All Our Worlds: Diverse Fantastic Fiction

145 YA, Adult, Middle Grade fantasy, sf, superhero, mixed genre books, anthologies, comics from any date containing any selected tags: race

Cover Title and Author Summary (Scroll) Reasons (Scroll) Tags Date Audience

2016 Young Explorer's Guide
by Sean and Corie Weaver (editors)
Join us for the second yearly anthology of science fiction stories for middle grade readers, with a focus on diversity and representation. We have 22 great stories from a wide range of authors, from Hugo and Nebula winner Nancy Kress, to relative newcomers in the field. Over 85% of the stories are brand-new, and our themes cover the field: space exploration, steampunk, post-apocalyptic, first contact… and lots and lots of adventure.
Multiple mobility-disabled characters. Stories set in India, Southeast Asia, and others. Hispanic, Black, Japanese, Indian, and Malaysian characters, among others.
race, setting, class, disability, race MULTIPLE, Black, Mobility, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Hispanic, 2015 MG

Abengoni: First Calling
by Charles R Saunders
Matile Mala, once the most powerful empire in the black continent of Abengoni, is slipping slowly into decadence, and becoming more and more vulnerable to aggression from the nations and tribes it once dominated. In the capital, Khambawe, ancient rituals endure, dominated by dreams and delusions. As Tiyana, who is both priestess and princess, conducts one such ceremony, known as First Calling, the rite is disrupted by the arrival of a half-wrecked ship from Fiadol, a far-distant land across the sea that is almost forgotten by the Matile. Led by a Seer called Kyroun, the pale-skinned people on the ship seek refuge among the Matile. But the Matile themselves are in need of aid, as they soon come under attack from their ancient enemies, the Uloans, who have flourished while the Matile waned. Along with her father – the High Priest Gebrem –Tiyana marshals the waning forces of Matile magic in conjunction with the powerful new sorcery wielded by Kyroun and his followers in an effort to forestall the threat of imminent annihilation. As the Matile and Uloans clash, other foes of the fading empire wait on the sidelines, like vultures circling a battlefield. The newcomers from Fiadol hold the balance of destruction – and Tiyana must anticipate which way the scale will tip …
Black/African setting
setting, , race African, Black 2014 Adult

Adrift
by Dominica Malcolm
It's the 21st century, and Jaclyn Rousseau is not where she should be. 1661 disappeared before her eyes, and there's no way home. That matters not to Jaclyn—she lost her lover, and everything else that meant anything to her, in the West Indies. In an adventure that crosses time and the Atlantic, a murderous pirate must find a place for herself in this new world. Can she escape her past, or will it catch up with her?
bisexual protagonist, 3 other lesbian/bisexual characters, racial diversity including characters of African, Latino, Chinese, and Japanese ancestry.
lesbian, bisexual, race, African, Black, Latino, East Asian 2013 Adult

Advance
by Gun Brooke
Admiral Dael Caydoc heads up the Advance Fleet to find a new homeworld for the Oconodian people. Joined by Commander Aniwyn “Spinner” Seclan, larger-than-life, reckless, and not Dael’s first choice as CAG, Commander of the Air Group, she has to admit Spinner is a brilliant pilot. Spinner finds Admiral Caydoc an uncompromising, rigid, pain of an officer in the Oconodian Space Fleet. Dael is also the most stunning woman Spinner’s ever met. When the two women clash immediately, it only confirms her suspicion it’s going to be hell to work with a woman who both exasperates and attracts her. While running into countless dangerous situations, Dael and Spinner realize they have more in common than they thought. It takes brave words of love for them to persevere when disaster strikes, and it’s up to Dael and Spinner to save the future for the people of Oconodos—and each other.
Lesbian couple
lesbian, race, Black 2014 Adult

The Adventures of Black Mask and Pale Rider
by Tim Holtorf
Elven magic meets gunslinger grit. What happens when two elven travellers find themselves in the United States in the middle of the Civil War? The Adventures of Black Mask and Pale Rider tells the story of two elven women who’s curiosity gets the better of them. The wild ride takes them from the Union to the Confederacy and back again. Along the way they make enemies and friends and learn a little bit about this world, and about themselves. An adventure of six guns and sorcery.
Submitter's comments: "The two main characters are women, one of whom is of First Nation ancestry and the other who is a lesbian. Both are elves who travel across the United States in 1863, who meet several people of various backgrounds (First Nation, African American, Chinese)."
lesbian, race, multiple culture, Native American, East Asian, Black 2010 Adult

Afar
by Leila del Duca and Kit Seaton
In AFAR, Boetema suddenly develops the ability to astrally project to other worlds, unintentionally possessing the bodies of people light years away. Inotu, her inquisitive brother with a pension for trouble, finds himself on the run after he's caught eavesdropping on an illegal business deal between small town business tycoons and their cyborg bodyguard. When Boetema accidentally gets someone hurt while in another girl's body, the siblings are forced to work together to solve the problems they've created on their planet and others.
WOC protagonist
race, setting, multiple culture, Black, FPOC 2017 Adult

AfroSF
by Ivor W Hartmann (editor)
AfroSF is the first ever anthology of Science Fiction by African writers only that was open to submissions of original (previously unpublished) works across Africa and abroad.
Science fiction by African authors
race, setting, , race Black, African 2012 Adult

American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
Days before his release from prison, Shadow's wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America. Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.
Protagonist is biracial
race, Black, North Africa, Multiracial 2001 Adult

An Accident of Stars
by Foz Meadows
When Saffron Coulter stumbles through a hole in reality, she finds herself trapped in Kena, a magical realm on the brink of civil war. There, her fate becomes intertwined with that of three very different women: Zech, the fast-thinking acolyte of a cunning, powerful exile; Viya, the spoiled, runaway consort of the empire-building ruler, Vex Leoden; and Gwen, an Earth-born worldwalker whose greatest regret is putting Leoden on the throne. But Leoden has allies, too, chief among them the Vex'Mara Kadeja, a dangerous ex-priestess who shares his dreams of conquest. Pursued by Leoden and aided by the Shavaktiin, a secretive order of storytellers and mystics, the rebels flee to Veksh, a neighboring matriarchy ruled by the fearsome Council of Queens. Saffron is out of her world and out of her depth, but the further she travels, the more she finds herself bound to her friends with ties of blood and magic. Can one girl - an accidental worldwalker - really be the key to saving Kena? Or will she just die trying?
Fantasy world with different cultures and races. Of the main two, one is a matriarchy, the other seems mostly gender-equal and polyamory is the norm. One POV character is aromantic, another bi, and a side character is trans.
bisexual, transgender, race, queered culture, multiple culture, poly, Black, FPOC 2016 Adult

Anansi Boys
by Neil Gaiman
Anansi Boys God is dead. Meet the kids. When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his father bestowed -- before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie's life. Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun ... just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie. Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil. Some said he could cheat even Death himself.
Black characters, West African mythology. Same universe as American Gods
race, setting, , race Black, African, West Africa 2005 Adult

The Antagonists
by Burgandi Rakoska
Minerva Banks' entire life has been one large battle. When she was younger, she had wanted to harness her fighting skills by joining The Quartet - New Quartz City's finest superhero team. She had been young. Her head had been filled with dreams. Now she's a graduate student with a head filled with anxieties. And yet, there's still a small part of her that longs to join The Quartet. Then again, as the old saying goes, one shouldn't meet their heroes. It's not long before Minerva Banks finds herself in a battle that has existed since the Era of Merlin, a battle to survive, a battle to prove herself...
The main character is a poor black woman in a wheelchair who experiences chronic pain. There are a few pansexual characters, though one is only present in the backstory. The story is about superheroes - the two main super groups are The Quartet and The Antagonists, the later of which the main character eventually joins.
bisexual, race, disability, class, Black, Mobility, Chronic Illness 2015 Adult

Ariah
by B R Sanders
Ariah's magical training has been interrupted. Forced to rely on a mentor, Dirva, who is not who he claims to be, and a teacher who is foreign and powerful, Ariah is drawn into a culture wholly different from the elven one that raised him. As his friendship with Dirva's brother blossoms into a surprising romance, and he slowly learns how to control the dangerous magic in his blood, life finally appears to be coming together for Ariah—but love and security are cut short by a tyrannical military empire bent on expanding its borders. War, betrayal, passion, and confusion follow Ariah as his perilous journey leads him beyond the walls of the Empire, and into unfamiliar territory within himself. Along the way, he’ll discover just how much he’s willing to give up to find his place in the world, and he’ll learn what it means to sacrifice himself for freedom—and for love.
Author's Comments: "Ariah is an elf living as an oppressed person, and he tells the entire story from that perspective. He deals frankly with racism, classism and homophobia and dissects the structural roots of these forms of oppressions. His magic also works as a form of mental disability for him in complicated ways. In the latter third of the book, Ariah lives with the Droma, who are an agendered or genderqueer culture of elves."
race, poly, Black, FPOC, East Asian 2015 Adult

Ascension
by Jacqueline Koyanagi
Alana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City, but repairing starship engines barely pays the bills. When the desperate crew of a cargo vessel stops by her shipyard looking for her spiritually advanced sister Nova, Alana stows away. Maybe her boldness will land her a long-term gig on the crew. But the Tangled Axon proves to be more than star-watching and plasma coils. The chief engineer thinks he's a wolf. The pilot fades in and out of existence. The captain is all blond hair, boots, and ego . . . and Alana can't keep her eyes off her. But there's little time for romance: Nova's in danger and someone will do anything--even destroying planets--to get their hands on her
gay black woman with chronic disease, woman with prosthetic leg
lesbian, race, disability, poly, class, Black, Chronic_Illness 2013 Adult

The Atomic Weight of Secrets or The Arrival of the Mysterious Men in Black
by Eden Unger Bowditch
In 1903, five truly brilliant young inventors, the children of the world's most important scientists, are taken from their lives and their parents by the mysterious men in black. They take twelve-year-old Jasper and six-year-old Lucy Modest from London, England; nine-year-old Wallace Banneker from New York; twelve-year-old Noah Canto-Sagas from Toronto, Canada; and thirteen-year-old Faye Vigyanveta from New Delhi, India, depositing them all at a strange, isolated farmhouse in Dayton, Ohio, with kindly schoolteacher Miss Brett. But what mysterious invention have all the children, unbeknownst to one another, been working on? Who are the men in black, and are they trying to kidnap them or protect them? And if they're trying to protect them from what? An amazing story about the wonders of science and the still greater wonders of friendship, "The Atomic Weight of Secrets," the first book of the Young Inventors Guild trilogy, is a novel readers will forever treasure."
Diverse cast.
race, multiple culture, South Asian, Black, MULTIPLE, QUESTION 2011 MG

Aye, and Gomorrah
by Samuel R Delany
A father must come to terms with his son's death in the war. In Venice an architecture student commits a crime of passion. A white southern airport loader tries to do a favor for a black northern child. The ordinary stuff of ordinary fiction--but with a difference! These tales take place twenty-five, fifty, a hundred-fifty years from now, when men and women have been given gills to labor under the sea. Huge repair stations patrol the cables carrying power to the ends of the earth. Telepathic and precocious children so passionately yearn to visit distant galaxies that they'll kill to go. Brilliantly crafted, beautifully written, these are Samuel Delany's award-winning stories, like no others before or since.
Diverse and often queer short stories
gay, race, class, Black 1967 Adult

Birds of Prey
by Gail Simone
Soaring out of BRIGHTEST DAY, the Birds of Prey are back!Oracle, Black Canary, Huntress and Lady Blackhawk all return to Gotham City, where they belong - and they've brought a couple of new friends (or are they foes?) along with them. The Birds of Prey are forced to ally themselves with the worst of Gotham City's mega-criminals while they struggle to save his life from the unspeakable horror that hunts them all. Pursued by an unstoppable killer, the Birds are forced to run a gauntlet of insane gang members and corrupt cops out to kill them while trying to keep a teammate alive.
Submission:"This series has for the most part, an all female cast. The cast starts out initially with three women, one of whom is physically disabled, but from there expands out to a much larger cast. There is some racial diversity then--including 2 Japanese women, 1 Chinese woman, and 1 black woman. Two men join the cast as well at some point--one gay, the other bi. There's a crossover for a few issues at one point where Renee Montoya, a latino lesbian superhero, joins the story line."
gay, lesbian, race, disability, Black, East Asian, Unspecified, MULTIPLE, Mobility 2011 Adult

Blood and Iron
by Elizabeth Bear
She is known as Seeker. Spellbound by the Faerie Queen, she has abducted human children for her mistress’s pleasure for what seems like an eternity, unable to free herself from servitude and reclaim her own humanity.Seeker’s latest prey is a Merlin. Named after the legendary wizard of Camelot, Merlins are not simply those who wield magic––they are magic. Now, with the Prometheus Club’s agents and rivals from Faerie both vying for the favor of this being of limitless magic to tip the balance of power, Seeker must persuade the Merlin to join her cause—or else risk losing something even more precious and more important to her than the fate of humankind.…
An important secondary character is black and a lesbian, and the protagonist is strongly implied to be bisexual.
lesbian, bisexual, race, Black 2006 Adult

Bound
by Sarah Jaye Goldschneider
In a society where slavery is an accepted system and upper-class women run the government in most countries, a young slave in search of his own identity falls for the daughter of the most important woman of his region. Like Damian, Adelle does not fit into the society of her mother. Together they strive to escape and fight back against the system that kept both of them bound, far from free.
Features a rich vs poor struggle and a class-based system of slavery. Black characters.
race, class, Black 2013 Adult

Brown Girl In The Ring
by Nalo Hopkinson
The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways-farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother. She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.
African characters, class issues
race, class, Black, African 1998 Adult

