Queer sf

10 Comments

One more quick thing—figure I may as well post this now rather than waiting:

I'm gonna be on a panel at WorldCon titled "The Greatest Queer SF." And my first thought was "I don't read enough queer sf to be on this panel!"

Karen M. pointed out that I do in fact know plenty about queer sf; I could probably talk about it for half an hour off the top of my head without much trouble. But even a brief glance at Mary Anne's Alternative Sexualities in Science Fiction and Fantasy list makes clear just how much I still don't know. The Lambda Sci-Fi recommended reading list [link updated Nov. 2010; see comments for info] includes a bunch of authors I've never even heard of; likewise for the annual Spectrum Awards nominations lists. And I seem to recall that the comments on my Future of Sex editorial included mentions of a bunch of queer sf that I'd never heard of.

So I think mostly I'm feeling out of touch with current developments in that part of the field. So I'm hoping y'all can help me out. Can you recommend one to three works that you would list among the greatest queer sf? (Not just any old book that happens to contain a minor queer character; take the "greatest" part seriously.) Bonus points for recent stuff; also bonus points for short and/or easily findable stuff. The chances of my managing to read much of it in the next month are slim, especially given that I still haven't read everything in the Bending the Landscape anthologies even though they've been on my to-read shelf for a couple years now, but it would be nice to have some recommendations.

Btw, I'm going to interpret "science fiction" in this context as including fantasy; given that Tanya Huff is on the panel, it seems a safe bet. On the other hand, I see a lot more queer fantasy than queer science fiction per se, so I'm especially interested in hearing about science fiction.

10 Responses to “Queer sf”

  1. David Moles

    China Mountain Zhang.

    Whichever Neveryon book is the one with all the Gorgik stories. (And, um, lots of other Delany that I should probably feel stupid for not having read.)

    Swordspoint.

    Um… I’m finding this harder than I thought. Like, yeah, Gabriel in Walter Jon Williams’ Aristoi is bi, technically, and does have a male lover for quite a bit of the book, but… I don’t know, somehow he seems awfully straight, and so it’s hard for me to say that Aristoi counts… likewise plenty of stuff by straight male writers with some token and/or titillating girl-on-girl action…

    Maybe I’m thinking too deeply. Skimming Mary Anne’s list, a lot of it seems like… I don’t know, the equivalent of making a list (in the 50s, say) of “SF stories with women in them”.

    Which I guess says something about where we are, historically…

    Anyway, talk about that on your panel. 🙂

    reply

  2. Vardibidian

    I’m not sure what you mean by greatest. I assume you are looking for books with (a) queer main characters, (2) some quality, and (iii) something somewhat provocative to say about sex, gender and people. I don’t think I have anything that fits that bill.
    On the other hand, there are several novels where the main character is queer, the book isn’t bad, on the whole, and there is some aspect of the queerness that is handled well, or sensitively, or something like that.
    I happen to be fond of Ethan of Athos, a Vorkosigan-universe stand-alone where the main character is a gay male from a world without women. There are lots of things that are really goofy, but the end is rather sweet. Kinda.
    Califia’s Daughters is also somewhat interesting along similar lines. In a future earth after The Plague that wiped out 80% of men and still attacks the immune systems of male children, lesbian romantic pairings are common. If I remember correctly, the main character goes through two lesbian relationships and has two very awkward relationships with males as well. It’s all handled with some skill. It’s by the mystery writer Laurie R. King writing under the pen name Leigh Richards.
    I can’t help thinking that Orson Scott Card’s Songmaster belongs in the discussion, although I’ve no idea what should be said about it.
    Robert Sawyer’s Hominids has an interesting system where the male and female modern neanderthals keep themselves separate most of the time. Most people seem to have a same-sex partner (sex, domesticity and romance) and an opposite-sex partner (sex, some child-rearing).
    By the way, being only partway through, I don’t know if Cavalier and Klay is either queer enough or sf enough to be talked about in such a discussion.
    I suspect (to echo David Moles’ point) that the field is mostly in the gay-next-door phase, where most hip writers are including interesting queer characters, not unlike the gay fellow that lives in the next apartment from the female lead. As for how long that phase will last, well, David Wayne and Edward Everett Horton played those parts for half a century, didn’t they?
    Thanks,
    -V.

    reply

  3. AndyHat

    I haven’t read anywhere near enough queer sf to feel comfortable rating anything as the “greatest”, but Geoff Ryman’s Lust from a couple of years ago was certainly a lot of fun (it’s also one of those books where you could argue about whether it’s fantasy or science fiction). Ryman also had a story in Hartwell’s Years Best SF 9, from the April 2003 Interzone, “Birth Days”, which was interesting (and definitely SF).

