First Channel isn't where I'd recommend starting. (Nevermind that they call it first, and it's first chronologically; it wasn't first published. House of Zeor is, IMHO, the best starting place.)
Okay, general fannish appeal - 1) Biological need for a specific type of intimacy 2) Soul-bonding (doesn't show up in the first few books, and isn't specifically called that, but when a sime's selyn depletion rate exactly matches a gen's production rate, they wind up with something like an addiction. At least, the sime winds up addicted.) 3) Transgressive desires; loving intimacy as perversion 4) Cultural setting allowing slavefic 5) Love conquers all! -- Trust, lack of fear makes the dangers go away. 6) "Mating" cycle - need cycle (which does tie to fertility, but that's kinda secondary) means partners *must* work out their differences, or someone's gonna die. 7) Tragic, angsty accidental deaths all *over* the place. 8) Gen nageric tricks - the ones *without* the special powers & senses can always manipulate the ones who have all the goodies. 9) Tentacles. I want to hype the S~G books at lots of people so we can get a kinkmeme going so I can read tons of tentaclefic.
Plus, all the cultural/religious prejudices, dehumanizing half the population because that's easier than coping with the biological realities, the remnants of "ancient" civilization, low-tech setting with modern philosophical/scientific methodologies, and so on.
I should maybe write some actual meta/review instead of brainstorming a list? Probably has to wait until I'm a bit more coherent.
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Okay, general fannish appeal -
1) Biological need for a specific type of intimacy
2) Soul-bonding (doesn't show up in the first few books, and isn't specifically called that, but when a sime's selyn depletion rate exactly matches a gen's production rate, they wind up with something like an addiction. At least, the sime winds up addicted.)
3) Transgressive desires; loving intimacy as perversion
4) Cultural setting allowing slavefic
5) Love conquers all! -- Trust, lack of fear makes the dangers go away.
6) "Mating" cycle - need cycle (which does tie to fertility, but that's kinda secondary) means partners *must* work out their differences, or someone's gonna die.
7) Tragic, angsty accidental deaths all *over* the place.
8) Gen nageric tricks - the ones *without* the special powers & senses can always manipulate the ones who have all the goodies.
9) Tentacles. I want to hype the S~G books at lots of people so we can get a kinkmeme going so I can read tons of tentaclefic.
Plus, all the cultural/religious prejudices, dehumanizing half the population because that's easier than coping with the biological realities, the remnants of "ancient" civilization, low-tech setting with modern philosophical/scientific methodologies, and so on.
I should maybe write some actual meta/review instead of brainstorming a list? Probably has to wait until I'm a bit more coherent.