Buffalo Soldier
by Maurice Broaddus
Having stumbled onto a plot within his homeland of Jamaica, former espionage agent, Desmond Coke, finds himself caught between warring religious and political factions, all vying for control of a mysterious boy named Lij Tafari. Wanting the boy to have a chance to live a free life, Desmond assumes responsibility for him and they flee. But a dogged enemy agent remains ever on their heels, desperate to obtain the secrets held within Lij for her employer alone. Assassins, intrigue, and steammen stand between Desmond and Lij as they search for a place to call home in a North America that could have been.
Another in Tor's incredibly diverse novellas, this is set in an alternate America where parts are controlled by Native Americans, evil corporations, and other factions. Jamaican cultural focus. Loads of POC characters, racism is a huge issue.
race, setting, disability, class, multiple culture Black, Hispanic, Native_American 2017 Adult

The Chaos
by Nalo Hopkinson
Sixteen-year-old Scotch struggles to fit in: at home she's the perfect daughter, at school she's provocatively sassy, and thanks to her mixed heritage, she doesn't feel she belongs with the Caribbeans, whites, or blacks. And even more troubling, lately her skin is becoming covered in a sticky black substance that can't be removed. While trying to cope with this creepiness, she goes out with her brother— and he disappears. A mysterious bubble of light just swallows him up, and Scotch has no idea how to find him. Soon, the Chaos that has claimed her brother affects the city at large, until it seems like everyone is turning into crazy creatures. Scotch needs to get to the bottom of this supernatural situation ASAP before the Chaos consumes everything she's ever known, and she knows that the black shadowy entity that's begun trailing her every move is probably not going to help. A blend of fantasy and Caribbean folklore, at its heart this tale is about identity and self acceptance—because only by acknowledging her imperfections can Scotch hope to save her brother.
Mixed heritage female protagonist, queer characters, Caribbean folklore
gay, lesbian, race, class, Black, Caribbean, Multiracial 2012 YA

The Chronocar
by Steve Bellinger
Simmie Johnson was born the son of a slave. He was also a genius. After earning a PhD in physics from Tuskegee Institute, he wrote a paper outlining a theory for time travel, including plans for a time machine—called a Chronocar—which was published in a scientific journal in the early 1900s . Since the technology required to build the chronocar did not yet exist, the paper and its brilliant writer faded into obscurity. A century later, a young Illinois Tech student, Tony Carpenter, discovers the journal article and decides to build a Chronocar so he can travel back to 1919 to meet the black scientist he hopes to emulate. Unfortunately, time is not on his side.
Black protagonists, discusses Black life at various points in history
race, Black, African 2014 Adult

Cinder Ella
by S T Lynn
Ella is transgender. She's known since she was young; being a woman just fit better. She was happier in skirts than trousers, but that was before her stepmother moved in. Eleanor can't stand her, and after Ella's father passes she's forced to revert to Cole, a lump of a son. She cooks, she cleans, and she tolerates being called the wrong name for the sake of a roof over her head. Where else can she go? An opportunity to attend the royal ball transforms Ella's life. For the first time, strangers see a woman when she walks down the stairs. While Princess Lizabetta invited Cole to the ball, she doesn't blink an eye when Cinderella is the one who shows. The princess is elegant, bold, and everything Ella never knew she wanted. For a moment she glimpses a world that can accept her, and she holds on tight. She should have known it wouldn't last. Dumped by her wicked stepmother on the farthest edge of the kingdom, Ella must find a way to let go of the princess and the beautiful life they shared for an hour. She'll never find her way back. But it's hard to forget the greatest night of her life when every rose she plants is a reminder.
Black trans woman, f/f relationship
lesbian, transgender, race, setting Black 2016 Adult

Clementine
by Cherie Priest
Maria Isabella Boyd’s success as a Confederate spy has made her too famous for further espionage work, and now her employment options are slim. Exiled, widowed, and on the brink of poverty…she reluctantly goes to work for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in Chicago. Adding insult to injury, her first big assignment is commissioned by the Union Army. In short, a federally sponsored transport dirigible is being violently pursued across the Rockies and Uncle Sam isn’t pleased. The Clementine is carrying a top secret load of military essentials—essentials which must be delivered to Louisville, Kentucky, without delay. Intelligence suggests that the unrelenting pursuer is a runaway slave who’s been wanted by authorities on both sides of the Mason-Dixon for fifteen years. In that time, Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey has felonied his way back and forth across the continent, leaving a trail of broken banks, stolen war machines, and illegally distributed weaponry from sea to shining sea. And now it’s Maria’s job to go get him. He’s dangerous quarry and she’s a dangerous woman, but when forces conspire against them both, they take a chance and form an alliance. She joins his crew, and he uses her connections. She follows his orders. He takes her advice. And somebody, somewhere, is going to rue the day he crossed either one of them.
Features a black pirate captain as one of the protagonists
race, Black 2010 Adult

Cloudia and Rex
by Ulises Farinas
A lushly rendered supernatural fantasy that follows two girls and their mother who find themselves in the middle of a vast, supernatural exodus. On their journey Cloudia is bestowed the powers of hundreds of different gods, but even those don't help her come to terms with the death of her father.
Black protagonists
race, Black 2017 YA

Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad
by Minister Faust
Hamza and Yehat are The Coyote Kings' best friends, one a disgruntled dishwasher and the other a video store clerk, but each brilliant in his own right. Yehat builds prototypes of space-age inventions in his spare time, while Hamza, a former English honors student who was kicked out of the university, writes lush, lyrical poems when he's not blocked--which, these days, is nearly always. When the gorgeous, mysterious Sherem shows up in E-Town decked out in desert finery, Hamza's creative spark is ignited. Who is this sophisticated woman that speaks arcane African tongues, quotes from obscure comics and Star Wars movies, yet seems somehow too ethereal for the world Hamza inhabits? And what is the lost artifact that she and a cast of coiffed collectors and criminal cultists so desperately seek? As Hamza falls blindly in love with Sherem, little does he know that he and Yehat play the biggest part of all in the recovery of the ancient relic--and in the future of all living beings. . . .
Black Canadian protagonists
race, Black 2004 Adult

Dangerous
by Shannon Hale
Maisie Danger Brown just wanted to get away from home for a bit, see something new. She never intended to fall in love. And she never imagined stumbling into a frightening plot that kills her friends and just might kill her, too. A plot that is already changing life on Earth as we know it. There's no going back. She is the only thing standing between danger and annihilation.
Protagonist is half Paraguyan and has a prosthetic arm, secondary characters are mixed black/white and Korean American
race, disability, Amputee, East Asian, Black, Multiracial, Hispanic 2014 YA

The Dark Universe Anthology
by Milton J Davis
The Dark Universe Anthology tells the origin story of the Cassad Empire, from its ambitious beginning to its evolution to the first great human Galactic Empire and its eventual fall. Milton Davis, Gene Peterson, Balogun Ojetade, Penelope Flynn, Malon Edwards, K. Ceres Wright and DaVaun Sanders are the storytellers that lay the foundation of this amazing empire. Dark Universe is space opera like you've never seen. The time has come; Dark Universe is here!
Space Opera tales set about the rise and fall of a futuristic African Empire. Racially and culturally diverse characters and settings.
race, setting, multiple culture, Black, African 2016 Adult

Darkness Descends
by Alex Westmore
Denny Silver is just a normal college student living a not-so-normal life in the most haunted city in America. Sure, her lover is a ghost, but in Savannah, that’s not what’s unusual. What is strange is the influx of supernatural creatures roaming the streets looking to start trouble—with Denny specifically. To fight back against the wave of demons, she racks up one unusual companion after another––from ghosts to witches to demons. In her search for answers to her supernatural problem, Denny discovers that she is a born demon hunter, and, no, she doesn’t have any choice in the matter. Okay, so being possessed by an ancient demon doesn’t exactly fit into her life plans, but somebody has to do it. Denny must either accept the mantle of demon hunter or stand back helplessly as the dark forces destroy everything and everyone she’s ever loved. At least she can always pick up her sword and chain whip to go kick some demon ass. After all, it is her legacy, right?
Submission: "MC is a lesbian and there are several other lesbian side characters. Her best friend is a gay black man."
gay, lesbian, race, Black 2015 Adult

Daughter of Gods and Shadows
by Jayde Brooks
Eden Reid is not interested in prophesy. The problem is that a doozy of a prophesy is bearing down on her. Such is the case when you’re a twenty-four-year-old from Brooklyn, New York who is about to discover she is an ancient god. A truly powerful one. And with power comes problems. A truly formidable demon is gunning for her; a zombie-like pandemic is spreading across the country, creating creatures who are hungry for flesh, fast on their feet and clever; and there is the mysterious, handsome stranger with powers of his own who claims to have been her lover from a time and a life that Eden cannot remember. He promises to help awaken her powers for the upcoming war. A war where there is only one prize: survival…in Daughter of Gods and Shadows from debut author Jayde Brooks.
Black protagonist
race, Black, 2015 Adult

Deadly Delicious
by K L Quincy
Twelve-year-old Josephine DeLune can’t take the heat this sweltering summer of 1955, and she was out of the kitchen long ago. An awful cook, she ruins recipes left and right, and she certainly can’t compete with her family’s reputation for extraordinary food. Her daddy’s parents ran one of the best restaurants in all of Paris, but Josephine lives in Paris, Missouri. On her mama’s side, she’s up against a long tradition of sinfully delicious soul food. Rumor has it, her Creole ancestors cooked up some voodoo to make tasty even tastier. Josephine knows the secret ingredient: she comes from a long line of conjure witches with spellbinding culinary skills. Disenchanted, Josephine works as a carhop at Carl and Earl’s Drive-In. Just plain old hamburgers, hot dogs, and curly fries, nothing magical about them. She’s got bigger fish to fry, though, when a grease fire erupts into a devilish creature who hisses her name with desire. Turns out he’s the Ravenous One, the granddaddy of all voodoo spirits, and he’s hungry for her soul. Josephine thinks he’s got the wrong girl-she’s no witch-but a gorgeous, dangerous night-skinned lady named Shaula sets her straight. Josephine is one of the most powerful witches alive, so overflowing with conjure that her out-of-control cooking simply catches fire. Josephine would love to laugh this off, but Shaula warns her that she must learn to master her magic before the Ravenous One devours her soul. Spurred into action, Josephine breaks out her grandma’s old conjure cookbook and starts cooking. Nothing grand, just the usual recipes for undying friendship and revenge. But soon Josephine can’t escape the consequences of her conjure. When the people of Paris start turning into zombies with a strange fondness for cake, Josephine looks pretty responsible for their undead reawakening…
Black protagonist
race, class, Black 2015 Adult

The Demon's Lexicon
by Sarah Rees Brennan
Sixteen-year-old Nick and his brother, Alan, are always ready to run. Their father is dead, and their mother is crazy—she screams if Nick gets near her. She’s no help in protecting any of them from the deadly magicians who use demons to work their magic. The magicians want a charm that Nick’s mother stole—and they want it badly enough to kill. Alan is Nick’s partner in demon slaying and the only person he trusts in the world. So things get very scary and very complicated when Nick begins to suspect that everything Alan has told him about their father, their mother, their past, and what they are doing is a complete lie. . . .
One of the POV characters is biracial (Black/White). Also has major gay characters.
gay, race, Multiracial, Black 2009 Adult

Desert Rising
by Kelley Grant
"It frightens me, knowing the One has called up two such strong individuals. It means that there are troubled times in our future, and you must prepare yourselves." The Temple at Illian is the crown jewel of life in the Northern Territory. There, pledges are paired with feli, the giant sacred cats of the One god, and are instructed to serve the One's four capricious deities. Yet Sulis, a young woman from the Southern Desert, has a different perspective—one that just might be considered heresy, but that is catching on rather quickly … Sulis's twin, Kadar, meanwhile, is part of a different sort of revolution. When Kadar falls in love with a woman from a Forsaken caste, he finds he's willing to risk anything to get these people to freedom. But with Sulis drawing a dangerous level of attention from the deities, and war about to break out on two fronts, change may not come as easily as either twin had hoped. An astonishing debut, Kelley Grant's Desert Rising brings to life a powerful new epic fantasy tale of determination and self-discovery.
WOc protagonist, culture clash and class issues addessed
race, multiple culture, class, Black, Africa 2015 Adult

Dicebox
by Jenn Manley Lee
Dicebox is a long-form comic that tells the story of an eventful year in the lives of Griffen & Molly, a couple of itinerant factory workers in a space-traveling future, over the course of 4 books.
Available as webcomic- see Resources page for link. Very diverse and queer cast. Neutral pronouns are commonplace.
gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, nonbinary, genderqueer, race, queered culture, multiple culture, pronouns, class, Black, MULTIPLE, Unspecified 2011 Adult

The Entropy of Bones
by Ayize Jama-Everett
Chabi doesn’t realize her martial arts master may not be on the side of the gods. She does know he’s changed her from being an almost invisible kid to one that anyone — or at least anyone smart — should pay attention to. But attention from the wrong people can mean more trouble than even she can handle. Chabi might be emotionally stunted. She might have no physical voice. She doesn’t communicate well with words, but her body is poetry.
Half-Black, half-Mongolian protagonst
race, Central Asia, Black, Multiracial 2015 Adult

Everfair
by Nisi Shawl
An alternate history / historical fantasy / steampunk novel set in the Belgian Congo, from noted short story writer Nisi Shawl. Everfair is a wonderful Neo-Victorian alternate history novel that explores the question of what might have come of Belgium's disastrous colonization of the Congo if the native populations had learned about steam technology a bit earlier. Fabian Socialists from Great Britian join forces with African-American missionaries to purchase land from the Belgian Congo's "owner," King Leopold II. This land, named Everfair, is set aside as a safe haven, an imaginary Utopia for native populations of the Congo as well as escaped slaves returning from America and other places where African natives were being mistreated.
Focus on native people and colonialism
race, setting, class, African, Central Africa, East Asian, Black 2016 Adult

FindChaos
by A Stiffler & K Copeland
Recently released from Winthrop Asylum for the Criminally Insane, Arthur Carroll must navigate the perils of a world he barely understands with a fragile grip on his own psyche. Morality, religion of all kinds, and madness coincide along the way in a chaotic reality that could be more than he ever bargained for.
Webcomic. Submission: This comic features characters that are queer across the spectrum, with a promise from the creators that even more will be introduced as it progresses.
gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, race, queered culture, multiple culture, disability, poly, pronouns, intersex, Black, Hispanic, Latino, Unspecified, Mental_Illness 2013 Adult

The Fire Test
by E R Ross
Can the students discover the impostor before it's too late? Lace Labrencias is the princess of a small country the ruthless King James is about to invade, and she'll stop at nothing to keep her people safe. She’s a powerful but inexperienced mage, with the ability to see and control auras, but she knows her magical gift could be much more. So when a legendary mage invites her to attend his Magic Academy, she eagerly accepts. But once she arrives at the location, she is transported into a dangerous labyrinth. What’s worse—her magical abilities are gone. What’s even worse—she’s trapped in the maze with seven others claiming to be students—and deadly traps will keep coming unless they find out who the impostor is. Is it the child who is more than she appears, the mute gladiator, the nature-controlling witch, the prejudice Queen, the too-cheerful healer, the arrogant pirate, or the handsome, dangerous monk who has a mysterious tie to Lace?
Various races, mute character
race, multiple culture, disability, Black, FPOC, Mute 2015 YA

Fledgling
by Octavia Butler
Fledgling, Octavia Butler's new novel after a seven year break, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly inhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted--and still wants--to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of "otherness" and questions what it means to be truly human.
Bi black vampire girl
race, class, bisexual, Black, African 2005 Adult

Flying Straightish
by Nina White
Follow the exploits of Lex and Domino, a pair of self serving space pirates that get interrupted in their goal of sleeping their way around the galaxy and stealing everything that’s not nailed down (and some things that are) by getting drafted into the Clean Up Crew. Forced to assist a small band of weirdos in this rag tag organisation that runs around and does all of the real work for the Galactic Alliance, this trigger happy and often inebriated duo will barely tolerate bureaucrats, utterly fail at being law abiding citizens and leave everyone that sees them wondering just one thing. Where in the galaxy did he even get trousers like that?
Bisexual/pansexual main characters with a supporting cast of character including a gay black man as a military commander, an asexual pilot, a bisexual mage, a black woman heavy arms specialist and various others. One of the main characters also has mental health issues, though they don't come up in this book.
gay, bisexual, asexual, race, Black 2016 Adult

Four and Twenty Blackbirds
by Cherie Priest
Although she was orphaned at birth, Eden Moore is never alone. Three dead women watch from the shadows, bound to protect her from harm. But in the woods a gunman waits, convinced that Eden is destined to follow her wicked great-grandfather--an African magician with the power to curse the living and raise the dead. Now Eden must decipher the secret of the ghostly trio before a new enemy more dangerous than the fanatical assassin destroys what is left of her family. She will sift through lies in a Georgian ante-bellum mansion and climb through the haunted ruins of a 19th century hospital, desperately seeking the truth that will save her beloved aunt from the curse that threatens her life.
Mixed-race protagonist, black characters.
race, Black, Multiracial 2005 Adult

Foxglove Hymnal: Winter 2015
by Foxglove Hymnal Authors
Sample Stories: -The Prince and the Dancing Selkies- (transgender); A prince must choose between her duty to her kingdom and the opportunity to be true to herself. -First- (lesbian, disability): The girl Dana loves doesn’t love her back. She’s devastated until a stranger appears offering a solution. (Be aware that this is a horror story)
Online short fiction anthology. The current issue has many queer/diverse stories.
lesbian, transgender, race, disability, Multiple, Black, East Asian, Unspecified, Unspecified_Disability 2015 YA

Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic
by David J Schwartz
Meet the newest professor at Gooseberry Bluff Community College of Magic, Joy Wilkins. She may suffer from face blindness, but Joy can still recognize people by reading their auras - a skill that comes in particularly handy for her real work as an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Magical Affairs. Her mission: to discover the source of weaponized demons being trafficked through the quaint school on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and to locate her predecessor, the school's missing History of Magic professor. But just as her investigation gets under way, the brutal murder of Joy's handler - and mentor - sets her on the trail of a secret society known as the Thirteenth Rib. With the clock ticking down to the next attack, Joy will have to find new allies and uncover ancient secrets if she's going to have any chance of defeating a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the entire world.
Submitter's comments: "Incredibly diverse book, includes characters of different races (Hispanic, Indian, Egyptian, etc), different sexualities, and a genderqueer character. The main character is a black woman with face blindness."
gay, bisexual, genderqueer, race, multiple culture, disability, pronouns, Black, Hispanic, North Africa, MULTIPLE, Unspecified, Mental_Illness 2013 Adult

Gotham Central
by Ed Brubaker
The first ten issues of the Eisner and Harvey Award-winning series written by Ed Brubaker (Captain America) and Greg Rucka (Detective Comics, 52) pit the detectives of Gotham City's Special Crimes Unit against the city's greatest villains - in the shadow of Batman himself. 1. In the Line of Duty by Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka: Mister Freeze kills a cop, and the squad is in a race against time to bring him in without the help of the Dark Knight. 2. Motive by Ed Brubaker: Bonnie Lewis 14 disappeared after babysitting Friday night, ransom note faxed to dad next day. Body found, dead since Friday, so someone close to her was trying to divert suspicion. Meanwhile, convicted Firebug sold his special fire-powered suit as memorabilia on internet. 3. Half a Life by Greg Rucka: Detective Renee Montoya is outed as a lesbian and finds her work environment and personal life turned upside down, complicated when she is kidnapped by Two-Face.
Submission: "Gotham Central is a 4 volume collection about the police force in Gotham, Batman's home. The cast is very diverse, with a latino lesbian (Renee) and a black man (Allen) as the two main protagonists. As well, the other detectives in their division have a nice divide between male and female, as well as other POCs. Renee has to deal with her relationship with her girlfriend, her family's inability to accept her sexuality, and being outed to the police force. Allen has to deal with balancing his family with his job. It's a great read, especially seeing the cases they have to handle."
lesbian, race, Latino, Black, Unspecified 2008 Adult

Habibi
by Craig Thompson
Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, Habibi tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them. We follow them as their lives unfold together and apart; as they struggle to make a place for themselves in a world (not unlike our own) fueled by fear, lust, and greed; and as they discover the extraordinary depth — and frailty — of their connection. At once contemporary and timeless, Habibi gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.
Submission: Post-apocalyptic SFF Middle East with black and Middle Eastern characters.
transgender, genderqueer, race, setting, , race Middle Eastern, Black 2011 Adult

Ignition Zero
by Noel Arthur Heimpel
Ignition Zero is a webcomic centered around a group of queer, college-age friends who get mixed up in a war between spirits and urban faeries
Submission: Ignition Zero is a webcomic centered around a group of queer, college-age friends who get mixed up in a war between spirits and urban faeries. Nothing's quite as simple as it seems, and the friends quickly find that there may not be a "right" or "wrong" side to the conflict--so which should they take? During all this, longtime friends Orson and Robbie, who both identify as asexual, begin developing what might be romantic feelings for one another...
gay, asexual, transgender, genderqueer, race, Black, MULTIPLE, Unspecified, Multiracial 2011 YA

In the Country of the Blind
by Michael Flynn
In the nineteenth century, a small group of American idealists managed to actually build Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine and use it to develop Cliology, mathematical models that could chart the likely course of the future. Soon they were working to alter history’s course as they thought best. By our own time, the Society has become the secret master of the world. But no secret can be kept forever, at least not without drastic measures. When her plans for some historic real estate lead developer and ex-reporter Sarah Beaumont to stumble across the Society’s existence, it’s just the first step into a baffling and deadly maze of conspiracies.
Protagonists are black woman and gay man.
gay, race, Black 1990 Adult

Jupiter Rising
by Zachary Brown
In this concluding volume of the trilogy, The Icarus Corps battle the Conglomeration on Jupiter against all odds as humanity continues to suffer the brutalities of war as cannon fodder unless they redefine the rules of engagement. The outgunned PAC-Human forces attack Jupiter as a desperate last attempt to hold the Conglomeration forces at bay. A greater threat, however, is revealed as we find out why the Conglomeration-PAC war has been raging across the galaxy. Evermore the battle to stay human and relevant dovetails with the war and how a victory for Earth may not be in the PAC's best interest.
WOC protagonist
race, Black, MULTIPLE 2017 Adult

Karen Memory
by Elizabeth Bear
“You ain’t gonna like what I have to tell you, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. See, my name is Karen Memery, like memory only spelt with an e, and I'm one of the girls what works in the Hôtel Mon Cherie on Amity Street. Hôtel has a little hat over the o like that. It's French, so Beatrice tells me.” Set in the late 19th century—when the city we now call Seattle Underground was the whole town (and still on the surface), when airships plied the trade routes, would-be gold miners were heading to the gold fields of Alaska, and steam-powered mechanicals stalked the waterfront, Karen is a young woman on her own, is making the best of her orphaned state by working in Madame Damnable’s high-quality bordello. Through Karen’s eyes we get to know the other girls in the house—a resourceful group—and the poor and the powerful of the town. Trouble erupts one night when a badly injured girl arrives at their door, beggin sanctuary, followed by the man who holds her indenture, and who has a machine that can take over anyone’s mind and control their actions. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, the next night brings a body dumped in their rubbish heap—a streetwalker who has been brutally murdered. Bear brings alive this Jack-the-Ripper yarn of the old west with a light touch in Karen’s own memorable voice, and a mesmerizing evocation of classic steam-powered science
Steampunk with a lesbian narrator, a diverse cast of women of all ages, and representations of POC, transgender, and amputee characters. Interracial lesbian couple. Indian, Black, and Native American characters feature heavily
gay, lesbian, transgender, race, disability, Unspecified, East Asian, Amputee, South Asian, Native American, Black 2015 Adult

Kindred
by Octavia Butler
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.
black woman time travelling, focus on slavery
race, class, Black 1979 Adult

The King's Blood
by S E Zbasnik
Magic is coming back. Or so say the old prophesies cobbled together from wandering soothsayers, women huffing broken gas lines, and the back of comic tomes. The Evil Empire™ of Avar and its perfectly sane, in no way crazy Emperor risks others' life and limb to stop it from coming to pass. The only obstinate chunk of gravel in their shoes is a small kingdom warring against the over confident reach of the growing Empire. The fight was going well for them, all things considered, right until their King went and let his head slip right off his shoulders. Now Ciara, a black servant into her sixteenth year, finds herself on a mad quest across the countryside trying to get the second son and possibly only hope of the severed Ostero line back onto his throne. Along the way, she and Aldrin — the rather simple and OH GODS KEEP HIM AWAY FROM ANYTHING SHARP prince — find themselves at the mercy of assassins, witches, traveling historians, a sect of killer doctors, and the unblinkers. Can two teens survive an entire Empire crashing down upon them while a shambling army of corpses waits patiently in the shadows? Will the religious fight for and against magic rip apart the world they all became rather fond of? And just how can a fifteen year old take over a throne dangling precariously over the edge of war?
lack heroine protagonist in a medieval setting. Asian witch and a blind historian as well.
race, disability, Black, East Asian, Blind 2014 YA

Lagoon
by Nnedi Okorafor
When a massive object crashes into the ocean off the coast of Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous and legendary city, three people wandering along Bar Beach (Adaora, the marine biologist- Anthony, the rapper famous throughout Africa- Agu, the troubled soldier) find themselves running a race against time to save the country they love and the world itself… from itself. Lagoon expertly juggles multiple points of view and crisscrossing narratives with prose that is at once propulsive and poetic, combining everything from superhero comics to Nigerian mythology to tie together a story about a city consuming itself. At its heart a story about humanity at the crossroads between the past, present, and future, Lagoon touches on political and philosophical issues in the rich tradition of the very best science fiction, and ultimately asks us to consider the things that bind us together – and the things that make us human.
Set in Nigeria
setting, , race West African, African, Black 2014 YA

The Last Prince of Atlantis
by Leonard Clifton
Allen King is a 15 year old African American male teenager living in a blue collar family in Miami, Florida. Allen immediately discovers after finding a crystal necklace that he's an alien hybrid prince of ancient royalty. Suddenly things change as this shy teenager becomes a strong leader by having the power of telepathy and teleportation besides communicating with sea animals. Allen is aided by a beautiful young Greek goddess, two orphan teens and his boisterous uncle. Together while keeping the earth safe they fi ght Allen's immortal enemies as they try to restore his kingdom, the lost city of Atlantis.
black protagonist
race, Black 2015 YA

Liar
by Justine Larbalestier
Micah will freely admit that she’s a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she’ll ever tell you. Over the years she’s duped her classmates, her teachers, and even her parents, and she’s always managed to stay one step ahead of her lies. That is, until her boyfriend dies under brutal circumstances and her dishonesty begins to catch up with her. But is it possible to tell the truth when lying comes as naturally as breathing? Taking readers deep into the psyche of a young woman who will say just about anything to convince them—and herself—that she’s finally come clean, Liar is a bone-chilling thriller that will have readers see-sawing between truths and lies right up to the end. Honestly.
African-American and white mixed-race protagonist
race, Black, Multiracial 2009 YA

