Fantasy and Sci-Fi books with great Trans Rep!

“I’m not going to let you reinvent the hotel in your image. That’s how our spaces become the space of men, of misogynists.”

This kind of conversation, this kind of accusation, is something almost every trans or non-binary person has heard before. We’ve seen it on the internet, we’ve heard it said directly to our faces, and an awful voice whispers it in our heads.

If you have somehow missed the news that Janelle Monae is non-binary over the years, then allow The Memory Librarian to set the record straight, because they write their many genderqueer/trans/non-binary characters with an open honesty that can only come from personal experience.

The Memory Librarian expands on the world of their album, Dirty Computer, with the assistance of a group of talented co-writers in this anthology of stories. And within this world we are presented with more trans characters in one place than almost any other book is bold enough to depict.

In the most simple terms: Janelle Monae allows trans and non-binary people to actually exist as more than the individual representatives of our people. They fall in love, they lust, they deal with transphobia, those who want to embrace womanhood are allowed to embrace it and define it for themselves despite the threatened words of transphobes and TERFs.

Like Janelle Monae, I may be a dirty computer, but “I will prevail. I will come out in a car flying across the ocean before you kill me or kill my essence, kill my spirit.”

Content Warning: Transphobia

Revolutionary Girl Utena is important, there’s no way around that. It is one of the most uncomfortable and mature Magical Girl stories ever written. And most impressively, by far, the original 1997 series – from which this 2018 manga carries its legacy – was already telling stories with a heavily trans coded protagonist.

To be clear, when I say Utena is “trans coded” I mean that Utena is trans, and the coding is simply an uncertainty in which direction her magnificently queer identity actually points! Utena’s gender identity is a difficult conversation, which is why I’m using the term “trans coded” for now, as every person who encounters her may come out with a different interpretation. Is Utena female? Male? Non-Binary? The writing around Utena is beautifully trans and her experiences with dysphoria and fighting a system that struggles to recognize her will have trans readers feel seen like few other pieces of media have ever allowed.

I won’t call Ursula K. LeGuin’s sci-fi masterpiece ‘ahead of its time.’ Perhaps that is because writing fiction about trans people, a people who have existed so long as there have been people, should not have taken so long. However I credit Ursula K. LeGuin for writing about a society that is both without gender and genderfluid in 1969 – a feat that still won’t go on the table of most author’s imaginations even today.

But the real reason I won’t call this book ‘ahead of its time’ is because that would imply it was looking forward, that it was discussing events that were to come. It was not doing any of those things, as LeGuin herself says within the book, “Science fiction is not predictive; it is descriptive.”

The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of Ai, who could best be described as every science fiction protagonist of his era rolled up into one person. And this is entirely on purpose, to put him in uncertainty when he is introduced to the people of Winter – who have no gender except when the time comes to reproduce, and who may not become the same gender during each phase of reproduction.

I won’t say that The Left Hand of Darkness was ‘ahead of its time.’ More that science fiction and fantasy were behind  LeGuin’s time.

Brandon Sanderson has gone through a journey of allyship – in that once upon a time he notably was not one. However, as one of his most flawed characters once said, “If I must fall, I will rise each time, a better man.” And so, Sanderson’s books – especially his premier series “The Stormlight Archive” features multiple trans characters in major and minor roles.

First comes The Sibling, introduced in Rhythm of War, the Non-binary spirit who is part of the Tower where the protagonists make their home gets the same treatment of narrative importance, trauma, wonderfully written dialogue, and development that the rest of Sanderson’s cast receive. Wind and Truth even allows them, as an elder Queer, to give advice on gender identity to a young person who has, until this point, presented feminine but clearly shows interest in exploring their identity beyond gender.

Additional bonus points for a minor character, well handled, in The Reshi King – who transitions in the background over the course of the series and for whom Sanderson confirms that the magic of his worlds can act as a form of HRT, “healing the body.”

“Are there dwarf women?”

“Do dwarf women have beards?”

