- The Great Cities series by N.K. Jemison has mlm and flf romances. Her Inheritance Trilogy has a passionate mlm romance. The Witness for the Dead by: Katherine Addison has flf and mlm. For gay men not to miss: Niclays and Jannart's relationship in The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (not just a flf book- but it is great for that too.) Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow (wlw) has lesbian representation.
Gideon
The
Ninth!
The House in the Cerulean Sea...DUH!!
The Priory of the Orange Tree is a good one too
I absolutely LOVED Priory. I didn't know it was LGBTQ before reading it, and discovered that not knowing about it until it's there is what I want in books. Made for a nice little surprise.
@@TheirisaGod same. Saw it on a recommendation list! 😊
I'm halfway through it and can't place any LGBT characters. I must be blind, lol. Maybe it was mentioned that Roos is gay?
@@Shelf_Improvement keep reading lol. You’ll get there
Yeah, right after this comment I ran smack into it, lol
It's like you know my mind. I wanted to read LGBTQ representation in fantasy. Thank you so much ❤️
You’re welcome 😄
@@ebnovels i love LGBTQ🌈🏳️🌈 🥰books📚
I don't know if I'm obsessed with your channel but I literally know all of these books already because I saw you talking about them before 😂🧡 I think I'm obsessed
Hahaha, well yay for these books! 😂
The long way to a small angry planet and radio silence are my recommendations!
I would also recommend: The Raven Cycle (for a slowburn queer YA romance that carries into the current Dreamer Trilogy), The Starless Sea (for a soft/mysterious standalone romance), and A Universe of Wishes (which is a YA anthology and has a variety of characters). Also, I literally just finished Winter's Orbit and thought it was so good!
My Rec would be “Summer of Salt” it’s a short standalone, contemporary (mild) fantasy! Suuper atmospheric! Reminds me a bit of Practical magic! Also includes LGBTQ representation :)
The Priory of the Orange Tree ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is how you lose the time war is a sci-fi novella with wlw, the adult books of V.E. Schwan all have at least one LGBT+ character, the novels of Welcome To Night Vale can be read without knowing the podcast and have a lot of LGBT+ characters too, Starsight (sequel to Skyward) have non binary characters, Vampires never get old is a collection of short stories of LGBT+ vampires Anand Percy Jackson and Magnus Chase both have LGBT+ characters.
Those are my favorites!
So far I've listened to one Night Vale novel (The Faceless Old Woman). The narrator (Mara Wilson) does an outstanding job
There's a common tactic to attack diversity, "Their (diverse trait that's been historically underrepresented) has no bearing on how good the story is so it shouldn't matter." For the time being, it does matter. You don't see similar stances about hard sci-fi vs soft, low fantasy vs high fantasy, grimdark vs puppylight: "If it's a good story it shouldn't matter if (insert preference here)."
The reason is because the argument has less to do with criticism and more to do with finding a neutral sounding expression for the critic's discomfort with visibility.
I appreciate that perspective; thank you for mentioning that :)
It's such a lame argument because it presupposes that there isn't any skill in being able to write characters from different backgrounds.
Happy pride month 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️I got Ninth Rain for cheap recently so looking forward to picking it up :) I might twist some prompts for my current readathon to add it, as I’ve also got Elatsoe and Fireborne on that list. Winters Orbit sounds really cool and I might also give Crown of Feathers a try as the whole Phoenix rider stuff sounds cool.
A recommendation I have is Tara Sims first series, Timekeeper, it’s the age old story of boy falls in love with a clock spirit, but is a really lovely and fun adventure series.
Six of Crows duology, King of Scars duology, Daevabad trilogy, We are the Ants (YA sci-fi stand alone), Percy Jackson series, Heroes of Olympus series, Vicious (Villains duology by V. E. Schwab), The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.
Happy Pride Month Elliot! Will be cool to see what books are here.
It'd be really helpful to know what kind of lgbt+ representation each book has, maybe you could make a note adding that information? It's very important for us in the queer community since it makes it easier to know if there's representation for us personally in the stories or not, since most likely only a couple of labels will apply to us.
Something I'd like to recommend and don't see people read or talk about a lot is the graphic novel Heavy Vinyl, it has a mostly female cast of characters and some f/f relationships!
The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire has a lot of different queer rep, like asexual, trans masc, intersex, and sapphic.
