Books with asexual characters?

[AzureSongbird]

Well I wasn't quite sure where to post this, but does anybody know if there are any good books with asexual major or main characters out there? Because I would love to read some

[eched]

Shades of A is a comic book series where the main character is asexual. I would strongly suggest checking it out.

[Robin L]

You might want to check the page Asexuality in fiction on the AVENwiki. Personally, the Sherlock Holmes series is one of the best.

(NOTE: feel free to add to the article if something is missing)

[NeroReaper]

The current book I am writing the character is asexual, I can send you a sample just request it in PM if you want to.

[the bumbling rotifer]

Courtesy of http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Asexuality:

• Sherlock Holmes is directly stated to have no interest at all in romance or sex in Arthur Conan Doyle's original series of novels and short stories. Also, many copycats, "derived works" and even official adaptations try to make this aspect of his personality questionable, in order to appeal to a wider audience and introduce more drama into the equation. In most of the mainstream derived works, Irene Adler becomes Holmes's love interest. In the original story, however, this was never so. In fact, Holmes and Adler only ever meet once, and only very briefly. He hardly ever mentions her again in any other story either, mostly in passing as someone who beat him. While it's true he was interested in her, he seems more fascinated with her unusual intelligence than sympathetic or romantic. Presumably, because while she was not the first to outsmart him, she was the first woman to do so and in the Victorian era, women were not believed to be capable.
• The first Red Adept in Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series. Several fans misconstrued her as a Psycho Lesbian, due to her misandry (and general misanthropy, come to think of it), but Word of God said no, she wasn't interested in any gender.
• Sir Perceval, the heroine of Elizabeth Bear's Dust, is canonically asexual (although the word she uses is "celibate"). Perceval also uses "asexed", when explaining to Rian why she's not interested in her.
• In Sheridan Hay's The Secret of Lost Things, the character Oscar is stated to have no romantic or sexual interest in anyone of any gender — unfortunately for the heroine, who's in love with him.
• Tarma, one of the two female main characters in the Vows and Honor series by Mercedes Lackey, is magically bound to her goddess, and one of the consequences of this bond is that she feels no sexual desire whatsoever. (Her goddess is very into the whole Celibate Hero thing.) Though only of those sworn as warriors, due to her multiple aspects. Tarma also mentions to her partner that it should in no way stop HER from having many children, so to replenish her destroyed clan. Also notable in that, unlike most Swordsworn, Tarma allowed herself to become asexual in large part to deal with the trauma of having been raped by her clan's murderers. Later in life, she's simply become used to it.
• The eponymous heroine of Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion trilogy receives several propositions from fellow soldiers in her mercenary company, but turns them all down, explaining that she's never been interested in sex. Near the end of the book, this plays a part when she allows herself to be raped and tortured in order to buy the freedom of the rightful king. The rape fails to have any effect on her psyche, becoming just another form of pain she has to endure. The fallout from that incident turns into a Crowning Moment Of Awesome as her loyalty is rewarded.
• Rachael Ghorbani, from John Ringo's Council Wars series likens her own asexuality to being color-blind or tone-deaf. She simply doesn't understand the attraction of sex and finds the physical implications revolting.
• Played with in Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix, a Science Fiction novel - a group of asteroid settlers are all rendered asexual via a sort of chemical castration; The Hero agrees to turn off his sexuality in exchange for the settlers' diplomat amping hers up with drugs. This leads to an extremely squicky sex scene. It also featured a brilliant explanation of sex as seen from the colonists' viewpoint: She asks him to put his finger in her mouth and asks, "How does that feel?", to which The Hero responds something in line of "Moist and uncomfortably intimate" - which is exactly how she would feel about sex.
• Adele Mundy, from David Drake's RCN series, has "never been interested in mating rituals in either the abstract or the particular," and views the sexual obsession of most of the human race with bemused detachment.
• Kevin, from the book "Guardian of the Dead" by Karen Healey, is an asexual.
• Robert Merle's novel Death Is My Trade, based on the autobiography of Rudolf Höss, the commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp, portrays the protagonist (called Rudolf Lang in the book) this way. He gains more pleasure from polishing his boots than sex. He gets married and has children, but only because he feels that it's his duty towards his country.
• Rudy Waltz, the protagonist of Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut calls himself a "neuter". He has no interest in sex, and nobody even notices him, even though he'd be handsome if he took care of himself. He fantasizes about organizing a pride march for asexuals like himself.
• Most (but not all) of the characters in Greg Egan's Diaspora are neuter by choice. (In his Oceanic and Schild's Ladder, everyone is hermaphroditic – in two different ways.)
