Let’s face it, reading is a pretty risky venture. And for many of us, it’s a risk we take on a daily basis.
Even armed with the title, cover, story blurb, author name (and possibly a review), we never quite know what’s going to happen between page one and The End. Risk-taking is part of the adventure reading offers us. Most of the time, it’s exciting.
On occasion though, I imagine we’ve all felt trepidation about a particular book or genre that we’re considering sampling for the first time. We’re a “risk virgin,” so to speak.
Sometimes we don’t realize the risk we’ve taken until well into the story (regardless of accurate cover packages or not). Other times, we weigh the pros and cons of a book pre-purchase while standing in a store or staring at a computer screen.
Paranormal romance is a recent example of large numbers of readers taking risks and venturing into new territory. But some kinds of paranormal romances are perceived as more risky than others, even when they share the same publisher label.
Because of this risk factor, I’m guessing there are romance readers who have never read science fiction or science fiction romance—yet watched and enjoyed the J.J. Abrams reboot of STAR TREK. This means that this movie may be a prime example of a story that makes science fiction more alluring and less of a risk.
Reframing this: Assuming you saw and enjoyed STAR TREK, if it were re-imagined as a romance, would you be more inclined to read it?
The risk factor is prevalent here, too. Even if an author treats space travel as a serious topic in the story, this type of adventure isn’t for everyone. But what about a science fiction romance set in contemporary times? Or in an alternate history setting such as steampunk? Would either choice make the risk easier to take?
What about historical romances in settings other than the usual suspects? I’m willing to take that risk in a heartbeat, but I know it’s too much of a leap for others. And I’d like to understand why.
Therefore, I’d like to pose these questions: What factors encourage you to take risks in your reading? If you’re a paranormal romance fan but weren’t previously, what changed? Have you been burned by taking a risk? Are there books that began as a risk but ended up exceeding your expectations? If so, why?
This post was submitted by Heather Massey.
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I hate to admit this, but I’m a genre whore. I’d read about anything that pulls me in. I saw Star Trek and would say for those with some trepidations about Sci-Fi, it’s a good way to get familiar with genre.
To be honest, the way technology the way it is now some of those ideas that may have seemed far-fetched yester-year is almost here.
Now to answer your questions…I say I take less risks on new authors than genres. No surprise there. I’m always glad when a new author surpasses my expectations. What helps is if I get the book for free or not at full price. (thrift stores) But, when an author wins me over, I have no trouble buying their next book or backlist full price.
Lastly, and I’ll wrap this long reply up, I tend to find the ending of a book the deal breaker when it comes to a “risky” book. It’s too easy to lose me in the beginning. Once you’ve lost me, you’ve lost me. Though I’m one of those readers that will stick around the middle just to get to the end, because I have to know. But that ending will make that risk worth it or not.
I’ll try pretty much anything. Not surprisingly, it helps if:
1. Somebody I trust recommends it;
2. I’m already familiar with the creator and like the previous work;
3. I already like the genre.
Any one of those three can outweight the other two. Yes, I’ve been burned more than once, but so what? One good story resets the clock on a lot of crap.
Great post, Heather! I’ll go link.
Of course, you know me. The riskier the story, the better.
I prefer a buffet as a reader and bore easily.
Seems to me it’s easier for some readers to try something new if there’s also something familiar about it.
So, if I was trying to woo a new reader into
Science Fiction Romance and I knew she only ate oatmeal for breakfast every morning by choice, for example, I’d hand her
DOWN HOME ZOMBIE BLUES by Linnea Sinclair, which is set in present day Florida
instead of
GAMES OF COMMAND by Linnea Sinclair, which is set on a starship.
Personally, I love both novels and waffle back and forth on which is my favorite.
I agree with Melissa Blue. I’ll take risks on anything when I find the books for a quarter each at garage sales. They go in my to-be-read pile (in the bathroom) and if they’re good enough to make it out of there, particularly if I HAVE TO spend the rest of the day reading it, I look the author up on amazon and make an effort to collect everything else. That may take me a while when I find someone like JD Robb 14 books into the series.
I’ll occasionally try a new author from my preferred genre by buying a book new, but I’d rather risk my time than my money.
Recommendations lead me to take risks. If enough people are saying how great something is, I’ll try it [meaning books - no one has yet been able to convince me to bungee jump].
I sampled the Stephanie Plum series, though I read very little contemporary, because I’d heard so many people rave about it. I devoured the books and have pre-ordered the 15th in the series. Oddly, on the other hand, I’ve heard raves about the Dresden files and was given a handful of the books by a friend, and I’m still hesitant to crack one open. I can’t quite figure out why since it’s more up my alley than a female bounty hunter from NJ.
