Comments on: Erotic Fantasy/Sci-Fi Novels?

Question: Erotic Fantasy/Sci-Fi Novels?

alms — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 21:33:48 -0800

I'm looking for high quality erotic fantasy/sci-fi novels. Any recommendations?

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 21:37:54 -0800

NOT PIERS ANTHONY. Others might recommend Piers Anthony because he has explicit sex scenes, but... damn. There's just too much basically-undisguised pedophilic fantasizing there for it to be erotic.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:17:51 -0800

Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels might be worth a look; I haven't read them but the mix of erotic S&M, vampires and such has gotten high praise from smart acquaintances.

A bit more info would be helpful, along with a few pointers to the kind(s) of fantasy/sci-fi you like. Also: gay, bi or straight? Print or online?

By: brujita

brujita — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:22:40 -0800

Emma Holly's work was recommended in Bitch a while ago. She's written several vampire books. Do you mind looking in the romance section?

By: speicus

speicus — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:35:45 -0800

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany has a lot of sex scenes in it. But most of the book is more scary than sexy.

By: Captain_Tenille

Captain_Tenille — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:48:43 -0800

I'm not quite sure it's quality, but John Norman's Gor books are fun reads. Nomads of Gor, book #4, is my favorite, but there's 26 to choose from.

Note, however, that in the later books, the indeterminable lectures can get sort of old. I advise skipping over them.

By: Methylviolet

Methylviolet — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:56:46 -0800

Swords of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber.
Dungeons and Dragons-style wandering adventurers and the bodacious babes who love them.

Not explicit, but definitely erotic.
I thought so, anyway.

By: agropyron

agropyron — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 23:15:23 -0800

Kushiel's Dart is an erotic fantasy novel with a pretty interesting world, on par with some of Guy Gavriel Kay's stuff. The storyline is stock fantasy, but competently handled. There's a strong BDSM element to the erotic parts.

By: xyzzy

xyzzy — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 23:29:37 -0800

Try Anne Bishop's Black Jewel series.

I personally wouldn't recommend LKH's Anita Blake novels... it's not that they aren't erotic--they are. There's tons and tons of shagging. In later books, there's 300 pages of shagging bookended by 100 pages of plot. But the problem is that all of this shagging is misspelled, grammatically weak, and extremely repetitive.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 23:41:40 -0800

Agrophyron has it: If you're looking for erotic fantasy where the erotica serves the story rather than drives it, you can't beat the Kushiel trilogy by Jacqueline Carey.

Anita Blake has tons of sex, but the story is completely overwhelmed by it in the later books. The books became about the pornography rather than simply containing it. I also cast a disrecommendation for John Norman. One, it isn't "high quality" and two, Norman is a pig who believes that all women secretly desire to be dominated and, essentially, raped. Don't give him any of your money.

In summary: Carey's Kushiel novels are probably what you're looking for.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 23:47:59 -0800

I'm having trouble coming up with good examples of erotic science fiction rather than erotic fantasy or erotic horror. I don't think SF and erotica mesh as well as fantasy or horror and erotica. Tiptree wrote some erotic SF but those stories are to be avoided at all costs. Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

There is plenty of SF with sex in it but not a lot of what I'd consider erotica. Nice question. Can anyone think of any good science fictional erotica rather than fantasy or horror? I can't.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 01:29:20 -0800

John Varley is known for doing a lot of sex scenes, especially of the what-if-you-could variety. In one of his stories, an androgynous future-human has sex with a clone of him/herself.

Later Heinlein -- beginning with Stranger in a Strange Land -- has a lot of sex, although it's more of the dirty-old-man-who-no-longer-cares-what-people-think variety.

Wikipedia has a Sex in sf article, with some potentially helpful links. And Circlet Press has some offerings.

By: phrits

phrits — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 04:14:14 -0800

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, Beauty's Punishment, and Beauty's Release by Anne Rice writing as A. N. Roquelaure. Bondage, S&M, lots of domination, sex games, and tons of good old-fashioned getting it on. More guy-on-guy than I would have liked—particularly in the second book—but otherwise quite a good read, and there's something there for nearly everyone. The story starts with Prince Charming awakening Sleeping Beauty, but it's no Disney production.

By: Ber

Ber — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 06:43:28 -0800

I read about the first ten books of the Anita Blake series and burned out. It became such a "Mary Sue" series. And way, way too much description of every sensual character's clothing and every sensual character's hair.

Try Peter Hamilton if you want hard SF with some sex.

By: ook

ook — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 09:02:21 -0800

It's been too long since I read it to know whether it counts as quality erotica or not, but I remember being startled by some hardcore scenes in Richard Adams' Maia. (Not what I expected from the guy who wrote about the bunny wabbits. which, yeah, I know is about more than bunny wabbits.)

By: deborah

deborah — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 09:48:21 -0800

Thirding the Kushiel series.

By: wsg

wsg — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 10:02:52 -0800

Astra and Flondrix

By: Zed_Lopez

Zed_Lopez — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 10:53:10 -0800

Phil Farmer's The Image of the Beast and The Lovers.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 11:41:53 -0800

As the person who seconded the now-thirded Kushiel trilogy, let me say that while I think it clearly fits your criteria perfectly, the BDSM elements can get extremely intense, particular in the third book. Be aware in case that sort of thing bothers you.

By: PurplePorpoise

PurplePorpoise — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 11:52:59 -0800

Callahan's Lady and The Lady Slings the Booze by Spider Robinson?

Not erotica, per se, but sexy and not exactly sci-fi/fantasy although it's an amalgamation of the two in a contemporary setting.

By: AJaffe

AJaffe — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 13:26:25 -0800

I see from your profile that you're in Massachusetts. So is www.circlet.com. My wife's good friend Cecilia Tan runs it...

By: Katemonkey

Katemonkey — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 14:35:10 -0800

If you're willing to jump to graphic novels, XXXenophile would be good. Based on the few stories I've seen from it, it's smart, funny, and very sexy...

By: alms

alms — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 05:16:10 -0800

Thanks for all the pointers, this is just what I was looking for. I see I have some exploring to do. I got Kushiel's Dart out of the library last night, but my wife grabbed it and has started reading it so maybe I'll move onto Black Jewel.