Romance in the Order

Romance in the Order is a loosely connected series of romance novels about Slayer Dragons during the Golden Age, written during the New Day era(nearly ten thousand years later), by F.I. LaRonch. The series is popular though controversial for its portrayal of historical domain characters and over-all poor accuracy.

Contents and Style

The books take Slayer Dragons from the Golden Age who were known or described as particularly attractive, and sets them up with romantic partners, most frequently other Slayer Dragons. The author frequently pairs Slayer Dragons who lived generations or centuries apart; since its very infrequent that two Slayer Dragons of a roughly compatible age served at the same time.

The plots include steam scenes set inside The Enclave, the fortified center of Valley Gale Keep. Since even the contemporary layout is a secret and the ancient layout unknown, the author is free to do with this space as she pleased.

The romances are not always between Slayer Dragons, and each book will usually include three distinct storylines.

Lawsuit

In N.D. 493 after the third book was published to great acclaim, the New Stormwind Antiquarian Society filed a lawsuit against the author and publishers. The series had been controversial from the start and rumors circulated that the Order of Slayer Dragons would sue for defamation. However, as the characters were all considered public domain, no such suit could be made.

The Antiquarians, however, filed suit over the book billing themselves as "historical fiction" and brought out a litany of grievous historical inaccuracies. According to one analysis of the first two books, the only agreed-upon facts that could be verified were the names of some of the characters, and Lieber's hair color.

The Antiquarians sought no money in the suit or even a request to end publication. Rather they took offence at the marketing campaign billing the books as "historical fiction" and "historically accurate" and demanded these be removed along with the addition of a disclaimer stating the books as fiction. The lawsuit brought considerable publicity to the series and the author, a member of the Society herself, graciously agreed.

Though the actual suit was still settled out of court, the judge issued a ruling requiring sarcastic air quotes be placed around all dates mentioned in the series and produced a legal definition for historical fiction.

Critical Reception

Romance in the Order is not well-liked in literary circles. The novels are described as brash, raunchy, and riddled with historical inaccuracies. The settings blend elements from a thousand years of history, often pairing characters who lived centuries apart while using social conventions that never co-existed. Even treating them as pure fiction most critics lambast them for being "standard trashy romance fare" with a plot that exists primarily to string together a series of increasingly gratuitous sex scenes.

Despite (or possibly because) all of this, the books have found a wide audience. The author blends the best-known aspects of Golden Age Culture with familiar and popular historic figures; coupled with an approachable, easy-reading style. Though not ultimately of any higher quality than most romance novels, the ongoing cult of personality around the Slayer Dragons ensures them high visibility.

Other Controversies

In N.D. 509, a shady printer in Sun's Beacon took several of the most popular Romance in the Order novels and created a series of illegal re-prints. These versions had new titles, new (inaccurate) descriptions, and were once again billed as "fully accurate historical fiction", with some cover versions even marketing them specifically at teens. A few of these books made it into middle and public school libraries before their contents were discovered.

Specific Books

One entrant in the series The Hearts of Storm and Fire is especially well known for the marketing campaign which heavily played up the "controversial" content of the book. In it, Emily, the fifth Pendragon of Slayer Dragons has a torrid love affair with Orenfeng Iscanzas, a dragon of the High Mountain Flight. While dragon/human relationships are unusual, in the New Day era they are not themselves considered taboo. However, during the period in which the book is set, such a relationship would have been completely unthinkable and, if it had occurred, might have destroyed the Order.

Emily and Orenfeng were contemporaries and did know each other. This makes their coupling possibly the most historically accurate in the series, thought the other storylines from the same novel followed the standard of pairing wildly unrelated couples.

The books (still known for their legal troubles) very heavily emphasized this in the marketing campaign. The forbidden romance angle and taboo elements were touted as being "edgy" and "not for the faint of heart". When published, the book did cause something of a stir for depicting dragon-on-human sex directly on the page in a book aimed at a mainstream (if adult) audience.

The book did raise some very real controversy among historians. Not for the lack of accuracy, but for failing to depict Orenfeng and Emily as equal lovers. Instead casting her as the dragon's play-thing and going so far as to depict Orenfeng "sharing" her with multiple (human-form) dragons near the end of the book. This scene played on a common stereotype about dragon/human relationships, more a moral panic than an actual occurrence.

The marketing campaign backfired somewhat in that the particular book became a best seller and reached a much larger audience than the series and genre usually did, but brought considerable backlash against the author. As Emily is regarded as one of the greatest Pendragons in history, the depiction of her as a sexual submissive in an an unequal relationship did not sit well and the (female) author received numerous accusations of sexism.