This list is inspired by Nora's article, "Western Yaoi: Smut Goes Domestic", and complied from suggestions made by members of AMLA. Even though there is no true equivalent to yaoi and June manga in the West, we think these novels come closest to the eroticism and beauty of the genre in Japan. What do you think? Send your own recommendations to Webmaster@aestheticism.com. The links here take you to Amazon.com. Thanks to Maygra and Nora for updating and maintaining the list.
Bending the
Landscape; Fantasy
by Nicola Griffith (Editor), Kevin Murphy (Illustrator), Mark Shepard
Highly Recommended
Anthology of short stories featuring gay characters and/or written by gay authors. Many of the stories are clearly aimed at a gay male or lesbian demographic and are very Western in style, but several have "that certain yaoi feeling". Note there is also a Bending the Landscape anthology for Science Fiction and Horror.
Partings at Dawn
: An Anthology of Japanese Gay Literature
Edited by Stephen D. Miller, et al, Gay Sunshine Press 1996
Anthology of classical and modern tales, interspersed with scholarly articles and commentary, which illustrate the cultural/literary roots of modern-day yaoi. Includes tales of samurai, kabuki actors, Buddhist monks, etc. A little heavy on the scholarly and light on the fiction, but still interesting.
Small gay fiction press which is rapidly becoming known for a more aesthetic approach than typically seen in gay presses. Their website states that they offer the finest in "the finest in gay, lesbian and homoerotic literature", the homoerotic part being the more yaoish tales. Novels and anthologies, available in eBook and CD Rom formats.
Small erotic press which publishes (ebook, CD-ROM, online) a variety of erotic fiction; friendly toward m/m of a more aesthetic nature.
Highly Recommended
Semipro quarterly magazine of m/m fiction (including some fanfiction) and artwork, with a decided focus on slash and yaoi-style works. Available in CD-ROM or eBook format.
A Different Light
by Elizabeth A. Lynn
(out of print) ... thoughtful treatment of loss and death, and what it means to love someone in spite of distance (physical, emotional, and temporal).
The Avaryan Rising series
by Judith Tarr
Highly Recommended
(re: The fourth book in Tarr's popular Avaryan Rising series.) The heirs of the Sun King have ruled the two empires of Endros and Asanion for four generations. Lots of m/m sexual innuendo, and some gender-swapping (making a m/m couple into a m/f couple).
Blood Price
Blood
Trail
Blood
Lines
Blood Pact
Blood Debt
by Tanya Huff
A five story mystery arc featuring P.I. Vicki Nelson and her somewhat reluctant guide to the supernatural, Henry Fitzroy. When a pack of werewolves is discovered on a London, Ontario, farm, Henry Fitzroy, a Toronto-based vampire and writer of romance novels, calls upon private investigator Vicki Nelson to help him trace the trail of destruction to the killers. Other recommended books by this author: Fire's Stone.
The Chosen
by Ricardo Pinto
Well-drawn fantasy society loosely based on everything from pre-Columbian South American culture to "The Land of the Lost". Visit Pinto's website for more details on his fascinating world. The story involves a young nobleman, described as a "jade-eyed beauty", who must leave the sheltered existence of his youth and enter the den of snakes that is the political center of his society. As he learns to deal with the cruelties of his people and the convoluted schemes of his fellow nobles, he meets and falls in love with a mysterious young man. The sequel, The Standing Dead, is now out.
Cry to Heaven
by Anne Rice
The acclaimed author of Servant of the Bones makes real for us the exquisite and otherworldly society of the eighteenth-century castrati, the delicate and alluring male sopranos whose graceful bodies and glorious voices brought them the adulation of the royal courts and grand opera houses of Europe, men who lived as idols, concealing their pain as they were adored as angels, yet shunned as half men. (Amazon.com)
Dance of the Rings Series
Ring of
Lightnings
Ring of
Intrigue
Ring of
Destiny
by Jane S. Fancher
Three brothers, the last of a dynastic ruling family, struggle to maintain their country's way of life, while paving the way for an inconceivable future. A mysterious young stranger enters their lives and stirs the waves of change. Contains some very provocative sexual twists, and heart-breaking revelations.
Drawing Blood
by Poppy Z. Brite
Twenty years after his tortured cartoonist father killed his mother and siblings, cartoonist Trevor McGee returns to the scene of the crime, determined to face the demons of the past and the dark force threatening to destroy him. -- From Amazon.com. Other recommended books by this author: Lost Souls and Exquisite Corpse.
