C.J. Ryan Glorious Treason

Glorious Treason

C.J. Ryan

Bantam, Dec 2005, $6.99, 404 pp.

ISBN 0553587773

In the year 3217 Emperor Charles V wants to make the planet Sylvania Incorporated Imperial Territory so that the twelve big corporations can bid for rights to mine Fergusite, the gemstone that powers the fusion generators enabling spaceships to travel great distances in little time. Until it was discovered on Sylvania, it was manufactured so that quality was standardized. If the big corporations it, there is a good chance that ships will be destroyed, confidence in space travel will plummet and trade fall dramatically.

It could also mean the end of the empire which is why Norman Minus, Secretary of Extraterrestrial Afairs, sends Gloria Van Dean, Director of the Office of Strategic Intervention to Sylvania. Her obvious mission is to see that the Emperor's wishes are carried out but her true purpose is to stop Fergusite from being mined. Gloria knows if she is caught, it would be treason but she believes, like Mingus, that the emperor's greed should not destroy an empire. When she arrives on planet, she becomes enemy to the founding fathers of the planet and the corporations' representatives. As Gloria sees it there is only two ways to carry out her mission. The first using legal methods and if those fail, use chicanery, misdirection and criminal acts (as defined by the emperor).

Gloria has a genetically enhanced sex drive which she uses in her mission without any regrets, thinking of it as just another tool in her arsenal of tricks. She admits she's hard, calculating and will do what ever it takes to be Mingus's successor when he retires but her actions show her as a caring beautiful woman and that surface at inconvenient times. There is a lot of action and political intrigue in this erotic outer space crime thriller. C.J. Ryan creates a world with words so vividly that readers can actually imagine being there.

Harriet Klausner