This is a continuation of the Science Fiction / Fantasy Genre Glossary Project posts! Wow that's a mouthful. For the complete genre index click here.
Solar System by KeepWalking07
What is Planetary Romance?
A subgenre of science fiction that focuses on adventures on an alien planet. The novels are not primarily concerned with travel through space, but with what happens on the planet. This subgenre has roots in pulp adventure novels.
Literary Examples:
- The Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey
- The Big Planet duo by Jack Vance
- Darkover by Marion Zimmer Bradley
This genre was a bit of a surprise. My first idea was that it would be 'romance in space', but the subgenre is actually concerned with the romance of the alien world, rather than the steamy affairs of the heart.
Interesting. Your explanation makes sense, but I would be hesitant to describe my novel that way. Most readers would think romance of the heart, instead of the planet.
I think I would be too.
That's because of the history of the word "romance", I think. Originally, the word "romance" meant any writing in one of the "romance" languages - those languages that are derived from the language of the Romans, i.e. Latin, those being French, Spanish, Italian, etc. From there, it came to refer to large written works (and, in fact, the word for "novel" in many of the Romance languages is, in fact, something akin to "roman").
It wasn't until later that the word gained the connotation, specifically, of a love story, but the older usage is still prevalent in a few phrases like this.
You're right. The term romance has not always been used in the context it is commonly used for today. I love the little quirks of language like these! Digging into the etymology of words is fascinating!
Great project you've got there! I'll make sure to check up older and newer posts. :)
Complementing Stephen's comment, in most Latin based languages, the word "romance" is still used in its older meaning, i.e. as a novel and not a love story. Very interesting info on the origin of the word. Thanks for that!
You're welcome!
Great discussion here-both the post and comments! Got my daily dose of etymology and new word :)
And it IS surprising, the real meaning behind the genre. I'd have the same initial idea as yours!
-BrownEyed
I didn't even stop to think about the connotations of the word romance. I thought this one would be easy to define, but I was mistaken :)
Interesting. I feel like sci-fi isn't my area of reader/writership but this could be an exception because of the non-inter-planetary stuff.
You know, I was surprised to find that I've read books in this genre that I considered fantasy rather than sci-fi because the science and mechanical elements were so slight.
"This is the first of the Science Fiction / Fantasy Glossary posts". Is this a re-run of an older post? Just curious, I looked at the master glossary, but this isn't linked in there yet. Just curious.
Another one to possibly add to this list is: Robert Silverberg's Majipoor series.
Oh you caught a typo that I fixed just now. I grabbed the first liner from an old post. I shall have to update the master index. Thanks for the reminder, and the suggestion!
I'd thought it was going to be a genre about romance between planets! Got a great mental image of two star-crossed planets, cursed never to meet due to their strong gravitational fields.
You know, that sounds an awful lot like a bit of flash fiction I posted around these here parts... LOL
Ha it is indeed! The last comment on that post is me btw before I switched to my writing pseudonym.