This week’s Sapphic Book Bingo category features books with sapphics in space.
At least part of the book needs to be set in space. It can be a sapphic science-fiction novel or a contemporary book featuring astronauts.
15 books about sapphics in space
Below, you’ll find 15 recommended books featuring sapphics in space:
No Shelter But the Stars by Virginia Black
Kyran Loyal is the last heir to the lost throne of a forgotten planet, the figurehead of a nomadic people fleeing the galactic tyranny of a brutal regime. Davia Sifane is the unrecognized daughter of an imperial despot. When happenstance pits them against each other in battle, neither expects the outcome: they are the only two people to survive. Marooned on a barren moon, their only hope of survival is to rely on each other, but what they learn will either kill them or change the galaxy forever.
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The Helion Band by AJ Mason
Rose is a fugitive, fleeing from Queen Penthesilea, aided only by the mysterious bracelet that was a scornful gift from her merciless ruler. Rose lives in uncomfortable symbiosis with it, ignorant of its origins and potential. All she knows is that if Penthesilea catches her, she’s as good as dead.
Relentlessly pursued across the galaxy by an increasingly desperate Pentesilea, will Rose find the strength to take a stand or will she fall to the queen and lose everything?
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The Lily and the Crown by Roslyn Sinclair
Ariana “Ari” Geiker lives an isolated life on an imperial space station commanded by her father. The skilled, young botanist rarely leaves her living quarters, where she maintains an elaborate garden. When an imperious older woman is captured from a pirate ship and given to her as a slave, Ariana’s perfectly ordered life is thrown into chaos. Her nameless slave is watchful, intelligent, dangerous, and sexy, and seems to know an awful lot about tactics, star charts, and the dread, marauding pirate queen, Mir. What happens when the slave also reveals an expertise in seduction to her innocent mistress?
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Jasyn and the Astronauts: Under the Ice Skies by Gwenhyver
Jasyn is an explorer with a talent for reaching for the stars and upending weather systems with her emotions. Atalanta is an archer and a recluse with a skill for making Jasyn’s heart glow as bright as a filament-fruit. When their world is upturned, a journey across their homeworld and towards the stars begins.
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The Caphenon by Fletcher DeLancey
Captain Ekatya Serrado has spent her career fighting the Voloth, who view less advanced civilizations as fuel for their empire. The choice between saving her ship or a world under attack is easy. The choices that come after are harder.
Lancer Andira Tal, the leader of Alsea, believes her people are alone in the universe until a gigantic spaceship crashes near her capital city. Now she is thrust into a struggle between two powerful forces, and her planet is the prize.
With a civilization and the galactic balance of power at risk, friendships and alliances may not hold against betrayal. Honor is easy when the stakes are low.
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Voyager by Jay Wright Tompkins
In the 2190’s, Earth has become a foggy, distant memory for most of humanity. But for the unlucky survivors on the surface, every day reminds them of the atrocities that led to Earth’s downfall. The great cities of Earth have descended into a complex, interweaving web of gang wars and despotic opportunists. In the remnants of Malibu, a small group of young people, orphaned by the great tragedy, have created a humble commune, where they live collectively and act as a peacekeeping force for the ruined city of Los Angeles.
A young woman named Sarasvati, who grew up in the commune, has made a name for herself as a ruthless warrior who fights for justice. Her relationship with her girlfriend, Zoe, is strained when the Vanguard, the hate group that persecuted her when she was a teenager resurfaces and wants her, and the rest of the commune, dead.
Among the chaos, an affluent family from the planet Venus, seemingly falls out of the sky and begs Sarasvati and her friends for help in escaping the dangers of Earth and going to Titan, where patriarch Everett Lambert hopes to find a promising career in politics.
When the Vanguard learns that the Lambert Family is on the surface, they focus all of their efforts into eradicating them, lest they escape with the fugitives and spread word of the conspiracy keeping Earth’s demise a secret from the rest of humanity.
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Rescue Her Heart by KC Luck
Two women. One galaxy.
As a decorated Space Ranger in the 8th Galaxy, Captain Natalie (Nat) Reynolds has an exciting, albeit lonely, life. Yet, when Nat answers a distress call from a craft in trouble on a nearby planet, it has the possibility of changing the trajectory of her life forever.
Catherine Porter is down on her luck in the worst way. Evicted, almost penniless, she worries all hope is lost until a charismatic stranger flies into her life. Inexplicably drawn to the one woman who can possibly save her, Catherine must face feelings she never considered.
