Romance in SF
- Thread starter Arkena
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tinkerdan
∞<Q-Satis
Welcome the the Chrons, @Arkena!
There's a few threads around the site, and tinkerdan's suggestion to try that most recent one is good.
Yes, romance is acceptable in science fiction. Okay, these are examples from films and TV, but you have Han and Leia, and Finn and whoever you want to ship him with, in Star Wars; and you have the romantic relationships in Battlestar Galactica, to name two franchises. Recently, on the book front, there was The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers, which features various romantic relationships. Personally, I love that book, and the second in the series.
Romance has been present in the work of several authors, from Heinlein, through Charles Stross. Nancy Kress alludes to it, and I believe there is some romance in the Vorkosigan Saga, by Bujold, although others would be better to confirm that. Bujold's on the TBR list, not yet reached her.
There is also a thriving science fiction romance scene, although that's more a part of the romance genre, with sf generally being added as the backdrop. At the end of the day, if you make it interesting, and compelling, with characters you can invest in, then readers will likely take to it. Not that every reader will enjoy a story -- horses for courses, and all that.
Is it science fiction with romance you're writing, or romance with science fiction? There's room for both, and more. Write it, and see how it turns out. You can always edit it later. Most of all, good luck with it.
There's a few threads around the site, and tinkerdan's suggestion to try that most recent one is good.
Yes, romance is acceptable in science fiction. Okay, these are examples from films and TV, but you have Han and Leia, and Finn and whoever you want to ship him with, in Star Wars; and you have the romantic relationships in Battlestar Galactica, to name two franchises. Recently, on the book front, there was The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers, which features various romantic relationships. Personally, I love that book, and the second in the series.
Romance has been present in the work of several authors, from Heinlein, through Charles Stross. Nancy Kress alludes to it, and I believe there is some romance in the Vorkosigan Saga, by Bujold, although others would be better to confirm that. Bujold's on the TBR list, not yet reached her.
There is also a thriving science fiction romance scene, although that's more a part of the romance genre, with sf generally being added as the backdrop. At the end of the day, if you make it interesting, and compelling, with characters you can invest in, then readers will likely take to it. Not that every reader will enjoy a story -- horses for courses, and all that.
Is it science fiction with romance you're writing, or romance with science fiction? There's room for both, and more. Write it, and see how it turns out. You can always edit it later. Most of all, good luck with it.
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Cathbad
Level 30 Geek Master
Quite a bit of romance in both Star Trek and Star Wars.
DragonAether
A penguin undercover
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Star Trek doesn't feature that much romance, in Star Wars there is quite a bit of romance, romance is normally associated with a more fantasy world I think. But I think it's perfectly ok to include a bit of romance into as long as there are a lot of tentacles involved. (Just my opinion)
And welcome to the forum.
And welcome to the forum.
Sf books with romance themes (by these I mean mainstream sf that have romance mixed in - but may not be the main focus as opposed to SF romance books which is a different genre altogether, and which does well)
Vorkosigan by Bujold - romances between Aral and Cordelia; Miles and several tall women; Ivan, Gregor. The final book Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen is an unashamed romance.
The Luna series by Ian McDonald has quite a few relationships in it. Sort of on a Dynasty basis.
St Mary's Chronicles by Jodi Taylor are chock full of romance
The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - a book about a life-long relationship that's couched as a sf
On a 'writing' basis - My Abendau series is full of relationship stuff across most of the main characters - although romantic scenes can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. It might turn some readers off (it probably does) - but those turned off are not the readers for me. And it brings other readers who DO want the depth the characters bring.
My books will always have human relationships at their core and includes happy and sad moments - and romantic ones. In other words - if you want to write romance in your sf novel, go for it.
Vorkosigan by Bujold - romances between Aral and Cordelia; Miles and several tall women; Ivan, Gregor. The final book Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen is an unashamed romance.
The Luna series by Ian McDonald has quite a few relationships in it. Sort of on a Dynasty basis.