Edward, Edward
by Lolah Burford
Highly Recommended
"Song of Wind and Tree, in English." - Jeanne
"It is the haunting tale of a strange romance between a worldly and
dissolute man, James, Noel Holland, Earl of Tyne, and the golden-haired young Edward, his ward
-or perhaps his son. Homosexuality, sadomasochism, and incest are elements in their
relationship-- and so are affection, love, and the saving quality of grace"
- From the inside cover
The Granite
Shield
The Painter
Knight
The Stone
Prince
by Fiona Patton
(re: The Stone Prince) Even though this is a story in the high fantasy tradition, at the heart of the story is a tale of love between the Crown Prince Demnor, and his male companion Kelhnaus. They struggle to maintain a relationship while living lives filled with duty to outside agencies. Demnor must fulfill his role as Royal Heir and military hero, while battling with, what he sees as a cold, contemptuous mother who seems only too eager to displace him in favor of his sister. Kelhnaus on the other hand must play the political winds like a master harper to protect his blunt and unsubtle lover, all while keeping his own feelings of love secret from the guild who raised and trained him for deceit.
The Illiad
by Homer
Yeah, that Illiad.
Kirith Kirin
by Jim Grimsley
Highly Recommended
Tolkienesque high fantasy with a m/m twist. Young Jessex is whisked up in the war between the immortals Queen Athryn Ardfalla and King Kirith Kirin. As he discovers his magical destiny, he also discovers his own love for the king.
The Last Herald Mage trilogy
Magic's
Promise
Magic's Pawn
Magic's
Price
by Mercedes Lackey
Highly Recommended
One of the many cycles of the Valdemar chronicles. Each trilogy is complete in itself. This one, arguably Lackey's most famous, features the rise and fall of the last great Herald-Mage of Valdemar, Vanyel Ashkevron. Vanyel is young, beautiful, angsty, and gay, and much of the drama in the trilogy involves his love life and its tragedies. Also recommended by this author: The Mage Winds trilogy.
The Lions of Al-Rassan
by Guy Gavriel Kay
Very strong male friendships with more hinted at. In particular in The Lions of Al-Rassan features intense friendship/relationship between Ammar ibn Khairan and Rodrigo Belmonte. Also recommended by this author: A Song for Arbonne, featuring numerous intense male relationships in particular the hate/love between Bertran de Talair and Urte de Miraval and the friendship of Blaise and his assassin friend.
The Merro
Tree
by Katie Waitman
A tale of a love that transcends time, distance, gender and even species. Dual science fiction/fantasy novel that evokes a universe of sound and color, following a young (and as always, beautiful) man as he slowly evolves from a tormented youth into the galaxy's finest performance master.
The Morgaine Saga
Gate of Ivrel
Well of Shiuan
Fires of Azeroth
Exile's Gate
by C. J. Cherryh
Not explicit but the exile Vanye is slashy as all hell in his intense and troubled relationships with various male friends.
Nightrunner Series
Luck in the
Shadows
Stalking
Darkness
Traitor's
Moon
by Lynn Flewelling
Young Alec, simple country trapper, is whisked into a life of adventure and intrigue when he meets the decidedly roguish Seregil. Seregil -- spy, thief, nobleman, failed ex-wizard, and possibly the savior of the world -- teaches Alec the ways of "nightrunning" and a few other things as well. The characters are just friends in the first book, but things start to turn romantic in book 2 and by the third book they are a couple. The author points out that this is not a trilogy, but a duology and a third book which happens to feature the same characters and be in the same universe.
The Persian Boy
by Mary Renault
Highly Recommended
Follows the career of Alexander the Great through the eyes of his lover and servant, the slave Bagoas, from Alexander's victory over the Persians to his death. Also recommended by this author: The Charioteer, The Praise Singer, The Last of the Wine, The Mask of Apollo, and the other two books of Renault's Alexander trilogy (Fire From Heaven, Funeral Games). The Persian Boy is the middle book of this trilogy.
Private
Nation
by N.A. Diaman, Susan Frank
Private Nation follows the sexual and spiritual adventures of two young men of different races and classes who meet and form a life-long bond. "Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, the novel is an upbeat, quick-paced, romantic odyssey through a post-modern wasteland. An affirmation of humanistic values and the potential for a more holistic approach to life." (From the publisher)
Songmaster
by Orson Scott Card
Highly Recommended
"Kidnapped at an early age, the young singer Ansset has been raised in isolation at the mystical retreat called the Songhouse. His life has been filled with music, and having only songs for companions, he develops a voice that is unlike any heard before. Ansset's voice is both a blessing and a curse, for the young Songbird can reflect all the hopes and fears his auidence feels and, by magnifying their emotions, use his voice to heal--or to destroy. When it is discovered that his is the voice that the Emperor has waited decades for, Ansset is summoned to the Imperial Palace on Old Earth. Many fates rest in Ansset's hands, and his songs will soon be put to the test: either to salve the troubled conscience of a conqueror, or drive him, and the universe, into mad chaos." -- From Amazon.com. The (non-sexual) love between Ansset and the Emperors is the focus of the novel, but there's also a pivotal gay relationship between Ansset and another character.