These are common questions in relation to dwarves in fantasy and they’re most commonly presented as a joke; because dwarves present so traditionally masculine, beards being seen as essential to their depiction, that the idea of a feminine dwarf becomes comedic.

The legendary author, Terry Pratchett took this concept and approached it with his usual brand of keen social awareness, comedy, and sense of kindness. The result of this is Cheery Longbottom, the first Dwarf to declare herself a woman in a society of men. But even as she goes through the multi-stage process of transition (a part of the process not commonly depicted in fiction, as trans characters are typically depicted as fully closeted or fully out) the world reacts, some in welcome and others in anger and resentment.

Content Warning: Transphobia

One Piece’s relationships with its trans characters is an awkward one. The villain-turned-ally, Bon Clay, presents as their assigned gender, but within their shapeshifting powers shows full comfort with all gender presentation and is depicted as unambiguously trans. The frankly magnificent Emperio Ivankov is a loving tribute to Rocky Horror Picture Show, and is consistently written with agency, strength and is shown respect and deference by the rest of the cast.

However, the Kamabakka Kingdom exists, where the transwomen are drawn in a manner which is frankly, offensive, and openly derided by the only major character to visit.

So why is this story still being recommended? Because Oda, like many authors, grew as a person. In the years following Kamabakka Kingdom, Oda wrote two more excellent trans character; Kiku, the transfemme Samurai warrior, and Yamato, a transmasculine warrior who unashamedly presents feminine whilst maintaining masculine pronouns and identity – a rare and beautiful piece of representation.

Oda may have made mistakes in his representation of trans people in the past, but he has still written more trans characters than most authors of his experience and he grew to understand how to write them well and respectfully.

Content Warning: Transphobia

Komi Can’t Communicate is a sweet story about making friends and learning to appreciate people despite the things that make them strange. You would think that the author would have the ‘strange’ thing about their non-binary character, Najimi, be that they’re non-binary, but the mangaka doesn’t take such easy bait. Najimi’s oddity comes from the fact that they’re everyone’s best friend.

That they’re without gender is so entirely irrelevant to the plot and to Najimi themself that they actively make fun of the protagonist when he expresses confusion at their gender. Najimi is delightful, rambunctious, so friendly that they can listen to eight people talk at once, and a true mischief maker.

Your eyes aren’t playing tricks, Brandon Sanderson makes his way onto this list a second time. When you write multiple series with with multiple trans characters, you get to appear multiple times.

The second book in Sanderson’s Skyward series presents the Dione, a species of Non-Binary aliens with two characters who fill major roles in the story – Cuna and Morriumur. In cisgender led stories, trans characters are rarely present and when we are, we usually only see a single person standing in for representation. But Starsight treats us to two Non-Binary characters who, beyond their species, have nothing to do with each other and exist as different and fully fleshed out characters.

Once more, additional points are allocated to Sanderson for including a scene wherein the protagonist, uncertain of the genders of the aliens around her, actively chooses to use gender-neutral pronouns so as not to assume gender, as well as having gender-ambiguous characters get to specify their preferred pronouns and have that request be respected.

A character who takes some time (ten books), to be introduced, is Never. From its tenth book, onwards, author Derek Landy was making a clear effort to write more inclusively of queer characters.

Amongst this cast is the introduction of Never, friend to the newly introduced major character and all around useless brother of The Chosen One, Omen Darkly. Never is Genderfluid, and a great deal of fun whenever they appear, simultaneously balancing a snarky, smart-ass tone common to many of Landy’s cast and the friendly companionship Omen often needs.

Chloe Gong’s debut novel tackles diverse and complex themes in her own voices retelling of Romeo and Juliette set in Shanghai. Amongst these themes comes a presentation of Celia, a transwoman who faces bigotry from both her family as well as society beyond it. She takes on the identity of her dead sister, both as a way of pleasing her household and because there are times when, as trans people, we will do whatever we can to represent something close to ourselves.

Content Warning: Transphobia