The 10 best LGBT fantasy books, ranked
While spending the day crafting gay Hobbit headcanons is indeed an enriching experience, sometimes we all need a little queer fantasy that we don’t have to read into. Sometimes we queer fantasy that is loud and proud. Here are the 10 best LGBT fantasy books, ranked.
10. Hell Followed With Us
Don’t you just hate becoming the chosen one of a doomsday cult hellbent on capturing you in order to bring about the apocalypse? That’s exactly what happens to poor Benji in Andrew Joseph White’s Hell Followed With Us. He’s now stuck fleeing from said cult in a dystopian world! To make matters worse (as if the end of days could get any worse) Benji is mutating. There’s a virus plaguing humanity, causing people to shapeshift into biblically accurate monsters. But will Benji’s condition doom him eternal, or will it help save humanity after all?
9. The Burning Kingdoms Trilogy
Inspired by Indian history and epics, The Burning Kingdoms trilogy revolves young princess Malini, caught in the throws of political turmoil. Her dickhead dictator of a brother has taken over the kingdom and imprisoned her inside a temple that houses an ancient and mysterious power. Accompanied by Priya, a priestess of the temple, Malini must harness forgotten magic in order to overthrow her tyrant brother and bring peace to the land. She’s also gotta deal with her bubbling sapphic feelings towards the priestess. Like Southern barbecue, it’s gonna be a slow burn.
8. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
Andrea Lawlor’s Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is about a young nonbinary person named Paul. At least, we think Paul is a person? They might be some sort of magical changeling fae creature, but it’s never quite made clear. Paul is able to change their gender at will, shifting shape between male and female whenever it suits them. Paul’s morals are just as ambiguous as their gender, and they spend the novel flitting through the 1990s and using their powers to be a bit of an asshole to all. The witty way the story is told makes up for it.
7. The Charm of the Magpies Series
KJ Charles’ The Charm of the Magpies is set in a dreamy Victorian England where magic rules, and magicians known as “justicars” are tasked with upholding the magical law. After returning from his exile in China, Lucien Vaudrey finds a different sort of magic when he meets justicar Stephen Day, whom he teams up with in order lift a curse that has plagued his family. The spells and sparks fly.
6. A Marvellous Light
Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light centers around a mild mannered bureaucrat named Robin Blyth, whose “simple on paper” government job ended up tossing him headfirst into the Edwardian England’s magical underbelly. Thankfully he’s got magician Edwin Courcey to break his fall… with his strong arms… While the pair’s relationship begins as professional, it gloriously becomes anything but.
5. The House in the Cerulean Sea
TJ’s Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea is about Linus Baker, a nebbish sort of government caseworker employed at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. Despite its whimsical name, the Department is a a by the books, no nonsense organization of what are essentially social workers for magical kids. Linus is sent away from his dreary desk job by his higher ups in order to investigate a certain titular house, its magical denizens, and their guardian. What he finds will bring the magic back to his shrived, government employed heart.
4. Carmilla
Before there was Dracula, there were lesbians. VAMPIRE lesbians. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla is the original vampire novel, penned decades before Bram Stocker’s gothic horror debut. The plot concerns the bored young Laura, living in a castle in the Eastern European countryside, whose dreary life is changed by the arrival of a girl her age. Changed for better or worse? That’s another matter entirely. The charismatic newcomer Carmilla soon becomes obsessed with our castle dwelling heroine, leading to a twisted sapphic romance with deadly consequences.
3. The Priory of the Orange Tree
Described by the author as a feminist retelling of Saint George and The Dragon Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree has become a gold standard work of queer fantasy in recent years. The story is about a young queen and her mage protector, who are attempting to stop the return of a powerful dragon known as The Nameless One. The dragon’s fire ain’t the only thing burning, as the pair soon discover that the most powerful flames are the ones in their hearts, hot for one another. And yes, those flames burn slow. It’s a series, after all.
2. The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness is one of the most powerful explorations on non-binary identity in the history of fiction. Bridging fantasy and science fiction, the story revolves around an interplanetary federation envoy named Genly Ai who journeys to the planet of Gethen. He discovers that the planet’s population is completely non-binary, and only adopt characteristics of gender (they have three separate ones!) during brief mating cycles. The novel deconstructs traditionally held views of gender, putting the concept under the microscope and picking it a part from both a social and scientific perspective. What is gender in the eyes of an alien? The answer will, unsurprisingly, surprise you.
1. Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles is a retelling of Homer’s The Iliad, yes. But it’s so much more. It’s an exploration of the deepest possible relationship that two human beings can have. The young Greek prince Patroclus was fostered with Achilles (yes, the demigod one) when they were boys. The pair grow up together, fall in love, and are shipped off to the Trojan War. They are best friends. Lovers. Comrades. Philtatos – a Greek word that means “most beloved”. And of course, if you know a thing or two about Greek tales, they are utterly, utterly doomed. You will fall in love, sob your eyes out for the last fifty pages, and be tearfully happy you did.
(Featured Image: Ecco Press)
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