Be LGBTQ+, Do Other Stuff: 4 Anticipated Queer Fantasy Novels

Book Twitter has been abuzz with Discourse (when is it not?) regarding the Canon once again, this time in defense of Western European analog fantasy. Look, that stuff isn’t bad as such (okay, some of it is), but why would you want to limit yourself to books set in a very small area of the world when the world is huge and amazing and full of myths and legends and traditions and magics and people you’ve never read about or heard about or seen or met? Especially when the intrigue is first class, and the power struggles are vicious, and the women are done with this bullshit, and, yes, there is romance and there are also lesbians. We get a lot of M/M relationships in fantasy, which is fantastic and I will read them all day (and I’ll read them in my manga all day as well), but listen, the ladies deserve some time front and center as well and let me tell you, this power couple…yeah. I just met them and already I would die on their hill.

Also, this book is a deliciously chunky girl, excellent for brandishing at haters. Don’t actually throw it — that’s dangerous, and also you’ll be mad that you don’t have it anymore.

This one is fantastic from concept to execution to the LGBTQ+ relationship that I’m actually not going to tell you about because I want you to have a chance to arrive there the way I did reading the book.

Wu Zeitan is the only woman to have ruled China during the Imperial period. But Iron Widow isn’t a historical fantasy. What Zhao has done is used history as a jumping off point for a masterful alchemy of feminist manifesto, space opera, kaiju-mech, and new mythology that made me want to run out and punch Nazis. It’s violent and angry and doesn’t shy away from the very worst of what people can do to one another and we need that right now because…I mean, have you watched the news? If we’re going to protect one another from what’s happening in Texas and Tennessee and South Carolina, we need a reminder of how bad it can get so we can stand together as an immovable object.

Buckle up, buttercups.

Full disclosure: David and I got to be friends after I reviewed the first Adam Binder novel, White Trash Warlock. I can 100% assure you that I would be hyping Book 2 anyway, but I thought you should know.

White Trash Warlock saw Adam Binder making his way from rural Oklahoma to Denver, Colorado, at the behest of his brother, a brother who had once had him institutionalized for what he knew damn well was magic and for shutting Adam out of the family because he was gay. It turned out there was a giant eldritch spirit feeding off of the city.

In Trailer Park Trickster, Adam returns to Oklahoma for his aunt’s funeral only to find other members of his family are being murdered. They probably deserve it, but because Adam somehow managed to become a decent human being, he starts investigating and finds himself up against a druid who may be linked to someone he thought long dead.

And his boyfriend is missing. Which sucks, because lemme tell y’all something about Vic…actually, I won’t. Go read. He’s the literal best and should be fully experienced.

I follow K.D. Edwards on Twitter and he mentioned having finished and turned in the first draft of The Hourglass Throne and I’m hella excited about it, so I’m putting it on this list even though I’d guess it’s not coming out until at least 2022. While you’re waiting you can read the first two books in The Tarot Cycle, The Last Sun and The Hanged Man.

I’ve talked about this series before, so I’ll just reiterate that it’s one of my favorite urban fantasy series for a hundred different reasons: the plots are great, the snark is superb, the found family dynamic is amazing, and the LGBTQ+ content is some of the best I’ve encountered in fantasy. There is trauma, but it’s important to the story and handled deftly. Protagonist Rune’s boyfriend is careful, gentle, and kind, and he has definitely done his homework on how to navigate both the emotional and physical components of being with someone who’s experienced assault (mad points for him being very clear on the fact it’s not about him); and Rune and Brand, best friends and joined not only at the hip but at the amygdala, are both gay and have never slept together. They are just best friends. Can you imagine?

I am pretty sure I literally inhaled the first two Tarot Cycle books. They live rent free in my brain. I’m sort of glad I came to them a bit later because my wait for the next three (new contract for Edwards) many others have had to endure.