• Played for laughs in The Alphabet of Manliness, where Asexuality is judged as popping a boner while doing your math homework.
• In the Culture novels, you have every variation of sexuality possible, including asexuality, present in the Culture citizens.
• The "glorifieds" of the Left Behind series are that way due to the nature of their new bodies and minds.
• The Halo books have the Spartans. One of the physical enhancements that the Spartans undergo at the age of fourteen suppresses their sex drive, and either the books don't really touch on it, or it's not important to Master Chief and his brothers and sisters. There is one Spartan named Maria who retired from the unit to raise a family, but still works as a beta tester for all their new equipment, so they probably aren't automatically aromantic. Strictly speaking, the damping of their sex drives is a common side effect of the hormonal alterations that the Spartans are subjected to. While this represents a decrease in drive, it does not necessarily eliminate that drive entirely, nor does every individual Spartan react to the treatment exactly the same way. While asexual Spartans are the norm, exceptions can be expected.
• Lily Briscoe from Virginia Wolfe's "To The Lighthouse" is described as asexual by Margaret Drabble in the introduction to the Oxford University Press edition.
• Jenny Fields from John Irving's "The World According To Garp" is an asexual nurse who is repulsed by sex.
• Robert Howard's puritanical swashbuckler Solomon Kane, expressly stated multiple times that he has neither the time nor the motivation to pursue or desire anything romantically or sexually. He needs only his trusty blade and wrongs to right!
• From the Harry Potter series:
  • While the word "Asexual" was never used, J. K. Rowling said in an interview that Charlie Weasley is more interested in dragons than women (and he's not gay, either).
  • Voldemort is definitely aromantic, since he's literally incapable of feeling love, and he seems to have no interest in sex as well.
• Enjolras from Les Misérables is specifically stated to have no interest in women, and that his mistress is his country.
• Mr. Beebe and Cecil Vyse from E.M. Forster's "A Room With A View."
• Red Grant from From Russia with Love is classified as asexual in his file. The film version references this by having Grant Ignore the Fanservice.
• Demons in the Bartimaeus Trilogy are asexual but certainly are aware that humans are not often asexual. They use this to their advantage as much as they possibly can, distracting or disturbing the magicians who summon them with various attractive forms that may or may not match the spirit's actual gender (insofar as they have one). Bartimaeus remarks at one point in The Ring of Solomon that his repertoire of forms is pretty well nothing but horrible monsters and pretty girls.
• Clarissa Oakes, of the Aubrey-Maturin series, was incredibly surprised when she heard sex was supposed to be pleasant. It made her not realize just how serious a thing being molested by her guardian was until much later. Even once she's married, she only has sex because her husband enjoys it, and is puzzled by the idea of being uncomfortable being undressed in front of anyone. She has some rather interesting discussions about this with Doctor Maturin, who has some...unconventional ideas about sexuality himself.
• In Tales of Kolmar, Akhor wondered for most of his life if he was this, but conveniently he ended up having Single-Target Sexuality instead. The mage Vilkas, though, is flat-out uninterested in everyone, once thinking that he probably should sleep with his attractive best friend just to make her happy, but being relieved when she interprets his lack of reaction to being touched as rejection and pulls away.
• In the short story "You Can't Be Too Careful" by Ruth Rendell, Della Galway is asexual - "no spark of sexual feeling had ever troubled her."
• "Boss Tweed", the antagonist of The Opiuchi Hotline is asexual and believes that it gives him an advantage in the rough-and-tumble world of Lunar politics. Asexuality in John Varley's Eight World stories is complicated by something most authors don't consider: In a clothing-optional society with Easy Sex Change "none of the above" is always an option, so judging someone's orientation from their configuration is pretty much impossible. At least two characters assume asexuality when they meet people without apparent genitals but both turn out to be wrong.
• Dexter Morgan from Dexter is uninterested in sex, but willing enough to keep his wife, Rita, convinced that he's a normal man.
• According to "Tale of Ragnar's Sons" (13th century), viking warlord Ivar the Boneless "had no children, because of the way he was: with no lust or love".
• Tori in R. J. Anderson's Quicksilver has a scene where she comes out as asexual.
• In The Eyes of The Dragon, King Roland is implied to be this way.
• Sleepy is this in Glen Cook's The Black Company series. The novel that she narrates states this to chiefly be the result of being raped by her uncles as a child and never becoming comfortable with sexuality as a result. It's implied in the following novel that she may have slept with her close friend Willow Swan, but even then only once or twice, when rumor had them as an on-and-off couple.
• Acatl from the Obsidian And Blood series. Technically, being celibate is part of his job description, being a Priest for the Dead, BUT he states repeatedly that this has no bearing on his attitude, is baffled by all the fuss people make about sex and getting to have any and sees women and men just as necessary parts of a functioning society. Xochiquetzal, the Goddess of Love and Sexuality, tries to prove nobody is immune to her but Acatl's having none of it.

