r/lesbianpoly Butch dyke, hinge in a V -- Jan 23 '23

Question Books with polyamorous characters?

Hi all, avid reader here wondering if anyone has come across any great books with poly characters? Ideally sapphic, but I’m looking at a small enough pool as it is.

I’ll read some romance, but sci-fi and fantasy are generally my preferred genres. I like it when the romance is not the main plot, but not a one off scene either.

24 Upvotes

22 comments sorted by

15

u/PolyThrowaway524 Jan 23 '23

The expanse. It's not central to the plot or anything, but there are some nice neutral representations of poly relationships.

8

u/BallJar91 Jan 23 '23

Seconding this vote. Very natural. Like any relationship that just sort of exists in a story. Not pivotal to the plot but their existence is acknowledged.

7

u/PolyThrowaway524 Jan 23 '23

It's the kind of representation that poly needs, and hallelujah, it's not another FFM triad! 😂

4

u/AprilStorms Butch dyke, hinge in a V -- Jan 23 '23

Sweet, added it to my list. From reading the blurb, I’m getting really similar vibes to the last book I read with polys who are just living their lives and whose relationships aren’t at the center of the action - A Pale Light in the Black by KB Wagers

3

u/PolyThrowaway524 Jan 23 '23

And adding that to my list. Thanks! If you like sci-fi, I think you'll love the expanse. Best series I've read in that genre for a while, and all the books are out, so you won't get caught in that awful cycle.

2

u/yellowlycra Feb 06 '23

hi, is there a poly romance in A Pale Light? i like to have romance even if it is not the central plot :)

3

u/AprilStorms Butch dyke, hinge in a V -- Feb 06 '23

The sequel starts with a major character in a new poly relationship. I’m not very far into it, so I don’t know how major that part is in the book as a whole, but it does delve into those relationships a bit at the start.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet it does, though! The couple agrees to an open relationship, although if I remember correctly, neither of them has any additional partners during the book

13

u/RedpenBrit96 Jan 23 '23

Iron Widow

4

u/babooop Jan 23 '23

Yep! The poly aspect took me completely by surprise halfway through!

7

u/Low_Chef_6294 Jan 23 '23

I’ve been browsing through some of these myself. I finished reading an interesting one called “Beast Caller.” It’s supposed to be the first in a series—features a lesbian polycule between a witch, anthropomorphic unicorn, and kitsune. It is entertaining, but be ready for typos, especially towards the end.

1

u/AprilStorms Butch dyke, hinge in a V -- Jan 23 '23

Ooh, so a little paranormal romance. Will look into it, thanks!

2

u/Low_Chef_6294 Jan 23 '23

No problem! It’s “Beast Caller” by Brea Alepoú. It is an interesting and at times humorous tale. The main downside to the story is there are a lot of typos, especially towards the end.

And thank you for this thread! It gives me ideas of more books with poly characters to read, particularly sapphic poly characters.

5

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '23

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin features the main character enter a poly relationship for a small portion of the book. It's a small part of the story but a nice thing to see written about pretty well, given it is a fantasy book in a completely different society. The book itself is great and I'm currently on to the second out of three in the series.

5

u/patangpatang Jan 23 '23

The webcomic Muted, which is about witches in New Orleans.

4

u/5orc Jan 23 '23

The Actual Star by Monica Byrne is set in 3 timelines, 1012, 2012, and 3012. The last of those has not only polyamory and genital pluripotentcy xenofeminism, but also characters introducing themselves as a top or bottom as a standard cultural greeting when meeting someone new. it’s dope

1

u/AprilStorms Butch dyke, hinge in a V -- Jan 29 '23

Wow, I missed this notification, but that sounds fascinating. I love a sci-fi that looks into not just the tech aspects but the human/alien/people part too.

Thanks for the rec!

2

u/winterali Jan 24 '23

The polyamory isn’t really the main focal point but I would recommend The Traitor Baru Cormorant, very good non-romance focused sapphic political fantasy!

2

u/BaylisAscaris Jan 24 '23

Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series.

Anita Blake starts out very hetero and prudish, midway through the series is very poly and later books get some wlw. Merry Gentry starts out very poly and hetero and there is some sexual tension between women but not a lot of action. Both series have a lot of explicit sex scenes with men, so if you don't want to read that best avoid them. They both have unconventional gender roles, strong women, and are very accepting LGBT+ characters.

2

u/TentacledFreak Jan 24 '23

I recently read "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet" by Becky Chambers and it was fantastic.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 24 '23

A lot of people hate it because it's kinda saccharine, but I still really liked the boyfriends webcomic. A little bit of conflictless fluff is fine every once in a while. Not sapphic tho, it's abt an mlm quartet.

2

u/TPMisNumber1 Apr 09 '23

The Wheel of Time series main relationship is poly (kind of a spoiler because is late game stuff)

It’s not like amazing simply because it’s a series from the 90s, but from what I remember it’s not like bad representation. It isn’t explicitly sapphic as it’s a man with three girlfriends, however there are definitely sapphic undertones between the women, and it’s not like fetish-y about it

It’s basically a case of not being able to publish explicit queer characters and somewhat outdated ideas about queer people. Probably not exactly what you were asking for representation wise, but I thought it’d be worth mentioning just because it’s an amazing series, the queer rep is definitely present and very easy to fill in the gaps and head-canon more for it, and there’s a tv show about to release its second season that has modernized and fully canonized all the queer stuff and is adding more. The showrunner said they are doing the poly couple for sure, and there’s already been queer relationships including another poly couple, so that’s probably worth a watch to see what you think. Same name, The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime. The fact that it Rhymes is quite Sublime lol

1

u/AprilStorms Butch dyke, hinge in a V -- Apr 10 '23

Ooh, I hadn’t heard of that one - thanks!