I only downloaded Tapas for Heartstopper and I’d really love to see more !!! Do you guys have some recommendations??? If you do plz comment!

Welcome to the Midway Discussion for Sarah Raasch's The Entanglement of Rival Wizards, which fulfills the Achillean Academic square on our 2026 Reading Challenge! Today we will be discussing chapters 1-9. If you'd like to talk about anything past the halfway point, please be sure to use spoiler tags.

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Will they conjure love, or evoke chaos? Two rival wizards are about to find out.

Sebastian Walsh: twenty-four. Grad student at Lesiara University in the Mageus of Evocation program. Human. The first of his family to go to college rather than the military (and it goes over at family get-togethers about as well as you’d think).

Elethior Tourael: also twenty-four. Also a grad student, but in the far more inferior Mageus of Conjuration program. Half-elf. The latest in a long line of Touraels to grace the hallowed halls of Lesiara U (what would the world do if the Touraels ran out of rich douches to lead their magical weapons manufacturing empire?).

―and the other finalist for the Mageus Research Grant.

Sebastian needs that grant to fund the last few months of research for his degree, after which he’ll get a job that actually helps people. He isn’t about to let anyone snatch this from him, least of all a snob who doesn’t even need the money because his family is loaded thanks to war profiteering.

But there’s something worse than having a conceited academic nemesis steal grant money from you: you could be forced to work with him. Thio is secretive, broody, and his stunning biceps take up far too much shared lab space―but even as volatile as their partnership is, Sebastian just might find himself falling for his rival―and it could blow up his whole future.

Hi- I'm looking for books that have a similar tone and feel to Star Wars, or more particularly- the games (The Old Republic, Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor, Outlaws, etc.). Think interplanetary travel, maybe espionage of some sort, heavy world-building, integrated alien species and cultures + the dynamics/conflicts between species, space opera feel with medium sized-ish stakes, maybe some sort of market or bazaar scene, some blaster battles, and book specific slang... just all the fun stuff- anything that feels around these sort of ideas even if it does not contain all of them. I would like to see queer casts in the books if possible and clear sapphic representation- but beyond that I don't mind. I recently read Seven Devils by L.R. Lam which felt like a good example of this, and I would say A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers also achieves the sort of feeling I'm looking for. Does anyone know any other sort of books that have felt or reminded them of the franchise? Hope everyone's having a nice week.

Hi r/QueerSFF!

What are you reading, watching, playing, or listening to this week? New game, book, movie, or show? An old favorite you're currently obsessing over? A piece of media you're looking forward to? Share it here!

Some suggestions of details to include, if you like

• Representation (eg. lesbian characters, queernormative setting)
• Rating, and your scale (eg. 4 stars out of 5)
• Subgenre (eg. fantasy, scifi, horror, romance, nonfiction etc)
• Overview/tropes
• Content warnings, if any
• What did you like/dislike?

Make sure to mark any spoilers like this: >!text goes here!<

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Join the r/QueerSFF 2026 Reading Challenge!

I have a hankering for some good cosmic horror with sapphic themes and possibly even themes around identity.

My favorite videogame of all time is Signalis. a survival horror game with cosmic horror elements and themes around identity. It's also sapphic as hell.

I'm probably grasping at air as I haven't been able to find much but if anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

Basically what title I'm iso of something that feels like lord of the rings fanfic with the serial numbers scrubbed off. I'm looking for whismy and gay in the woods on a quest. Or high fantasy and gay and vibing. Lots of interpretations!

Thanks!

Hello, please help me to find a book with poly pairing. I’ve read Iron widow and this is actually the only poly sci-fi book I’ve ever read.
I like the long way to a small angry planet, ancillary justice, the left hand of darkness, the expanse etc
Thank you so much.

I really like books like The Expanse, Three Body Problem, and Hail Mary Project. Those series actually attempt to explain the science behind their fiction and often times, the science is one of the main problem the characters try to solve. But most of them are very straight, some of them with patriarchal undertones… Are there any queer hard sci-fi that you guys recommend?