Of these I've read The Deed of Paksennarrion by Elizabeth Moon, which is very good, although at the time I didn't realise the main character was asexual (I was one of those aces who assumed that everyone else in the world was asexual too :P ).

[AzureSongbird]

Thank you so much for the recommendations everyone!! ^_^

[argar]

I went through the list and found one book missing from the fantasy section.

There is a book called Winter Warriors by David Gemmell in which the character Kebra the Bowman is consistently asexual throughout the novel.

He is a loyal friend and a bit past his middle years. I love his personality and the perplexity he feels with his friends.

[That asexual guy]

Most likely already been posted but I'm reading From Russia with Love. In the beginning the file for assassin Red Grant lists him as "asexual" and he pays no attention to the woman giving him a massage. Later in the book Rosa Klebb is called "a neuter" and the following is said about her: "Sexual neutrality was the essence of coldness in an individual. It was a great thing to be born with."

[Heart]

Most likely already been posted but I'm reading From Russia with Love. In the beginning the file for assassin Red Grant lists him as "asexual" and he pays no attention to the woman giving him a massage. Later in the book Rosa Klebb is called "a neuter" and the following is said about her: "Sexual neutrality was the essence of coldness in an individual. It was a great thing to be born with."

I'm simultaneously sad that asexuality = coldness, but also happy that asexuality = a thing... I can't quite decide how I feel about this. I could also be taking this completely out of context, since I have never even come near to reading the book.

As a side note, there's a whole thread over in World Watch entirely about books with asexuality in them. It's here. The discussion there is live and going :D

And on that note:

This thread has been moved from Asexual Q&A to World Watch.

Heart

Asexual Q&A Moderator

[the_woodland]

I'm heavily planning one/ have been. It's funny because I planned an asexual character before I knew about asexuality very well. I feel like Aven helped me realize the orientation of my character. Stranger still, it has always been crucial to the plot. I just never realized who she really was XD

[carried in bags]

I got the impression Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye was ace

[FOXracingfan]

I felt the main character, Libby Day, in Dark Places by Gillian Flynn was asexual.

[That asexual guy]

From The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay

Ch 5

I'd had no experience with men, and chose to deposit all ideas of romantic promise with the unattainable with Oscar.

Ch 7

A casual observer might think more passed between Oscar and me than ever would, his waiting on the outcome of my meeting like that of one intimately engaged in the interests of another. But Oscar couldn't return to me anything except the reflection of my own longing. It didn't stop me from wanting more, but I would come to see that Oscar lacked the ability to connect to others in a tangible way.

Ch 8

"Girl, you understand, don't you, what kind of man Oscar is? Pearl peered at me solicitously. ... "Do you hear me, Rosemary? You know what I'm asking here?"

"You mean, Pearl, that he's not the sort of man ... Not the sort of man that ... that ... can ... that loves women?" I answered haltingly, blushing.

Ch 13

"It's good to have dreams, girl, but just be realistic. That Oscar ain't got nothing to give you."

Ch 17

"Oscar?" Arthur sighed. "Hard to say. He is so secretive. I've had long talks with him over the years only to realize afterward that they were monologues. He just listened. That's a gift, I suppose. He's very clever. But his gift is not for love, if that's what you're asking me. Not for loving anyone, I can assure you. Not women. Not men."

