lb_lee: Sneak smiling (sneak)
[personal profile] lb_lee2022-08-13 09:19 pm

[sticky entry] Sticky: Table of Contents

Hi, and welcome to [community profile] pluralstories , a filterable, searchable catalog of stories involving bodysharing, spirit possession, and realms of fiction and the imagination! Right now, only [personal profile] lb_lee  can post here, but anyone can comment or join. (And if you are interested in joining the admin team, please let me know!) Quick links:

How to search and filter this catalog so you can find what you want! )

Other relevant links:
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-07-13 06:33 pm

Giant by T Zysk/reapersun (romance comic, 2019)

"This is the strange life of my family. We are the likenesses of ancient figures, but we are not those people. We are only ourselves."


Blurb: Michelangelo's David and a street mural on the side of a donut shop fall in love. What is life to artwork, away from human eyes?

Why is it worth your time?: There are a bunch of works in this catalog about the independent life of fictional beings, but this is the only one I've found where the human creators/audience are completely not involved and the focus is on the statue and mural's relationship to EACH OTHER. The art is gorgeous, and it's short and free to read online; give it a shot!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, otherworld, fictioneers (Michelangelo's David), romantic relationships

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Not screenreadable. Available for free reading on bsky and pillowfort, or as a $10 ebook in the creator's Shorts Collection.
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-07-13 05:50 pm

Sister Mine, by Nalo Hopkinson (fantasy novel, 2013)

"I would hate it if people thought of me and Abby as one person split into two separate bodies"

"That's very human of you," Beji replied.


Blurb: Abby and Makeda were born conjoined, separated at birth by their demigod relatives at the cost of their human mother. Abby has mojo; Makeda has none, and that barrier between them has grown thicker and thicker. When their demigod father goes missing, however, Makeda will have to reconcile with her sister... and figure out her own gifts.

Why is it worth your time?: It's good! Where one self ends and another begins is a theme of this book--in Makeda and Abby's former conjoined state, in family and individual, in human and celestial. On top of all that, this story also takes place in a Caribbean culture of spirit possession!

Plural Tags: abuse low focus, identityblending, otherworld (the spirit world), nonhumans (spirits, mojo), family relationships, possession, spiritual

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-07-13 05:47 pm

Come Tumbling Down, by Seanan McGuire (2019, fantasy novella)

"That was her true gift to them: she taught them how to keep hoping in the face of the world that told them their memories were delusions, their lived experiences were lies, and there dreams were never going to come true. Perhaps that was her secret for engendering loyalty in a student body that was otherwise disinclined to trust adults, listen to them, or answer when they called. She believed."

Blurb: Jack and Jill were twins sent to a Gothic mad science world, and when they got kicked out, they came to Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children until they could return. Now Jack's back again, having been bodyjacked by Jill; can she get her own body back, save her twice-dead mentor, and keep her undead girlfriend going? Lucky for her, she has other wayward child heroes to help her...

Why is it worth your time?: The Wayward Children series is a weird edge case; many a gateway system, fictionkin, or walk-in can sympathize with the longing to return to a world very unlike this one, and McGuire expresses that longing and need beautifully. It also has one of the best depictions of body dissonance I've ever seen; Jack and Jill might be identical twins, but their bodies are NOT the same, and Jack KNOWS it. The whole series may be well worth a look, though even Come Tumbling Down doesn't exactly have bodySHARING, just bodyswapping and theft.

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate focus, bodyhopping, otherworld, enmity, setting-specific

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available in hardback, paperback, audiobook, and ebook.

