gays in space

Iasmin Omar Ata

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Maryland

In this coming-of-age graphic novel with a fantastical twist, Nayra Mansour, a Muslim American girl, is helped on her journey to selfhood by a djinn.

Nothing is going right for Nayra Mansour. There's the constant pressure from her strict family, ruthless bullying from her classmates, and exhausting friendship demands from Rami -the only other Muslim girl at school. Nayra has had enough. Just when she's considering transferring schools to escape it all, a mysterious djinn named Marjan appears.

As a djinn, a mythical being in Islamic folklore, Marjan uses their powers and wisdom to help Nayra navigate her overwhelming life. But Marjan's past is fraught with secrets, guilt, and trouble, and if they don't face what they've done, Nayra could pay the price.

In this beautifully illustrated graphic novel, Iasmin Omar Ata has created a realistic coming-of-age story with an enchanting dose of the fantastical about strength, identity, and, most of all, friendship.

Nayra and the Djinn

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Olive J. Kelley

Rainbow Crate Book Box Special Edition of Junker Seven by Olive J. Kelly. 
Comes with book, signed bookplate, bookmark, and spoiler card. 
This special edition book features sprayed edges, art endpapers, and new dust jacket cover. 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Junker Seven - Rainbow Crate Book Box

Nicky Drayden

Vermont

A Novel

Harper Voyager Trade Paperback Original The Compton Crook award–winning author of The Prey of Gods and Temper returns with a dazzling stand-alone novel, set in deep space, in which the fate of humanity rests on the slender shoulders of an idealistic and untested young woman—a blend of science fiction, dark humor, and magical realism that will appeal to fans of Lauren Beukes, Ian McDonald, and Nnedi Okorafor. Earth is a distant memory. Habitable extrasolar planets are still out of reach. For generations, humanity has been clinging to survival by establishing colonies within enormous vacuum-breathing space beasts and mining their resources to the point of depletion. Rash, dreamy, and unconventional, Seske Kaleigh should be preparing for her future role as clan leader, but her people have just culled their latest beast, and she’s eager to find the cause of the violent tremors plaguing their new home. Defying social barriers, Seske teams up with her best friend, a beast worker, and ventures into restricted areas for answers to end the mounting fear and rumors. Instead, they discover grim truths about the price of life in the void. Then, Seske is unexpectedly thrust into the role of clan matriarch, responsible for thousands of lives in a harsh universe where a single mistake can be fatal. Her claim to the throne is challenged by a rival determined to overthrow her and take control—her intelligent, cunning, and confident sister. Seske may not be a born leader like her sister, yet her unorthodox outlook and incorruptible idealism may be what the clan needs to save themselves and their world.

Escaping Exodus

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Nino Cipri

New York

Finna is a rambunctious, touching story that blends all the horrors the multiverse has to offer with the everyday awfulness of low-wage work. It explores queer relationships and queer feelings, capitalism and accountability, labor and love, all with a bouncing sense of humor and a commitment to the strange. When an elderly customer at a big box furniture store slips through a portal to another dimension, it’s up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company’s bottom line. Multi-dimensional swashbuckling would be hard enough, but those two unfortunate souls broke up a week ago. To find the missing granny, Ava and Jules will brave carnivorous furniture, swarms of identical furniture spokespeople, and the deep resentment simmering between them. Can friendship blossom from the ashes of their relationship? In infinite dimensions, all things are possible.

Finna

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Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

Georgia

The Biggest SF Fantasy Debut of 2024 and the First Ever Winner of the Future Worlds Prize