Lock in
by John Scalzi
Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. 95% of those afflicted experience nothing worse than fever and headaches. Four percent suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And one percent find themselves “locked in”—fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. One per cent doesn't seem like a lot. But in the United States, that's 1.7 million people “locked in”...including the President's wife and daughter. Spurred by grief and the sheer magnitude of the suffering, America undertakes a massive scientific initiative. Nothing can restore the ability to control their own bodies to the locked in. But then two new technologies emerge. One is a virtual-reality environment, “The Agora,” in which the locked-in can interact with other humans, both locked-in and not. The other is the discovery that a few rare individuals have brains that are receptive to being controlled by others, meaning that from time to time, those who are locked in can “ride” these people and use their bodies as if they were their own. This skill is quickly regulated, licensed, bonded, and controlled. Nothing can go wrong. Certainly nobody would be tempted to misuse it, for murder, for political power, or worse....
Protagonist is black person with locked-in syndrome. Gender is ambiguous- can be interpreted any way.
race, disability, genderqueer Black, Mental_Illness, Mobility 2014 Adult

London Falling
by Paul Cornell
The dark is rising . . . Detective Inspector James Quill is about to complete the drugs bust of his career. Then his prize suspect Rob Toshack is murdered in custody. Furious, Quill pursues the investigation, co-opting intelligence analyst Lisa Ross and undercover cops Costain and Sefton. But nothing about Toshack’s murder is normal. Toshack had struck a bargain with a vindictive entity, whose occult powers kept Toshack one step ahead of the law – until his luck ran out. Now, the team must find a 'suspect' who can bend space and time and alter memory itself. And they will kill again. As the group starts to see London’s sinister magic for themselves, they have two choices: panic or use their new abilities. Then they must hunt a terrifying supernatural force the only way they know how: using police methods, equipment and tactics. But they must all learn the rules of this new game - and quickly. More than their lives will depend on it.
Two of the four leads are black, and one of those is a gay man
gay, race, Black 2013 Adult

The Mark of Noba
by G L Tomas
Sterling Wayfairer has one goal for his senior year: make his mark. He’s been slipping into the background his whole high school career—distracted by his mother’s mental health, unsettled by the vivid dreams that haunt him at night, and overshadowed by the athletic accomplishments of his popular best friends. But this year is going to be different. He’s going to break a few rules, have some fun, and maybe even work up the nerve to ask his crush out on a date. But things don’t go exactly as planned. Students are disappearing, Sterling starts losing time, and it all seems to center around Tetra, a girl no one else seems to notice but him. When he finally tracks her down for answers, they aren’t what he expects: He and Tetra hail from a world called Noba, and they’re being hunted by a Naga, a malevolent shapeshifter that’s marked them for destruction. Tetra and Sterling have distinct abilities that can help them fight back, but their power depends heavily on the strength of their bond, a connection that transcends friendship, transcends romance. Years apart have left their bond weak. Jumpstarting it will require Sterling to open his heart and his mind and put his full trust in the mysterious Tetra. If he doesn’t, neither of them will survive.
Publisher's Commentary: The Mark of Noba features two main characters whom are spiritually bonded to one another. One is a white male, the other a black female. It is YA time/world travel portal fantasy, so the world changes with each book, but their culture is a non-binary as well as pansexual and they don't conform to traditional roles of gender. As well as some marriages are poly, due to bonds(where two people share each other's soul). As the series goes on, there will be disability as well but for now book one has racial diversity at the forefront.
nonbinary, genderqueer, race, queered culture, poly, Black 2015 YA

Midnight Riot
by Ben Aaronovitch
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he'll face is a paper cut. But Peter's prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter's ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.
Diverse urban fantasy
race, Black, MULTIPLE, Unspecified 2011 Adult

Mothership
by Tenea D Johnson (editor)
Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond is a groundbreaking speculative fiction anthology that showcases the work from some of the most talented writers inside and outside speculative fiction across the globe—including Junot Diaz, Victor LaValle, Lauren Beukes, N. K. Jemisin, Rabih Alameddine, S. P. Somtow, and more. These authors have earned such literary honors as the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker, among others.
"Afrofuturism and Beyond"
race, setting, , race Black, African 2013 Adult

The Movement
by Gail Simone
Coral City is infected by corruption and crime and its up to the citizens to fight back! The Movement sees a young group of super-heroes rise up and take back the streets of their corrupt city. But when one of their own is captured by the police, its Coral City's finest against the citizens they have negelected to protect.
Submssion: "Superhero comic with racially diverse group of characters, one of them is asexual, one character uses a wheelchair and another is mentally ill. The comic deals with issues of race and class inspired by the Occupy movement."
asexual, race, disability, class, Black 2014 Adult

Night Sky Mine
by Melissa Scott
Melissa Scott's award-winning work is known for its vividly imagined settings that explore humanity's far future. IN NIGHT SKY MINE, young Ista Kelly is a foundling, the only survivor of a pirate raid on an asteroid mine. In a future where one cannot live without an official identity, this is the story of Ista's harrowing journey back to the asteroid to find her true identity.
Normalized queer and racially diverse world. Main characters are lesbian and gay.
race, gay, lesbian, queered culture Black, MULTIPLE, Unspecified 1997 Adult

Niko
by Kayti Nika Raet
One can live for several weeks without food but only a few days without water, a fact seventeen year old Niko is only too aware of as she struggles to provide for her two younger brothers in a post apocalyptic landscape where the rain burns like acid, food grows increasingly scarce and any Slither that crosses her path is laid low before it can sink its teeth into her. Then one night everything she'd ever worked for and loved is consumed by a raging fire, leaving her with one brother missing, the other dead and herself gravely injured. She's rescued by the Rose Circle, a rogue group of Slither hunters. They sneak her into Amaryllis City, a decadent metropolis where those able to pay the exorbitant entrance fee live a life of relative ease. But for Niko, Amaryllis City is not the haven she grew up believing it would be and her unique abilities as a Slither hunter make her a particularly visible target to a city with hopes of experimentation, replication and other nasty bits. All Niko ever wanted to do was find her baby brother, but that's proving to be harder than expected.
Black protagonist, disabled characters, diverse side cast, lesbian characters.
lesbian, race, disability, class, Black, East Asian, Southeast Asian, Blind 2013 YA

Nobody's Goddess
by Amy McNulty
In a village of masked men, magic compels each man to love only one woman and to follow the commands of his “goddess” without question. A woman may reject the only man who will love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever. And a man must stay masked until his goddess returns his love—and if she can’t or won’t, he remains masked forever. Seventeen-year-old Noll isn't in the mood to celebrate. Her childhood friends have paired off and her closest companion, Jurij, found his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate to find a way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers why no man has ever chosen her. Thus begins a dangerous game between the choice of woman versus the magic of man. And the stakes are no less than freedom and happiness, life and death—and neither is willing to lose.
Submission: "Characters are described as having darker skin in variations. Based on descriptors(and the book cover) the majority of characters are Black. The setting is hard to define but is definitely not found in white spaces. Queered culture is mentioned through the women of the mc's village where women choose who they will marry and whether or not they will accept a man. If they do not accept the man he will live with other rejected men in a commune for the rest of his life. The woman will live the rest of her life single and still in the village. The society is very predicated on women. The men are in some ways subservient and not dominant at all."
setting, queered culture, , race FPOC, Black 2015 YA

Noughts and Crosses
by Malorie Blackman
Sephy is a Cross -- a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a Nought -- a “colourless” member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. The two have been friends since early childhood, but that’s as far as it can go. In their world, Noughts and Crosses simply don’t mix. Against a background of prejudice and distrust, intensely highlighted by violent terrorist activity, a romance builds between Sephy and Callum -- a romance that is to lead both of them into terrible danger. Can they possibly find a way to be together?
Class and race issues
race, class, Black 2001 Adult

Octavia's Brood
by Walidah Imarisha (Editor)
Whenever we envision a world without war, without prisons, without capitalism, we are producing speculative fiction. Organizers and activists envision, and try to create, such worlds all the time. Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown have brought twenty of them together in the first anthology of short stories to explore the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change. The visionary tales of Octavia’s Brood span genres—sci-fi, fantasy, horror, magical realism—but all are united by an attempt to inject a healthy dose of imagination and innovation into our political practice and to try on new ways of understanding ourselves, the world around us, and all the selves and worlds that could be. The collection is rounded off with essays by Tananarive Due and Mumia Abu-Jamal, and a preface by Sheree Renée Thomas.
Science fiction stories focusing on social justice issues
race, setting, queered culture, multiple culture, disability, class, , race African, Black, East Asian, Unspecified_Disability, Mobility 2015 Adult

Orleans
by Sherri L Smith
First came the storms. Then came the Fever. And the Wall. After a string of devastating hurricanes and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf Coast has been quarantined. Years later, residents of the Outer States are under the assumption that life in the Delta is all but extinct… but in reality, a new primitive society has been born. Fen de la Guerre is living with the O-Positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are ambushed. Left with her tribe leader’s newborn, Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life over the wall before her blood becomes tainted. Fen meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States who has snuck into the Delta illegally. Brought together by chance, kept together by danger, Fen and Daniel navigate the wasteland of Orleans. In the end, they are each other’s last hope for survival.
World where race isn't important to people (because blood type determines your tribe), black girl protagonist
race, multiple culture, Black, Latino, Hispanic, MULTIPLE, Unspecified 2013 YA

Orphan Maker
by D Jordan Redhawk
Ragged, starving refugees want to settle in Lindsay Crossing. In a world waking up from a devastating plague, control of resources — and people — is the key to survival. Marissa Loomis has grown used to fighting for herself and her family. The newcomers are a threat, but they can’t be left to die. As the fragile society plans to grow by scavenging the deserted cities, newcomer Gwen finds herself torn between the man who saved her from starvation and the compelling woman who represents reason and power in what’s left of her world. But what can Gwen make of the enforced secrecy about Loomis’s past, and the nightmares that erupt every night? Is there something worse than plague that has driven Loomis to the edge?
Submission: African-American & Hispanic characters, lesbian & bisexual protagonists
lesbian, bisexual, race, Black, Hispanic 2013 Adult

The Posterchildren
by Kitty Burroughs
Nestled in the Cascade mountains in the Pacific Northwest, Maillardet's Foundation for the Future of Humanity is widely accepted as being the premiere training facility for young posthumans. The Academy accepts superpowered posterchildren from ages six through seventeen, guiding them through the training that they'll need if they want to become legally licensed heroes. Maillardet's Academy advertises itself as being for all types, welcoming the offspring of the greatest heroes of today - like Ernest Wright, the son of the Commander - along with new posters just learning to control their powers - like Juniper Hovick, a temperamental New Yorker with a flaming menagerie. Maillardet's is where the heroes of tomorrow are assembled today, so the pressure to perform is high. For disgraced legacy poster Malek Underwood, the third block of his training begins with him being knocked from his pedestal as the top student in the school, then paired with an almost failing lesbian speedster named Zipporah Chance. Though they come from different backgrounds, Ernest, Juniper, Malek, and Zipporah all have the same goal: surviving the year. If they're ever going to become heroes, they have to make it to finals, first.
Diverse cast, well-handled issues
lesbian, bisexual, asexual, genderqueer, race, disability, poly, class, Black, Jewish, Unspecified_Disability 2013 YA

Prince of Cats
by Ron Wimberly
A hip-hop retelling of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet that focuses on Tybalt (derisively referred to as "the Prince of Cats") and his Capulet crew as they do battle nightly with the hated Montagues. Set in a Blade Runner-esque version of Brooklyn, PRINCE OF CATS is a mix of urban melodrama, samurai action and classic Shakespearean theater...all written in Iambic Pentameter
Black retelling of Romeo and Juliet in a sci-fi setting
race, Black 2012 YA

Promises, Promises
by L J Baker
Sandy Blunt, witch, has big dreams but C-average magic skills. Her only noteworthy talent is for paying extravagant compliments to women. Trouble is, when she uses that gift, she unwittingly foretells the future for a pretty princess. The punishment for prophesying about one of royal blood is death. With the help of ill-assorted companions, including a self-professed princess in disguise with a wild imagination, a self-absorbed member of the royal guard, and the not-so-average girl next door, Sandy has a year and a day to travel to far-flung places--encountering such dangerous creatures as a dragon who writes awful poetry, slovely elves, and boarding house landladies--to collect the weird and magical items needed to turn her prophecies into promises and so evade the executioner.
comedy fantasy with diverse cast
lesbian, race, Black, MULTIPLE, Unspecified 2011 YA

Prosperity
by Alexis Hall
A breathtaking tale of passion and adventure in the untamed skies! Prosperity, 1863: a lawless skytown where varlets, chancers, and ne’er-do-wells risk everything to chase a fortune in the clouds, and where a Gaslight guttersnipe named Piccadilly is about to cheat the wrong man. This mistake will endanger his life . . . and his heart. Thrill! As our hero battles dreadful kraken above Prosperity. Gasp! As the miracles of clockwork engineering allow a dead man to wreak his vengeance upon the living. Marvel! At the aerial escapades of the aethership, Shadowless. Beware! The licentious and unchristian example set by the opium-addled navigatress, Miss Grey. Disapprove Strongly! Of the utter moral iniquity of the dastardly crime prince, Milord. Swoon! At the dashing skycaptain, Byron Kae. Swoon Again! At the tormented clergyman, Ruben Crowe. This volume (available in print, and for the first time on mechanical book-reading devices) contains the complete original text of Piccadilly’s memoirs as first serialised in All the Year Round. Some passages may prove unsettling to unmarried gentlemen of a sensitive disposition.
Gay characters, genderless character, diverse cast. Author has also written a series of short stories in the same world.
gay, nonbinary, genderqueer, race, Black, MULTIPLE, Unspecified 2014 Adult

