Swords and Spaceships for June 18

Aster is an intersex, nonbinary woman who lives in the slums of a generation ship stratified very much like the antebellum South. Investigating the mystery of what happened to her mother and what is going wrong with the ship–two things that may be more linked than she first realizes–she finds she has the power to destroy the unjust world around her.

Basically, you should check out everything Rivers Solomon has written; fae writes a lot of work with intersex and nonbinary and otherwise queer characters. See also The Deep and Sorrowland.

In a very near future, two young women, Ryann and Alexandria, become friends after a terrible accident that leaves Alexandria’s arm broken. Ryann, who has always dreamed of being an astronaut, and tried to force herself to give up that dream because poor girls don’t become astronauts–finds out that Alexandria’s mother is an astronaut who volunteered for a one-way mission. Now, Ryann helps Alexandria up onto her roof every night to search for radio signals sent back by her mother.

This is Bogi Takács’s first collection, and e includes stories with intersex themes ranging into the far future–as well as the aforementioned space octopus. I also definitely encourage you to check out the books e has edited over the years, including the Transcendent anthologies.

Mio is an intersex, nonbinary sorcerer who wishes only to be freed from the political machinations of his mother. He puts his trust in Rhodry in a desperate bid for his own murder… but Rhodry can’t bring himself to do the deed, and instead takes Mio to his home, an estate where they might be safe if they can survive the curse placed on it.

Regan is a young, intersex girl who makes the mistake of trusting the wrong person with knowledge of her identity. Fleeing from someone she once believed was a friend, a mysterious door takes her to the Hooflands, a place of centaurs and kelpies and a destiny as a hero that everyone expects her to fulfill–and Regan isn’t sure she wants.

Andi is a “Transgressor,” an intersex woman who has chosen to buck the system in a society where surgical assignment is mandated by law for people like her. She joins up with the titular Trans Liberty Riot Brigade to fight back against a government that wants to mandate what ‘legal’ genitals must look like–and the next step in their desperate war is getting past the wall barricading the United Free States’ borders and keeping out all outside communications.