Our writing and story telling has been influenced by so many books and authors over our life, and we think a lot of those influences are obvious. This list, however, does not contain most of those stories. It is much, much shorter – but growing – because we are being selective for important thematic counterpoints to our own work. We recommend these books because they deal with the same things we are writing about, but from perspectives that we cannot have. And we have been reading them while we write, and letting them educate us as best as we can. And we love them. They are very good books.

If you read our work, whether you liked it or not, we feel that you should read these books, too. You might like them even better.

Generational Starships:

• An Unkindness of Ghosts, by Rivers Solomon

Immortal Beings Shaping Humanity:

• The Patternist Series, by Octavia E. Butler

Plurality:

• Freshwater, by Akwaeki Emezi

Coming of Age While Fighting Societal Demons:

• Pet and Bitter, by Akwaeki Emezi

Aliens visiting Earth and Encountering Queer Love:

• Light from Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki