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On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
A spacefaring crew restores abandoned structures among the stars while one of their own searches for a lost first love. Quietly dazzling and deeply tender, it’s a tale of found family, memory, and the homes we choose. With intimate stakes and cosmic vistas, On A Sunbeam is a gentle masterpiece.
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In On A Sunbeam, did you enjoy ...
... gentle, character-first spacefaring life with culture-rich, low-tech-feel worldbuilding?
The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
If you loved riding that fish-shaped ship with Mia’s close-knit restoration crew, you’ll sink right into The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. It’s another warm, people-centered journey through space where the mission is just an excuse to explore friendships, food, customs, and quiet moments between jobs—like your favorite scenes with Alma, Char, Elliot, and Jules bonding between repairs and that daring trip toward the Staircase to reach Grace.
... a love story unfolding across fragmented timelines and intimate correspondence?
This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El Mohtar, Max Gladstone
The way On a Sunbeam braided Mia and Grace’s school-days romance with the present-day rescue gave you those aching jumps in time. This Is How You Lose the Time War turns that feeling into the whole experience: two rivals exchanging letters across branching futures until it becomes an impossible, aching love story. If the back-and-forth between boarding school memories and the Staircase mission hooked you, this lyrical, time-split romance will, too.
... warm, queer found-family bonds that heal and transform everyone involved?
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
If your heart swelled when Mia found a true family with Alma, Char, Elliot, and Jules—people who’d cross the galaxy (and the Staircase) for each other—then The House in the Cerulean Sea is your next comfort read. It’s all about unlikely guardians and kids building a home together, with the same gentle humor, acceptance, and fierce loyalty that made the crew’s quiet dinners and bold rescue for Grace so moving.
... tender, queer relationships threaded through a genre-bending, compassionate tale?
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
If Mia and Grace’s devotion—tested by distance and the peril of the Staircase—was your emotional lodestar, Light From Uncommon Stars offers that same tender through-line. Amid deals with demons and a family of alien donut-makers, the story centers on fragile, hard-won love and queer belonging, delivering the kind of heartfelt beats you felt when the crew risked everything so Mia could be with Grace.
... gender-expansive space cultures and pronoun-play that reframe identity?
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Part of the spark in On a Sunbeam is its almost-all-female-presenting world and effortless queer normalcy—Mia’s crew, her school, and even the bureaucracies they face. Ancillary Justice pushes that lens further with a civilization that uses a single pronoun for everyone, inviting you to reimagine identity and connection in space. If the inclusive fabric around Mia and Grace felt right, Breq’s journey will resonate.
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