Will their stars align and lead them to a happily ever after? Or will their differences tear their hearts apart?
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Dancing in the Darkness by Lexa Luthor
Charlie is called back to her childhood planet for a rescue mission that becomes puzzling. Not only is the mission mysterious but so is the planet’s ruler, a female Alpha named Kal.
Charlie, an indignant human raised on Kander during the civil war, is beckoned back after she escaped as a teen. Needing money and a job more than her pride, she is hired to retrieve a kidnapped Omega that was taken off-world. Charlie and her mercenary teamwork with Kal in preparation of their mission. Together, she and Kal form a plan, however, Charlie soon learns intimate details about Kal’s rare nature as a “female” Alpha.
As Charlie and her team embark on the journey to rescue the Omega, they are faced with startling questions about the true motives behind the kidnapping. It was supposed to be just another job, but when Charlie starts to give a damn about both the missing Omega and the enigmatic Alpha ruler, it leaves her in the crossfire.
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Depths of Blue by Lise MacTague
For Torrin Ivanov, life is a bargaining table. Every planet is a new business opportunity. Legality is optional and supplying one side in a local civil war always adds up to profit.
Jak Stowell is at war within a war. A woman hidden in the heart of a male-only army, her brother’s murder has left her desperate for vengeance. Her skill as a sniper gives her both the disguise she needs and paves the way ever closer to her real goal. She kills efficiently, without remorse. Putting down an off-world smuggler will be no different.
A moment’s hesitation. A flicker of doubt. Two women on a collision course set off a chain reaction of intergalactic intrigue—and awaken a dangerous passion that could cost them their lives.
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Cheerleaders from Planet X by Lyssa Chiavari
Aliens are among us. And humanity’s only hope just happens to carry pom-poms.
Laura Clark thought she was just your average college freshman—until the day she saw a cheerleader on a skateboard get into a superhuman brawl with a lightning-wielding stranger in a trenchcoat. And the weirdest thing of all? Nobody else saw it happen. Nobody, that is, except the beautiful but standoffish Shailene, one of the mysterious (and possibly super-powered) cheerleaders from Laura’s rival school, Bayview University.
When girls start disappearing all over the City, Laura suddenly realizes that she may have seen more than she should. And if she wants to keep from disappearing herself, she needs to find some answers. But though Laura can’t shake the feeling that they’re somehow connected, Shailene is more than a little reluctant to share her secrets. With strange, bug-like creatures and a sinister man in a dark coat stalking her every step, Laura will have to uncover the truth fast if she wants to survive.
The fate of the planet just might hang in the balance.
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The Inevitable Singularity by Molly J. Bragg
Sean, a mercenary, is the bodyguard of Grand Master Caila of the Order of the Paladins of the Republic. A fact that the entire Order, except for Caila herself, resents deeply since they kicked Sean out almost twenty years earlier. It doesn’t help matters that Caila has taken a vow of Celibacy, but everyone knows that she and Sean have feelings for each other.
Sean’s presence is only tolerated because Caila is the official Seer of the Paladin Order. While all Paladins can see the future to a limited extent, Caila’s gift with foresight exceeds even the head of the order.
But when a mine destroys Caila’s ship just as they arrive in the Ptolemy system to settle a dispute over a hyperspace route, it quickly becomes clear that someone doesn’t want their mission to succeed.
With only Reagan, a Paladin with a personal grudge against Sean for support, Sean and Caila make their way to Ptolemy, recruiting allies along the way. But each time they look into the future, Caila sees a vision showing her that Ptolemy will be reduced to a lifeless cinder if they leave, and Sean receives a warning that Caila will die if they stay.
Can they avoid disaster, or will Caila be forced to sacrifice herself to save an entire world?
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Beneath the Surface by Rebecca Langham
When a change in collective conscious sends the Outsiders, a group of aliens, to the shadows below the city, humans reason that the demonization of their peers is simply more “humane.” There’s no question, nor doubt. Just acceptance.
Lydia had embraced that sense of “truth” for as long as she can remember. The daughter of a powerful governor, she has been able to live her life with more comforts than most. Comforts can be suffocating, though, and when the opportunity to teach Outsider children in their private, “humane” community becomes available, she takes it.
What she finds beneath the city is far from the truth she had grown to know. There she meets Alessia, an Outsider with the knowledge and will to shake the foundation of all those who walk above ground. The two find a new and unexpected connection despite a complete disconnect from the technological world. Or perhaps in spite of it.
