This year’s Wyrd & Wonder theme is comfort zone, but there are some people who rarely get any kind of comfort in Fantasy – either in the actual stories themselves, or in the reading of them. I suppose that describes a few different groups, but today, I’m thinking of the disabled community, of which I’m a part.
I’ve put together a rec list of Fantasy books with disabled protagonists, and ended up writing a little mini-essay thing with some of my thoughts (and no clear answers) as a kind of introduction to the topic. Feel free to skip the essay and head straight to the list if you like; it’s not comfortable reading, and I won’t be offended in the least. I just needed to write out some of my thoughts in the hopes of untangling them. (Didn’t really work!)
Thoughts
Last year, for the first time, I read a book where the main character has the same disabling chronic illness that I do: The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth.
It was excellent, accurate representation. And it was…weird. Because it made me realise that I both did and did not want that representation. It’s not that the fibro bogged down the plot or anything, nothing like that, but – I am a soft-hearted wimp. I don’t want people to be in pain, even fictional people. I don’t want anyone to have fibro!
But pretending it doesn’t exist…doesn’t feel right. That’s not a solution either, is it?
I want everyone to have a happy ending. I want there to be a magic cure for Marcy! I want her fibro to be fixed! (This is why it took me so long to understand what there is to be upset about at the lack of disability representation in SFF. I was baffled for a long time. Don’t you want a world where science or magic could cure you, fix you? And I think some of us do, but I understand better now why some of us don’t – more on this in a bit.) But…I might throw the book across the room, if she did. Because I can’t be cured, and I think reading about a fictional cure might wreck me, might make all the misery I shove aside about it on a daily basis (because what good does it do me?) burst up like someone striking stinking, toxic oil – and what good does that do me?
I don’t know if I want the reminder of what I live with in the stories I read. When I read, the real world switches off, becomes very unreal. I don’t want to take my fibro with me. I can’t figure out what I feel about finding it already there, waiting for me.
It’s an acknowledgement that I exist, though. It’s an eye-opener for people who’ve never heard of the condition, or don’t really understand it. Aren’t those things important?
Fantasy has the potential to fix disabilities and cure chronic illnesses – of course it does, it’s fantasy. (Although I do not think the reason disability appears so rarely in fantasy is because the author has decided to hand out magic cures before the story starts. I’m pretty sure most able-bodied authors just don’t think to include disabled people – and that’s the best-case scenario.) And a big part of me wants that. On the other hand, many disabled people don’t feel like they need to be fixed – they just want a world that accommodates them properly and fairly. It’s a difference in opinion pretty perfectly encapsulated by the opposing views of Storm and Rogue on the ‘cure’ for mutants in X-Men: The Last Stand, quickly summarised here, where the two characters stand in (whether intentionally or not on part of the writers, I have no idea) for the two halves of the disabled community: those who are ‘only’ disabled, and those who are disabled by, or have on top of their other disabilities, chronic illnesses.
It’s not about who’s worse off, but I think it’s easy to understand why someone in a lot of pain might want to be ‘cured’, whereas someone in no or less pain, who does not view their body as broken, just different, might reject the idea of being ‘fixed’.
So it follows that we have different opinions on how SFF portrays and deals with (or doesn’t) disability. Those looking for escapism and wish-fulfilment might want to see ‘cures’ (for their own specific disability. No one with any sense or empathy would sweepingly declare that we all need curing/fixing) or just avoid reminders of their own conditions. But another version of wish-fulfilment is in seeing people with your disability getting to have adventures just like everyone else; and/or experiencing fictional worlds that accommodate disability the way queernorm worlds make being queer no big deal.
And every time we see a world where no one is disabled? We know it means one of three things; that the author forgot we exist – the way so many able-bodied people forget about us in real life; or, like a well-intentioned but cringingly wrong Ally, they think a perfect world is one in which we’re all ‘fixed’; or, probably worst of all, they think we couldn’t survive (and thrive) in their world – maybe even that we shouldn’t exist there in the first place.