I’ve been a big science fiction reader since my teens, but came to romance much later. The reason–the romances I read back then just didn’t appeal to me. When I did reinvestigate romance years later, the first romances I read were time travels in historical settings, followed by futuristics. But most of those early futuristics didn’t contain enough sci-fi to keep me entertained, so I ended up reading historicals and paranormals, which I now write.
But now, I’m seeing a new breed of futuristics, which are actually science fiction romances! I’m hooked and am now working on an SFR of my own.
I love historicals – even to the extent that I’m (trying to) write one! But I’m a little tired of the Regency period so I’ve set my book in ancient Rome – because I love that era and there are lots of good films around that reflect that time as well. I also love Vikings. Michelle Styles – one of my favourite Harlequin authors – has written some fab Roman and Viking books that I’ve loved. Take care. Caroline x
I dont’ consider opening up any book as a risk…but a chance. A chance to find a gem, to find characters you fall in love with, a world you want to live in, an author you’ll follow with her next book and her next.
Sci Fi is a challenging read for me because each world is new. I can’t concentrate on the characters as I prefer to do. I need to devote a portion of my brain to figuring out the setting and plot.
Not saying that I don’t take up the challenge every now or then (grinning).
Loved the new Star Trek movie. Loved it.
I do enjoy straight sci-fi novels–but find I gravitate toward the romance section more often than not. I am lost on highly technical sci-fi, and prefer the stories to be more “character oriented.”
I am an ebook reader, as I enjoy not having to dust them.
What terrific insights. It’ll be interesting to discover what kind of patterns emerge from this thread.
@Kimber An The “woo” factor–check! Thanks for the clarification
.
@ Vivi Anna Nice re-frame!
Kimber Chin, good point about the worldbuilding aspect. That creates a learning curve for many genres if one is reading them for the first time. Sometimes we’re in the mood for the challenge, sometimes not.
I was a Star Trek fan from the time I was very little — I watched the original series in first-run back in the late sixties. I started reading SF before romance, and when I did start reading romances it was my mom’s historicals I borrowed. I read only historicals for ages and had no interest in contemporaries; straight contemporaries (no paranormal or anything) are still my “risk” reads, and I’ll only pick one up if a writer I knew and absolutely loved in a different subgenre switches over (like Judith McNaught did), or if I get to know the writer online or something and want to try her stuff.
On comparing the Star Trek movie with written SF, we need to be careful. Media SF is very different from literary SF, and just because someone enjoys Star Trek or Star Wars, that doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily enjoy David Brin or Nancy Kress or Larry Niven or Octavia Butler or Vernor Vinge or Connie Willis or James Hogan, and cetera. Or even Asimov or Heinlein. A movie only has two hours to establish setting and plot and characters, and tell a story. Everything’s stripped down, simplified, homogenized. Even the best movies are closer to short stories than to novels.
Novels go the whole nine yards. If it’s hard SF then you get lots of science and tech, and the main plotline might well swing on a point of science and/or technology. And it’s not just nuts and bolts anymore — there’s plenty of SF where the “S” is biology, genetics, anthropology, psychology, geology. And writers who trip up on the science and tech are subject to just as much derision and mockery as a historical author who puts her Regency debutante into a huge hoopskirt and a tall, pointy hennin.
Even “softer” SF often plays with concepts in a way someone who’s not into that sort of thing — fooling around with ideas and what-ifs for enjoyment — might not get into.
If someone enjoyed Star Trek, that’s great — I loved it myself — but handing them an SF novel might or might not work out. If Star Trek was their first and only exposure to SF, I’d bet against it. A futuristic romance might well work for them; the tone there tends to be more like a movie or TV show than an SF book. But going right from a Star Trek movie to the hard stuff is quite a leap.
Angie
‘Tis true, Angie, and I think that’s what’s scares potential readers from Science Fiction Romance. They’ve got a preconception of what Science Fiction is, focused on the science and endless discriptions of hyperspace engines and such.
However, Science Fiction Romance is character-driven, like Star Wars and Star Trek, but with the romantic relationship front and center. So, if an author can woo the reader away from the preconeption through the familiar, maybe she’ll be on to something.
It’s like, “Oh, you hate raw broccoli? Me too. Oooh, but it tastes soooo good steamed with cheese melted over it. Here, try some! You’ll love it, really!”
True, it’s yet another labelling problem. [nod] Because people like me who enjoy the fullness of both have a hard time too. I love both the romantic character stories and the hard science and tech and ideas. I’ve never found a futuristic romance I liked because they ignore the SF setting too much for my taste.