[That asexual guy]

From the book The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher

Character Francis talking to his mother in a coma:

Told her what he had long ago come to understand, that for whatever reason something in him was missing, that he had never felt sexual desire for anyone, that some part, which to the world was indispensable, was not there. He told her how, always, he had led up to the fringe of desire, of expressed desire, whether he was on his own and in his own thoughts, or even when he was with another person and the possibility seemed, as best he could tell, to be in the air. He had been lead away from it, and if he had desires of any sort, he did not know what form they would ultimately take. He explained what it was like to look at someone and know them beautiful, yet not respond; whether to a man or a woman; he explained about the sense of exclusion that knowledge had imposed from any society he had ever lived in. He explained all this, quite clearly, and as if to reassure her that he had never been so happy as when he had been hers, a child, not knowing and not missing what would never be his.

The knowledge that he was, at any rate, something -- not someone who wanted his own sex, nor someone who wanted to change his own, a something that was nothing, a neutral -- would console her, and he expanded, telling her over and over again that she was not to blame, that nobody was.

[RainbowGalaxy]

Surprised no one has mentioned Watchmen yet. Rorschach is usually read as asexual.

Admittedly it's a graphic novel, not strictly a book. But a damn fine one at that.

[argar]

Wow, good point RainbowGalaxy. Totally missed that.

[AmberSkyeF]

Some of my fans on Tumblr pointed out books with asexual characters, but reading the descriptions tells me that the asexuality seems implied. :/ People argue Will Grayson, Will Grayson, features an asexual Will, but John Green says that he's not asexual. He just wanted to include a teen romance where sex wasn't a factor in the book. That's all.

I want a YA book, many, actually, where the asexuality isn't implied. I am writing a book like that right now with a homoromantic asexual character where the asexuality isn't implied. Implied asexuality is difficult to spot anyway, and leaving it implied makes it harder for those who have no clue about asexuality to even understand that the character is asexual at all!

[The Great WTF]

Thought you guys might appreciate this. It's not (quite) canon, of course, but this did pop up on one of the more popular Harry Potter blogs on tumblr and JKR has said that Charlie's more interested in dragons than girls:

[kiaroskuro]

Florence from On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan? Debatable.

[Quinoa]

I read Quicksilver by R. J. Anderson, and I LOVED it! Here's a review from queenieofaces. I just noticed it's not even on the AVENwiki list. Adding it now!

EDIT: Apparently I CAN'T add it. That's frustrating!

[passionatefriend61]

Two openly ace characters: http://amzn.com/B00BAWQER0

[Artistofnoname]

Marilena Carpathia from the Before They Were Left Behind trilogy. She only appears in the first book The Rising but she was very much asexual and even explicitly used the word Asexual to discribe herself.

[KEYBOARD_WARRIOR]

I think that Biggles in the books would probably be a heteroromantic asexual. Despite brief affairs, Biggles and his chums remain steadfastly single. Biggles suffers a disappointment in World War I, when he falls in love with German spy Marie Janis in the short story Affaire de Coeur set in 1918. This relationship with Janis suggests he is a romantic hero, "tragically loyal to the only woman he ever really loved".

[argar]

Going along with what RainbowGalaxy mentioned about Watchmen.

Aside from Rorschach, a case could be argued that Ozymandias is also an asexual character.

[(A)rrogant Avian]

In Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Noah Joad was asexual. Also in East Of Eden by John Steinbeck, Cathy was asexual as well.

[WolfMist]

I'm writing a fantasy series where one of the characters is an aromantic asexual. Well, she wouldn't use that label. It's fantasy, like I said, and she's not human. Her species just works differently :)

[fuzzipueo]

I'm bringing this across from the alternate AVEN at proboards. I though it would be good to bring it here too.

A fairly new list on Goodreads is dedicated to books with Asexual Characters: www.goodreads.com/list/show/61456.Asexuals_In_Fiction_#17159850

If you're a member of Goodreads and know of more books, the list needs expansion.

I recommend Accepting Me by Jo Ramsey. A nice, short coming of age story.

Read more: http://asexualityorg.proboards.com/thread/208/books-asexual-characters#ixzz3BMT45csw

[Certified Cake Decorator]

I read Carrie Pilby. It was pretty good. Kinda repetitive though....