How did you get started in SFR?

[Linda]

I'm curious about how readers get started in SFR? Did you stumble onto the genre like I did, or was it a natural progression for you?

[KJ]

It was natural for me. I've loved reading SF all my life, and read a lot of romance during my teen years and then started up again about 8 years ago. I think the first book that I realized I was reading SFR was Star King by Susan Grant. I've been hooked on the genre ever since! I'll note that I separate paranormal romance from SFR -- I had read and knew I was reading PNR for a couple of years before discovering my true love of SFR.

[Carolyn F.]

I started out reading straight sci-fi (Ray Bradbury, etc) and then took a decades long break. Then I started reading PNR and if I liked the author I would read their other books which led me to SFR mainly beginning with Kaitlyn O'Connor. Then I really started actively looking for similar SFR books with good ratings/reviews and became hooked. I'm in a sci-fi book club at my library and keep recommending SFR books which have actually brought more people to the meetings thank you very much. :)

[Cailin]

I started reading sci-fi and fantasy in the seventies. Stopped during my twenties and thirties (baby years). Started reading historical romance and then decided I wanted to write romance. No way could I write historical, so sci-fi it was. Started actually reading scifi romance a year ago after I was published. At first I was worried I might inadvertently copy other people's ideas, but now I know better. I'm blown away by what other authors write in the genre. I feel like I'm playing catch up now.

I'm a lover of military sci-fi, but that too I can't write. Is there an SFR author that writes that type of book? Like
Elizabeth Moon or the Honor Harrington series by David Weber.

[Sela]

I think I must have stumbled over it back in the 90s. I had read Restoree by Anne McCaffrey, and loved the romance threads in the Pegasus/Tower and Hive books, but I wasn't really a romance reader back then. Not until I hit Dara Joy, followed quickly by Susan Grant, followed immediately by Linnea Sinclair. Since then, I've always looked very specifically for SFR. The recent growth of the niche has been great!

[Celestine]

I like reading romance mixed with action-adventure, and SFR perfectly fits the bill. I rotate around with romances in medieval, post-apocalyptic and Old West settings, but sci-fi is now definitely my favorite. I didn't actually discover SFR until I got my Kindle and downloaded some samples of interesting-looking titles. I was so hooked after that!

[Gail]

The little buggers invade my dreams and won't leave until I write their stories. Coletti Warlords are pushy.

[E.G.]

Sela wrote: " I had read Restoree by Anne McCaffrey, ..."

I love that book. I'd read her Dragon Riders of Pern and was thrilled to see scifi.

[E.G.]

My first was . It's not really a romance, but it has a woman MC and a love interest. Before then, it was all historical and fantasy.

[Jen]

I fell into it. I had always loved science fiction, but was never into romances. After I got a kindle, I was looking for free books and stumbled on . It never occurred to me that someone might combine aliens and romance in a book, I thought that it was just my fantasy - ha, ha! The book was captivating and I fell in love with the genre.

[Sela]

E.G. wrote: "Sela wrote: " I had read Restoree by Anne McCaffrey, ..."

I love that book. I'd read her Dragon Riders of Pern and was thrilled to see scifi."
I feel like it was a really unique book for its time. I can imagine what an outlier it was!

[J.C.]

I started reading romance in high school, right along with my sci fi books, but never thought about blending them together until Babylon 5 and Farscape made it such a central element.

I found Linnea Sinclair while looking to read books that felt like the shows I loved, and the rest is history...

[E.G.]

Sela wrote: "E.G. wrote: "Sela wrote: " I had read Restoree by Anne McCaffrey, ..."

I love that book. I'd read her Dragon Riders of Pern and was thrilled to see scifi."
I feel like it was a really unique book ..."

She wrote the short that eventually became Freedom's Landing in the late 60's or early seventies, but wasn't able to turn it into books until the 90s when she had made a name for herself with fantasy. I remember reading the short in a yard sale anthology.

[Edwin]

I got started reading SFR when someone told me the book I'd just finished was SFR.

[Lee]

I read tons of science fiction books, and tons of historical/paranormal romance, and I finally found out you could put the two together. So I don't know what that falls under, Linda...I found it suddenly, but then realized that it was my favorite thing.