I thought of saying which form of representation each book had, but I didn’t want it to come across like I was treating the representation as a sort of tokenism, if that makes sense! 😅
@@ebnovels I see what you mean, but that's not the case at all and it is really important! You're not tokenising, you're just giving information. It's already hard enough to find queer rep in books, it often happens that we don't find out a book has ANY KIND of queer rep until years later because nobody mentions it because they consider it a "spoiler" or some other reason. The whole point of talking about them is to make them more accessible to the queer community. For example you wouldn't say "this book has POC rep" and leave it at that, you'd specify if it has Latinx rep or Black rep or Native American rep, etc., because it's important for those communities to know they can find themselves in those books, it's the same thing!
Just trying to let you know how it comes off to us, I hope it helps!
That’s super helpful, thank you! I appreciate you letting me know 😄😄😄
@@ebnovels Thanks for being receptive towards it! I always enjoy your videos and since you have a big audicence I thought it was important to let you know what would help 😊
Yeah, for sure! I’ll try to get that info added in the description bar soon 😊
Wonderful list! I'm hoping to read Winter's Orbit this month. I know it's not for everyone, but I recommend A Dark and Hollow Star!
Yes winter's orbit is a great read I read this in April 🌈🥰
The Traitor Baru Cormorant!!! Highly highly recommend-I’ve only read the first two but they were fantastic. Would recommend for fans of The Poppy War
I’ve heard that one is great!
My time has come...
Fantasy and SciFi:
"Kissing the Witch" by Emma Donoghue is a collection of fairy tale retellings with some w|w romances. "Frog Music" also has the LGBT tag on goodreads, but it's not fantasy.
"The Raven and the Reindeer"by T. Kingfisher has a chubby bi mc and a w|w romance. It's an amazing "Snow Queen" retelling.
The Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb has a non-binary main character that is in most books and the Rain Wild Chronicles has some gay characters. The novella set in the same world titled "The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince" has a lesbian main character.
The Age of Madness trilogy by Joe Abercrombie has LGBT+ characters. The collection of short stories "Sharp Ends" has 2 lesbian characters too.
"The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller has a main gay romance. So does "The House in the Cerulean Sea" by T.J. Klune and "Silver in the Wood" by Emily Tesh. The comic "Nimona" has gay characters too.
"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin has a non-binary race. "Cemetery Boys" by Aiden Thomas has a trans mc and other LGBT+ characters; "Swordspoint" by Ellen Kushner has a gay romance and I think most characters are bisexual in the series. The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin has a trans character and a poly relationship.
I didn't really like "Fireheart Tiger", "Huntress" and "Cinderella is Dead" but other people might. All with w|w romances.
Not fantasy:
Most books by Sarah Waters have lesbian romances. I started with "Fingersmith" and am currently reading "The Paying Guests". She writes historical fiction.
"Loveless" by Alice Oseman has an asexual main character and a w|w romance. I think most of her books have LGBT+ characters, including the comic "Heartstopper". She writes contemporary YA.
"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker has a lesbian mc and it's a classic.
Others: "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Jenkins Reid and "My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness" by Kabi Nagata.
The Gethenians are not non-binary in any meaningful sense of the word, they are genderless hermaphroditic human beings.
@@ThePurpleBookWyrm is it? Sorry. It has been some years since I have read that book. I only remember that gender wasn't a big deal to them and that the mc found it odd.
Edit: Ok, I went to check because I didn't remember it that way and I found this which does click for me "Gethenians and their interesting states of kemmer (of either gender for a few days a month) and somer (neuter for the majority of the time.)" and then found this "Gethenians are is unique among the humans known by the Ekumen in that they are intersex and, for most of the time, agender. Once each month, all Gethenians enter a state called “kemmer” in which they become sexually active and in which their bodies change based on the partner they choose and their specific relationship with them."
So, it's more complicated to label them but either way the book presents an interesting perspective about gender.
Also, the word intersex should be used, I think, in this case.
"There is growing momentum to eliminate the word "hermaphrodite"
from medical literature and to use the word "intersex" in its
place. While some intersex people do reclaim the word "hermaphrodite"
with pride to reference themselves (like words such as "dyke"
and "queer" have been reclaimed by LGBT people), it should be
generally avoided except under specific circumstances."
I love all the representation in SFF! Thanks for sharing your recommendations, Elliot.
I would love to hear your recommendations for SFF books that represent people on the autism spectrum. You are well-read and empathetic enough to make such a video, and I can’t think of another book tuber who could pull it off. ❤️
Trans guy here. Thank you for the recommendations and support :))
Least I can do! 🤗
Just finished Dreams of the Dying, as far as rep goes the main POV is a bisexual dude. It's not the focal point but it definitely affects his interactions and romances etc.
