Today on the site, we’re doing a killer giveaway in partnership with Tor Books to celebrate the March 2nd release of A Desolation Called Peace, the second book in Arkady Martine’s Teixcalaan series! Tor is giving away five sets of both books in the space opera duology, so even if you haven’t yet read A Memory Called Empire, you’re totally covered!
A Memory Called Empire (Book One):
Winner of the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novel
A Locus, and Nebula Award nominee for 2019
A Best Book of 2019: Library Journal, Polygon, Den of Geek
An NPR Favorite Book of 2019
A Guardian Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of 2019 and “Not the Booker Prize” Nominee
A Goodreads Biggest SFF Book of 2019 and Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee
“A Memory Called Empire perfectly balances action and intrigue with matters of empire and identity. All around brilliant space opera, I absolutely love it.” —Ann Leckie, author of Ancillary Justice
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn’t an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan’s unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.
A fascinating space opera debut novel, Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire is an interstellar mystery adventure.
A Desolation Called Peace (Book Two):
A Desolation Called Peace is the spectacular space opera sequel to Arkady Martine’s genre-reinventing, Hugo Award–winning debut, A Memory Called Empire.
An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options.
In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass—still reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire—face the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity.
Their failure will guarantee millions of deaths in an endless war. Their success might prevent Teixcalaan’s destruction—and allow the empire to continue its rapacious expansion.
Or it might create something far stranger…
No purchase necessary. The giveaway is open to residents of the United States and Canada (excluding Quebec) 18 and older. Entry period begins at 12:00 p.m. EST on 3/1/21 and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on 3/7/21. Void where prohibited.
To enter, tell us your favorite queer sci-fi novel in the comments! Winners will be notified on Monday, March 8th!
I havent read enough queer sci fi but I really.enjoyed the lyricism and passion of This is How You Lose the Time War! The prose was so lush and even though some of the concepts were confusing, I never felt too lost in the sci fi world the authors had created? Plus, I love Blue and Red.
My favorite queer sci-fi novel is The Autumn Lands by J Scott Coatsworth!
my favorite queer scifi novel is GIDEON THE NINTH!!! and HARROW, of course. and can’t forget NK Jemisin’s THE CITY WE BECAME.
I really liked ‘The Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet’ by Becky Chambers. I love how the crew is such a diverse cast of characters and how they portray aliens as having all different kinds of relationships with gender.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet checked all of my boxes in this category
The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers 🥰💖
thank you so much for the chance! One of my favorite queer sci-fi books is Werecockroach by Polenth Blake!
Sword of the Guardian by Merry Shannon
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin!
ahh this is such a hard question! one of my favorite recent queer sci-fi books is “Gamechanger” by L.X. Beckett!
My favorite queer scifi changes all the time, but one good one that has always stuck with me is The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley
My favorite queer sci-fi is also Gideon the Ninth, with an honorary shout out to the MurderBot diaries!
I loved THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR and Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series.
My most recent favorite is Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell!
The Last 8 by Laura Pohl and An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Soloman
Gideon the Ninth. Almost tied with How to Lose the Time War but I’ve thought about Gideon much more after reading.
One of my most recent favorites is Crier’s War by Nina Varela. It’s also part of a duology, and I intend to read the second book soon.
Docile. by K. M. Szpara is my current fave!!! 😀
and now I’m going through the comments picking out books I haven’t read! heheh
Right?? What a killer resource!
Once and Future. YA — I am a teen librarian!
I love Bonds of Brass!!
Ooh! Tough question!
I think my favorite queer sci-fi novel that I read recently is Unconquerable Sun by Kate Elliot. It’s a tough fight between that and either the Ancillary Justice series by Ann Leckie or the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells though!
Ooh I couldn’t tell if the Murderbot books were queer! That moves them up on my TBR!
Still thinking about This is How You Lose the Time War, all day every day!
I absolutely loved Gideon the Ninth
Novel by Tamsyn Muir, and I can’t wait to read the next in the series! Also this comment section is a gold mine! Loving it
i am very fond of This Is How You Lose the Time War, though that’s technically a novella
NK Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy, with honorable mention for Gideon the Ninth 🙂
Ooh there’s a lot of incredible queer scifi that’s been released in the last few years, but Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee has a special place in my heart!
Bel Dame Apocrypha – Kameron Hurley
Slow River – Nicola Griffith
A Big Ship At The Edge Of The Universe by Alex White
My favourite has to be Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series! I love the characters and the world building! 🙂
On a Sunbeam for me!
Gideon the Ninth was a great read.
Null States by Malka Older!!!!
The Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers and Crier’s War by Nina Varela
The Deep by Rivers Solomon was a very cool read with a lovely queer relationship. And a bonus for CL Polk’s Witchmark and the rest of the trilogy which is admittedly more alt-historical fantasy but oh well – it’s so good!
I really loved The Sound of Stars, especially since you don’t see a ton of representation for relationships between aspec people!
My favorite queer SF has to be Gideon the Ninth. In the fantasy realm, I loved Magic for Liars.
I’d have to say Gideon the Ninth in SF, and Magic for Liars in fantasy.
I just love Finna by Nino Cipri, it is such an interesting and quick read.
Definitely An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon!!
I’ll second The Deep!
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet!
Today it’s a toss up between This Is How You Lose the Time War and Gideon The Ninth. Tomorrow it might be different 😁
My current favorite queer sci-fi book (leaning towards speculative) is An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon!
I love The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin.
Two of my favs are This Is How You Lose The Time War and the Murderbot Diaries 🙂
Oh! Broken Earth series is perfect obviously. I also just finished The Unspoken Name and it was lovely.
Favourite is so hard, so I’m going with one I read this year that stands out in my memory: The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum. Any time I read one of her books I reach the final page and think I liked the book, then I turn the page and read the author’s note and she makes me cry, but in a good way, like getting a hug after a hard day.