[Warning:
epic post ahead! This might be the longest one I've ever written. Also, an
alert for mild story spoilers regarding THE LAST HOUR OF GANN. And if general
mentions of rape/torture/sexual peril is a trigger for you, you may want to
avoid this post.]
At the All About Romance blog, Wendy Clyde and
Dabney Grinnan discussed
their impressions of R. Lee Smith's
THE
LAST HOUR OF GANN. This book, which has been tagged as
sci-fi romance, "grimdark" romance, and erotic horror, features a
heroine who crash lands on an alien planet and encounters the hero, an alien in
the form of a humanoid lizard.
Here's the blurb:
It was her last chance:
Amber Bierce had nothing left except her sister and two tickets on Earth’s first colony-ship. She entered her Sleeper with a five-year contract and the promise of a better life, but awakened in wreckage on an unknown world. For the survivors, there is no rescue, no way home and no hope until they are found by Meoraq—a holy warrior more deadly than any hungering beast on this hostile new world…but whose eyes show a different sort of hunger when he looks at her.
It was his last year of freedom:
Uyane Meoraq is a Sword of Sheul, God’s own instrument of judgment, victor of hundreds of trials, with a conqueror’s rights over all men. Or at least he was until his father’s death. Now, without divine intervention, he will be forced to assume stewardship over House Uyane and lose the life he has always known. At the legendary temple of Xi’Matezh, Meoraq hopes to find the deliverance he seeks, but the humans he encounters on his pilgrimage may prove too great a test even for him…especially the one called Amber, behind whose monstrous appearance burns a woman’s heart unlike any he has ever known.
To qualify, I've not read Gann (reports that the
heroine and other women in the story lack agency stopped me cold), but based on
my reading of many reviews, posts, and tweets about it, I learned that the
story is epic length--about three books bundled into one--and features dark
themes such as rape.
The hero is a warrior priest whose culture condones
the sexual subjugation of women. The hero is shown as an active participant in
the sexual subjugation. During the course of the story, the heroine is sexually
tortured with rape by aliens other than the hero. My understanding is that the
sexual peril/rape aspect is a prominent theme. Every review or
discussion of the book I've seen refers to this element.
Related post: Heroines
in Sexual Jeopardy
During a routine jaunt around the romance/SF
blogospheres, I found the AAR post. One passage in particular jumped out at me:
Wendy: This book was certainly different from any of the other romances I’ve read. Inter-species love has been explored before, of course, but never so successfully and somehow realistically, in my opinion.
I'd like to unpack her observation a bit.
My initial reaction was frustration upon
encountering the idea that a sci-fi romance (for those who consider it SFR)
featuring inter-species love has never been explored "so
successfully."
I began to wonder what she means by
"success." Number of sales? Amount of Twitter/blogosphere buzz? Is
this the only inter-species SFR that's any good? Is a lizard man hero more
compelling than the human-like aliens that dominate this genre? Or does she
believe the book's high level of dark, sexual peril content translates to a more
successful sci-fi romance?
If one removes the sexual peril element, plenty of
SFR books have covered the same ground as THE LAST HOUR OF GANN. Alien planets.
Alien heroes. Survival elements. Characters who belong to a religious culture.
Love against the odds. Taming the hero. Etc.
Based on the tags I've seen readers use to describe
Gann, I can only conclude that what Gann has done differently has been to
employ "extreme romance" elements, particularly in the form of sexual
peril, and to package it in a much longer book. Still, that's a significant
break from the genre in general, at least in my reading experience.
Is there a reason other authors of SFR haven't attempted a
similar type of story when it can clearly command so much attention from
readers? That's the $64,000 dollar question.
Now, if one were to judge success in terms of online
buzz, I agree that Gann certainly got readers talking. Readers
are sharing how they've convinced other readers to check this book out.
Some
are willing to take the risk despite ew, reptilian hero.
Readalongs
are springing up. Readers new to the genre are taking notice.
Ones like Roni Loren, who normally
don't give SFR the time of day, are willing to take a risk on it:
One of the things I love about being linked into the reading/reviewing/writing community is that I get book recommendations that lead me to stories I never would've picked up on my own. So last week, when I was pouting about having two DNF books in a row, I was on the look out for something good. That's when I saw buzz around Twitter about a book called The Last Hour of Gann by R. Lee Smith. And when I saw reviewers like Jane at Dear Author and Mandi at Smexy Books raving about it, I paid attention.
But I looked at the summary and I'm thinking--meh, I don't really read adult sci-fi. And I'm not really into books where characters have those crazy, hard to pronounce names. And wait--the hero is a lizard man? And it's something like 1500 pages long?! It's like the opposite of what I gravitate to, lol. But the reviews were so effusive and those reviewers don't hand out praise easily. So I decided to give it a shot.
