Reading list help please

[catherineldf]

So I'm doing a panel next weekend at Marscon on recent fiction featuring GLBT characters and a colleague cleverly suggested doing a reading list. And thus it began. I culled through my own reading and various award nomination/winner lists and recommendations from friends and created the preliminary list below. At this point I'm looking for book/story suggestions, preferably with major bi and/or trans characters (positive portrayals) that an audience of primarily straight allies who devour sf/f might be interested in. The works should be published in the last 2-3 years and not be primarily romance or erotica; I'm going light on those, given the likely audience. This goes for ebooks as well, since this crowd tends to go for print.

Vellum and Ink by Hal Duncan
Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner
Carnival by Elizabeth Bear
Farthing and Ha’Penny by Jo Walton.
Vintage by Steve Berman (Haworth)
So Fey: Queer Faery Stories (Haworth or Prime Book forthcoming)
Earth Logic series by Laurie Marks
The Future is Queer edited by Richard Labonte and Lawrence Schimel (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Sleeping Beauty, Indeed edited by Joselle Vanderhooft (Torquere Press)
Kelley Eskridge, Dangerous Space (story collection – Aqueduct Press)
Spanish Pearl and Crown of Valencia by Catherine Friend (Bold Strokes Books)
Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures edited by Lynne Jamneck (Lethe Press)
Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories edited by Catherine Lundoff (forthcoming May, 2008 – Lethe Press)
Best Fantastic Erotica edited by Cecilia Tan (Circlet Press)
The Very Bloody Marys by M. Christian (Haworth Press)
Dragon's Eye and Dragon's Teeth - James Hetley (Ace)
The Growing - Susanne M. Beck & Okasha Skat'si (P.D. Publishing)
Smoke and Ashes, Smoke and Mirrors, Smoke and Shadows - Tanya Huff (DAW)
The Virtu, Melusine and The Mirador by Sarah Monette (Ace)
Cagebird - Karin Lowachee (Warner Aspect)
The Summer Isles - Ian R. MacLeod (Aio)
Dog Warrior - Wen Spencer (Roc)
Murder of Angels - Caitlin Kiernan (Roc)
Offspring - Steven Harper (Roc)
The Ordinary - Jim Grimsley (Tor)
Reruns - Selina Rosen (Yard Dog)
Spaceman Blues: A Love Song - Brian Francis Slattery (Tor Books)
Wicked Gentlemen, Ginn Hale (Blind Eye Books)
In the Blood, Rick R. Reed (Regal Crest Enterprises)

Comments

[eroticjames.livejournal.com]

Vintage I loved BTW. And it will be reprinted by Lethe soon. I still have to read In the Blood by Rick R. Reed. I liked IM alot (although that's horror)

[eroticjames.livejournal.com]

A freind suggested: John Varley's Gaia Trilogy with the Centaurs who have two sets of genatalia (human & equine)which don't always match.

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

That sounds painful when they break into a run.

[eroticjames.livejournal.com]

yeah, it actually does.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

And alas, they've been out for awhile. Most of this crowd inclined to read Varley has already done so; I'd like to corrupt...er, introduce them to new stuff as much as possible. But thanks for the suggestion, weird genitalia and all. :-)

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

Aw <3

Another e-book you might wanna check out from Torquere is Doorways and Alleys ed. by Meredith Schwarz. Some cool work in that by, if I remember rightly, Steve Berman and Rose Fox it's got a story in there by me too in interest of full disclosure :x

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some nifty stories in that book.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

I'll check it out - thanks!

[mecooper.livejournal.com]

This is a good resource for glbt themed/charactered sf or fantasy: http://www.glbtfantasy.com/

I would also recommend Nicola Griffith's Slow River (more than two years old, but an amazing novel).

Lynn Flewelling's Tamir Trilogy (Bone Doll's Twin, Hidden Warrior, Oracle Queen)has some gender bending in it - the main character is born female, transformed to male, transformed back. A good fantasy trilogy. She also wrote the Nightrunner trilogy that has bi male leads - also fantasy.

Anthologies

[mecooper.livejournal.com]

These may be out of print - but the Bending the Landscape series of anthologies cover Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy. Some good stories were in them.

Another anthology called Women Who Run With Werewolves had some good horror/spec fic stories as well.

Re: Anthologies

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

I found the best of the Bending the Landscape series (which are probably all remaindered and old) to be the first. The horror one, the last of the three, had some wince-some stories.

Re: Anthologies

[mecooper.livejournal.com]

Anthologies are often a mixed bag - but often enough I find some really amazing stories in them. When a story doesn't grab me, I skip over after the frist page or so.

Out of the three, I enjoyed the Science Fiction and Horror volumes the most.

Re: Anthologies

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Pam Keesey's an ex local so she's one of those that everyone already read back when that and the vampire collections first came out. BtL is out of my time range, alas. We're trying to corrupt them with new stuff. :-)

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Cool - despite being on mailing lists with Flewelling, I don't know much about her work. Thanks!
I'd like to make this all about new stuff or things they wouldn't have run across ordinarily. Nicola won several awards in sf for "River" so I'll probably gloss over her after our "HIs/herstory of..." section.

[bearsir.livejournal.com]

Shadow Man, Melissa Scott
(someone gave me this amazing book while I was in Mpls.)

