Speculative fiction as in the good olden days, minus the racism, patriarchy and heteronorm?

I'm looking for novels that fall into the sci-fi / fantasy / postapo genre but aren't adventure stories for light reading.

I'm thinking about someone following the footsteps of authors such as Herbert, Huxley, Lem, Dukaj or even Asimov but in a more modern, decolonized and de-patriarchalized version.

Ursula LeGuinn is a good example of what I like: fantasy/sci-fi setting as a pretext to consider bigger social, ethical, political and gender topics.

Can you recommend really big, difficult, thought provoking sci-fi/fantasy/postapo literature but written recently and devoid of the "everyone must be white, cis, able-bodied male" agenda?'

Posted Aug 12, 2026, 2:13 PM UTC

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