Across a Field of Starlight

This graphic novel fits into one of my favorite categories, hopeful science fiction. It’s got fantastic world-building, gorgeous art, and very interesting things to say about power dynamics and perpetuating harmful cycles. It also has complex and interesting young trans characters as the two leads.

My favorite thing about it is how it defies the reader's expectations for a love story, and instead features two characters blossoming and growing through their friendship. 

A space opera with both cosmic sensibility and directly applicable lessons for 21st-century teens, this follows a group of rebels working against a galactic empire, and a pilot whose paramilitary upbringing jars with the pacifist anti-empire commune their long-distance pen pal resides in.

The ethics of terrorist acts against oppressive imperialism, the flaws and traumas of older trans mentors and varied elders with experiences that may or may not apply to new generations, the personhood and agency of artificial intelligence—all factor into this epic (but tight and readable) graphic novel that centers on friendship rather than romance.