Queen of Denial

ISBN: 1-892065-06-1 Order from: Amazon.com

This short, head-long, baudy and profane mockery of a space opera features a memorable heroine and bag-full of belly laughs, despite some jarring, anachronistic political hand-waving.

Reviewed by David on June 25, 2000

Genre: Science Fiction (Humor, Space Opera)

Synopsis: Drewcila Qwah and her furry companion Van Gar run the best Salvage ship in space. A rough and occasionally unscrupulous business, Salvage still has some rules. When hired to deliver a kidnapped and long-thought lost queen of an slightly backward kingdom to her family, Drew is little prepared for treachery, piracy and murder.

The self-styled Queen of Salvagers may not survive the initial encounter with treacherous smugglers and ruthless political intrigue. But if she does, Drew, as resourceful in pursuit of profit as she's relentless in pursuit of pleasure, Drew makes a formidable opponent—who can break the rules with the worst of them.

Neither her enemies, nor her allies will ever be the same after the Queen of Salvage gets going!

Full Review: Selina Rosen at Worldcon, Chicago, 2000-9 holding a copy of QUEEN OF DENIAL As picaresque as any of the classics, the adventures of lusty, beer-loving, cigar-smoking, irreverent and profane Drew ride over the conventions of the space opera. Better and briefer than most of the parodies of the sub-genre, mostly due to the hard-boiled but intelligent, compassionate but unsentimental heroine. The opponents and the problems, are, of necessity in a short and rapid adventure like this, are simplified and barely sketched. Nonetheless, many of the supporting characters acquire their distinctive voices by the end of this short book.

The one jarring element are the suspiciously easy and preachy political solutions in the second half of the book. While not uncharacteristic of the classical space opera of the fifties, the content breaks with the more modern style of the rest of the book, and feels very anachronistic.

With the blunt, profane baudiness of Mary Gentle, and irreverent space opera of Expendable, but lighter that either, this novel has the most satisfying treatment of recycling since Garbage World.

Overall: 6; Plot: 5; Characters: 6; Style: 6.5; World-building: 5; Originality: 7;

ISBN: 1-892065-06-1 Order from: Amazon.com