No romance, no sex

I realise this is a longshot request, but I'd really like some recs for fantasy or light SF novels in which a HUMAN, reasonably sympathetic character feels no romantic or sexual attraction to anyone, and it's NOT due to trauma. Bonus points if it's a main character, but I'll take anything at this point.

A perfect example of what I'm looking for is Paksenarrion from The Deed of Paksenarrion. She's not a cold person, or an alien/nonhuman, she's a perfectly likeable human who just happens to not feel a need for sex or romance, right from the start.

A less perfect example would be Tarma from Mercedes Lackey's Vows and Honor books. Her asexuality is externally imposed by her goddess and she chose to become Swordsworn because of trauma, but Tarma at least doesn't regret it, or feel she's missing out, AFAIR.

(edited for a formatting snafu)

Wow. I can't think of a single example. Which just goes to show you how pervasive romance is in the fantasy genre.

The Company by K J Parker maybe? It is about the interactions of 5 soldiers, some history and then some specifics build up of a quite unusual situation they put themselves in (don't want to spoiler it too much). Some of them have wives in the end but in no way is there romance anywhere.

editted... just re read your post. This is not just "no romance as a plot point" but "asexual hero". Tricky!

I don't remember much in the way of romance or romantic thoughts in The Blade Itself , The Half-Made World, Something from the Nightside and I'm thinking Gardens of the Moon as well, but there is some past entanglement complications in that one at least.

ETA to separate titles better.

As I recall...

The Doppelganger duology by Marie Brennan. It starts with Warrior and continues with Witch.

The Book of the Dun Cow by Wangerin.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Lynch. Note this book has no sex or romance, but it is the first of a planned seven-book series and it's strongly hinted that there will be both in future volumes.

I don't recall any sex or romance in Anne Rice's Memnoch the Devil, which is kind of surprising given the author.

How could we have forgotten The Hobbit?!

Kushiel's Dart. Just kidding!

>4 majkia:: The blade itself may not contain sex, but the sequels do - and I think there was attempted seduction in TBI. It's definitely not romantic though! Gardens of the moon has a character longing for another, but the bulk of the book is military and political.

Very hard to think of a fantasy that doesn't have at least a little romance thrown in. Sometimes I wish there were more characters like Paksennarion, who is awesome!

> 4. Early Nightside don't have any romance but after a few books he is definitely in a relationship with Susi Shooter... except she can't touch anyone so it is a very strange relationship for all that.

Also, regarding the Abercrombie trilogy, there are not many women and they are mostly somewhat naff/ powerless characters- at least 3 can be lumped into the group "slave prostitute mistress" (Cathill, Ferro and Ardee) and there is a nasty example of co-ercion of a lesbian into sex with a man at the end of the set. Not a thrilling read if you prefer your women characters a bit more rounded and multi-skilled. Shame as they are well written for all that.

Lies of Locke Lamora will almost certainly bring in the long lost girlfriend in book 3 but I have high hopes she won't be a weed from the hints so far.

I read them years ago, but I don't remember Morgaine in the C.J. Cherryh series having romantic or sexual interests (she has a male sidekick, but I don't think it was either of that kind of relationship). First book: Gate of Ivrel.
Jame, in the Kencyrath books by P.C. Hodgell, is similar in that. There is an incestuous sexual tension between her and her brother (not at all acted out, as far as the series has gone), but otherwise the only intrusion of sex is that Jame spends much of one book avoiding the social expectations that she get married and settle down into the restrictive women's roles her people have fallen into.
There *must* be others, I just haven't thought of them yet. It'll be interesting to see what others come up with.....

Of course the Tolkien, as someone said already; but I assume you've read those.
Oh -- what about Roger Zelazny? I don't remember romance or sex (much sex, anyway) in the Amber series -- first book Nine Princes in Amber -- just lots of action and mythological imagery. Really fun page-turners.

rshart3 - There is definitely sex in the Amber series. At least in the first book. It's all fade-to-black, but it's there.

Le Guin's original three Earthsea books (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore) fit the bill.

But Le Guin later came to see this as one of several flaws, which the subsequent three books (Tehanu, Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind), written many years later, redress. But this is redress from a very down-to-earth and feminist perspective, not throwing in lashings of sex or rose-tinted romance. And if you want you can just stay with the first three.

Also, Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees.

There's more if you're willing to entertain YA works.

I seem to remember Bonedance by Emma Bull has an asexual lead character.

