Looking for more books with a trope that I’ve just realized I love. I want books where a character ends up alone immersed in a culture that’s completely foreign or alien to them and finds themself adapting so well that it feels like they’ve finally found their place in the universe. I would really love if it had a romantic element without it being a romance novel and the genre conventions that go along with that. Looking for sci-fi or fantasy rather than something that’s trying to be realistic. Would strongly prefer if it features a female protagonist.
Order of priority for me:
\- Cultural integration trope + finding their place in the universe
\- Female protagonist
\- Romance element
\- Sci-fi or fantasy setting
Examples:
Jaran by Kate Elliott – This is one of my favourite comfort books. It features a young woman who just finished her PhD in linguistics on Earth and ends up stranded on planet with human aliens. She integrates into a culture based on Earth steppe nomad cultures. There’s all sorts of political hijinks because she’s the heir of an important dude who staged a rebellion against an alien race that has absorbed Earth society as well as the other planets with humans and a big mystery about how they found another planet with humans. I like all that stuff, but the essential element that I’m looking for is finding her home in another culture.
The Vardeshi Saga by Meg Pechenick – Actually found this by using one of those online “recommend me a book based on a book” sites using Jaran as my input. It’s set in a world where an alien race made contact with Earth, said “this doesn’t seem like the right time, you guys have some problems,” and then fucked off for a few decades. The protagonist is a linguistics student studying under a professor who was given access to material that allowed him to decode the aliens’ language and create a learning program, he secretly invites the protagonist to learn the language as his first test student. She spends a year utterly obsessed with learning it. Suddenly, the aliens return and want to try again and she’s the only one other than her professor who speaks the language. The aliens and humans basically set up an exchange program starting with 100 people and she’s candidate number one because her professor is deemed too old and better suited to train people. The exchange program splits everyone up, so she heads off by herself as the first human to experience the alien society.
Other elements/tropes I generally like:
\- Stories where the protagonist is some kind of academic, whether a linguist or otherwise.
\- Stories set in institutions or locations that force people to have really intertwined lives, e.g. boarding schools, college campuses, space ships, small villages.
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Please do not recommend:
\- Pulpy alien fated mates romance fiction.
\- If it’s a sci fi setting with aliens and there’s a romance element, only interested if the aliens are somewhat humanoid. Not into the monster romances…
by Gullible_Jelly3869