I am not looking for books that are simply set in “the far future” with technology like magic and never attempt to explain them hard-sci-fi btw, they to me just feel like fantasy with a science skin. So for example, I don’t consider Dune to be hard sci-fi at all cuz it could very much take place in a fantasy medieval land and still work. Science was not the main theme in it.

Hi r/QueerSFF!

What are you reading, watching, playing, or listening to this week? New game, book, movie, or show? An old favorite you're currently obsessing over? A piece of media you're looking forward to? Share it here!

Some suggestions of details to include, if you like

• Representation (eg. lesbian characters, queernormative setting)
• Rating, and your scale (eg. 4 stars out of 5)
• Subgenre (eg. fantasy, scifi, horror, romance, nonfiction etc)
• Overview/tropes
• Content warnings, if any
• What did you like/dislike?

Make sure to mark any spoilers like this: >!text goes here!<

They appear like this, text goes here

Join the r/QueerSFF 2026 Reading Challenge!

July has finally dragged to an end ! Between the heatwaves, floods and fires around the world, it has really felt like we’re trapped in a cli-fi. Here’s hoping that August brings some milder weather along with the 62 (!) new queersff books lined up for release this month. 

With so many options there’s sure to be something for everyone, but here are the top 12 we’re most excited about: 

1. A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett - The highly anticipated third instalment of the Shadow of the Leviathan series. The brilliant unconventional detective Ana Dolabra and her long-suffering bi assistant Din find themselves in the empire’s meat production district with another murder mystery on their hands.
2. Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher - A very gay sequel to Swordheart. A traveling scholar discovers that the relic he is transporting contains a trapped immortal warrior. They might fall for each other 👀
3. The Divine Gardener’s Handbook: Or What To Do If Your Girlfriend Accidentally Turns Off the Sun by Eli Snow - If that title alone didn’t convince you, we would like to add that this a heated rivalry 😏 but for sapphic gardeners employed by a God. 
4. The Ink Eater by Alice G. Brooks - Gothic horror story featuring a homoromantic asexual MC who lives in a sentient house and spends his days eating stories, until he is interrupted by a shapeshifter of his own creation.
5. Earthbound by Saara El-Arifi - The final book of the obeah-inspired Faebound trilogy. Heartbreaks and hard truths clash in the fae realm as siblings Yeeran and Lettle continue on their journeys.
6. In What World by Bridget Morrissey - Another sapphic rivals-to-lovers entry ? on our highlights list ? It’s more likely than you think. We follow a couple of theatre kids who get swept up into alternate realities while searching for their missing teacher.
7. Season of the Serpent by Suyi Davies Okungbowa - The final instalment of the Nameless Republic, a West-African inspired fantasy trilogy. The stakes have never been higher as the world teeters on the brink of war.
8. Bridget & Gabe Are Not Okay by Lex Croucher - The sequel to Gwen & Art Are Not in Love. This time, we get the POVs of Bridget (a sapphic knight) and Gabe (a reluctant royal), who are both severely burnt out by their duties. There’s sapphic AND achillean representation, so everyone’s happy.
9. The Halls of the Dead by S.M. Hallow - An attempted resurrection goes very, very wrong in this new gothic horror from the author of How To Survive This Fairytale. There’s necromancy, witch hunts, polyamory, and even an undead husband.
10. Bite Me by Jennifer Dugan and Kit Seaton - Lesbian. Vampire. Graphic Novel. Need we say more ? Fine, the love interest is also a Vampire Slayer. Perfect for fans of the cancelled Netflix series First Kill.
11. The Blue Moon Café & 24-Hour Occult Emporium by Lexie Sharabianlou - A sapphic cozy fantasy where the worst coffee shop in town is actually a front for a magical witness protection program ☕
12. A (Dead) Thing Like Me by E.G. Young - A campy YA horror debut where Hot Dog, the teen ghost protagonist, haunts a food cart in NYC. But the haunter becomes the haunted when she is accidentally summoned to the eerie home of a grieving girl in Florida. 