Something to bear in mind if you write your own stories.
And if you’re a reader rather than a writer – or a reader as well as a writer – maybe think about what it says when you see us – or don’t – in the books you pick up.
The List
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Sapphic MC with fibromyalgia, major brown sapphic character, major bisexual character, major gay character, minor nonbinary characters, other minor disability
Protagonist Age: Mid-20s
Goodreads
Be gay, solve crime, take naps—A witty and quirky fantasy murder mystery if a folkloric world of witches, faeires, vampires, trolls and ghosts, for fans of Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey and T. J. Klune's Under the Whispering Door.
A magical serial killer is stalking the Occult town of Wrackton. Hypnotic whistling causes victims to chew their own tongues off, leading to the killer being dubbed the Whistler (original, right?). But outside the lack of taste buds and the strange magical carvings on the victims’ torsos, the murderer leaves no evidence. No obvious clues. No reason – or so it seems.
Enter the Undetectables, a detective agency run by three witches and a ghost in a cat costume (don’t ask). They are hired to investigate the murders, but with their only case so far left unsolved, will they be up to the task? Mallory, the forensic science expert, is struggling with pain and fatigue from her recently diagnosed fibromyalgia. Cornelia, the team member most likely to go rogue and punch a police officer, is suddenly stirring all sorts of feelings in Mallory. Diana, the social butterfly of the group, is hitting up all of her ex-girlfriends for information. And not forgetting ghostly Theodore – deceased, dramatic, and also the agency’s first dead body and unsolved murder case.
With bodies stacking up and the case leading them to mysteries at the very heart of magical society, can the Undetectables find the Whistler before they become the killer’s next victims?
Literally the only time I’ve ever seen a main character with fibromyalgia, this also happens to be a fun, but surprisingly deep, friendship-murder mystery mix. The worldbuilding looks simple at first, but has unexpected (and much appreciated) depths to it – and there’s no denying Smyth writes an AMAZING ensemble cast!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bisexual MC with prosthetic leg, Black MC, minor Deaf and wheelchair-using characters, queernorm world
Protagonist Age: 26; 30ish; 14ish
Goodreads
Kissen’s family were killed by zealots of a fire god. Now, she makes a living killing gods, and enjoys it. That is until she finds a god she cannot kill: Skedi, a god of white lies, has somehow bound himself to a young noble, and they are both on the run from unknown assassins.
Joined by a disillusioned knight on a secret quest, they must travel to the ruined city of Blenraden, where the last of the wild gods reside, to each beg a favour.
Pursued by demons, and in the midst of burgeoning civil war, they will all face a reckoning – something is rotting at the heart of their world, and only they can be the ones to stop it.
After the events of the prologue, Kissen, an extremely badass godkiller, has a prosthetic leg – which she’s learned to make good use of, but it’s a similar situation to the Winter Soldier’s metal arm: the fact that it’s capable of some impressive stuff doesn’t change the fact that it is a prosthetic, and that requires a person to make all kinds of adjustments to their life. There are things Kissen can’t do, or can’t do as easily or as well as someone with both legs, and there’s physical pain she has to deal with. That does not stop her, though.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC with chronic pain; queer amputee love interest
Protagonist Age: 34
Goodreads
Tet is no longer a priest-mage; thrown out from his temple and cursed by his gods to return a stolen relic. With every passing year, the curse works deeper into his flesh, breaking and twisting him until finally, driven by pain, Tet makes a drastic play to escape the gods.
His luck turns sour, and the escape costs him his soul, drawing his death even closer when he is captured by the despotic White Prince. In order to escape the prince, retrieve his soul and break the curse, Tet must form a fragile alliance with a man he cannot trust. An alliance made brittle by lies and deception; one that may take his heart as well as his soul.
Thief Mage, Beggar Mage is a lush, queer reimagining of Andersen’s The Tinderbox, embroidered with dreams, secret identities, stolen magic, giant spectral dogs, clockwork monsters, prophetic dragons, and the grand games of gods and humans.
