Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Gay characters?

[yngvi]

Sam Gamgee, Frodo Baggins and Gollum.... more electricity than Alan Bates and Oliver Reed in 'Women in Love'

Did I just cross the line?

[Tirellan]

No. You've just been reading too much slash fiction.

Juliet McKenna has a major character who is gay in her Tales of Einarrin series

[samson9dog]

Hi,

This is my first post on here, I've only just discovered the site. No one's mentioned one of the best SF books around: C J Cherryh's Cyteen. The main 'hero' and his 'Azi' are lovers although it's never really questioned. The whole book is really about 'nature & nurture', what makes an individual and so on. I've also just finished Greg Egan's 'Teranesia' in which the main character is gay and homosexuality comes up alot in his fiction: the short story 'cocoon' (recently republished in the book 'Luminious') is explicitly about the age old question "what if you could stop your child being born gay?".

My first ever book was an Asimov, I'd just started reading at the late age of 10, and vividly remember being 13 or so when I first came across a gay character - it was a revelation (and a good one, "we are not alone"!). As an aside, there's a new kids ("young adult" yuk!) book (new in the UK anyway) called 'Hero' by Perry Moore (ISBN 9780552555869) about a boy who is learning he's a superhero. The tag line is "every superhero has a secret" - Guess what his is... It's a lovely book and I only wish I'd been given it when I was 14 or 15.

[Mharvey]

Though I'm new here, I'll take a crack at this one as it's of particular interest to me.

The easy answer is: anything can work in a novel if it's written well. The hard answer is: homosexuality is still very taboo amongst a lot of readers. It makes them feel uncomfortable. It's a challenge for me, as I know for a fact, one of my character's is gay in a novel I'm writing.

What I've found works in writing a gay character is less is more. Make him a character first, a gay man/knight/kid second. If he's a likable character first, then we find out he's gay halfway through the novel, most readers can digest it.

The best example I can think of is Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter - we had no idea he was a homosexual character, yet the fact he was revealed to be gay after the fact really casts an extra level of illumination on him, and really wasn't unbelievable, given how he acted in many situations.

Hope this helps!

[Raith]

I am reading an extraordinary book right now in which the main character is bisexual. It seems to be the norm in the culture, not thought twice about. It might help to have it be the 'cultural norm'.

[murphy]

Originally Posted by Raith

I am reading an extraordinary book right now in which the main character is bisexual. It seems to be the norm in the culture, not thought twice about. It might help to have it be the 'cultural norm'.

What is the name of the book and author? Curious (read nosy) minds wish to know.

[Raith]

'Maia ' by richard adams. My new favorite.

[shadowbox]

In Kushiel's Legacy series, most the characters swing both ways, including the main character who has sex for money, and enjoys a little S&M


So I don't see why not.

[mygoditsraining]

Richard Morgan goes to great lengths in The Steel Remains to keep reminding the reader that his main character is, yep, still gay (to the point of having other characters in the parallel storylines reminisce about him, with particular emphasis on his predeliction for naughty sex with those of the same gender).

The take home message is, I guess, that you don't need to be worried about having to be subtle or suggestive for fear of never getting published or finding readers - although personally I found that The Steel Remains laboured the point so heavily that the publisher might as well have retitled it Gay Swordsman Epic and sold it wrapped in a Pride flag.

[J-WO]

Currently, sf/fantasy needs all the alternate sexuality it can get- if only to ensure Orson Scott Card never sleeps well again.

[FionaW]

Diane Duane's 'Door' series has essentially gay male leads, though they do bat for the other team if the mood takes them. A culture with very different sexual norms is one of the foundations of that series.

Also Melanie Rawn's unfinished 'Mageborn' series plays around with cultural expectations and sexuality in a strangely catholic-styled society full of saints. I loved it the first time I read it but on going back to it recently I found it a bit too flowery.

I always felt the obvious society (fantasy, not scifi) in which to play around with gender roles and sexuality is the elves - already more than a little androgynous, even hermaphroditic in a way. There is a vague idea for doing something similar with dwarves tumbling around in my head; sort of a cross between Pratchett and Nicholls.

[J-WO]

Androgynous dwarves. Wow. You walk where Tolkien feared to tread.

[Anne Lyle]

I'm surprised no-one has yet mentioned the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling - her main character Seregil is clearly bisexual, and the young protagonist Alec eventually comes to realise his own homosexuality over the course of the first two books. However their relationship isn't the focus of the series - it's more by way of underpinning, providing conflict and motivation.

There are gay and bisexual characters in my own work - I'm writing about Elizabethan London, which was rife with cross-dressing, homoerotic poetry and all-round gender-bending, so it would be odd to ignore it! - but again, it's just one more aspect of the setting, not the focus of the story. My protagonist is straight, but mainly because I felt this would actually be less of a cliché - women writing from the PoV of gay men has almost become the norm these days!

I have to say I was disappointed by Lackey's Last Herald Mage trilogy - far too much angst and not enough real action, and the ending was just... wrong. YMMV...

[Dimentio]

Originally Posted by Reden

Hi, this goes to anyone who would like to throw their two cents in, but I'm interested in hearing back from someone in the industry;

Is there a market currently out there for books with main characters who are gay? I'm not talking about romance novel stuff, but all the books I tend to read always have a lot of action and fiction stuff and usually some form of heterosexual love interest. Now, I've been out of the loop for a while so there may be a pocket of books somewhere with gay characters, but I'm just wondering what the industry standpoint on this is. Would it be possible to publish a book with a main character who was gay in the sci-fi fantasy genre? Or would no publisher/agent touch such a thing?

Thanks for your time.

I have several bi- and homosexual characters, both amongst the good guys and the bad guys. There is also quite much of inter-species relationships (between humans and goblins for example).

[dwndrgn]

I think the main point has already been made, that there are plenty of gay characters - main and secondary - out there and the key is that they have to be there naturally, not as a way to create shock and awe; but I wanted to mention a couple of good authors that haven't been mentioned yet. Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear both use gay or bi protagonists in their very enjoyable and popular books.

So it is clearly not taboo. The only thing really taboo is boring stories and bad writing, imho.