Sci-Fi Romance discussion

Lists that may interest SFR fans! Reccomendations welcome.

*Dystopian/Apocalypse with Romance

*Scifi Romance Anthologies

*Best Scifi/Futuristic Romance

*Best YA Scifi Romances

*Steampunk/Romance

*Best Scifi with Female Main Characters

*Best Scifi with Gay Main Characters

*YA Dystopias with Hope

*Erotic SFR

Very nice listings New_User! great help if a person is looking for something new or different.

Thanks, Sandi! :)

Thanks for these lists, I'm exploring the genre for two reasons
1 - I like to read it
2 - I'm thinking of writing in it.

No problem, Perry, glad they can help! :)

There's also this list: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/94...

Ooooh, thanks, Jan! I'll add that one!

This is extremely helpful! Thanks! :)

Thanks for the post, can't wait to get home and peruse!

I think Gay Spacemen probably should be on this list as well.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/25...

It's crazy how many gay romances apparently are SFR.

I've noticed that in a lot of erotica books too Jan, there are tons of gay male romances that people are reading. I don't remember it being quite so popular before.

I'm going through the list and ordering books I haven't read from the library.

I realize that gay romance/erotica is immensely popular right now, I just didn't expect that SF would be such a popular setting for it.

It's mostly males and not female gay books. I'd say about 90% of the books in the category no matter what genre are about male romance. Not that I'm complaining. A good love story or book is good no matter what sexual orientation the main characters are.

Carolyn, are you reffering to the list I linked to? Because that would make sense, since it's Gay Spacemen, and not Spacewomen.

Maybe we should make a list for Gay Spacewomen as well.
Allthough m/m romance seems to be far more popular than f/f romance.

I don't know how many gay spacewomen books you could find. I think I've only read 2 and they were the minor romance in the book.

I think there's a new one out by Carina Press which has a lesbian couple as the main storyline. I think it was called Rulebreaker.

War Games I think this is another one.

Maybe we should open up a topic for them, instead of derailing this listopia thread?

That will make it easier for people who might look for a book like that later as well.

That's a great idea Jan, somewhere where people can list all the like books.

Jan wrote: "I think there's a new one out by Carina Press which has a lesbian couple as the main storyline. I think it was called Rulebreaker."

Yes, it is called Rulebreaker, and thanks for thinking of it :)

I have K.S. Augustin's War Games in my TBR queue too :)

Jan wrote: "Maybe we should open up a topic for them, instead of derailing this listopia thread?

That will make it easier for people who might look for a book like that later as well."

Great idea!

I added to the SFR Listopia yesterday with Cyborg, Android, Robots, in love list. I would love your help to grow it.

Cyborg/Android-- this is someone who has artificial intellegnce that become "real" and struggles to be acknowledge as such--Dohner's series. O'Connor Series.

I also think it would be nice to have the following threads

Cyborg/Android-- this is someone who has artificial intellegnce that become "real" and struggles to be acknowledge as such--Dohner's series. O'Connor Series.

Here is a link to the Cyborg list I got started--

http://www.goodreads.com/list/user_vo...

Some other lists that might me fun!

Cyber Enhancements/Superman. Maybe added to create a super solider. Maybe added to save life, maybe part of the culture such as Taunting Krell actually deals with this difference.

Clones = Hybrid Misfit, many of Viola Grace's books

Altered DNA= The Breeds series for Leigh.

Not sure how to add to the list, but MechMan is a cyborg/hero story. LJ Garland? Or Laura, Can't remember which name she used on it.

MechMan

I will add it in!

I just came across this great list and added about 20 books (one of my favourite topics, I am hopeless lol):

Mars Needs Women Trope

"They're invading, and they want our women!" list of novels and short stories were aliens humanoids males or another genus homo species need and want to marriage and breed with human women and girls, wether monogamy or polyandry way. their own females are either extinc or sterile, so that is why this trope. books can belong to erotica/romance genre and non erotic scifi ones, fantasy, vamps, etc.....

Oh.. I am excited. The only good think about having a cold is that I have time for this kind of stuff!

namericanwordcat wrote: "Oh.. I am excited. The only good think about having a cold is that I have time for this kind of stuff!"
lol I agree, but hope you get better soon =)

lol me too and my checkbook does too cause now I have trashy books to buy

I was thinking that but could not really think of one. They get mated and paired in the Sector Guard Series but not really out of a lack.

I just read . It was very sweet.

I do you think you are right that they are biologically matched. I did not mean to imply your post was not helpful. I just meant to say I was thinking of Grace too (I like her a lot) and could not recall a low fertilely issues or woman shortage. They has to be one in there somewhere!

Terran Times. Yeah, terran means earthling. I think that is the newsletter for all the Terrans women.

Pia/F. P. wrote: "Hmmm, well then I'm sorry my post hasn't helped! I really could have sworn at least a few had that story too, but I guess some of them just have the first part: "list of novels and short stories we..."

"Terra" is the latin name for earth. I think its a way for authors to avoid the characters being called "earthling"

And not to put down humanity...but having aliens kidnap human women just because they can is getting tedious.