However, the success Wendy seems to be alluding to strikes me as an observation that Gann is an inter-species romance that's inherently more compelling than the books that came before.
The "never so successfully" makes me
wonder to what extent folks believe THE WALKING DEAD television show is more
successful than all the other zombie movies/books/comics that came before it. TWD
certainly helped move zombie stories squarely into the mainstream and has accomplished some innovative storytelling feats.
But can it
claim overall success based on story merit alone? After all, the comic book existed
for years prior to the show airing. When I scored an autographed copy if issue #1 from co-creator Tony Moore at the San Diego Comic-Con circa 2004, there wasn't a crowd of people at the booth.
I'd argue that TWD is so successful precisely because of all the other zombie stories
that came before it. Audiences were primed--probably sometimes without even
realizing it--to enjoy the show because other artists--in film, comics, and
books--kept persevering and experimenting with ways to tell a zombie story.
Plus, technology can open up new markets and storytelling freedom, so timing is a factor as well.
I, personally, can never evaluate the success of
something like THE WALKING DEAD without taking into account previous cultural
influences and progenitors. In other words, would readers have been inclined to
read THE LAST HOUR OF GANN without any
other inter-species/alien hero SFR having already existed? (Just the fact that
I've seen Gann classified as "sci-fi romance" and not
"futuristic romance" tells me how much the label alone is ingrained
in romance readers these days.)
But let's put aside other influences for the moment. It's
possible that readers are picking up on the extreme romance elements of Gann,
meaning that those elements are the attention-grabbing elements more so than
the science fiction romance ones. Maybe THE LAST HOUR OF GANN is simply another
example of a successful "extreme romance" and it just happens to have
a science fictional setting. In that sense, whatever came before in terms of
non-extreme SFR may be inconsequential.
Moving on to another issue: I'm not sure what to
make of the idea that Gann is perceived as more "realistic" than
other inter-species sci-fi romances. For example, how is Meoraq's romance with
Amber in THE LAST HOUR OF GANN more realistic than the one between Genevieve
and Duin, the cetacean-based alien hero of J.L. Hilton's STELLARNET REBEL?
I thought the romance in Rebel was realistically portrayed in terms of
attention to detail in the alien physiology and worldbuilding. Am I missing
something?
 |
| Reptile from Mortal Kombat needs his own SFR--stat! |
Since we're on the topic of truly alien heroes
(meaning ones who aren't packaged as human), I'd like to revisit a post I wrote
in 2009 called Bug-Eyed
Monsters In Love. In that post, I expressed an interest
in SFRs featuring a truly alien hero:
Yes, you read that right—I want to read an SFR featuring a romance either between two B.E.M.’s or between a B.E.M. and a human. What the hey-ho, let’s order ‘em both up! I think a story like that could be quite compelling. Although it’s easy for me to express my interest in such a tale, I can definitely imagine how difficult it would be to pull off that kind of feat.
Well, given the
existence of THE LAST HOUR OF GANN, perhaps that feat isn't so difficult after
all. Yet there was quite a bit of pushback about my proposal in the comment
section. No hard feelings here--just pointing out the general resistance
readers and authors have had toward the idea of inter-species romance.
We also discussed the need for aliens to be humanoid, or of human descent, because of course, in my opinion, if you’ve got alien lovin’ in your romance, the aliens need to be relatable and boinkable. Possibly the boink factor is more important, because if your alien is a hot mess of tentacles and eats cat poop for breakfast, you’re going to have a harder time selling the hot sex, never mind the relationship. Tentacle porn has its place, but it’s going to take a more skillful writer than me to sell a love story between a human and an alien from Galaxy Quest.
Given the buzz around THE LAST HOUR OF GANN's reptilian hero, is "relatable" still the case? Seems like he
goes against the grain. Makes me wonder what changed about reader perception
(other than a reviewer
with immense influence discovering a sci-fi romance that's up her alley. :) ) Or is Meoraq
just an outlier, a statistical anomaly?
Related post: Zoomorphism
In Science Fiction--In Or Out?
Here's what a commenter had to say about the issue
while sharing her initial impressions about THE LAST HOUR OF GANN in response
to the AAR post:
It’s so rich and detailed. And it’s slow and epic – I love that Lee doesn’t feel like she has to rush right into the hard action but is willing to take the time to build up some backstory and character development. These days you just don’t get stories that feel they can be leisurely in the storytelling.
It's funny, because I've seen SFRs criticized for
that very reason. Some are considered too "slow" because authors go
the "rich and detailed" route. Readers reportedly don't want
worldbuilding to interfere with the romance plot. Authors are strongly cautioned
against featuring too much setting details and character development before the
hero and heroine meet.
What's an author to do? Seems like they can't win. Contradictory
messages are coming from all over the place. Write an SFR to romance market
expectations and it's not going to be successful because it doesn't take enough
risks. But if authors take time to introduce the characters and build the
world, the story is deemed too slow--and it's not going to be successful.
