This week is Ace Pride Week, which is a celebration of asexuality. Naturally here at Read Indie Fantasy, we wanted to celebrate indie and self-published books that feature major asexual characters and ace-identifying authors writing SFF.
It’s hard to narrow down a list of books, so I’ve gone for a mix of fifteen books featuring asexuality that I think you should check out. This list includes fantasy, sci-fi and cozy, so there’s something for everyone. But if you’re looking for more, then please take a look at our LGBTQIA+ Book Collection.
Further more, if you’d like to support ace books and ace authors, check out this Ace Pride Week bundle on Itch.io, courtesy of Kai Zeal.
So let’s take a look at some books:
A Designer Magick: An Art Deco Fantasy by Fox N. Locke
An Art Deco fantasy where fashion is the highest form of power and mages rule the roost.
Vlyn Adare is an illegal magick user hiding in plain sight, a seamstress going nowhere fast.
When she’s not dreaming of being Vlyn’s beau, socialite Shirley Hollister fantasises about being a fashion designer but is stuck in a rut as a receptionist.
To escape his fundamentalist family, Ellory Miller begrudgingly becomes a mage, even if he only wants to make magickal couture.
Rejected by both the mages and gender critical witches, Niven is forced to become a freelancer, hunting rogue magickal users to avoid arrest themself.
Lien Bassett, a trans journalist living stealth, has been trying for decades in vain to hold the mage Tower to account.
All five are brought together after Ellory blows the whistle on the Head Mage’s criminal activity. Hidden prisons, protests, dramatic magick battles, and plenty of fabulous fashion await them.
Unashamedly queer – and built around a slow burn F/F romance – A Designer Magick investigates mental health, gender, and freedom of speech in an evocative 1920s style setting.
Awakenings by Claudie Arseneault
Innkeep, hunter, blacksmith, nurse—Horace has apprenticed for every clan in the domed city of Trenaze, and they’ve all rejected em. Too hare-brained. Too talkative. Too slow. Ever the optimist, e has joined Trenaze’s guards to be mentored. Horace has high hopes to earn eir place during eir trial at the Great Market. That is, until the glowing shards haunting the world break through the city’s protective dome, fused together in a single, monstrous amalgam of Fragments.
Armed with a sword, a shield, and far too little training, Horace doubts eir ability to defend the market-goers. But eir last stand is interrupted by a mysterious elven figure who can dissipate the Fragments with a single, strange sentence: your story is my story.
From the moment it is uttered, Horace knows the sentences holds true for em, too—and when the elf collapses in the middle of the market, e carries them to safety, to recover away from the panicked crowd and inevitable questions from eir fellow guards. It could cost em eir apprenticeship—eir last chance to find eir place in eir home city—but Horace cannot resist the pull of this mystery elf and the call of a new friend.
Aliyah has but one desire: to leave Trenaze’s safe boundaries and find the forest that haunts their dreams. After an afternoon of board games in their quiet, sharp-witted company, Horace is ready to follow, confronting Fragments and other dangers of the road to understand what happened that day, hear Aliyah’s laugh again and finally feel like e belongs.
Chai and Cat-tales by Lynn Strong
Bask in a sunbeam with three cozy fantasy novellas of the Catsprowl, a busy neighborhood brimming with cats and cat-goddesses, book-keepers and bath-houses, piping hot chai, and pouncing kittens’ mischief.
This volume includes the novellas The Prince of Her Dreams, Priye, and The Potter’s Dream under one cover.
Echoes of the Imperium by Nicholas Atwater, Olivia Atwater
A fallen empire. A goblin airship captain. One big, blasphemous problem.
Captain William Blair has taken shady jobs before—what goblin hasn’t? But this shady job has pirates off the port bow and legendary aethermancers knocking at his cabin door. Unfortunately, Wil has sworn an Oath to escort his newest dubious passenger wherever she wants to go… and a goblin must be worth his word.
The ragtag crew of the Iron Rose once survived the fall of an empire—but none of them are interested in revisiting the experience. As the dregs of the Imperium rise again to claw at their heels, Wil and his crew must face the literal ghosts of their past… or else history may well repeat itself.
