• YASID: queen takes a space pirate as consort and defacto CIC

    From pyotr filipivich@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 6 15:58:52 2023
    Greetings

    This is another one where I can remember a lot of details, like the
    cover, the main characters actions, but not minor details like
    author's name, book title, the characters' names, year published. But
    I think I read it within the last twenty years, maybe.

    Science Fiction, interstellar war, "they" have horrendous weapons for
    which the kingdom has no defense.

    What I recall is the cover art is of the queen leaning on a desk/table
    blonde braids plaited into an iron crown. She is not pleased.
    Basic plot is that "the enemy" is coming, her ministers are
    blithely ignoring the treat hoping it will go away. They even arrest a
    ship Captain and XO who dared to do something "provocative".
    We meet our future consort (who is a very good pirate captain) at, where else, a high class house of prostitution. Where he is
    entertained a great length by a pretty blonde. Afterwards before he
    can leave, he is informed that he has been banging the Queen of Planet
    (name forgotten) and given an offer he should not refuse: become her
    official consort.
    He assents, they return to Planet (name forgotten), and on
    arriving hinds himself ex-officio also Head of the Defense Ministry
    and CIC. He asks the Defense minister, through his interpreter, "What
    have you done to prepare for or bring war with the enemy?" When the
    minister blovates about it would be very risky, nay provocative, to do
    any such thing, he is told "Your resignation is accepted."
    It does not take long for him to pick up that sentence, and
    eventually he fires every officer in the building. When he asks if
    there are any other officers, he is told there are two in the brig.
    "Why are you here?" he asks. "For making war on the enemy, sir."
    the Captain replies. "Very good. You are now in command of this
    ministry. I'd like to have a war plan on my desk in the morning."
    Exeunt.
    The Captain's XO then asks her "Skipper, What do we do now?"
    "First we find my office, then go about dismissing the charges against
    us."
    The war goes badly and the book ends as they flee the destroyed
    planet.

    --
    pyotr filipivich
    "Have the Anarchists ever stopped to consider that if they bring
    down the American Government, there will be no one to protect
    them from the rednecks?"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ted Nolan @21:1/5 to Michael F. Stemper on Thu Dec 7 14:10:21 2023
    In article <uksjar$19kpj$1@dont-email.me>,
    Michael F. Stemper <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:
    On 06/12/2023 17.58, pyotr filipivich wrote:
    Greetings

    This is another one where I can remember a lot of details, like the
    cover, the main characters actions, but not minor details like
    author's name, book title, the characters' names, year published. But
    I think I read it within the last twenty years, maybe.

    Science Fiction, interstellar war, "they" have horrendous weapons for
    which the kingdom has no defense.

    [snip summary]

    I've never read it, but it sounds like fun. I hope that somebody can
    identify it.


    Ditto.
    --
    columbiaclosings.com
    What's not in Columbia anymore..

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to Michael F. Stemper on Thu Dec 7 09:55:07 2023
    In article <uksjar$19kpj$1@dont-email.me>,
    "Michael F. Stemper" <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:

    On 06/12/2023 17.58, pyotr filipivich wrote:
    Greetings

    This is another one where I can remember a lot of details, like the
    cover, the main characters actions, but not minor details like
    author's name, book title, the characters' names, year published. But
    I think I read it within the last twenty years, maybe.

    Science Fiction, interstellar war, "they" have horrendous weapons for
    which the kingdom has no defense.

    [snip summary]

    I've never read it, but it sounds like fun. I hope that somebody can
    identify it.

    It is not _Judgment Night_ by C. L. Moore, though I see a few points of similarity.

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. —-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Don@21:1/5 to pyotr on Thu Dec 7 20:34:31 2023
    pyotr wrote:
    Greetings

    This is another one where I can remember a lot of details, like the
    cover, the main characters actions, but not minor details like
    author's name, book title, the characters' names, year published. But
    I think I read it within the last twenty years, maybe.

    Science Fiction, interstellar war, "they" have horrendous weapons for
    which the kingdom has no defense.

    What I recall is the cover art is of the queen leaning on a desk/table
    blonde braids plaited into an iron crown. She is not pleased.

    My reply does not answer your YASID.

