Queer SF - November 2026
November 3, 2026
This Knight Topples Empires — Ry Herman
Genre: Fantasy, fairy tale retelling
Rep: Queer; non-binary MC
In this raucous, tongue-in-cheek fairy-tale retelling from the author of This Princess Kills Monsters, a knight embarks on an adventure to thwart an invasion, save the most beautiful woman in the world, and finally get away from their sisters.
Jules is tired of running low-stakes errands with their five magically mismatched sisters, whose skills include killing plants, inducing sneezing, and making smaller windows… slightly larger. Blessed with a poorly controlled ability to make flowers bloom, Jules longs for a mission where they can actually prove themself. And when the siblings stumble upon a rival kingdom’s plot to overthrow their royal family, Jules sees an opportunity.
What follows is a whirlwind of botched disguises, accidental heroics, talking animals with surprisingly strong opinions, and one very inconvenient crush on the most sought-after princess in the land. And through all this, Jules learns that happy endings are indeed possible, even if you’re not quite Prince Charming. A cozy yet epic retelling of a Romanian fairy tale, This Knight Topples Empires proves that the greatest victories of all are love and self-acceptance.
Link: Kobo
November 9, 2026
The Howling Dark — Brittany M. Willows
Genre: Science fantasy romance
Rep: M/M; bi, aroace, pan, and trans rep
Sylvain is an eclipse-born werewolf who knows neither his bestial form nor the post-nuclear wilds his kind hail from. Raised on the orbital research station Zodiac, he’s grown accustomed to a life of peaceful predictability. Though fantasies of visiting his birthplace may be out of reach due to medical restrictions, he has a loving boyfriend and all of his essential needs are met. What more could he want?
In the opinion of his elder brother, the answer is: everything.
Believing them abducted as children, Illia has always sworn to someday return with his brother to the mountains they were taken from. And when a peculiar turn in Sylvain’s health brings to light an ugly truth, someday becomes now—whether Sylvain is ready for it or not.
Soon enough, the brothers find themselves fugitives on the planet’s surface, pursued by the government and bloodthirsty huntsmen, and under the unexpected guidance of the rebel Sundogs. All that lies between them and home is miles of unfamiliar countryside, toxic wastelands, a parasitic garden of death... and the question of how much they’re willing to risk in order to get there.
Link: Author’s Website
November 10, 2026
The Drakon King — Terry J. Benton-Walker
Genre: Romantasy
Rep: M/M
Queer, Black, and sexy as hell, The Drakon King is romantasy at its best: A forbidden love story between princes in the court of a cruel king and an edge-of-your-seat tale of missing dragons, ruthless betrayals, and stolen hearts.
Two princes, born to a world at war.
Heir to a kingdom built on lies and stolen magic, Prince Reverie has one goal: avoid the crown. Raised by a cruel and violent king, Reverie’s real life begins after curfew—bottle service, masked revelries, top-shelf highs, and anonymous rooftop liaisons. But when his king plots to seize dwindling majikal resources from the Drakon King, Reverie hits his limit—he casts aside his royal obligations and gets the hell outta town. Better a free fugitive than a tortured captive.
Heir to a kingdom banished into the sky, Prince Xandreth has one goal: find a missing friend. His brother, the Drakon King, stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that their people keep going missing, so Xandreth takes it upon himself to hunt down answers.
A meeting that will change them both.
Having abandoned their kingdoms, both princes end up stranded in the dangerous and bewitching Wraithwood, and out of desperation, agree to help each other and then go their separate ways.
A love that will save their world.
But when a myth as old as the world—a bird on fire in the belly of a massive volcano—is whispered from Human lips to Drakon ears, Reverie and Xandreth are suddenly at the heart of a crisis so much bigger than a missing friend or even freedom.
If they can’t come together, the world itself may go up in flames.
Link: Tor
The Last Star in the Void — Melissa Caruso
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
Series: Book 3 of the Echo Archives
The brilliant conclusion to Melissa Caruso’s Echo Archives trilogy, a whip-smart adventure fantasy where a detective has to solve the greatest mystery of all—her own murder.
Kembral Thorne is back on the job. Everything is going great—she hasn’t been in mortal peril for months, her daughter is learning to crawl, and she’s thinking about getting serious with her girlfriend, cat burglar Rika Nonesuch. But then a simple mission goes wrong, and a mysterious Echo hires her for her most dangerous case yet.