There are people who like different degrees and balances — some people, as you mentioned, want just a drop or two of Star Trekishness in the vat of romance, some like me want it half-and-half, and there are others who like a drop or two of romance in their vat of SF. (Actually, I like those too, but the half and half is best when I can get it, which is rare.) The vat-of-romance books are all on the romance shelves. The vat-of-SF books are on the SF shelves of course. But the half-and-half books are also on the SF shelves — I’ve never found one over in the romance section, and for the first ten or fifteen years after futuristics became popular, I read a lot of them in hope — except you have to just sort of know, or guess which ones they are. Or have a friend tell you, or read a review. But so far as the SF publishers are concerned, they aren’t doing anything to promote the SF/Romance books as an individual subgenre. And the Romance publishers aren’t publishing SF/Romance (or even Romance/SF) at all.
It gets frustrating sometimes. I guess I’ll just have to write a few on the Romance side. [wry smile]
Angie
I’d love to see more SFR books that are based in contemporary or near future settings. Starships and interstellar adventures are great but certainly not for everyone.
Have you tried Connie Willis? She doesn’t do the space-shippy kind of SF, yet her science concepts and ideas are still great and she’s won a bunch of Nebulas and Hugos.
Half her books are Really Serious, in which case there isn’t much romance, though grrreat characters. The other half she writes are lighter, with romance. (Bellweather has a contemporary setting. To Say Nothing of the Dog involves time travel to Edwardian England, so it’s near future mixed with near past!)
Sharon Shinn also does good romance, without the interstellar aspect.
The Romance publishers are taking a chance right now. There are some great SFR titles coming out in the future months from the Romance shelves, but they need support if the trend is going to stick around.
Jess,
Which ones are coming out to be on the lookout for?
Jess has one coming out in August — Beyond the Rain.
There are also SF/erotic romances on the shelves, like Lauren Dane’s Federation series and Angela Knight’s Time Hunters series. Also Cheryl Brooks’ Cat Star Chronicles.
I posted a list here:
http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net/2009/01/2009-science-fiction-romance-new.html
and I add new ones as I find them. Samhain also has a nother futuristic romance coming out in 2010 but there’s no specific info yet.
Katherine Allred’s CLOSE ENCOUNTERS is a recent release.
Also, I just finished Catherine Asaro’s ALPHA and it’s fantastic if you enjoy the 50-50 mix Angie referenced.
For those who enjoy SFR tales that are super romantic, check out Jess’ BEYOND THE RAIN which comes out in August.
Linnea Sinclair’s latest release HOPE’S FOLLY also rocked the house.
I read some of Catherine Asaro’s early work — I knew her on GEnie way back when — and she was pretty awesome. [nod] I need to catch up with her stories, definitely.
I tried Sinclair’s Gabriel’s Ghost on someone’s recommendation and was incredibly unimpressed with it, the romance as well as the SF. What was Hope’s Folly about? Is she getting better?
Angie
Angie, with Asaro’s ALPHA, it definitely helps to read the first book in that universe, SUNRISE ALLEY. Alpha makes an appearance there and her character arc carries into ALPHA. She is the star of that book, even though the story is told from the POV of the hero. Both books take place in the same near-future setting.
The strength of HOPE’S FOLLY lies with its hero, Philip Guthrie. I thought his character was riveting. Your mileage may vary, though, as I read this book anticipating Guthrie’s story more than anything else.
Interestingly enough, both ALPHA and HOPE’S FOLLY feature May-December romances. Both were very well done, imho.
And don’t forget my other favorite SFR author, Susan Grant. Her latest came out in February, I think, WARLORD’S DAUGHTER. She has several SFR books which start or are entirely set in the Here & Now for the starship-shy.
One fo them, HOW TO LOSE AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL IN 1O DAYS, I’ve really been wanting to read again, but I can’t find it anywhere. (((sigh))) Gonna have to order, I guess.
Ooo, and let’s not forget Susan Grant’s next book which features a heroine space pirate!
I actually prefer non-romance books with a romance thrown in, over straight up romance novels. When a romance is added to a mystery novel, or sci fi, it tends to be subtler / more suspenseful.
When a romance is added to a mystery novel, or sci fi, it tends to be subtler / more suspenseful.
That’s a good point. [nod] If the book isn’t a genre romance, you’re never quite sure whether things are going to work out with the romantic subplot. Of course, sometimes they don’t work out, and there are readers who can’t deal with that. But the fact that they sometimes don’t creates a tension that a true genre romance can never have.
Angie
I’m with Vivi, in that every new book is a chance, not a risk. That said, while I have my traditional favorites, I’d love to read some historicals set in other eras/locations. I’d like to read some 20th century historicals–everything from turn of the century Americana (Pamela Morsi used to do those so well) to WWII. I think that’s about my limit, but I would enjoy them, if they were well written and emotional. T.J. Bennett has a great historical set in Medieval Germany, and her new one–also Germany–has me anxious to get my hands on it.
