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Author Topic: Sci-fi as Romance
IrishAphrodite19
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Ok, my best friend reads only romance novels and I read mostly SciFi. She's constantly telling me that I'm missing out on some of the better "moments" in romance novels. So I was wondering if you guys knew of any "ronchie" sci-fi novels that have lots of similar "qualities" with romance novels.
Thanks,
Irish

[ December 04, 2003, 09:48 PM: Message edited by: IrishAphrodite19 ]

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sarcasticmuppet
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Wyrms.
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Farmgirl
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No, but I know a couple of "romance" novels that have a little bit of "sci-fi" in them..... (Warrior Woman comes to mind....)

FG

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Ralphie
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Romance and Sci-fi - and never the twain shall meet.

When I want women's porn, I don't want it being mucked up with plot, and when I want plot I don't want it being mucked up with women's porn.

Anyone who makes a hybrid of these two genres should be shot.

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fiazko
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The sci-fi/romance thing is a little weird. I haven't read a wide enough range of sci-fi to know any raunchy ones. However, if you want to give romance a go to make your friend happy, but you want to hold on to some semblance of plot, I suggest Sandra Brown.
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rivka
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List of titles.

I can only vouch for Jayne Castle (that's the pseudonym Jane Anne Krentz uses when she writes SF) from that list.

Linda Lael Miller has a number that involve time travel, and her vampire books are also sorta sf-y.

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dkw
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Lois Bujold wrote a short story, "Winterfair Gifts," that was supposed to be for a crossover collection of Romance-SF. The book was delayed, though, and I don't think it was ever published.

(Which stinks, because her next novel takes place after the short story, which isn't available.)

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fugu13
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The anthology with winterfair gifts is scheduled to come out early next year.
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dkw
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WooHoo!
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bmeaker
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I don't know if this is what you want but it was what I thought of. Romantic Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels
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ae
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Dammit! I saw "Sci-fi as Romance" and came in expecting literary theorising. Silly me.
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Ralphie
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For the record, when I think "Romance genre" I don't think "story in which two people fall in love." I think of all the mind-candy books I read as a teenager that had two impossibly perfect characters meeting, falling in love and getting it on in surprisingly educational detail.

Maybe I'm just more attracted to this happening in the Restoration Period than in a space-ship, but the latter seems wrong wrong wrong.

[ December 05, 2003, 12:41 AM: Message edited by: Ralphie ]

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LadyDove
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If you don't mind the
Sci-Fi/Historical/Fantasy/Romance hybrid, Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series is some of the best stuff I've ever read.

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Ralphie
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Now, Gabaldon is some good stuff.

No sex in spaceships.

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Jeni
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I'll second that Outlander. I've finished the first four and I'm on a search for the fifth in local bookstores...
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Annie
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This is why Arthur C. Clarke's tuff creeps me out sometimes. We've got a perfectly good scifi story going on and then he has to plug some deviant sexual space thing just to be edgy. And you know he's just doing it to be edgy.
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rivka
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Ok, Ralphie, you're going to want to avoid Krentz's Sweet Starfire. [Big Grin]
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MaydayDesiax
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Ralphie: [ROFL]
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Frisco
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Ralphie, you realize that for a good portion of Sci-Fi readers, a romance/specfic hybrid novel is as close as they're ever going to get to female genetalia.

You're not going to get rid of these books. You might as well tell them to move out of their parents' basement while you're over there in your little fantasy world.

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jexx
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Laurell K. Hamilton does some very nice, raunchy vampire novels. And Ralphie, the later books in the series are almost totally porn! [Eek!]

I lub them.

For a romance set in the future, check out J.D. Robb's books (Nora Robert's pseudonym, your friend will be familiar with the name, Irish). They are well-written and sexy and there is suspense, which I like.

There should be more well-written romance/sci-fi. I like it. It may not be 'art', but it's entertaining, and that's good enough for me. Why should I struggle through a book I don't like just because someone says it's 'literature' or an 'important work'? I reads what I likes, and I likes what I reads.

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Eaquae Legit
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I loved the Outlander books. Especially the first one and the second one. The American revolution doesn't interest me as much as the Jacobean.

Generally it really bugs me when I'm trying to read an otherwise good novel and the author just randomly throws in a sex scene. That really bothered me the first tiem I read "Wizard's First Rule" by Terry Goodkind. Now I just skip over that part. It makes the story cheaper, for me.

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tonguetied&twisted
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*nods*

The Outlander books were very good - I had to rush out and buy them all after I found the first one. I did like the first one best, though, and find that the fifth one dragged on somewhat compared to the others (a little disappointing, really, after waiting months or possibly years for it to come out).