There are no easy answers, but you know what? I've
said it before and I'll say it again: Authors, forget the market. Forget
readers, editors, and publishers when you're in create mode. Write the stories *you* want. If we readers can't even agree about
what we want, then you ought to write what excites you the most. If you're not
entertained by what you write, then readers may not be, either.
In my post about alien
heroes in general, I wondered why they weren't more
popular (meaning having appeal beyond the core SFR audience). The discussion
section of the post covered non-humanoid alien heroes as well. Author J.L. Hilton stated the following:
You may be right, Heather, about aliens still having the stigma of being insects, invaders or monsters. Devils have been seducing women for centuries. Aliens, not so much. They are seen as Other, rather than symbolic of our own dark desires.
If Meoraq, a humanoid with distinct reptilian
features, isn't a character who's "symbolic of our own dark desires,"
I don't know who is. Is THE LAST HOUR OF GANN a turning point in this regard?
Are readers now more receptive to truly alien heroes?
I commented:
That's why I've been wondering if they need a reboot of some kind. They've [alien heroes] been safe enough to be a sure bet for publishers, but not enough of a risk to expand the reach of SFR.
If a site like AAR, which rarely reviews SFR, took a
chance on THE LAST HOUR OF GANN, is it a sign of increased reader readiness for
more risk-taking inter-species romances?
In the same post, Melisse Aires pointed out that "Basically, the
alien needs to be sexy."
Did it take his extreme virility (i.e., his religion
allowing him to have multiple sexual partners) to prove that a truly alien hero
is worth reading about?
Or will the book have limited influence given the
"extreme romance" fantasy being offered? In other words, unless an
alien hero is one with unlimited access to women for sex, will the stories hold
similar appeal? Some folks have wondered if Gann is merely classic
romance tropes dressed in new clothing, for example:
Still, if THE LAST HOUR OF GANN has wetted the
appetites of at least some readers for science fiction romance, then I'd like
to offer a few recommendations--but with some caveats.
* SFR has stories featuring inter-species romance,
but not many with B.E.M. style alien heroes in my reading experience. I'm offering a short list because a)
these are the only ones I've encountered so far and b) I suspect the actual
number is fairly limited anyway. I'm excluding books about heroes with unusual
appendages or other features because in those books they pretty much come
across as human.
* Except for the first book on the following list
(which is the start of a series), none of the stories have the epic reach of
THE LAST HOUR OF GANN.
* These books also lack a focus on sexual peril. In
fact, they don't have any at all IIRC.
STELLARNET REBEL - J.L. Hilton
ON WINGS, RISING - Ann Somerville
CLAIMINGS, TAILS, AND OTHER ALIEN ARTIFACTS - Lyn
Gala
KEIR - Pippa Jay
ENDLESS BLUE (romantic SF) - Wen Spencer
I haven't read Morgan Harcourt's SITUATION NORMAL,
but word on the street is it falls into lizard hero territory.
Perhaps my passengers know of other titles?
One title of note I'd like to mention: HARD REBOOT
by Darren Bloomquist and Angelia Sparrow has a human hero, but has a heroine in extreme sexual
peril/exploitation and features "grimdark" themes. This is a story
for readers who can embrace the graphic, disturbing content without the
distancing effect of a zoomorphic hero. (I tagged the book here.)
Related post: Science
Fiction Romances With "Alien" In The Title
I'd also like to present a list of science fiction
romances for readers who aren't interested in THE LAST HOUR OF GANN, but want
to give SFR a try. This is a list of random titles, but I endeavored to provide
a variety of settings, characters, tropes, heat levels, etc. There are few if
any triggers such as rape/sexual peril in the following books.
RECKLESS RESCUE - Rinelle Grey
REFUGEES ON URLOON - Melisse Aires
UNMASKED - C.J. Barry
FULL STEAM AHEAD - Nathalie Gray
THE OUTBACK STARS - Sandra McDonald
GAMES OF COMMAND - Linnea Sinclair
GHOST IN THE MACHINE - Barbara J. Hancock
TASTE OF PASSION - Renae Jones
SYNTHETIC DREAMS - Kim Knox
FORTUNE'S HERO - Jenna Bennett
RAGNAR & JULIET - Lucy Woodhull
THE SPIRAL PATH - Lisa Paitz Spindler
HUNTING KAT - P.J. Schnyder
WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM - Veronica Scott
Related post: Discover
New Sci-Fi Romances With "If You Like…"
What do you think about the current state of inter-species romance in SFR? Would you like to read books that take more risks with alien heroes? What about inter-species sci-fi romances with alien heroines? If extreme erotic/sexual content isn't for you, what kind of inter-species romance story elements would you find appealing?
Joyfully yours,
Heather