Dexta (Gloria VanDeen)

Dexta by C. J. Ryan is a character driven story set in the 33 Century, where the Empire of man has spread itself over thousands of planets and hundreds of light years. While the Emperor might seem powerful the true power is the bureaucracy who, even with all their rules and codes, keeps the Empire running. Like a well oiled machine the Empire has been tickling away for centuries. Then one day, on the planet Mynjhino, the peaceful natives decide to start blowing the humans away. Gloria VanDeen, a low-level bureaucrat of the Department of Extraterrestrial Affairs and the Emperor's ex-wife, must try to stop the rebellion and get to the bottom of it. Why are the natives doing this and where did they get the weapons to start the fighting in the first place? After all, the planet in question happens to be one of the many she is in charge of - if she fails millions may die! Lots of sex, treachery and backstabbing.

Ryan has written a novel as good as the Honor Harrington or Miles Vorsigan series; wish I knew who he was! I started this book after being too tired to continue designing circuit boards but not quite ready to drop off to sleep. I awoke several times thinking about it, and, at work, wished I were back at home so I could continue a great read! Picked it up again this afternoon, and didn't put it down until the end. Great Story! Will eagerly await the next!!

Writers from Gore Vidal to Harry Turtledove has observed that empires are run by the bureaucrats. Until now, no galactic empire story has picked up on that idea. "Dexta" does so in an almost hilarious fashion, featuring not just bureaucrats, but highly charged, highly sexed, super bureaucrats, the least of whom has more power than any platoon of Imperial Marines. Eponymous Dexta is the Department of Extraterrestrial Affairs, overseeing more than 2,600 worlds in Man's empire. Gloria VanDeen is the Emperor Charles' ex-wife, now a low-level Dexta Sector Supervisor making a name for herself independently. She is, of course, stunningly beautiful, sexually overpowering, highly intelligent and quick on her feet. She uses each and every one of these attributes -- some, arguably, to excess -- in accomplishing her mission. That mission arises when one primitives on one of Gloria's planets suddenly sport, and use, AK-47s (tribute to "Guns of the South"?). Charging off to investigate, Gloria encounters a predictably intertwined plot to -- well, you'll just have to read the book. The "what" isn't all that important, anyway, there's no serious effort to create a real mystery. The fun is how it all gets sorted out. Ryan's writing is very fluid and vivid. Most star empire novels are quick reads; this one is like mercury. Unlike most writers in this sub genre, Ryan unapologetically refuses to invent new technology. What makes this book great is that it's fun. And the author clearly had fun with it too -- there's no sonorous, self-conscious writing here.

Science Fiction is filled with vast, star-spanning space empires. Some of them good, some of them evil, some of them in between. The stories about them are filled with brawny heroes and dastardly villians and fleets of starships battling for dominance. But did you ever stop to think about who was actually running those empires? Well, under the surface are the real heros of the empire: the bureaucrats! Dexta, by C.J. Ryan is a book about space bureaucrats and a darn good one. Mr. Ryan skillfully blends humor and sex with space adventure and shows that problems aren't always best solved with a blaster. His heroine is at once appealing and formidably self-reliant and unafraid to use her most potent weapons to save the day. Highly recommended.

At twenty three, former sheep turned tiger Gloria VanDeen seems on her way up the long bureaucratic ladder at the Empire's department of Extraterrestrial Affairs better known as Dexta though currently she is level XIII in charge of five planets amongst the 2643 annexed orbs. However, a problem at backwater Mynjhino has surfaced that could derail her career. A report says that the local Myn populace is using semi-automatic rifles which are too advanced for them and killed GalaxCo humans. Before she can investigate the massacre of sixteen people, she attends an event hosted by her ex husband, Charles, now the Emperor. They share a night of sex that makes the media news. To escape the sensation of no longer being a faceless bureaucrat, Gloria decides to leap the 862 light years from Times Square to Mynjhino. Nine days later, accompanied by her sheep of an assistant, she begins inquires into the seemingly ephemeral subservient Myn and another indigent race because she learned of several additional slaughters. DEXTA is a terrific science fiction satire that lampoons much of the government-corporate complex that runs the United States and global economy. The structure at Dexta is brilliantly based upon a vast horizontal and vertical formal classification system, but operates under animalistic informal interrelationships. Once on planet the tale spins into another direction though it never loses sight of the classification systems; Gloria the tigress employs her boobs, brains, and body to uncover who is supplying the Myn and how to reach this strange race treated like cattle by most on planet "white man's burden" humans. C.J. Ryan provides a fabulous treasure that will have his appreciative audience anxiously awaiting his next entry in this wonderful universe. Harriet Klausner