There are no stars at all for some of us

[sovay]

Hey! Internet! I've just been talking about how much it sucks when a novel kills off its queer characters. Especially when there's, like, one of them and they're the one who doesn't make it. Can someone point me toward a list of books where that doesn't happen? Spoilers, whatever.

Comments

[sovay]

Mercedes Lackey may not be what I call quality writing (just a guilty pleasure), but her Valdemar books have several queer characters, a few of whom don't die.

I have found myself unable to re-read Mercedes Lackey after the initial adolescent experience, in which I read everything from Arrows of the Queen (1987) through The Silver Gryphon (1996) and then burnt out. I know she was formative for a lot of people, but I think it missed me. I do appreciate the reminder, though!

There's also the entire social structure of the planet O, in some of Ursula K. LeGuin's short stories (I think in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea)- where a marriage is 4 people, two men, two women, and each person is supposed to be sexually involved with one person of each gender (trying to summarize briefly).

Yes! "Another Story, or A Fisherman of the Inland Sea" is the title story in A Fisherman of the Inland Sea (1994); "Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways" are collected in The Birthday of the World (2002). Which I love.