The Pygmy Dragon
by Marc Secchia
Stolen from her jungle home and sold to a zookeeper, Pip knows only a world behind bars, a world in which a Pygmy warrior and her giant ape friends are a zoo attraction. She dreams of being Human. She dreams of escaping to the world outside her cage. Then, the Dragon Zardon kidnaps her into a new life. Pip rides Dragonback across the Island-World to her new school - a school inside a volcano. A school where Humans learn to be Dragon Riders. But this is only a foretaste of her magical destiny, for the Dragon Assassins are coming. They have floated an Island across the Rift and their aim is nothing less than the massacre of all Dragons. Now, the courage of the smallest will be tested to the utmost. For Pip is the Pygmy Dragon, and this is her tale.
Diverse cast
race, setting, disability, FPOC, Black, Genetic 2014 YA

Rat Queens
by Kurtis J Wiebe
Who are the Rat Queens? A pack of booze-guzzling, death-dealing battle maidens-for-hire, and they're in the business of killing all god's creatures for profit. It's also a darkly comedic sass-and-sorcery series starring Hannah the Rockabilly Elven Mage, Violet the Hipster Dwarven Fighter, Dee the Atheist Human Cleric and Betty the Hippy Smidgen Thief. This modern spin on an old school genre is a violent monster-killing epic that is like Buffy meets Tank Girl in a Lord of the Rings world on crack!
diverse women superheroes
race, lesbian, Black, East Asian, MULTIPLE, Unspecified 2014 Adult

The Red Pyramid
by Rick Riordan
Since their mother's death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane. One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives. Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them —Set— has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe - a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs
Series based on Egyptian mythology, protagonists are biracial.
race, setting, , race Black, North Africa, Multiracial 2010 MG

Redwood and Wildfire
by Andrea Hairston
At the turn of the 20th century, minstrel shows transform into vaudeville which slides into moving pictures. Hunkering together in dark theatres, diverse audiences marvel at flickering images. This “dreaming in public” becomes common culture and part of what transforms immigrants and “native” born into Americans. Redwood, an African American woman, and Aidan, a Seminole Irish man, journey from Georgia to Chicago, from haunted swampland to a “city of the future.” They are gifted performers and hoodoo conjurors, struggling to call up the wondrous world they imagine, not just on stage and screen, but on city streets, in front parlors, in wounded hearts. The power of hoodoo is the power of the community that believes in its capacities to heal and determine the course of today and tomorrow. Living in a system stacked against them, Redwood and Aidan’s power and talent are torment and joy. Their search for a place to be who they want to be is an exhilarating, painful, magical adventure. Blues singers, filmmakers, haints, healers, and actors work their mojo for adventure, romance, and magic from Georgia to Chicago!
Diverse cast
race, class, multiple culture, African, Black, Native American, Unspecified, MULTIPLE 2011 Adult

Robins in the Night
by Dajo Jago
Legends speak of a man named Robin Hood. They talk of his valiant deeds, of his courageous feats, of his noble exploits. They talk of how this man, this single man, stole from the rich and gave to the poor. They speak of his merry men, and of his bow and arrow, and his green tunic. They speak of him in hushed, reverent tones. They speak of him in loud, exuberant chants. They speak of him in story books. The legends are, as is to be expected, fundamentally wrong. Set in Knottwood, a small city in an alternate timeline Earth, this is the story of a transgender woman named Marian Stoke
Transgender, black lesbian protagonist. Lesbian deurotagonist. Gender, race & class issues present throughout book.
lesbian, transgender, race, class, Black 2015 Adult

The Salt Roads
by Nalo Hopkinson
A landmark work by a brilliant young author, THE SALT ROADS transports readers across centuries and civilizations as it fearlessly explores the relationships women have with their lovers, their people, and the divine. Jeanne Duval, the ginger-colored entertainer, struggles with her lover poet Charles Baudelaire...Mer, plantation slave and doctor, both hungers for and dreads liberation...and Thais, a dark-skinned beauty from Alexandria, is impelled to seek a glorious revelation-as Ezili, a being born of hope, unites them all. Interweaving acts of brutality with passionate unions of spirit and flesh, this is a narrative that shocks, entertains, and dazzles-from an award-winning writer who dares to redefine the art of storytelling.
three black female protagonists, one lesbian, one bisexual and one heterosexual, in three different time periods. Won Gaylactic award
lesbian, race, class, Black, African 2004 Adult

The Scorpion Rules
by Erin Bow
A world battered by climate shift and war turns to an ancient method of keeping peace: the exchange of hostages. The Children of Peace - sons and daughters of kings and presidents and generals - are raised together in small, isolated schools called Preceptures. There, they learn history and political theory, and are taught to gracefully accept what may well be their fate: to die if their countries declare war. Greta Gustafsen Stuart, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan-Polar Confederation, is the pride of the North American Prefecture. Learned and disciplined, Greta is proud of her role in keeping the global peace, even though, with her country controlling two-thirds of the world’s most war-worthy resource — water — she has little chance of reaching adulthood alive. Enter Elián Palnik, the Prefecture’s newest hostage and biggest problem. Greta’s world begins to tilt the moment she sees Elián dragged into the school in chains. The Prefecture’s insidious surveillance, its small punishments and rewards, can make no dent in Elián, who is not interested in dignity and tradition, and doesn’t even accept the right of the UN to keep hostages. What will happen to Elián and Greta as their two nations inch closer to war?
(Note: Due to the futuristic setting and new national borders, ethnicities don’t exactly match up to modern-day labels) Da-Xia is from a Chinese/Central Asian empire, Thandi is from an African union, Elián (and most of North America) is indeterminately brown-skinned. Grego and Atta are a same-sex couple, Greta is possibly bi/pan. Eventual F/F pairing.
lesbian, bisexual, race, African, East Asian, Black 2015 YA

Shadowboxer
by Tricia Sullivan
Thai martial arts, international crime, celebrity and mythical creatures combine in this masterful new tale of two people facing incredible dangers, from award-winning author Tricia Sullivan. Nothing she’s faced in the cage will prepare her... Jade is a young mixed martial arts fighter. When she’s in the cage she dominates her opponents—but in real life she’s out of control. After she has a confrontation with a Hollywood martial arts star that threatens her gym’s reputation, Jade’s coach sends her to a training camp in Thailand for an attitude adjustment. Hoping to discover herself, she instead uncovers a shocking conspiracy. In a world just beyond our own, a man is stealing the souls of children to try and live forever.
Diverse cast
race, Black, Southeast Asian, MULTIPLE, Unspecified 2014 YA

Sister Mine
by Nalo Hopkinson
We'd had to be cut free of our mother's womb. She'd never have been able to push the two-headed sport that was me and Abby out the usual way. Abby and I were fused, you see. Conjoined twins. Abby's head, torso, and left arm protruded from my chest. But here's the real kicker; Abby had the magic, I didn't. Far as the Family was concerned, Abby was one of them, though cursed, as I was, with the tragic flaw of mortality. Now adults, Makeda and Abby still share their childhood home. The surgery to separate the two girls gave Abby a permanent limp, but left Makeda with what feels like an even worse deformity: no mojo. The daughters of a celestial demigod and a human woman, Makeda and Abby were raised by their magical father, the god of growing things--a highly unusual childhood that made them extremely close. Ever since Abby's magical talent began to develop, though, in the form of an unearthly singing voice, the sisters have become increasingly distant. Today, Makeda has decided it's high time to move out and make her own life among the other nonmagical, claypicken humans--after all, she's one of them. In Cheerful Rest, a run-down warehouse space, Makeda finds exactly what she's been looking for: an opportunity to live apart from Abby and begin building her own independent life. There's even a resident band, led by the charismatic (and attractive) building superintendent. But when her father goes missing, Makeda will have to discover her own talent--and reconcile with Abby--if she's to have a hope of saving him . . .
Protagonists were conjoined twins who were separated at birth, resulting in physical disabilities
race, disability, class, Black, Genetic, Mobility 2013 Adult

Skin Horse
by Shaenon K. Garrity, Jeffrey Channing Wells
A web comic starring a mixed-race zombie with sanity issues, a gender queer pansexual psychologist, a bad ass black mad scientist, a bad ass Korean-American mad scientist, a shape-shifting gay gerbil, a sentient water cooler navigating autonomy of self, robots and sapient animals fighting for civil rights...etc. Black Ops social services.
Diverse cast
gay, bisexual, race, disability, class, Black, East Asian, Unspecified, MULTIPLE, Mental_Illness 2009 Adult

So Long Been Dreaming
by Nalo Hopkinson (editor)
So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy is an anthology of original new stories by leading African, Asian, South Asian and Aboriginal authors, as well as North American and British writers of color.
Post-colonial science fiction
race, setting, class,, race Indigenous, Black, Unspecified, African, East Asian, Southeast Asian, Caribbean, MULTIPLE 2004 Adult

Sorcerer To The Crown
by Zen Cho
At his wit’s end, Zacharias Wythe, freed slave, eminently proficient magician, and Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers—one of the most respected organizations throughout all of Britain—ventures to the border of Fairyland to discover why England’s magical stocks are drying up. But when his adventure brings him in contact with a most unusual comrade, a woman with immense power and an unfathomable gift, he sets on a path which will alter the nature of sorcery in all of Britain—and the world at large…
Black protagonists, Malaysian characters
race, class, Black, African, Southeast Asian 2015 Adult

Star Trip
by Gisele Jobateh
Submitted: YA sci-fi webcomic with a queer Black woman protagonist; follows her adventures through the galaxy with a nonbinary shapeshifter.
Webcomic about a queer black girl and a nonbinary shapeshifter
lesbian, nonbinary, race, pronouns, Black 2013 YA

Starfarers
by Vonda N McIntyre
The starship Starfarer is poised for our first voyage to another star system. The Alien Contact Team — physicist Victoria Fraser MacKenzie, geneticist Stephen Thomas Gregory, geographer Satoshi Lono, and alien contact specialist J.D. Sauvage — and the rest of the faculty and staff prepare for humanity’s most ambitious exploratory expedition. But the world has changed. A new regime orders the vessel to be abandoned. It will be turned into an instrument of war. What do the Starfarers do? They do what any red-blooded Alien Contact Team would do. They steal the starship.
Main characters (including a black man and an Asian man) are in a poly marriage.
race, poly, Black, East Asian 1989 Adult

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
by Samuel R Delany
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is a science fiction masterpiece, an essay on the inexplicability of sexual attractiveness, and an examination of interstellar politics among far-flung worlds. First published in 1984, the novel's central issues--technology, globalization, gender, sexuality and multiculturalism--have only become more pressing with the passage of time. The novel's topic is information itself: What are the repercussions, once it has been made public, that two individuals have been found to be each other's perfect erotic object out to "point nine-nine-nine and several nines percent more"? What will it do to the individuals involved, to the city they inhabit, to their geosector, to their entire world society, especially when one is an illiterate worker, the sole survivor of a world destroyed by "cultural fugue," and the other is--you!
Famous gay Black author
gay, race, multiple culture, Black 1984 Adult

Steamfunk
by Milton J Davis (editor)
A witch, more machine than human, judges the character of the wicked and hands out justice in a ravaged Chicago. John Henry wields his mighty hammers in a war against machines and the undead. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman rule a country of freed slaves that rivals – and often bests – England and France in power and technology. You will find all this – and much more – between the pages of Steamfunk, an anthology of incredible stories by some of today’s greatest authors of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Steamfunk – African and African American-inspired Steampunk. Editors Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade have put together a masterful work guaranteed to transport you to new worlds. Worlds of adventure; of terror; of war and wonder; of iron and steam. Open these pages and traverse the lumineferous aether to the world of Steamfunk!
African and Black steampunk
race, setting, class, , race Black, African 2013 Adult

Steeplejack
by AJ Hartley
Seventeen-year-old Anglet Sutonga, Ang for short, repairs the chimneys, towers, and spires of Bar-Selehm, the ethnically-diverse industrial capital of a land resembling Victorian South Africa. The city was built on the trade of luxorite, a priceless glowing mineral. When the Beacon, a historical icon made of luxorite, is stolen, it makes the headlines. But no one cares about the murder of Ang's new apprentice, Berrit—except for Josiah Willinghouse, an enigmatic young politician, who offers Ang a job investigating Berrit's death. On top of this, Ang struggles with the responsibility of caring for her sister's newborn child. As political secrets unfold and racial tensions surrounding the Beacon's theft rise, Ang navigates the constricting traditions of her people, the murderous intentions of her former boss, and the conflicting impulses of a fledgling romance. With no one to help her except a savvy newspaper girl and a kindhearted herder from the savannah, Ang must resolve the mysterious link between Berrit and the missing Beacon before the city is plunged into chaos.
diverse cast
race, setting, class, Southern_Africa, Black, African 2016 YA

Tales of Nevčr˙on
by Samuel R Delany
The eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Nevčr˙on's four volumes chronicle a long-ago land on civilization's brink, perhaps in Asia or Africa, or even on the Mediterranean. Taken slave in childhood, Gorgik gains his freedom, leads a slave revolt, and becomes a minister of state, finally abolishing slavery. Ironically, however, he is sexually aroused by the iron slave collars of servitude. Does this contaminate his mission - or intensify it? Presumably elaborated from an ancient text of unknown geographical origin, the stories are sunk in translators' and commentators' introductions and appendices, forming a richly comic frame.
Famous gay Black author. Many queer characters and exploration of sexuality and race.
gay, race, class, Black 1979 Adult

