nat-lawless.bsky.social
Queer ND writer, reader, muso, academic, critic. Different hats, different names. Queer fantasy/romantasy/historical romance/sci-fi. Ask my characters about my gender. No DMs. No AI. https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nat_Lawless/pseuds/Nat_Lawless
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I was trying to think how to describe it and kind of gave up, lol. Though I found myself identifying with Murderbot a lot more than I imagined!
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Thank you! The second one I can get in a couple of days but the others have a bit of a wait.
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The Space Between Worlds
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The Midnight Lie!
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Only Niv has any sort of belief in literal demonic beings, as they’re part of the origin story of the religion she was raised with, but she’s questioning a lot of it.
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Conservative party for 121 years!
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I’m eternally grateful for preferential voting in Australia which means we can vote for the actual best candidate and still not waste our vote or risk it enabling the worst candidate to get elected! My electorate just re-elected an independent for a second term after the seat was held by the
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Welcome back!
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Ugh. Sorry to hear that!
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It is on brand!
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That is high praise indeed!
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My reserve on All Systems Red has just become available, so I can see what all the fuss is about!
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Solid reason!
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There is slightly more complicated backstory to it that comes out in book 2.
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And all of our lives are richer for it.
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A bi MC. Both have good lesbian/other queer supporting characters and queer community. Merli pushes a lot of boundaries with sex and relationships (incl some problematic ones), and handles some difficult topics very well, IMO. I won’t say what on a public post, though, because of spoilers.
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Great recs! A couple of others I’ve really enjoyed if you don’t mind subtitles/speak Spanish are the mini-series Smiley and series Merli Sapere Aud (which stars on of the main characters in Smiley). Smiley is a gay rom-com between a gym bro and an accountant, and Merli is set in a university with
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Alexis Hall’s 10 Things That Never Happened left me bawling my eyes out! A lot of it’s funny but then (like most of Hall’s contemporary stuff) it isn’t.
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lol. I feel like if it’s uncommon it’s not common enough to actually be a trope. Although these days ‘trope’ is just a marketing term for plot elements.
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I guess that could be a different thing. I haven’t used the platform so I can’t say!
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Yeah, that is frustrating. If you don’t like it, scroll on? It’s not for you. And if they think it’s ’harming the cause’, respectability politics never got anyone anywhere in the past! There’s stuff I don’t like and find problematic (usually around non-con) but I’m not going round telling people off
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mainstream published fiction, it’s just those boundaries have shifted so slash fic is completely unremarkable. Definitely no need to only write vanilla fic with trans characters! The bigoted cishets will complain no matter what we do so f*ck them.
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Our very existence is considered ‘adult topics’. Not suggesting at all that this is what you’re doing, but I’m only bothered by smut that objectifies, especially when it’s intended for cishets. But fanfic has ALWAYS been a space where 🌈 folk push against the boundaries of what’s accepted in
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Which can be read as a standalone though Winter’s Orbit is also excellent.
A lot of KJ Charles fits this - Will Darling Adventures is my favourite, but also Magpie Lord. Freya Marske’s Last Binding (especially the third book but also the first).
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Alexis Hall is great at this, e.g. Glitterland, For Real, Boyfriend Material and 10 Things That Never Happened, especially if you also want to explore difficult/existential questions.
KJ Charles’ Society of gentlemen series, especially the second two books.
Everina Maxwell’s Ocean’s Echo
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Jordan L Hawk- Hexworld and Widdershins series are both detective-mystery type historical romantasy. First book of each is a complete narrative.
Alexis Hall - Spires series (can all be read as standalone). Content notes for mental illness, eating disorders, grief/death.
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Hexworld (historical police romantasy by Jordan L Hawk); A Gentleman’s Gentleman (historical mm trans romance by TJ Alexander). I love nearly all Alexis Hall, KJ Charles and Jordan L Hawk (haven’t read Marske’s standalone yet).
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Can I also recommend: Will Darling Adventures (Historical spy/adventure mm romance by KJ Charles); Waiting for the Flood (contemporary mm romance by Alexis Hall); A Marvellous Light (historical mm romantasy by Freya Marske); The Space Between Worlds (sapphic sci-fi romance by Micaiah Johnson).
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I haven’t tried any of the others yet, though I’m planning on listening to Glitterland next. Unfortunately Everand doesn’t have For Real!