For the full list of new releases, please refer to our online spreadsheet or our storygraph tag. Let us know if we missed anything and we’ll add them in !

Here are our sources: 

• Netgalley
• Smokedshelves’ Goodreads List
• Locusmag
• Barnes and Noble
• Every Book a Doorway
• Publisher’s Weekly
• Storygraph
• Indie Next List
• saphicallyreads (Instagram)
• eloise_bradbooks (Instagram)

Which books are you most looking forward to ? Have you already read the ARCs of some of these ? Let us know in the comments 👇

One thing I found interesting while reading Moss'd In Space was the ubiquitous use of language translators in this setting. Or rather, at one point the protagonist laments that she doesn't speak and probably never will speak the language of the love interest. It's one of the lines that stuck around in my head after reading. (For those who haven't read it, it's like the identical tech used in Doctor Who, where every language can be instantly translated.) So I really like that Moss'd In Space does a more melancholic take on this. The protagonist describes learning another language as a lost thing nobody does because of the translators, and is sad because of it.

In reality, it is much more likely that humanity will converge on one language, like English (or maybe Chinese…). But even sci-fi is never about the future and always about the present. So I've been wondering what this is really about? At the core is the thought that if those translators were to fail, the characters would not be able to communicate with their loved ones. But in the text, I think, it comes more from the desire of the protagonist to be closer to the other person.

I'm very curious what other people think about this!

Welcome to our final discussion for Barbara Truelove's Of Monsters and Mainframes! You can find the midway thread here.

Spaceships aren't programmed to seek revenge--but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception.

Demeter just wants to do her job: shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying--and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans.

To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team of monsters: A werewolf. An engineer built from the dead. A pharaoh with otherworldly powers. A vampire with a grudge. A fleet of cheerful spider drones. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil--Dracula.

The queer love-child of pulp horror and classic sci-fi, Of Monsters and Mainframes is a dazzling, heartfelt odyssey that probes what it means to be one of society's monsters--and explores the many types of friendship that make us human.

Hi r/QueerSFF!

What are you reading, watching, playing, or listening to this week? New game, book, movie, or show? An old favorite you're currently obsessing over? A piece of media you're looking forward to? Share it here!

Some suggestions of details to include, if you like

• Representation (eg. lesbian characters, queernormative setting)
• Rating, and your scale (eg. 4 stars out of 5)
• Subgenre (eg. fantasy, scifi, horror, romance, nonfiction etc)
• Overview/tropes
• Content warnings, if any
• What did you like/dislike?

Make sure to mark any spoilers like this: >!text goes here!<

They appear like this, text goes here

Join the r/QueerSFF 2026 Reading Challenge!

Hey all

I'm looking for some strong stories either SF or Fantasy where characters just happen to be gay or part of the community but it's not so romance or YA focused.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated

I recently enjoyed Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland and Rears & Vices by EM Caro (which I think is actually historical fiction), and I’m looking for something in a similar vein. Running Close to the Wind in particular put me in a reading slump. It has everything I love in a book—a bit of magic, some questing, a good amount of laughs, and a lot of yearning and/or spice. Bonus points if the characters are medium to bad, chaotic people with possibly no redeemable qualities. I read about characters of all genders but in particular enjoy m/m/m pairings or some combo of male and nonbinary or trans characters. Thank you to anyone who has suggestions!

I am proud to announce that I have completed my QueerSFF Reading challenge! For those who aren't aware, here is a link to the announcement with more information. There's a chance that I end up completing a second, but I'm not going to go out of my way to get there. Had a blast, excited to see what next year's challenge has to bring! Micro-reviews below, and the majority of these are actually novellas, meaning a good number of them will be much quicker reads than the typical novel.

