Three Hot Science Fiction Romance Tropes

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Our topic this week is to name our favorite SF&F tropes.

Well okay, I neither read nor write in terms of tropes. By which I mean I don’t search out books in specific niches like the bully’s best friend’s sister expelled from her academy solving a cozy mystery on Mars, to make up a wild example. I read a book if the plot sounds interesting to me and I write a book if there’s a story I want to tell.

Now most of my science fiction novels do fall into the classic SF trope of military man (or ex-military man) and strong woman heroine plunged into a dire situation, which they have to work together to survive or to solve and along the way respect and romance happens. For my Badari Warriors series, I deliberately picked the trope of genetically engineered beings, because I do love series with that as a central theme and I wanted to write one. So I guess technically you could say that’s a trope I enjoy and I write, but I don’t do searches in Amazon form my next new read based on books in that category. If I see one that sounds interesting, I might one click it. Or I might not.

And with my Badari, I put many other elements into the plot and the world building so there are various aspects to the plot.

They do have fated mates, however, which again isn’t a trope I necessarily search out to read. I just happened to think it made a nice twist in this particular series.

But rather than be totally meh here today, let me share three top tropes in science fiction romance that I am seeing strong reader interest and appetite for.

ALIEN ABDUCTION remains huge. I can’t tell you how many books I see each week that start out with some variation on the phrase “I’ve been kidnapped by aliens.” Usually the woman is destined for a dire fate until she meets a strong male – a gladiator, an alien commander, another prisoner (usually of an alien race), a soldier or mercenary with a conscience (or her fated mate maybe) who bonds with her and fights for her. There’s infinite variety in these stories as SFR authors have vivid imaginations and storytelling skills and the books span a wide range from extremely steamy to more tame. Alana Khan, Athena Storm, Ruby Dixon, Regine Abel, Kate Rudolph, Tiffany Roberts and many other authors have written this type of story.

ALIEN PROTAGONISTS WHO LOOK LIKE ALIENS. There are entire groups on Facebook dedicated to this trope and much discussion of this. A truly alien hero offers all kinds of possibilities for…ahem…interesting bedroom scenes with tails, tentacles and other physical gifts coming into play. I have to say this isn’t a variation I personally read much but I have enjoyed a few. S. J. Sanders, Tiffany Roberts (again), Ann Aguirre (her recent novel  Strange Love was so well done I had to enjoy it!), Honey Phillips, Amanda Milo, Auryn Hadley and others write using this trope.

CYBORGS are still and always hugely popular. The idea of heroes who are part human and part machine, whether it be actual metal parts, or nanocytes or some other method of enhancement, falling in love with a human woman just really works for readers.  Cynthia Sax is my go-to author for this because I do enjoy a good cyborg romance and she writes them so well, but Anna Hackett wrote my all-time favorite entitled Cyborg: Galactic Gladiators Book 10. Laurann Dohner is another author who has a top selling cyborg series. Naomi Lucas, Mina Carter, Grace Goodwin, Cara Bristol and others write excellent cyborg novels.

It should also be noted that, like me, SFR authors may bring many different tropes into play in one book - an alien looking alien who's a cyborg and kidnapped a human woman, for example.

I’m sure in each of these three categories I’m missing a chance to highlight many other authors but I’m just taking the ones on the top of my mind for today. That’s enough SFR tropes for one quick post – next time we tackle this topic on SFF7, I’ll be sure to give you some others for your reading pleasure.

Here was my most recent release in the award winning Badari Warriors series:

IVOKK: A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE NOVEL (SECTORS NEW ALLIES SERIES BOOK 12) by Veronica Scott

Proud enforcer of the Badari South Seas pack, Ivokk undertakes a secret mission back to their former home, in search of a cure for a mysterious illness affecting his soldiers, now in exile in the north. He’s ready to make any sacrifice to find the answer and help his pack brothers stay strong. He’s even willing to accept responsibility for the human woman assigned to the mission, although she’s a headstrong civilian, difficult and rumored to dislike his kind.

Sandara DiFerria was once a three star chef in the Sectors, but that was before the alien enemy kidnapped the entire adult population of her colony to use for experimentation. Rescued from the labs by the Badari, she does her part to support the rebellion now by running the vast commissary operation in Sanctuary Valley. All she asks is to be left alone until she can get back to the Sectors and pick up her old life again. Her one previous romantic brush with a Badari soldier turned out badly, ending in public humiliation. Add to that post-traumatic stress from her life before moving to the colony and she’s the last person to pick for a top secret mission. Or so she believes.