#8 & 9
bluesalamanders, you're right. I didn't read the first message carefully enough, & was just thinking of stories where the sex isn't esp. noticeable. Now I see that the request was for books where the protagonist (or a character) is asexual/celibate, even "offstage". That would rule out lots of things, including Tolkien (though his books are famously non-sexual or romance oriented, many of the characters have relationships or are married, before or after the main frame of the story. Even the ents yearn for their entwives....).

It makes the question even more interesting. Celibacy has gotten short shrift in our society and our literature, even though it's a powerful stance. People still haven't come up with many titles.

In Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books, aren't the initiates working in circles required to be celibate? But as I remember it, it's not a permanent choice, not always easy for them, and not always presented in a positive way.

>13 rshart3:: Speaking of MZB, maybe Lythande would fit the bill? Don't want to say why, because that would be a MAJOR spoiler.

#8 - plus of course the chronicles of Morgaine is great. I don't think any of CH Cherryh's fantasy has much in the way of sex. fortress in the eye of time has a little bit of flirting maybe - and later on there are attempts at seduction for various purposes, but none lead to anything. None of hwr more fae novels do either.

5: The Book of the Dun Cow has no human characters, and it does have Chauntecleer falling for Pertelote and (edited for spoilers). And there's rape and other unholy goings-on in Senex's coop (not that that necessarily counts as "sex", but it's worth mentioning in this context).

On the other hand, John Wesley Weasel has a very strong, asexual love for the Wee Widow Mouse. (Circumstantially: he used to steal and eat eggs. When he was caught it turned out he'd had no idea they had anything to do with children.)

The Hobbit has no human characters of note that I can recall.

Edit: Sorry, I seem to have responded as if the question was for fantasy books in which there was no sex or romance at all. Heaven knows I ought to know better.

Many of the fantasy short stories in Animythical Tales are supposed to have asexual themes and/or characters. Then again, perhaps you'd already heard of that one.

Edit: Oh, yes. In spite of what the title may suggest, it does have humans.

CJ Cherryh does have attraction/romance and sex in some of her books, but it's not an important aspect, not like Heinlein's books which seethe with promiscuity.

What about The Chronicles of Narnia for a fairly asexual series?

The Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud has a nonhuman main character, but also two important human characters who don't have a romance with each other, or with anyone else, as far as I recall. They're pretty young, but old enough to do so if they had wanted to. I don't remember if they have any 'desires' which aren't acted upon, but if so, it wasn't enough to be annoying.

Granny Weatherwax from some of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books decided against entering into a romantic relationship when she was young, so there is nothing more romantic involving her character than a scene or two of 'what might have been'. She doesn't seem to regret it much. A few of the other Discworld books lack romantic subplots, such as Small Gods which is about a priest.

Raistlin Majere from the Dragonlance series also seems to be asexual, though I may have forgotten something from his early life due to not having read those books in about 15 years. (He might qualify as 'traumatized' because of all the dark magic, and is definitely an antihero; also, most of the other characters have romances, which might be annoying.)

The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs has no romance at all. It is about two human wizards.

Sarah Monette's short-story character Kyle Murchison Booth (The Bone Key) is almost entirely asexual. He has some inarticulate feelings for another character in the first story, "Bringing Helena Back", but nothing romantic or sexual comes of it, and the story 'Elegy for a Demon Lover' has sex in it but under peculiar circumstances, under which (in my opinion) it doesn't really count against the basic asexuality of the character. (I like him because he reminds me of myself, though my childhood was a good deal more pleasant. I mention this because I really don't think his personality is caused by trauma, although trauma may have given him some other issues.)

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis doesn't have a sexual subplot, but it isn't exactly a 'light' novel (though it is light on the science-fiction, if that is what you meant), and the main characters probably aren't asexual, they just don't have time/opportunity for romance during the story.

Alicia DeVries in Path of the Fury by David Weber (a military space-opera type book) doesn't have a sexual subplot, either because she is asexual or because she is dedicated to revenge. Probably some of both, unless I'm seriously forgetting something. (In Fury Born is the same story except with a lot of backstory added, so it is more like two books... I personally can do without the backstory, but if you want a double dose of military sci-fi it is certainly good for that.)

Try "Magic:The final fantasy collection" by Isaac Asimov. He preferred his characters nonromantic and asexual

>16 235711:
But you're right though; I somehow missed the "human" thing even though it was in caps.

Maybe Transformation by Carol Berg. There's a strong relationship that is central to the book, but it doesn't seem romantic or sexual to me. At least, not that I remember -- it's been a while since I've read it.