    Instead, it interjects my own quest for sfnal blonde braids of the
    Philip K Dick variety. A copy and paste of a pertinent post from a few
    years ago is duplicated below:

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Robert Carnegie wrote:
    Don wrote:
    Robert Carnegie wrote:
    Don wrote:
    Pris Stratton's a little different. She's the platonic love-
    interest of a man who doesn't count. Pris is an android with a Nexus-6
    brain unit.

    ... And Horst got me interested in pre-colonial fiction."
    [said Pris Stratton]

    "You mean old books?" [said John Isidore]

    "Stories written before space travel but about space travel."

    "How could there have been stories about space travel before --"

    "The writers," Pris said, "made it up."

    "Based on what?"

    "On imagination. A lot of times they turned out wrong. For
    example they wrote about Venus being a jungle paradise with
    huge monsters and women in breastplates that glistened." She
    eyed him. "Does that interest you? Big women with long
    braided blond hair and gleaming breastplates the size of
    melons?"

    _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ (PKD)

    It occurs to me that the manuscript may not
    contain the word "breastplates".

    Did not Edgar Rice Burroughs' women, for instance,
    often dress au contraire? (In books, I mean.)

    The Dec 21 1929 _Argosy_ cover captures the concept:

    http://www.philsp.com/data/images/a/argosy_19291221.jpg

    Hmm. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maza_of_the_Moon>

    "Ted Dustin, an American inventor, seeks to win a prize of
    one million dollars by being the first person to touch the Moon
    with an object launched from Earth. He devises a huge gun,
    which fires upon the surface of the Moon. Shortly thereafter,
    the Moon fires back, and war breaks out between the planet
    and its satellite."

    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Adelbert_Kline>
    implies that "warlike yellow aliens" were in line with
    Kline's terrestrial topics, inasmuch as he got the cover
    on _Oriental Stories_ with "The Dragoman's Slave Girl",
    which is about where we started. Doubtfully alleged
    rivalry between Kline and Edgar Rice Burroughs
    ("I made it up!" - Donald A. Wollheim) may consist,
    I think, of the sincerest form of flattery.

    It's hard enough to find a bigley, buxom, breastplated, braided blonde
    on an old pulp cover to begin with. And now all of my hard work is met
    with an implication, an innuendo, about how an unseen "warlike yellow
    alien" association stains the cover.
    Does our big, blonde cover-girl qualify as a "warlike yellow alien?"
    Before you answer, take one more peek at the _Maza_ cover:

    <http://www.philsp.com/data/images/a/argosy_19291221.jpg>

    See how she towers over the men? It's sort of alien, no? ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Danke,

    --
    Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
    tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dan Blum@21:1/5 to pyotr filipivich on Sun Dec 10 17:58:48 2023
    pyotr filipivich <phamp@mindspring.com> wrote:
    Greetings

    This is another one where I can remember a lot of details, like the
    cover, the main characters actions, but not minor details like
    author's name, book title, the characters' names, year published. But
    I think I read it within the last twenty years, maybe.

    Science Fiction, interstellar war, "they" have horrendous weapons for
    which the kingdom has no defense.

    What I recall is the cover art is of the queen leaning on a desk/table
    blonde braids plaited into an iron crown. She is not pleased.

    Sounds like The Gathering Flame by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald:

    https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?40446

    (There is an image of the cover at the link.)

    This is the fourth book in the Mageworlds series, but it is a prequel
    to the first three books.

    --
    _______________________________________________________________________
    Dan Blum tool@panix.com
    "I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't just made it up."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ted Nolan @21:1/5 to Dan Blum on Sun Dec 10 19:00:44 2023
    In article <ul4u8o$ant$1@reader2.panix.com>, Dan Blum <tool@panix.com> wrote: >pyotr filipivich <phamp@mindspring.com> wrote:
    Greetings

    This is another one where I can remember a lot of details, like the
    cover, the main characters actions, but not minor details like
    author's name, book title, the characters' names, year published. But
    I think I read it within the last twenty years, maybe.

    Science Fiction, interstellar war, "they" have horrendous weapons for
    which the kingdom has no defense.

    What I recall is the cover art is of the queen leaning on a desk/table
    blonde braids plaited into an iron crown. She is not pleased.

    Sounds like The Gathering Flame by Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald:

    https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?40446

    (There is an image of the cover at the link.)

    This is the fourth book in the Mageworlds series, but it is a prequel
    to the first three books.


    Thanks!

    Put on the TBR..
    --
    columbiaclosings.com
    What's not in Columbia anymore..

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)