9 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books With Disabled Main Characters

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Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

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Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Jaime Herndon finished her MFA successful nonfiction penning astatine Columbia, aft leaving a beingness of psychosocial oncology and maternal-child wellness work. She is simply a writer, editor, and publication reviewer who drinks mode excessively overmuch coffee. She is simply a new-ish mom, truthful the java comes successful other handy. Twitter: @IvyTarHeelJaime

View All posts by Jaime Herndon

Disability rep successful books is often lacking — and bully disablement rep, adjacent much truthful (although I’d similar to deliberation that’s changing). The taxable of disablement successful sci-fi and phantasy is affluent for treatment and critique, particularly the ableist tropes of magic/tech “curing” disablement oregon erasing it. Amanda Leduc wrote a publication exploring fairy tales and disablement titled Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space, successful which she looks astatine however fairy tales person shaped however radical deliberation astir disablement and creates a caller mode of looking astatine things.

 On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc

“[We] enactment and perpetuate a civilization wherever the accent is connected the cure alternatively than societal change—where the purpose of the communicative is to eradicate the disabled beingness alternatively than alteration the satellite truthful that the disabled beingness tin thrive. The stories we archer request to beryllium different,” writes Leduc.

This is existent adjacent successful SFF books — and determination are galore that bash conscionable that, particularly by disabled authors who propulsion backmost against stereotypes and bushed tropes, oregon ableist storylines. Science fabrication and phantasy are unsocial due to the fact that they invitation the imagining of full caller worlds and caller concepts. But astatine the aforesaid time, with the exertion that we are perpetually creating IRL, sometimes these imaginative scenarios oregon worlds don’t look excessively acold off. SFF provides a mode of re-envisioning disability, successful the consciousness of challenging ableism head-on and creating caller stories, arsenic Leduc wrote. If you’re looking for immoderate large sci-fi and phantasy featuring disabled characters, look nary further — I picked 9 books for you to flight into this summer.

Pull up a chair, drawback a acold beverage, and let’s dive into immoderate astonishing phantasy reads.

SFF Books With Disabled Main Characters

The Storm Runner cover

The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes

It’s nary concealed that I emotion the divers phantasy bid successful the Rick Riordan imprint, including this one. Zane would overmuch alternatively hike the dormant volcano adjacent his location than spell to schoolhouse — aft all, schoolhouse is wherever the kids marque amusive of him due to the fact that of his limp. But helium doesn’t recognize the volcano is simply a portal to different world, and he’s portion of a Mayan prophecy. A caller girl, Brooks, breaks the quality to him, and he’s not definite whether to judge her oregon not until helium finds himself successful the mediate of a warfare of the gods — and 1 of them turns retired to beryllium his father. He needs to go the Storm Runner. But is helium ready?

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao Book Cover

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

In Huaxia, boys can’t hold until they brace up with girls to aviator Chrysalises, which are robots that combat aliens — and nary thought is fixed to the information that the girls dice from intelligence strain. Zetian becomes a concubine aviator to get vengeance connected the aviator liable for her sister’s death, and erstwhile she kills him, she realizes she is an Iron Widow — a pistillate aviator that tin termination males to powerfulness Chrysalises. She loves flying due to the fact that she has nary symptom erstwhile flying, dissimilar walking, which is achy due to the fact that of her “lotus feet” owed to her grandma breaking them erstwhile she was younger. Zetian is paired with the strongest antheral aviator successful bid to tame her ain strength, but she’s not giving successful truthful readily.

mooncakes publication  cover

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu

If you’re looking for a cozy comic, look nary further. This graphic caller has love, magic, family, witches, and overmuch more. Nova works astatine her grandmothers’ witchy bookshop, and 1 nighttime she sees her long-lost puerility crush warring a demon successful the woods. Tam is simply a werewolf and needs help, truthful the 2 of them are reunited…along with immoderate rekindled feelings. It’s a charming, amusive communicative to read, with queer, Jewish, and disablement representation. Nova is hard of proceeding (this is however Walker has described Nova, and shares her disability), and her proceeding immunodeficiency are disposable successful the illustrations. While it’s a large work anytime, it’s particularly fantastic successful the fall.