Tet experiences constant chronic pain as part of a curse. He stars in this lush, but sometimes very dark, retelling of the less-well-known fairytale The Tinderbox, but this is not one of those times where you need to be familiar with the original story; there are some Easter eggs for those who know it, but Thief Mage Beggar Mage is so unique and wildly different from its source material that readers who’ve never head of The Tinderbox will be just fine.
And I guarantee you won’t see that ending coming!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown cast, queer amputee MC, queer MC, M/M
Protagonist Age: 20s?
Goodreads
Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this new epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds.
The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.
But that god cannot be contained forever.
With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.
Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you—and is like nothing you’ve ever read before.
If you’ve heard people raving about this book: they were right, it really is as mindblowingly amazing as everyone says. If you’re not heard of it before: congrats, now you have! Jimenez broke the mould with this one; he does things with storytelling – as in literally how we tell stories – that I could never have imagined, and if someone had pitched it to me, I would have thought it wasn’t allowed. That one of the main characters (who takes a moment to appear) is an amputee is such a tiny part of what makes it special. The story itself is rich and raw and can’t be comped to anything else; there are some moments of gore and awfulness, so check the content warnings online if you might need to, but this really is a book every fantasy reader should read at least once.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Central American-coded cast, Deaf MC, M/M, bi/pansexual MC, queernorm world
Protagonist Age: Mid-20s; 30+
Goodreads
A fantasy epic of freedom and empire, gods and monsters, love, loyalty, honour, and betrayal, from the acclaimed author of GODBLIND.
For generations, the forests of Ixachipan have echoed with the clash of weapons, as nation after nation has fallen to the Empire of Songs – and to the unending, magical music that binds its people together. Now, only two free tribes remain.
The Empire is not their only enemy. Monstrous, scaled predators lurk in rivers and streams, with a deadly music of their own.
As battle looms, fighters on both sides must decide how far they will go for their beliefs and for the ones they love – a veteran general seeks peace through war, a warrior and a shaman set out to understand their enemies, and an ambitious noble tries to bend ancient magic to her will.
The Songs of the Drowned series is Central American-inspired grimdark, so be warned for all kinds of awfulness and tragedy. But it’s not only the setting that makes it pretty unique; one of the main characters, Xessa, is Deaf, and that means very different things for her in different parts of her world/the story. When we open book one, Xessa is part of…let’s call it a guild of monster-hunters, all of whom are either Deaf or use magic to become temporarily Deaf while on duty, because the monsters use song to hypnotise their victims. There’s even an amazing, monster-hunting-assisting service dog!!! Seriously, I don’t understand how this trilogy isn’t FAR better known than it is!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Mute MC, secondary Black MC, secondary gay MC
Protagonist Age: Late-20s?
Goodreads
It is 1962, and Elisa Esposito—mute her whole life, orphaned as a child—is struggling with her humdrum existence as a janitor working the graveyard shift at Baltimore’s Occam Aerospace Research Center. Were it not for Zelda, a protective coworker, and Giles, her loving neighbor, she doesn’t know how she’d make it through the day.
Then, one fateful night, she sees something she was never meant to see, the Center’s most sensitive asset ever: an amphibious man, captured in the Amazon, to be studied for Cold War advancements. The creature is terrifying but also magnificent, capable of language and of understanding emotions…and Elisa can’t keep away. Using sign language, the two learn to communicate. Soon, affection turns into love, and the creature becomes Elisa’s sole reason to live.
But outside forces are pressing in. Richard Strickland, the obsessed soldier who tracked the asset through the Amazon, wants nothing more than to dissect it before the Russians get a chance to steal it. Elisa has no choice but to risk everything to save her beloved. With the help of Zelda and Giles, Elisa hatches a plan to break out the creature. But Strickland is on to them. And the Russians are, indeed, coming.
