Here’s the thing. Books about being LGBTQ+ are important. We all need to know we’re not alone and that someone (even if that someone is a proxy elf or dragon or trickster god) understands what we’re going through. But it’s also important for audiences of all ages to have the opportunity to share in stories where LGBTQ+ folx are living full, multi-faceted lives in which they spend time with friends and family, spend too much money on books, fight eldritch horrors, check the corners of their previously abandoned Atlantean manors for supernatural squatters, pilot qi-powered mechs, and bring down empires, all while happening to be queer. The queer part is still important, and an important part of who these characters are, but it’s only one part of their story rather than their focus. It shapes them and is one reason they’ve become the person they are, but it isn’t the beginning and end of their identity.
Good stuff.
Here are four fantasy novels coming out in the back half of 2021 that fit the above brief and that I promise will have you up way past your bedtime.
So, y’all go out there and be LGBTQ+ and do stuff. Like read. And brandish large books at Nazis. Be gay, do life. Because we all deserve that.
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.
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.
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’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.