Tea Leaf: What Hides Beneath
by Mia Mitns
While out with friends, Jasiri, a fortune teller, reveals that Cinnia’s life will be turned upside down. Cinnia hopes it is due to a new job she is after at Sciecor, a company that she has long dreamed of working for. But she has no idea of the secrets that hide in their basement. A new neighbor moves in with a hidden agenda. Friendships change. Cinnia will realize that things may not be as they appear. Magic may not only belong to fairy tales. And we may not be alone. Will Sciecor still be the company of her dreams? Will she be able to live the life that destiny has seen? When she finds out what hides beneath.
Diverse cast
race, Black, Hispanic, East Asian 2014 Adult

The True Meaning of Smekday
by Adam Rex
It all starts with a school essay. When twelve-year-old Gratuity (“Tip”) Tucci is assigned to write five pages on “The True Meaning of Smekday” for the National Time Capsule contest, she’s not sure where to begin. When her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole on the back of her neck? Maybe on Christmas Eve, when huge, bizarre spaceships descended on the Earth and the aliens – called Boov – abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it “Smekland” (in honor of glorious Captain Smek), and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocketpod? In any case, Gratuity’s story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves her unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo.; a futile journey south to find Gratuity’s mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save the Earth from yet another alien invasion. Fully illustrated with “photos,” drawings, newspaper clippings, and comics sequences, this is a hilarious, perceptive, genre-bending novel by a remarkable new talent. the planet from a really big catastrophe.
Main character is biracial, -the invading alien species has 7 genders, defined in the book as "boy, girl, boygirl, girlboy, boyboygirl, and boyboyboyboy."
race, queered culture Black, Multiracial 2007 MG

Updraft
by Fran Wilde
Welcome to a world of wind and bone, songs and silence, betrayal and courage. Kirit Densira cannot wait to pass her wingtest and begin flying as a trader by her mother's side, being in service to her beloved home tower and exploring the skies beyond. When Kirit inadvertently breaks Tower Law, the city's secretive governing body, the Singers, demand that she become one of them instead. In an attempt to save her family from greater censure, Kirit must give up her dreams to throw herself into the dangerous training at the Spire, the tallest, most forbidding tower, deep at the heart of the City. As she grows in knowledge and power, she starts to uncover the depths of Spire secrets. Kirit begins to doubt her world and its unassailable Laws, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to a haunting choice, and may well change the city forever-if it isn't destroyed outright.
WOC protag
race, FPOC, Black 2016 YA

When We Wake
by Karen Healey
Sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl living in 2027—she's happiest when playing the guitar, she's falling in love for the first time, and she's joining her friends to protest the wrongs of the world: environmental collapse, social discrimination, and political injustice. But on what should have been the best day of Tegan's life, she dies—and wakes up a hundred years later, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened. The future isn't all she had hoped it would be, and when appalling secrets come to light, Tegan must make a choice: Does she keep her head down and survive, or fight for a better world? Award-winning author Karen Healey has created a haunting, cautionary tale of an inspiring protagonist living in a not-so-distant future that could easily be our own
Diverse cast, queer women, trans character.
lesbian, transgender, race, Black 2013 YA

White is for Witching
by Helen Oyeyemi
In a vast, mysterious house on the cliffs near Dover, the Silver family is reeling from the hole punched into its heart. Lily is gone and her twins, Miranda and Eliot, and her husband, the gentle Luc, mourn her absence with unspoken intensity. All is not well with the house, either, which creaks and grumbles and malignly confuses visitors in its mazy rooms, forcing winter apples in the garden when the branches should be bare. Generations of women inhabit its walls. And Miranda, with her new appetite for chalk and her keen sense for spirits, is more attuned to them than she is to her brother and father. She is leaving them slowly - Slipping away from them - And when one dark night she vanishes entirely, the survivors are left to tell her story. "Miri I conjure you " This is a spine-tingling tale that has Gothic roots but an utterly modern sensibility. Told by a quartet of crystalline voices, it is electrifying in its expression of myth and memory, loss and magic, fear and love.
Features mental disability, an African American girl, and a multiracial lesbian relationship.
lesbian, race, disability, Black, Mental_Illness 2009 YA

The Wicked and the Divine
by Kieron Gillen
Every ninety years, twelve gods incarnate as humans. They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are dead. The team behind critical tongue-attractors like Young Avengers and PHONOGRAM reunite to create a world where gods are the ultimate pop stars and pop stars are the ultimate gods. But remember: just because you’re immortal, doesn’t mean you’re going to live forever.
Main character is a woc. The author has confirmed that one of the characters is non binary. A lot of characters are non-white, and one of the main characters is a Japanese-British trans woman. Several characters have had relationships with people of the same gender or multiple genders.
lesbian, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer, race East Asian, Black 204 YA

Will Do Magic For Small Change
by Andrea Hairston
Cinnamon Jones dreams of stepping on stage and acting her heart out like her famous grandparents, Redwood and Wildfire. But at 5'10" and 180 pounds, she's theatrically challenged. Her family life is a tangle of mystery and deadly secrets, and nobody is telling Cinnamon the whole truth. Before her older brother died he gave Cinnamon "The Chronicles of the Great Wanderer," a tale of a Dahomean warrior woman and an alien from another dimension who perform in Paris and at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The Chronicles may be magic or alien science, but the story is definitely connected to Cinnamon's family secrets. When an act of violence wounds her family, Cinnamon and her theater squad determine to solve the mysteries and bring her worlds together.
Diverse cast
race, class, Black 2016 Adult

Will Supervillains Be on the Final?
by Naomi Novik
As universities go, Liberty Vocational is the private college of choice for budding superheroes learning to master their extraordinary powers for the good of humankind. But for sixteen-year-old Leah Taymore, just making her way through classes without incident is shaping up to be a superhuman task. Star struck by legendary ex-hero turned student advisor Calvin Washington, petrified by ultrastrict dean Dr. Santos, and tongue-tied over her supercool (and handsome) classmate Paul Lyman, timid Leah fears that even her ability to manipulate atoms won’t be enough to survive the rigors of L.V.—and become a full-fledged defender of all that is right. But the real test of her mettle is yet to come, in the form of infamous supervillain Bane, who has infiltrated Liberty with a sinister plan to bring down the best and brightest heroes of tomorrow before they even take flight.
Diverse cast
race, MULTIPLE, Black, Southeast Asian, Jewish, Unspecified 2011 YA

Wind Follower
by Carol McDonnell
Although it is not entirely to her liking, grief-stricken Satha, a dark-skinned woman from a poor Theseni clan weds young Loic, the wealthy Doreni son of the king's First Captain. Loic, graced with ability to see into the hearts and minds of others, begins to help Satha overcome her sorrows. Despite coming from different tribes, they begin to forge a life together. But when Satha's own compassion is used against her and a treacherous enemy contrives to dishonor her in Loic's absence, Loic's love turns to anger and disgust. Embittered, Loic must still avenge his honor and Satha's and he sets out on a journey that brings despair as well as spiritual discovery. Battling him are the Arkhai, the spirits of the land who know his quest will lead him toward the God whom they have usurped. After his departure, Satha is kidnapped, sold into slavery and learns, first hand, how cruel the pioneering Angleni tribe can be. Both face great hardship, danger and anguish apart, but with the Creator's aid there remains hope they will be reunited and heal the love the world has torn asunder.
Diverse cast, issues of slavery
race, setting, class, , race Black, African 2007 Adult

Wings of Renewal
by Claudie Arsenault (editor)
The future is vibrant, hopeful, and filled with dragons. In WINGS OF RENEWAL, twenty-two authors explore the exciting new subgenre of solarpunk through the lens of these majestic creatures. Whether they irrigate dry terrain or serve as spaceships, are mythic beasts come to life or biomechanical creations of man, these dragons show us a world where renewable energy overcomes gas and oil, and cooperation replaces competition. If you love fantasy/sci-fi fusion, this is an anthology you do not want to miss! So hop on solar wings, and follow us into futures that–for all their witches and dragons–are far more possible than they might seem.
Settings are post-discrimination. Characters are of various races. Several minor NB characters. Three F/F stories. Representation of disabilities.
lesbian, nonbinary, genderqueer, race, setting, queered culture, disability, pronouns, , race Amputee, Black, East Asian 2015 YA

A Wizard Alone
by Diane Duane
While Nita grieves over her mother's death, Kit tackles a challenge as dangerous as it is strange: Rescue a young wizard who has vanished on his first assignment. This new wizard is unlike any other--he's autistic and he's a magical prodigy. His power is enormous. Now Kit and his dog, Ponch, must track down the missing boy before the Lone Power finds him.
Revised edition contains a good portrayal of an autistic character.
race, disability, Black, Autistic 2013 MG

Yu+Me Dream
by Megan Rose Gedris
From the site: YU+ME: dream is a surreal love story. It is part high school romance, part journey/adventure story, and part total-mind-fuck. It is a complete story, so you don’t have to wait for updates!
Lesbian romance, diverse cast.
lesbian, race, Black 2010 YA

Zahrah the Windseeker
by Nnedi Okorafor
In the northern Ooni Kingdom, fear of the unknown runs deep, and children born dada are rumored to have special powers. Thirteen-year-old Zahrah Tsami feels like a normal girls life. - she grows her own flora computer; has mirrors sewn onto her cloths; and stays clear of the Forbidden Greeny Jungle. But unlike other kids in the village of Kirki , Zahrah was born with the telling dadalocks.
Black fantasy world
race, setting, , race Black, African 2005 MG

Dawn
by Octavia Butler

Series: Xenogenesis
Book 1 of 3
Lilith lyapo awoke from a centuries-long sleep to find herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. Creatures covered in writhing tentacles, the Oankali had saved every surviving human from a dying, ruined Earth. They healed the planet, cured cancer, increased strength, and were now ready to help Lilith lead her people back to Earth--but for a price.
Black sci fi
race, poly, nonbinary, queered culture, genderqueer, Black, African 1997 Adult

Adulthood Rites
by Octavia Butler

Series: Xenogenesis
Book 2 of 3
In this sequel to Dawn, Lilith Iyapo has given birth to what looks like a normal human boy named Akin. But Akin actually has five parents: a male and female human, a male and female Oankali, and a sexless Ooloi. The Oankali and Ooloi are part of an alien race that rescued humanity from a devastating nuclear war, but the price they exact is a high one the aliens are compelled to genetically merge their species with other races, drastically altering both in the process. On a rehabilitated Earth, this "new" race is emerging through human/Oankali/Ooloi mating, but there are also "pure" humans who choose to resist the aliens and the salvation they offer.These resisters are sterilized by the Ooloi so that they cannot reproduce the genetic defect that drives humanity to destroy itself, but otherwise they are left alone (unless they become violent). When the resisters kidnap young Akin, the Oankali choose to leave the child with his captors, for he the most "human" of the Oankali children will decide whether the resisters should be given back their fertility and freedom, even though they will only destroy themselves again.
aliens with other genders and their relations with humans
alien, poly, genderqueer, nonbinary, race, queered culture, Black, African 1997 Adult

Imago
by Octavia Butler

Series: Xenogenesis
Book 3 of 3
The futures of both humans and Oankali rest in one young being's successful metamorphosis into adulthood.
aliens with other genders interacting with humans
genderqueer, poly, nonbinary, race, alien, queered culture, Black, African 1997 Adult

Shadow World
by A C Crispin and Jannean Elliott

Series: Starbridge
Book 3 of 7
For the golden-eyed Elspind, membership in the Cooperative League of Systems could bring many benefits... including a drug that would greatly increase their brief life spans. Mark Kenner, on the brink of abandoning his StarBridge career, is forced into one last assignment -- to speak on Elseemar for the CLS. But some of the Elspind are opposed to any such alliance. -Violently- opposed. They call themselves Wospind. And they are waiting for Mark and his companions...
Diverse cast, alien character with nb pronouns
race, multiple culture, pronouns Black, MULTIPLE, Unspecified 1991 Adult

Tankborn
by Karen Sandler

Series: Tankborn
Book 1 of 3
Best friends Kayla and Mishalla know they will be separated for their Assignments. They are GENs, Genetically Engineered Non-humans, and in their strict caste system, GENs are at the bottom rung of society. GENs are gestated in a tank and sent to work as slaves as soon as they reach age fifteen. When Kayla is Assigned to care for Zul Manel, the patriarch of a trueborn family, she finds secrets and surprises; not least of which is her unexpected friendship with Zul's great-grandson. Meanwhile, the children that Mishalla is Assigned to care for are being stolen in the middle of the night. After weeks of toiling in their Assignments, mystifying circumstances enable Kayla and Mishalla to reunite. Together they hatch a plan to save the disappearing children. Yet can GENs really trust humans? Both girls must put their lives and hearts at risk to crack open a sinister conspiracy, revealing secrets no one is ready to face.
Black protagonist in Indian-inspired world
race, setting, multiple culture,, race Black, South Asian 2011 YA

Awakening
by Karen Sandler

Series: Tankborn
Book 2 of 3
Once a GEN (genetically engineered nonhuman) girl terrified of her first Assignment, Kayla is now a member of the Kinship, a secret organization of GENs, lowborns, and trueborns. Kayla travels on Kinship business, collecting information to further the cause of GEN freedom. Despite Kayla’s relative freedom, she is still a slave to the trueborn ruling class. She rarely sees trueborn Devak, and any relationship between them is still strictly forbidden. Kayla longs to be truly free, but other priorities have gotten in the way. A paradoxically deadly new virus has swept through GEN sectors—a disease only GENs catch. And GEN warrens and warehouses are being bombed, with only a scrawled clue: F.H.E. Freedom, Humanity, Equality. With the virus and the bombings decimating the GEN community, freedom and love are put on the back burner as Kayla and her friends find a way to stop the killing . . . before it’s too late.
Black protagonist in Indian-inspired world
race, setting, multiple culture,, race Black, South Asian 2013 YA