Misc Notes: Though Come Tumbling Down is #5 in this series, if you only want the Jack and Jill books, you can read #1 (Every Heart a Doorway) and #2 (Down Among the Sticks and Bones). Honestly, I would've preferred to have read #2 first. If you want those books, #1 is available in Hebrew, Portuguese, and German, while #2 is available in German and Portuguese.
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-07-11 12:06 am

Analyzing Joan, by Del (monologue, 1999)

"I could do without my warhorse; I could drag about in a skirt; I could let the banners and the trumpets and the knights and the soldiers pass me and leave me behind as they leave the other women, if only I could still hear the wind in the trees, the larks in the sunshine, the young lambs crying through the healthy frost, and the blessed, blessed church bells that send my angel voices floating to me on the wind."

Blurb: A soulbonder's "character notes and monologue work for Joan of Arc."

Why is it worth your time?: It's a short, ephemeral remnant of work from a soulbonding subculture of the past, giving extra pathos to Joan fighting those who would take her voices from her. Check it out!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, spiritual, voices

Content Warnings: It's a monologue from Joan of Arc's prison cell as she prepares to die. I don't know what you expect.

Access Notes: Screenreadable, free, and archived online on the Wayback Machine

Misc Notes: Del was on Kurai's 1999 SB list. This piece is old enough and anonymous enough I felt safe to use the tag.
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-07-09 07:57 pm

Rachel in Love, by Pat Murphy (sci-fi short story, 1987)

"-- I am not a monkey, she signs. -- I am a girl.

Blurb: A chimp, taught ASL and implanted with the personality of a man's dead daughter, is raised as that daughter until his death. Taken to a scientific research facility, it's up to Rachel to decide who and what she is, and how she wants her life to go.

Why is it worth your time?: Rachel's experience of species dissonance, deciding where she fits in (among humans? among apes?) and reconciling her past, human self with her current chimpanzee self feels relevant to anyone who's had to undergo a major identity change (and move from one species to another). Check it out!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, identityblending, copies, nonhumans (chimpanzee), setting-specific, serially singlet

Content Warnings: Contain spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: Available in German, Dutch, Japanese, and French. This story has been reprinted oodles of times, and is available in paperback, hardback,

Misc. Notes (if any): This story has also won some awards. It's well-reputed!
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-29 10:18 pm

Brown Girl in the Ring, by Nalo Hopkinson (sci-fi novel, 1998)

"But doux-doux," Prince of Cemetery said, "your grandaughter head full of spirits already; she ain't tell you? All kind of duppy and thing. When she close she eyes, she does see death. She belong to me. She is my daughter. You should 'fraid of she."


Blurb: Toronto's wealthy citizens have fled, leaving the town barricaded and wartorn. Worse yet, young, single mother Ti-Jeanne starts dreaming of the dreadful La Diablesse. She knows she must obey the spirits in order to save her family from a deadly fate.

Why is it worth your time?: This book is good! Caribbean folklore and religion combine as the story ramps up to a faster and faster pace. We couldn't wait to see how it ended!

Plural Tags: abuse low focus, bodyhopping, cofronting, nonhumans (spirits, loa/orisha), realitymashing, possession, spiritual, switching, visions

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available on paper, as ebook and audiobook, and in French.

Misc Notes: Won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Had a loose film prequel/adaptation, Brown Girl Begins, but I liked the book better!
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-27 06:43 pm

Drawn Together, by Minh Lê and Dan Santat (contemporary picture book, 2019)

"...and we build a new world that even words can't describe."

Blurb: When a young boy visits his grandfather, their lack of a common language leads to confusion, frustration, and silence. But as they sit down to draw together, something magical happens--with a shared love of art and storytelling, the two form a bond that goes beyond words.

Why is it worth your time?: This is a beautiful realitymashing picture book about a grandfather and grandson finding ways to communicate by sharing art-making time together, with their artistic avatars battling a dragon with their drawing implements of choice. This is a rare communal realitymashing piece that ISN'T a horror story! Well worth checking out!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, realitymashing, family, fictioneers??? (for lack of a better term for one's artistic self-insert), visions

Content Warnings: None.

Access Notes: Available in paper book and ebook forms.

