Queer SF - April 2027
April 6, 2027
The Gravity of Us — Ben Bonnema
Genre: Science fiction
Rep: M/M
“After the Drought, we called ourselves Generation Omega… we were the last generation that still had the chance to fix things.”
Engineer Tommy Nyle knows his best option is signing up for the mysterious Voyager program. He’ll be paired with a pilot to travel through a wormhole, hopefully finding a new planet for humans to call home. He expects the training to be difficult and the journey to be dangerous. What he doesn’t expect is falling in love with Zach Moore, his Voyager partner.
On the remote Indonesian island where Voyager training takes place, Tommy and Zach begin to suspect the Program directors aren’t telling them everything, so they begin organizing their coworkers to find the truth. Intimate relationships are forbidden, but soon Tommy and Zach decide they’d rather risk being found out than resist their attraction to one another. And when the mission becomes even more perilous than any of them expected, Tommy must ask himself: If he’s not prepared to be brave at the end of the world, will he ever be?
The Gravity of Us is a defiantly hopeful novel full of romance and queer joy, for fans of forbidden romance, first love, grounded science fiction, and yearning M/M romance.
Link: HarperCollins
A Swindler’s Song — Lindsay Bowen
Genre: Romantasy
Rep: Queer; chronic illness
A rollicking romantasy debut in which a mischievous barmaid, her crew of misfits, and a broody bounty hunter set out to rob a vicious warlord.
In Nettle Ridge, the kind of town where dreams go to die in a puddle of cheap ale, Lennie is just another barmaid with a voice that melts men’s hearts and empties their pockets—until a tavern brawl drops a heist plan right into her lap.
The target is a vault belonging to one of the three warlords ruling the country of Renier, rumored to hold mythical healing crystals that could save her grandmother’s life. The plan? Stolen, half-baked, and in desperate need of revision. But Lennie has spent years eavesdropping on Renier’s seedy underbelly from the shadows of the bar and decides a heist couldn’t be that hard… with the right friends.
Riding the high of her crimes, Lennie blows off steam in the form of an impulsive one-night stand with Kesper, a mysterious bounty hunter employed by another warlord, in town to hunt down a gang of thieves. After Kesper discovers his fair barmaid is none other than his target, instead of turning her in, he joins the crew—keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
Between staged weddings, repressed emotions, and very real dungeons, Lennie, Kesper, and their merry band of swindlers realize they’re in for more than they bargained for, as the vault may hold something even more precious than lifesaving crystals.
Full of wit, heart, and quite a few criminal shenanigans, this energetic debut is perfect for fans of A Fate Inked in Blood and the novels of T. Kingfisher.
Link: Goodreads
Nebula Rising — Sierra Branham
Genre: Romantic science fiction thriller
Rep: Sapphic
Series: Book 2 of The Imperial Broadcasts
Spie is the face of the empire. Temmi is the face of its most dangerous enemy. They’re going to have a hard time moving on...
Artemis “Temmi” Ialan—engineering prodigy, former trash collector, and contestant on the most popular TV show in the Expan Empire, Love Galaxy, has taken on a new starring role: public enemy #1.
After being rescued by a mysterious rebel group, the TFC, Temmi—angry, heartbroken, and terrified—wants out. But when she learns that her brother, Ollie, has been taken captive by the empire, she agrees to act as the TFC’s public face in return for their help rescuing him.
Meanwhile, Spie Expani also has a new role to play: that of the perfect daughter. When the emperor initiates a new imperial broadcast, Nebula Rising, Spie gladly steps up as a judge, alongside her new fiancée, Arbora, Nicky, and his fiancée, Cailin. Which is all perfectly fine and totally uncomplicated, because it’s not like Arbora is a TFC agent. And Spie is definitely not fighting an old attraction to her old-flame-turned traitor.
Temmi wants her brother back, empire be damned. Spie is looking to be named imperial successor. On- and off-screen, the games they’re playing are increasingly dangerous, and the stakes have never been higher.
Link: Goodreads
The Lady of Thorns — Tasha Suri
Genre: Gothic romantasy
Rep: Sapphic
From the author of The Isle in the Silver Sea comes a new gothic romantasy tale of a condemned woman who must earn her freedom by destroying the evil sorceress hidden in the cursed city of Moonscarrow.
When Rohese is convicted of the murder of a prince, she is given the choice of the execution, or entry into the cursed city of Moonscarrow. If she can find the heart of the Lady of Thorns within the city and pierce it through, she will earn her freedom.
But Moonscarrow is not as she imagined—it is excruciatingly beautiful, haunted by pale wraiths, and filled with dark memories of the Lady of Thorns’ untold past.
As Rohese grows closer to finding the heart, she begins to question everything she believed about the sorceress and must make her final choice...
Kill the sorceress and save the kingdom—or set her free and watch it burn?
Link: Goodreads
April 27, 2027
Trans Panic! — Logan-Ashley Kisner
Genre: YA horror
Rep: Trans girl MC
In this propulsive, heart-pounding, gender-norm challenging horror novel, a maniac killer descends on a trans gender summer camp and the campers all become targets—or is one actually the killer? From the author of Old Wounds, sleepaway camp has never been so deadly.
For the last twenty years, trans and genderqueer youth have flocked to Camp New Horizons, a trans-exclusive summer camp hidden in Upstate New York. This year, though, the vibe is off.
Newcomer Angela Baker is still reeling from a violent trauma and wants nothing to do with Camp New Horizons. In her mind, transness only puts a target on your back—it’s nothing to celebrate, which is all the other campers seem to want to do. Her attitude doesn’t exactly make her popular, least of all with her cousin and his friends.
But Angela’s refusal to participate is only a harbinger of darker things. As the days pass, campers begin to go missing. Then menacing vandalism appears throughout camp, and the teens can feel it in the air: What has always been a sanctuary is no longer a safe space. Has an outsider discovered New Horizons—or is the threat coming from within?
Link: Goodreads