If the whole romance genre was Jane Austen, the world would be a much better place. I think romance as a whole suffers because, more than any other genre aimed at adults, the worst of it is churned off a production line according to standardized plots and rules.
Ignoring for a bit our differences about Jane Austen: the key phrase here is "the worst of it."
And the best of the romance genre, like the "best" of SF and the "best" of mystery, isn't marketed as genre. The thing is, there are good and bad authors within any genre, and there are genre conventions that are what a reader of, say, mystery, expects when he picks up a mystery novel.
For romance, I personally recommend Jennifer Cruise. I suspect Lucy March will be worth watching when her next book comes out. Nora Roberts does a VERY good job of showing how much play there is in a formula. At least Cruise and Roberts are currently shelves in lit-fic rather than in romance.
Tessa Dare and Eloisa James have both written some nice smart snappy books that *are* marketed as romance - they aren't the next great american novel, but they're fun and well written, and yes, written to a formula.
If the whole romance genre would be in=mproved by being Jane Austen, would the whole SF genre be improved by being Huxley? Spenser?
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Date: 2010-11-08 05:31 pm (UTC)Ignoring for a bit our differences about Jane Austen: the key phrase here is "the worst of it."
And the best of the romance genre, like the "best" of SF and the "best" of mystery, isn't marketed as genre. The thing is, there are good and bad authors within any genre, and there are genre conventions that are what a reader of, say, mystery, expects when he picks up a mystery novel.
For romance, I personally recommend Jennifer Cruise. I suspect Lucy March will be worth watching when her next book comes out. Nora Roberts does a VERY good job of showing how much play there is in a formula. At least Cruise and Roberts are currently shelves in lit-fic rather than in romance.
Tessa Dare and Eloisa James have both written some nice smart snappy books that *are* marketed as romance - they aren't the next great american novel, but they're fun and well written, and yes, written to a formula.
If the whole romance genre would be in=mproved by being Jane Austen, would the whole SF genre be improved by being Huxley? Spenser?