Sci-fi romance is the genre for our time

Welcome Lyndi’s Adventurous Friend JL Peridot!

When I tell people I write sci-fi romance, they mostly look at me confused. I’ve often wondered if it may have something to do with science fiction sometimes being thought of as a “boys’ genre”, where romance is a “girls’ genre”. These labels would be wildly inaccurate, of course, but stereotypes are stereotypes and they take a long time to change.

But I love a good love story in a sci-fi setting. For example, the simmering tension between Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki) and Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane) in The Orville. That maybe-but-not-quite second chance romance opportunity adds a spicy and relatable flavour to the challenges faced when exploring the boundaries of technology and humanity.

The tragically satisfying love story in James S.A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes, between Detective Miller and Julie Mao, comes to mind as well. It’s odd, sure, and not the usual romance by any stretch (whether you’d call it a “happily ever after” is questionable). But by the end of the book, I found it powerful enough to rival some of the best love stories I’ve ever read. Here we are in this otherworldly place in a time and universe we can’t quite fathom, and yet this universal, eternal experience of love still binds us to each other and makes us who we are.

Sometimes they ask, why sci-fi? If it’s a human story you’re telling, why is it necessary to put it in a science fiction world? But to me, that’s like asking why anyone should tell a story at all.

Science fiction stories are our stories. Phase-shifted, perhaps, and detailed a bit differently, but ours nonetheless. The modern world is full of technology and it’s changing all the time. To deny that we’re already living and falling in love within a sci-fi universe (of sorts) is to take for granted the journey mankind has been on since the dawn of time.

Whether in space, on a distant planet, or aboard an incomprehensibly decked-out spaceship, sci-fi love stories are my favourite way to explore our humanity within the context of a mysterious and evolving world.

About JL Peridot

JL Peridot writes futuristic love stories and more from a tiny apartment in present-day Western Australia. Her 2017 debut novel, Chasing Sisyphus, is an action-adventure romantic suspense about a bounty hunter with a heart and the cop who stole it from her.

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Thank you, Lyndi, for having me on your blog! ❤️

Chasing Sisyphus by JL Peridot

Bounty hunter Adria Yuan is hot on the trail of her final hit: a notorious hacker wanted by the city’s elite. With the reward, she can pay for her brother’s surgery and finally get out of Basilica City. Trouble is, her line of work’s not exactly legal, and she’s barely staying ahead of the cops who want her target, too.

Detective Rhys Carver may be a little unorthodox, but he’s a good cop. Born and bred in Basilica, he does his part to keep his city clean. As clean as it gets, at least. And with Adria suddenly in his sights, it’s going to take more than falling in love for him to let her go.

As the pair close in on their mark, they are unwittingly drawn into a high profile conspiracy that could thrust the whole of Basilica into chaos. Can Adria and Rhys set aside their differences, and their desires, to save the only home they know?

Check out Chasing Sisyphus, book one of the Basilica Conspiracy series.