Misc Notes: This book has won a load of awards for good reason!
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-27 06:33 pm

Real to Me, by Minh Lê and Raissa Figueroa (social-emotional learning, picture book, 2023)

Submitted by [profile] matshushima! Thank you, [personal profile] matsushima!

"Others tried to tell me that she wasn’t real, that she was just imaginary.

But what did they know? She was real to me."


Blurb: What do you do when your imaginary friend goes away? Did you dream up the entire friendship? Maybe... But you miss her laugh, her comfort, and her silly mischief. It all feels so real... you couldn't have just imagined those things, right?

Why is it worth your time?: It's a cute picture book about imaginary friends with a fun twist at the end.

Plural/1+ Tags: imaginary friends

Content Warnings: N/A

Accessibility Notes: Picture book, available in print, digital, and audio
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-24 11:19 pm

Exploring the Aventine: An autoethnography... by Dr. Charlene Thomson (PhD dissertation 2024)

Submitted by [personal profile] matsushima! Thank you, [personal profile] matsushima!

Full title: Exploring the Aventine: An autoethnography on making sense of immersive daydreaming in the context of developmental trauma

"I summon my fantasy world characters and imagined others into dialogue and interaction. As we all converge at an intersection of immersive daydreaming and developmental trauma, ancestors whisper of intergenerational trauma and patriarchal psychiatric discourse."

Blurb: Immersive daydreaming is fantasy activity that is vivid, intricate and highly absorptive. Akin to an ongoing ‘movie-in-the-mind’, it often has the quality of feeling real and can continue over a period of months or years. The term ‘maladaptive’ daydreaming (MD) was introduced (Somer, 2002) to describe immersive daydreaming before researchers investigated it as a distinct psychiatric condition (e.g. Somer, Soffer-Dudek, Ross & Halpern, 2017) related to developmental trauma.

This thesis presents an autoethnographic journey into the Aventine, a term I use to refer to an elusive, liminal space. I ask readers to adopt and experiment with various lenses I use in my attempts to navigate immersive daydreaming from a critical, post-qualitative perspective. … The pathologization of creative responses to trauma is then countered to reveal fantasy as a site of liberation.

This creative-relational research is situated, experience-near and dialogical. Attending to the social/political, I challenge traditional forms of trauma-related fantasy representation and claim a space where the intuitive, imaginative and numinous are welcomed into therapeutic practice and scholarship. This thesis highlights the importance of process-driven research: from intrapsychic wars to synchronicities , and ultimately to a sense of homeness, I invite you as reader to accompany me on what became a reclamation of artistic and spiritual freedom.

Why is it worth your time?: It is a PhD dissertation on immersive daydreaming that includes transcripts of extensive inner dialogues between the researcher and real and imagined others from the researcher's life and immersive daydreaming story that spanned over a decade as well as real world historical figures.

Plural/1+ Tags: creator speaks from experience, people: copies, type: setting specific

Content Warnings: racist intergenerational trauma

Accessibility Notes: Full text PDF available on the University of West England (UWE) Bristol Research Repository
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-24 10:13 pm

By Krom! by Shel Kahn (autobio comic, 2012-2014)

"What can I do when it feels like the whole universe is out to get me?"

"First, I would decide if it is a worthy opponent. If not, I prefer to laugh."


Blurb: "Conan the Barbarian versus my mundane problems!" Conan accompanies Kahn throughout their life, dispensing life advice and giving new perspectives on modern life.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a nice little comic about a cartoonist and their barbarian friend, a nice slice of WHY people enjoy the company of their favorite fictional barbarians. Plus, it's up for free online! Give it a shot!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, fictioneers, friendship

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Posted up online for free reading! Not screenreadable, out of print, but also available in ebook as pay-what-you-want, should you want to pay a humble cartoonist!

Misc Notes: For funsies, compare and contrast with Andy of Astraea's web page about how Robert E. Howard claimed that Conan seemed to write himself!
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-21 06:59 pm

Nine Lives, by Ursula K. Le Guin (sci-fi short story, 1969)

"He never was alone before. He had himself to see, talk with, live with, nine other selves all his life."

