Lately, I've been thinking about why genres like fantasy and science fiction meld so brilliantly with romance. These ruminations are in part inspired by the panel I'll be doing with Kelley Armstrong, Lilliana Rose and MJ Scott at the Australian Romance Readers Conference in Canberra in March (you are all going, right?)
The thoughts are also part inspired by the book that comes out today (Winning the King, book 2 in my Jorda SF romance series) and the book I'm currently working on (book 2 in my urban fantasy romance trilogy, which comes out 2015/2016).
And here are my thoughts - I think the speculative genres mesh so well with romance because there is an otherworldliness about love itself. I mean, you can ask a room of people what love is and get completely different answers. You can ask people why they love a particular person and while they'll list that person's many fabulous attributes, in the end you can't actually explain why you chose that person over everyone else.
If it was just biology, then why is it people generally only fall for one person in a pair of identical twins? If it's just personality, why that one person versus the person next to them who is pretty much the exact same person?
Of course, it's a mix of everything - biology, personality, a shared vision of the world and how it should be, similiar interests or ideologies - but sometimes, love can lack an element that others say make it work and still it does.
How? How does love work? How do we get to a point that we commit ourselves entirely to one person, want to be with them, feel that their happiness is the only thing we need to make ourselves happy?
The answer, of course, is that we don't know. Love is Magic. And that's why it works so brilliantly with fantasy and science fiction - because they are all about the magic.
Blue eyes, golden curls, a body songs are composed about, and part of one of the most powerful families in the colonies, Diana Wiltmore is not used to ever hearing the word ‘no’. So when she sets her sights on a fling with the gorgeous, potent and single King of Angonia, Gareth, she is shocked when he turns her down flat. In an effort to put the rejection behind her, she agrees to her sister’s plan to gain some political leverage by cosying up to a rival planetary ruler.
Gareth has responsibilities and no time for a woman like Diana. She is all temptation and distraction, but Gareth wants more from a woman than decoration. But it is Diana standing by his side as his beloved home of Angonia is attacked and he starts to see that underneath the surface is a strong woman even more beautiful than her picture-perfect exterior.
Gareth’s people need him and to be there for them, he needs Diana. But has he ruined every chance he has of winning her heart?
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Great post, Nicole.
ReplyDeleteBlogger at part of my comment.
ReplyDeleteWho doesn't love magic?