Maybe it’s a cliché to write a romance-themed blog post for Valentine’s Day, but the celebration is rife with clichés so I thought, why not?
In medieval and Renaissance times, a romance was not a love story but “a long fictitious tale of heroes and extraordinary or mysterious events, usually set in a distant time or place” (freedictionary.com). Sounds awfully like the modern-day definition of the fantasy genre, doesn’t it? However when it comes to the modern definition of romance, you tend to find readers divided on the subject.
On the one hand you have the “girl cooties” school of fantasy, inspired by the work of Tolkien, who spent most of his life in the male-dominated circles of the early twentieth century English education system. Such books seem designed to appeal to the adolescent male, with female characters who are at best an idealised Other, and at worst a collection of sexist stereotypes. This is a gross generalisation of course, and there have been lots of fantasy novels with strong female characters, but there are nonetheless still plenty of readers who dislike any hint of romance sullying their heroes’ testosterone-soaked adventures.
In the opposite corner you have the new kid on the block, paranormal romance, which seems designed to appeal mainly to female readers. Owing more to the Gothic novels of the early nineteenth century, these are love stories first and foremost, with the fantasy elements typically providing the obstacles between the lovers. I suspect that part of their rise in popularity, as with m/m romance, lies in the fact that modern Western couples face few obstacles in their relationships compared to previous generations. “(S)he’s a vampire/werewolf/angel/zombie” has replaced “our parents would never allow it” as the star-crossed lovers’ angst du jour.
But what of the middle ground? What are the fantasy novels that fall between these extremes, and where do you draw the line? This question occurred to me after reading Ten Ruby Trick by my friend Julia Knight. For the most part this is a fun swashbuckling adventure, like the old movies I used to watch on Sunday afternoons. Sure, there’s a romance between the hero, Van Gast, and the tricksy pirate captain Josie, but the love scenes are fairly infrequent and not terribly steamy.
In many respects, therefore, it’s not that dissimilar from my own novel The Alchemist of Souls – and yet Ten Ruby Trick is published by Carina, an ebook imprint of Harlequin, whereas I’m published by SFF imprint Angry Robot. So what makes Julia’s book romance and mine not? I pondered this for a while and realised it was all down to the characters’ motivation. In Ten Ruby Trick, both Van Gast and his enemy Holden are motivated by their love for Josie; if it wasn’t for their feelings, there would be no plot. In The Alchemist of Souls, the romance is confined to a subplot. Take it away, and you would still be left with Mal’s main storyline, which has nothing to do with romance (though it is ultimately concerned with love, loyalty and responsibility). It’s a subtle distinction, but one that makes all the difference in how the book is marketed.
What about you? Do you like romance in your fantasy, fantasy in your romance, or do you prefer the two genres to stay separate?
I like a dash of romance in my fantasy, I must admit. I think it adds to the development of rounded, credible characters if I can glimpse them when their emotions have made them vulnerable, but I prefer the romance to be secondary to the adventure, intrigue and miscellaneous perils which were why I picked up a fantasy novel in the first place. Romance as the olive, rather than the whole martini, as it were.
Same here. I don’t read fantasy for the romance, per se, but if it fits the character to notice the appropriate sex more than once in a blue moon, it seems odd for them to live like a monk. It annoys me when readers are all prurient about sex and then demand blood and gore like that’s normal!
Hi Anne,
I like the timing of your post, it’s very appropriate!
Personally I grew up reading Tanith Lee, Sheri Tepper, and Anne McCaffrey (thanks to my mother drip feeding them to me the moment I hit 11), all of whom wrote stories that were predominently fantasy/sci-fi based but artfully wove romance into them when appropriate. That’s effected my tolerance for Romance in Sci-fi/Fantasy stories; I don’t like it being overdone or over the top, and if it is a Romance story set in a fantastical world I like the description to tell me that before I start.
I like stories of all types and enjoy ones that have a touch of Romance in them, but only if it suits the characters and the story – there’s nothing worse than feeling like it’s been shoe-horned in there just to get the Romance tag added to the novel’s description…
I like romantic subplots in my fantasy, but I prefer the focus to be on the adventure, not the romantic relationship.
I’m agnostic, really. I’d say romance is a storytelling tool like any other – if it works for the characters in the setting go with it, if it detracts from the main themes and plot, play it down or leave it out. My longest piece of fiction to date is mostly powered by non-romance-related plot, but a lot of the characterisation hinges on an uncomfortable triangle of unresolved emotional Stuff between three different characters, into which the hero shoves his oar to stir things up – largely because he’s a b*****d and that’s what he does. I left the romantic angle in because the tensions that whole subplot creates do in fact have a bearing on how the main plot turns out. Or at least they will when I’ve redrafted, dammit…
I will admit I don’t see paranormal romance as “serious” literature in the same way I would a more plot-driven speculative fiction book. It’s not that I’d shun reading them at all, but I think of them more in an airport-novel way than as the kind of world I want to lose myself in for weeks at a time. And really, for me at least, having an amazing world to dive into and explore is always what good fantasy’s been about.
I like a bit of romance of the not-too-steamy kind in my Fantasy – as well as other types of relationships.
IRL where there are people, there are relationships of all kinds springing up. Any book which ignores this is lacking something in my opinion. Probably due to growing up on Anne McCaffrey who did relationships very well. She became the bench mark for my subsequent Fantasy reading.