Um–I was very disappointed in some of the early SFR, because of that issue Angie mentioned–bad SF to go with the R. (I remember one with a woman kidnapped by aliens who looked in the closet to see what they had for her to wear, and the alien clothes were Size 8, so she knew she could wear them. What!?!?) But I love Grant and Sinclair and McCaffrey and Asaro.
I’m not a big vampire fan, though there are certain vampire series that have addicted me. And in large part, that’s because the vampires don’t follow the standard mythology. But I’ll generally give anything a try at least once.
My risk-aversion tends to run along author lines rather than genre lines. I’ll try almost anything once. Often, I’ll try it twice. But that second disappointment will have me avoiding that author.
Gail, I hear you on WWII. I’m reading an alternate history military SF set in that time period and it’s great. There’s a hint of romance but more would have been awesome.
I have to go anonymous for this, and I hate it. But it’s for the best.
Nowadays, for me, the biggest risk is category romances. I grew up on these, cut my romance teeth on them and had a hell of a time for the first decade of reading.
Not so much anymore. The writing is usually so dry and watered down, and the stories so formulaic that there’s no risk involved. It’s same old same old.
I’ve read a couple of good categories this year, but most of them, sadly, are DNF. This is doubly sad because I want to write them, but I’m worried my voice may be too out there, and my characters not sweet enough to withstand their editors. Plus, I’m not planning on a single baby in any of my books.
Anon, I’m sure your stories will find a home. Persistence is key, I think.
What I like about SFR is that there’s something for everyone, whether you prefer a little science with your romance, vice versa, or something in between. It can be challenging to find where you fall as a read on that spectrum, and even more challenging to find which books suit you — but they do exist if you’re willing to look. Luckily, we have people like Heather who are helping to bring SFR readers and writers together.
I do see every book as a chance to discover a new author, but what encourages me to take risks is the quality of the writing in the first few pages. Even if the story is not something I’ve ever read before, if the first page draws me in then I’ll buy it.
I’ve always been a paranormal fan, but I do tend to stick to vampires mostly. I’ve tried reading werewolf stories, but so far only Kelley Armstrong has held my attention. I’d say Armstrong’s books were a surprise to me and it was Elena, the heroine in the first few books that made it all work.
Lisa, I agree about the importance of those first few pages. There don’t have to be fireworks going off, but the quality of the writing is a significant factor for me.
And ditto on the range of SFR.
I feel as if I’m intruding, but I was looking for others interested in science fiction romance and ended up here. Can I play too? You seem to be a group of interesting and insightful people. I’m excited that science fiction writers are finally allowed to bring romance out of the closet. I didn’t realize this was so (I do live in a cave somewhere) until I bought the eBook, GABRIEL’S GHOST a while back and became hooked.
JM Thierry, it’s not an intrusion at all! Thanks for commenting.
Your observation points to the issue of some genre stories being so niche that they are often a risk for that reason. Thanks to authors like Catherine Asaro et. al., romance in SF is becoming more acceptable.
While I was never really a star trek fan, I really enjoyed the new movie. I thought they did a really good job, especially knowing there were die hard fans out there who were going to critique every detail.
Regarding risk, it took me a long time to be willing to truly dive off the cliff of risk in my writing. I couldn’t get the knowledge that ‘this wouldn’t really happen’ out of my words. Once I finally accepted that I needed my characters to risk it all, I was able to ratchet up my conflict and create a story that was actually readable (I hope). The issue for me is that as a military romance writer, I ‘know better’ and folks who know me and read my books are going to know that I supposedly know better. But that’s why I write fiction and why I write romance. Because the risk is great for me as an army officer, I know the reward will be worth it.
Jessica, thanks for commenting. And I second the notion of creating characters who take risks. Hmm, is there any other kind?
Hummm… me too. Without taking risks you lose the opportunity to add tension to the story. I had one character determined to do something she felt necessary, but was risky (for a number of reasons), and then I had a great time exploring her fear, conflicting emotions, and ultimate determination to just get the job done. It helped define her character.
I’m a historical girl. I know the genre, and the books deliver the emotional read I’m looking for. I’ve tried some SFR but I haven’t found any authors I’m crazy about (Asaro, Grant, Sinclair). I’d like to try paranormals, but I know almost nothing about paranormals. I can reliably find a historical R that I’ll enjoy — I read reviews, I know the authors, the websites, the plots, all of which I’ve learned over the 10+ years I’ve been reading R. But without that background knowledge I’m paralyzed.