Science Fiction Romance genre

[JuliePgh]

I've been seeing the term Science Fiction Romance lately. When does Science Fiction become SFR? How much romance is needed? Is romance the focus, theme or simply a subplot of the novel?

[ChunkyC]

I think that really varies. Check this link out for some examples:

www.tor.com/paranormalromance.html (http://www.tor.com/paranormalromance.html)

[macalicious731]

Hmm, seems to me there was a thread a couple of weeks back that discussed this genre and another. Let's see if I can dig it up... or someone else whose quicker.

[vstrauss]

This is a good resource on SF/fantasy romance:

www.sfronline.com/ (http://www.sfronline.com/)

- Victoria

[Shrimpson]

Pardon my asking, but wouldn't a sizeable chunk of the Star Wars be classified as Sci-Fi Romance?

In any case, romance not being truly a genre (it's a plot), sci-fi romance is neither revolutionary, nor deserving of its own category (in my humble opinion).

Historical, contemporary, fantasy and other types of romance novels having already been done to death, it really is a wonder why sci-fi romance, with all its possibilities (a handsome three-tongued Alien prince, leading an armada of spaceships on a mission to conquer Earth, loses his heart to a beautiful earthling) has not yet been explored to the fullest.

Which brings me to another thought (bear with me, it does happen rather infrequently). Should we, as writers, make an effort to distinguish between a plot and a genre in general?

To me, the word genre has always been close in meaning to the word medium. Genre describes the WORLD in which our story takes place - be it 16th century Italy, 23d century Mars, or an undated goblin kingdom. It says nothing of the events that are to happen in our world, says nothing of the story, or the conflict therein. All of these are the domain of the plot.

As such, I would not classify romance or mystery or horror as genres. They're all plots. Why should we be careful to make this distinction?

Frankly, I believe that often, not realizing that, say, mystery or horror are plots, not genres, science fiction writers have a tendency to limit themselves (subconsciously, perhaps) to the linear adventure plot as the only one acceptable in science fiction. As a result we're missing out on many great sci-fi mysteries, sci-fi romances, and sci-fi horror stories.

In short, science fiction romance is NOT a combination of genres. It is a welcome enrichment of a genre with a rarely-used plot. The better we remember it, the more varied our stories will be.

[vstrauss]

Genre is strictly a marketing distinction. Whatever meaning it may (or may not) have for a writer, it has very specific meanings for publishers, which are always trying to identify and define an audience. New genre designations (or more properly in this case, subgenre designations) spring up in response to perceived audience demand. The first SF and fantasy novels that incorporated elements of romance (romance novels that incorporate elements of SF or fantasy have been around for much longer) were published simply as SF and fantasy. Their popularity clued publishers in to the fact that an audience existed for that particular type of book. Hence the subgenre designation.

Another reason, I think, for the emergence of this particular subgenre is that the romance audience is so huge. SF and fantasy publishers, whose core audience is fairly small, are hoping to tap into that.

>>Frankly, I believe that often, not realizing that, say, mystery or horror are plots, not genres, science fiction writers have a tendency to limit themselves (subconsciously, perhaps) to the linear adventure plot as the only one acceptable in science fiction. As a result we're missing out on many great sci-fi mysteries, sci-fi romances, and sci-fi horror stories.<<

Do you read much SF? There's a lot of crossover these days (as well as a good bit of literary SF that doesn't at all conform to the pulp fiction adventure sterotype). The SF/mystery hybrid is an increasingly robust subgenre, especially in the UK.

- Victoria