Rogue Queen
Encyclopedia
Rogue Queen is a science fiction
novel written by L. Sprague de Camp
, the third book in his Viagens Interplanetarias
series. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1951, and in paperback by Dell Books in 1952. A later hardcover edition was issued by The Easton Press
in its The Masterpieces of Science Fiction series in 1996; later paperback editions were issued by Ace Books
(1965) and Signet Books (Nov. 1972, reprinted June 1978). A trade paperback edition was issued by Bluejay Books 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
, Italian
, French
and German
. An E-book
edition was published by Gollancz
's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form.
known to Terrans as Ormazd, the dominant humanoid species is organized into hive societies much like those of Earth's ant
s and bee
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 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
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.
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[r]ed in the manner it did."
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
rated Rogue Queen as "[t]he most interesting recent fictional extrapolation," noting that "[l]ively and unusual thinking, a vigorous plot, and a most appealing non-human heroine make [it] the best de Camp novel in many years.". Groff Conklin
described the novel as "without doubt the best item de Camp has yet developed out of his concept of Viagens Interplanetarias", lauding "[t]he meticulously scientific way in which de Camp develops details of this culture on a far-distant planet to parallel a bee society [as] fascinating," with "[t]he 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
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." The reviewer for Startling Stories characterized the book as "another in the same vein" in the author's "growing list of gentle satires," with "[t]he 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 called it "an ingenious, amusing tale" in which "[t]hat 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 [de Camp's] best novels." Joe De Bolt and John R. Pfeiffer noted that "[t]he contrast in sexual patterns produces humorous misunderstandings on the part of the Ormazdians, and serves to satirize our romantic conventions." Robert Coulson
"highly recommended" the book. After noting it "is my wife Juanita
's favorite science-fiction novel, and Iroedh her favorite character ... [with whom], as a grown-up tomboy, [she] identified 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, "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
, giving it a rating of two out of three stars, characterizes it as "[a]dventure with touches of satire, told in its author's customary light manner."
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 [for] describing the amazing society of the Avtini," regrets that "[u]nfortunately, 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. LeGuin examines gender roles and makes us think about what society forces on a person based solely on their sex [but] de Camp does not sustain this anthropological study, partly, perhaps, due to the phase in his career, and in science fiction, during which is was written." Had it been written later it "[p]erhaps ... could [have] live[d] up to its potential." He is not unmindful, however, of the book's role in making works such as LeGuin's possible.
Laura Quilter
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[s] 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 "[t]he 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.'"
To "counterbalance" such opinions, the blogger at Transylvanian Dutch reminds us that "[t]his was written in the 1950s, and while the male characters from Earth are chauvinistic, it’s clear the author knows they are chauvinistic. A truly sexist novel is oblivious to the sexism of the characters. The female characters in the novel don’t universally accept the roles they are ’supposed’ to fill." The reviewer argues that "if the book is intended as an argument for anything, it is an argument about the superiority of individualism over collectivism," and concludes by remarking on the sense of humor the author displays, and how reading the novel encouraged the reviewer "to search out some of his other books."
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel written by L. Sprague de Camp
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...
, the third book in his Viagens Interplanetarias
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 Burroughs's Martian novels...
series. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1951, and in paperback by Dell Books in 1952. A later hardcover edition was issued by The Easton Press
Easton Press
Easton Press, a division of MBI Inc., based in Norwalk, Connecticut, is a publisher specializing in high-quality leather-bound books. In addition to canonical classics, poetry and art books, they publish a large library of science fiction and popular literature as well.Some of Easton Press's...
in its The Masterpieces of Science Fiction series in 1996; later paperback editions were issued by Ace Books
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
(1965) and Signet Books (Nov. 1972, reprinted June 1978). A trade paperback edition was issued by Bluejay Books 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 language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. An E-book
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
edition was published by Gollancz
Victor Gollancz Ltd
Victor Gollancz Ltd was a major British book publishing house of the twentieth century. It was founded in 1927 by Victor Gollancz and specialised in the publication of high quality literature, nonfiction and popular fiction, including science fiction. Upon Gollancz's death in 1967, ownership...
's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form.
