Totally Gay Fiction

The blogs of my writing and editing friends have been buzzing today with the story of a YA author who was told by the editor of an anthology to change the romance in her story from gay to straight. It’s satisfying to see the online community rally around the author, and I hope that something tangible comes out of this - say, a new commitment to encouraging work with gay protagonists. Perhaps an anthology!

I, personally, am going to use it as an excuse to talk about my favorite stories with gay protagonists. I went through a period in middle school and early high school where I read every book with gay characters that I could find, so these recommendations are primarily from that era (and as such, favor historical fiction and scifi/fantasy):

1) Mary Renault’s Alexander series: Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy, and Funeral Games

One of the most powerful things about the Alexander series is its plausibility - Renault did such in depth research into Alexander the Great that she ended up publishing a non-fiction biography on him. As best we can tell, Alexander was gay, he was in love with his best friend Hephaistion, and he was one of the most influential men in human history. That realness, combined with the delicate and sympathetic way Renault weaves the narrative, makes for an incredibly compelling story.

(Renault wrote a number of other stories with gay characters, mostly in the historical settings of ancient Greece and Macedonia, although her gorgeous WWII-era novel, the Charioteer, showed that she could do quiet character studies as well.)

2) Tanya Huff, Of Darkness, Fire and Light

I got these two stories packaged into the same book. The first, The Fire’s Stone, is well-done standard fantasy fare with three strong main characters, some of which, obviously, are gay. The second, Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light, is another fantasy, this time with religious themes and set in Toronto. It’s this story which makes the collection stand out for me - an urban fantasy populated by unusual heroes: a developmentally disabled woman, a street musician, a social worker, a homeless woman.

3) Lynn Flewelling, Nightrunner Series

There are two authors I think of when someone asks about gay characters in the fantasy genre. Mercedes Lackey, bless her, gives us some of the most overwrought prose and stereotyped characterizations I’ve ever read in her Last Herald-Mage trilogy. Much more readable is Lynn Flewelling’s Nightrunner series, about a pair of male thieves and spies in a magical world who just happen to be in love with each other. It’s perfectly good, though not exceptional, fantasy. (Flewelling also wrote The Bone Doll’s Twin, about a female character who grows up magically disguised as male, which is an even better book.)

4) Anne Rice, Cry To Heaven

To this day, I’ve never read anything else by Anne Rice - I have, despite my love for Buffy, an aversion to vampire stories - but this stand alone novel about a lonely Venetian boy who becomes a castrato is understated and haunting.

(This book stuck with me enough that over a decade later, a trip to Venice brought Rice’s beautiful descriptions of the city to mind. I love books that capture a place well - similarly, when we went to Florence, I thought of the Agony and the Ecstasy, and I found myself rushing to find the spot where Savonarola was burned.)

5) CJ Cherryh, Cyteen

Cyteen is a book whose plot hinges around sexual abuse. It’s also a book that features a male/male relationship and a female/female/male relationship. These two facts have nothing to do with each other: set in the far future, the gay and polyamorous nature of these healthy relationships are completely unremarkable, and take a dark premise - a powerful woman murdered for abusing a young man is considered so essential to society that she is cloned and raised again - and turn it, if not light, then gray: complicated, hopeful. Ariane Emory is one of the best female characters I’ve ever read - deeply brilliant, disturbingly flawed - and the relationships between all the characters, romantic and otherwise, are captivating.

*

What are your favorite works of fiction with gay characters? I know I’ve barely brushed the surface here. And I’ve skipped a lot of the classics, but I didn’t read those until later.

Special points for YA and for lesbian characters. (Why is there so little lesbian fiction even compared to gay fiction?)