Blurb: A clone of ten named John Chow come to help mine a hellish planet... but when disaster strikes, there's only one John Chow left. How does he deal?

Why is it worth your time?: The John Chows are referred to as A clone, not TEN clones, and have an interesting sort of group self. And of course, Le Guin is a legend. Give it a shot! It's good!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, identityblending, copies, setting-specific, intimate and teamwork relationships, on purpose

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: This story has been anthologized more than anything in the catalog. Available in print, ebook, and audio, and in German, Dutch, French, Serbian, Spanish, Italian, and Lithuanian

Misc. Notes (if any): "singleton" is used in this story to refer to non-clone single selves. Is this possibly where later ('90s BBS) plural usage came from?
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-19 06:45 pm

Leave Me Behind, by Navi and SQORE (Celeste fanmix, 2025)

"You think you can just leave me behind?
That's unfortunate. I don't think so."


Blurb: A theatrical song from the perspective of the "bad" headmate of the protagonist of the video game Celeste, explicating their selves-hatred and -sabotage.

Why is it worth your time?: This is a very unusual remix, with a musical theater feel, very far abroad from the original soundtrack song it's based off of. It's free and short, give it a shot!

Plural Tags: abuse:intermediate focus, enmity, voices

Content Warnings: selves-hatred, commands to suicide, sudden screaming

Access Notes: Available for free to listen on Ocremix.org! Lyrics are here.
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-18 07:29 pm

The Three Tongues, by Catalina Rios (lesbian poetry, 1988)

"In every strong woman
there are three tongues
all in contradiction,"


Blurb: a poem of the three voices in strong women.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short, meditative, and free to read online!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse low focus, closeting, voices

Content Warnings: None

Accessibility Notes: This poem has been anthologized in the 1990 collection Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color. It is also in Sinister Wisdom #34, which has been digitized and is screenreadable online, and is backed-up on the Wayback Machine!
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-16 06:47 pm

in the shadows, by Kieron_ODuibhir (Batman fanfic, 2020- )

"How long have you known I wasn’t real?"

Blurb: The adventures of Batman, an eldritch imaginary friend who has sadly outlived the child who first imagined him. What does he do now, especially now that Superman's figured it out?

Why is it worth your time?: This is an impressively original interpretation of Batman that explains so many things about the character in such a delightful way. (Why is he able to do so many things a regular human can't? Why does his cape change in shape and size so? How is he still doing this after so many decades? Because he isn't actually human.) Reading about spooky asocial protector-of-children Batman building relationships despite his lack of humanness is heartwarming. This story is especially fun to read paired with Trippe's Something Terrible.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, imaginary friends, nonhumans (eldritch nightmare monster thingy?), friendship

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: Free to read and screenreadable on Ao3 and also backed-up on archive.org!
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-16 06:39 pm

Damaged by Cathy Glass (nonfiction/memoir book, 2006)

Submitted by [personal profile] erinptah! Thank you, [personal profile] erinptah!

“OK, Cathy,” she said, not in the least perturbed. “I’ll tell her.” Then she stood up, and started a conversation with herself, in which she told Jodie she wasn’t seeing Mummy or Daddy because she had to be safe.

Blurb: When seven-year-old Jodie was taken into foster care, her behavior was so difficult that she went through five carers in four months. Experienced carer Cathy Glass almost passed on her too, until her own (teenage) children insisted they wanted to see Jodie through. Eventually Jodie began to disclose details of the abuse, overlooked by Social Services for years, while Cathy struggled to get her the professional care and long-term support she deserved.

Why is it worth your time?: The rare outside view of a small child who appears to have DID, who ends up in the care of adults that are attentive and well-informed enough to recognize it.

