I'm probably an anomaly, but I'm a 55 year old woman who likes the SciFi/Fantasy genre, but is tired of children as main characters and no physical relationships between the characters.

I've read the Thomas Covenant series, Fire and Ice series as well as some of Terry Goodkind

It seems like there's a huge gap between innocent relationships where there is no sex and harsh sex that has no romance in it or is brutal. There must be some scifi series with fully realized relationships in it...

Any suggestions?

Do you read Anne McCaffrey's books? Not just Pern, but her other books, too. Crystal Singer, for example. There's not a huge amount of sex in her books, but at least it's "nice" sex.

Guy Kay's fantasies tend to have some discreet sex.

I second the Anne McCaffrey suggestion. Although, I haven't read anything outside of Pern, I've heard good things about her other series.

You could try the Quantum Gravity series by Justina Robson. The main character is a sorta gov't cyborg. Gaps between realms are opening (fairy, demon, etc) and she's caught in the middle.

You might also try the Night Angel Trilogy, the first being The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. It's more fantasy, with magic assassins in a pre-modern world (Kings, mages, etc). The main character starts as a child in the first book and stays relatively innocent for most of it, however, he is surrounded by people that are anything but naive/innocent. Through the trilogy relationships get *complicated* but stay realistic, no one is innocent just because, same with brutality (there's one, but he's an evil evil man that kills for fun, but he isn't the main focus).

What an interesting question! It's odd that they tend to gravitate to one of those two poles, and that there isn't more of the type you mention.

Ones that come to mind that you might like: Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Liaden series has a good bit of romance, although any sex is pretty discrete as I recall. Pilot's Choice is a good place to start.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series has its romantic and sexual moments, including interspecies sex. A good place to start is The Warrior's Apprentice. Miles' epic and at times hilarious romance with Ekaterin begins in Komarr.

Ursula LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness features the very different sexuality of an alien species.

Hope that's helpful.

If you don't mind same-sex or inter-species romantic/sexual elements, The Merro Tree might be of interest to you.

Linnea Sinclair writes sci-fi with strong romantic themes. I really enjoyed Gabriel's Ghost and wouldn't hesitate to suggest it. I have another novel by her in my tbr pile.

Child of a Rainless Year by Jane Lindskold

I'm trying to think of things to recommend to you, but I too am having trouble! I'm settling for things with very nice romances in them, but not necessarily sex:

The Blue Sword - although YA, still one of my favorite fantasy books and favorite romances ever.
The Rowan - A second for the McCaffrey suggestion. I read these rather young, so I'm not sure how true the 'lots of sex' that I remember actually is, but I do know that most her series - this and Crystal Singer especially - have very strong romance threads.
Lions of al-Rassan - A less traditional fantasy (more of a very AU history feel), but there are lots of politics and love stories. I don't know whether Kay's others have the same or no.

Although I love Bujold and think you would probably love her, most of her books don't have a strong love-story theme. But you should read them anyway!

The Sharing Knife series by Bujold fits your requirements quite well, I think.

edited for typo

Message edited by its author, Nov 11, 2009, 5:03pm.

>11 I agree with you about The Sharing Knife, suitable1. I think A Civil Campaign is her funniest book, but it would be more accessable if you knew the series.

I'd recommend Robin McKinley's Sunshine and Tanya Huff's Blood series and the sequels, the Smoke trilogy.

I am fond of The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes.

I also love the sexual tension and relationships in Garden Spells

Ursula le Guin's The Dispossessed includes a little sex here and there, definitely "grown-up" but loving and neither brutal nor sensationalist. It couldn't be described as a love story, though.

The Time Traveller's Wife is very tender, but probably not really sci-fi.

Otherwise, yes, I go along with Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels. (Always fancied F'nor, myself. And, boy, did I long for a dragon of my own!)

15 JoannaON

I realize that that book is often considered either "literary" or "romance" (depending on who you ask) but when the main character is bouncing around in time and space, it is definitely science fiction :)

Message edited by its author, Nov 11, 2009, 6:58pm.

I second Linnea Sinclair and Lois McMaster Bujold. I'd also recommend Catherine Asaro and Maria V. Snyder.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond to this. Lots of good suggestions here I will add to my tbr list. Someone on another Site suggested that in the fantasy/scifi genre, female authors tend to put a little more effort into developing relationships. Your suggestions seem to support that idea.

Hmm, not so sure Janly's last point isn't rather wider than just Fantasy/Sci-Fi. This is instant reaction upon reading the last post and thinking for all of 60 seconds, so I'm probably going to be flattened by hundreds of examples of male authors getting it right, but at this moment I can't think of one.

I once started reading a book which looked very promising (general plot-wise, I mean) until the female point-of-view character checked her appearance in a full-length mirror before leaving the house and "ran my (her) hands sensuously down my body". I think he added "feeling the curves" or something similar.

