The Red String of Fate: A Valentine's Day toast to Romantasy

"I have lived on the borders, my real face unseen, 

but where I go now has no boundary but dreams. 

Walk with me, walk with me out of this night, 

for you are my love, and you are my light." 

– Victoria Hanley's Dreamwen song

I have never been much of a Valentine's Day person (the last and only time I marked in on Stars Uncounted was six years ago), but it recently occurred to me that no better day exists to pay special tribute to the new and hyper-popular Romantasy genre. Or rather, the term "Romantasy" and its hyper-popularity is new; not the genre itself as Romantic Fantasy has been around forever. As I recently wrote in my Where Fantasy literature stands: the Rise of Romantasy and Asian-inspired Fantasy post:

"Seemingly overnight between 2022 to now, the Grimdark has been overthrown by the almost simultaneous rise of Romantasy and Asian-inspired Fantasy. What is Romantasy? A new word that, in brief summation, is the fusion of Romance and Fantasy which gives each equal importance. Yes, yes, yes, all the best Fantasies usually have a strong romantic subplot, yet in Romantasy there is nothing sub about the romance. These are tales where slow-burn love stories unfold alongside a sweeping Epic Fantasy adventure, each no less critical than and in fact complimenting the other. A harmonious wedding of high-stakes fantasy world-building with compelling romance plotlines. A subgenre that is as likely to have LGBTQIA+ protagonists as otherwise, which is called Queer Romantasy.

Then there is Asian-inspired Fantasy. Back in 2017 I said that "the lore of Eastern cultures remains a largely untapped goldmine within the Fantasy genre. A goldmine that, when used, tends to immense popularity." No longer is that mine untapped. Oh no. From Tasha Suri's Burning Kingdoms trilogy to the Song of the Last Kingdom by Amélie Wen Zhao, to Axie Oh's The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea to Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan, to Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, to Elizabeth Lim's Spin the Dawn and Six Crimson Cranes and truly countless others, Asian-inspired Fantasy has uncoiled like the Azure Dragon of the East – wrapping Fantasy literature in its shinning and unique scales.

"Yin and yang. Good and evil. Great and terrible. Two sides of the same coin, Lián'ér, and somewhere in the center of it all lies power. The solution is to find the balance between them." - Dé’zì, grandmaster of School of the White Pines.

And then there is when the two meet in Asian-inspired Romantasy, which in some ways seems to be more prevalent than either of the other two. Indeed, now when I go to bookstores the shelves are packed with Romantasy and Asian-inspired Fantasy, thus making these two the unquestionable current co-monarchs of the Fantasy genre. Is Grimdark gone? Hardly. But its stranglehold is broken and I like to think that the Rise of Romantasy and Asian-inspired Fantasy was and remains a direct reaction against its dark cynicism and naked brutality. For in an unsettled world, they offers readers a powerful form of escapism to alternate universes where magic exists and love can conquer all. 

Of course, like I said, Romantic Fantasy has been around forever and some publishers used to – and maybe some still do for all I know – distinguish between Romantic Fantasy where the fantasy elements is most important and Fantasy Romance where the romance are most important, while others said that the line between the two has essentially ceased to exist or, if it remained, is in constant flux. Obviously the Rise of Romantasy has made these terms somewhat outdated is not obsolete.

Still, now that the history and terminology is out of the way, I thought Valentine's Day would be a perfect time to list all the Romantasy I have ever read, keeping in mind that many of these were published decades before the Rise of Romantasy and exist somewhere between the old Romantic Fantasy and Fantasy Romance definitions, and some might not even have been classified as either at the time but which I judge fit the bill (i.e. have enough romance to be mentioned) here.

• Graceling Realms by Kristin Cashore
• The Twelve Houses series by Sharon Shinn
• Healer and Seer series by Victoria Hanley
• The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip
• These Witches Don't Burn by Isabel Sterling 
• The Novels of Tiger and Del by Jennifer Roberson
• The Novels of the Nine Kingdoms by Lynn Kurland 
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
• Song of the Last Kingdom by Amélie Wen Zhao

“And the Old Matchmaker of the Moon said to the lovers, 'This red thread I bestow upon you. It may stretch and it may tangle, but it will never break. Across cycles and worlds and lifetimes, your souls are now destined.” – Amélie Wen Zhao

On that note, and despite the above quote, I am particularly grateful to The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea as it was the book that taught me the awesome (in the old sense of the word) story potential of the Red String/Thread of Fate. What is it? An ancient East Asian belief rooted in Chinese and Japanese folklore that an invisible red cord connects those destined to meet and become soulmates. Not that they are destined to have a happy ending, but I fell in love with the concept as a new way to incorporate prophesy and destiny into Fantasy. Fans of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time are surely thinking of Birgitte Silverbow and Gaidal Cain, linked souls reborn across countless Ages who are born with different names yet always follow the same pattern: hate at first sight, comrades in arms, falling in love, killed before they can settle down (usually) but living on as heroes of a hundred and more legends. A perfect example, for the Wheel weaves as it wills, its threads connecting the Pattern across the Tapestry of Ages.

"Love supplies a kind of strength that can withstand even death." – Terry Brooks 

Beyond that, well, I could wax poetic about the role of love in Fantasy literature endless, a fact my LGBTQIA+ in Fantasy and Final Lesson pages prove, I think. So I will end it there. Happy Valentine's Day!

"Being deeply loved gives you strength; loving deeply gives you courage." – Lao Tzu