Can SF and romance successfully combine?

[flynx]

I've only ever read sci-fi (which makes me somewhat parochial in my world view) but up until two years ago I'd only ever written romance (erotica actually but that seems to be what 'romance' is these days)
I found the combination remarkably easy, probably by being aware of the various conventions of the two 'genre' but from opposing directions (reading one and writing the other)

I must say however that I don't like reading erotica in my sci-fi, I absolutely abhor the romance in sci-fi films because it is almost always tacked on (exceptions survive obviously like Bladerunner) but did we really need to see Anakin and queen Amigdala rolling around in the grass?

 

[nubins]

I thought I would resurrect this thread... its quite old now, but I'm interested to see what people think now.

I started off writing what i would consider to be a fairly typical space story. I had dabbled in erotic writing and quite a few girls I knew who test read my stuff, said I should really be doing something with it. So I decided to work erotica into it. I had always planned for their to be romance between characters, it is one of the key drivers for the hero.. but now I've also gone into quite graphic detail during a few love scenes scattered across the book (three in total, im not going overboard on it). I'm told those scenes, in isolation are very good, but noone other than me knows the whole book, plot, characters etc.

I have some lingering doubts about wether it's a good idea to try and combine action orientated sci fi (three battles and a couple more to come, aliens, space ships etc.) with erotica. The overwhelming readership of sci-fi, i understood to be male. Men tend to be less concerned with the detail of reading about sex than just the notion it happened. I thought maybe the story would appeal to men for the adventure and intrigue, to the women for the romance and intrigue. Obviosuly that's very simplistic, but i'm just thinking in general terms.

But is the erotica likely to turn away the male readership and would the female readership come to a sci-fi story that had erotica in it? Wondered what people's thoughts were on that.

 

[Kissmequick]

A fair few of the bigger erotica pubs publish genre crossover too (such as SF-erotica). It's not as big a market as perhaps contemp erotica, but there are pubs and readers that love it

Or of you see it more as SF with erotic components, well, I can think of one or two comparables from bigger SF pubs - it depends to an extent on the amount of erotic content you have, tbh. Is it 5% or 50%? That will make a huge difference.

 

[nubins]

I have three scenes in the book, each one several chapters apart. They are long and detailed (build up included). The book itself has "romance" all the way through, although most of it I just consider character building and setting up the reader's sympathy for why the 'hero' does what he ends up doing. I would say "erotic" content is sub 10% of the book, romantic & erotic content about 25%. Action about a third. The rest is building characters, worlds and places and setting plot.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Well, Peter F Hamilton didn't shirk from writing sex scenes into his Night thingy trilogy.

Unfortunately, as seems typical with men in genre fiction writing love scenes, they are about macho wish-fulfillment sex, rather than an emotional meeting of lovers' minds.

 

[nubins]

Well, Peter F Hamilton didn't shirk from writing sex scenes into his Night thingy trilogy.

Unfortunately, as seems typical with men in genre fiction writing love scenes, they are about macho wish-fulfillment sex, rather than an emotional meeting of lovers' minds.

What would you determine is macho wish-fulfillment sex exactly (as opposed to emotional meeting of lovers minds)?

 

[Brian G Turner]

Beautiful women fall at the feet of the male protagonist, just because. He lies back and enjoys all the sex without any concern for forming a relationship with any of them.

Contrast with the sex in Jean Auel's Earth Children series, which is mostly centered around Aila and Jondular's bonding. Still some fantasist projection in there, but it's very much in the context of a relationship.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

No agenda here, honest.

We're writing books. We might be writing them in fantastical worlds, but we're writing stories, and that includes characters. Would you think all earth based fiction shouldn't mix romance? Most of the strongest books over time have included relationships, why shouldn't sci fi?

(PS anyone want a nice sci if trilogy with romance and relationships as well as spaceships? Please.... )

 

[Kissmequick]

(PS anyone want a nice sci if trilogy with romance and relationships as well as spaceships? Please.... )

I love books like that!

And Nubins, I'd say write it, research books similar (so you can check which agents and pubs took them on) and sub it, see what happens.

There's a great website here that is devoted to all things SF romance.

 

[nubins]

Interesting thoughts, thanks for your input.

I'm about 70% through the book.. started as a project to enjoy rather than make money from, but now I'm thinking I might as well go for it.

I did envisage a triology and it has developed a heavy focus on romance. The whole thing has something of a greek tragedy about it, but it's only tragic if it's convincing which is why I wanted to go into so much detail.

It's certainly not women swooning over the male characters, although there is a very strong and important female character who falls for the hero, but (as yet anyway, not sure if they ever will.. haven't decided) they don't ever have sex. But I'm hoping the reasons why she is drawn to him will be obvious and not in anyway condescending to a female readership. Women who have test read scenes with her in seem to like her as a character, so I think I've done ok with her so far (more so than the female lead actually, which helped me realise I needed to improve her image with the reader).

At some point Im sure I will put some pieces up for critique, once ive had a chance to do some editing and I wil be particularly interested to see if I have done ok in making the relationships convincing. In all honesy a lot was taken from my own fairly recent experiences with a relationship that never quite worked out due to circumstance, even though both of us knew we were prefect for each other.

Thanks for the website, I will have a read through!

 

[kshRox]

Restoree - Anne McCafferey

 

[clippedwolf]

Blake Snyder said that romance stories were buddy stories with sex. I think your sci-fi/romance is completely feasible.

 

[nubins]

Blake Snyder said that romance stories were buddy stories with sex. I think your sci-fi/romance is completely feasible.

I hope so, it's kinda the relationship I'm hoping to show between the two main characters. A lot of banter between them, some very tender stuff and the occasional bout of rampant lust

 

[Toby Frost]

Has anyone mentioned The Forever War yet? That does a romantic subplot pretty well.

 

[Montero]

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Liaden universe - some of the books have romantic/relationship plots. (And not the most usual either at times.)

Lois McMaster Bujold - Cordelia's Honour and then later in the Vorkosigan series Komarr and A Civil Campaign.

 

[Anthony G Williams]

Catherine Asaro's Skolian Empire SF series frequently features romance too.