    At novelette length, “Serostatus” by John Peyton Cooke in the January 2004 F&SF was pretty good (though fairly depressing).

    reply

  4. Hal Duncan

    I’ll be invoking the SF-as-*ahem*-Structural-Fabulation clause myself, in order to widen the scope. Delany’s Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, Dhalgren or the Neveryon books seem obvious candidates, along with anything by William Burroughs and… um…

    Yeah, it’s not easy.

    David said:likewise plenty of stuff by straight male writers with some token and/or titillating girl-on-girl action…

    And vice versa, but mainly in the field of horror, thankfully. If I start into a “vampire fic is softcore gay porn by Goth girls for Goth girls” rant, someone may have to club me unconscious.

    reply

  5. David Moles

    And vice versa, but mainly in the field of horror, thankfully.

    Oh, yeah. Paging Storm Constantine.

    And all that Japanese shonen-ai stuff.

    I happen to be fond of Ethan of Athos…

    I tried to read EoA when I was working on “Amazon Women”, just to make sure I wasn’t unconsciously echoing it, or reversing it, or something… Couldn’t get more than fifty or a hundred pages in. The worldbuilding didn’t work for me — I didn’t buy that Ethan and Elli didn’t come from the same cultural background — and because of that the characterization didn’t work, either.

    And, as with Aristoi, I never really bought into Ethan’s sexuality. I’m not sure why. It’s not exactly a “show, don’t tell” problem, but it’s something like it.

    reply

  6. Vardibidian

    Well, and thinking about EoA, C’sD, Hominids, and to a lesser extent Glory Season (which I am not nominating as great or even moderately good queer sf), there’s this trope where due to an artificial or catastrophic breakdown in society, the sexes are separated, and therefore homosexual romances and pairings are considered normal, natural and potentially healthy. There’s a sense in which that’s gay-positive, as it shows same-sex relationships that are, more or less, just the same as our idea of opposite-sex ones. On the other hand, gay couples (and gay sex) don’t just exist, they are a response to a breakdown in society. That’s scarcely positive. I wonder how prevalent that story is. Anybody?
    As for Ethan, well, while he’s on Athos, his sexuality is part of that worldbuilding that doesn’t work for you, and there is a sense, I think deliberate, that he is going to fall for the chick. Once exposed to normal lust, you see, he won’t go back to the farm. In fact (oh, and this is a spoiler), in the end he grows to respect the babe, but he falls for the guy, who falls for him, and there’s some crosstalk, and then they wind up going home together.
    I mean to say, I totally understand not liking the book. It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, in the sense that I admit it has oo-gobs of flaws and only a few virtues. And yet I happen to be fond of it.
    Oh, and I never really bought the bisexuality in Aristoi, either. It seemed like a signifier for decadence, rather than anything actual.
    Thanks,
    -V.

    reply

  7. David Moles

    As for Ethan, well, while he’s on Athos, his sexuality is part of that worldbuilding that doesn’t work for you, and there is a sense, I think deliberate, that he is going to fall for the chick.

    That’s a legitimate writing strategy, but to make it interesting I think you need your far-future interplanetary characters to be a little less whitebread.

    reply

  8. Debbie Notkin

    I’m glad I thought about my favorites before skimming above. Elizabeth Lynn without a doubt: I’d say the Tornor trilogy, but you have a preference for science fiction, so let’s say A Different Light. After all, how many books have specialty bookstores named after them?

    In the depressing-but-brilliant category, Thomas M. Disch’s On Wings of Song.

    I would surely say something about this year’s Tiptree winner, Troll: A Love Story.

    Never forget Melissa Scott. If you have to pick one, pick Trouble and Her Friends, though there are many other choices.

    (I could go on for hours. None of these except the Sinisalo are hugely contemporary, but there are lots of good contemporary choices as well.)

    reply

  9. nalo

    Candas Jane Dorsey’s novels _Black Wine_ and _A Paradigm of Earth._ Nisi Shawl’s short story “Deep End” in _So Long Been Dreaming._ Huh. I think I’m stuck because I’m not sure what definition of “queer SF” to go by. Are we talking content? Author? Primary theme? Context?

    Anyway, going by one or other of those measures; Storm Constantine’s “Wraetthhu” books. Maureen McHugh’s _Mission Child._ Elisabeth Vonarburg’s _Maerlande Chronicles_ (_In the Mother’s Land_ in the U.S.).

    reply

  10. Kendall P. Bullen

    FYI, the link for the LSF recommended book list should now point here:

    http://www.lambdascifi.org/books/recommend.html

    We have a new domain name (long story). 🙂

    reply

Join the Conversation

Click here to cancel reply.