This time, the murder Kembral must solve is her own.
Her first warning: Watch out above you. It won’t be her last. The cryptic messages give Kem an edge against her would-be murderer—but there’s more at stake than her own survival.
Rips in the very fabric of reality are spreading through the Echoes, and Kem’s blood is the only thing that can close them. A traitor among her allies is willing to kill to stop her. To save all the worlds, Kem must figure out who she can trust—and Rika must decide how much of her humanity she’ll sacrifice for the power to protect the woman she loves.
Link: Hachette
The Beckoned and the Bound — Nicole Evans
Genre: Epic fantasy romance
Rep: M/F; bi4bi
After tragedy upended her world, bookish chronicler Karrathulian Elanvante promised to live by two no more expeditions and no falling in love. Yet when the expedition of a lifetime beckons—an adventure to recover the lost archives of the Forbidden Lands—Karra cannot resist. She’ll join, but she cannot fall in love.
Novice fighter Callum Olemshire has never traveled on any expeditions, or found love, as part of the punishment he bound himself to in his youth. But when he’s hand-picked to join the coveted quest to the Forbidden Lands, the bindings of his oath begin to fray.
As they traverse the wilderness with a party of adventurers, Karra and Callum must contend with suspicious delays, a bewildering array of side quests, and strangely enthusiastic matchmakers, all while a yearning attraction grows between them. But the Forbidden Lands won’t yield their secrets easily, and as Karra and Callum uncover hidden truths about their world and each other, one final question remains:
Is love enough to conquer the guilt of your past?
Perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher’s Saint of Steel series and Dragon Origins, The Beckoned and The Bound is your next slow burn epic fantasy romance obsession.
Link: Goodreads
An Embodiment of Souls — Julia Laurel
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Queer
As the daughter of a foreign ambassador, Rissa hoped living abroad would protect her from home’s puritanical customs where women are forbidden to walk at night or use magic except to support a necromancer’s dual identity.
Alek, the youngest prince of the Memric Isle, hasn’t yet taken his Second body. Fearing he’ll be accused of sin and his body claimed as a Second himself, Alek lives piously while studying abroad, even though he’s distracted by magic—and his handsome roommate, Gable.
When Alek meets Rissa by chance, his quiet life is thrown into chaos. One of Rissa’s fathers has been abducted, and Alek and Gable are witnesses. Alek and Rissa form a secret alliance to find her father and uncover the truth behind the conspiracy, risking life and freedom as they follow clues straight to the heart of the Memric Isle’s government.
Link: Kobo
Halfheart — Linden A. Lewis
Genre: Epic fantasy
Rep: Queer
From the acclaimed author of The First Sister series, an epic fantasy set in a realm where gods devour each other to fuel their power, following a crew of unlikely allies on a desperate quest to stop the god of War from conquering the known world.
Years ago, the god of War took everything from aging mercenary Mordrena Halfheart—her homeland, her family, her god, even her magic. So when offered a place in the coalition of mages who aim to kill the War, she digs her nails and teeth into the chance at revenge. But the War is not the only god whose path is intertwined with Halfheart’s. Another has been lurking in her shadow for years, desperate to manipulate her fate to serve his own purpose.
As Halfheart and her unlikely allies journey to find the one weapon that might turn the tides of the War’s unrelenting conquest, long-buried secrets are revealed, loyalties tested, and the fate of the known world is left hanging in the balance.
An exploration of loss, grief, and power, Halfheart is a wild, soulful, structurally inventive, and immersive standalone that proves Lewis understands the epic fantasy genre just as well as they do space opera.
Link: Goodreads
Lonesome and Festering — Eric Raglin
Genre: Weird horror short story collection
Rep: Queer
A widower reaches his violent breaking point while giving a tour of a haunted coral reef. A student pays off his lunch debt by toiling in the endless, monster-infested caverns beneath his school. An old woman discovers her fate is grotesquely connected to the endangered toads she’s trying to save. A lapsed member of a queer motorcycle gang returns to rekindle a romance, commit arson, and summon Satan.
