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In 2021, I wrote a list called Queernorm Worlds: 35 Fantasy Books With No Homophobia or Transphobia. I always intended to make a complementary queernorm sci-fi list, and four years later, I finally have!
“Queer normative” or “queernorm” stories are set in worlds where transphobia and homophobia doesn’t exist. After all, if you’re creating a universe from scratch, it doesn’t need to replicate our prejudices.
The trouble with finding queernorm books is that it’s mostly about what isn’t there. I consider a book queernorm only when the concept of prejudice against queer and trans people doesn’t exist. So, even if most of the book takes place in a queer-accepting setting, if there is mention of transphobia or biphobia elsewhere, I wouldn’t count it as queernorm. But that means a single throwaway line could determine whether a title belongs on this list.
As much as I’d like to have read every queer book in existence, I’m not quite there yet, so I’ve had to rely on other people’s reviews and recommendations while compiling this list. Each of these titles has been recommended as queernorm by multiple reviewers, but mistakes happen: please let me know if I’ve mislabeled a book included here!
Technically, queernorm books don’t necessarily need to have a queer main character—but what’s the fun in that? Queernorm books have special appeal to queer readers who want to see ourselves represented in stories where we don’t have to endure prejudice based on our sexuality or gender identity. That’s why I’ve focused on books with queer main characters.
I’m mostly not including books where the main character is a robot/spaceship/etc, because robots standing in as nonbinary people is not really the representation I’m seeking to highlight. (For more on this, I recommend Christine Prevas’s essay, “We Need More Non-Binary Characters Who Aren’t Aliens, Robots, or Monsters.”) That leaves out some popular arguably queernorm sci-fi novels, like The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells and Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.
It’s worth noting that queernorm doesn’t necessarily mean cozy. Plenty of queernorm books include other prejudices, whether unique to the world of the story or from our world. They can also have bloody, brutal plots, though they’re more commonly on the lighter side. I recommend checking for content warnings if you’re looking for a comforting read.
With that preamble out of the way, here are ten queernorm sci-fi books to get you started! These all check off the 2025 Read Harder Challenge task #19: Read a queernorm book, as do all the books on my queernorm fantasy books list. All Access members can find a bonus list of 30 more queernorm sci-fi books at the end.
10 Queernorm Sci-Fi Books
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
I have to start with the undisputed queen of queernorm, Becky Chambers. Her Wayfarers series and To Be Taught, If Fortunate novella are also cozy queernorm sci-fi.
Possibly the coziest science fiction story in existence, this novella duology follows a nonbinary tea monk looking for meaning in life. When Dex decides to leave tea brewing behind for a while to venture deep into the woods, they discover a wandering robot. Robots haven’t been seen for generations, and this one has a question for Dex and all of humanity: “What do you need?” Dex doesn’t feel remotely qualified to answer that question, but as the two travel together and search for answers, it becomes clear that the journey is more important than the destination. —Rachel Brittain
Winter’s Orbit and Ocean’s Echo by Everina Maxwell
Winter’s Orbit is a great sci-fi space opera full of palace intrigue with a tender slow-burn queer romance at its center. When an imperial prince’s sudden death threatens to weaken already fraying alliances with several planets, the prince’s cousin and his widower, a noble from one of the discontented vassal planets, are rushed into an arranged marriage to keep the peace and preserve the political status quo. The story is surprisingly romantic — a Millennial Star Wars meets Red, White & Royal Blue. Maxwell seamlessly blends science fiction and high stakes politics with some of the most popular romantic tropes: marriage of convenience, forced proximity, and the fake relationship which soon feels all too real. An excellent, page turning, and thoughtful read. —Carole V. Bell
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