Plot and storyline
On the planet of the star Lalande 21185Lalande 21185
Lalande 21185 is a red dwarf star in the constellation of Ursa Major. Although relatively close by, it is only magnitude 7 in visible light and thus is too dim to see with the unaided eye...
known to Terrans as Ormazd, the dominant humanoid species is organized into hive societies much like those of Earth's ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
s and bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
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 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
Procyon is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Minor. To the naked eye, it appears to be a single star, the seventh brightest in the night sky with a visual apparent magnitude of 0.34...
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.
Importance
Rogue Queen is important in the history of science fiction for breaking the genre's taboo on sexual themes, paving the way for more daring works by Philip José FarmerPhilip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
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
Steven H Silver
Steven H Silver is an American science fiction fan and bibliographer, publisher, and editor. He has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer ten times and Best Fanzine three times without winning....
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[r]ed in the manner it did."
Reception
Early reviews were largely positive. Anthony BoucherAnthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
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
J. Francis McComas
Jesse Francis McComas 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....
rated Rogue Queen as "[t]he most interesting recent fictional extrapolation," noting that "[l]ively and unusual thinking, a vigorous plot, and a most appealing non-human heroine make [it] the best de Camp novel in many years.". Groff Conklin
Groff Conklin
Edward Groff Conklin was a leading science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories , wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet...
described the novel as "without doubt the best item de Camp has yet developed out of his concept of Viagens Interplanetarias", lauding "[t]he meticulously scientific way in which de Camp develops details of this culture on a far-distant planet to parallel a bee society [as] fascinating," with "[t]he 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
P. Schuyler Miller
Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...
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." The reviewer for Startling Stories characterized the book as "another in the same vein" in the author's "growing list of gentle satires," with "[t]he 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 called it "an ingenious, amusing tale" in which "[t]hat 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 [de Camp's] best novels." Joe De Bolt and John R. Pfeiffer noted that "[t]he contrast in sexual patterns produces humorous misunderstandings on the part of the Ormazdians, and serves to satirize our romantic conventions." Robert Coulson
Robert Coulson
Robert Stratton "Buck" Coulson was an American science fiction writer, well-known fan, filk song writer, fanzine editor and bookseller from Indiana....
"highly recommended" the book. After noting it "is my wife Juanita
Juanita Coulson
Juanita Coulson is an American science fiction and fantasy writer, active fan and fanzine editor. She is also widely known in filk music circles since the 1950s for her singing and songwriting; she has been nominated for several Pegasus Awards for her filking...
's favorite science-fiction novel, and Iroedh her favorite character ... [with whom], as a grown-up tomboy, [she] identified 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, "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
David Pringle is a Scottish science fiction editor.Pringle served as the editor of Foundation, an academic journal, from 1980 through 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective which founded Interzone in 1982...
, giving it a rating of two out of three stars, characterizes it as "[a]dventure with touches of satire, told in its author's customary light manner."
The book is rated more harshly in some of the most recent assessments, particularly by feminist reviewers. Steven Silver
Steven H Silver
Steven H Silver is an American science fiction fan and bibliographer, publisher, and editor. He has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer ten times and Best Fanzine three times without winning....
, after praising "the first half of the novel [for] describing the amazing society of the Avtini," regrets that "[u]nfortunately, 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. LeGuin examines gender roles and makes us think about what society forces on a person based solely on their sex [but] de Camp does not sustain this anthropological study, partly, perhaps, due to the phase in his career, and in science fiction, during which is was written." Had it been written later it "[p]erhaps ... could [have] live[d] up to its potential." He is not unmindful, however, of the book's role in making works such as LeGuin's possible.
Laura Quilter
Laura Quilter
Laura Quilter 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....
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[s] 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 "[t]he 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.'"
To "counterbalance" such opinions, the blogger at Transylvanian Dutch reminds us that "[t]his was written in the 1950s, and while the male characters from Earth are chauvinistic, it’s clear the author knows they are chauvinistic. A truly sexist novel is oblivious to the sexism of the characters. The female characters in the novel don’t universally accept the roles they are ’supposed’ to fill." The reviewer argues that "if the book is intended as an argument for anything, it is an argument about the superiority of individualism over collectivism," and concludes by remarking on the sense of humor the author displays, and how reading the novel encouraged the reviewer "to search out some of his other books."