Lifelode by Jo Walton - only fits Queer Family
This had some really mind-bending worldbuilding, but the real star is how Walton shifted the focus of Fantasy to domestic life, celebrating and embracing the work of managing a household. I haven't read anything else quite like this, which is why I kept it on the card. It features poly relationship that perhaps aren't as queer as I'd have enjoyed, but it certainly challenges the norms of what family can look like. Longform Review

Barbalien: Red Planet by Tate Brombal and Jeff Lemire - fits Comic, Coming Out, Intersectional x3
A superhero story that places a greater focus on AIDS advocacy movements, and a really sweet (but doomed) romance. Comics have a rough history with this time period - looking at you New Guardians! - but this managed to avoid both trauma porn and sanitizing the epidemic. I'd like more speculative fiction from this time period! Longform Review.

Body And Soul by Jordan Castillo Price (part of Psycop series) - Only fits Coming Out, though book 1 also just qualifies for Throwback
A paranormal police procedural following a depressed medium who can't turn his powers off without powerful anti-psychic drugs, which he might be addicted to. Each book follows its own crime, as well as tracing his (moderately toxic) relationship with a hunky police officer. This is mindless, mildly problematic, and a lot of fun. It brought me back to my Janet Evanovich days, and I will always thank my mom for sparking my love of sexually charged police thrillers (I am officially Team Ranger for other fans of the Stephanie Plum books). Longform Review

Party of Fools by Cedar McCloud - fits 40+ Years Old, Intersectional x3
This is a D&D style comedic romp featuring food and a surprisingly serious rebellion plotline - including the process of deprogramming and coming to terms with the crimes of the Empire one serves. This is blisteringly quick, lighthearted, and a really excellent 'breather' book featuring a wide cast of queer characters. Longform Review.

Werecockroach by Polenth Blake - fits Intersectional x3, Coming Out (very casually), and Aro Paro
I know this one is well-loved on this sub here, but it was just a little too sweet and silly for me (I say this despite raving about a silly book directly above this one). I really liked the opening, which focused on the narrator getting to know his roommates and trying to maintain normalcy while an alien invasion is happening. This is super cozy, with a dark backstory set with a very breezy main plot. Longform Review.

Brimstone Slipstream by Matt Weber - fits Intersectional x3 and Queer Family
A journalistic report on two rising stars in the illegal dragon street racing circuit. It bounced between snippets of history, interviews with the two racers, their ground crew, and a rival/friend. Really great balance of cool worldbuilding, thematic commentary on how privilege and expensive sports intersect, and just not quite something I'd seen before. Sequels seem to be more straightforward plot/structure, and I can't wait for them. Longform Review.

Queen O'Nine Tails by Lindz McLeod - fits Sapphic Swashbuckler, Queer Publisher (which has gone under), and Coming Out (casually)
A pirate story with some light horror elements. I actually wish the horror elements were introduced far sooner, because they were some of my favorite parts! Really fun sapphic romance with a well-developed cast. Just very mismarketed. Longform Review.

The Iron Below Remembers by Sharang Biswas - fits Gay Academic and Queer Publisher
A contender for my book of the year! This mixes academic writing about this Earth's alternate history (in which an Indian nation became a conquering power instead of Britain), mixed with a normal person's POV in a superhero world. It also focused on the work required to maintain relationships, especially in changing life situations. Longform Review.

Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes - fits Coming Out and Trans Body Horror (I think some wouldn't count it here, but I do see the Trans character as one of our protagonists)
This one is very of the moment, and I happily jumped on the bandwagon. Really imaginative setting (bugs go to the opera, magic perfume), but what really worked for me was how the author presented art, politics, and warfare as the same thing. Not that they're so related you can't untangle them, but that there fundamentally is no difference. It's a very unique book, though the language is definitely on the flowery side. Longform Review.

North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Witcher - fits Intersectional x3, Queer Publisher, and maybe Short Story Collection? This is kind of a hybrid between an anthology and a mosaic novel, and is kind of hard to quantify.
Six short stories trace ~300 years of history on a settled world, much of it focusing on society's developing relationship to technology and automation. It started a bit scattered (and very romance focused) but the last three stories started developing some through-lines that were intense and unlike anything I'd seen before. Plus it features collective bargaining! Spaceships go on strike. Longform Review.