You wouldn't know it from the promotional copy, and DID doesn't get invoked by name until nearly the end of the book, when a couple of alters firmly identify themselves as Not Jodie. But the dissociative traits are visible from day one, when Cathy reports Jodie having intense, distracted conversations with what she assumes are "imaginary friends." Among the kid's other issues, most of them Cathy never overtly connects with the alters, but there are a few that the reader might recognize as DID-related anyway (e.g. struggles with time perception). All of which suggests that Cathy's original real-time notes about her experience with Jodie were pretty solid.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse high-focus, cofronting, people: children, type: medical, how would you tag for "real system described from the outside POV of a singlet but not in a horrible way"?

Content Warnings: past child abuse (sexual and physical), past animal abuse, physical aggression and sexual acting-out. Others involve SPOILERS; see comments

Accessibility Notes: Available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

Misc. Notes (if any): There's some awkward misinformation in the dialogue (e.g. describing the non-Jodie headmates Reg and Amy as "characters"). Thankfully, Cathy's actions stay refreshingly grounded in "managing the issues Jodie-and-company actually have," there's not much focus on her idea of what DID "should" be.
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-15 08:14 pm

Untitled, by Adam Ellis (horny fantasy comic, 2025)

"This would be the first time since I was a kid that I haven't bought a new console on day one..."

"STOP! You don't need to succumb to consumerism! You can always buy one in a year or two!"

"Psh, Nintendo? That shit's for babies. Go buy cigarettes."


Blurb: A man ponders buying a new Nintendo, only for his inner angel and demon to discover new feelings for each other.

Why is it worth your time?: It's cute, short, and free!

Plural Tags:abuse not mentioned, nonswitching, nonhumans (an angel and a devil), romantic relationships

Content Warnings: Beefcake. That's presumably what you're here for.

Access Notes: available on tumblr! Page 1, and page 2. Also backed-up on the Wayback Machine, but not screenreadable.
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-15 07:41 pm

My Brother Leopold, by Edgar Pangborn (science fiction novella, 1973)

"ARTICLE III: The man going by the name Brother Francis is charged with claiming to have begun life miraculously, without father or mother, in the body of a boy about thirteen years of age."

Blurb: An epistolary short story about the fall and rise of Brother Francis/Leopold Graz, who in a post-nuclear apocalypse preached brotherhood and kindness: condemned, burned alive, and then beatified... at a cost.

Why is it worth your time?: Pangborn is a kind writer who tells the story of a boy, his invisible Companion who urges him to great things, and the major front switch that occurs when he is thirteen, which leads to his fall and rise under the pseudo-feudal fundamentalist church afterward. It's pretty good!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, switching, serially singlet, spiritual voices, visions

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Only officially available on paper, but anthologized multiple times; one of them, Still I Persist in Wondering, is screenreadable on archive.org. (Please ignore the pulpy cover.) Available in German and Italian.
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-10 02:47 pm

Louisa May Incest, by Carolyn Gage (fanfiction play, 1990)

"Louisa, I love you. I'm the only one who has ever loved you. That's what you created me for."

Blurb: Jo March from Little Women gets into a fight with her author, Louisa May Alcott, about how her story will end. Who is writing our stories, and how do they trap or free us?

Why is it worth your time?: This play packs a punch! It hurt to read, but it is good. A lot of Gage's work is about the way we adapt to abuse and violence, how it gets into our heads.

Plural Tags: abuse high-focus, closeting, fictioneers, romantic relationships, nonswitching

Content Warnings: Incest! It's in the title! See comments for more.

Access Notes: Available on paperback and ebook. Also included in the collections The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and other plays (the 2004 HerBooks publication) and Nine Short Plays.
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-10 02:40 pm

The Second Coming of Joan of Arc, by Carolyn Gage (one-woman play, 1988)

"A woman who hears voices is a lot more dangerous than a woman with an army. Keep that in mind."

