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*GASP!* Romance In Sci-Fi??

I’m addicted to the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books blog (honestly, I think there needs to be a support group). I religiously devour every post every day and – on the odd occasion – actually muster up the courage to pull myself out of lurkdom and comment (I am, by nature, quite a shy person. S’true.) Anyways, one of their more recent posts investigated and responded to the ludicrous statement made by one disgruntled male that science fiction has been ruined by female intrusion of the worst kind – romance.

Romance in sci-fi?? Golly, gee! No! What an atrocity! What will happen next? Boys and girls going to the same school?

I won’t go into the ludicrous article the Smart Bitches responded to, cause honestly, it is just so infuriatingly sad and lame, but the Bitches’ article got me thinking about some of my favourite sci-fi heroines and how they totally got their man in an out-of-this-world romance while being completely kick-arse at the same time (and really, why the hell shouldn’t there be romance in sci-fi? Who decided that science fiction was a romance-free zone? Point me in his direction – because I’m sure it must be a man – and I will thump him for all us sci-fi geeks who love to see the girl get the boy)

BEWARE OF SPOILERS AHEAD

My Top Five sci-fi heroines who found lurve in space (or the future, in some cases) are:

Princess Leia (Star Wars Episodes 4, 5 and 6) – She kicked Jabba the Hutt’s flabby butt, swings through the air with two danishes strapped to the side of her head, looked totally hot in a slave girl’s outfit, repeatedly rejects the ultimate space pirate, Han Solo, rescues – yes, rescues! – said space pirate from an eternity of carbonite and gets to do the HEA with Solo after saving all things good from the vile Emperor.

Leeloo (The Fifth Element) – She is the perfect specimen of the sci-fi heroine. She’s not human, but human love undoes her – and gives her the strength to defeat the ultimate evil and save all of mankind. And then she gets to snog Bruce Willis in a sun-bed on steroids.

Lady Jessica (Dune) – She fell in love with a man she wasn’t meant to, defied every one and stayed with him, and gave birth to a son who changed everything. All the while, still refusing to bow to anyone’s demands or expectations. What’s not to admire?

Trinity (The Matrix) – She wears latex like other women wear denim, she kills evil machines and cyber agents without breaking a sweat, she doesn’t take sh*t from anyone, she fights her own heart for the good of the human race and her love for Neo is so strong, it brings him back to life so he can go on and save mankind (and do his Superman in black impersonation)

Susannah Dean (The Dark Tower series) – this heroine is so complex I don’t even know where to begin with her. She suffers from duel personalities, fights both of them to become just one person, spends the entire series in a wheel chair, can shoot rings around her boyfriend, allows an incubus to rape her to save the men in her life, falls pregnant, kills a lot of bad guys (and a notable bad girl) and finally earns her HEA with the man she’s loved for the entire series.

Without any of these heroines and their romances, the driving force of all the above plots would not exist. As the science fiction world is learning, love DOES make the WORLDS go round.

Anyone else have any particular favourite sci-fi heroines?

Lexxie Couper is a proud sci-fi geek who has attended more than one Star Trek convention. She stopped sleeping for a week to read The Wheel of Time series and once wanted to grow up to be a hobbit. Her sci-fi/fantasy erotic romance, The Sun Sword is available on the 17th November.