The Alpha running the pack disagrees and sends her to do the job under Ivokk’s watchful eye. Thrown together by the nature of the task they must undertake, the undeniable attraction they both feel grows. Will the dark secrets of Sandara’s hidden past create an insurmountable barrier between them? Can Ivokk and the tempestuous human chef find the answer to the Badari illness in time? Or will the elements and the enemy bring disaster?

Amazon      Apple Books      Kobo      Nook      Google Play

Troping the Story

Cats on the internet. Is that a trope? Heaven knows I Can Has Cheezeburger has gone to town on storytelling with cat photos and a few captions. Bleps, like the one Cuillean has going on here, are definitely a trope in the cat photo world.

As for me, I have never met a trope I didn't like. Except, y'know, fridging girl friends or other sexist/violent/misogynistic. Also? If your trope kills an innocent critter just to show up how bad your baddie is, I will toss your book against the wall. And then in the donate pile. Unless it's really egregious. Then I might destroy it rather than inflict it upon another reader. But really. After that, I'm good! Just don't rest too comfortably on your trope. Give me a light touch and have a little fun with it and I'm yours. Like Jeffe, I like myself some enemy to lovers. I love long odds and heroines and heroes who don't yet know what they're capable of.

Honestly, for me, tropes are never the problem. It's how they're handled that determines whether I'm going to go for the story ride or spend my reading time rolling my eyes until I can look at my brain. If you want to give me a secret baby story, but don't give me a woman keeping her kid a secret. It'd be a cool twist for the dad with the secret baby. Don't hold me to that, though, cause I'm working on a book right now with a secret kid and she's with her mom -- so I guess, don't trope as I trope.

Tropes and Rhubarb!

 

Rhubarb isn’t for everyone. Neither is every trope out there. I could argue that there are so many ways to cook or bake rhubarb that eventually you’d find a version you love, just like book tropes. There’s rhubarb crumble, strawberry-rhubarb jam, cherry-rhubarb pie, rhubarb sauce both sweet and savory! You could have rhubarb for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then I suppose some would say they’re full, too much of a good thing! 

I don’t have a problem with well-worn tropes because it’s all about the characters. But we’re not talking about the used-up stories or the not-for-me kinds this week, this week we’re talking about our favorite SFF tropes! 

One of the reasons I love reading science fiction and fantasy is that the best ones do something magical…they combine tropes.

Not sure what I’m talking about? Well, when you read a mystery you get to solve something. When you read a thriller you get ever heightening tension that grows between the hero and villain, the impending doom, until you reach the big climatic clash. An adventure will, well, take you on an adventure like a historical will take you back in time. 

Now sci-fi fantasy have their own tropes. One of my faves is The Quest. I believe in life we all strive towards a purpose and those of us who don’t feel lost. Throughout our lives we all go through quests, big and small, which is why this is such a well used theme in entertainment because on some level we can all relate.

Another classic SFF trope is the hero’s journey. Yes, I hear you—not another chosen one, because really, the hero’s journey is basically the chosen one making a choice to leave the known behind, venturing into the unknown to experience trials and challenges before returning a changed champion. But I can’t be 100% anti chosen-one because there are so many ways to do this trope differently than what we had been given over the past fifty-odd years.

This is where the magic comes in. 

You can have a chosen one AND a mystery! A young woman thrust into a hero’s journey as the result of a murder and unbalanced magic system! Ahhh!! So fun! Or, a sci-fi thriller where a killer’s on the loose and they end up on an alien spaceship face to face with the one who can stop their reign of terror! *shudder*

It would be fun to go on and on about the mash-ups that are sci-fi and fantasy, but since there’s hardly any Thursday left I’d better sign off. Till next week, I hope you have a great weekend with an even better read!

Tropes! Tropes! Tropes!

Favorite SFF Trope, eh?  I'm a fan of most of them as long as they're not thinly veiled masturbatory fantasies centering around violent oppression (yes, that includes rape) to satisfy the lizard brain of the hero (or author, really). 

I'm hungry for new spins on standard tropes. I will go giddy over trope mash-ups with modern social awareness and contemporary struggles. Give me a Chosen One, but not a pasty white boy who is never held accountable for his failures or his neglected responsibilities. Make her a middle-aged washerwoman with three adopted kids and the ghost of a nagging mother-in-law. Put her on a space ship or an airship. I'm game for whichever lane of SpecFic. Give me the Gang of Outcasts' Quest, but not motivated by the pain inflicted upon a woman. The gang is a bunch of snarky aliens or a passel of retro shapeshifters? Love it. Give me the Steampunk partial cyborg family mixed with the case of mistaken identity out to battle an Eldritch terror on the high seas of a Secondary World. Give me all the portal fantasies...that aren't set in medieval Europe. I want to Time Travel to locations and play in Alternate Histories that real-world society wishes we forgot. 