Lonesome and Festering is Eric Raglin’s latest horror and Weird fiction collection for sickos, featuring stories about fighting for love, surviving dystopia, and becoming your worst self under capitalism and fascism.
Link: Goodreads
Woodfeast — Meg Ripley
Genre: Horror
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 2 of The Dirty
In Woodfeast, the sequel to Necrology, Meg Ripley weaves revolutionary politics and dark fantasy for a blisteringly timely look at the rights, communities, and power of women.
As war rages between fundamentalist Freemen and the Dirty, practitioners of outlawed magic, nine-year-old Rabbit and her siblings have no idea how to ensure their culture’s survival. They have nine shards of the Woodfeast, a relic with unknown power, and a host of uncertain allies: Jane, a Dirty woman known to the Freemen as their apostate son; the Warrior, a beast formed from wolves; and Hyena, a storm razing the country and insisting that Rabbit must commit murder to be truly free.
To protect Dirt, each other, and the nation, Rabbit and her friends must understand the history of the Freemen—and the women they tried to destroy—before the Freemen can unmake the source of Dirt itself.
Link: Goodreads
Critical Role: The Mighty Nein—Children of Empire — Nibedita Sen
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Lesbian FMC; bi MMC; F/F & M/M relationships
Series: Continuation of established shared universe
Return to Wildemount with this first-of-its-kind official sequel to the hit Mighty Nein campaign from Critical Role, exploring the fates of “Empire Kids” Caleb Widogast and Beauregard Lionett.
The adventures of the Mighty Nein have ended.
With the Cloven Crystals hidden and Uk’otoa once again imprisoned, all that’s left for the Mighty Nein is to settle back into their well-earned retirements. For some, this means peace and solitude; for others, a recommitment to unmitigated chaos. And for Caleb Widogast and Beauregard Lionett, it marks a return to the empire they once called home.
But ancient, arcane threats still fester in the Cerberus Assembly and its only living founder, the calculating and secretive Ludinus Da’leth. When an old friend offers Caleb a chance to investigate Ludinus, he can’t help but take it, even if it means betraying those he once held dear. And as Beau struggles to settle into domesticity, a good infiltration is the perfect distraction.
The Cerberus Assembly is unlike any foe the Empire Kids have faced before, rooted into the history of their homeland. It’s not an evil that can be pummeled into submission—but that doesn’t mean they can’t try.
Written by Hugo, Nebula, and Ignyte Award-nominated author Nibedita Sen, Children of Empire ties together the stories of Campaigns Two and Three of hit series Critical Role, complete with intrigue, machinations, and the occasional fistfight.
Link: Goodreads
Lavender and Hemlock — Lili Wilkinson
Genre: Fantasy
Rep: Sapphic
This cosy, atmospheric Sapphic multiverse fantasy spins a tale of love against all odds and across many worlds, for fans of The Ten Thousand Doors of January and V. E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic series.
Every morning, Tansy takes tea to her employer, Lady Aster. She goes on a walk along the cliffs, waving to the cat on her way. She dusts the elaborate glass globes full of strange and beautiful worlds that Lady Aster creates. She cleans their cottage, Oubliette. Every day, exactly the same.
Until, one afternoon, Tansy drops the globe containing a replica of the cottage, leaving a tiny fracture in the glass. And things begin to change.
She finds an injured knight from another world, Merit, sleeping in their pigsty. Merit was raised to be a monster, a servant of the terrible Unmaker who once terrorised her world—but after betraying a fellow knight, she escaped through a crack between places and found herself in the Oubliette.
There’s a reason every day in the Oubliette is identical; that Tansy can’t remember anything about her life before she joined Lady Aster's service. As she and Merit begin to explore the many worlds outside the Oubliette, they realise one story unites them the trail of war, violence and destruction left by the Unmaker, who they fear will one day return. And—however unwittingly—Tansy and Merit have opened the door.
The crack in the Oubliette was only the beginning. Soon, as the Unmaker’s story becomes increasingly ensnared with their own, both Tansy and Merit will have to choose: are they who they were born to be, or the people they’ve become to each other?
Link: Amazon
November 11, 2026
Project Tasman — S. Morgan Burbank
Genre: Dystopian science fiction
Rep: Sapphic; bi MC & lesbian LI
Alana Quevedo was supposed to spend a weekend at secluded mansion with her fiancée. Instead, she’s found herself trapped in a sadistic government experiment that stretches every semblance of her sanity. The only way to get out is to kill someone and trap another person inside, but how can she choose to do that when almost everyone inside is someone close to her?