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon cover

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Vern is simply a Black pistillate with albinism who is 7 months large erstwhile she escapes Cainland, the spiritual compound successful which she was raised (and regularly abused) for the woods. She gives commencement to twins and plans to rise them distant from the extracurricular world. But adjacent successful the woods, she’s not wholly escaped of the assemblage she escaped. As much and much carnal changes and nightmares occur, she decides to permission the wood and find her champion friend, who near Cainland years before. But Vern can’t fell forever, and eventually, her past catches up and the secrets of the compound volition travel out. It’s a complex, thought-provoking, genre-defying caller that demands a reread erstwhile you’re finished.

cover of six of crows

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Fantasy, adventure, a large formed of characters with extent — this publication has each of that and more. In this archetypal publication of a duology, Bardugo brings america into Ketterdam, a engaged metropolis afloat of planetary trade…and Kaz Brekker. Brekker, who walks with a limp and uses a cane (Bardugo has besides talked astir her ain degenerative bony disease, osteonecrosis, and usage of a cane arsenic needed), is simply a transgression genius who has the accidental to propulsion disconnected a heist that would acceptable him up for life, but helium needs immoderate help. That’s wherever his unit comes in, each with agendas of their own. Can they negociate to propulsion disconnected the heist?

cover of Magonia

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headly

Ever since Aza was a baby, she’s lived with a uncommon lung illness that baffles doctors. It makes it hard for her to breathe, speak, and bash anything. When she thinks she sees a vessel successful the sky, her household brushes it disconnected arsenic a hallucination from her medicine — but Aza heard it calling her name. The lone 1 who believes her is Jason, her champion person (and possibly more). When she abruptly finds herself successful the satellite of Magonia, she tin yet breathe. There, Aza learns that she is not who she ever thought she was, her illness was not what anyone suspected, and warfare betwixt Earth and Magonia is impending, leaving her with immoderate important decisions to make.

cover of Like A Charm by Elle McNicoll

Like a Charm by Elle McNicoll (October 24th)

This doesn’t travel retired until the fall, but I had to adhd it due to the fact that I’m truthful excited. Ramya is dyspraxic, which means she tin beryllium uncoordinated astatine times, and carnal activities don’t ever travel arsenic casual to her. (McNicoll is besides dyspraxic.) After her gramps dies, she finds retired that she tin spot magic — which takes her into a satellite beyond her wildest imagination. But lurking successful the magical satellite are unsafe creatures: sirens. And arsenic the sirens summation much and much power, Ramya finds herself successful a presumption to assistance prevention everything, mortal and otherwise.

cover of Unseelie

Unseelie by Ivelisse Housman

Twins Iselia (“Seelie”) and Isolde look alike, but Seelie has ever known she’s different. She was near successful the quality satellite by the fae arsenic an Autistic changeling and has ne'er rather acceptable in, particularly erstwhile her magic started becoming apparent. The sisters imagination of moving their household determination wherever they won’t beryllium judged, and truthful they permission location to find treasure, truthful they tin spend to bash so. However, erstwhile things spell wrong, they find themselves up against a magician, conscionable immoderate caller friends, and observe a enigma successful request of solving.

We Are Satellites publication  cover

We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker

In this sci-fi caller that feels precise overmuch similar it could beryllium world immoderate time now, a encephalon implant called the Pilot is the caller thing. It helps springiness radical an borderline with schoolwork and work, and arsenic much radical get it, those who opt retired oregon aren’t capable to get it owed to definite disabilities are near behind. Val and Julie, on with their kids David and Sophie, are caught successful the middle. Sophie is epileptic and can’t get a Pilot, but she sees the imaginable dangers and becomes a cardinal fig of the anti-Pilot movement. Is exertion ever the answer? What happens erstwhile it causes much atrocious than good?

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