Archivist's Note: You must excuse my poetic license. Artistic liberty is something I am rarely afforded, and this tale begs to be transformed into scripture; everything about it is epic. We begin with the end. With a fugitive engineer in the far-flung future of 6066 trying to find the emperor who stole her sister. With a lovelorn time traveller from 19th-century London yearning to return to the prince who stole his heart. With a forgotten planet imploding beneath the scars left by the people who stole its future. Asha knows she's just another voiceless cog in the vast war machine of the Thracin empire, trapped working on the assembly line of weapons destined to ensure humans like her never escape. When she discovers she has a long-lost sister who may still be alive deep in the bowels of the imperial prison, the decision to risk everything is made for her. Obi knows he has to find the cure to the temporal sickness he caught when he split his soul. But when his path tangles with Asha's they soon realise they are merely pawns in a grand prophecy of fated heroes meeting again and again across space and time to thwart an interdimensional apocalypse. And so they must embark on a quest to the centre of the galaxy, voyaging across the stars in a deadly race against time and tyranny to turn their imminent ending into a new beginning. The Principle of Moments is a symphonic scifi fantasy adventure exploring the generational trauma of empire and the friendships that can save us from it - unmissable for fans of the spacefaring found family of Becky Chambers, the magic-steeped alternate London of V.E. Schwab, and the virtuosic climate-craft of N.K. Jemisin.

ILLUMICRATE The Principle of Moments

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The Principle of Moments

Illumicrate Edition

K. B. Wagers

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Kansas

The rollicking first entry in a unique science fiction series that introduces the Near-Earth Orbital Guard--NeoG--a military force patrolling and protecting space inspired by the real-life mission of the U.S. Coast Guard. For the past year, their close loss in the annual Boarding Games has haunted Interceptor Team: Zuma's Ghost. With this year's competition looming, they're looking forward to some payback--until an unexpected personnel change leaves them reeling. Their best swordsman has been transferred, and a new lieutenant has been assigned in his place. Maxine Carmichael is trying to carve a place in the world on her own--away from the pressure and influence of her powerful family. The last thing she wants is to cause trouble at her command on Jupiter Station. With her new team in turmoil, Max must overcome her self-doubt and win their trust if she's going to succeed. Failing is not an option--and would only prove her parents right. But Max and the team must learn to work together quickly. A routine mission to retrieve a missing ship has suddenly turned dangerous, and now their lives are on the line. Someone is targeting members of Zuma's Ghost, a mysterious opponent willing to kill to safeguard a secret that could shake society to its core . . . a secret that could lead to their deaths and kill thousands more unless Max and her new team stop them. Rescue those in danger, find the bad guys, win the Games. It's all in a day's work at the NeoG.

A Pale Light in the Black

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L. R. Lam

Elizabeth May

Virginia

This first book in a feminist space opera duology follows seven resistance fighters who will free the galaxy from the ruthless Tholosian Empire--or die trying. When Eris faked her death, she thought she had left her old life as the heir to the galaxy's most ruthless empire behind. But her recruitment by the Novantaen Resistance, an organization opposed to the empire's voracious expansion, throws her right back into the fray. Eris has been assigned a new mission: to infiltrate a spaceship ferrying deadly cargo and return the intelligence gathered to the Resistance. But her partner for the mission, mechanic and hotshot pilot Cloelia, bears an old grudge against Eris, making an already difficult infiltration even more complicated. When they find the ship, they discover more than they bargained for: three fugitives with firsthand knowledge of the corrupt empire's inner workings. Together, these women possess the knowledge and capabilities to bring the empire to its knees. But the clock is ticking: the new heir to the empire plans to disrupt a peace summit with the only remaining alien empire, ensuring the empire's continued expansion. If they can find a way to stop him, they will save the galaxy. If they can't, millions may die.

Seven Devils

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Alex White

Furious and fun, the first book in this bold, new science fiction adventure series follows a crew of outcasts as they try to find a legendary ship that just might be the key to savings themselves-and the universe. Boots Elsworth was a famous treasure hunter in another life, but now she's washed up. She makes her meager living faking salvage legends and selling them to the highest bidder, but this time she got something real--the story of the Harrow, a famous warship, capable of untold destruction. Nilah Brio is the top driver in the Pan Galactic Racing Federation and the darling of the racing world--until she witnesses Mother murder a fellow racer. Framed for the murder and on the hunt to clear her name, Nilah has only one lead: the killer also hunts Boots. On the wrong side of the law, the two women board a smuggler's ship that will take them on a quest for fame, for riches, and for justice.

