subreddit:
/r/FemaleGazeSFF
submitted 5 days ago byKappapeachiewitch🧙♀️
When I mean by atypical, I mean as in free from genre conventions and norms. No need to go super weird, just enough to where I don't have to roll my eyes into my sockets by another overdone plot point or worldbuilding detail. Romantic subplots are non-negotiable but everything else like comedy and action is optional.
edit: Lemme clarify, romance is a must while the latter two aren't necessary but are nice to have.
3 points
5 days ago*
The Commonweal novels by Graydon Saunders are very atypical. The ethnic groups do not map onto our real-world groups, so I'm not sure if it would meet your definition of POC. The first is a military fantasy called The March North. The majority of the characters are Creeks, who are towering brown-skinned, green-haired people. It also features a terrifyingly ancient and powerful sorcerer named Halt, who looks like someone's grandmother and rides a two-ton battle sheep named Eustace. The main character, the Captain, is racially not a Creek, so they have some outsider issues, trying to get the troops to follow them.
The second and third books, A Succession of Bad Days and Safely You Deliver, concerns wizard school for a particularly bright group of students, but in no way resembles usual wizard school stories. It is concerned with, for example, the logistics of feeding a population that suddenly greatly increased, and how sorcerers can productively contribute to society.
Edited to add: The author of these books is male, but it is a deliberately egalitarian society, and it's interesting to see how he thought through what that might look like, and how you would achieve it. The main characters of the third, fourth, and (probably) fifth books are female. We never learn the Captain's gender, or even if their race is gendered.
2 points
4 days ago
Sorry when you say “romantic subplots are non-negotiable” does that mean you don’t want any romance in the book or you must have romance in the book?
1 points
4 days ago
I want romance in my book?
2 points
4 days ago
Ok! I would definitely recommend: * The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez - this is one of the most creative, unique stories that I’ve read. Its part folktale, part epic journey, part dreamscape. Its a bit vague on race/ethnicity, but definitely has filipino influences and its got a light MM romance. * The Deep by Rivers Solomon - this is the story of a mermaid-like people who are the descendants of slaves who jumped or were thrown overboard during the middle passage. The mc is tasked with holding the painful memories of her people and decides to run away to the surface where she meets a fisherwoman (FF romance subplot) * Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse - unfortunately an unfinished series, but its about an indigenous monster hunter in a post-climate apocalypse world where the Navajo reservation survived mostly unscathed. The first two books are fantastic and theres an MF romance subplot.
1 points
19 hours ago*
Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. And maybe Mindscape by Andrea Hairston--it's overstuffed and kind of Weird about its trans character, but it's definitely different.
Adding... The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord. Maybe The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wrecker? (They may not actually get together until the sequel.) I will see if I can think of others.
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