It's that time of year again! Here are 5 of the best queer books I've read since the last time we celebrated Pride Month together.
These aren't necessarily new books (though some are!), just books that I read in the last 12 months and thought were swell. Maybe you'll like them, too!
The Summer War by Naomi Novik @naominovik (m/m rep)
If you like classic fairy tales that feature clever protagonists outwitting the fae, you'll like this novella. It's about a young girl who discovers she's inherited some magical ability when she accidentally curses her brother to never find love.
Cinder House by Freya Marske @fahye (polyamorous, bi rep)
Content warning for abusive family
My new favorite Cinderella retelling. Being a novella, the story is told quite efficiently, trusting the reader to follow along without spelling out every single thing, and still fitting in some excellent world-building. It's a familiar story with vibrant characters you'll miss when it's done.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (nonbinary rep)
A lovely, gentle sci-fi solarpunk novella that feels like a hug, perfect for when you need to slow down. The main character, Dex, leaves the city in search of meaning and stumbles across a sentient robot of the type that has not been seen since the days of 'oil roads' and factories. The world building is deft with just the right amount of detail. Make sure you have the sequel, A Prayer for the Crown Shy, on hand - you'll want more.
The Cemeteries of Amalo by Katherine Addison (m/m rep)
This is a sequel series to The Goblin Emperor; if you enjoyed that book you'll find more to love here. This trilogy (start with The Witness for the Dead if you've already read The Goblin Emperor) follows Thara Celehar as he gets into a truly improbably amount of trouble for such an unassuming prelate. Murders, opera, airships, ghosts, and a distinct preoccupation with wearing the correct coat for the occasion; what more could you want?
Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die by Greer Stothers @pangur-and-grim (m/m rep, general pervasive queerness)
Content warning for amputation and some gore
This is a tricky one to categorize, but it's queer, it's fun (content warning notwithstanding), it's fresh, and if you've ever read anything else like it drop the title because I want to know about it.
Sir Cameron is prophesied to die and end the reign of terror of the evil mage. Naturally, Sir Cameron would rather that first part not happen and so, reasoning that there is at least one other person in agreement with that sentiment, throws himself upon the dubious mercy of said mage. Hijinks ensue.
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And that's this year's list! Of course, there are MANY more queer books worth reading. Here's our LGBTQ Reads tag if you need your TBR to be even longer. Enjoy!
#diversity win??? #woahhh I forgot about him #this is how I found out. I hate it here #this is the end of the ethuveraz and a disgrace to his late serenity's memory #woaw #ENJOY BEING A BARIZHAN COLONY THOU ELVISH BASTARDS #prev: well no bc it's not like the great avar gaf about him either #who the fuck is archduke maia??? #aww he's only 18 :( #is he the one everyone says is crazy.....? #this is like a wonder tale talk about a comeback #this is a disaster #COOL #ok I guess #EMPRESS CHENELO AVENGED‼️ #dost thou think we can pray in the bariheise style now #I have never heard of this man before in my life
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😎 aveyyyyio
Edrehasivar better than me coz if I'd been in relegation my whole life in genteel poverty with some random and my whole family hated me or didn't gaf about me and I never got formally presented at court and everyone said I was mad or inbred I would have ascended to the throne and started killing everyone responsible
❤️ silmaroperas
op I see thine point but most of the people responsible are very much now dead. like that literally is how we got here
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Anonymous said:
Prince Idra is the rightful Emperor
⚰️ witnessforthedeadfandoms answered:
Oh so thou'rt massive on child cruelty and the death of child emperors??? that's what thou'rt saying?? thou wants Prince Idra to be a child emperor and then be murdered by a power hungry regent?? wowwwwwwww #problematic
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Anonymous said:
suspicious that the Emperor and his other sons ALL got taken out at once, leaving the throne clear for Archduke Maia, no?? Like it's.... Convenient. Wouldn't you say
⚰️ witnessforthedeadfandoms answered:
Not really no
#thou didst all jump like fleas to the next conspiracy I see 🙄
#so is this how the corazhas make decisions now or??? #anyway. CSETHIRO SWEEP
