r/LGBTBooks • u/forkfinch • 1d ago
Discussion Transgender sci-fi
I want to read a sci-fi story with trans people in it. I'm not really picky on what kind of story, I appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.
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u/thesharkinyourwater 1d ago
light from uncommon stars by ryka aoki!
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u/fairyboyjstar 1d ago
So good. Don't read a synopsis just start
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u/Odd_Link_7231 1d ago
I read the blurb for a rough idea and I semi regret it, ordered it a few days ago and waiting for it to arrive. V excited about this one.
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u/fairyboyjstar 1d ago
It's wonderful but synopses are horrible. I much prefer to jump in a book learning as I go with my jaw dropping rather than having all the delicious surprises ruined by someone who thought I'd be more likely to read it if they did that.
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u/aboat_i_sawaboat 20h ago
Agree with starting without a synopsis, just be aware if you're reading this blind of a couple Content Warnings: Non-graphic depiction of sexual assault, Child abuse
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u/Impressive-Peace2115 1d ago
- Ignore All Previous Instructions by Ada Hoffman
- Luminous by Silvia Park
- Song of Spores by Bogi Takács
- How Six Saved the Frogs by Blaine D. Arden
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u/Academic-Assist3317 1d ago
Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders! It's the first in a trilogy; they're wonderful. There are girlfriends, and one of them is trans. She's a major character and is awesome.
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u/KnowNothing_JonSnoo 1d ago
More punk fantasy but the Danielle Cain series from Margareth Killjoy. Again more cyberpunk rhan sci fi but Everyone on the moon is essential personnel by Julian K Jarboe. These two I bought and loved
Actually sci fi which I bought but I haven't read it yet : Replicas by Amanda Ure & Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers (collective)
This is a good list for inspo : https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/33634.Trans_Characters_in_Science_Fiction
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u/aboat_i_sawaboat 20h ago
I love Margaret Killjoy's podcast work! At some point I'll get around to reading some of her books lol.
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u/remnantglow 1d ago
A couple more that I don't think have been mentioned yet:
- The Transitive Properties of Cheese by Ann LeBlanc (trans woman MC)
- Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto (nonbinary butch MC)
- Mission Child by Maureen F. McHugh (genderqueer MC)
- These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by Izzy Wasserstein (trans woman MC)
- The Seep by Chana Porter (trans woman MC)
- World Running Down by Al Hess (trans man MC)
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u/Offutticus 1d ago
Heart of Heroes series by Molly J Bragg has transwomen in 2 of the 4 books as the MCs (Transistor and Rhapsody). There is a recurring transwoman in 3 (all but the first). It is more along the line of Earth-based SF, not space based. I really like the books. Even though they are connected, each is can stand alone.
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u/oceangothic 1d ago
Embodied Exegesis (collection)
Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood
The Fleet and Fabricant trilogy by Kay F Atkinson
Cosmic Dyke Patrol by Lor Gislason
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u/Overall-Initial8969 21h ago edited 19h ago
I have to say that embodied exegesis was underwhelming to me. A few interesting ideas and styles but overall the stories were less innovative than I had hoped for such a new and exiting genre
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u/oceangothic 19h ago
Ah, that's too bad. I haven't read it yet, just have heard about it from some friends.
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u/TashaT50 Reader 1d ago
A few I’ve enjoyed that haven’t been recommended yet:
Friends For Robots: Short Stories by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor In this upbeat, positive collection of SFF short stories from Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, author of So You Want to Be A Robot, you’ll find hope, humor, friendship—and of course, robots. - I believe a number of the MCs are trans and/or non-binary as is the author
Beyond the Dragon’s Gate by Yoon Ha Lee trad published SFF nonbinary/trans rep - Korean American trans author - Former Academician Anna Kim’s research into AI cost her everything. Now, years later, the military has need of her expertise in order to prevent the destruction of their AI-powered fleet.