On the SF side there's Ender's Game. I don't remember any sex or romance in that.

Oh, well. I knew it was a longshot.

I see from the suggestions that it is, as I suspected, much easier to find books in which there just happens to not be any romance. But books with genuinely asexual characters are few and far between.

(For the record, the reason I specified human characters is because frequently when a non-human species is asexual, this fact is used to demonstrate how unlike humans they are. For those of us humans who are asexual, this can be... offputting.)

Ransom in CS Lewis's space trilogy seems to be pretty asexual.

#23:

Distress is hard SF, so not what you asked for, but it has a genuinely asexual-by-choice nongendered character in a major role. Not as the protagonist, though.

23: The nonhuman and the unhuman (and possibly inhuman)... like the (non-fantasy) "high-functioning sociopath", formerly known as the "calculating machine". Not that I believe any of that, but still.

24: Interesting thought. I'm not sure if he's meant to be. In any case he has a pretty asexual experience in the second book.

In the Cast series by Michelle West Sagara has almost no romance and definitely no sex! The lead is a strong female. There may be a hint of romance from one of the other males (don't want to give too much away!), but overall the romance element isn't there. In many of here series, romance does not feature heavily. I would strongly recommend any of her books (Well, I haven't read the Sundered Series), especially if you don't want a story heavy and complicated by love.

Chandra in Tanya Huff's The Fire's Stone is a sympathetic and strong asexual protagonist. The story does feature a male/male romance between two other protagonists.

You may want to check out the "Asexuality in Fiction" page at AVEN (the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network)'s wiki: http://www.asexuality.org/wiki/index.php?title=Asexuality_in_TV_shows_and_movies

Further sci-fi/fantasy examples offered there include (I haven't read any of these so I can't say how accurate they are with regards to the characters mentioned):

- Azriel in The Rose of the Prophet trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman- Weis and Hickman are behind Dragonlance, which is D&D based, and while I can't say for sure on this one, the other fiction of theirs that I have read has a strong focus on the setting and worldbuilding, occasionally to the detriment of fleshing out the characters

- Amber/Lord Golden in Robin Hobb's Fool trilogy starting with Fool's Errand- I believe there are a couple of series set in this universe before this trilogy, I had read Assassin's Apprentice several years ago and found it fairly dark however.

- Mag the Waxling in Patricia McKillip's Ombria in Shadow- McKillip has a very lyrical or fairy-tale style of writing that can take some getting used to, but I've enjoyed what I've read of her work. She does tend to leave things somewhat unresolved in her endings.

Not what you had in mind probably but I can't resist an opportunity to plug James Blaylock's The Elfin Ship. Not only is there no romance, there are (as I recall) no female characters at all! A few women may be mentioned, but otherwise it's pure boy's adventure stuff. I'm almost certain The Disappearing Dwarf is the same, but The Stone Giant was written later and breaks the mold. His science fantasy novel The Digging Leviathan is guaranteed romance free as well. Great fun.

Check out Drops from the kingdom its an action adventure story. There are no romance but great battle scenes

You know having no female characters is not actually a good thing, I will now never read a book by Blaylock.

"Kushiel's Dart. Just kidding!"

Rofl!!

I loved Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. There is a husband/wife relationship in the book, but (as far as I can recall, anyway), nothing overtly sexual. It's not a typical fantasy (since it's based in Victorian London and not in a mythical place), but it is definitely a work of fantasy. I also liked Robert Silverberg's Lord Valentine's Castle. Again, my memory isn't always the best, but I don't remember a romance in that one, either.

Lord Valentine's Castle is one of my favourites! There is a romance, though it's low-key, between Valentine and Cara.

I appreciate that people are trying, but what I actually asked for has gotten really lost. Books in which there simply happens to be no (or little) romance or sex is not what I asked for--those are easy enough to find.

lohengrin - I think you may find this a lost cause then.

35: I actually said as much back up at comment 23. ^_^

31> Arguably a book without women is also a book without men, just boys and overgrown boys, since "maleness" (whatever that is) is hard to define outside of relations between the sexes.

Do you feel the same about feminist sf in which there are no male characters, or none of any significance?

I hope you'll make an exception for The Wind in the Willows if you haven't already read it. Also, King Solomon's Mines has only the hideous Gagool. Shame to miss it. Examples could be multiplied, but of course one person's meat is another's poison. Oh well.