The story itself was really good. Horror Fantasy with a sort of Inception/Murder Mystery set up in a tropical climate which I found pretty unique.
I have to read Black Sun, Song of Achilles is up there for me too.
There's actually a 3rd book in the Six of Crows series coming! (:
❤️💛💚💙💜
Also, I'm already reading Bone Shard Daughter and Foundryside this month, so YAY!
Happy Pride Month! 🏳️🌈
Red, White and Royal Blue is a romance novel by Casey McQuiston that I'm excited to get around to this month (hopefully this week).
And I'm excited to get around to the Six of Crows duology this month too 😊
Such a good book!!!! I'm happy you are going to get to read it !
I didn't particularly love RWRB (it's all right, though) but I cannot recommend Six of Crows enough! Enjoy!
The Nightrunner Series by Lynn Flewelling, it's fantasy
Thank you! Im always looking for lgbtq fantasy recommendations on booktube but its just not easy to find and I appreciate your opinions. Will be picking some of these up
Omg you wear PINK!!! I have 2 mantel because they are pink but differently cut....you see 🎀💖
Priory Of the Orange Tree has a lesbian love story that i just LOVE
The House in the Cerulean Sea, Red, White, and Royal Blue (romance but it's so good)
So many good suggestions! Also LOVE your eye makeup!
Ahh, thank you 😄
I want to get to so many of these. Elatsoe has been on my list for a while!
CRown of Feathers is just fantastic, and I can't wait to see what the 3rd book has to offer soon!
I’m excited for book three-not too much longer!
@@ebnovels right! I totally went and splurged on the Owlcrate one too 😂 I figure my birthday is July, it comes out in July, spoil myself 😂
Yay, the Bone Shard Daughter and Black Sun recently arrived in the mail! Looking forward to it!
My recommendations are The Story of Silence, following a person who is born as a girl but raised as a boy and tries to find their identity throughout the book. Another one is Sistersong where you follow three siblings and one of them is born as a girl but they feel different and try to find their place in this Medieval world. The entire Nightrunner series focusses on Alec and Seregil, a spy duo but they are also lovers. The last one I have on the list is the Once and Future Witches which has a sapphic romance. I didn't like the last one but I know a lot of people do so I thought I'd throw it in there as well!
I’ve not heard of some of these-thank you for the recs!
Thanks for the video Elle! I have a few of these on my TBR!
Just finished The Binding by B Collins and I cant stop singing its praises!
Ohh, I’ll have to look into that one more 😄
Yes! Love this! Some recent-ish favorite SFF sapphics: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and Gideon the Ninth (and sequel) by Tamsyn Muir. Gideon the Ninth is commonly described as "lesbian necromancers in space". It's great!
The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry was a nice one 😁
I have been told the 5th season has LGBT rep, is that true? Remaking my tbr 😊
I need this answer as well 😩😩
Yes it does!
@@chelsikay13 oh awesome! Thank you
It has trans woman rep, gay male rep, poly rep, lesbian rep, and possibly some non-binary as well.
@@robertdullnig3625 Thanks it has officially slid onto my TBR for this month!
Middle Grade contemporary: Zenobia July (trans MC, also lesbian, NB, other), Spin With Me (NB MC), The Pants Project (trans MC), Ana on the Edge (NB and trans characters)
YA contemporary: Can't Take That Away (gender fluid MC), Heartstopper series (mlm)
SFF: Burning Roses (sapphic) , Into the Drowning Deep (sapphic/bi), Girls of Paper and Fire (sapphic), The Wayward Children series (so many!! there is ace, intersex, sapphic, just lots)
The last herald mage trilogy by mercedes lackey. Published in the early 90s. All or nearly all of her books in the velgarth(valdemar) world have lgbt+ characters. Earliest publications to have lbgt characters i have found.
"The House in the Cerulean Sea", absolutely delightful ^^
I loved Winter's Orbit! It was so heart breaking and beautiful🥺❤
I really liked the MCs both 😄
I would recommend:
1) The Truth About Keeping Secrets. (f/f rom)
2) Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
3) Carmilla. (lesbo version of Dracula)
4) Red White and Royal Blue. (this book needs no say)
5) Aristotle and Dante Discover the secrets of the universe [book 1], Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World [Book 2]. It's a fantastic series. I absolutely adore it.
6) Cinderalla is Dead. (f/f rom but the story is so much more than that.)
