SFF with queer community building

I’ve started being irritated by the term “found family” in the marketing of queer books. It seems to me to have started taking on a connotation of coziness without conflict; almost utopian queer refuge. And that (for some very lucky people!) is what families can be like. But even generally supportive and loving families  can also be a total mess; squabbling, drunk uncles at Christmas, periods of being closer and then drifting apart. If people go into ‘found family’ narratives expecting only the former (and I think many do), there’s a risk of mismatch between what the book is trying to do and what the reader expects from it.

All of this is a probably unnecessary preamble to say that this week’s theme is queer community building, and I’m deliberately using that term rather than “found family” to avoid this sort of confusion. Some of the books here do fit into the quasi utopian found family vibe, but not all do. They are all, in my opinion, books that do a great job showing how people can and do come together to create supportive communities for queer folks, whether that’s the crew of a ship, a noble house, or a messy ass crew of dungeon delving nerds.

(As per usual, buy links in the title, avoiding amazon unless it is the only option)

Argus – The Daily Grind (series)

Office drone and his flatmates discover a dungeon in the cubicle farm. With monsters derived from office supplies, old Imacs, printers and the like. Who drop orbs for the most obscure and largely useless skills you can imagine. This absurd premise balloons into an at turns tense and funny (and occasionally heartfelt) romp, and the founding of a dungeon exploring group headed by our queer throuple main characters and containing a bunch more queirdos. An odd take on queer community but a fun one. Adapted from a web serial, and as is common for such it does lose some plot steam as time goes on, but the first 3 or 4 volumes in particular really are hugely enjoyable.

Becky Chambers – A Closed and Common Orbit 

I’m that guy that thinks The Long Way To The Small Angry Planet is by some distance the weakest of Chambers’ Wayfarers series. This book, a direct spinoff of Angry Planet is, I think, the strongest. A genuinely moving but never preachy meditation on identity, autonomy and belonging, our two core characters (Pepper and Sidra) lean on each other and their friends and acquaintances to discover who they are. A small scale community of, yes, found family, that works without mawkishness. Chambers is far more interested in the dark corners thrown into shadow by the light, and far more clear-eyed about people, than critics who want to dismiss her as fluff allege. This book is, imo, the best advertisement there is for what she has to offer.

Grace Curtis – The Floating Hotel

A book that I think was failed by its marketing. The opening line of the blurb is “This cozy science fiction novel tells a story of misfits, rebels, found family—and a mystery that spans the stars.” And I could not think of anything that both mostly accurately describes the setup and completely fails to convey why it’s interesting. It’s a mosaic novel where various employees and guests of the titular hotel (basically luxurious but ageing space cruise ship) pursue seemingly unrelated plotlines that eventually coalesce. Yes, the hotel is a refuge for a bunch of misfits, many of whom are queer. Yes, there are broadly some found family elements. But go into this expecting cozy and you’ll be disappointed; there’s a bit too much steel and acid in most of the plotlines to fit comfortably in that space. The patching together of plot and setting from different perspectives is impressive, and the portrayal of fragile but important community well done. Come at it with an open mind not expecting all warm fuzzies all day long and you’ll be rewarded.

KD Edwards – The Tarot Sequence (series)

The Tarot sequence is the first modern urban fantasy series I have read in ages which centres queer dudes. “Ilona Andrews but gay” is reductive but not inaccurate. And the first book, The Last Sun, would have been great fun just for that. But Edwards keeps building on that foundation to creatre something fundamentally queer and fundamentally about building community. The premise is that the remnants of lost Atlantis have installed themselves on Nantucket in a city made up largely of patchwork of magically relocated empty buildings from around the world. Our main character, Rune, is the last scion of a fallen noble house of Atlantis. All the good urban fantasy shenanigans goes on, a well-placed touch of horror, and a community of queer waifs and strays begin to coalesce and the series goes on. A comfort without ever being comfortable, the current 3 book arc out now stops in a decent place, but Edwards has assured us there is more to come.

AJ Fitzwater – The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper

Lesbian Capybara Pirate. Lesbian. Capybara. Pirate. A collection of linked shorts centring on the titular Cinrak, the premise means this is quite deliberately joyously silly, but it also isn’t weightless. Cinrak’s friends, loves, and crewmates come together to make up a wonderfully queer community of mutual support and joy even when things get messy. Fitzwater is also an excellent prose stylist, and the writing here, as much as the outlandish premise, set this book apart from the cozy crowd.

S E Robertson – How I Became a Therapist in Another World (series)

Does what it says on the tin. Woman from earth dies, is reborn in another world with the power to slow time and help people process their literal demons, becomes a therapist. Quite deliberately in conversation with isekai light novels (rather than the western portal fantasy tradition), and affectionately skewers some of that genre’s pathologies: what does it mean ethically if this new world is set up to allow people reborn here to act out their heroism fantasies? What if your fantasy isn’t being a hero? What does it mean to make community with people you’re not 100% sure count as real? Light, fun, focused on queer folks building community and finding happiness, but enough “we should really process our trauma” elements to pull away from total cozy fantasy as it’s currently marketed.

KB Wagers – Neo-G (series)

This series keeps popping up in my lists but there’s a reason for that; very few people serve up what Wagers does and even fewer at this level of quality. Military SF, but the military in question is the space Coast Guard. And it’s not all space pew pew; each book (though more in the earlier ones) has some elements of space!sport tournament as well. Team building, the underdog fighting back, all that good sport movie stuff. Oh and the bulk of the cast is queer, and despite some fairly serious ups and downs and disagreements, makes a big ass queer family across volumes and across years. Combine this with taut action sequences and enough tragedy (it’s not Wagers if there isn’t some of that) to make the light bits shine brighter in contrast. Great stuff.