Link: Goodreads
November 15, 2026
Way Back When — C.M. Kuhtz
Genre: Fantasy, fairy tale
Rep: Nonbinary MC
What does it truly mean to be a hero?
Mant Marten, a nonbinary wizard’s apprentice on the cusp of greatness, has a very clear idea of how to get there. They’ve listened to the fireside stories all their life, and clearly the most important ingredients to making one’s name are a noble motive and good old perseverance.
Armed to the teeth with confidence, they make their way deep into the Undying Realms to accept a challenge from mythical sprites for the chance to win a piece of ancient magic—but what if their motive isn’t quite so noble after all?
Way Back When is a standalone fairy tale novella set in the age of legends and is a perfect read for fans of T. Kingfisher and the Emily Wilde series.
Link: Goodreads
November 17, 2026
Universe of Grace — Rachel Calnek-Sugin
Genre: Magical realism
Rep: Queer
A dazzling, kaleidoscopic debut novel about the life of a precocious girl in Philadelphia trying to figure out who—or what—she is.
One afternoon, on a visit to the Bronx Zoo, a jaguar tells six-year-old Grace Goldberg-Li she isn’t human. Not that this comes as a total surprise. Her life looks normal, but no one else, not even her beloved sister, seems to be experiencing things as brightly and painfully as she does. As she approaches adolescence, Grace begins to think that she might be an alien. Maybe this would explain the urge to steal every beautiful object she can find, or the peculiar voice that’s started issuing apocalyptic warnings inside her head.
In adulthood, Grace still can’t figure it out. Is it the world that’s crazy and falling apart? Or is it her? She will attempt, over and over, to remake herself and find her place in it. She will fall recklessly in love with a gorgeous doctoral student; she will live as a tree in a backyard during the pandemic; she will become the best employee that Wendy’s has ever seen; she will travel to the ends of the earth and keep going.
Moving, imaginative, and endlessly surprising, Universe of Grace is at once a tender family portrait, a queer love story, and an epic quest for self-discovery in a world that’s uncertain and wondrous in equal measure. Covering the span of a single life and everything it touches, Universe of Grace shows us that we are each more interconnected and vast than we can ever know.
Link: Kobo
All the Beastly Things — Eilish Quinn
Genre: Post-apocalyptic, literary
Rep: Sapphic
In a post-apocalyptic matriarchy that has erased men and capitalism, a young novitiate destined for greatness faces a crisis of faith when her best friend begins receiving mysterious visions of an archangel—setting her on a path to choose between spiritual purity and human desire.
The year is 2171, and the Earth is not what it once was. The natural world reigns supreme, wild and ungovernable, after a series of wasting plagues and unmitigated climate disasters, the twin coups of fascism and AI, and a final, catastrophic nuclear fallout. Small monastic communities have emerged from the carnage—self-sufficient, female-only religious utopias governed by a strict codex and surrounded by walls to keep the wilds at bay. The new world is harmonious, and blissfully free from structures of oppression such as hierarchy, capitalism, and time.
Seventeen-year-old Igraine has never known life beyond the cloistered walls of the Field or seen a human male. Brilliant and devout, she spends her days in the gardens and scriptorium beside her closest companion, Ophelia. Their studies will culminate in twin posts at the Lunar Abbey—a gothic cathedral on the Moon reserved for the most venerated Sisters.
Their futures fracture when Ophelia begins receiving visions of a mysterious, alluring, and damningly masculine archangel. As doubt spreads and rumors surface about the Order’s darker forces, the girls venture beyond the convent’s walls and into the wilderness—while navigating the volatility of their deepening bond.
When Igraine’s formidable mentor, Sister Agathe, takes a romantic interest in her, devotion blurs into jealousy and illicit desire. In the aftermath, Igraine must confront her unraveling faith in a system that demands her complete surrender.