Happy reading to you!! 📖😊
so many choices! Currently reading spin the dawn and these violent delights
So excited to read these. Thanks for the recommendations! 😍🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🖤🤍💜😻
The Seven Husband's of Evelyn Hugo.
Obviously, I recommend The House in the Cerulean Sea which is such a wonderful, cozy fantasy. I'd also recommend The Deathless Girls which is YA fantasy about two of Dracula's brides, the dark sisters. They are twins and are also Romani which is not representation that I see very often.
I totally forgot about Winter's Orbit I meant to check that one out. I mean a super recent one with a sapphic POV is The Bladed Faith by David Dalglish
House in the Cerulean Sea
Song of Achilles
Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Wolfsong by TJ Klune
Magic is for Liars by Sarah Gailey
Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes
Shades of Magic trilogy by VE Schwab
Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin
The Mysterious and Amazing Blue Billings by Lily Morton
Wicked Saints by Emily A Duncan
The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
Quite a few of those are ones I’m interested in 😄
Yess, The Song of Achilles is AMAZING
Hey Elliot, amazing video as always. But it'd have been really great if you could also talk about the exact LGBTQ rep in each one
Yeah I was waiting for her to sort of expound (at least a little) on each books lgbt character relationship. This was a decent list suggestion but I had to go behind and do a lot of looking up to see which would really interest me.
So many books added to my tbr from the recommendations in these comments 📚
Right? So many suggestions!
The Custard Protocol by Gail Carriger with the Parasol Protectorate thrown in for good measure. This is more steampunk, though. Across The Journey River would be more of a murder mystery with a native American bend.
I would definitely recommend Gideon the Ninth, which is pitched as lesbian necromancers exploring a haunted palace in space, and is super engrossing and between genres, and has incredible world building
Happy pride month
What a great video! Happy pride month everyone!
Cemetery Boys is a fantasy with a trans main character, was written by a trans author, and has been nominated for a Hugo. Definitely check it out!
The Cloud Roads (Raksura Series) by Martha Wells. Basically the whole culture is bisexual. It's so good great world building and character building. One of my favorite reads.
So what I'm hearing for Foundryside is that the magic system sort of a variant on computer programming and I'm here for it.
Master of one, the house in the cerulean sea, and cemetery boys are all great books
Steel crow saga has very many lgbtq characters!
I would add Crier's War by Nina Varela, The Last Magician series by Lisa Maxwell (YA sci fi and YA fantasy) and The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin (Adult) to the list
Really want to read Winters Orbit now
I really enjoyed scavenge the stars I'm also planning on reading the count of monte Cristo this year and black sun I have never heard of labyrinth lost
I've seen people say Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus but no one say Trials of Apollo, which has the most LGBTQ rep IMO
Also the Captive Prince trilogy is one of my favorites, but look up trigger warnings for it first.
Lastly is The Skybound series starting with Black Wings Beating. Gay AND asexual rep.
I recommend "Nevernight", in the 2nd book there's a lesbian relationship
Got a lot of these books on my TBR! Also, Radio Silence is a good LGBT YA.
Heartstopper graphic novel series.
The fourth volume just came out. It’s such a wholesome series that deserves a re-read every year.
My favourite adult lgbtq fantasy book is The Lightning-Struck Heart by TJ Klune. It’s absolutely hilarious and heartbreaking and heartwarming. It is the first book in a series but is a stand alone too.
Wizards, magic, kings and castles, love, talking dragons and a fabulously gay hornless unicorn. What’s not to love 😊
I completely forgot about black sun 🌞 I will be adding it to my pride summer tbr and already own it. Now I can read it for pride month.
Hi Elliot, when talking about main characters could you instead of saying 'they' say 'he' or 'she' if those are the character's pronouns? I kept thinking perhaps some of these stories had nonbinary characters who used they/them pronouns. That aside, thank you so much for this video and recommending so many wonderful books! I adore your videos!
A couple of decades since I read them, so can’t remember the exact title, but at least one novel in Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series, features LGBTQ+ characters.
I I would have liked to know the MC's gender (or if they are NB). The description was vague on some of these.
Sufficiently advanced magic by Andrew Rowe!
I would recommend *Marilia, the Warlord by Morgan Cole*
It's a great high-fantasy trilogy. (Adult fantasy)
YES CROWN OF FEATHERS 🖤
So my tbr just got longer 😅
Please check out Django Wexler's Shadow Campaign series, starting with The Ten Thousand Names. Great characters.