St Mary's Chronicles by Jodi Taylor are chock full of romance
The Time Travellers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - a book about a life-long relationship that's couched as a sf
On a 'writing' basis - My Abendau series is full of relationship stuff across most of the main characters - although romantic scenes can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. It might turn some readers off (it probably does) - but those turned off are not the readers for me. And it brings other readers who DO want the depth the characters bring.
My books will always have human relationships at their core and includes happy and sad moments - and romantic ones. In other words - if you want to write romance in your sf novel, go for it.
From its recent, relative to most forms of literature inception, has always involved a certain element of romance (indeed, before the term 'science fiction' became current the books were generally filed under 'scientific romance'. H.G.Wells in particular wrote under this label, and he was as Victorian and puritan as you might wish about his personal relationships. Certainly, early SF was pretty unsophisticated about its courtships, generally writing no further than a kiss, but it was being written for nerds, fourteen year old adolescent males who'd never got any further than this themselves, and Philip José Farmer shifted some steamier scenes into the stories.
But SF, like the fantasy it grew out of, being flexible, love affairs developed between humans and aliens, robots, spaceships, animals, underpeople, even in one case I remember, a planet. Certainly there were books written which did not involve these interpersonal details at all, and even authors (though I can't think of any of the greats) who concentrated entirely on the technical side. But, especially as female human beings increased their part in the writing of SF (which couldn't happen before they were being given a decent technical education), the interest in the emotions of the protagonists steadily increased, frequently at the expense of the speculative elements. Even if I can be classed as a 'gubbins' writer, my characters frequently intereact on the physical level, and not just by punching each other in the face. Some writers consider the 'science' bit of SF anathema, and write westerns with jet propelled horses, relegating all technical nonsense to short, well spaced phrases, generally mathematically incorrect, and still sell books, while for others sex and reproduction are divorced from the emotions which most of us feel nowadays, either by excessive lifespan or an extremely caste conscious society - tolerable subjects for SF, after all.
So, the medium should not restrict you - as much or as little romance as the story needs is what it must be given, and there is no absolutely 'right' amount.
But SF, like the fantasy it grew out of, being flexible, love affairs developed between humans and aliens, robots, spaceships, animals, underpeople, even in one case I remember, a planet. Certainly there were books written which did not involve these interpersonal details at all, and even authors (though I can't think of any of the greats) who concentrated entirely on the technical side. But, especially as female human beings increased their part in the writing of SF (which couldn't happen before they were being given a decent technical education), the interest in the emotions of the protagonists steadily increased, frequently at the expense of the speculative elements. Even if I can be classed as a 'gubbins' writer, my characters frequently intereact on the physical level, and not just by punching each other in the face. Some writers consider the 'science' bit of SF anathema, and write westerns with jet propelled horses, relegating all technical nonsense to short, well spaced phrases, generally mathematically incorrect, and still sell books, while for others sex and reproduction are divorced from the emotions which most of us feel nowadays, either by excessive lifespan or an extremely caste conscious society - tolerable subjects for SF, after all.
So, the medium should not restrict you - as much or as little romance as the story needs is what it must be given, and there is no absolutely 'right' amount.
Thats very good to know and certainly more thorough answers than i was expecting so i very much appreciate these replies.
@chrispenycate what does "Gubbins" mean ? I was with you till you said that, not sure what it mean soz
@chrispenycate what does "Gubbins" mean ? I was with you till you said that, not sure what it mean soz
Cathbad
Level 30 Geek Master
Riker and Troi? Odo and the Bajoran?
DragonAether
A penguin undercover
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I meant that it is something so important to be considered let's say a game changer.
Cathbad
Level 30 Geek Master
Michael and the new hunky guy who will soon prove to be a Klingon plant?
Cathbad
Level 30 Geek Master
Really? I'm not sure I'd define novel romances as "game changers".
gubbins
ˈɡʌbɪnz/
noun
Britishinformal
plural noun: gubbins
- miscellaneous items; paraphernalia.
