Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Lesbian Knights in Fiction

There is a very short list of  in historical romance or historical fantasy featuring lesbian knights, but luckily they're all pretty good. If you love knights in shining armour riding to the rescue, wandering knights errant, gallantry and romance, and mediaeval fantasy, then check out the fiction below.



Historical Romance

  • Beloved Pilgrim by Nan Hawthorne 
    • A young noblewoman disguises herself as a Knight and joins the Crusade of 1101, in a story of adventure, war and romance.

  • The Sunne in Gold by Nene Adams  (Ireland, Crusades - late 1100s)
    • A medieval Irish romance between a Knight back from the Crusades, and a young muslim girl. Not entirely realistic, but enjoyable.



Historical Fantasy



  • Lady Knight by L-J Baker - full review
    • A Crusade era fantasy fantasy set in a British/European equivalent, during the (fantastical equivalent) Crusades. Mostly a romance story between a lady knight and a widowed lady.


Knight-like Characters
These are more the local version of a knight (paladins, bodyguards and soldiers) than an actual knight. Unfortunately, the list is so short they really have to be included.

  • Sword of the Guardian by Merry Shannon - full review
    • A fantasy set in a well researched mediaeval court setting. A young woman saves the life of the princess and must become her bodyguard - and keep her sex a secret. Over time, the princess grows up, and they fall in love. Well written, lots of politics and good characters.

  • Constellations of the Heart by Lesley Davis
    • Elawyn is a warrior woman trained to keep the peace on the island of Calluna. Princess Jayden needs rescuing, and is being hunted by a mysterious enemy. Naturally, they have to fall in love. But not without complaining about it first.
  • Shadows of Aggar by Chris Anne Wolfe - full review
    • A fantasy-style science fiction story set on a technologically backward planet, the two main characters include a knight errant-style local operative for the Terran empire, an Amazon warrior. A classic of the lesbian fiction genre and well worth picking up.

  • Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks
    • Mage-paladin, in a in a fantasy country under the heel of invaders. Her people eradicated, the fire elemental Zanja wanders aimlessly until she discover a rare Earth elemental, a young woman with the potential to save her country from the invaders who now rule it, but is herself addicted to a powerful and deadly drug.
    • Continued in Earth Logic and Water Logic.

Comics
Manga Scanlations
  •  "Sword of Paros" by Kurimoto Kaoru and Igarishi Yumiko
    • 1986 yuri historical fantasy about a princess who dresses as a knight and falls in love with a girl
    • Three volumes
    • Can be read at Our Manga
  • "Snowflakes Fluttering Down Through the Clear Sky" by Himawari Souya
    • A love story about a princess and her knight.
    • Short oneshot from the magazine Yuri Hime 1
    • Scanlations available from Lililicious and can be read on MangaFox

Webcomics
  • Flipside
    • A fantasy-horror-relationship comic about the love and misadventures of two women; the kind, conservative and honourable knight, Bernadette and the adorable, promiscuous, schizophrenic Maytag.



Know of any other titles with lesbian knights? Please let us know!


You may also be interested in:

5 comments:

  1. What about Constellations of the Heart by Lesley Davis? Elawyn is a warrior, does that count?

    ReplyDelete
  2. So, I've spent ages searching Google for "good lesbian fiction/books", and I can't believe it took this long for your website to turn up. I mean, your URL is pretty much my search word-for-word.

    Awesome resource website. Thank you. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Anon1 That looks like it would fit, thank you. May have to make a slightly more general list for knightlike characters!

    @Anon2 Thank you so much! And yeah, Google seems to have dropped us lately. Our search visits have fallen into a spiral of doom.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "A Knight to Remember" by Bridget Essex is a fun story set in modern day about a librarian who finds a female knight from another world.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Also from Wulf and Wynd from Lexa lurthor has a female knight as a protagonist

    ReplyDelete