Sci-Fi Dykes

Do you look for yourself in mainstream literature and fail to find the merest reflection? Try reading speculative fiction, the literature of the imagination. Many science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers have begun to cover alternative sexualities, so you can find a wide variety of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual characters in speculative fiction. I would like to recommend some of my favorite examples from science fiction, which explore the adventures of Lesbians in the past and the future.

In his meticulously detailed Worldwar series, Harry Turtledove includes a Lesbian character in the second book, Tilting the Balance (Del Rey, 1995). Lucille Potter serves as a field nurse attached to an army unit trying to fight off reptilian invaders; the story takes place during World War I (interrupted by the arrival of the alien fleet). Interestingly, Lucille is a supporting character in a cast of several dozen; she and her sexuality form part of the background that gives the series its human weight.

Stardust Bound (Firebrand Books, 1994) by Karen Cadora spins a haunting tale of an Earth ravaged by catastrophe, only beginning to rebuild. Lesbian romance forms one of the central plot lines as the characters pursue the study of astronomy, now considered a "science crime."

Nicola Griffith introduces a compelling theme in Ammonite (Del Rey, 1992): a virus which kills all men but renders Lesbian sex fertile. While testing a vaccine for the virus, Marguerite Taishan explores the planet GP and its all-female societies, where she finds her true home and her true love, Thenike. I enjoyed the diversity of Lesbian cultures presented here.

Not only novels but anthologies of short stories explore the Lesbian experience. Marion Zimmer Bradley's world of Darkover contains the comhi-letzii or Order of Renunciates, commonly called Free Amazons. Many (though not all) of these women live as Lesbians, even claiming their partners legally as "freemates." You can read about them in Free Amazons of Darkover (DAW, 1985), which also includes both the original and modified forms of the Free Amazon Oath. Finally, White Wolf Publishing is publishing a set of anthologies called Bending the Landscape which features Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual characters; the science fiction volume recently filled and should hit the shelves in late 1997 or early 1998.

Visit your local women's bookstore and look for these or other Queer-positive titles in the science fiction section. Women of all sexual orientations have a place in the future. We can make changes and affect history as much as anyone else. Take a peek at how some writers have imagined their characters doing just that.

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Art on this page is from the "Colorful Bubbles" set, at Rita's Bermans.

The URL for this page is http://www.worthlink.net/~ysabet/gsas/sfdykes.html and it was last updated on November 21, 1998.