Booklist: Polyamory in sf

This page lists speculative-fiction works that feature polyamory. For details about criteria, and sources for this list, see below.

This is a work in progress; in particular, so far there are no descriptions for any of these works.

Books

Robert Adams: Horseclans series.
Poul Anderson: The Avatar.
Eleanor Arnason: A Woman of the Iron People.
Isaac Asimov: The Gods Themselves.
Jean Auel: Mammoth Hunters. The Earth's Children.
Wilhelmina Baird: Crashcourse.
Kage Baker: Company series.
M. A. R. Barker: Flamesong. The Man of Gold.
Redfern Jon Barrett: Forget Yourself.
Elizabeth Bear: New Amsterdam.
Gregory Benford: In the Ocean of Night and its sequel Across the Sea of Suns.
Anne Bishop: Daughter of the Blood.
Marion Zimmer Bradley: Darkover books, especially The Forbidden Tower.
David Brin: The Uplift War. Glory Season.
Lois McMaster Bujold: Sharing Knife series.
Octavia Butler: Xenogenesis series. Fledgling. Patternmaster series. Parable of the Talents.
Ernet Callenbach: Ecotopia.
Jacqueline Carey: Kushiel books.
Mike Carey: Comic book mini-series "My Faith in Frankie".
P.C. and Kristin Cast: The House of Night series.
CJ Cherryh: Chanur series, especially Chanur's Legacy.
Arthur C. Clarke: Rendezvous with Rama. Imperial Earth. The Deep Range.
Alex Comfort: Tetrarch.
Elaine Corvidae: Fire in the Void.
Leonard Daventry: A Man of Double Deed.
Gail Dayton: One Rose trilogy.
Samuel R. Delany: Babel-17. "The Star Pit". Dhalgren. Trouble on Triton. Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand.
Emily Devenport: Scorpianne.
Robert Devereaux: Santa Steps Out.
Peter Dickinson: King and Joker. Skeleton in Waiting.
Bernard Doove (et al): Chakat stories.
Candas Jane Dorsey: "Black Wine".
Ian Douglas: Heritage trilogy.
L. Warren Douglas: Cannon's Orb. Plague of Change.
Diane Duane: Tale of the Five series.
Kate Elliott: Jaran series.
Alexandra Erin: Tales of MU.
Noel Lynne Figart: At the Foot of the Throne.
Eric Flint: Mother of Demons.
M. A. Foster: Gameplayers of Zan and sequels.
Rick Friar: The Keepers trilogy.
James Alan Gardner: Vigilant.
Kerry Greenwood: Cassandra. Electra. The Childstone Cycle.
Joe Haldeman: Worlds trilogy.
Peter F. Hamilton: Commonwealth series. Void trilogy.
Laurell K. Hamilton: Anita Blake books. Merry Gentry books.
Elizabeth Hand: Waking the Moon.
Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land. Time Enough for Love. Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Glory Road. I Will Fear No Evil. Methuselah's Children. The Number of the Beast. To Sail Beyond the Sunset. Friday.
Frank Herbert: Dune series. The White Plague.
Tanya Huff: Blood books. The Enchantment Emporium. Quarters books.
N.K. Jemisin: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms series.
Robert Jordan: Wheel of Time.
Stacia Kane: "Home".
J. E. Keep: When Dreamers Wake
Gordon Kendall: White Wing.
Jennie Kermode: The Orpheus Industry.
Leigh Killough: The Doppelganger Gambit.
Donald Kingsbury: Courtship Rite.
Rudyard Kipling: Kim.
Jacqueline Koyanagi: Ascension.
Michael P. Kube-McDowell: The Quiet Pools.
Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon: Bedlam's Bard series, especially Knight of Ghosts and Shadows. Heralds of Valdemar series.
Ursula K Le Guin: "Coming of Age in Karhide". "Unchosen Love". "Mountain Ways". "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea".
Fritz Leiber: "Nice Girl with Five Husbands".
Stephen Leigh: Alien Tongue. Dark Water's Embrace.
Elizabeth A. Lynn: The Chronicles of Tornor series.
Ian R. Macleod: "Grownups".
Jess Mahler: Glamourhai.
Laurie Marks: Fire Logic series.
Melissa Marr: Wicked Lovely series.
George R. R. Martin: Dying of the Light.
Susan R. Matthews: Jurisdiction novels.
Todd McCaffrey: Dragongirl.
Vonda N. McIntyre: Superluminal and its sequels. Also Starfarers.
Robert Merle: Malevil.
China Mieville: Embassytown.
MeiLin Miranda: An Intimate History of the Greater Kingdom series.
Mary Anne Mohanraj: "Jump Space". The Stars Change. "Sanctuary". "Ties That Bind" (forthcoming).
Michón Neal: Allison Dutch books. Black Tree books.
Lisanne Norman: Fire Margins.
Nnedi Okorafor: The Shadow Speaker.
David Palmer: Emergence.
Edgar Pangborn: The Judgment of Eve.
Tamora Pierce: Beka Cooper series.
Marge Piercy: Woman on the Edge of Time.
Kim Stanley Robinson: Mars trilogy. 2312.
Selina Rosen: Jabone's Sword.
Matt Ruff: Sewer, Gas, and Electric.
Melissa Scott: Silence Leigh trilogy. Maybe also Kindly Ones.
Sherwood Smith: Inda series.
Wen Spencer: A Brother's Price. Elfhome books.
Ryk E. Spoor: Grand Central Arena.
Starhawk: The Fifth Sacred Thing.
George R. Stewart: Earth Abides.
S.M. Stirling et al: The Cage.
Charles Stross: Glasshouse.
Theodore Sturgeon: Various stories, especially the ones in volume VI of the complete Sturgeon stories, Baby Is Three.
Lyn Thorne-Alder: Addergoole.
Karen Traviss: Wess'har novels.
Catherynne M. Valente: Palimpsest.
John Varley: "Blue Champagne". "The Persistence of Vision".
Joan D. Vinge: Heaven Chronicles books.
Katie Waitman: The Merro Tree.
Jo Walton: Lifelode.
David Weber: Honor Harrington series.
Karen Wehrstein: Philosopher in Arms.

TV

Caprica
Star Trek: Enterprise

Criteria

For inclusion on this list, a work must be recognizably speculative fiction, and must contain some form of polyamory. There are many forms of polyamory, of course.

I'm leaving out work that's primarily erotica.

Originally, I included works that were described as having only a passing mention of polyamory, but as the list went on, I started leaving out that kind of thing. The boundaries and definitions are thus somewhat arbitrary. It would probably be nice to include an “amount of poly content” rating for each work, as the alt.polyamory booklist does, but that'll have to wait for a future version of this list.

A work's presence on this list doesn't imply support for or agreement with the author's beliefs or actions.

Sources