''Rogue Queen'' is a
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
novel by American writer
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and works of non-fiction, including biog ...
, the third book in his ''
Viagens Interplanetarias
The ''Viagens Interplanetarias'' series is a sequence of science fiction stories by L. Sprague de Camp, begun in the late 1940s and written under the influence of contemporary space opera and sword and planet stories, particularly Edgar Rice ...
'' series. It was first published in hardcover by
Doubleday in 1951, and in paperback by
Dell Books
Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, ''I Confess'', and s ...
in 1952.
A later hardcover edition was issued by
The Easton Press
Easton Press, a division of MBI, Inc., based in Norwalk, Connecticut, is a publisher specializing in premium leather-bound books. In addition to canonical classics, religion, poetry and art books, they publish a selection of science fiction ...
in its ''The Masterpieces of Science Fiction'' series in 1996;
later paperback editions were issued by
Ace Books
Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns, and soon branched out into other genres, publishing its first scienc ...
(1965) and
Signet Books
The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publishe ...
(November 1972, reprinted June 1978).
A trade paperback edition was issued by
Bluejay Books
James Raymond Frenkel (born 1948) is an American editor and agent of science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, thrillers, historical fiction, and other books, formerly for Tom Doherty Associates (Tor Books and Forge Books). He has edited numerous pr ...
in June 1985.
The first British edition was published in paperback by Pinnacle Books in 1954;
a British hardcover reprint followed from Remploy in 1974.
The novel has been translated into
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, French and German.
An
E-book
An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...
edition was published by
Gollancz's
SF Gateway
Victor Gollancz Ltd () was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century and continues to publish science fiction and fantasy titles as an imprint of Orion Publishing Group.
Gollancz was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz, a ...
imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. Arc Manor's
Phoenix Pick
Phoenix Pick is the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Arc Manor Publishers based in Rockville, Maryland, United States.
Phoenix Pick publishes many classic and semi-classic works of science fiction and fantasy. These include '' Dark Univ ...
imprint reissued the book in both trade paperback and e-book format in January 2012.
Plot and storyline
On the planet of the star
Lalande 21185
Lalande 21185 (also known as BD+36 2147, Gliese 411, and HD 95735) is a star in the south of Ursa Major. It is the apparent brightest red dwarf in the northern hemisphere.Only AX Microscopii and Lacaille 9352, in the southern hemisphere ...
, known to Terrans as Ormazd, the dominant humanoid species is organized into hive societies much like those of Earth's
ant
Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cretaceous period. More than 13,800 of an estimated total of 22 ...
s and
bee
Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...
s. In each community a hyper-fertile queen and a handful of male drones are responsible for reproduction, while all other tasks are performed by sterile female workers. This status quo is disrupted by the arrival of the ''Paris'', an exploratory spacecraft of the ''Viagens Interplanetarias'', Earth's space authority. Its mixed crew of socially equal and universally fertile males and females opens up other possibilities to the natives, and particularly to Iroedh, a scholarly worker from the community of Elham. Her own antiquarian research leads her to the conclusion that Ormazd's society may once have been like Earth's. Her peers, however, are only interested in ferreting out the Terrans' technological secrets for possible military use. Iroedh, by making friends with Winston Bloch and Barbe Dulac, two of the newcomers, ironically finds herself in a better position to do this than her more self-interested comrades.
Hoping to save Antis, a condemned drone for whom she harbors platonically romantic feelings, Iroedh uses her new friends first to effect a rescue and then to intervene in Elhamni politics to reverse his death sentence. The second effort backfires, making her, Antis and their allies fugitives. Hunted by both the Elhamni and the outlaw band of the rogue drone Wythias, who is intent on gaining Terran weaponry, they get lost in the wilderness and come near to starvation. To survive Iroedh is forced to abandon her vegetarian worker diet and eat meat, which is deemed poisonous to all females except queens. Its actual effect on her is to cause her to mature sexually, making her a queen herself, though one without a community to rule. She and Antis become lovers. Afterwards, still pursued by Wythias' band, the four succeed in reaching the Oracle of Ledhwid, a neutral power in the midst of the warring communities. To their surprise, the current occupant of the Oracle's office proves to be another alien, Gildakk from the planet Thoth in the
Procyon
Procyon () is the brightest star in the constellation of Canis Minor and usually the eighth-brightest star in the night sky, with an apparent visual magnitude of 0.34. It has the Bayer designation α Canis Minoris, which is Latinize ...
ic system, the sole survivor of an earlier expedition.
