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Glorious Treason by C.J. Ryan
28/11/2005 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Bantam Spectra. 404 page paperback. Price: $ 6.99 (US), $10.99 (CAN). ISBN: 0-553-58777-3. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.bantamdell.com
Gloria VanDeen is back and now in charge of the Department of Strategic Intervention, a unit of the Department Of Extraterrestrial Affairs aka DEXTA. Officially, she's been ordered to sort out the mining rights of the Empire on the planet Sylvania for Fergusite, a crystal used in interstellar drives. Normally, this has to be manufactured and this nature source is far from pure. The Emperor, who is also her ex-husband, wants to make a profit from this. Gloria's boss, Norman Mingus, thinks the impurities will destroy starships and break up the empire and adds a different set of orders. Covertly, Gloria is to stop this happening despite the fact it will be seen as a treasonable act should she be caught.
The planet Sylvania is probably the equivalent of an American gold strike state as both a wilderness and a ghetto town with miners and water-sifters making do with the small particles of Fergusite that can find. Gloria has her job cut out for her sorting out the good from the bad guys, keeping the corporations at bay and doing her job. She also has a libido that would make you blush in anything but a slightly more coy book than this. It's kept just in this side of tasteful fortunately.
'Glorious Treason' is very much a throwback to the pulp fiction of yesteryear with current day sensibilities. Writer C.J. Ryan lays down the ground rules as to what is going on but leaves you to follow Gloria's solutions to problems as they come along. This book is not for the faint-hearted or those with a puritan attitude. Ryan suitably brings these characters to life so you care what happens to them. The trappings are essentially SF but the plot could probably be driven in a general genre or a western with a little conversion. Saying that, this is still an interesting romp if you want a move away from more intense SF for a spell. Considering the kinds of missions Gloria VanDeen is given, there is always something unexpected around the corner. Bureaucracy in the 33rd century is definitely a game for swingers.
GF Willmetts
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