[Laz]

I started with Heinlein (Stranger, Friday, etc) back when they were first published, and then the off-center books by Piers Anthony (Adept, Tyrant, etc). McCaffery's Freedom series came much later. Throw in some sexy women cavorting with John Carter and The Stainless Steel Rat. Do we count Vor? Probably not. Kris Longknife doesn't get laid for at least 10 books. Is Honor still a virgin? (I don't read that series).

Susan Grant for soft-core scifi, and then numerous others going all the way. Some good, some not.

Shout-out to EG for fascinating world-building and a whole new approach to contractual arrangements.

[Carolyn]

Sela wrote: "I think I must have stumbled over it back in the 90s. I had read Restoree by Anne McCaffrey, and loved the romance threads in the Pegasus/Tower and Hive books, but I wasn't really a romance reader ..."

I'm like you, Sela. McCaffrey's Restoree was my first SFR, which I read shortly after it was first published. (Yep. I'm old.) I wrote a couple of SF novels before I wrote my first SFR, then began incorporating romance into my novels when I began reading historical romance a couple of decades ago. I want the SF elements in my books to be as strong as the romance, so that if either were removed, the book wouldn't stand up.

[Carolyn]

Cailin wrote: "I started reading sci-fi and fantasy in the seventies. Stopped during my twenties and thirties (baby years). Started reading historical romance and then decided I wanted to write romance. No way co..."

Have you read Bujold's Vorkosigan books? Many of them include a strong central romance as well as thorough SF world building.

[Carolyn]

J.C. wrote: "I started reading romance in high school, right along with my sci fi books, but never thought about blending them together until Babylon 5 and Farscape made it such a central element. "

I love Farscape! (Sorry. I just had to exclaim.)

[Veronica]

My Dad handed me Andre Norton's Catseye when I was a kid and after that I read through his entire scifi library of classics and kept going. I just always thought everything needed more romance! Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders and her Restoree were probably my first two 'SFR' reads...at least they HAD romance.

[Catherine]

I've always loved sci-fi and romance, but like a lot of others here, it didn't even occur to me that they could go together until I read The Dragonriders of Pern series as a teenager. That was pretty mild compared to what's available out there now and I'm so glad the genre is expanding.

[Carolyn F.]

Carolyn wrote: "Have you read Bujold's Vorkosigan books? Many of them include a strong central romance as well as thorough SF world building. reply | flag *


Love that series!

[Kristi]

Linda wrote: "I'm curious about how readers get started in SFR? Did you stumble onto the genre like I did, or was it a natural progression for you?"

It was a natural progression for me. I started off in SF/F with Tolkien, McCaffrey, Norton and then voraciously read every book in the school library with a rocket sticker on the spine. I think my first true SFR was Johanna Lindsey's Warrior Woman. After that, I was hooked!

[KJ]

Like so many others have said, I've been a voracious SF/F reader all of my life! Tolkien, CS Lewis, Andre Norton and Anne McCaffrey were major authors for me, but also Asimov, Bradbury, Simak, Heinlein, and more than I can really list! I also read a lot of historical romances and an occasional romantic suspense, an occasional paranormal romance, but it never occurred to me to consider SFR combined, much less as a genre/subgenre. But then I stumbled upon Star King by Susan Grant and suddenly realized that there is a whole universe of SFR. It's now the vast majority of what I read.

[L J]

I read SF before I read romance. I started reading SF in elementary school and guess SFR is just something I've pretty much always read even when it wasn't termed SFR.
Paperback of A Tale of Two Clocks by James H. Schmitz came out in 1965. A couple of Philip E. High books came out in the mid '60s. I would consider these SFR. These are the first I can put a date to but not the first I read since I'd been reading SF for years at that point.
I also remember reading Restoree.
When I read romance it tends to be SFR, PNR or romantic suspense. It's usually a plus for me if suspense is part of the SFR or PNR and another plus if there is some humor. I occasionally read romantic comedy but those tend to be ones with holiday theme. I've run across some fun Christmas stories, including SFR, I really liked that started me on authors and series.
When I was 13 my father wanted me to read girl books not SF which he considered boy books so I started reading romance. The rule went away in a few months when I had to read SF for school but it started me reading romance. Besides it gave me time to catch up on my mystery reading. He couldn't say anything against that because it was Mother's favorite genre.