Blurb: Radical feminist play about a smartass butch lesbian named Jeanne Romee (AKA Joan of Arc) who recounts her story as the hero of France, heretic burned at the stake, and redeemed saint against her will.

Why is it worth your time?: This play is award-winning for a reason. Jeanne is incisive and insightful, witty and angry, and Gage has a rare ability to cut to the heart of dissociation as a tool of control. This play is very much of its time and culture, but if that's not a problem for you, check it out! It's good!

Plural/1+ Tags: Abuse intermediate-focus, the dead (saints), spiritual, voices, nonswitching

Content Warnings: It is not a spoiler to say that Jeanne suffers the fate of the historical Joan of Arc. Others DO involve spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: This play is shockingly easy to get, aside from an actual performance! It's available in audio form as MP3 download or CD, in script form, and in the collections The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and other plays (printed in 2004 from HerBooks) and The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Selected Plays (self-published and A DIFFERENT COLLECTION), the latter of which is available both on paper and ebook. It was also published (and now freely available online) in Sinister Wisdom #35, Summer/Fall 1988, pg. 95-116. Archive.org has audio recordings of various performances. Available in French, Bulgarian, Chinese (Mandarin), Portuguese, Italian, German, and Spanish.
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[personal profile] lb_lee2025-06-10 01:33 pm

Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Science fiction book series, 2015-)

Submitted by [personal profile] thishouse. Thank you, [personal profile] thishouse!

We

Bootstrap ourselves from mere insensate clutches of jelly and molecular interaction until We

Remember

We were on an adventure.

For many long spans of time we were Lante, once we had repaired Lante. Except that Those-of-We who had learnt what Lante was had to make such repairs so that what came out was less Lante and more We. But Those-of-We had experienced what it was to be Lante and could fill in the gaps. We were We and We were Lante and Lante was Lante and did not know it was also

We.

Blurb for Book 1: Avrana Kern spearheaded an exoplanet terraforming program with the goal of populating new Earth-like worlds with monkeys uplifted to human-like intelligence by a nanovirus. Her program was sabotaged by people who rejected her scientific ideals, and the conflict blossomed into nuclear war back on Earth. Avrana escapes the sabotage, and she uploads herself to a computer system while she waits for rescue. The monkeys died, but the virus lived on. Its host becomes a species of jumping spider, beginning their ascension toward a space-faring society. Thousands of years after the nuclear war, ark ships take off from Earth and seek terraformed planets to re-establish a home for humanity. The ark ship Gilgamesh discovers Kern's World, and its crew are determined to make a new home there.

Why is it worth your time?: Besides the unique and interesting plurality portrayed in these books, they're fantastic science fiction with an emphasis on worldbuilding and speculative evolution. Their greatest strength is their empathy toward atypical experiences of sentience and intelligence.

In Book 1, Avrana Kern is the primary plural character as the distinction between her, the computer system, and her uploaded version of herself blur together. In Book 2, Children of Ruin, Tchaikovsky adds sentient octopuses, and the octopuses' selves divided between their Crown, Guise, and Reach showcases a permanent co-fronting experience. Also introduced in Book 2 but explored further in Book 3, Children of Memory, is a naturally plural species that seeks to understand what it means to live as one and as many at the same time. In Book 3, there's also a sentient headspace-like world.

Plural/1+ Tags: setting-specific sci-fi stuff, enmity in Book 1, the naturally plural species is a scary antagonistic force in Book 2 at first, teamwork in Books 2 and 3

Content Warnings: nuclear war, extreme isolation, murder, lynching

Accessibility Notes: audiobooks available; pretty easy library book; Book 1 is available in English, French, German, Romanian, Portuguese, and Dutch; Book 2 is available in English, German, French, Romanian, and Dutch; and Book 3 is available in English, German, and Dutch

Misc. Notes (if any): Even though Book 2 has a "plurality is a scary monster" situation, the resolution is peaceful and empathetic, and the species is redeemed and explored further in Book 3.