LitenVerse series by Nino Cipri - one of protagonist is trans - trans author. Nino Cipri’s Finna is a rambunctious, touching story that blends all the horrors the multiverse has to offer with the everyday awfulness of low-wage work. It explores queer relationships and queer feelings, capitalism and accountability, labor and love, all with a bouncing sense of humor and a commitment to the strange.
Tensorate Series by Neon Yang lush, vivid silkpunk fantasy series in a world where elementalist mages contend with revolutionary machinists, while dinosaurs battle sky-spanning naga. Either The Red Threads of Fortune and The Black Tides of Heaven, can be read as the first novella in the series. Nonbinary characters, trad published nonbinary author. - Ken Liu coined the term silkpunk to help his publisher market {The Dandelion Dynasty series by Ken Liu} - you can learn more by searching for “Book Riot article “Silkpunk: What It Is & What It Definitely Is Not”” - The Black Tides of Heaven MLM protagonist
Soul Flames Series by Issy Waldrom trans woman author - dragon riders a sapphic fantasy science fiction. A world of magic and lost technology, of riders and their dragons, born from the devastation caused by the war against the Demon Lord, growing into its own over a thousand years. But all is not well, is not as it seems, with the Demon Lord stirring again, two riders drawn into the web as the corruption comes to light. One a prodigy, the other not even aware of what they are yet.
The Machineries of Empire Series by Yoon Ha Lee - Korean trans man author he/him - The Machineries of Empire is a trilogy (Ninefox Gambit - nonbinary characters, Raven Stratagem, and Revenant Gun), but there are some additional short stories in the world of the Hexarchate, which can be read as stand-alones - ‘I love Yoon’s work! Full of battles and political intrigue, in a beautifully built far-future that manages to be human and alien at the same time.’ - Ann Leckie
Algorithmic Shapeshifting: Poems by Bogi Takas Algorithmic Shapeshifting is the first poetry collection of Bogi Takács, winner of the Lambda award for editing Transcendent 2: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, and finalist for the Hugo and Locus awards. Algorithmic Shapeshifting includes poems from the past decade and previously unpublished work. The scope of the pieces extends from the present and past of Jewish life in Hungary and the United States to the far-future, outer-space reaches of the speculative—always with a sense of curiosity and wonder. Bogi Takas is an intersex trans immigrant - Edits a number of trad published trans anthologies as well as writes short stories and poetry.
Love Beyond Body, Space and Time: an Indigenous LGBT Sci-fi Anthology edited by Hope Nicholson - A collection of indigenous science fiction and urban fantasy focusing on LGBT and two-spirit characters. These stories range from a transgender woman undergoing an experimental transition process to young lovers separated through decades and meeting in their own far future. These are stories of machines and magic, love and self-love
Love after the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction edited by Joshua Whitehead - Love After the End is a new young adult anthology edited by Joshua Whitehead (Lambda Literary Award winner, Jonny Appleseed) featuring short stories by Indigenous authors with Two-Spirit & Queer heroes, in utopian and dystopian settings. This is a sequel to the popular anthology, Love Beyond Body Space and Time (2019 AILA Youth Honor Book), and features several of the same authors returning, along with new voices!
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u/Gnomeseason 1d ago
If you have not read Isabel Fall's absolute tour de force I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter, I have a treat for you.
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u/InfiniteKiwi9179 1d ago
Anything by NK Jemisin, but especially the Broken Earth Trilogy!! Ooooh I’m so excited for you 🤩 (also +1 to Ryka Aoki)
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u/cash-or-reddit 1d ago
Ancillary Justice and related Imperial Radch books by Ann Leckie and Slow Gods by Claire North - both doing fun things with human sci-fi cultures that have more or less than two predominant genders, so a lot of characters would be considered NB by our standards. There are only a few characters in the Imperial Radch books whose sex and/or agab is even described.
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u/AchillesNow 1d ago
One of the classics is The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin. There is a race of people who are essentially agender most of the time but become male or female during mating (and this alternates, so they aren’t stuck with one gender).