Rebellion
by Karen Sandler

Series: Tankborn
Book 3 of 3
In the wake of a devastating bomb blast, severely injured Kayla has been brought to the headquarters of the organization that planted the bomb-and many others like it in GEN food warehouses and homes. Her biological mother tells her that Devak is dead and that Kayla must join her in the terrorist group, which is ramping up for something big. Now Kayla must pretend that she embraces this new role in an underground compound full of paranoia as she plots a way to escape and save her friends. Meanwhile, Devak has emerged from his healing in a gen-tank, only to be told that Kayla is dead and his family has fallen from grace. Can he overcome his grief at the loss of his power to see the clues that point to Kayla being alive? As Kayla and Devak overcome the multiple obstacles put between them while trying to free GENs without further bloodshed, the Tankborn trilogy rushes to a thrilling conclusion!
Black protagonist in Indian-inspired world
race, setting, multiple culture,, race Black, South Asian 2014 YA

Three Parts Dead
by Max Gladstone

Series: Craft Sequence
Book 1 of 4
A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring Him back to life before His city falls apart. Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without Him, the metropolis’s steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in. Her only help: Abelard, a chain-smoking priest of the dead god, who’s having an understandable crisis of faith. When Tara and Abelard discover that Kos was murdered, they have to make a case in Alt Coulumb’s courts—and their quest for the truth endangers their partnership, their lives, and Alt Coulumb’s slim hope of survival. Set in a phenomenally built world in which justice is a collective force bestowed on a few, craftsmen fly on lightning bolts, and gargoyles can rule cities, Three Parts Dead introduces readers to an ethical landscape in which the line between right and wrong blurs.
Black girl necromancer
race, class, Black, MULTIPLE, QUESTION, Unspecified 2012 Adult

Full Fathom Five
by Max Gladstone

Series: Craft Sequence
Book 3 of 4
On the island of Kavekana, Kai builds gods to order, then hands them to others to maintain. Her creations aren’t conscious and lack their own wills and voices, but they accept sacrifices, and protect their worshippers from other gods—perfect vehicles for Craftsmen and Craftswomen operating in the divinely controlled Old World. When Kai sees one of her creations dying and tries to save her, she’s grievously injured—then sidelined from the business entirely, her near-suicidal rescue attempt offered up as proof of her instability. But when Kai gets tired of hearing her boss, her coworkers, and her ex-boyfriend call her crazy, and starts digging into the reasons her creations die, she uncovers a conspiracy of silence and fear—which will crush her, if Kai can’t stop it first.
Diverse cast. Trans Pacific Islander woman protagonist, lesbian black character
lesbian, transgender, race, class, Asia-Pacific, Black, MULTIPLE, Unspecified 2014 Adult

Dark Matter
by Sheree R Thomas (editor)

Series: Dark Matter
Book 1 of 2
This volume introduces black science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction writers to the generations of readers who have not had the chance to explore the scope and diversity among African-American writers.
African science fiction
race, setting,, race Black, African 2001 Adult

Dark Matter: Reading the Bones
by Sheree R Thomas (editor)

Series: Dark Matter
Book 2 of 2
Dark Matter is the first and only series to bring together the works of black SF and fantasy writers. The first volume was featured in the "New York Times," which named it a Notable Book of the Year.
Black SF/F
race, setting, , race Black, African 2005 Adult

Island in the Sea of Time
by S M Stirling

Series: The Change (Nantucket)
Book 1 of 3
During a perfect spring evening on Nantucket a violent storm erupts and a dome of crawling colored fire blankets the island. When the howling winds subside and the night skies clear, the stars appear to have shifted. The mainland has become a wilderness of unbroken forest, where tools of bronze and stone litter the beaches, and primitive natives scatter in terror. A startling phenonomenon has occurred; The island of Nantucket has been swept into the long-ago past. With its inhabitants adrift in the year 1250 B.C., there is only one question to be answered: Can they survive? A provocative and endlessly inventive spin on the classic adventure story, Island in the Sea of Time takes you on a journey of wonder, discovery, and imagination.
Diverse cast, including a lesbian black woman who falls in love with a woman from the pre-Norman British Isles
lesbian, race, multiple culture, MULTIPLE, Black, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, Unspecified 1998 Adult

Against the Tide of Years
by S M Stirling

Series: The Change (Nantucket)
Book 2 of 3
Against the Tide of Years continues the adventures of the Nantucket residents who have been transported through time to the Bronze Age. In the years since their arrival, the fledging Republic of Nantucket has striven to better the primitive world in which they now exist. Their prime concerns are establishing a constitution and handling the waves of immigrants from the British Isles. But a renegade time traveler plans his own future by forging an empire for himself based on conquest by modern technology. The Republic has no alternative but to face the inevitable war brought on by one of their own....
Diverse cast
lesbian, race, setting, multiple culture, , race MULTIPLE, Black, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, Unspecified 1999 Adult

On the Oceans of Eternity
by S M Stirling

Series: The Change (Nantucket)
Book 3 of 3
Ten years ago, inhabitants of the twentieth century and the Bronze Age were tossed together by the Event. But as two worlds converge, only one can be the victor in a battle to lead this strange new world.
Diverse cast
lesbian, race, setting, multiple culture, , race MULTIPLE, Black, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, Unspecified 2000 Adult

Manifest
by Artist Arthur

Series: Mystyx
Book 1 of 4
When fifteen-year-old Krystal Bentley moves to Lincoln, Connecticut, her mom's hometown, she assumes her biggest drama will be adjusting to the burbs after living in New York City.But Lincoln is nothing like Krystal imagined. The weirdness begins when Ricky Watson starts confiding in her. He's cute, funny, a good listener--and everything she'd ever want--except that he was "killed" nearly a year ago. Krystal's ghost-whispering talents soon lead other "freaks" to her door--Sasha, a rich girl who can literally disappear, and Jake, who moves objects with his mind. All three share a distinctive birthmark in the shape of an "M" and, fittingly, call themselves the Mystyx. They set out to learn what really happened to Ricky, only to realize that they aren't the only ones with mysterious powers. But if Krystal succeeds in finding out the truth about Ricky's death, will she lose him for good?
Diverse cast
race, Black, MULTIPLE, Unspecified 2010 YA

Parable of the Sower
by Octavia Butler

Series: Earthseed
Book 1 of 2
When unattended environmental and economic crises lead to social chaos, not even gated communities are safe. In a night of fire and death Lauren Olamina, a minister's young daughter, loses her family and home and ventures out into the unprotected American landscape. But what begins as a flight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny... and the birth of a new faith.
African-American science fiction
race, class, Black, African 1993 Adult

Parable of the Talents
by Octavia Butler

Series: Earthseed
Book 2 of 2
This Nebula Award-winning sequel to "Parable of the Sower" continues the story of Lauren Olamina in socially and economically depressed California in the 2030s. Convinced that her community should colonize the stars, Lauren and her followers make preparations. But the collapse of society and rise of fanatics result in Lauren's followers being enslaved, and her daughter stolen from her. Now, Lauren must fight back to save the new world order.
African-American science fiction
race, class, Black, African 1998 Adult

Wild Seed
by Octavia Butler

Series: Patternmaster
Book 1 of 4
Doro is an entity who changes bodies like clothes, killing his hosts by reflex or design. He fears no one until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu is a shapeshifter who can absorb bullets and heal with a kiss and savage anyone who threatens her. She fears no one until she meets Doro. Together they weave a pattern of destiny (from Africa to the New World) unimaginable to mortals.
African characters
race, class, Black, African 1980 Adult

Mind of My Mind
by Octavia Butler

Series: Patternmaster
Book 2 of 4
For 4,000 years, an immortal has spread the seeds of a master race, using the downtrodden as his private breeding stock. But now a young ghetto telepath has found a way to awaken--and rule--her superhuman kind, igniting a psychic battle as she challenges her creator for her right to free her people.
African and African-American characters and inspirations
race, class, poly, Black, African 1977 Adult

Clay's Ark
by Octavia Butler

Series: Patternmaster
Book 3 of 4
In a violent near-future, Asa Elias Doyle and her companions encounter an alien life form so heinous and destructive, they exile themselves in the desert so as not to contaminate other humans. To resist the compulsion to infect others is mental agony, but to succumb is to relinquish humanity and free will. Desperate, they kidnap a doctor and his two daughters as they cross the wasteland--and endanger the world.
African and African-American characters and inspirations
race, class, poly, Black, African 1984 Adult

Patternmaster
by Octavia Butler

Series: Patternmaster
Book 4 of 4
The Patternist is a telepathic race, commanded by the Patternmaster, whose thoughts can destroy, heal, rule. Coransee, son of the ruling Patternmaster, wants the throne and will stop at nothing to get it, including venture into the wild mutant-infested hills to destroy a young apprentice--his equal and his brother. Previously out of print.
African and African-American characters and inspirations
race, class, poly, Black, African 1976 Adult

The Killing Moon
by N K Jemisin

Series: The Dreamblood
Book 1 of 2
In the ancient city-state of Gujaareh, peace is the only law. Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers - the keepers of this peace. Priests of the dream-goddess, their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe - and kill those judged corrupt.
Diverse cast, ace, bi, and gay characters
race, setting, class, asexual, bisexual, gay, race Black, FPOC 2012 Adult

The Shadowed Sun
by N K Jemisin

Series: The Dreamblood
Book 2 of 2
Gujaareh, the city of dreams, suffers under the imperial rule of the Kisuati Protectorate. A city where the only law was peace now knows violence and oppression. A mysterious and deadly plague now haunts the citizens of Gujaareh, dooming the infected to die screaming in their sleep. Someone must show them the way.
Diverse cast
race, setting, class, , race Black, FPOC 2012 Adult

My Soul to Keep
by Tananarive Due

Series: African Immortals
Book 1 of 3
When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever. Harrowing, engrossing and skillfully rendered, My Soul to Keep traps Jessica between the desperation of immortals who want to rob her of her life and a husband who wants to rob her of her soul. With deft plotting and an unforgettable climax, this tour de force reminiscent of early Anne Rice will win Due a new legion of fans.
Set in Ethiopia
setting, race, class,, race Black, African, East Africa 1997 Adult

The Living Blood
by Tananarive Due

Series: African Immortals
Book 2 of 3
Jessica Jacobs-Wolde's life was destroyed when her husband, David Wolde, disappeared after killing both their daughter Kira and Jessica herself--and reviving Jessica to immortality with his healing blood. David was a Life Brother, member of an ancient, secret, and immortal African clan. Now Jessica, hiding with her surviving daughter in rural Botswana, attempts to make sense of her new existence as she uses her altered blood to save the incurably ill. But her daughter Fana was born with the living blood in her veins, and at the age of 3 can raise a storm, kill with a thought, and possess her mother's mind. The true extent of her abilities is unknown. Jessica's only hope of teaching Fana to control her dangerous talents is to travel to Ethiopia and find the Life Brothers' hidden colony. But the Life Brothers despise the new immortals and may possess the knowledge to end even immortal lives. And others, unknown to Jessica, are searching for her and Fana: Lucas Shepard, a Florida doctor driven to desperation by his young son's untreatable leukemia; ruthless mercenaries in the pay of an aging medical-company executive, who will stop at nothing to gain immortality and the billion-dollar profits that a drug based on the living blood would bring; and a supernatural being or force called the Bee Lady, who stalks Fana in the world of dreams, seeking to possess Fana's mind and powers for her own evil purposes.
Diverse cast
race, setting, class, , race African, Black, East Africa 2002 Adult

Blood Colony
by Tananarive Due

Series: African Immortals
Book 3 of 3
There's a new drug on the street: Glow. Said to heal almost any illness, it is distributed by an Underground Railroad of drug peddlers. But what gives Glow its power? Its main ingredient is blood - the blood of immortals. A small but powerful colony of immortals is distributing the blood, slowly wiping out the AIDS epidemic and other diseases around the world. Meet Fana Wolde, seventeen years old, the only immortal born with the Living Blood. She can read minds, and her injuries heal immediately. When her best friend, a mortal, is imprisoned by Fana's family, Fana helps her escape and together they run away from Fana's protected home in Washington State to join the Underground Railroad. But Fana has more than her parents to worry about. Glow peddlers are being murdered by a violent, hundred-year-old sect with ties to the Vatican. Now, when Fana is most vulnerable, she is being hunted to fulfill an ancient blood prophecy that could lead to countless deaths. While her people search for Fana and race to unravel the unknown sect's mysterious origins, Fana must learn to confront the deadly forces - or she and everyone she loves will die.
Diverse cast
race, setting, class, , race Black, African, East Africa 2008 Adult

My Soul to Take
by Tananarive Due

Series: African Immortals
Book 4 of 3
Essence bestselling and award-winning author Tananarive Due delivers a heart-stopping new novel continuing the story of descendants of an immortal line of people are the only ones capable of saving the world. Fana, an immortal with tremendous telepathic abilities, is locked in a battle of wills. Her fiancé is Michel. But Johnny Wright, a mortal who is in love with her, believes that if she doesn’t stay away from Michel, they will become the Witnesses to the Apocalypse described in the Book of Revelation. Fana and the Life Brothers are rushing to distribute their healing “Living Blood” throughout the world, hoping to eliminate most diseases before Fana is bound to marry Michel. Still, they cannot heal people faster than Michel can kill them. Due weaves a tangled web in this novel, including beloved characters from her bestselling Joplin’s Ghost, in a war of good against evil, making My Soul to Take a chilling and thrilling experience.
Diverse cast
race, setting, class, , race Black, African, East Africa 2011 Adult