In truth, I will ride any trope train as long as I give a damn about the characters. 

Bonus: If there's no head-hopping*, I'm buying the series.

*Head-hopping is poorly-executed multiple POVs that bleed together. Well-defined multiple POVs are good...within reason.

SFF Tropes: Name Your Fave!

If you love some Romance with or alongside your SFF, my publisher is doing this fab giveaway of new releases to celebrate Romance Awareness Month! Note that my book, THE FIERY CROWN, is included :D 

Our topic at the SFF Seven this month is our favorite SFF Tropes.

For those who might not know, a trope is simply a story element. I've noticed that some in SFF circles tend to be resistant to discussing tropes - as if they're a negative or unoriginal aspect of storytelling - where Romance readers are very open about embracing and searching out their favorite tropes. In truth, tropes are inevitable and wonderful parts of recognizing what kinds of stories we love. If you want a broad overview of tropes - and you're not afraid of a rabbit hole, because this site WILL take you down one - check out TVtropes. Despite the somewhat misleading title, this site is super useful for researching story tropes from all creative media. 

If you want to peruse just SFF tropes - maybe look for your personal fave! - I did the search for you.

A lot of the time, what people identify as tropes are those story elements that have become cliche. The Chosen One is a somewhat cliche trope in Fantasy that can make us roll our eyes if it's not handled well. Usually handled badly with this trope means that the Chosen One is a white boy prodigy (Orson Scott Card anyone?) with no indication whatsoever what makes them so freaking special except that they are Special. And no, making your Chosen One a brown girl instead doesn't automagically solve the problem.

But, what are MY FAVORITE SFF TROPES?

You all know me: enemies to allies/lovers and marriage of state/convenience are right up there for me. They also happen to be grand crossovers to Romance, so they work well for me. 

I also love me an underestimated heroine with hidden talents, magical or otherwise. I love an embattled ruler, almost always a queen for me. The Hero's Journey is a favorite, though I almost always give it to a female character. That goes well with the magic worker struggling to control growing powers. The alpha male with a cinnamon roll heart always works for me. 

Amusingly enough, all of those tropes are in THE FIERY CROWN. Go figure.

What about you - fave SFF tropes???

 

Audiobook Recommendation

The only thing I have to offer you in the way of audiobook wisdom is dinosaurs. A Grown Up Guide to Dinosaurs Mostly, I find I can't handle someone talking at me while I'm doing other things I need to pay attention to like driving. Unless you're talking to me about the state of science. A friend recommended the book and insisted I'd love it. She was right. My only complaint was that it wasn't long enough. But then, I was listening to this audiobook while I was painting a room (no, once the cutting in is done, painting is pretty brainless. No cats were painted in the painting of my deep blue wall) and I ended up needing a few more hours than I had. Oh well.

Because of the expense of producing audiobooks, not a single one of my stories is yet in audio. I say yet because there may be efforts afoot to change that. Just. Don't hold your breath. I'm not. There are still logistics to be worked out and options to be explored.

Rise of the Audiobook

This week I’m listening to The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi, a beautifully written historical fiction that takes place in 1950’s India. I love learning new things in such a vibrant way…and I’m listening to it! 

Good timing too because our topic this week is audiobook popularity. Do you listen to audiobooks? If you’re an author, do you make them? Any thoughts on if they’ll overtake ebooks? 

Honestly, I was slow to join the audiobook bandwagon. I’m not talking books on tape, but the electronic versions you can download in an app—so EASY! Yet, when they became a thing and my fellow book bloggers were devouring them, I stuck to my paperbacks and hardcovers. 

Crazy enough, at the time I was still working in the corporate world and driving at least two hours a day, sometimes more depending on which laboratories I needed to visit. 

Fast forward to today and…man oh man, why didn’t I give audiobooks a try back then! If I could hop a time machine that might be my destination, go back and tell my commuting past-self to download gobs of ‘em I could’ve soared my 90 book-a-year average into the triple digits! 

Even though I no longer commute, I’m so blessed to be able to work from home, there are plenty of days my eyes can’t take any more screen time. That means ixnay the ebooks and even reading on a page is difficult—thank you very much chronic disease—but, I’m thankful for audiobooks! 

Popularity then: I’d say they’re gaining. I talk books with most people I come across and within the last couple of years I’ve noticed that more are listening instead of reading. Interesting…possible factors could be: chronic disease is on the rise, resulting in conditions that increase the necessity of an audible option, and in our current semi-isolated climate hearing a voice is a comfort, even if it’s recorded.