With Gildakk's aid the rogue drones are fought to a standstill and then made allies by demonstrating in a parlay that Iroedh has become a functional female; Gildakk points out that if other workers follow her example all the drones can have mates of their own. Wythias murders Gildakk in an attempt to preserve his authority, and is in turn killed by Barbe. The other drones take Iroedh and Antis as their new leaders. The reconstituted force then returns to Elham to aid in its defense against the hostile community of Tvaarm, which has just launched a long-expected invasion. The government that outlawed Iroedh and Antis is overthrown, and the combined force of their drones and Elham's warriors defeat the enemy. A social and political revolution ensues in Elham, and Iroedh and Antis accept appointment as representatives of the ''Viagens Interplanetarias'' to the city-states of Ormazd.
Themes
''Rogue Queen'' broke the taboo on sexual themes in American science fiction, paving the way for more daring works by
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer (January 26, 1918 – February 25, 2009) was an American author known for his science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories.
Obituary.
Farmer is best known for his sequences of novels, especially the ''World of Tiers ...
and others. De Camp's approach to the charged issue was decidedly non-erotic and non-exploitive, treating it matter-of-factly as a part of his characters' lives that happened to be both incidental and integral to his plot. In effect, he normalizes it by making it a matter of discussion rather than depiction, relegating any awkwardness to the minds of the characters.
Steven Silver speculated that "without ''Rogue Queen'' to lay the groundwork, it is possible that the anthropological science fiction of a later age, as well as its gender examinations, would not have occur
d in the manner it did."
["Steven Silver's Reviews: Rogue Queen," ]
The SF Site: The Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy
February 1997.
Reception
Early reviews were largely positive.
Anthony Boucher
William Anthony Parker White (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968), better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher (), was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio d ...
praised de Camp for "producing a science-fiction narrative which is entirely about sex, and, surprisingly, non-pornographic," characterizing the narrative as "that rarest of collector's items: a completely new science-fiction plot." Later he and
J. Francis McComas
Jesse Francis McComas (June 9, 1911 – April 19, 1978) was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe.
He entered publishing in 1941 as a sale ...
rated ''Rogue Queen'' as "
e most interesting recent fictional extrapolation," noting that "
vely and unusual thinking, a vigorous plot, and a most appealing non-human heroine make
tthe best de Camp novel in many years.".
Groff Conklin
Edward Groff Conklin (September 6, 1904 – July 19, 1968) was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories (co-edited with physician Noah Fabricant), wrote books on home improvemen ...
described the novel as "without doubt the best item de Camp has yet developed out of his concept of ''Viagens Interplanetarias''", lauding "
e meticulously scientific way in which de Camp develops details of this culture on a far-distant planet to parallel a bee society
sfascinating," with "
e story of how this is accomplished ... made so circumstantially real, so humanly plausible, that the book becomes a sheer delight to read."
P. Schuyler Miller
Peter Schuyler Miller (February 21, 1912 – October 13, 1974) was an American science fiction writer and critic.
Life
Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a lifelong interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as ...
also called the novel the series's "most handsome dividend," finding it "by long odds the best of the Viagens stories, worked out with the de Campian flair for meticulously ridiculous logic." He also called it "the masterpiece of the Viagens series, and one of the best books in modern SF." The reviewer for ''Startling Stories'' characterized the book as "another in the same vein" in the author's "growing list of gentle satires," with "
e story ... relatively unimportant, ... there only as a vehicle for the author to ride in while he pokes fun at humans and their frailties."
