Pride and Prejudice ... In Space!!!

[Blackrook]

Is there anyone who is writing science fiction based on the exploits of young girls trying to obtain husbands?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

A good question. Although I can't think of any right off the top of my head, surely there must be such stories somewhere.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single spaceman in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

 

[MstrTal]

I can almost see a story about a lonely terraformer sending off for a mail order bride.

You may be on to something here. Perhaps a whole new sub-genre.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Actually, I think there is. Paranormal Romance does include science fiction. It's not all fantasy.

 

[Toby Frost]

I once had an android who thought she was a Jane Austen character. She'd been taken out of a theme park and sent to help with the war effort in space. She was particularly opposed to invading aliens and social climbers.

 

[MstrTal]

Actually, I think there is. Paranormal Romance does include science fiction. It's not all fantasy.

True. I have never read any of it however. What I meant was more thematic I guess. The lonely male protagonist in space searching for that illusive connective interface.

Something like:

Terraformer/Asteroid miner sends off for a mail order bride.

Scientist Determined to build the perfect Android Wife.

Mid-Level MegaCorp Executive Falls in love with his VR Secretary despite the social stigma.

Human Female is captured by an alien race when one of her captures falls in love with her. He is forced to fight a duel against one of his Caste Mates who he kills necessitating he rescue her and they flee. She is scared, leery and hateful of him. They live in exclusion Blue Lagoon style where her feelings for him slowly thaw while he keeps her safe while always acting the perfect gentleman and she eventually falls in love with him. The ending could be a tragedy or a perfect romance in exile.

Or something along these lines. I admit I am not very romantic myself so I am just throwing these out off the top of my head. They are probably all very cliche and stereotypical.

 

[reiver33]

Mid-Level MegaCorp Executive Falls in love with his VR Secretary despite the social stigma.

Been done, in an episode of maybe Mystery Science Fiction Theatre 3000? He tells the building AI to remove them from the roster to get some privacy, but this reduces the count to zero and the night-time maintenance/cleaning systems kick in, almost killing them...

 

[Anne Lyle]

Human Female is captured by an alien race when one of her captures falls in love with her. He is forced to fight a duel against one of his Caste Mates who he kills necessitating he rescue her and they flee. She is scared, leery and hateful of him. They live in exclusion Blue Lagoon style where her feelings for him slowly thaw while he keeps her safe while always acting the perfect gentleman and she eventually falls in love with him. The ending could be a tragedy or a perfect romance in exile.

There are a couple of interspecies romances in Robert Silverberg's collection "The Majipoor Chronicles" that, IIRC, are vaguely similar to this scenario, though maybe more "Enemy Mine" than "Pride & Prejudice"!

SF-of-manners - hmm, sounds a bit like steampunk to me

 

[Coolhand]

A good question. Although I can't think of any right off the top of my head, surely there must be such stories somewhere.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single spaceman in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

You could call it Pride and Pressurization.
Or Sense and Singularity.

 

[Anne Lyle]

You could call it Pride and Pressurization.
Or Sense and Singularity.

Mansfield Parking Orbit.

 

[The Judge]

Bridget Jones's Diary in space, perhaps.

In P&P the young women aren't all chasing after husbands and certainly not just for the hell of it** -- because of the existence of the entail, without husbands the five Bennet girls are looking at a life of very reduced circumstances once their father has died. In a society in which women of their class cannot work, their options are to marry, no matter how uncongenially, or suffer real financial hardship. To be true to P&P, any SF story would have to involve a culture restricting women's rights, thus giving them limited options. In the absence of that, it's a rom-com.


** Lydia (and possibly Kitty) excepted

 

[Toby Frost]

I think I went for Sin and Synthetics.

 

[Coolhand]

Mansfield Parking Orbit.

That is genius!

I think I went for Sin and Synthetics.

That is also genius. I suppose the alternate title could have been Pride and Processor?

 

[Ursa major]

North Hangar! Obey!

(Based on something that main antagonist, Major John Thorpe, shouts at the heroine.)

 

[Lemmy]

You could call it Pride and Pressurization.
Or Sense and Singularity.

What about adding monsters and call it Pride and prejudice and zombies? Or maybe Sense and sensibility and sea-monsters? Oh, wait. Those are already written.

 

[Anne Lyle]

To be true to P&P, any SF story would have to involve a culture restricting women's rights, thus giving them limited options. In the absence of that, it's a rom-com.

Very true. But it's not like SF has ever shied away from doom'n'gloom scenarios.

 

[Coolhand]

Very true. But it's not like SF has ever shied away from doom'n'gloom scenarios.

Indeed. That's the beauty of SF. You can construct the world to suit the story. Perhaps a lost human colony which has become a culture with similar social values to Jane Austin's era, or some alien race that developed a similar setup. The possibilities are endless.

 

[Ursa major]

I can see the billboards now:

Vin Diesel​

stars in​

The Chronicles of Barchester​

 

[cornelius]

And Colin Firth as mister Darcy?

 

[Ursa major]

And:

Vin Diesel

is

The Warden​