Every Speculative Fiction Book I Read This Year Featuring Queer Women, A List - the 2020 Edition
And I read even more this year than last year, so that's a great sign for the genre. There's a lot of novellas - which might just be a Tor books artefact.
Gamechanger by LX Beckett - clifi, cyberpunk, hopepunky, AI, an archnemesis; there was so much story going on in this and a lovely romance threaded through it.
Magic For Liars by Sarah Gailey
Mundane PI goes to solve a mystery at a magic high school that her twin sister teaches at. With that many tropes it was bound to trip over a few. Yeah, the death one.
Witchmark by CL Polk
Which only very technically has a queer woman in it, it's a m/m romance in a vaguely Edwardian Canada? with lots of magic, and I read it because the sequel that has just come out is f/f.
Stormsong the sequel to Witchmark
Political intrigue and hidden magics coming to light as the characters continue to try to right wrongs from the previous book, with a central lesbian romance; a lovely read.
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
A young woman runs away with the Librarians who bring Approved Reading Materials to south western towns in a dystopic post new civil war US. Very queer.
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
Timetravel, Comstock laws, abortion, 90s riotgrrls, edit wars and very cool time machines. And I'm most impressed by the Amy Acker blurb on the back cover.
The Library of the Unwritten by AJ Hackwith
A delightful book about a librarian in hell trying to keep characters from escaping from books that haven't (yet) been written. This has an ensemble cast where everyone might be queer.
We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Latinx YA dystopia with polygamous arranged marriages and repressive political system that doesn't quite make logistical sense; it does have an unexpected central lesbian romance.
Finna, by Nino Cipri
Ava and her ex Jules have to rescue a customer who wanders into a wormhole in a Ikea ripoff store in middle America. Nice conceit but I didn't find the characters compelling.
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
In this episode of Seanan McGuire's meta portal fantasy series Jack, trapped in her twin sister Jill's body, stumbles back into the school carrying her girlfriend Alexis; and leads a group back to the Moors to make things right.
Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliott
This is the genderbent Alexander the Great in Space series I've been waiting for since Kate Elliott first mentioned it. Epic space opera, fascinating worldbuilding, lots of story.
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
Post US civil war zombie AU with lots of plot and a black, bisexual heroine.
Deathless Divide, the sequel
Pansexual badass Jane McKeene is back fighting zombies and white stupidity, now across 1880s California, but she's soon separated from her ace friend Katherine Devereaux.
Queen of Coin and Whispers by Helen Corcoran
Lia is a new Queen trying to take control of a her court, Xanthia is the lowerborn noble who she unexpectedly selects to be her spymaster. A fantasy of manners with a strong f/f romance.
The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood
Csorwe grew up as the mouthpiece of a goddess of Death, she abandons that to follow a mage in this original, complex portal linked fantasy world. Central f/f romance.
Catfishing on Catnet by Naomi Kritzer
Steph moves so often that she doesn't tend to make friends, her real connections are online. A lovely f/f romance adventure, and the real reason the internet exists - posting cat pictures. YA.
Network Effect by Martha Wells
The central character, Murderbot, is agender and asexual, but polyamory is very much the norm in this universe.
Vanished Birds by Simon Jiminez
Time dilation brings together several disparate stories in a complex future, including that of a space station engineer mourning a relationship that never took wing.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
In this novella a handmaiden slowly reveals the story of how a how an exiled Empress from the North came to power.
Goldilocks by Laura Lam
There's a lesbian couple among the 5 women astronauts who shanghai a spaceship making the first trip to an extrasolar planet in this dark psychological thriller.
Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh
This is more allegory about women's choices than a functioning reproductive dystopia, but there is a central f/f relationship.
Floodtide by Heather Rose Jones
19th century Ruritanian fantasy. Sixteen year old Roz is caught with another housemaid and finds herself on the streets; she is lucky to get a place in the royal thaumaturgist's household. A lovely story about finding one's place, a stand alone story in a linked series.
Flight of the Fantail, Steph Matuku (2018)
In this survival story a bus full of teenagers crashes in the bush, and then things start getting weird. Why did no one tell me about the lesbian character in this?
Girls of Glass and Snow by Melissa Bashardoust
A Snow White reimagining where stepmother and daughter are both transformed by an evil magician. Not SwanQueen or SnowQueen, but there is a f/f romance. YA.
No Man's Land by AJ Fitzwater
About NZ Land Girls during WWII and shapeshifting and finding out who you are and what you are capable of.
Harrow the Ninth
The lesbian necromancers in spaace are back! And more mindblowing than ever. As a middle book Harrow is darker and more confusing, but leavened by some mighty meme game in the homestretch. Read Gideon the Ninth first.
The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg
A fantasy world where you can change your body to match your gender, and one of the forms of magic is weaving. With naming magic and protagonists who happen to be grandparents.
Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho
A wuxia inspired tale of bandits and former nuns, it reads like fanfic for a reason, but it never was.
Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden
A love story between two young women of different classes aboard a generation ship made from a giant space faring beast - everyone is bisexual and complicated 9 way marriages are the norm.
Black Sun by Rebecaa Roanhorse
In this pre-Columbian epic fantasy one protagonist is a swaggering bisexual seacaptain, though the central relationship she finds herself caught up in is m/f.
The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso
Protagonist with broken powers tries to save their home from a menacing artefact. Might be an everyone is bisexual world, but the main story isn't f/f though there is a secondary relationship that is.
Burning Roses by S.L. Huang
East meets West as two battered fighters support each other in this queer retelling entwining Little Red Riding Hood, Hou Yi the Archer, Goldilocks and Beauty and the Beast. Novella.
The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett
A teenager unexpectedly inherits a winter dukedom - and her sibling's bride-to-be - as she tries to preserve the relationship with the under-ice mermaid kingdom that provides them magic. I liked the ending.
Coyote Blues by Karen F Williams
A separated-as-teenagers lesbian romance that is also a werewolf story. Bold Strokes Books.
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson.
Lots of originality to this story about a woman who can move between parallel worlds because her doppelgangers are dead in most of them; the ambiguous relationship with her handler is a bonus.
Waiting on a Bright Moon by Neon Yang
Not sure how I missed this novella in 2017, about the relationship between a human ansible and a starmage as revolution foments on their space station.
The Factory Witches of Lowell by SC Malerich
Historical fantasy about mill girls organising a magic powered union. Novella.
When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo
Marvellous Scheherazade style telling of the love story between a shapeshifting tiger and a hopeful scholar. Bonus riding mammoths and archivist monks.
Here's the list of everything I read in 2020, not just the queer sff:
https://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?tag=read+in+2020&view=Aquila&collection=-1&shelf=list&sort=stamp&collection=-1
Happy New Year from here in the future. This entry was originally posted at https://aquila1nz.dreamwidth.org/12187.html.