Did you know there’s a novel of The Shape of Water? Because there is, and it’s EXCELLENT, whether you’ve seen the film or not! Seriously, just because you’ve seen the movie doesn’t mean you know exactly how the book will go; they differ in a few ways, which I think is great, and the novel is just objectively incredible. As in the film, our main character Elisa is mute, and it’s so wonderful to get more of her thoughts and inner life in the book, since those are obviously much harder to convey on a movie screen!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Partially Deaf MC with chronic pain and disabled leg, neurodivergent MC with clinical anxiety
Protagonist Age: Fantasy equivalent of 30s-ish
Goodreads
In a world of dwindling hope, love has never mattered more...
Captain Nathan J. Northland had no idea what to expect when he returned home to Lorehaven injured from war, but it certainly wasn't to find himself posted on an island full of vampires. An island whose local vampire dandy lord causes Nathan to feel strange things he'd never felt before. Particularly about fangs.
When Vlad Blutstein agreed to hire Nathan as Captain of the Eyrie Guard, he hadn't been sure what to expect either, but it certainly hadn't been to fall in love with a disabled werewolf. However Vlad has fallen and fallen hard, and that's the problem.
Torn by their allegiances--to family, to duty, and the age-old enmity between vampires and werewolves--the pair find themselves in a difficult situation: to love where the heart wants or to follow where expectation demands.The situation is complicated further when a mysterious and beguiling figure known only as Lady Ursula crashes into their lives, bringing with her dark omens of death, doom, and destruction in her wake.
And a desperate plea for help neither of them can ignore.
Thrown together in uncertain times and struggling to find their place amidst the rising human empire, the unlikely trio must decide how to face the coming darkness: united as one or divided and alone. One thing is for certain, none of them will ever be the same.
This is probably the most fun-feeling book on this list – it feels light-hearted even when it touches on heavier topics. I’m not sure how some authors manage that trick, but Demorra has it down. A Scottish werewolf, left disabled after his tour with the military, ends up entangled with a socialist vampire – and both of them get drawn into helping prevent a kind of magically-caused ecological apocalypse. There are many Feels, lots of laughs, and another edition with fade-to-black sex scenes, if you’d prefer that. The first book in a duology, it’s been described as “like reading the queer, goth love child of Terry Pratchett meets Jane Austen,” which honestly hits the nail on the head. I’ve yet to meet anyone who didn’t read this and love it!
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC with prosopagnosia (face blindness), brown queer MC
Protagonist Age: 19ish
Goodreads
There were two secrets in Varenx House, and Alizhan was one of them.
Alizhan can't see faces, but she can read minds. Her mysterious ability leaves her unable to touch or be touched without excruciating pain. Rescued from abandonment and raised by the wealthy and beautiful Iriyat ha-Varensi, Alizhan has grown up in isolation, using her gift to steal secrets from Iriyat's rivals, the ruling class of Laalvur. But Iriyat keeps secrets of her own.
When Alizhan discovers that she isn't the only one of her kind, and that a deadly plot threatens everyone like her, there's only one person she can trust.
Ev liked having a secret. None of the other girls in the village had a thief-friend.
Evreyet Umarsad-"Ev" to her parents and her one friend-longs to be the kind of hero she reads about in books. But the rest of the world feels impossibly far away from her life on a farm outside Laalvur. Ev will never lay eyes on the underground city of Adappyr, the stars of the Nightward Coast, or the venomous medusas that glow in the dark depths of the sea.
At least on her weekly trip to the market, Ev gets to see her thief-the strange young woman who slips by her cart and playfully steals a handful of thornfruit. When the thief needs help, Ev doesn't hesitate. Together, they uncover a conspiracy that draws them all over Laalvur and beyond.
In Thornfruit, we meet Alizhan, a telepath who’s used to sneaking out secrets for her guardian. She’s also face blind, which I initially thought might be a side-effect of her telepathy, but it’s later made clear that that isn’t the case. Together with Ev, they navigate their world – a planet which doesn’t spin, and thus has areas of permanent daylight, twilight, and darkness – in their efforts to discover what the secrets of Alizhan’s guardian has to do with the cataclysmic tsunamis their people live in terror of…and what other magical powers might be out there beside Alizhan’s telepathy.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, High Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Bi/pansexual MC missing an eye, M/M, M/F/M polyamorous MCs, queernorm culture
Protagonist Age: 40s+
Goodreads
For the last twenty years, Esclin Aubrinos, arros of the Hundred Hills, has acted jointly with Alcis Mirielos, the kyra of the Westwood, and the rivermaster of Riverholme to defend their land of Allanoth against the Riders who invade from Manan across the Narrow Sea. He has long been a master of the shifting politics of his own people and his independently-minded allies, but this year the omens turn against him. The Riders have elected a new lord paramount, hallowed servant of the Blazing One, a man chosen and fated for victory.
The omens agree that Nen Elin, Esclin’s stronghold and the heart of Allanoth, will fall when a priest of the Blazing One enters its gates. Esclin needs a spirit-bonded royal sword, a talismanic weapon made of star-fallen iron, to unite the hillfolk behind him. But the same vision that called for the sword proclaimed that Esclin will then betray it, and every step he takes to twist free of the prophecies brings him closer to that doom.
One of the main characters of Water Horse, a queer king with a reputation as a trickster, is missing an eye. Given how vital our eyes are to our depth perception, that makes being a warrior-king difficult – so Esclin relies instead on out-thinking his enemies. This is a really beautiful standalone High Fantasy, with much more nuance than I was expecting from an us vs them story. I’m pretty sure Scott drew some inspiration from ancient Ireland for this one, but as usual the world she’s created is very much its own. Possibly the least-well-known book on this list – I need more people to read it!
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy, YA
Representation: Disabled MC, Korean demisexual MC, bi/pansexual hispanic MC, gay Japanese MC
Protagonist Age: 18ish
Goodreads
Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change,” arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of the people they killed.
Teenage prospector Ross Juarez’s best find ever – an ancient book he doesn’t know how to read – nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is set on him to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.
Most of the time, when I come across a character with a disability or chronic illness in fiction, they’ve had it for a while. In Stranger, the first book in the Change series, we see Ross get the injury that results in permanent damage to his right hand and arm, and a small subplot over the course of the series is him learning to adjust and finding ways to compensate, coming to terms with the fact that he’s never going to be like he was before. This series manages to balance feel-good with very difficult, sometimes very dark, themes – and the final book is being released this October!
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Science Fantasy
Representation: MC with fantasy disability, sapphic MC
Protagonist Age: Two mid-20s; rest of cast 30+
Goodreads
Furious and fun, the first book in this bold, new science fiction adventure series follows a ragtag group of adventurers as they try to find a legendary ship that just might be the key to clearing their name and saving the universe.
Boots Elsworth was a famous treasure hunter in another life, but now she's washed up. She makes her meager living faking salvage legends and selling them to the highest bidder, but this time she got something real--the story of the Harrow, a famous warship, capable of untold destruction. Nilah Brio is the top driver in the Pan Galactic Racing Federation and the darling of the racing world--until she witnesses Mother murder a fellow racer. Framed for the murder and on the hunt to clear her name, Nilah has only one lead: the killer also hunts Boots.On the wrong side of the law, the two women board a smuggler's ship that will take them on a quest for fame, for riches, and for justice.
Boots is the only character on this list to have a fantasy disability – meaning, one that doesn’t exist in our world, but very much does in hers. In a galaxy where everything runs on magic because everyone has it, Boots…doesn’t. And over and over again throughout the trilogy, we see how much that sucks for her, and the complicated, often expensive methods she has to use to manage what everyone else can do or access without thought. Not that that’s enough to stop her from helping save the universe from a bunch of narcissists who are out to make themselves gods…
Honourable Mention
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Black MC, secondary sapphic Desi character in a wheelchair
Protagonist Age: 15
Goodreads
When a child goes missing in Edinburgh's darkest streets, young Ropa investigates. She'll need to call on Zimbabwean magic as well as her Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. But as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?