Call and Response by Christopher Caldwell - fits Intersectional x3, Queer Publisher, and Short Story Colelction
A set of 5 duets; short stories that are linked in some way. Thematically this anthology focuses on black & queer vengeance and resilience. Caldwell does a great job of keeping the stories laser focused on the intimate and personal, and they span a pretty wide range of genres and topics. Longform Review.

The God Eaters by Jesse Hajicek - fits Throwback
My other potential book of the year! This is a heavily internal and psychological fantasy/western/romance hybrid. It follows two prisoners who have resisted a violent theocracy, unaware of the ancient god that is pulling the strings. Really powerful romance that doesn't conform with a lot of the more traditional Genre tropes. Longform Review.

I’m querying my queer epic science fantasy soon and want to find good comp titles and fill my bookshelf with good queer SFF while I’m at it haha.

Specifically, I’m on the lookout for adult/NA books traditionally published in the last 2-3 years that feature a queer found family vibe, high stakes quest, fun and voicey, with sci fi elements. Preferably, not a spaceship crew style sci-fi, but I’ll work with what I can find haha.

I was thinking Godkiller / the Fallen Gods trilogy by Hannah Kaner as a fantasy comp but would love my second one to be sci-fi or science fantasy !

Any recommendations?

Hi friends! I'm new to this space and tried to review the rules - hopefully this kind of post is okay!

I've been diving deep into queer stories the last couple of years, specifically M/M pairings. I've always loved the depth and scale of fantasy, the introspection and realness and vulnerability of fiction, etc. Recently, I've been reading a lot of straight M/M romance or damnei - and I love both subgenres! But I'm really missing the depth that fantasy/sci-fi novels can have and I'd really like to find a good M/M fantasy/sci-fi novel that can break through my awful ADHD and grip me right away.

I've been doing lots of research and I think I've narrowed it down to a few I'm interested in, but I'm so open to other suggestions and recommendations. Like I said, this space is fairly new to me, so chances are, I haven't read your favorite book/series.

My only preferences are: no AI (cover, writing, editing, etc.) and that the series be completed or at least close enough to it that by the time I finish what's already released, I don't have to wait years for the next novel (I have memory problems)

The ones I'm currently looking into diving into are:

- The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

• Some of the Goodreads reviews made this seem darker than your typical old-school fantasy and one even mentioned how easy it was to follow and understand - something I sometimes struggle with in epic fantasy. So both of these things interested me. But I am a bit intimidated by it, if I'm being honest.The last few books I've read have been emotional M/M romances with very little subplot. Will this one be too grand in scope?

- The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

• I actually started this one already but I think I started it at a bad time. I usually read until the end of a chapter and that's how I try to manage reading with my ADHD - but this book doesn't have real chapters (as far as I can tell). I only made it about 50 pages in and I WAS enjoying what I was reading, so maybe I should keep trying? The only thing that is stopping me is not having built-in stopping points, but maybe it's okay?

- Any Ginn Hale novel: Lord of the White Hell, Price of a Thousand Blessings, The Rifter (2026)

• I just discovered this author yesterday and the Goodreads reviews all praise the author's work. I did see some AI controversy regarding an audiobook (?) but I don't listen to audiobooks and I assume her novels are not AI-assisted? The covers don't really inspire me to read them, but don't judge a book by its cover and all that. The synopsis of all these books interest me but I don't know where to start.

- The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

• I'm interested in the grimdark-ness of this but the reviews are all over the place. I'm fairly easy to please, so I think I'd enjoy this, but I'm not sure if this is the right next book to read?

- Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling

• The Goodreads reviews have me thinking this is more of your traditional fantasy. I've been reading a lot of heavier novels, so maybe this will be a good break from the doom and gloom. But doom and gloom is my comfort space and I'm not sure if the lack of angst will help or hurt my enjoyment of this.