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🤲🏻 honourofcsethio follow
tbh we think everyone saying that edrehasivar is going to be a disaster of an emperor is being really fatalistic... like YEAH he looks like a panic attack had a wish granted to be a real boy but we think he can do some real good :(
🕰️ likeclockwork
lol sorry but that skinny kid would have to bridge the istandaärtha to win my confidence
🕰️ likeclockwork
BY ANMURA
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❗imperialcourtnews
🚨| As agreed by the Corazhas this morning, Dach'osmin Csethiro Ceredin is engaged to the Emperor Edrehasivar VII and will become Empress Csethiro, Ethuverazid Zhasan
#edit: please stop tagging this 'can Edrehasivar fight' someone's gonna construe it as a threat on the Emperor's life and things have been tense enough lately #second edit: WE GET IT, A LOT OF THEE HAD A CRUSH ON HER AT LEAST THOU DOST GET TO SEE HER ALL THE TIME NOW
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🎶 operasdaily follow
Opera of the Day: The Autumn Archduke is an old warhorse by Ebrezhanar. It concerns the sudden ascension to the throne of the Archduke Aizhevea (later Edrethelema III) after the tragic deaths of his father, older brother, and his sister's son in a fire at the imperial palace. It maps the early years of his reign, including how the incident partially inspired his designs for the new structure of the Untheileneise Court. It was popularly performed in Lohaiso ten years ago, but has not been significantly revived since this period.
👁️ akhalarnaseyeball
this happened to my buddy Edrehasivar Zhas
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🪻lazinessoftanvero
scream apparently in the flop coup they tried to send the emperor to be a votary of csethio??? this just in, 'get thee to a nunnery' is NOT just for noblewomen #equality
🪻lazinessoftanvero
reading through the whole report on the attempt now and losing my shit... skill issue of the highest level imagine thy coup fails because thy 14 year old prince and 18 year old emperor unionise against thee and thou cannot do shit because teenager 1 and teenager 2 are the two most powerful men in the court... biggest cringefail coup of all time
#say the prayer of compassion for the dead for chavar and sheveän's egos because they won't survive this
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😎 aveyyyyio
anyone else think the couriersdaily account is kinda being really excessively hype about eshevis tethimar getting killed in that assassination attempt. like... real, but also. diva... the attempt on the emperor's life......
#though I presume if they're shitposting the emperor is probably fine #given couriersdaily is almost certainly run by... Thou Knowest... #maybe it's like a diary for them #all the shit you can't say on the day job mer ai-- I mean couriersdaily?
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😎 aveyyyio reblogged couriersdaily
⚜️ odris84-blog follow
this is so fucking disrespectful... we don't know what we expected from baseborn couriers like thee but eshevis tethimar was a respected member of the tethimada whatever he ALLEGEDLY tried to do to the emperor. now he's in ulis's hands so thou shouldst really at least TRY to have some dignity and compassion
✉️ couriersdaily
#see???? #btw don't open the notes it's the archipelagar wars in there
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🫀 zhelsu-no34
Othala Celehar: h-
Me:
#prelate of ulis... a good one... looks good in the coat of office...
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🗣️ untheileneisecourtconfessions
went on a date with some random osmer and he admitted to having some tiny part in the tethimadeise conspiracy to try and impress me and idk if he was lying or not but he was pissing me off so I called the untheileneise guard on him and ate his dessert once they hauled him off lol
#plus I go to salons with the zhasan sometimes #and I think she would have snapped my head off my neck if she'd found out he said that and I did nothing
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🌽 orshansmazei reblogged amalomemes
#he comes into the sanctuary I work at and walks around in circles sometimes #he looks haggard too. poor thing 😭 #I know someone at the laundresses who is convinced he only has one coat
I’ve been rereading Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor the last couple of days, and I adore this book so much. I love Maia. I love Csevet. I love Csethiro (you have got to love a girl whose kneejerk first response to both coup attempts against her unwanted husband was a fervent desire to swordfight the perpetrators, because how dare they). I deeply love Vedero, too. And poor Idra.
