Queer SF - February 2027
February 2, 2027
Where Fire Reigns — Jared Pechaček
Genre: Epic fantasy
Rep: Queer
Award-winning author Jared Pechaček takes us to a vast salt desert where wars are fought over water, a flaming angel brings judgment, and the only hope for mercy is a feral girl who knows nothing of her destiny.
Once, there were seas. Then the god of fire came. He defeated water, and under his rule the world has burned. The survivors live in the wasteland called the Salt, a vast desert where water is priceless and lives are cheap.
The Mother of Waters promised she’d return to save humanity, reborn into the world she lost generation after generation. She promised to die for us, and bring a flood to quench the world’s thirst. Unfortunately, at the moment of greatest need, the Church lost track of her. The promised child was lost, raised by robotic scavengers, ignorant of her destiny. That feral messiah is now in the hands of a ragtag crew of fugitives with no plan to save anything but themselves.
Tomas is a pyric, blessed with the divine gift of fire and burdened with a stolen airship. At the helm are Three and Four, twin cyborg navigators who escaped the wreckage of their last vessel and now long for freedom from the August Union that created them. On their tail is Violet, chief paladin of the church of water, intent on bringing the messiah to her destiny. And in their cargo hold is the girl who can call lightning and bring rainstorms. Her life could save the rest of humanity.
What is that girl’s life worth in this dried-up world?
Link: Goodreads
February 16, 2027
Every Room a Hunger — Nino Cipri
Genre: YA horror
Rep: Queer; non-binary & transmasc MCs
Nobody comes to Home House by choice.
Leo was pressured into accepting a juvenile diversion sentence after a security guard overreacted and labeled him a threat. Rowan’s doctor told them it was the only in-patient psych facility with an available bed. Caroline, horrified at having been labeled a lesbian by her evangelical parents, expects conversion therapy. Frankie, who is transmasc, hides his longing for acceptance under a firebrand personality, but as a veteran of troubled teen programs thanks to his hateful birth mother, he’s the only one who knows to expect the worst.
When these teens arrive at Home House, they’re promised a fresh start. But they’re quickly ambushed by their own traumas in attack therapy and bullied in the name of growth. Plus, the House’s strange atmosphere twists everything, making it hard to tell what’s real and what’s not.
Though the program is designed to isolate them and poison them against each other, when the horror becomes all too real, Rowan, Frankie, Leo, and Caroline can agree on one they must escape. But it’s not the adults running the house or their fellow inmates that are trying to keep them inside the house’s four walls—it’s Home House itself that doesn’t want them to leave.
Link: Goodreads
Godbound — Rowan Skye
Genre: High fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
In this page-turning high fantasy debut, a petty thief on the run from her all-seeing god is unwillingly drawn into a murder conspiracy when she finds herself cursed.
Brimming with unpredictable gods, unreliable narrators, and suspense, this gripping Sapphic standalone is perfect for fans of Six of Crows and Godkiller.
Every promise has its price...
Annethe Tavery fell in love with a god. Now, he hunts her in a twisted game of cat and mouse. If she so much as thinks of him, her past, or even her real name, it will call him like a beacon to her. So she runs—straight to a port town, where a failed pickpocketing attempt leaves her with a nasty curse.
There’s only one way to free herself: do the bidding of the nobleman she tried to rob. Annethe soon finds herself embroiled in a murder plot amongst the dangerous world of godbound—nobles whose pacts with gods have twisted them in horrifying ways. If Annethe doesn’t complete the nobleman’s task, the curse will rot her from the inside out. But the longer she stays, the more chance there is that her god will find her—and he isn’t the only one looking.
Link: Penguin Random House
February 23, 2027
Tangled Roots — S.T. Gibson
Genre: Fantasy romance
Rep: Queer, polyamory
Series: Book 2 of Unearthly Delights
He will fulfil their wildest desires, for a price.
In this lush, sin-stained sequel to the Sunday Times bestselling Savage Blooms, Eileen, Finley, and Nicola embark on a quest to rescue kidnapped Adam from the faery underworld, plunging into a centuries-old power struggle between humans and the fae.
There is only one rule they must follow in the faery court, where pain and pleasure are elevated to entertain the king, or suffer the consequences of his boredom.
Getting close to the enigmatic and alluring faery king isn’t just a matter of survival; it is the only hope Eileen and her lovers have of escaping Craigmar’s curse.
Adam, Nicola, Finley and Eileen must scheme and seduce their way through court, all in the name of breaking the others free. But it’s so hard to want to be a hero when the faery king offers them each the fulfilment of their wildest desires… for a price.
Link: Goodreads
In Vacuo — Andrea Morstabilini
Genre: Gothic fantasy
Rep: Queer
A queer gothic coming of age novel about a young boy confronting the ghosts of the past and the restless, obsessive pursuit of immortality. Perfect for fans of Susannah Clarke and Kelly Link.
All bones have a story.
Henry arrives at the vast estate of Dr Robertson Hammond alongside his pregnant mother one rain-soaked night. But after a sudden tragedy, the young boy finds himself orphaned and the ward of the enigmatic doctor.
But stories surround Dr Hammond. There are those who call him an alchemist, those who accuse him of murder. And the more Henry hears, the more he questions his life at the house. Why won’t Dr Hammond talk about his mother’s sudden death? Why are the entire household staff sent away on the anniversary of the event? And what is the truth of the wild woman who roams the woods, whispering the names of the dead?
As the years pass Henry starts to explore the land upon which he lives, from the wilds of Bald Mountain to the impossible revelations of the towers that he climbs with the enigmatic Xavier. And when the truth behind Dr Hammond’s research is finally uncovered, Henry will have to make a decision that will affect everyone he cares about, and which has the power to change reality as we know it.
Link: Penguin Random House