Anyone here EVER run your hands sensuously over your body in front of a mirror on the way out to work? I stopped reading there!

For fantasy/sci-fi with a touch of romance:
The gate of Ivory by Doris Egan
grasp the Stars by Jennifer Wingert
wheel of the infinite by martha wells

For more serious sci-fi with adult relationships:
Catspaw by Joan D. Vinge
Rimrunners by C.J.Cherryh
The garden of Iden by Kage Baker

For raunchy guilty pleasure stuff with a sci-fi gloss there's Linnea Sinclair and Jayne Ann Krentz (aka Jayne Castle). Their output varies in quality but two good ones are: White Lies and Down home zombie blues.

The title alone is enough to put that last on my TBR list.

Charles de Lint write great urban fantasy with adult relationships - no sex as such, but very nice romances. I recommend Moonheart, Forests of the heart, Someplace to be flying.
Everything by Martha Wells is good, The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy has a very wellwritten romantic development (again, no graphic sex). Wheel of the infinite is another favorite.
The madness season and In conquest born by C. S. Friedman has some very strange relationships, but well worth reading.
Other than that I'd recommend:
Wen Spencer - A brothers price, the Ukiah Oregon series, Tinker
Patricia Briggs - Mercy Thompson, The Hob's Bargain, the Hurog duology
Eileen Wilks - World of the Lupi series

I highly recommend Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder and its sequels. It's about adults, it's exciting, and it's romantic. There are one or two sex scenes in each one as I recall, where they made sense in the plot.

You might also find something of interest in this thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/70347

Gwyneth Jones's Bold As Love (and sequels). Features a strong unconventional relationship between three people. Obviously Arthurian influenced, but is set in the near future. Basically our heroes are rock stars who get recruited for a government Countercultural think tank. It is the year of dissolution, as the United Kingdom breaks up into separate nations. The think tank is almost wiped out at its birth, in a bloody political coup. Our heroes emerges to lead the English people. It is very much a novel about the nature of Englishness and also has music at its core. One of the characters does have an abusive father (and the effects of that are seen in the book) however the relationships between the three main characters are very strong and non-abusive/brutal (and develops over the five books of the series).

You may want to try Alien Sex: 19 Tales by the Masters of Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy. It's a collection of short stories edited by Ellen Datlow. She's edited several other collections of a similar type. I seem to recall one particular story about a satyr getting by in modern society that I still think about years after having read it. ;-)

Many of Philip José Farmer's novels and short stories weren't shy of sex, although i can't guarantee well-formed relationships or "getting it right" from a female perspective. The Lovers might be of interest, however.

humph, touchstone no worky. Here it is:
http://www.librarything.com/work/398763

# I seem to remember that Poison study had quite a lot of sexual violence in it.

And on second thoughts, I'd probably remove Rimrunners from my list, as its a bit bleak. With CJ Cherryh the sex is usually more political than recreational.

I'll substitute instead two military sci-fi books with more humour and a fair amount of bunk-hopping:
The Myriad: Tour of the Merrimack by R.m. Meluch
The better part of Valor by Tanya Huff

I didn't think there was sexual violence in Poison Study though this theme is noticeable in Storm Glass by the same author.

Of course... I felt that Poison Study was enjoyable because it *didn't* have gratuitous sex (it's kinda romancy - flowery, not outright sexual) but yet was still adult (as opposed to teenager-y).

Probably a completely different field, but I've been reading the Sookie Stackhouse books and it definitely has scenes that are a bit more on the "sex" side while still incorporating romance (adult but not pornographic).

And I have to put a plug in for Archangel (the whole series) which are fantasy romance with adult characters, though no sex to speak of.

Thanks for posing this question, Janly. It's playing havoc with my TBR list, but who cares?

I recommend a blog, the Galaxy Express, which specializes in sci fi romance for reviews and news.

http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net/

The Roads of Heaven trilogy by Melissa Scott, also released as
*Five-Twelfths of Heaven
*Silence in Solitude
*Empress of Earth

I'm not as fond of them myself, but I know people who swear by Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry.
http://www.librarything.com/series/Fiona...
The Summer Tree
The Wandering Fire
The Darkest Road

Also Mercedes Lackey in general, particularly Sacred Ground, If I Pay Thee Not in Gold and her Elementals series.
http://www.librarything.com/series/The Elemental+Masters Series
*The Fire Rose

Gail Dayton's Rose series
http://www.librarything.com/series/The+O...
*The Compass Rose

Robin McKinley
*The Hero and the Crown
*The Blue Sword

Message edited by its author, Nov 13, 2009, 3:04pm.

Poison Study has sexual violence in the backstory, but not in the romance.