By Claire Barner
Since the days of Jane Austen, readers have gravitated toward romance novels to find stories that prioritize the emotional journey of the characters, put relationships front and center, and offer a satisfying happy ending. In recent years, romance novels have become more diverse, queer, and body positive, with a welcome emphasis on enthusiastic consent. And we’ve seen romance successfully mash with other genres, most notably fantasy with the rise of mega-popular romantasy books like ‘Fourth Wing’ by Rebecca Yarros.
I believe it’s sci-fi romance’s turn. We’re already starting to see the trend. ‘This Is How You Lose the Time War’ by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone became a viral sensation in 2023. ‘The Ministry of Time’ by Kaliane Bradley was a breakout success in summer 2024. Even ‘Project Hail Mary’ by Andy Weir (soon to be a big budget Ryan Gosling movie) is at its heart a non-romantic love story about two people who find each other in the most desperate of circumstances and form a life-long bond.
As a sci-fi romance writer, I believe both genres have an important role to play and that together they can say something interesting and unique about what it means to be human. My debut novel ‘Moonrising‘ (July 8, 2025, Diversion Books) is a romance set against the backdrop of the first Moon colony in 2073.
Dr. Alex Cole is a prickly American scientist hell-bent on convincing the world to adopt controversial mutagenetic food as the solution to a world ravaged by climate change. She believes data and science are all she needs to persuade other people that mutagenetic food is safe—even in the face of losing funding for her lab due to lack of public support. Then, she meets Mansoor Al Kaabi, a charismatic Emirati businessman who shares her commitment to saving the planet, but approaches getting things done with human connection.
I loved writing the opposites-attract relationship between Alex and Mansoor. Alex is uninterested in love and commitment. She sees sex as fun, not emotional, and will always put her scientific ideas above a man. And Mansoor likes that about her. He enjoys her directness and is attracted to her fierce convictions.
There’s plenty of great romances out there with independent female characters who meet their match in a partner who treats them with respect and supports their goals, like ‘A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke’ by Adriana Herrera. And there’s many sci-fi stories exploring how humanity responds to a crisis, like Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. I think by putting these two genres together, sci-fi romances like ‘Moonrising’ become something special.
Yes, Alex and Mansoor are fighting to save the world from the brutal impact of climate change, but, ultimately, they are fighting for each other.
Sci-fi romance can also be a wonderful space for queer stories. Queer-norm worlds abound in speculative fiction settings, such as in ‘Winter’s Orbit’ by Everina Maxwell. Sci-fi books are often ahead of their time on gender and sexuality. Published in 1999, I read ‘A Civil Campaign’ by Lois McMaster Bujold in high school and remember it being the first time I saw a trans character represented in a book. While Bujold doesn’t shy away from the prejudice Count Dono encounters as he seeks to be accepted as a man in a conservative society, she also gives him a classic romance happily ever after.
In ‘Moonrising’, I explore how in the near future experiences for queer people still vary widely. ‘Moonrising’ has a second romance plotline where oblivious engineer Victor Beard falls in love with Mansoor’s younger brother, Rashid.
In America in 2073, Victor doesn’t even stop to think about his sexuality—he’s too busy inventing the world’s fastest rocket ship. In his failed marriage to a woman and string of disastrous relationships with people of all genders, he’s struggled to prioritize his partner or connect with them. He may not be good at relationships, but his sexual identity is a non-issue. (When I wrote ‘Moonrising’, I didn’t think of this as an overly optimistic take on what America would be like in fifty years, but unfortunately we are in the midst of an alarming backslide on LGBTQ+ rights.)
Conversely, Rashid doesn’t feel safe being open about being gay. Like today, in Abu Dhabi in 2073, it is illegal to be gay. As Rashid falls in love with the famous, outspoken, and confident Victor, he needs to decide if he wants to be publicly open about his sexuality and risk his relationships with his family in the UAE and his personal safety when traveling home.
Mixing these realistic and challenging situations in with a lovely slow burn romance, all set against a backdrop of launching rocket ships from the Arabian desert, makes for a compelling story.
That’s the promise of sci-fi romance. By taking a high-stakes genre like sci-fi and pairing it with an intimate one-on-one genre like romance, we can find stories that are both rich with big ideas and have a lot of heart.
So whether you call it romanti-sci, scimance, or SFR, I think sci-fi romance is poised to be something big. And I can’t wait to see where this exciting genre mashup goes next.
Claire Barner studied public policy and education at the University of Chicago and has spent her career in operations. She is an avid gardener, on a mission to maximize the number of tomatoes her small bungalow lot can produce. She loves to cook freshly harvested vegetables, mix strong cocktails, and host lively dinner parties. She and her husband are raising three children and love exploring Chicago’s garden walks, lakefront, museums, and forest preserves. Barner leads the parent engagement group at her children’s school and is committed to enhancing equity at Chicago Public Schools. For more info, visit clairebarner.com.
ABOUT THE BOOK: In 2073, controversial agronomist Dr. Alex Cole has dedicated her life to mutagenetic food, the only solution to feeding a world torn apart by climate change. But when fierce opposition from radical environmentalists wipes out her lab funding, a surprising lifeline appears in the form of Mansoor Al Kaabi, a charismatic Emirati businessman who needs a sustainable food supply for his guests on the Moon’s first hotel. Alex moves to the Moon colony with Mansoor, where she is surprised to find herself falling in love not just with the lunar colony, but with Mansoor himself, whose vision for the future of the Moon extends far beyond luxury hotels.
Back on Earth, eccentric genius Victor Beard and Mansoor’s younger brother, Rashid, fight to push the Homestead Act through Congress. Without the support of the U.S. government, they’ll never be able to achieve their goal of relocating humanity to the Moon and securing a second chance for life on Earth. When eco-terrorists threaten the lunar colony, Alex, Mansoor, Victor, and Rashid must choose what they’re willing to die for — and what they’re truly living for. Is it their grandiose visions of saving the planet — or is it one another? With themes drawn from NASA’s own Artemis Program as well as private space ventures, “Moonrising” envisions space as the next frontier for human survival.
