10 best fantasy books with lesbians, ranked
“Sir Harold, lesbians art they!”
There’s my impression of an old lady discovering sapphics at the Renaissance Faire (if you don’t know the OG meme, educate yourself) But while lesbians may be a relatively new concept for some, who love women have blessed the pages of literature since time immemorial. While we can trace the origins of lesbian lit back to Sappho herself, plenty of modern authors have come along to build upon those classic foundations, with particularly lovely contributions to the realm of fantasy. So here they are, the 10 best fantasy books with lesbians, ranked.
10. Girls of Paper and Fire
In Natasha Ngan’s Girls of Paper and Fire, human is the last thing that you wanna be. This East Asian inspired fantasy world is divided into three castes, Moon, Steel, and Paper – with demons, half-demons, and humans occupying each respective rank. A young woman named Lei is stolen away from her village to become one of a handful of Paper Girls – concubines for the Demon King. After being taken to the evil King’s palace and trained for her position, Lei falls for another Paper Girl named Wren. The pair strike the match on a forbidden romance, whose embers quickly turn into a conflagration that will burn down the status quo and build the foundations of the world anew.
9. Carmilla and Laura
Before Dracula made vampires famous, Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu was writing about the bloodsuckers decades before. His novel Laura tells the story of a young woman who falls victim to the seductive machinations of a vampire, but sadly frames the queerness of the relationship as a thing of unnatural horror. With her 2018 retelling of the tale, author S.D. Simper seeks to reframe Carmilla and Laura’s relationship as a thing of dark beauty. Carmilla and Laura begins features all the gothic castle in the woods trappings of the original, but details the two women’s relationship as one based around love and support as oppressed to predatory obsession. Granted, there’s still some dark and paranormal lust here, but in a hot vampire way.
8. The Thousand Names
Django Wexler’s The Thousand Names is a flintlock fantasy based around two characters serving in a vast army inspired by the militaries of the Napoleonic War. One of whom is Winter Ihernglass, a woman who dresses as man to join the ranks of the Vordanai empire’s garrison in order to run away from her past, the other is a straight dude that we won’t elaborate on here. While the series doesn’t delve into Winter’s romantic feelings for women until later books, the tension between her internal identity and the persona she presents to the world is palpable from the jump. The Shadow Throne is where the romance really picks up, and picks up fast.
7. The Priory of the Orange Tree
In Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree, lesbians are the only thing standing between the free world and its destruction by a malevolent dragon god. Lucky for the free world, these lesbians are very well qualified. Queen Sabran of the West comes from a long line of rulers who have been preparing for the return of The Nameless One, a slumbering dragon set to awaken. Sabran is watched over by her handmaiden Ead, who is actually a covert member of the Priory of The Orange Tree – a monastic order of magic users with an agenda of their own. While Sabran and Ead’s relationship begins as professional of sorts, the pair quickly begin to depend on one another emotionally, a bond which blossoms into a full blown romance in the face of the end of the world.
6. The Midnight Lie
The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski takes place in a world of strict social castes, where the lowest of the low are forbidden even from life’s simplest joys – like eating candy or wearing bright colors. Nirrim is one of these unfortunates, a Half Kith orphan who was raised to shun beauty, joy and any shred of personal freedom. Everything changes when she meets the charming traveler Sid, a young woman from a foreign land unburdened by the constraints of Norris’s shame based society. As the pair get to know one another, Nirrim begins to question everything that she thought she knew, laying the foundation for an explosive queer awakening to occur as the pair embark on a quest to liberate society from the doldrums.
5. The Unbroken
C.L. Clark’s The Unbroken is a fantasy inspired by North Africa, in a land that is suffering under colonial occupation from a foreign power. Touraine is a soldier in an elite fighting force, trained by the foreign empire of Balladaire to serve as a bodyguard for its elites and higher ups. While escorting the Balladairian Princess Luca through a colonial city, Touraine thwarts an assassination attempt against the young royal’s life. Bonded over the experience, Luca invites Touraine to accompany her on a diplomatic quest to restore peace to the disenfranchised colony and stop the brewing violence between the settlers and rebel groups. It doesn’t go as planned, and soon the pair are thrust into a full blown revolution – and sometimes they fall on opposite sides. Messy.
4. Girl, Serpent, Thorn
A queer Persian settling of Sleeping Beauty? I am INTERESTED. Melissa Bashardoust’s Girl, Serpent, Thorn is the story of Soraya – a princess who has been cursed to drain the life out of anything she touches (she’s basically Rogue from X-Men). Because of her dangerous power, she’s locked away in a chamber and is only allowed to roam in her private gardens. Sick of the sheltered princess life, Soraya hears a rumor an about a demon locked away in the castle dungeon, a demon that might be able to give her some answers around her magical affliction. As it turns out, the demon Parvaneh has much more to offer than information, and the two women begin a romance despite their political, moral and biological differences. Vive la difference! Considering that la difference between their species is the thing that allows Parvaneh to survive a brush from Soraya’s deadly fingers, I’d say that Soraya doesn’t mind it one bit.
3. She Who Became The Sun
Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became The Sun is a reimagining of the Ming dynasty based around the rise of the historical Hongwu Emperor, who in this case is the lesbian in question. After her brother dies in childhood, his sister takes both his identity and his foretold destiny. She renames herself Zhu Chongba, and enlists in the military in order to defend the nation against the invading Mongolians. Through a series of miraculous victories, she rises through the ranks and becomes a distinguished general. This social boon allows her to court the other lesbian in question, a noblewoman named Ma Xiuying, who she romances while attempting to become Emperor. This novel is the story of a woman who sought to deny her femininity in order to survive, and then is reminded of that aspect of herself through the love of another – while murdering a ton of people in the process.
2. The Jasmine Throne
Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne is a fantasy tale inspired by Indian empires of old. After her royal brother claimed the throne for himself, princess Malini is sent away to a far-off temple to live out her days in political exile. There she meets a maidservant named Priya who carries with her a secret magic believed to be extinct from the temple itself. Now the keeper’s of each other’s secrets, Priya and Malini embark on a quest to overthrow the latter’s dickhead brother and rid the realm of tyranny. While sweeping in epic fantasy scope, the novel features deeply intimate moments between the two women – where Malini’s ruthless ambition is tempered by Priya’s tender love.
1. Spear
Nicola Griffith’s Spear is a retelling of the legend of King Arthur, albeit with far more lesbians than the original source material. The novel begins with a witch’s daughter named Peretur, who spends her days rambling through the forests talking to animals (and understanding what they say back through the use of magic). As the girl grows older, she hears legend of the mighty deeds of King Arthur, and decides to embark on a quest to become a warrior in his court. After finally meeting the king, she strikes up a romance with the most famous woman in the original legend: The Lady of the Lake. As Peretur and her lover grow closer, they learn that Arthur and his wizard bestie Merlin aren’t the benevolent heroes that bards crack them up to be. The pair are seeking to consolidate a dynasty of power through magical artifacts, and Peretur and her body-of-water beaux have to use all their wits to stop the would be tyrants from ruling. Told with achingly beautiful prose, Spear is stuff of modern legend.
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