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

It is an amazing book but is alas, out of print and over a decade old. We're hoping to corrupt them with new stuff that they will attempt to buy and read. Would be nice to see that and Melissa's other work come back into print though. She's got a story in my ghosts antho and I profiled her for the Encyc of Women in SF/F, but she tolerates my fangirl charm well despite all this. :-D

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

Think Melissa would let me bring Shadow Man back to print?

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

I think the new stuff idea is fine, but keep in mind that soem of the older stuff is still in print, and sometimes more relevant than some of the new stuff you list.

I quite like PRIVILEGE OF THE SWORd, but either SWORDSPOINT or FAL OF THE KINGS is much more relevant, I think, IMHO. (Unless you want it for the trans/gender bending stuff.)

There's also the Lynn Flewelling Nightrunner trilogy, which is about to have a fourth volume out in August, so now would be a good time for people who missed it to go back to it. Also very good for a) entry level into gay male relationships in high fantasy and b) lots of fun.

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

I recommend One for Sorrow (2007), which is a post-gay novel, so the sexuality of the protagonist is never an issue, though some could arguably state he's bisexual (like the author, Chris Barkzak). It's a great ghost story.

Also, Dust of Wonderland (2007) by Lee Thomas, a supernatural horror novel with a bisexual protagonist. Good stuff.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Cool! I hadn't run across these yet. Thanks! :-)

[jrosestar.livejournal.com]

ETA - oops, I see you already have "The Spanish Pearl."

I just recently read: The Spanish Pearl (http://www.scp-inc.biz/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=810) by Catherine Friend Publisher: Bold Strokes Books

It's about a woman who travels back into time (El Cid era Spain). The other main character (it's a bit of romance, historical & action) is a woman living as a man...actually as the second in command to El Cid. Primarily historical, with some humor...as you can imagine with a 21st century woman transported back into time.

And my all-time favorite love story: Tiopa Ki Lakota (http://www.scp-inc.biz/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=571) by D. Jordan Redhawk Publisher: P D Publishing

Not sci-fi, and not exactly transgendered either - although the main character is a Lakota "two-spirited" person. Basically man/woman. It's historical romance, primarily based with-in the Lakota tribe. The other main character is a pioneer woman who was kidnapped by another group of Indians. While it is a romance, it's the main one I recommend to straight friends because it has basically very little sex. The romance is mostly mental/emotional. And it shows the difference in acceptance of 'two-spirited' persons and how they live vs the pioneer white Christians.

Don't know if either of these fit exactly what you're looking for though. Mainly I read lesbian romance - and I do not knowingly read any stories involving bi-sexual people. (Not a prejudice on my part, as I have bi-sexual friends - just my preference in reading material)

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

It looks like a fun read and I'll have to check it out for me, but it does seem a bit too romance for this crowd. I'm fudging on Friend because she's a local and that alone may get some folks to read her even though she's technically romance as well.
Thanks for telling me about the book! :-D

[jean-roberta.livejournal.com]

Would you consider the "Kushiel" series by Jacqueline Carey from Tor Books? It might have an offensive amount of sex for the more strait-laced (the central character is both a born-masochist and a trained courtesan), but the various sexual orientations are relevant to the complex historical plot. Most of the important characters could be loosely defined as bisexual, and some are more drawn to members of their own gender than to anyone else.

There is also a series of fantasy novels by Elizabeth A. Lynn that were wildly popular with the local lesbian potluck crowd in the 1980s. One of the novels centers on a male/male relationship. I don't remember any explicit sex, but definite same-sex passion.

Actually, the 1980s produced some memorable lesbian-feminist fantasy & sci-fi about utopian and distopian worlds, including "The Wanderground" by Sallie Gearhart (sp?). If I skim through my library & old reading lists, I can probably come up with more titles.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

We're just going with the new stuff for this one in hope of corrupting our audience. Lynn is a great writer but not alas a very current one, at least for queer sf/f. I do trot out Carey for erotica panels at cons quite a bit since she is worlds better than Laurell Hamilton. But then, who isn't? :-(

[jean-roberta.livejournal.com]

There is a GLBT Fantasy Fiction site which lists Elizabeth A. Lynn (who wrote the "Chronicles of Tornor") & various other folks.

[gypsy1969.livejournal.com]

I found one on the web while doing research for my name.
It's called Time Gypsy
http://www.tachyonpublications.com/book/Timegypsy.html
and it's a very nice story IMO about Lesbian love.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Excellent find! Thank you. :-)

[gypsy1969.livejournal.com]

You are welcome, and thank you! I now have another list to start reading from. It's time for me to get off the beaten path I think.

[desayunoencama.livejournal.com]

You don't include SPIN CONTROL and SPIN STATE by Chris Moriarty. Both excellent books! You should read them!

Both have bi and very queer content, integrally and thoroughly, throughout.

recommended sapphic ebook

[englishchrissy.livejournal.com]

Absorbing Jane - Deanne Sodus - Publisher EroticExcursions

Seriously Hot, Fast Paced With A Hint Of BDSM And Lesbianism

It's the best seller in the Sapphic category at Adult eBookshop and also the best seller of any ebook in the last 30 days. Recommended.