Too many times they dont even do the research. The alien hero just jumps the bones assuming that "of course we can have babies"

And another thing that can really bug me..

Ive read too many SFRs where the human men are described as sleazebags and the alien love interest are described as perfect.It feels like a copout.

I want my heroines to be with her love-interest because they truly love him not because she has no other alternative. Know what I mean?

Pia/F. P. wrote: "Hi...I know Terra means earth, but that doesn't necessarily mean a particular fiction book intends that to mean Earth with that capital E I used in my post above. A couple of times I've seen sci-fi..."

Sorry didnt mean to imply you were stupid. :/

Of course it does demand a bit of stretch of the imagination...its fiction. :)

It is definitely Fiction. A lot of the women go through gene therapy in the books but it is a cop-out. The likelihood of finding sexually compatible aliens is almost astronomical even if we wanted to. And...we all know there would be a few women who just had to try.
My books are fairy tales set in space. Sci-Fi related fluff. They are not projected dissertations on a possible future by any stretch of the imagination.

I am a huge fan of escapism and imagining a handsome alien who wants you for you is just as likely as prince charming riding to your door...and just as fun to read.
That's it. no morality play.
Just sci-fi fairy tales that might leave you amused and a little light hearted. that is all i am shooting for and all i want to deliver.
I leave the hard sci fi to others.

Oh, as for the Terran thing? It is a running joke that every planet they run into means Dirt in their own language. We have two words for it, Earth and Terra. both mean dirt.
I think it is funny.

lol. I don't take offense Pia. I just like to make sure that folks know i have no pretensions to be hard Sci-fi. the breeding thing is prevalent in the Terran Times Tales, but that is one reason they are out in space, to 'blend' with existing species.

Procreation is part of sex. On the evolution side it is probably why we find sex to be enjoyable.
In the Terran Times universe (with its own rules) humans were invited to join the other species with that one caveat in their contracts. The women can either find a mate approved by their councils, or they can clone themselves. Either way, now that they are in space, their genes have to stay there.


The Sector Guard (Freak Factor is book 1) is the non-erotic (but still romantic) superheroes in space series and their spinoff series, Tales of the Citadel is the same. These women have mates, sex, and only a few of them have kids. It just isn't practical to get knocked up when you put your life on the line every week.

The newest Terran times set (Astral, Astonish, Asteroid) have women who not only find their partner in an alien man, but also in the planet under their feet. It is a peculiar three way that does not give much hope for procreation. Too much radiation involved.

:) As for me...I lurk everywhere... lol

Viola wrote: "It is definitely Fiction. A lot of the women go through gene therapy in the books but it is a cop-out. The likelihood of finding sexually compatible aliens is almost astronomical even if we wanted ..."

Yes of course its fiction,wasnt there a Star trek episode where one of the main cast was exploring a planet in disguise and he was discovered to be an "alien".He was brought to a hospital to be treated :read interrogated,and one of the nurses wanted to make sweet love to him. Makes you think... lol

Never having read your books Viola I am afraid I cant voice any opinions on them. I was just replying to Pias post.

Yup. Star Trek taught us that almost all aliens are boink-able.
those were the days...

Viola wrote: "Yup. Star Trek taught us that almost all aliens are boink-able.
those were the days..."

And that strangely enough there are so many alien species that look like humans. ;)

The episode I was refering to was in Star trek:The next generation.

I have a new list up that could use some SFR help--Human Male Mates. Its always the women getting abducted.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/user_vo...

namericanwordcat wrote: "I have a new list up that could use some SFR help--Human Male Mates. Its always the women getting abducted.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/user_vo..."

Woo-hoo!! My book is now #1 on this list and yeah! Sick of it always being the damsels being abducted by alien males. I have the whole paradigm so totally turned on its head in Conditioned Response but I think the reason's because Raif is just....mmmmm, Raif, wait, what was I saying? ^)^

Thanks for that list! I'm also high up the ranks on a few of the others mentioned at the top of this thread. My book just came out last weekend (6 days ago!) but I spent the day Tuesday here on Goodreads, over on Twitter and Facebook (where I have like 63 fans so it didn't happen there LOL) and POOF! suddenly I'm hitting the #1 spots right and left.

Sample my book for free over on Smashwords or at Kindle (http://amzn.to/US-CondResp or http://amzn.to/UK-CondResp). Also check out my offer to send out a FREE COMP COPY to anyone who wants to commit to review it etc. Deets are on this other thread in Talk Genre. Offer expires Mon, April 30th.

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

Jan wrote: "I think Gay Spacemen probably should be on this list as well.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/25...

It's crazy how many gay romances apparently are SFR."

As others noted, the gay fiction writers are getting into SF more than the other way around (SF writers getting into gay romance) or so it seems. I do know authors like Mark Alders are writing more m/m romance that "just so happens" to be SciFi because he, personally, is a huge SF fan. He's also gay. And male. And a pretty hilarious Aussie not that that matters but it's good to note. He has a large list of books out if you're not put off by m/m romance and gay male sex with definitely BDSM-y edges.