On rereading, though, I came across the section near the end where Maia, on his first birthday as Emperor, comes downstairs to the absolutely titanic pile of presents and letters:
---
Maia barely noticed the note of reproach. “But who— who are they all from?”
Thy grammar is atrocious, said that dry, rebarbative voice that was no longer Setheris.
“From everyone, Serenity,” said Isheian.
“We expected the messages from the princes, the Corazhas, Lord Berenar, and the members of Parliament,” said Csevet. “The Marquess Lanthevel has sent you a scholarly book about embroidery. We even expected the emperor-clock from the Clocksmith’s Guild of Zhaö.” He paused, then corrected himself primly: “We should say, we were not surprised they sent a gift. The clock itself is …”
“Surprising,” Esaran said, and Maia was startled to realise that she and Csevet were friends.
“Yes,” Csevet agreed. “But, Serenity, you also have gifts from a number of Barizheisei merchants in Cetho, and from the Trade Association of the Western Ethuveraz. There are messages from mayors and hierophants in every principality. The people of Nelozho have sent you a letter with nearly five hundred signatures, which must be the entire population. The crew of the Radiance of Cairado have sent you a model airship. The families of the crew of the Wisdom of Choharo have sent you message after message. And that doesn’t even begin to account for— Serenity?”
“We don’t understand,” Maia said helplessly, sinking into a chair. “What do they want?”
Csevet frowned. “They want you to have a happy birthday.”
---
And. Leaving aside for a second Maia’s heartbreaking lack of comprehension of the concept of presents and people wanting him to be happy that years in isolation under Setheris has left him. I just want to talk for a second about the gifts themselves?
Because they are, of course, a legacy of Maia’s first few months as Emperor, the people he’s touched and the lives he’s changed. Some of them are political, like the gifts from the Trade Association and the Clocksmith’s Guild, who have been given hope for the first time in decades, if not longer, by Maia’s willingness to listen to them, even if it was partly won by manipulation of a young and uncertain emperor. But Maia did honestly champion them, because he did honestly believe in their ideas and causes, and I think that lends an honesty to the gifts in return as well. Because it’s not empty political posturing, they actually do appreciate Maia.
And it’s such a theme to his gifts. There’s a thread of honesty to them, to how people react to him, and kindness too. That they’re giving back to him what he gave to them.
The rote, dutiful gifts from the various political players to the Emperor were expected. The others, the more honest ones from the people he’s helped, weren’t.
The town of Nelozho, which was mentioned mostly in passing from that first hearing where Maia found his feet as an emperor and fought off his abuse and training under Setheris to realise that he didn’t have to make decisions that would please everyone, he could choose to make decisions that would please no one but would be right. He cut through generations of grudges in that meeting to try and reach a solution for the town, and here we see that his efforts and his willingness to step up to the plate despite years of training otherwise are appreciated. The entire town wrote to him in gratitude.
To say nothing of the families of the crew of the Wisdom of Cairado, who received more care from Maia in the wake of all their losses than any common person has ever personally received from an elvish emperor in … basically ever, I think. He came to the funeral of those who’d died alongside his father and family. It was the first thing he did as emperor. He honoured their grief alongside his own (or ahead of his own, given his complicated relationship with his father, but still). The one single decision has reverberated through his entire reign so far, both happily and more darkly, given the reaction of those who murdered his father.
And they’re all … See, the gifts aren’t just letters of thank you, either. Some of them are more personal.
I love that the crew of the Radiance sent him a model ship. Because that’s not an official present, that’s the crew banding together to send him something. He met them for two hours, when he was still more a shabby exile than an emperor, under truly dreadful circumstances, but he still took time in the middle of that to thank them for the gift of seeing the sunrise from the bridge, and to honour them. “We will remember this always as the beginning of our reign.” It’s not an official present, it’s that crew, those people, being so tickled and delighted that they wanted to send him something personal. A little model ship. Just because he took the time to acknowledge them.