Another interesting thing, I recently learned that for traditionally published books it’s not always the publishing house that puts out the recorded version. 

Come on, gasp with me! I can’t be the only reader out there who didn’t have a clue about how audiobooks came to be. 

Yes, I was aware of companies you could hire to produce your self-published or indie-published book if you wanted to. But maybe because I haven’t been listening to audiobooks that long or maybe because I don’t really pay attention to the intro and miss who actually made it I’d always assumed they came from the publisher!

There you have it, my take on audiobooks and how I think they’ll continue to grow. Yes, I enjoy them, though never as much as a paper version. And yes, I believe I’ll make one someday. 

*By the way, have you listened to Martha Well’s Murderbot series in audio?! The narrator, Kevin R. Free’s interpretation perfectly encompasses Murderbot’s flatline emotions and ponderings. So, so good. If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon and dig sci-fi, hands-down start with this one!

Audiobooks on a budget

This week we're talking about audiobooks here on the SFF Seven. I'll say right off that I'm a huge fan, especially nonfiction. I subscribe to Audible and have a Chirp account too, so I'm pretty stocked on stuff to fill my ears with. Back in the days before covid, audiobooks made waiting in the car for kids a less stultifying lifestyle choice. Bonus that I was not tempted to sing along to must, therefore avoiding the "Mom, please stop singing" refrain, which as you can imagine was always so uplifting and encouraging. 

In the new normal of quarantine life, I haven't been in the car much, so my listening time is way down. (I know, I should use the treadmill more, which is a great time to listen to audiobooks, too.) Regardless, I'd still consider myself a fan. I'd recommend any and all of the last three three books I listened to on audio: The Last Emperox by John Scalzi (on Audible), What If? by Randall Munro (on Chirp), and Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik (also on Audible; I read the ebook, too, but the audio was super fun). 

One drawback of audiobooks in general is that they do tend to be pricey, but there's always the library. Also, you can have BookBub send you daily emails of deals for Chirp books, much like they do for ebook sales. For more info, check out the write-up on BookBub regarding the service. LibriVox also offers audio recordings of books in the public domain, for free, and this is literally the only way I can handle Herman Melville.

But all the above is from the point of view of someone who listens because it's fun and eats up a long car incarceration. So I brought up the topic--asking both why audio is a thing to do and tips for doing it on the cheap--with my friend and fellow science fiction romance writer, Cailin Briste. Here's her response:

I have a unique take on audiobooks. I’ve had eye problems for over a decade that made reading difficult. I have the Kindle Oasis specifically because it can do text to voice. At the rate I read books, having my Kindle read to me was the best financial option for me. I’ve even grown attached to the computer simulated voice that reads the books. Since I’ve had surgery on one eye, I find myself reading more rather than listening. Actual audiobooks have always been for long drives with my husband. A shared experience. He even listens to romance novels.

So, in addition to scoping out deals on places like Chirp and LibriVox, seeing whether your ereader or computer has a text-to-speech capability may also help you access audio without having to pay out the wazoo.

Oh. I guess I should mention that the first two of my Tether cyberpunk romances are available in audio through Audible. The third is not because I self-published it, and if you think buying an audiobook is pricey, whoo-boy, you should see what it costs to produce one. (Hint: a lot.) But I am pondering reading More Than Stardust aloud, like on YouTube or something, chapter by chapter, if anybody would ever be interested in such a thing. 

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p.s., Much more excitingly, Cailin Briste, who was kind enough to talk with me about audiobooks, also has a new erotic science fiction romance out this week, the last in her Sons of Tallav series. If spicy SFR is your jam, check out Trey: Son of Tallav. 

She’s the opposite he can’t resist.

Trey Johannsen’s preference is to stick to managing a private club on Beta Tau. It’s dark. It’s sexy. The cries of pleasure, the thud of a flogger, and the mingled scents of arousal and fear are evidence he’s damn good at it.

So when his boss insists Trey’s perfect for assisting a new hire to develop a cabaret, Trey is nonplussed. How the hell do you make burlesque accurately represent the lifestyle? Then he meets her, and instant attraction has him imagining peeling her clothes off, tying her to a bed, and sinking into her until she can take no more.

He’s determined to make her his own despite differences that could thrust them into bitter conflict.

A lust-inducing man isn’t on Patsy O’Shaughnessy’s shopping list. Her commitment to refuse his overtures, they’ll be coworkers after all, slides into oblivion. She’s got a lot on her plate, but dessert never hurt a girl. Especially when the dessert is built like a Celtic warrior of old, lacking only the kilt and sword.

This is the 4th and final book in the Sons of Tallav series.

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