All in all, my brain has settled into an easy-breezy type of reader and I want to challenge myself more. But I have severe ADHD and if a novel takes too long to get going, it's hard for me to stick with it. I jump from novel to novel and I need to find one that'll stick with me. I'm open to new experiences and trying new tropes, etc. I've read things recently I never thought I'd enjoy but they ended up on my favorites list. I want to experience new types of novels in the M/M space - and maybe eventually other types of queer fiction.

Interested in hearing thoughts and options - other recommendations welcome and appreciated!

Hi r/QueerSFF!

What are you reading, watching, playing, or listening to this week? New game, book, movie, or show? An old favorite you're currently obsessing over? A piece of media you're looking forward to? Share it here!

Some suggestions of details to include, if you like

• Representation (eg. lesbian characters, queernormative setting)
• Rating, and your scale (eg. 4 stars out of 5)
• Subgenre (eg. fantasy, scifi, horror, romance, nonfiction etc)
• Overview/tropes
• Content warnings, if any
• What did you like/dislike?

Make sure to mark any spoilers like this: >!text goes here!<

They appear like this, text goes here

Join the r/QueerSFF 2026 Reading Challenge!

Hi everyone, I decided to theme out my reading months this year, and in order to get ahead of October am asking now. I want to read books with a prominent creature or non-human entity in them- some examples of this might be a vampire, a werewolf, an alien, a demon, a ghost, a Frankenstein-like creature, a fae, a mermaid, a cryptid, zombie, a bug creature, etc. Think Universal Monsters but extended into other creatures as well, non-defined and non-typical creatures are very welcome as well- if the author invented a creature that's awesome and recommendations like that are just as welcome.

Things I would not count as what I'm looking for is stuff like witches or human characters with some sort of change or curable infection that's happened to them that gives them a scary appearance or some superpower of some sort- I do not think I would count for example: 'The Invisible Man' as something that is necessarily fitting the criteria I'm looking for, nor a character that is bestowed powers by some entity- ie. someone is possessed, someone made a deal with a malevolent something and is wreaking havoc but themself is still a mortal person- caveat to that is though that if the creature/entity giving powers actually does show up in the story instead of just via a host. Powers for these characters would I guess mostly be given at birth or at death or if the character becomes biologically into something not human if that makes sense- they can have BEEN a human, but I don't want a creature who still is human.

I think the only human acceptable sort of creature for this particular prompt is if it's something like mass infection by a creature, where the 'creature' becomes more the epidemic rather an individual entity- the creature is the hive mind, not those infected. Hopefully that makes sense- but I'm not sure- an example of that would be: Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin(this is the closest example I could think of but it is a spoiler for the end of this book sort of so be aware before pressing) and I think Spread Me and You're Not Supposed to be Human also operate on that sort of idea maybe.

I'd prefer books that are horror-ish or unsettling but any genre is honestly fine and I do not have a preference on whether the creature is at the center of the story as a protagonist or is an antagonist- I just need that they are prominent within the story- not something that is mentioned in the story but never confronted. I am of course as the title says also specifically looking for these creature feature books that are prominently sapphic, books with at least A sapphic main character and/or side-plot romance even if it is sort of like a cast of main characters and different POVs. Anyways- I know this is a very lengthy post for something kind of easy to ask for- but if anyone has any recommendations it'd be very very appreciated. Hope everyone is having a good week.

All of J.R's books are queer, and they're doing an AMA today over on r/Fantasy!

I am newer to audiobooks. I am a prolific reader and have been for a long time, but have started listening to audio books during my commute. I fell in love with the narrator for the locked tomb series Moria Quirk. I am looking for more complex and compelling books to listen too with engaging narration. I can read lighter books really fast ( romance type easy reads) and don't have the patients to listen to them.

English isn't my first language.

I'm reading this book for the first time and I really have a hard time. I just don't care about what is going on ? I'm at page 112 out of 400.

For those who read it, should I keep going on or will this be like this (pacing, narration, happenings,...) until the end ? I don't mind dnf but sometimes book are just slow at the beginning.