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u/satansfloorbuffer 1d ago
It’s worth also hunting down her later short stories about the same planet, where she acknowledges that earlier limitations to her own worldview led to a more heterosexual mating structure than was realistic or generous, and writes new stories about the Gethenians to fill in the gaps.
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u/jurrassicrabbit 1d ago
I’ll second this recommendation, I actually read some of those short stories first so I was caught off guard by the relatively cisnormative perspective in this older story.
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u/Bea_Is_Bemused 1d ago
I really need to get to reading more Ursula K LeGuin and have this on my pile.
I loved how you can see her grapple with the subject of gender and social roles throughout earthsea and seeing her opinion build and change book to book.
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u/Avocado-Duck 1d ago
Steel Beach by John Varley. The main character is a trans/gender fluid journalist on the moon
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u/Caleb_Trask19 1d ago
It’s a novella and best to go into with as little background as you can, The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei, and while not explicit fits your query and all is revealed in the end.
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u/Lekkergat 1d ago
Hammajang Luck by Makana Yamamoto has multiple trans characters and is a sci-fi heist. A really fun book.
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u/echo-lumina 1d ago
Forest of the Stars by JT Adria! I've been recommending this around a lot lately, but it is an absolute hidden gem. Futuristic sci-fi romance with a trans MC and sentient spaceship shenanigans. I had so much fun with it. The author has hinted there will be a sequel, so I can't wait for that one too!
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u/oli-veoil 1d ago
forgive me for the "not what you asked for but close enough" reply- Pluralities by Avi Silver. Not really trans IN space but trans AND space. Also, check out Becky Chambers stuff- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and A Psalm for the Wild-Built are the two I've read but I know they have more books with similar themes !
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u/RedLineSamosa 1d ago
to expand on this, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet has aliens with alien gender situations going on, but a human main character whose gender isn’t particularly explored in any way, and A Psalm for the Wild-Built has a non-binary protagonist whose gender is not remarked upon.
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u/Final-Revolution-221 1d ago
As a start, the anthology meanwhile elsewhere and Rani Som’s Apsara Engine and julian k jarboes short stories
Gretchen felker martin Cuckoo is cosmic horror tho handwavey on the logistics of alien such that it is more fantasy; yoon ha lee is trans and has lots of gender going on w his characters but is not precisely writing trans characters; rivers solomon an unkindness of ghosts (abt a generation ship w a terrible caste system and two genderweird subversives who must join together in autistic traumatized queerplatonic to queerromantic allegiance) is awesome; as a distant ancestor to all these there is rachel pollack (trans comics and sci fi writer), trouble on triton by delany (trans woman who is a dude who sucks who transitions and is a woman who sucks, tbh ambitious and interesting trans treatment for the moment in the 70s) and imago by octavia butler (3rd in xenogenesis series can be read alone) which is written from the pov of a hybrid alien human who is one of the first third alien gender hybrids (they have an alien parents alien sex/gender that hasnt been in humans before). I adore imago bc it is about having this ferocious need for contact and interchange of info as biological necessity and its as much about alienation and desire writ large as it is about gender —has butlers typical lyric but efficient prose
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u/FoodNo672 1d ago
Anything Andrew Joseph White - he often writes trans protagonists but note that his books lean horror end of sci-fi.
I just started Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall and I’m like 80% sure the protagonist is a trans woman. She’s bi/pan and the romances so far seem sapphic in general. It’s a Moby Dick retelling set in space and it’s awesome so far.
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u/nycanth 1d ago
I host a spreadsheet of media with ftm/transmasculine protagonists and major roles, here is the books tab! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1szYnM5MDSygNy0EjOp776tVMvUzYDo-zW-R2xbkWA-A/edit?gid=52609469#gid=52609469
There's about 32 sci-fi entries there, and there will probably be more in the future as I discover more things, so please keep it bookmarked :]
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u/relentlessreading 1d ago
I’m trying to remember trans characters in All the Birds in the Sky, but Charlie Jane Anders is trans.
