Dreams Of Stars And Magic

divinity was written in her skin and starlight woven through her hair

[asteroidtroglodyte]

Look; if you don’t support LandBack, you probably don’t understand what is actually being proposed. Everything I have read and heard has been very reasonable and fair. The only folks talking about revenge campaigns are White Supremacists trying to drum up fears. The movement is co-axial with a lot of the ideas in the Ecological and Green movements. It’s a decolonizing measure. It has the potential to benefit lots of people, including non-Natives, given that many of the proposals would dramatically improve air and water quality and increase access to food across economic class lines. These folks have good ideas. I am asking you, politely, to just, take a look

[perplexingly]

LGBTQ+ Fantasy Book Rec List

Few notes: All books redirect to goodreads page. My focus is on high/heroic/historic/mythological fantasy, any other genres are stated in the brackets.  Please, add books and notes at will but remember to include only these in where either the protagonist or an important side character belongs to LGBTQ+. (I also have a list here, which I’m going to update every time someone adds another book to this list)

GAY/BI MALE CHARACTERS

Rain Wild Chronicles (part of Realm of the Elderlings series), Robin Hobb

The Books of Outremer, Chaz Brenchley

The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller

The Tale of the Five Omnibus, Diane Duane

The Last Herald Mage series (part of Valdemar series), Mercedes Lackey

Nightrunner series, Lynn Flewelling

The Steel Remains (part of A Land Fit fot Heroes series), Richard K. Morgan

The Wode Series, J. Tullos Hennig

Mordred, Bastard Son, Douglas Clegg

The Knights of Camelot series, Sarah Luddington

The Mortal Instruments, Cassie Clare

Kirith Kirin, Jim Grimsley

The Fire’s Stone, Tanya Huff

Shadowdance, Robin Wayne Bailey (trigger warning for rape)

Doctrine of Labyrinths series, Sarah Monette

Swordspoint & The Privilege of the Sword & The Fall of the Kings (part of Riverside world), Ellen Kushner

Iskryne World Series, Sarah Monette

Torsere Series, Annabelle Jacobs

Captive Prince Series, C.S. Pacat

The Harmatia Cycle, Madeleine Emily Vaughan

Micah Grey series, Laura Lam (a bisexual intersex afab male protagonist)

Gay Knights And Horny Heroes: Tales from the Court of King Arthur, Michael Gouda (very nsfw in a very ridiculous setting. Also spoiler: everyone is gay and horny)

[steampunk] Havemercy series, Jaida Jones, Danielle Bennett

[steampunk] A Book of Tongues (Hexslinger series), Gemma Files

[steampunk] The God Eaters, Jesse Hajicek

[steampunk] Lord of the White Hell, Ginn Hale

[urban fantasy] Rifter Series, Ginn Hale

[urban fantasy] Autobiography of Red, Anne Carson

[urban fantasy] The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice

[sf] Bas-Lag Trilogy, China Miéville

[sf] Warchild series, Karin Lowachee

[dystopian sf] Mind Fuck, Manna Francis

LESBIAN/BI FEMALE CHARACTERS

Good Lesbian Books - it’s worth checking this site; it’s a guide to lesbian books, with books neatly organized into genres and themes

Circle of Magic, Tamora Pierce

Huntress & Ash, Malinda Lo

The Steel Remains, Richard K. Morgan

Chronicles of Tornor, Elizabeth A. Lynn

When Women Were Warriors series, Catherine M. Wilson

The Saga of the Renunciates & Thendara House (from Darkover series), Marion Zimmer Bradley

Lythande, Marion Zimmer Bradley

Elemental Logic series, Laurie J. Marks

Banshee’s Honor, Shaylynn Rose

Kushiel’s Legacy series, Jacqueline Carey

Wolfcry (part of The Kiesha’ra series), Amelia Atwater-Rhode

The Dark Wife, Sarah Diemer

The Witch Sea, Sarah Diemer (for free! The link leads to the download page)