"all the latest films, books, and electronic gubbins"- a gadget.
noun: gubbins
"a little gubbins he had made as a boy"
- a gadget.
janeoreilly
I like Captain America and biscuits
Yes, it's acceptable - I had a book out earlier this year with a big 5 publisher (little brown) that has a romantic sub plot. It is also quite explicit, which some readers love, and some readers would prefer the book was burned in a fire. At the end of the day there is no right or wrong here because you cannot please all of the readers all of the time. How you structure the romance and how it works within the confines of the story really depends on what your story is about. To be a romance it needs a happy ever after at some point in the arc, otherwise it's not strictly speaking a romance. Books that do this are ones like Katie Khan Hold back the stars, the StarDoc series by SL Viehl, the In Death series by JD Robb. There's plenty of erotic science fiction on amazon if you want to go down that route. These books do generally use the science as a backdrop because they're not about the science.
Then there are scifi novels with romantic sub plots/sex that aren't necessarily romances, such as John Scalzi Old Man's War. Not all Bujold's books are romances, though because she writes a lot about human relationships, love stories obviously form part of that, but they're all closed door/no sex on the page. I think most books do have some element of a love story in them, it's very difficult to write about human interaction and avoid it completely.
Then there are scifi novels with romantic sub plots/sex that aren't necessarily romances, such as John Scalzi Old Man's War. Not all Bujold's books are romances, though because she writes a lot about human relationships, love stories obviously form part of that, but they're all closed door/no sex on the page. I think most books do have some element of a love story in them, it's very difficult to write about human interaction and avoid it completely.
SilentRoamer
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I can't remember if they were all so tall or if that was just Miles perspective. Although to be fair Miles is a resonably reliable narrator. I would like to add that the Vorkosigan series is a great series, Cordelias Honor is pretty much a romance novel with an SF background and as someone who doesn't, as a general rule, find romance particularly entertaining it was a nice surprise.
Keiko and O'brien, Tom Paris and Torres, Seven and Chakotay.
Lets not forget Dr. Crushers fast flung romance with Ronin the Ghost!
The Big Peat
Darth Buddha
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There's novels where if you take out the romance the book is borderline unrecognisable. That to me is a game changer.
Or to put it another way, calling a romance a game change refers to its impact on the book, not anything else. I think DragonAether is making the same/a similar point.
Anyway, to answer the OP -
There's romance.
And there's Romance.
I think most readers would take a while to come up with a list of 10 SF books that do not contain some form of romantic relationship if they could do it at all. Its totally acceptable to have love stories as part of the story.
However, some readers, when they hear the word romance, they hear Romance, as in the genre with all its conventions. And while there's definitely a market for Sci-Fi mixed in with Romance, there are a number of readers who simply won't pick up your book if they suspect that's what is inside. Which is fine to a point - every sub-genre has its market and that's just life.
Where the point comes in to play is if you are writing a Sci-Fi with romance in and people get the impression its a Sci-Fi with Romance. That could harm your book's chances. However, this point is something to worry about more after you've written the book and not before.
In short - put in as much romance as you like and figure out what to do after. There is a market.
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I agree. It seems to be that there is a distinction between a science fiction novel (or any other kind) that contains romance, and a Romance that happens to have a science fiction setting. I don't know what the rules are, exactly, but the genre of Romance has some quite complicated sub-genres and restrictions on what can happen. I suppose it depends on whether the intended market is primarily Romance readers or SF readers.
Tim Murray
Through space, time and dimension
My first novel has a romance through the entire book, mixed in with plenty of action, so, go for it!
Speaking as a reader of much S.F. I can say that there is a lot of S.F. with romance. My own preference is that the romance is a side story and not where the conflict is found. For me when I find the conflict in a novel is in the romantic relationship my interest immediately flags and I am not far from chucking it and going on to something else.
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