Shadowdance
by Robin Bailey
Highly Recommended
Innowen is a paraplegic who magically gains the power to walk through a dark bargain. The result of the bargain is that, to maintain the magic, he has to dance every night. However, his dances awaken the darkest desires of anyone who watches. There's some m/m between Innowen and his adopted father, who gives in to a forbidden lust for Innowen after observing the dance, and implied m/m between Innowen and his devoted friend, who is desperate to see the dance although Innowen warns him against it. Also recommended from this author: the Palenoc series.
The Still
by David Feintuch
After the sudden death of his mother, young Prince Rodrigo of Caledon has to fight for his right to rule rather than be subjected to a regency he probably would not survive. Unfortunately, he also appears unfit to rule. He is callow, selfish, and burdened by the requirement to remain a virgin (with women, anyway) in order to wield royal power. Thanks to a fascinating array of friends (including his companion and lover, Rustin) and enemies (including his uncle and half the nobility of Caledon, plus foreign invaders), Rodrigo slowly and painfully matures. The process may be slow and painful for some readers, too, for Feintuch is definitely prolix in large parts of this book. On the other hand, the maturing of an adolescent ruler in a fanciful medieval society has seldom been handled in such painstaking detail. Not quite up to the level of his Nicholas Seafort series, Feintuch's latest is an intelligent and ultimately admirable book, nevertheless, and it hints strongly at a sequel. Roland Green Copyright© 1997, American Library Association.
Swordspoint : A
Melodrama of Manners
by Ellen Kushner
Highly Recommended
From the World Fantasy Award-winning author of Thomas the Rhymer comes a witty and swashbuckling tale of swords and high society. Ellen Kushner builds fantasy out of history and romance out of medieval detail, creating an unforgettabletale of adventure, romance, and danger. "Intelligent, humorous and dramatic."--Publishers Weekly. Has a sequel: The Fall of the Kings.
Tales From the Flat Earth
(Night's Master, Death's Master, Delusion's Mistress)
by Tanith Lee
Over 20 years old, these exotic and beautiful novels focus on Lee's invented (but still familiar) mythology of the three demon lords of darkness and their many adventures with humankind. Includes some erotic adventures, a few of which are m/m.
Teot's War
by Heather Gladney
Highly Recommended
Set in a strange world which is part medieval North African, part postapocalyptic, the story follows the possibly-mad warrior and bard Naga Teot, one of the last of his race. He is determined to avenge his people, and is convinced that the Lord of Tan can help him do it. He becomes the Tanman's servant in a relationship as dangerous as it is intense. No overt romance/sexuality between them, but there might as well be. The sequel is the equally recommended Bloodstorm. This was meant to be a trilogy; however, the author was never able to find a publisher for the third novel, so the trilogy is incomplete.
Tribute Trail
by Chris Power and Terri Beckett
Kherin, the Goddess' Chosen, and Rythian, The Sun Stallion are two men from different worlds. Kherin is a Betrayed by one of his own, drugged, kidnapped, and made a slave by the enemy of both heroes. As a slave, he is a part of the tribute paid to Rythian. Fabulous stuff. Inevitably Kherin and Rythian are bound together physically and emotionally by fate and prophecy. (Editor's note: in spite of the horrid cover art.)
The Vampire Chronicles
by Anne Rice
But of course. And anything else by Anne Rice, though Blackwood Farm has been noted especially.
The Vintner's
Luck
by Elizabeth Knox
Highly Recommended
"The year is 1808, the place Burgundy, France. Among the lush vines of his family's vineyard, Jodeau, 18 years old and frustrated in love, is about to come face to face with a celestial being. But this is no sentimental "Touched by an Angel" seraph; as imagined by Elizabeth Knox in her wildly evocative and original novel, Xas is equipped with a glorious pair of wings ("pure sinew and bone under a cushion of feathers") and an appetite for earthly pleasures--wine, books, gardening, conversation, and, eventually, carnal love.
The Wraeththu trilogy
by Storm Constantine
The author's seminal work, set in a weird post-apocalyptic world where a new species of hermaphrodite has arisen to supplant humankind. Except the hermaphrodites all used to be human men, so the sudden acquisition of ovaries creates some issues. The whole trilogy is the love story of a single couple, but with many, many side romances and adventures. Also recommended by this author: The Thorn Boy, the Grigori Trilogy.