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe

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Charlie Jane Anders

Indiana

From internationally bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders (All the Birds in the Sky) comes Victories Greater Than Death, first in the thrilling adventure Unstoppable series, set against an intergalactic war—Anders’s long-awaited YA debut. THE UNIVERSE IS CALLING—and time is running out. Tina has always known her destiny is outside the norm—after all, she is the human clone of the most brilliant alien commander in all the galaxies (even if the rest of the world is still deciding whether aliens exist). But she is tired of waiting for her life to begin. And then it does—and maybe Tina should have been more prepared. At least she has a crew around her that she can trust—and her best friend at her side. Now, they just have to save the world.

Victories Greater Than Death

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Outsmart Your Enemies. Outrun the Galaxy. “Just please, remember what I told you. Run. Don’t stop running for anything.” Buckle up your seatbelt for Victories Greater Than Death, a thrilling YA sci-fi adventure set against an intergalactic war from internationally bestselling author Charlie Jane Anders. Tina never worries about being 'ordinary'--she doesn't have to, since she's known practically forever that she's not just Tina Mains, average teenager and beloved daughter. She's also the keeper of an interplanetary rescue beacon, and one day soon, it's going to activate, and then her dreams of saving all the worlds and adventuring among the stars will finally be possible. Tina's legacy, after all, is intergalactic--she is the hidden clone of a famed alien hero, left on Earth disguised as a human to give the universe another chance to defeat a terrible evil. But when the beacon activates, it turns out that Tina's destiny isn't quite what she expected. Things are far more dangerous than she ever assumed--and everyone in the galaxy is expecting her to actually be the brilliant tactician and legendary savior Captain Thaoh Argentian, but Tina....is just Tina. And the Royal Fleet is losing the war, badly--the starship that found her is on the run and they barely manage to escape Earth with the planet still intact. Luckily, Tina is surrounded by a crew she can trust, and her best friend Rachel, and she's still determined to save all the worlds. But first she'll have to save herself.

Emily Skrutskie

Hullmetal Girls

4e4dac55-ce75-44e7-9998-8f6959f146ac-1

Claire Winn

#sci-fi #lgbtq #sapphic #thecityofshatteredlights #ya #youngadult #paperback 

California

As darkness closes in on the city of shattered light, an heiress and an outlaw must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other.

As heiress to a powerful tech empire, seventeen-year-old Asa Almeida strives to prove she's more than her manipulative father's shadow. But when he uploads her rebellious sister's mind to an experimental brain, Asa will do anything to save her sister from reprogramming--including fleeing her predetermined future with her sister's digitized mind in tow. With a bounty on her head and a rogue AI hunting her, Asa's getaway ship crash-lands in the worst possible place: the neon-drenched outlaw paradise, Requiem.

Gunslinging smuggler Riven Hawthorne is determined to claw her way up Requiem's underworld hierarchy. A runaway rich girl is exactly the bounty Riven needs--until a nasty computer virus spreads in Asa's wake, causing a citywide blackout and tech quarantine. To get the payout for Asa and save Requiem from the monster in its circuits, Riven must team up with her captive.

Riven breaks skulls the way Asa breaks circuits, but their opponent is unlike anything they've ever seen. The AI exploits the girls' darkest memories and deepest secrets, threatening to shatter the fragile alliance they're both depending on. As one of Requiem's 154-hour nights grows darker, the girls must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other before Riven's city and Asa's sister are snuffed out forever.

City of Shattered Light

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literarygay

Washington

Browse by categories

gays in space

literarygay

Iasmin Omar Ata

Nayra and the Djinn

Olive J. Kelley

Junker Seven - Rainbow Crate Book Box

Nicky Drayden

Escaping Exodus

Nino Cipri

Finna

Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

The Principle of Moments

Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson

The Principle of Moments

K. B. Wagers

A Pale Light in the Black

L. R. Lam

Seven Devils

Alex White

A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe

Charlie Jane Anders

Victories Greater Than Death

Emily Skrutskie

Hullmetal Girls

Claire Winn

City of Shattered Light