Still, it takes a lot more than an immutable connection to change the world. Lydia, Alessia, and a small group of Outsiders must navigate a system of corruption, falsehoods, and twists none of them ever saw coming, all while holding on to the hope to come out alive in the end. But it’s a risk worth taking, and a future worth fighting for.
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Unbound Oath by Ryann Fletcher
Cassius Calvetti was never supposed to be the leader of The Scattered. Awaiting trial in a Coalition prison, she makes one more desperate attempt at escape.
It’s been eight years since Olivia Guisette took on the job of being the right hand to High Councilor Tarand. When she’s given an ultimatum, she winds up facing down death.
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Destination Alara by S. Y. Thompson
In the 24th Century technology has evolved but greed and war are constant. A rookie starship captain but a veteran of the recent Gothoan War, Vanessa Swann searches the outer rim of the galaxy for any sign of rebel activity. Her favorite pastimes are kicking enemy butt and making time with the ladies. The last thing Van wants is to team up with the Andromeda System’s heir apparent and leader of the Coalition flagship, Princess/Admiral Cade Meryan.
Coal black hair, piercing grey eyes and skin the color of fresh cream threaten Vanessa’s professional boundaries, but focus she must when faced with repeated attempts on Cade’s life. The fate of millions and the threat of galactic war rest on Van’s shoulders. Whatever the outcome, their lives will never be the same.
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Black Sails to Sunward by Sheila Jenné
In a world of frock coats, solar sails, and rigid class boundaries, Lucy joins the Martian Imperial Navy as a midshipman.
Mars and Earth are at war, and Lucy hopes for quick promotion. But when she arrives aboard ship, she finds harsh officers and a crew on the verge of mutiny. And worse: her former friend, Moira—a commoner and a radical—is a member of the crew.
It’s clear where Lucy’s duty lies. As an officer and a gentlewoman, she has to quell the crew’s rebellion and preserve her ship for the fight against Earth. But soon, she’ll have to make a decision between all she’s been taught to believe and the injustice she can see with her own eyes.
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Recombinant Love by K’Anne Meinel
While hiking the mountains and deserts of Arizona with her best friend, D.O.G., Ryley Graham hears a whirring noise. Thinking D.O.G. has cornered a rattlesnake, she rushes to protect him and is blinded by a light seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere simultaneously.
Waking up 510 years later, she is confused by the unfamiliar machinery and ‘people’ that surround her. Skeptical when she is informed she is aboard a spaceship that explores wormholes, it takes a great deal of effort to finally convince Ryley she isn’t in a government-owned facility and part of some huge experiment or conspiracy.
Adjusting to the odd life forms that coexist on the ship, Ryley begins to accept that she can never go back to Earth 2015, and she begins to contribute her own unique knowledge and skills to their survival. As Ryley makes new friends, one of them begins to stand out…
Mercédès is a woman…half human and half android. She is struggling to understand her human side and the odd feelings she is developing for this Earthwoman.
Learning about love, and learning to love will be huge challenges as Ryley and Mercédès begin to forge a future. What impact will it have when they discover the real reason Ryley was taken in the first place?
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Coming soon: Sapphic Book Advent Calendar
Like in past years, I’m putting together a bookish Advent calendar for readers of sapphic fiction, with a giveaway, a free book, or a book on sale behind every door, plus a big finale with dozens of book prizes on December 24 and 25.
You can already check out the Advent calendar page and sign up for the daily reminder emails, which will land in your in-box any time you can open a new door.
Leave a comment
What sapphic book will you be reading for the “sapphics in space” category? Are there other books that are a good fit for this category? Let us know in the comments!
3 Responses
I would like to suggest, for space books-Across the dark horizon by Tagan Shepard
The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton was published recently and was an interesting read. I really like the Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya Universe books I’ve read. These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs is a darker read, but probably my fave of the year, and the sequel recently came out.
Gun Brooke – for sci-fi, she has an older 4-book series starting with Protector of the Realm, a 5-book series starting with Advance, and a newer trilogy starting with Yearning.
Also, just go to Fletcher DeLancey’s website and read the original fanfic novels that lead to the Alsea books. The Voyager (Janeway/OFC, eventual Seven/OFC) fanfics are all still available and downloadable to your kindle or computer. 5 novels starting with Past Imperfect. And they’re great reads!
Gun Brooke, K Aten, Rachel Ford, Rae D Magdon…