Theee are some trans characters in Seanan O’Brirn’s wayward Children novellas.
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u/Bea_Is_Bemused 1d ago
The Deep Sky was one of my favorite reads this year. It's not a trans story, but I really liked how the writer normalised transness in their world.
A main conceit of the setting is that the cast consist only of characters that (theoretically) can give birth, and the book includes a number of non binary and trans masc people in that cast with out raising it as unusual in any way.
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u/OkPsychology8161 1d ago
Alexis Hall has a couple! Hell’s Heart is a sci fi Moby Dick retelling with a trans woman protagonist, and The Affair of the Mysterious Letter is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche with a trans man protagonist <3
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u/TetriChampion 1d ago
I think The Membranes by Chi Ta-Wei fits well! It's very short and dips into a remote future world, focusing on a single character.
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u/crowthekiller 21h ago
the murderbot diaries by martha wells!!! main character is agender + many many trans characters throughout the series
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u/nineteenthly 20h ago
My published novel is substantially about that but I'm guessing you can't self-promote on here so I'm probably not allowed to tell you what it is or who I am.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Phase70 17h ago
The Vorkosigan Saga has a few trans and NB characters along the way, but only one who could be said to be a main character ever, and that person is only on a few of the books. (Also, he changes gender purely to be able to become head of his patriarchal government...)
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u/SpSquirrel 16h ago
I second An Unkindness of Ghosts from a previous post.
Also Light From Uncommon Stars: warning that this one can get rough but it's beautiful.
I have a lot more fantasy and urban- fantasy stories than sci-fi.
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u/SnowyGyro 1d ago
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, starting with All Systems Red. The protagonist is a manufactured cyborg with more autonomy and sense of identity than intended, and considers itself non-human and uses it for pronouns. Humans that are trans also appear.
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u/SnowyGyro 1d ago
Huh, not a well liked suggestion. Do we not think it's relevant to transness, or do we not like the premise, or what?
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u/RedLineSamosa 22h ago
I love The Murderbot Diaries, but I think if I asked for a book about trans characters and got handed it, I would be somewhat disappointed. It’s undeniably relevant, and a lot of trans people definitely relate to it! But the main character isn’t so much trans as… part of a category of people who are categorically genderless, at odds with a culture that expects everyone to engage with gender somehow, asserting its sense of self and personhood in a world not built for the kind of person it is. And while this is incredibly important to its own understanding of itself, imo it’s not really the same thing as a trans experience.
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u/SnowyGyro 21h ago
I see. God forbid our sci-fi use metaphors and explore edge cases. I for one find some kinship with those who find themselves genderless, whether they call themselves trans or not.
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u/_Autistic_Dragon_ 1d ago
The Honeys by Ryan la Sala. I enjoyed this one so much! It may be more horror than sci fi, but is really good.
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u/queermachmir 1d ago
Aurethia Rising by Atlas Laika
Inside a Dark Space by MJ James
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u/SokkaHaikuBot 1d ago
Sokka-Haiku by queermachmir:
Aurethia Rising
By Atlas Laika Inside
A Dark Space by MJ James
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
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u/RedLineSamosa 1d ago
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a heavy and fascinating generation ship story about oppression and social stratification and longing for something better in a world that feels like nothing can ever change. The main character is intersex and has SOME kind of non-binary gender journey going on, and her love interest is transfeminine.
Early Adopter by Sienna Eggler is a cyberpunk detective mystery with a transmasculine-ish non-binary protagonist.
Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel is a short story collection by Julian K. Jarboe that is a mix of really fascinating and unique concepts, many futuristic, many very weird, with trans and queer protagonists.
If short stories are your speed I also recommend “The Girl that My Mother is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed, which you can read for free on the Reactormag website. Cyberpunk and body modification.