And even the official presents. Marquess Lanthevel sent him a scholarly book on embroidery. Which … is an incredibly astute political gift, so carefully judged, yes, but the message is so kind. Because the first and only thing Maia has ever really showed interest in before his courtiers was that tapestry at the dinner in Lanthevel’s house, because of his mother’s embroidery, and also that conversation revealed how much education and socialisation Maia had been denied due to his father’s absent-minded cruelty. One of the things Maia feels most deeply ashamed of before his court is his lack of education, his ‘stupidity’. So Lanthevel sends him a book, on a subject that Lanthevel knows personally interests him, a subject that’s warm and personal and dear to the heart of the mother he was never allowed to talk about, and it’s a scholarly book. Showing that Lanthevel has trust in his emperor’s intelligence.
These aren’t dutiful gifts. They’re so warm and honest and real, even the ones that are politically expected or that have partly political motivations. They genuinely are …
They’re sent in hopes that he’ll have a happy birthday. Because the people he’s met and touched and championed want him to have one. They like him. They appreciate what he’s done for them. They want to help him and show they appreciate him.
It’s such a tiny little scene that truly shows how much Maia, even in these few months of shame and panic and violence and perceived inadequacy, has done for his people, and how much they saw it and appreciated it. How much it matters to people to even be acknowledged, even if his ability to concretely help them has been limited. How much it matters to know … to just know that the Emperor saw them, and took the time to acknowledge them.
You get back what you give. Hopefully. And he’s given a lot, and people have seen it, and want to do what little they can to give it back. And I love it so much.
This is such a good book. One of my best impulse purchases ever. Heh.
There is something so tragic about Maias childhood and his mom life, and I love that she seems so kind and that she had so much love in her heart for her son - especially when his dad couldn’t, or wouldn’t love him
it's not something that's ever really, like, addressed? but it's something you slowly come to realize over the course of tge, and the most clear example we get of how unreliable he is is through his relationship with beshelar.
maia has this tendency to believe that everyone hates him by default. and for good reason!! i mean, after the childhood he's had? and to be fair to him, there ARE a lot of people that will hate him at first meeting, just by virtue of the circumstances of his birth, and the circumstances of his ascension to the throne, and just plain old racism.
but there's also a good number of people who are either neutral or even favourable of him from the beginning, but he has a hard time actually recognizing this.
throughout a good portion of the book, maia is constantly describing beshelar as being disapproving, and thinking about how much beshelar must look down on him or despair over what a horrible and incompetent ruler he is. as the book goes on though, it does become clear that beshelar is actually quite fond of maia and has a lot of respect for him, not just as his emperor, but also as the young man he spends the most time with other than cala. and throughout all this, his behaviour doesn't really change much. it's more that maia learns to read him better. and when you as the reader look back on the events earlier in the book with a clearer understanding of who beshelar is as a person, you start to realize that he was likely never as harsh and judgemental as maia had imagined. he's just upright, and proper, and terribly earnest in his own way. but he's also very keen on behaving properly according to his station, and that can come off as him being unfeeling.
once you realize that, you start to wonder who else in maia's court perhaps wasn't quite so antagonistic of him as we were led to believe.
i, for one, don't think esaran actually hates maia. sure she was a little prickly at the beginning, but from everything we know about varenechibel, he wasn't exactly a gracious employer, and esaran was going through a lot when she first met maia - they'd only known about the crash for a few hours at that point, and the household wasn't ready for their new emperor to have arrived yet, and she was likely bracing for a dressing down. varenechibel may not have been the kindest ruler, but he was the devil she knew. she knew how to manage him and how to minimize the damage. she knew how to protect her people from him. but this new young emperor. he's an unknown. and he has every reason to be angry and bitter and triumphant, after a childhood spent in relegation.
by the morning of maia's birthday, she seems to have mellowed out a lot. she doesn't seem hostile anymore, at least. I like to think that over time she will become just as fiercely loyal to maia as the rest of his household is.