Villiers Gerson Villiers may refer to:
Places France
* Villiers, Indre, in the Indre ''département''
* Villiers, Vienne, in the Vienne ''département''
* Villiers-Adam, in the Val-d'Oise ''département''
* Villiers-au-Bouin, in the Indre-et-Loire ''départem ...
called it "an ingenious, amusing tale" in which "
at clever science-fiction writer ... for once blended satisfactorily both gimmick and characterization."
Later commentators tended to echo the earlier opinions.
William Mattathias Robins called it "one of
e Camp'sbest novels."
Joe De Bolt and
John R. Pfeiffer noted that "
e contrast in sexual patterns produces humorous misunderstandings on the part of the Ormazdians, and serves to satirize our romantic conventions."
Robert Coulson
Robert Stratton "Buck" Coulson (May 12, 1928 – February 19, 1999) was an American science fiction writer, well-known fan, filk songwriter, fanzine editor and bookseller from Indiana.
Biography
He served as Secretary of the Science Fic ...
"highly recommended" the book. After noting it "is my wife
Juanita's favorite science-fiction novel, and Iroedh her favorite character ...
ith whom as a grown-up tomboy,
heidentified completely," confessed "I'm quite partial to the book, too; if I don't quite agree that it's the best stf novel ever written, it's certainly somewhere in the top dozen or so." According to
Colleen Power
Colleen is an Irish language name and is of Irish origin and a generic term for women or girls, from the Irish '' cailín'' 'girl/woman', the diminutive of '' caile'' 'woman, countrywoman'.
Although it originates in the Irish language, Colleen ...
, "DeCamp uses the novel to highlight the role that a relatively simple advance can make in changing a society. ... This novel contains some fine touches that reveal DeCamp's ability to mature as a writer. His characterizations are stronger, his women less stereotypical, and the action just as entertaining as in his earlier works. ... He creates a complex, alien, yet hauntingly familiar society." She notes that ''Rogue Queen'' is regarded by critics as DeCamp's finest science fiction novel."
David Pringle
David Pringle (born 1 March 1950) is a Scottish science fiction editor and critic.
Pringle served as the editor of ''Foundation'', an academic journal, from 1980 to 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective whic ...
, giving it a rating of two out of three stars, characterizes it as "
venture with touches of satire, told in its author's customary light manner."
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American author who is best known for his work in the genres of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery fiction. He is a student of history and completed ...
described the novel as, "among other things, a splendid satire on Marxism."
The book is rated more harshly in some of the most recent assessments, particularly by feminist reviewers.
Steven Silver, after praising "the first half of the novel
ordescribing the amazing society of the Avtini," regrets that "
fortunately, de Camp turns the story into an adventure novel about half way through ... losing the train of the novel. Instead of exploring the changing gender roles, he is merely relating a sword and sorcery adventure, with science taking the place of the sorcery." He states that it "begins as the sort of novel in which
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the '' Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was ...
examines gender roles and makes us think about what society forces on a person based solely on their sex
utde Camp does not sustain this anthropological study, partly, perhaps, due to the phase in his career, and in science fiction, during which it was written." Had it been written later it "
rhaps ... could
ave
''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...
live
up to its potential." He is not unmindful, however, of the book's role in making works such as Le Guin's possible.
Laura Quilter
Laura Quilter (born 1968) is a writer, lawyer, librarian, professor, and science fiction fan known for both her work on intellectual property and new media, and her long-standing archive of information on feminist science fiction.
She received h ...
called it "pretty interesting sf, but annoying as hell. Even for the early 50s." Quoting an early review from the ''Hartford Courant'', which praised its subtlety, she "beg
to differ," pointing out how the development of the plot upheld and championed the approved gender relationships of the time and place in which it was written. She concludes that "
e funny thing is that this story is such a satire of itself, now, that if it were written today it would be targeted as a 'political correct satire.'"
["Review: L. Sprague De Camp's ''Rogue Queen (1951),]
''Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Utopia''
July 5, 2000.
References
{{L. Sprague de Camp
1951 American novels
1951 science fiction novels
American science fiction novels
Novels by L. Sprague de Camp
Doubleday (publisher) books
Fiction set around Procyon