In Spite of the Inevitable by Morgan Biscup
The past isn’t the only thing that won’t stay dead.
Hiding from his violent history as a revered Void necromancer within the Sparnell Confederation, single father Shane Lawrence has finally built a quiet life. On the freehold planet of Baden he can pour his energy into the only thing that now the safety and upbringing of his precocious son, Jake.
All too soon, the Confederation targets Baden for annexation, confronting Shane once more with his treasonous past. Worse, the invading force is led by none other than Shane’s manipulative former mentor, Admiral Kydell.
Shane’s every instinct screams to run, to hide Jake even further from Sparnell – but Baden is home. This time he could choose to make a stand and defend the entire planet, not just his son. But that means turning to the very skills he swore he’d leave behind…
Merchants of Knowledge and Magic by Erika McCorkle
On one of the many planes of the Pentagonal Dominion, priestess Calinthe trades in information, collecting valuable secrets for her demonic employer. Calinthe has a secret of her own: she’s intersex, making her a target for the matriarchal slavers of the Ophidian Plane whose territory she must cross in her search for hidden knowledge. But thanks to her friend Zakuro’s illusions, Calinthe presents as a woman- a comfortable, if furtive, existence in a world determined to bring her to heel.
But when, instead of a mere secret, the priestess uncovers an incalculably powerful artifact, Calinthe finds herself in a high-stakes negotiation with the same matriarchs who sought to enslave her. On the table: Calinthe’s discovery, a charm powerful enough to transform a mortal into a god… against a secret so deadly it could quell all life on every plane of the dominion. If Calinthe plays her cards perfectly, she and Zakuro could escape Ophidia wealthier than either of them ever dreamed possible.
But if she plays them wrong…
…she’ll learn slavery in her pursuers’ hands is a fate far worse than death.
Non-Player Character by Veo Corva
Not all fantasy worlds live only in our imaginations.
32-year old Tar feels like a Non-Player Character in their own life. They’ve been utterly sidelined by their anxiety and they spend all their spare time playing video games. Then they get invited to play Kin, a tabletop role-playing game their friend swears will change their life. And it does, but not in the way Tar expects. Friendship, it turns out, is even better than escapism.
But what none of them knew was that it would change their life a second time. Because the world of Kin is real. And the whole party soon discovers that changing your setting doesn’t change you.
Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn
The ocean is uncontrollable and dangerous. But to the sirens who swim the warm island waters, it’s a home more than worth protecting from the humans and their steam-propelled ships. Between their hypnotic voices and the strength of their powerful tails, sirens have little to fear.
That is, until the ruthless pirate captain, Kian, creates a device to cancel out their songs.
Perle was the first siren captured, and while all since have either been sold or killed, Kian still keeps them prisoner. Though their song is muted and their tail paralyzed, Perle’s hope for escape rekindles as another pirating vessel seizes Kian’s ship. This new captain seems different, with his brilliant smile and his promises that Kian will never again be Perle’s master. But he’s still a human, and a captor in his own way. The compassion he and his rag-tag human family show can’t be sincere… or can it?
Soon it becomes clear that Kian will hunt Perle relentlessly, taking down any siren in her path. As the tides turn, Perle must decide whether to run from Kian forever, or ride the forming wave into battle, hoping their newfound human companions will fight with them.
Riyati Rebirth by Kai Zeal
With great power comes your past incarnations and future self playing chess with your existence.
Her whole life, Kylie Rae had been concerned with appeasing her demanding, achievement-focused mother while enjoying an otherwise peaceful teenage life of sleeping late and hanging out with friends after school.
That all changes after she learns she’s the reincarnation of a destroyed magic kingdom’s crown princess after she and her two closest friends end up in a life-threatening situation. Now she has her past incarnations and somehow her own future self as distinct consciousnesses in her head, each with their own agenda — one that doesn’t necessarily line up with Kylie’s own interests.
Even worse, her past two incarnations were killed by the same man… and he’s coming for her next. If she doesn’t adapt to her new life of magic and secrets, making A’s to appease her mom will be the least of her concerns — she’ll be just as dead as the incarnations body-sharing with her.
