Customer Reviews

Queen Of Denial

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you are looking for nose-in-the-air literature, you are looking in the wrong place with Queen of Denial.
However, if you want a lightening fast read that will leave you chuckling, kick back and enjoy.

Drewcila Qwah is the best salvager in the galaxy. She loves beer, smoking, rousting about with her first mate Van Gar (a large fur covered alien) in the spaceport bars, and causes a disturbance wherever she goes.

Surprisingly, her garbage scow is hired to transport King Zarco back to his homeworld, and she is made an offer she can't refuse.
But during her mission, she finds out that Zarco has been searching for his missing queen Taralin, and that she's the one he's looking for. She has no memory of her abduction or anything prior to it, for her captures removed part of her brain. Still, she decides to go ahead with Zarco and see what she can get from this planet. After all, she's their Queen.

In an uproarously funny adventure, Drew and Van Gar wind out turning Barion upside down while trying to fix their post war problems, all while someone keeps making attempts on Drew's life.

This book is nothing more than a simplistic romp from one planet to another, more of a character story with a sci-fi background. There is hardly any prose at all, which causes the book to be a bit jumpy, but the dialogue is smart and sassy and filled with laughs and clever banter.

If I were ever to take a space adventure, I would want Drew as my pilot. So put away your snobbish discretion and settle down into the wacky capers of the irascible Queen of Garbage. Enjoy!

Brash and prone to carousing, Drewcila Qwah is one of the best salvagers in the universe, and with her mate (and sometimes lover) Van Gar, she's been having a great time for the past five years. They are hired to ferry a long-lost queen home to rendezvous with the King of Barious. Enemies of Barious kidnapped the queen years ago, and they brainwashed her, so she has no memories of anything except for the past few years. When they reach the rendezvous, Drew finds herself enmeshed deeper in this whole drama than she ever wanted, or thought possible, but her unscrupulous instincts surface and she's determined to make it all to her advantage. This rough and rollicking space adventure is a wild ride full of zany characters and wacky incidents. Rosen tells a good story, but unfortunately there are so many grammatical and editorial errors that plague this book, so some readers may be deterred from "Queen of Denial".

do you like bob asprin's humor? terry pratchet's flair? good. now imagine that strong of a voice with enough blue language to make your momma cringe.

it isn't going to change your life, but it might make you question your polical views and pepper your speech with #%$&**! It will make you laugh out loud.

Selina Rosen has a winning effort in "Queen of Denial." The plot is fairly easy to sum up; Drewcila Quah has been a Salvager for many years. She's good at it; she drinks hard, loves hard, and swears a whole lot, as the other Salvagers do.

However, there's a secret in her past that is about to be revealed; seems that she's the missing Queen of an important planet. Her husband waited five years to come after her; now, he's found her.

The sparks fly, but not the way he wants. The King, Zarco, is a very boring guy; he's done a whole lot of warring, he slept with Drew's sister Stasha, and he's not a very nice guy at all in my opinion. Drew, even with all her swearing, bedding and other stuff, is the sympathetic one.

I really liked Drew; she's extremely funny. Her partner the alien is also amusing, and they interact well together. Her sister Stasha is also played for laughs, and is much more sympathetic than any other character in this book other than Drew.

Thing is, plot alone is not the reason to read this. The reason to read it is because it's absolutely, positively hilarious. There are many laugh out loud moments here, too many to list, and the _only_ real drawback is that the frontispiece for the novel (the initial page, explaining things) has a whole lot of punctuation and spelling errors. I don't completely understand this; how did it get through one printing that way, much less multiple printings?

Never mind. Ignore that page. The rest is extremely good.

So, the final tally is four and a half stars, highly recommended.

Barb Caffrey

The planet of Barious had finished a long war. Five years previously, during one of the conflicts, Taralin Zarco, Queen of Barious, was abducted by the Barion's mortal enemies the Locheds. The Locheds used Taralin as a test subject in their labs. After five years of captivity off planet Taralin no longer had any memories of being Queen of Barious. With the war over, King Zarco sent for his wife to return.

Drewcilia "Drew" Qwah was the best salvager in the galaxy. She drank too much, smoked too much, and had a mouth that would make a sailor blush! Her partner, Van Gar, was a huge hair covered alien. They were hired to escort the confused queen back to her husband. No matter how much Drew hated royalty, it was a lot of beer money for a SIMPLE escort job.

***** This story is down-right edible! I felt as though Drew was a female Han Solo since her morals seem to be the same and her partner looks much like a Wookie. No nonsense, beer guzzling, hilarious, and NOT TO BE MISSED! I loved every second! *****

I loved this book. It was a fast read and really entertaining. I love the writing style and the bawdy humor. She writes the perfect female sci-fi female character. The story has a fresh twist and will keep you engrossed for hours. I cant wait to see what she does next!

C'mon, folks, what's up with complaining about the swearing? Do you live in a climate-controlled garden under a glass dome and travel to work in an underground tunnel so you never have to come into contact with the vulgar masses? Ever spent any time on a construction site? Sheesh.

The previous reviewer (and Lynn Abbey) who pointed out that this is best enjoyed read aloud--absolutely correct. Even better if you've had the privelege of hearing the author herself read from it, as I recently did. Once you realize that this story is (IMHO) essentially a transliteration of a spoken story, rather than one that's purely written, it works much better. Yes, there are a few homophone problems, and a few tics that most professional writers avoid. That doesn't change the fact that the story is funny and enjoyable, and for a wonder has great female characters. Is it Great Literature?..no. Is it funny? You bet your...

I found this novel fast and fun. It reminded me a bit of the hit British television series Red Dwarf. Drewcilia Qwah, a hard as nails Salvager who runs her ship (the Garbage Scow) with the aid of a tall, hairy alien named Van Gar, is asked to transport an important mission to return a captured Queen to her King. Drewcilia, who is somewhat suspicious of the setup, lets her love of money overcome her good sense and agrees. Thus begins a rather rollicking space opera.

Drewcilia has fun. She thinks that every ship should have an ice chest full of beer on the bridge. When not downing cold beer she likes mixed drinks with suggestive names that pack a hell of a hangover. When it comes to trading her morals are somewhat lacking but she does not double cross her friends. Her plans also tend to succeed, if everyone else would just keep out of the way and let her work.

For those of delicate sensibilities, yes the language is rough, but it's real language as used by real rednecks not toned down for a "pg13" rating. Lynn Abbey in her introduction talks about how well Rosen's writing lends itself to being read. I agree. It's not that Drew doesn't have some delicacy of feeling, it's just that she expresses it in actions and not words.

I don't mean the language. I mean Rosen is unedited, which is a shame. There's some raw talent there, but mixed with some rought writerly mistakes.

The story has its moments, the humor is wise-cracking and [hard core]; I wish this had been a graphic novel, and I think it would have been a smashing success.

There's not even a serious attempt at a story, a plot, or characters.