Finally, please don't write off Blaylock. The books I listed were his earliest efforts, and really written for 13 year olds of any age. He has since written any number of mature fantasies about real people (women included) who have relationships and icky things like that :)

>37 revelshade:: I too loved The elfin ship, and it is very rare for me to even read, let alone enjoy a book without a significant female character. The characters reminded me of Tolkein's hobbits in their love of good food, tobacco and the peaceful life.

Doing a tagmash of "asexual, fantasy" yielded a couple more results, though they seem to be on the horror or science fiction side:

The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas - vampire stories (an asexual vampire?)
The Bone Key by Sarah Monette - ghost stories
In Fury Born by David Weber - military science fiction

I see The Bone Key and In Fury Born were mentioned above, maybe The Vampire Tapestry is also worth looking into?

@37, No, I don't feel the same about Feminist SF with only females, but I would not expect a man to enjoy reading them the same way a female would.

There is, however a difference here - many well known books have few to no female charaters and everyone is expected to "like" them, people barely even register that there are no women, and if you point that out, well it's not important at all and we should think they are good despite the lack. But a book with no men will be harped on about forever, and people will say that it couldn't possibly be a classic with no male character, who are people going to connect to? Because male = neutral and female = female only. !?!. Granted it is getting better and there are more female lead charaters for the younger generations.

Speaking of SF, Glory Season is a novel with a whole planet of only females, and Ethan of Athos is a novel with a whole planet of only males.

Both have romance, though :)

There are males in Glory Planet, the breeding ones.

Technically, I don't think there's any romance in the first Harry Potter book.

44: I think that's because most of the characters the reader is expected to care about are children.

If I might take the liberty to rephrase and add to the original question, this is about fantasy / science fiction characters personally uninterested in sex or romance who aren't that way because of being a) evil or inhuman, b) alien, robotic, or otherwise nonhuman, c) damaged, or d) just not interested yet, or "childlike".

And I've just thought of another one. Lou, the protagonist of The Speed of Dark, is asexual. He's also in love, and autistic (the former making the asexuality stand out, the latter being the focus of the book). It's near-future science fiction.

The Speed of Dark is a standout book.

45: There are a lot of preteen/teenage "romance" novels that entertain the same age bracket.

47: Perhaps, but this is the first book in a series, and if you've read the rest of the books (or the spoilers) you already know that the characters who aren't snogging etc. in the first book will be doing so later on. So in the first book they're pre-, not a-. Which falls under d).

More generally, a character who happens to inhabit a fictional setting in which sex and romance are marginal or absent is not automatically an asexual/aromantic character. In other words, it's not very likely for a book's entire cast to be asexual.

Therefore, to add to the list:

e) being in a story that doesn't concern itself with such matters to begin with

Also, while this particular series is finished now, we can't know for certain if Rowling is done revealing characters' orientations or who married whom.

In light of which...

Caveat #1: Aspiring collectors should be aware that an ambiguously asexual character in a still-ongoing series may be taken off the (already somewhat short) list at a moment's notice. The same principle applies to cross-media adaptations or spin-offs. Authorial indifference may pose an increased risk. (Footnote: "You may marry or murder or do what you like with him." - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to William Gillette)

48: You're doing a better job at explaining this than I am! ^_^

Maybe it's easiest to look at it like one would look at whether or not characters are gay. If they're not specifically shown to be straight in the novel, that doesn't mean they're gay. It doesn't mean they're not, of course, but if one is looking for "gay characters in fiction," the fact that they do not happen to sleep with people of the opposite sex in the novel is not likely to satisfy.

Paks, Tarma and Sparrow from Bonedance each think or say something to the effect of "Other people around me have sexual desire, but I don't."

"Other people around me have sexual desire, but I don't."

Jerzy has that thought in Laura Anne Gilman's Vineart War series. The first two are Flesh and Fire and The Weight of Stone. They're not bad.

48&49: I didn't need an explanation.

51: Sorry; I didn't mean to single you out. Somehow your comments helped me to get some of my own thoughts on this subject together; thoughts I was addressing to everyone. My objective was to get the whole thread back on topic, not to lecture you.

Revamping this thread to add Clariel from Clariel. She clearly says that she doesn't feel romantic or sexual attraction, but then it turns out to be her origin story as a villain. Yeah, not great.

Much more promisingly, there's the YA science fiction Quicksilver by R.J. Anderson. I haven't read it yet, but I found this article were the author talks about the main character being asexual and quotes where the MC says she doesn't feel sexual attraction.

I've also heard Banner of the Damned by Sherwood Smith has an asexual heroine, but I haven't read to confirm.