The most recommended gay fantasy books

Another vampire one I’m afraid. But trust me this is so worth your time. 

I read this for the first time when I was in college and well into my Goth phase, this book became my aesthetic afterwards. It’s a different take on vampires, explored through a few different groups of vampires. The characters are wonderfully portrayed and unique but what really hooked me into this book was the setting. It's got depth and feels like you could walk through the book and be in Missing Mile. 

This was the book that made me try Chartreuse.

Another one of Ariana Nash’s books. This one about a dragon shifter and an elf.

The elves are at war with the dragons. Their kind do not mix, which is the major conflict in the story. The elf hates the dragon while the dragon continues to prove that he’s not evil. It’s heartbreaking at times and satisfying in others.

A slow burn with an eventual HEA which is satisfying. 

This book was billed as a magical gay murder cruise, and I was so thrilled to discover that it more than lived up to the pitch.

Dee, the loveably insecure and absolutely hilarious protagonist, had me cheering for him the whole way through the book as he works to uncover who is killing his fellow passengers. With the help of a delightful found family nicknamed the Swarm, Dee realizes that not only is he cut out for the task—he’s truly the only man for the job.

This book made me laugh and cry and ultimately touched me deeply as it spoke to coming to trust and love oneself. 

This is the sequel to one of my favourite books, The Miseducation of Evie Epworth, a funny but moving coming-of-age story with an irrepressible heroine.

In All about Evie, she’s grown up and making her way in the London of the 1970s, grappling with the world of work, and with first love. As someone who grew up in the 70s, it was brilliantly nostalgic, and meeting Evie again was like catching up with an old friend.

Just as in the first book, Matson Taylor conjures up a colourful but always utterly believable cast of characters, who I was sad to say goodbye to when I turned the last page.

Don’t be like me and put off reading this fabulous book because you were daunted by its thickness! Yes, it’s a doorstop. But it is by no means a dense read—indeed, it’s that rarest and best of things, a spectacular page-turner.

The Priory of the Orange Tree is often described as feminist and queer, and sure, it is, but don’t be put off by that either: it never feels like it’s making a point of those issues. It has the vibe of an adventurous, fascinating, magical, old-school Big Thick Fantasy Novel that just so happens to have a lot of main characters who are female and/or queer.

Those aspects felt utterly natural, which I loved. Plus? Dragons! Good ones as well as terrifying ones. Epic fantasy lovers, treat yourself to this novel ASAP.

As someone who writes fairy tale retellings where everyone shares one world as we all do now, I always love the tales that my own characters don’t get to interact with. That’s where A Land of Never After comes in. Featuring a pirate queen a strong-willed Wendy, and a trans Peter Pan. I think the diversity different people expand on is what makes humans so magical in the first place.

This book falls under the category “urban fiction” or “magical realism” or “western” or…something. At least, that’s what drew me to it in the first place. It takes place in America’s old west, features magic-using criminals leading a gang and draws on some Native American lore. The magic is terrifying, it’s a mix of environmental and mind-altering hoodoo. The most powerful antagonist is rugged, homosexual, unashamed, and a conflicted terror of a person. His partner in crime is simply terrifying. Together, they drive a trilogy that’s so well threaded through the old west you can taste the grit as you turn the page. Though the emphasis is on the pursuit of magic and the machinations it drives, the settings are a delight to experience. Files weaves a world in these novels that is equally fascinating and terrifying. Her prose and daring are an inspiration.

Dark Factory is a very strange object, as it is both a book and an electronic device, as you can scan QR codes and click on links in order to get extra information through bonus chapters.

A tale of electronic music madness and extreme clubbing, Dark Factory focuses on the personalities and motives of a few central characters dedicated to starting a total revolution of the senses through their “art total” experiment.

This book really tickled me in all the good places as it tackles themes that readers can find in my own city-state novels, such as power, subversion, and the methodical destruction of reality.

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, Wilson’s debut work, is another wonder among wonders.

It feels like an epic fantasy, but instead of following more Viking-blonde heroes with their magical swords, we’re following hired mercenaries to escort a caravan through dangerous lands.

And instead of the usual fantasy worlds descended from the Western European Middle Ages, we’re in one influenced by re-colonial Africa.

There are magical jungles and magical tigers, and violence and death, and an LGBT love story between smart, dedicated men.

It’s a character study worthy of a literary novel, but the love of words, and the masterful inclusion of various dialects, particularly a kind of medieval hip-hop slang, makes this a truly fascinating read.

I don’t read a lot of fiction, but sometimes only a novelist can flesh out how the world to come might look.

Dreamland has little to say about local food (apart from some neat rooftop gardening scenes), but it’s relevant as a kind of negative counterexample. Unless we get focused on realistic approaches to climate, food, energy, and justice right now this is the kind of world that we’ll summon into being – and it’s terrifying. The future it paints is based on trends that are all too evident in the here and now, adding to the sense of authenticity.

A propulsive plot, believable characters, and finely-crafted descriptive writing combine to make this an immersive experience in what we absolutely mustn’t let happen.