Gideon the Ninth and the sequel are strong 💪 recommends - it's YA lesbian necromancers in space, but no... no wait, it's funny, self-deprecating and kind of metal. Every character seems to have a plot twist, to the point that there's so many you inevitably won't see *all* of them a mile off. Although the first book suffers from too closed a focus on a tropey right of passage trial, the characterisation is strong enough that the closed setting slasher movie plot still has legs and the setting goes to some interesting places too.
I’m planning on reading that later this year 😄
are there any lgbtq characters in the cosmere?
I was browsing the forums, and I saw someone say that Brandon is making one of the side characters in Stormlight archive gay. Ah whats his name.... the parshendi guy that fights on Kaladins side and is in bridge 4. But Brandon is Mormon...so you know...
There’s one character in Stormlight Archive who has been suggested to be bi. I don’t think it’s actually confirmed in the book though
Yup, Drehy from Bridge 4 is gay. You see more of it in Oathbringer and RoW. Rlain or the parshendi from bridge 4 is queer and I believe it has been confirmed by Sanderson that Renarin has feelings for Rlain.
And I would argue that Jasnah is asexual too (he didn't have any representation in earlier books, but I feel that he is trying to work towards it^^)
One of the main characters, Shallan, is bi. Others mentioned Bridge4 members, and Renarin and Rlain, they are now side characters but in the second five books Renarin will be one of the main protagonists.
Jasnah is asexual and there is a trans knight radiant but only mentioned in passing.
Other cosmere series are a bit behind in this regard, Mistborn era2 has a lesbian side character, tho.
In the ravenous dark by a.m Strickland the main character rovan is amazing she is basically in a polyamorous relationship I just finished the book I instantly loved it one of the best books of this year 😘😍🥰💖💝🌈🤩
the gilded wolves! i really great book especially if u liked six of crows
This is How You Lose the Time War. While I personally didn't enjoy it, as I found it pretentious in trying to be "too smart for the reader" and then get their science wrong (a mathematician here, and fractals simply don't work the way authors explained it 🙄), the love story I found insta love-y and the twist was the most obvious way, imo, to solve a time traveling story - yes, the one you're probably thinking of right now; still, many people do find it beautiful and poetic which is I am posting it here.
Thanks for mentioning it!
Is there a gay book where the protagonist gets teleported to another world or time travel
In your reviews, you did really say what was LGBTQ+ about these books. I couldn’t tell anything about the gay characters. I couldn’t even tell if the gay characters were male or female.
I said at the beginning that there are povs in all these books that are LGBTQ, but none of the books are specifically about being LGBTQ. I think there’s an unfortunate stereotype that any book with an LGBTQ character is pushing an “agenda” and it’s important to me that people understand that for many books out there, a character being gay, bi, etc, is simply a part of the character.
@@ebnovels I understand. I didn’t mean to offend. I don’t know what povs is, but I guess I was just looking for fantasy books with gay male characters in them. Not necessarily the main character, but still there. I just couldn’t determine which, if any, of the books to read. Do any of them have gay male characters?
No worries! Winter’s Orbit, Crown of Feathers, Flamefall and Scavenge the Stars (the characters are bisexual in those ones), and Six of Crows :)
all of the shadowhunter books by cassandra clare
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune!!!!!!
0:10 My unique solution involves gu- err.... Love and understanding!
Yeah. Totally not a proletarian uprising.
Dryland's End
the 👏🏻 space 👏🏻 between 👏🏻 worlds 👏🏻. f/f romance but that's not the main plot. it's perfect.
I need to pick that one up 😄
@@ebnovels please do!!!!!
Good book. I second this suggestion
love this! anybody have any aro recs (i've already read loveless and a lady's guide)
i recently researched some books with aro rep but haven't gotten around to reading many of them so idk if they're good. here are some that are on my tbr though:
East Flows the River by Michelle Kan (Tales of the Thread Series)
The Black Veins by Ashia Monet
Werecockroach by Polenth Blake
A Promise Broken by S. L. Dove Cooper
Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman
The Thread That Binds by Cedar McCloud
Common Bonds by Claudie Arsenault and others
Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace
Immoral Code by Lillian Clark
Royal Rescue by A. Alex Logan
Jacqueline Carey has the Kushiel's Legacy series where a major theme is 'love as thou whilst'. Love and sexuality is explored in many varieties - trigger warnings for graphic content including non-consensual.
Also by Jacqueline Carey is Starless - close to YA so tamer in graphic content than the other series, has a non-binary character.
Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
The Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames
The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan