Seeking M/M fantasy romance recommendations

[LBlankenship]

Apologies, but the search function on AW drops "m/m" or "gay" from searches because it's "too short". And there doesn't seem to be a forum for the genre...

My brain is making m/m fantasy romance noises, so I need to do some homework. I have not read much of the genre. I am looking for fully alternate-world fantasy -- not urban, not paranormal, not steampunk.

I am a HUGE fan of Lynn Flewelling's NIGHTRUNNER series. I'm familiar with Mercedes Lackey, too.

Anything else you recommend? (Anything that I have a snowball's chance in hell of finding in a library? My budget is extremely tight.)

[sunandshadow]

Nothing that you'd have a snowball's chance in hell of finding in a library, sorry. If you want free stuff you're kind of stuck with fanfiction, fictionpress, and online erotica archives like Nifty Erotic Story Archive or interest-specific ones like SoFurry. But for commercial work I like pretty much everything http://www.lessthanthreepress.com/ publishes. (No I'm not personally associated with them, beyond having watched as the company got started.)

[ULTRAGOTHA]

Melusine and it's sequels by Sarah Monette. Explicit. Rather violent in places. Available in several public libraries in my state.

Granted, these aren't what you'd typically think of as a romance. But give them a try.

I Googled gay, fantasy, romance and found this list on Goodreads.

[Unimportant]

Ellen Kushner's 'Swordpoint' ought to be widely available, and she's an excellent writer.

[LBlankenship]

Originally Posted by ULTRAGOTHA

I Googled gay, fantasy, romance and found this list on Goodreads.

Yes, I found that list too. The $9 ebooks were rather discouraging...

Thanks for the rec's so far!

[ULTRAGOTHA]

I'd wager that many of the books on that Goodreads list are available in public libraries.

I concur with Unimportant that Kushner is an excellent writer.

[Filigree]

Oldie but goodie: Diane Duane's 'Middle Kingdom' books: The Door into Fire, the Door into Shadow, the Door into Sunset, (a fourth which she may or may not self-pub.) Not graphic, and includes M/F and M/M/F, but there is a sweet central romance between a sorcerer and his prince. And brilliant side characters.

One of my faves is the Astreiant series from Melissa Scott, now being reprinted. Look for Point of Hopes and its sequels. Again, not graphic, but a great and subtly-building romance between a lawman and a mercenary, as a police procedural set in a great secondary world where astrology rules everything.

For a grittier and more philosophical take, read gay SF's granddaddy, Samuel R. Delany. Read Wiki entries and summaries first, because he can hit you with hot M/M sex one minute and deep discussions about civilizations losing their collective memories the next.

Much of my awkwardness with a lot of M/M fantasy put out by the romance e-pubs, is that it's often written by authors not well read in mainstream fantasy. So the authors are often reinventing the wheel with tropes I read 20+ years ago. So I'm likely to be more critical, which dumps me out of the story more often.

For guiltless free pleasure, I camp out on Archive of Our Own, which has the usual mix of bad fanfic and stunning epics. I skim the first few paragraphs of stories in my fave fandoms, and if I spot bad/awkward writing, I don't invest my time. But some of the stories are easily the equal of award-winning published work.

[gingerwoman]

I think this might be the kind of stuff one of the mods here Emily Veinglory writes for Loose ID, Samhain and Dream Spinner (?) A lot of books published by Samhain Publishing are availalbe at my local library and they also let me suggest books for them to buy if they don't have them.

[Filigree]

I want your library. My local one carries no m/m by Samhain, and little in general. The gay romances that do get on the shelves seem to arrive by accident or oversight, and they stay only until our local conservatives bitch about them.

[LBlankenship]

Originally Posted by Filigree

For a grittier and more philosophical take, read gay SF's granddaddy, Samuel R. Delany. Read Wiki entries and summaries first, because he can hit you with hot M/M sex one minute and deep discussions about civilizations losing their collective memories the next.

That sounds right up my alley

I had gotten the impression Veinglory primarily wrote erotica, but I guess I will find out soon enough... will see what I can track down.

[MumblingSage]

Your best shot may be to check out the m/m circut at Goodreads, get some suggestions there, and then try to find them at your local libraries. The odds of finding explicit m/m romance (in the sense of either explicit sex or even, given how conservative your area, explicitly about a gay relationship) in a public library are low, but some ebooks can be fairly cheap especially if you catch a sale. I second Monette (who _is_ very explicit, but more fantasy fiction than pure romance), Flewelling, and Swordspoint.