The Dreamer and the Marked by Airic Fenn
In the wake of her Mam’s death, Krystal Monarain has turned to escapism, throwing herself into the fantastic stories she was told as a child and the strange, recurring dreams she has at night. But she never quite believed her Mam’s tales that her birth mother wasn’t human-That is until Draqa, a stranger from one of her dreams, appears in her life and tells her she’s part fae. So she does the unthinkable and risks following him into Arai, the realm where the fae have lived unbothered for hundreds of years. For Draqa, however, Krystal’s arrival in his world could mean his execution, and he must do everything he can to get her off his hands before they’re caught.
Meanwhile, unrest is growing between the fae and those they deem a threat to the safety of their realm, and when someone from Draqa’s past comes to him seeking aid, he and Krystal may have no choice but to get involved.
The Star-Crossed Empire by Maya Darjani
Get swept away into a lush and romantic space opera that transcends time, untangles court intrigue, and spans the entire Galactic Whorl.
A Republic soldier
A reluctant Emperor
When love and duty collide, who wins?
Layla is a patriotic soldier of the Altainan Republic. And patriots don’t ally themselves with rival empires. But when she reencounters the handsome imperial noble she fell in love with years before, she falls again. Hard. And she she’s going to marry that man. Duty be damned.
Unfortunately, he’s also the new Valharan Emperor.
And their planets are about to go to war.
As tensions rise between the two worlds, Layla’s attempts at neutrality go awry. She finds herself unsafe and threatened, a foreigner no matter where she lands. Eventually, instability in their isolated galactic community leaves it ripe for invasion. Layla has to overcome her dual loyalty and end this war for once and for all–before the Whorl goes up in flames, and she loses the man she loves.
The Thirteenth Key by Cara Nox
“The thirteen emblems given to the original rulers weren’t just symbols. They’re keys to the Vault—one that no one’s ever opened.”
Noa has lived her life as an unsuspecting, ID-burning, face in the crowd that disposes of “problems” for her miscellaneous, secretive employers. So, when Noa’s surrogate father—a Seer—hands her a long-lost emblem, telling her with his dying breath that it’s her responsibility to reignite magic, she laughs at the idea that the fate of their world rests on the shoulders of a killer. Instead, she uses his words and the key he gave her as an excuse to go on one final suicide mission to seek out the power supposedly waiting for her to annihilate his murderer.
Prince Glacier Caelius has lived his life trapped inside a gilded cage, pushed down by the ever-present threat of death as the bastard son of Amarais’s late king. But when the rebels attack during a nationalist party, Glacier’s rescued by none other than Noa and her merry band of thieves, who are scrambling to salvage a failed attempt at stealing his country’s emblem: the Soul of Amarais. When the dust settles, he’s the only person left alive to unlock the palace vault and give the Soul to Noa in exchange for saving his life.
Well, once they’re able to formulate a plan to take the palace back.
Struggling with their tentative, newfound freedom, Noa and Glacier must learn to work together to survive the urban landscape of Avaria’s greatest cities fortified by technology in the wake of dwindling magic. The goal: steal as many keys as they can before their pasts catch up. But the further they go, the more they realize that something worse may be lurking on the horizon, and they may very well be the only ones able to stop it.
Walking the Knife’s Edge by Elise Carlson
It’s hard to focus on your studies when you’re from the wrong side of town, your dad’s an abusive prick and classmates are intimidated by your skills at hand to hand combat. But for Rarkin, getting into Sythe School means monsters, the chance to contain ones that stray into human occupied zones, and the opportunity to do something meaningful with his life. Even better; it includes an Electric Way pass out of town and travel beyond city limits.
Rarkin seizes his chance at his dream job with everything he’s got, forcing down traumatic memories to focus on work he knows he could love. But it’s a dangerous time to be holding everything in, to have little contact with friends like brothers, or to be keeping new friends at arm’s length.
Sythe’s nemesis, Organised Crime is no longer playing by the ‘rules,’ and Rarkin and his classmates are on the front line. Organised Crime’s bold new tactics tear at the bandages of Rarkin’s unhealed wounds and his unresolved CPTSD.
To be the person Rarkin doesn’t believe people saying he can be, he must change his toxically masculine approach to emotions, and break the cycle of violence in his family. If he doesn’t make peace with his past and stop fighting EVERYTHING, he’s on the road to self destruction. In working for Sythe; Rarkin is Walking the Knife’s Edge.