<sidenote>
Apparently Gabaldon had a lot of trouble getting them published because they didn't fit into any one genre? [Dont Know]
</sidenote>

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V Aaron
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For books that conform to the conventions of both the science fiction and romance genres, your best bet is Catherine Asaro. Her novel The Quantum Rose is a standard boy-meets-girl romance story, but set in a science fictional universe. I didn't like it, but it won the 2001 Nebula Award for best science fiction novel, so somebody must have.
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Dan_raven
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Jexx beat me to the Hamilton books.

Try some early Heinlien. There are some good parts. One of my favorite quotes, "Whenever a woman kisses with her tongue, she better be ready to lay down and grab her ankles right then and there."

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katharina
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quote:
Welcome to the futuristic world of Lovelady, where humans are divided into two types - Harmonics and Wolves. Harmonics live a serene life, elevating their knowledge and dwelling on a higher plane where emotions and instincts have no control or power. Wolves . . . everything a Harmonic is not.

Enter Cidra Rainforest: a Wolf reared as a Harmonic in the serene community of Clementia, desperate to find the ancient key to taking to last step to becoming a full Harmonic.

Meet Teague Severance: a true Wolf from Port Valentine, a renegade mail carrier who lives for making the package arrive on time.

What happens when these two meet? Interstellar sparks!

I want to die.

[ December 09, 2003, 02:22 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]

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Dan_raven
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Thank the stars, nobody dared mention the Gor books.
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saxon75
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quote:
When I want women's porn, I don't want it being mucked up with plot
It was my understanding that the only thing separating "women's porn" from normal porn is the inclusion of plot.

quote:
Try some early Heinlien.
Or late Heinlein, for that matter. Or middle Heinlein. The man had something of a fixation.
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Jon Boy
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quote:
For books that conform to the conventions of both the science fiction and romance genres, your best bet is Catherine Asaro. Her novel The Quantum Rose is a standard boy-meets-girl romance story, but set in a science fictional universe. I didn't like it, but it won the 2001 Nebula Award for best science fiction novel, so somebody must have.
I read a few of the earlier books in that series. It's good sci-fi, but it eventually got heavy enough on the romance that I felt like I was reading, well, a romance novel. And that's just wrong.

[ December 09, 2003, 03:02 PM: Message edited by: Jon Boy ]

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Lime
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Ralphie, you made my day. [Laugh]
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saxon75
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Yeah, it's good to know that on the off chance that the world should experience apocalyptic, catastrophic disasters that kill off most of the population, including Juliette and Dan, and the survivors need to flee the dying Earth in what makeshift spacecraft are available and go in search of a new home for the human race that I shouldn't come a-knockin' on her door if I should need a certain itch scratched.
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zgator
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Dan, I read the Gor books a long time ago. If I remember right, the farther you went in the series, the weirder he got

And to all of you, I have now purchased the first Outlander book for my wife for Christmas. She's been wanting just this kind of thing. If she doesn't like it, I'm coming after you.

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Primal Curve
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Just shower her the cover of Heartfire. It's not SF, but it's amusingly romanticesque.
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Ralphie
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quote:
Yeah, it's good to know that on the off chance that the world should experience apocalyptic, catastrophic disasters that kill off most of the population, including Juliette and Dan, and the survivors need to flee the dying Earth in what makeshift spacecraft are available and go in search of a new home for the human race that I shouldn't come a-knockin' on her door if I should need a certain itch scratched.
No no no - I'd certainly have sex in a spaceship.

It's just the female porn I'd be reading to prepare myself beforehand will be set in the Restoration Period.

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saxon75
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Hmmm... Juliette lurks here just often enough to make me think that any further jokes along this line might be hazardous to my health.
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Ralphie
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Of course, should either one of you pop off and leave the other one available to work my mojo on, you're my second choice.

I think she's uncomfortably aware of that. [Razz]

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saxon75
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Please, don't let the fact that I'm still around stop you from working your mojo on her. Who am I to stand in the way?
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Dan_raven
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Just post the video please.

Oops, was that out loud?

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Jon Boy
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Ralphie, I think we're all uncomfortably aware of that.
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rivka
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kat, that's a particularly dreadful blurb. The book wasn't nearly that bad.

It was almost readable. [Big Grin]

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LadyDove
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zgator- pfft! You actually think you could catch us? [Razz]

saxon75 - ::laughing:: Why does it seem like all men have a fantasy of getting two women together?

Though, I can almost understand. Juliette and Toni are awfully cute together.

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saxon75
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It's so appropriate that I'm sitting in the background of that photo with a camera.
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rivka
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Next time I'm staying more than an hour, even if I have to WALK home.
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Magson
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You could try Peter Hamilton's Reality Dysfunction. It's rather hardcore SF, but he puts in quite a bit of romance and sex. The sex scenes aren't gratuitously graphic, and are more often referred to obliquely, but he still lets you know whats going on. And every ship's cabin is equipped with a zero-g "sex cage" for those long trips. . . .

Edit: add a negative in the proper place to make the sentence mean what it's supposed to. . .

[ December 10, 2003, 04:55 PM: Message edited by: Magson ]

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