Link: Kobo
An Edge Sharp Enough — Jesse Q. Sutanto
Genre: Epic fantasy
Rep: Queer
Series: Book 1 of An Edge Sharp Enough
In a brilliant departure from the novels that made Jesse Q. Sutanto a USA Today bestselling author—including Dial A for Aunties—comes the first book in a debut dark fantasy duology, following an assassin, a scholar, a con man, and a guard in a race to rediscover powerful lost magic and save their world...
Mara has no memory of life before her assassin training behind the fortress-like walls of Tchu-Morrokhai, which has been her world since she was five. Practicing discipline and strategy, sacrifice and solitude, she has dedicated herself to resisting the Divine Empress’s plans of eradicating the all-but-forgotten magic. She longs for a world once again filled with magic—and freedom and love. And she’ll do whatever it takes to find those things.
In the faraway city of Velingard, Livya is the privileged daughter of the revered scientist whose invention of an indestructible new metal was the catalyst for a great revolution. Yet Livya’s bored of suitors and balls, more interested in philosophical debates. But when an invite to a secret salon leads to a kidnapping attempt, Livya is suddenly on the run—with the unlikely aid of charming con man Kaian, a once dear childhood friend inexplicably turned frosty stranger.
Captain Fonde has served Velingard faithfully in the twenty years since the revolution, and all has been peaceful... until now, when he’s informed that their “indestructible” metal is inexplicably starting to crumble. Ships, bridges, buildings, statues—their entire post-revolution world is literally about to come apart. Could it be that the metal—and therefore the revolution—was flawed all along? Or is there something darker—evil, ancient, inhuman—at play?
With stunning world-building, Jesse Q. Sutanto weaves an epic tale of characters whose lives irrevocably intertwine—and unravel—as paths collide across continents, racing toward an explosive twist that will forever change all of their fates...
Link: Goodreads
November 24, 2026
The Education of Imryn Dyre, Wizard’s Apprentice — Artemis Whelan
Genre: Cozy romantic fantasy
Rep: Non-binary MC; M/X
A luckless healer who begrudgingly accepts a magical apprenticeship must race to find a cure for his charming mentor’s fatal affliction—before it’s too late.
Half-goblin Imryn “Imi” Dyre hasn’t had an easy life. Born into a poor family and now a student on scholarship, he’s marked as an outcast amongst the wealthy magical families. So despite studying and honing his craft for years, it’s no surprise when he’s rejected from joining the ranks of healers. Just like that, his dream of opening a clinic in his impoverished neighborhood dies.
Out of options, Imi has no choice but to accept an apprenticeship under the master wizard Elim Greenwood. Wise beyond his years and, to Imi’s dismay, indisputably handsome, Elim seeks a cure for a spell that’s slowly killing him. And though many before have failed, Imi’s magic might actually be the one solution to his mentor’s fatal affliction.
There’s no time to waste, but Imi’s troubles continue as Elim’s cousin, Freddie, approaches them with a new problem. Her husband has been cursed to feed on souls, and his ravenous need to attack others is growing. Now, Imi must grapple with the search for two separate remedies—all the while contending with his forbidden feelings for Elim.
Happily ever after has never felt more out of reach, but if Imi can save the man—and the family—he’s come to love, he might finally find the place where he belongs...
Link: Goodreads
November 26, 2026
The Animals We Became — Finn Longman
Genre: Fantasy, retelling
Rep: Queer
You exist because of a crime, because of a curse, and because of a trick.
Blodeuedd never asked to be made.
Created from flowers of oak, broom, and meadowsweet to marry a man cursed never to have a human wife, Blodeuedd has no knowledge of the world, no family outside the marriage, and no power to choose. But a caged animal still has claws, and Blodeuedd will find a way to be free, whatever the cost.
Gwydion knows what it is to be unmade.
Haunted by the years he served in animal form as punishment for his brother’s crimes, Gwydion has turned his tricks to his nephew’s happiness—and the creation of Blodeuedd is the greatest trick of them all. But his creation asks questions he cannot answer and drags from the depths of the forest the past he has been trying so hard to forget. Now they both must face their unmaking.
From the author of The Wolf and His King comes a spellbinding new medieval fantasy standalone retelling the story of Blodeuedd from Welsh mythology in a profound exploration of cyclical trauma and transformation. As angry as it is hopeful, this visionary novel is unmissable for readers of Katherine Arden, Naomi Novik, and Samantha Shannon.
Link: Goodreads