Sappho’s Fables: Lesbian Fairy Tales series, Elora Bishop and Jennifer Diemer

Queen’s Champion: The Legend of Lancelot Retold, Cris Newport

Celaeno series, Jane Fletcher

Green Universe, Jay Lake

Sing the Four Quarters (part of Quarter series), Tanya Huff

Fires of the Faithful (part of Eliana’s Song), Naomi Kritzer

Dragon Age: The Masked Empire (part of Dragon Age series), Patrick Weekes

Nantuket Trilogy, S.M. Stirling

By the Sword, Mercedes Lackey

Sword of the Guardian, Merry Shannon

[urban fantasy] Underdogs, Geonn Cannonn

[urban fantasy] The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan

[urban fantasy] Gossamer Axe, Mass Market

[urban fantasy] The Red Tree, Caitlín R. Kiernan

[urban fantasy] The Cirlce, Mats Strandberg and Sara Bergmark Elfgren

[urban fantasy] Modern Faerie Tales, Holly Black

[sf] Ascension, Jacqueline Koyanagi

[sf] Jacob’s Ladder series, Elizabeth Bear

[sf] Santa Olivia series, Jacqueline Carey

[sf] Ammonite & Slow River, Nicola Griffith

[sf] The Telling, Ursula Le Guin

[sf] Dreamships, Melissa Scott

[sf] The Stone Gods, Jeanette Winterson

[sf] Adaptation series, Malinda Lo

[dystopian] The Holdfast Chronicles, Suzy McKee Charnas

OTHER SEXUALITY

Vows and Honor series (part of Valdemar series), Mercedes Lackey (asexual female protagonist. Trigger warning for rape as a background story!)

The Fire’s Stone, Tanya Huff (one of protagonists is an asexual mage princess)

Banner of the Damned, Sherwood Smith (asexual female protagonist)

The Deed of Paksenarrion (part of Paksenarrion series), Elizabeth Moon (protagonist may be read as asexual, she certainly isn’t interested in anyone)

[sf] Jacob’s Ladder series, Elizabeth Bear (asexual lesbian protagonist)

[sf] short stories: A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea) , Mountain Ways, Unchosen Love (both from The Birthday of the World and Other Stories) , Ursula Le Guin (polyamorous marriages - between two men and two women)

GENDER NON-BINARY & TRANSGENDER CHARACTERS

Farseer Trilogy & Tawny Man Trilogy & Fitz and The Fool Trilogy (part of Realm of the Elderlings series), Robin Hobb (gender non-binary major character)

Eon series, Alison Goodman (one of side characters is trans woman)

Bloodhound (part of YA series Beka Cooper), Tamora Pierce (features a trans woman)

The Bone Palace (part of The Necromancer Chronicles), Amanda Downum (major trans female character)

A Story of the First History series, Mary Gentle (gender non-binary protagonsit)

Children of the Triad series, Laurie J. Marks (one of the species, Aeyrie, is genderless, referred to with gender-neutral pronouns Id, Ids and Idre)

Micah Grey series, Laura Lam (a bisexual intersex afab male protagonist)

Tamír Triad, Lynn Flewelling (Princess Tamir is born female, but to protect them they are magically transformed into male and raised as a boy. Later in the books they are transformed into female again)

[urban fantasy] The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (main character is in a relationship with her transgender girlfriend)

[dystopia] The Butterfly and the Flame, Dana De Young (trans female protagonist)

[dystopia] Bone Dance, Emma Bull (agender protagonist)

[sf] The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard (an anthology of transgender narratives)

[sf] Vorkosigan Saga, Lois McMaster Bujold (major intersex character, trigger warning? for referring to them with “it” pronouns)

[sf] The Left Hand of Darkness (part of Hainish Cycle), Ursula Le Guin (intersex society)

[sf] 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (very broad range of gender and sexual identity)

[sf] Imajica, Clive Barker (one of characters is an interdimensional traveler whose body can shift between sexes)

[post-apocalyptic] Wraeththu series, Storm Constantine (intersex society)

[ladyofvalyria]

pre. game of thrones ♔ the maidens in the tower 

Daena was wild almost from birth. She was strong, beautiful, and willful. She was an expert horsewoman and also a hunter and a fine archer with her short recurved bow. She had a a fearless “I’ll dare anything” smile. During her time of confinement at the Maidenvault, Daena escaped several times and had an affair with her cousin Prince Aegon, despite his marriage to his own sister-wife Naerys. When she became pregnant she refused to name the father and became known as “Daena the Defiant.”