In every book I've ever written (and I've written about 20 even though Conditioned Response is my first release -- look out world, here I come!) I've pretty much always had at least one (or hopefully two *wink*) gay male characters. I do it deliberately to "balance" the realistic view of the world. I think it's basically impossible for a human society to exist without gay people in it. Male and female. I've only recently begun to touch on the females (no pun intended ... well, maybe a little one. Very little.)

In Conditioned Response, I have 3 versions of one man, essentially clones of different ages, produced in different ways. I did it to explore the question of nature versus nurture and not really to explore sexuality but that's one of many character traits I consciously chose for this guy--these guys. Every last decision I made was based on my gut feeling about how each of their separate environments would or would not have altered their development. Same man, different results. His likes, his temperament, his habits, his sexual tastes...

I had the original version be gay--at first--but he ended up in a very weird situation where he sort of "co-habitated" a single mind with another person, a homophobic, ego-maniac who pretty much was his mortal enemy. Hey, it made for a great short story back in 1991. The character (Joshua Andrew Caine) already existed. When Minds Collide will get fleshed out into a novella at some point!

When I wrote about his second version, Raif, I decided he'd be totally heterosexual and yet be drawn into a close friendship with a gay male in his environment--for totally non-sexual reasons. I wanted the personalities to be how these versions of the man chose their "intimates" and "confidants" not the sexual orientations.

The third version of the man is very young in this book so he hasn't yet made any friends, really...but he will! :) I love knowing the future. Being an AuthorGod is so fun sometimes (esp. helps that I enjoy reading my own books!)

I consciously chose, as an author, to make my gay male characters NOT the offensive twink stereotype nor are they sex-crazed maniacs (more like Alpha Males who are sexually aggressive .. you know, like every Romance Novel Hero?? Yeah, like that, but oh, they're gay.) I guess I wanted to defy the stereotypes and show that a person's sexual orientation does not his character (or my character) make.

I hate that film and other entertainment (like books) just assumes anyone who's gay has to be this and this and this. They're just people. It's like saying that the color of my skin or my eyes or my hair determines who and what I am. It's discriminatory and I guess my Heinlein influence of "open love to all" really stuck. I read him in my formative pre-teen years. I'm 51. I've never changed my opinions. Yay, Lazarus Long! Mmmm, Laz, I miss him. I need to re-read those books again, I think. It's been at least 10 years!

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

LOL, wordcat! I love these lists. Good idea to include a "human male mate" list, and I hope to see that cyborg list grow! I love to read about them. :)

new_user wrote: "LOL, wordcat! I love these lists. Good idea to include a "human male mate" list, and I hope to see that cyborg list grow! I love to read about them. :)"

Ooohh, my book has a "machine turned man" story at its core. Actually, Charlie's existence and growth to...what he will eventually "become" is a core "series arc" not just this book. It's kind of the backbone of the Phoenician Series (and now I'm bordering on spoilering so I'll stop talking about Charlie!) He is definitely one of my favorite characters and Shayla totally is not good enough for him IMO but somehow she ends up with him at the end of Book 2 (Conditioned Response)

You may want to check out the free sample at Smashwords since the Charlie story gets started early on in the book.

p.s. if it seems like this is a conflict with earlier ranking on the Human Male Mates list, it's not. Shayla is a non-human who gets the human male mate, Raif, and gets the machine-turned-man, Charlie (she totally does not deserve them BOTH) Oh, you don't know the half of it. She's a glutton who also gets the Phoenician (Adonis-wannabe) Kyree :) Yep, she is one horny Little Girl but considering she hasn't had sex with anyone in the past year, I think she's entitled to play catch up!) I did say there was a lot of sex in my book, right? It's a thriller/mystery but a SEXY thriller/mystery :)

-Friday
@phoenicianbooks

Marjorie wrote: "namericanwordcat wrote: "I have a new list up that could use some SFR help--Human Male Mates. Its always the women getting abducted.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/user_vo..."

Woo-hoo!! My..."

Sweet!

I have been enjoying Viola Grace lately. So, I made a best of Viola Grace list. If you like this writer, please add your votes!
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/37...

hey say you should never change for another person but no body ever seemed to tell the couples in Romance land that!

If your love is immortal, an angel, a shapeshifter, or vampire, in all likelihood you are going to need to change in order to have your happily ever after.

There are also some cases of Opps I am something New! romances as well.

The species conversation theme is a fun conflict that adds spice to these romance novels.

I would love to add your recommendations to the pile.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/43...

namericanwordcat created a new SFR list a couple of days ago: Best Science Fiction Romance Published 2010-2015. Sorry I don't know how to put up the link to a listopia list. Does anyone know how to do that?

Here it is Celestine

Best Science Fiction Romance Published 2010-2015

Riley wrote: "Here it is Celestine

Best Science Fiction Romance Published 2010-2015"

Thanks Riley!

Cool! I have one from 200-2010 too but haven't have a chance to populate!

Great SFR list! Adding books to my TBR! And so nice to be included in such good company. Thanks!