Earthrise
by M C A Hogarth

Series: Her Instruments
Book 1 of 3
Reese Eddings has enough to do just keeping her rattletrap merchant vessel, the TMS Earthrise, profitable enough to pay food for herself and her micro-crew. So when a mysterious benefactor from her past shows up demanding she rescue a man from slavers, her first reaction is to say "NO!" And then to remember that she sort of promised to repay the loan. But she doesn't remember signing up to tangle with pirates and slavers over a space elf prince... Book 1 of the Her Instruments trilogy is a rollicking space operatic adventure set in the Pelted Paradox universe.
Black woman protagonist, part of story spent with poly family
race, multiple culture, poly, Black 2013 Adult

Rose Point
by M C A Hogarth

Series: Her Instruments
Book 2 of 3
Reese is only just getting used to running the Earthrise in the black-and with an Eldritch in her crew-when a trip to a colony world gives rise to a whole new problem: Hirianthial is showing powers that even the Eldritch rarely have, and that only in legend. He badly needs training, support and advice, and the only place he can find them is... at home. To see the world of the Eldritch is a once in a lifetime opportunity, a thing of fantasies and rumor. And to finally meet the Eldritch Queen, the author of so many of Reese's windfalls! You'd have to twist her arm to get her to admit it, but Reese can't wait to go. But a court out of fantasy and a breathtaking land aren't enough compensation when they come packaged with a rabidly hostile species whose world is falling apart. The last thing they want any part of is some mortal interloper. Is Reese ready for the Eldritch world? Better to ask: are they ready for her?
Black woman protagonist
race, multiple culture, Black 2013 Adult

Laisrathera
by M C A Hogarth

Series: Her Instruments
Book 3 of 3
The Queen of the Eldritch has offered Reese Eddings a life out of a fairy tale, one beyond the imagination of a poor girl from Mars who’d expected to spend her life eking out a living with a rattletrap merchant vessel. Unfortunately, the day Reese reached out to accept Liolesa’s offer, Hirianthial’s enemies betrayed him--and his entire planet--to a race of sociopathic shapeshifters with dreams of conquest. Now the only thing between Reese and a castle of her very own is a maniacal alien despot, his native quisling and all the Eldritch dead-set on preventing the incursion of aliens at any cost, including the ousting of their current usurper, who happens to be an alien himself... Reese, Hirianthial and the crew of the Earthrise have been battling these pirates since Hirianthial’s capture inspired their fateful meeting, but to beat them Reese will have to own the power she’s always denied herself, and Hirianthial must make peace with his bloody past and uncertain future. The stakes have never been higher, and this last time will count for all. The final battlefield awaits. Laisrathera, Book 3 of Her Instruments, concludes the trilogy begun with Earthrise and continued in Rose Point.
Main character is a WOC
race, Black, 2014 Adult

Fire
by Kristin Cashore

Series: Graceling
Book 2 of 3
Sequel to Graceling. It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. The young King Nash clings to his throne while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. The mountains and forests are filled with spies and thieves and lawless men. This is where Fire lives. With a wild, irresistible appearance and hair the color of flame, Fire is the last remaining human monster. Equally hated and adored, she had the unique ability to control minds, but she guards her power, unwilling to steal the secrets of innocent people. Especially when she has so many of her own. Then Prince Brigan comes to bring her to King City, The royal family needs her help to uncover the plot against the king. Far away from home, Fire begins to realize there's more to her power than she ever dreamed. Her power could save the kingdom. If only she weren't afraid of becoming the monster her father was.
Majority black cast, characters from many social classes, deals with mental and physical disabilities. Bisexual protagonist
race, setting, disability, class, bisexual, race Black, FPOC, Amputee, Mental_Illness 2009 YA

The Way We Fall
by Megan Crewe

Series: Fallen World
Book 1 of 3
It starts with an itch you just can't shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you'll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in. And then you're dead. When sixteen-year-old Kaelyn lets her best friend leave for school without saying goodbye, she never dreams that she might not see him again. But then a strange virus begins to sweep through her small island community, infecting young and old alike. As the dead pile up, the government quarantines the island: no one can leave, and no one can come back. Those still healthy must fight for the island’s dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest. Because how will she go on if there isn't? Poignant and dizzying, The Way We Fall is the heart-wrenching story of one girl's bravery and unbeatable spirit as she challenges not just her fears, but her sense of what makes life worth living
Main character is biracial (her mother is Black), several other characters are non-white (biracial, Black, Korean).
race, Black, East Asian, Unspecified, MULTIPLE, Multiracial 2012 YA

The Lives We Lost
by Megan Crewe

Series: Fallen World
Book 2 of 3
First, the virus took Kaelyn’s friends. Then, her family. Now it’s taken away her home. But she can't look back—the life she once had is gone forever. A deadly virus has destroyed Kaelyn’s small island community and spread beyond the quarantine. No one is safe. But when Kaelyn finds samples of a vaccine in her father's abandoned lab, she knows there must be someone, somewhere, who can replicate it. As Kaelyn and her friends head to the mainland, they encounter a world beyond recognition. It’s not only the “friendly flu” that’s a killer—there are people who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the vaccine. How much will Kaelyn risk for an unproven cure, when the search could either destroy those she loves or save the human race?
Main character is biracial (her mother is Black), several other characters are non-white (biracial, Black, Korean).
race, Black, East Asian, Unspecified, MULTIPLE, Multiracial 2013 YA

The Worlds We Make
by Megan Crewe

Series: Fallen World
Book 3 of 3
The virus has taken away Kaelyn’s friends, her family, her home. And now a deadly enemy threatens to take the one hope she has left: THE CURE. When Kaelyn and her friends reached Toronto with a vaccine for the virus that has ravaged the population, they thought their journey was over. But now they're being tracked by the Wardens, a band of survivors as lethal as the virus who are intent on stealing the vaccine no matter what the cost. Forced onto the road again, Kaelyn and her companions discover the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is their best hope for finding scientists who can reproduce the vaccine. But with the virus already spreading among them, the Wardens hot on their trail, and hundreds of miles to cross, Kaelyn finds herself compromising her morals to keep her group alive. Her conscience seems a small price to pay if protects them and their precious cargo. Unless even that is not enough...
Main character is biracial (her mother is Black), several other characters are non-white (biracial, Black, Korean).
race, Black, East Asian, Unspecified, MULTIPLE, Multiracial 2014 YA

Blue Remembered Earth
by Alistair Reynolds

Series: Poseiden's Children
Book 1 of 3
BLUE REMEMBERED EARTH is the first volume in a monumental trilogy tracing the Akinya family across more than ten thousand years of future history...out beyond the solar system, into interstellar space and the dawn of galactic society. One hundred and fifty years from now, in a world where Africa is the dominant technological and economic power, and where crime, war, disease and poverty have been banished to history, Geoffrey Akinya wants only one thing: to be left in peace, so that he can continue his studies into the elephants of the Amboseli basin. But Geoffrey's family, the vast Akinya business empire, has other plans. After the death of Eunice, Geoffrey's grandmother, erstwhile space explorer and entrepreneur, something awkward has come to light on the Moon, and Geoffrey is tasked - well, blackmailed, really - to go up there and make sure the family's name stays suitably unblemished. But little does Geoffrey realise - or anyone else in the family, for that matter - what he's about to unravel. Eunice's ashes have already have been scattered in sight of Kilimanjaro. But the secrets she died with are about to come back out into the open, and they could change everything. Or shatter this near-utopia into shards...
Future in which Africa is the dominant world power. Main characters are Black. Prominent East Asian characters as well. Gay couple as side characters.
gay, race, setting, , race Black, African, East Asian 2012 Adult

On The Steel Breeze
by Alistair Reynolds

Series: Poseiden's Children
Book 2 of 3
It is a thousand years in the future. Mankind is making its way out into the universe on massive generation ships. On the Steel Breeze is the follow-up to Blue Remembered Earth. It is both a sequel and a standalone novel, which just happens to be set in the same universe and revolves around members of the Akinya family. The central character, Chiku, is totally new, although she is closely related to characters in the first book. The action involves a 220-year expedition to an extrasolar planet aboard a caravan of huge iceteroid 'holoships', the tension between human and artificial intelligence ... and, of course, elephants. Lots of elephants.
Future in which Africa is the dominant world power. Has a character who uses ve/ver/vis pronouns.
genderqueer, race, setting, pronouns, nonbinary,, race Black, African 2013 Adult

The Ravens Of Solemano
by Eden Unger Bowditch

Series: Young Inventors' Guild
Book 2 of 3
It has been mere days since the brilliant children of the Young Inventors Guild escaped from the clutches of the horrible Komar Romak. They've escaped with their lovely and caring schoolteacher, Miss Brett; with their long-absent parents; and with their bizarre captors, protectors, or both--the mysterious men in black. And now they travel by train, destined for parts unknown. But a note torn from the hand of a dead man in a New York tunnel guarantees that safety is an illusion. When the children's world is blown apart, life will never be the same again. Soon, the children--Jasper and little Lucy Modest, from London, England; Wallace Banneker, from New York, United States; Noah Canto-Sagas, from Toronto, Canada; and Faye Vigyanveta, from Delhi, India--find themselves in the ancient Italian village of Solemano, deep in a mystery that spans centuries. As they inch toward the truth of the men in black and the secrets they keep, one terrible fact remains: Komar Romak is still out there. He's still after them, for reasons they can't even begin to imagine. And he knows exactly where they are . . .
Black and Indian characters
race, Black, South Asian, MULTIPLE, Unspecifed 2013 MG

Stranger
by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith

Series: The Change
Book 1 of 4
Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change,” arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of the people they killed. Teenage prospector Ross Juarez’s best find ever – an ancient book he doesn’t know how to read – nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is set on him to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.
Diverse cast, queer characters.
gay, lesbian, bisexual, race, multiple culture, disability, poly, Latino, Hispanic, Black, MULTIPLE, Unspecified, Unspecified_Disability 2014 YA

Hostage
by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith

Series: The Change
Book 2 of 4
Welcome back to Las Anclas, a frontier town in the post-apocalyptic Wild West. In Las Anclas, the skull-faced sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can speed up time, and the squirrels can teleport sandwiches out of your hands. In book one, Stranger, teenage prospector Ross Juarez stumbled into town half-dead, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble— including an invasion by Voske, the king of Gold Point. The town defeated Voske’s army, with the deciding blow struck by Ross, but at a great cost. In Hostage, a team sent by King Voske captures Ross and takes him to Gold Point. There he meets Kerry, Voske’s teenage daughter, who has been trained to be as ruthless as her father. While his friends in Las Anclas desperately try to rescue him, Ross is forced to engage in a battle of wills with the king himself.
Bi characters, Hispanic and Black characters, others.
bisexual, race, queered culture, multiple culture, disability, poly, class, Black, Hispanic, Latino, Unspecified, Unspecified_Disability 2015 Adult

Rebel
by R J Anderson

Series: Faery Rebel
Book 2 of 3
The faeries of the Oak are dying, and it’s up to a lone faery named Linden to find a way to restore their magic. Linden travels bravely into dangerous new territory, where she enlists the help of an unlikely friend—a human named Timothy. Soon they discover something much worse than the Oakenfolk’s loss of magic: a potent evil that threatens the fate of all faeries. In a fevered, desperate chase across the country, Timothy and Linden risk their lives to seek an ancient power before it’s too late to save everyone they love.
Author Comment: " "Race" applies because the faery heroine of the book is mixed-race (her mother is black) and encounters racial prejudice for the first time in the story. "Disability" applies because a secondary character introduced in the second half of the story has a spinal cord injury and uses a wheelchair; another character also experiences intermittent and debilitating muscle spasms."
race, disability, Black, Multiracial 2010 YA

Binti
by Nnedi Okorafor

Series: Binti
Book 1 of 3
Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach. If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself - but first she has to make it there, alive.
African (Himba) protagonist, focus on cultural respect
race, multiple culture, Southern Africa, Black 2015 Adult

Binti: Home
by Nnedi Okorafor

Series: Binti
Book 2 of 3
The thrilling sequel to the Nebula and Hugo winning Binti. It’s been a year since Binti and Okwu enrolled at Oomza University. A year since Binti was declared a hero for uniting two warring planets. A year since she left her family to pursue her dream. And now she must return home to her people, with her friend Okwu by her side, to face her family and face her elders. But Okwu will be the first of his race to set foot on Earth in over a hundred years, and the first ever to come in peace. After generations of conflict can human and Meduse ever learn to truly live in harmony?
WOC characters, trans woman character
transgender, race, setting, African, Black 2016 YA

Binti: The Night Masquerade
by Nnedi Okorafor

Series: Binti
Book 3 of 3
Binti has returned to her home planet, believing that the violence of the Meduse has been left behind. Unfortunately, although her people are peaceful on the whole, the same cannot be said for the Khoush, who fan the flames of their ancient rivalry with the Meduse. Far from her village when the conflicts start, Binti hurries home, but anger and resentment has already claimed the lives of many close to her. Once again it is up to Binti, and her intriguing new friend Mwinyi, to intervene--though the elders of her people do not entirely trust her motives--and try to prevent a war that could wipe out her people, once and for all.
WOC characters
race, setting, African, Black 2017 YA

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