- The unspoken name by A. K. Larkwood
A sword-wielding orc woman and a powerful sorcerer set out on a dangerous quest in this queer, irreverent fantasy adventure.
- by Kameron Hurley
This visceral space opera follows women aboard decaying organic worlds, mixing strange biology, action, and queer relationships.
- by Caitlin Starling
A lone caver and her remote handler confront danger and mistrust in a tense, queer science-fiction horror story.
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Its unsettling house and ambiguous haunting offer a classic route into the psychological gothic behind the seed’s horror and mystery.
- The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
A brilliant queer protagonist navigates imperial power and personal loyalties in a dark, sharply strategic fantasy.
- Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
An AI reduced to a single human body pursues revenge through a richly imagined space opera about identity and power.
- The library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
A bizarre contest among siblings raised by a mysterious figure makes this dark fantasy a strange, violent mystery.
- by Jasper Fforde
A literary detective pursues a reality-bending criminal in a playful fantasy mystery whose humor may appeal to Muir’s readers.
- by Seanan McGuire
Twins linked by alchemy confront a sinister design in a reality-bending fantasy with macabre humor and mystery.
- by Ann Leckie
An unusual god narrates a political mystery in a spare, uncanny fantasy about faith, power, and language.
- The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan
A young clerk witnesses a judge’s investigation into murder and forbidden magic in a grim, mystery-driven fantasy.
- The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
This lyrical quest offers a contrasting, more folkloric take on fantasy’s blend of danger, humor, and sorrow.
- Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Two supernatural outsiders meet in turn-of-the-century New York in an atmospheric fantasy with secrets and human warmth.
- The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
A sprawling world of dragons, magic, and court politics provides an epic fantasy centered in part on a lesbian romance.
- A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
A diplomat investigates her predecessor’s death while navigating the politics and culture of a powerful interstellar empire.
- Employees by Olga Ravn
Testimony from a spaceship’s crew turns an alien object into a haunting inquiry about bodies, work, and personhood.
- Ninefox gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
A disgraced captain teams up with a dangerous, disembodied strategist in a mathematically strange military space opera.
- by Samantha Shannon
A clairvoyant rebel is pulled into a secret supernatural world in the first novel of a dark speculative series.
- by Martha Wells, Derek Perkins
A master thief’s revenge scheme becomes entangled with necromancy and murder in a fast-moving city fantasy.
- by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
A determined young woman uncovers a family’s secrets in an eerie mansion, connecting the seed’s mystery and gothic horror to historical fiction.
- The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
A debt-ridden thief joins a dangerous journey through a world marked by war, monsters, and sardonic humor.
- The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
A woman with amnesia discovers she works for a secret supernatural bureaucracy in a witty, conspiracy-laced mystery.
- Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
A young woman investigates occult societies and violence at Yale in a grim, contemporary fantasy mystery.
- by Indra Das
A professor becomes entangled in stories of shapeshifters and desire, offering a mythic, queer alternative to the seed’s supernatural darkness.