Recs if you like The West Passage...

Fantasy books with queer rep

Do you feel like you've read everything there is to read? Or get annoyed that the same books are on all the rec lists? Well, here are some more obscure masterpieces!

Some of the covers are terrible - especially among the older or self-pubbed books; there's a few YA in here; and some that are science fantasy rather than 'pure' fantasy. But trust me: they're all EXCELLENT. (And if you already love a bunch of these, let's be friends!)

This is NOT for books featuring trans or nonbinary protagonists in worlds with gender systems that mimic modern real-world ones. This is for books like Left Hand of Darkness or the Imperial Radch series, where the setting has an invented system of gender and/or sex, or of assigning gender/sex. I'm including interesting-to-me matriarchies (so, not ones that are just our patriarchy but gender-swapped) and gender systems that include male and female but have other genders/sexes too.

Suggestions are extremely welcome!

Eclectic choices of stories to forget life sucks.

Books that have been shortlisted for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. I compiled this list because the criteria (and Le Guin's works) resonate with me:

"The Prize will be given to a writer whose work reflects the concepts and ideas that were central to Ursula’s own work, including but not limited to: hope, equity, and freedom; non-violence and alternatives to conflict; and a holistic view of humanity’s place in the natural world."

Sometimes you're just not ready to commit to a series

Fantasy stories with weird and imaginative worldbuilding. Recommendations are welcome!

Nominees for the Ursula K Le Guin Prize for for Fiction, awarded since 2022 for imaginative fiction. (Mostly I have made this because they're always really great picks and I want to work my way through all of them.)

Books featuring labyrinths and mazes.

A list of books that have been considered for and/or won the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. From the official website - "This award is intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech—realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now."

This is the novels, novellas, novelettes (if they exists on Pagebound), first book of the series and one book from the best author that are nominated for a Hugo Award in 2026. I personally need an overview on what to catch on for the votes (closing beginning of August :))

Unique novels with concepts unlike any other book I've ever read or heard of. Recommendations welcome!

What is real and what is not? This list focuses on books that make the MC question their reality, from dystopian and science fiction to horror. I find it interesting how this theme allows us to ask questions about our own identities and the world around us. Make sure you add your own recommendations so we can spiral together ;)

Tired of worlds in books that seem too grounded in reality? This is the list for you! It features speculative fiction (fantasy, sci fi, horror) and new weird books with worlds that are extremely different from anything found on earth. Only the first book in a series is included. I have not read most of the books on this list, so comment if you think a book doesn’t fit the spirit of the list. I’m also always open to suggestions for books to add!

Carl Engle-Laird is a senior editor at Tor. Many of my favorite books I discovered were edited by him while reading the acknowledgements, so I'm making a point of searching his name once a year to find which new beautiful authors he found. Looking for crowdsourcing ✨️

Not the same as perfect writing, just writing that made a person out of me.