When ghosts talk, she will listen...
Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker. Now she speaks to Edinburgh's dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl's gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone's bewitching children--leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It's on Ropa's patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.
She'll dice with death (not part of her life plan...), discovering an occult library and a taste for hidden magic. She'll also experience dark times. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets, and Ropa's gonna hunt them all down.
Priya isn’t the main character of the Edinburgh Nights series, but I sure hope she gets a spin-off series of her own eventually! (And she has such a huge role in book two she comes very close to being co-main character with Ropa!) She’s a (brown, sapphic) wheelchair user who is able to get around just fine – including pulling a Spiderman and rolling her chair up walls and across ceilings when required!
(Also no, the character age isn’t a typo. Despite the MC being 15, it’s still an Adult series. Don’t ask me how Huchu makes it work; he just does, he’s that good!)
Do you know of any Fantasy (or Sci Fi!) with great disability rep? Drop any recs in the comments!
The Sharing Knife quartet by Lois McMaster Bujold (Beguilement, Legacy, Passage, and Horizon) features an amputee as one of the main characters.
I know it! It’s one of my favourite series, I reread it almost every year.
Ah, I have read this series several times, for I love Bujold. And Dag is wonderful.
I’ve read everything Bujold has ever written and will continue to do so as long as she shares her writing with the rest of us :D (And Dag is EPIC! He and Fawn make one of my favourite couples!)
I loved your starting essay, Sia. So much to think deeply about, and no easy answers. I think some of my favorite representations of disabilities is in Talia Hibbert’s Brown Sisters trilogy–but those are contemporary comic romances. Still fantasy, in their way! Bright, fabulous wish-fulfillment. But no, you know, dragons.
Thank you – I was a bit shy about sharing, but I thought it was worth it.
Okay, but there are ALWAYS times when what you want is a contemporary comic romance. I will happily check those out, thank you!
I should probably state that only the first book has a protagonist dealing with a disability—the other two focus on neurodiversity in various ways—discovery, demystifying, and celebration thereof being at the heart of the books! I love Talia Hibbert!
I like the idea of having a second edition of a book with fade to black sex scenes. I skip a lot of books that are described as steamy.
The first fantasy series I thought about with disabilities the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. The mc’s husband is an amputee.
Right? I get why it can’t be done for every book, but it’s still such a cool thing to do!
I think I vaguely remember that – I read the first Thursday Next book YEARS ago…
Just started reading A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall and one of the characters clearly has OCD.
I read that just a little bit ago and loved it! I wasn’t 100% sure if it was clinical anxiety or OCD, but I think most reviews I’ve seen have called it OCD.
This is a great post. I thought Hannah Kaner did a great job with Kissen in both her books. She’s still an amazing, ass-kicking character but she does have to deal with the discomfort and inconvenience of her prosthetic. And I was glad it wasn’t suddenly forgotten about in book two.
Thank you!
I ADORE Kissen – I’m in the middle of book two right now and same, I was so glad it wasn’t something the author forgot about in the sequel!
The Whole Man (The Telepathist in the U.K.) is about a young, physically deformed boy (and later man) who develops powerful telepathy. (Bet you didn’t see that coming!) It was written in the late 1950s, before Professor X and the X-Men were created.
I will have to take a look at it, thank you!
I’d also point out Ursula K. Le Guin’s Vaster Than Empires and More Slow.
I’ve actually never heard of either of those; what kind of disability rep do they have, do you remember?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic! I know it can be difficult to do on a discussion where there aren’t clear cut ‘answers’, but I appreciate hearing your perspective :) This list is a great resource and I’ll have to add a few titles to my TBR. I have THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER checked out right now. Not sure I’ll make it through the whole thing but I’m even more curious about it now.
You’re welcome – I’m glad it worth sharing, the thoughts and the recs! Really hope you enjoy the ones you added to your tbr. I’d love to know what you think of Spear if you do finish it!