Where We Converge by A.E. Bross
Darius Adair just wants to live in peace. He wakes up, goes to work, does his job, and comes home to a quiet studio apartment in Chicago. As a mage working to protect the magical and the mundane alike, it’s as normal a life as he can have. After everything he’s been through, he deserves that much.
A call in the dead of night shatters that illusion.
Morgan Slavin can’t recall much. His memories are fractured, and his body feels like a thousand bits of broken glass. He only knows one thing: Time travel sucks. After completing a ritual that forced him through the timeline, his mind, body, and magic are twisted and broken. Beyond the pain and mental anguish, there’s little he can reach for. He is desperate to find an anchor in this storm. After all, he came back in time to stop…what? Why had he returned?
Sent by a late night call to find the broken Morgan, Darius now must help him find out what he’s come back to stop, and soon. If that wasn’t challenging enough, the longer they’re together, the more Darius feels himself drawn to Morgan, and the more willing he is to open old wounds that nearly destroyed him in the past.
Yours Celestially by Al Hess
After divorce, death, and having his reformatted soul uploaded into a new body, Sasha expected resurrection to be a fresh start. His time spent in digital Limbo with the program’s cheeky AI guardian angel, Metatron, was cathartic, but what good is a second life when he only sees his daughter on the weekends, he has all the same problems he had before he died, and he can’t seem to shake the ache for the married life he lost?
If that weren’t frustrating enough, a glitch in the program has given Sasha the ability to sense Metatron even outside of Limbo. And Metatron is in love. The angel’s sickly-sweet yearning for one of the souls still in Limbo has turned Sasha’s stomach into caramelized lead. It’s hard enough to move on without someone else’s feelings making the emptiness in his own life even more acute. He didn’t have playing wingman to an actual winged being on his bingo card, but he’s determined to help Metatron make a move on their crush so he can get love off of his mind.
Sasha takes a job with the resurrection company in order to covertly contact Metatron. Except Sasha’s new coworker, Mr. C, keeps showing up at the worst moments. The man is annoying, he’s pushy… and he’s incredibly hot. Sasha can’t decide whether Mr. C wants to blackmail him or be his new BFF, but he seems to know things about Metatron and the resurrection program that Sasha doesn’t. Getting close to him might be the key to solving Sasha’s problem, but if he isn’t careful, he’s going to end up catching feelings of his own.
And a bonus entry from our very own Nils…
Gone Home by Nils Ödlund
Toini tried to change the world for the better, but she went too far, and the world turned against her.
A terrorist, murderer, and heretic, they say.
A fallen paladin, rejected by her god.
Once the inquisitors catch up to her, it’s all over.
In a bid for closure, Toini returns home, to Kul Viller in the far north.
To say her final farewell to Päivi, her sister, who was told Toini died sixteen years ago.
But Päivi will hear no farewells.
She can’t accept what Toini has done or who she’s become.
It’s up to Toini alone to show her sister that the young woman Päivi once knew still lives on in her heart.
But Päivi won’t listen, and time is running out.
Because, regardless of the truth, once the inquisitors catch up to her, Toini will be executed for her crimes.
…and though she might be a villain in everyone else’s story, Toini does not want to die a monster in her sister’s eyes.
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Have you read any books by ace authors or featuring ace characters? Drop us a recommendation in the comments!
I’d like to recommend Distilled Magic: A Cozy Fantasy Novel by Alex Peachy. Its main character, Trinx, is asexual, trans, and neurodivergent. The book also features tons of trans/non-binary, lesbian, polyamory, queer, and neurodivergent rep, making it a great fit for multiple lists!
Ravani Nighteye, one of the two main characters in my comic series is aroace. He’s a monster hunting kobold, takes no guff from anyone, and is also quite adept at his job. You can read his adventures with his barbarian friend Nails, the title character, here:
https://globalcomix.com/c/nails-the-barbarian
And there’s a print edition as well:
https://www.lulu.com/shop/patrick-little/nails-the-barbarian/paperback/product-2mqd28p.html?page=1&pageSize=4