[soracities]

“I beg you, eat me up. Want me down to the marrow.”

— Hélène Cixous, from “The Love of the Wolf”

[unspokengrief]

the feeling you get when you borrow a book from the library and someone has left parts of their self in their underlined words

[grey-wardens-archive-deactivate]

Ki-jung – the facts are she’s the baby in the family, and she does sometimes come off as the most adventurous and progressive, but also very realistic out of the four Kim family members.  But in reality, she’s very saddening, sometimes, and very heart-aching, because the amount of tests and exams, and the cuts that she didn’t make.  She seems like someone who’d never complain about it: Her only outlet was the little pouch that she hid on top of the toilet, with the cigarette case and the money.  But she is definitely someone who would never talk to other people about her problems, and in that sense that’s why it was heartbreaking, because she felt that her only outlet was that cigarette box and nothing else.    But when Ki-jung starts going to the rich house, and takes on the role of Jessica, it was very cathartic as someone who was playing that role, because she was finally able to utilise every single skill that she had, and finally was able to use the tools that she’s been wanting to, but was never given the platform to do so. 

PARK SO-DAM as Kim Ki-jung/Jessica in PARASITE (2019)

[jackietaylorsghost]

when you remember that adam parrish does everything quietly except he hoots out the window when ronan teaches him how to drive stick shift, and he lets himself be dragged around on a moving dolly which surely isn’t a silent endeavour, and he climbs into a cart and noisily lets himself be crashed to the ground. adam parrish does everything quietly but around ronan lynch he gets to be loud.

[waestlandbaby]

I love “she makes me quiet” being a foil to “he makes me loud”.

[in-dorare]

Pahichan by Sujata Gurung

Pahichan is all about looking at Nepalese female identity.

https://www.instagram.com/suzulamagurung/

[lifeinpoetry]

i turn like the blood inside a rose. the crowd is a great gasp. i can feel myself become a pear. it’s as if you haven’t taken

pills, he says. i still have that dress. it’s not too blond or red. you can grasp it with your eyes, he said, the way you wear it.

— Keith S. Wilson, from “Impression of a Rib,” Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love

[bluesrrgent]

do you ever just think about the fact that even when ronan lynch was dying and being unmade he still fought for his friends? that he brought back birds and stars and mint leaves and pieces of paper with unguibus et rostro written on it when he was literally being pulled in and out of consciousness by the demon???? because even when ronan lynch was dying he “snatched at light” for the people he loved and there is literally nothing more tragic and beautiful than that

[bluesrrgent]

who do I have to sell my soul to for someone to draw this scene because four years later it’s still my favorite

[britp0p-deactivated20210628]

things to do this year:

put nice notes in library books

compliment a lot of strangers

say a lot of nice things about yourself

write/draw a lot, even if you think your art is bad

make music even if no one hears it

read more books than you thought you would

take a lot of walks

look at a lot of art

learn to love and live and be yourself without being too scared

[weltenwellen]

Har Alluri, from “Ancestral Memory”

[kevinday]

“Art is a wound turned into light.”

— Georges Braque (via wnq-art)

[jessicafletchers]

julien baker - “appointments” / larissa pham - “abject permanence” / the mountain goats - “cry for judas” / richard siken - “the worm king’s lullaby”

[6thlovelanguage-deactivated2020]

Jenny Slate, Little Weirds

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

“I understood the true fate of Orpheus, that love is a constant terror of loss.”

— Kazimierz Wierzyński, tr. by Czeslaw Milosz, “A Word of Orphists,”

[drogonqueen]

Mary Oliver, “From the Book of Time”

Maggie Stiefvater, “Blue Lily, Lily Blue”

Sylvia Plath, “The Bell Jar”

Walt Whitman, “Leaves of Grass”