Rissa Kerguelen

Rissa Kerguelen #1-3

by F.M. Busby

Originally published as two books, namely "Rissa Kerguelen" and the sequel "The Long View".

"Tomorrow's ultimate woman on a star-flung crusade of vengeance and victory

At five, they slaughtered her parents and doomed her to slavery.

At seventeen, she escaped from earth as a million-dollar fugitive.

At eighteen, she commanded an army in outer space."

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy, Collections

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Francis Marion Busby

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._M._B...

Reviews

[Joel Hacker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of three separate novels, much like The Demu Trilogy. After reading the two back to back, I actually think Busby's work suffers from the omnibus format somewhat. Despite all three stories flowing seemlessly into one another with minimal breaks in story, this kind of pulpy story was meant for short punchy action focused stories, not these 500+ page volumes and I think the pacing feels off as a consequence.
This definitely gives a lot more context for the Zelde M'Tana story I read previously. We get a little more direct view early on for just why everyone (including our protagonists) are kind of...I think 'terrible' is the wrong word, but 'hard' or 'ruthless' would be appropriate...people. Even still, we don't get a lot of context for just how awful and dystopian the world has gotten until the latter part of the final 'volume' in the series. And even then, its very after the fact and there are still some real blanks, things only vaguely hinted at rather than shown to us. I know that's not really the point of the books, but I think given just how objectionable the traits of many of our 'heroes' are a better idea of how objectionable the world had become would have been helpful. And some of the reveals of the 'Long View' about how Earth got where it did feel very...topical and relevant to the slope the US political system seems to be on presently.
While we do get a lot more Tregare here as a male protagonist, our main protagonist (and even a lot of the important ancillary characters) is still a woman, Rissa Kerguelen. I think its interesting that Busby's protagonists seem almost exclusively to be strong women, despite the overall misogyny of the pulps and that while they may not be the best written women (I'll leave that judgement up to female readers), they still seem better realized and written characters than his male characters.
This was totally solid pulp space opera, and I'll certainly read the remaining Hulzein Dynasty books I've laying around.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is three books in one, and I’ve read some but not all of them before, so rereading it was partly a journey to myself. It was interesting how often the things that worked about the book weren’t clearly intentional; Risse often seemed unaware of how traumatic things were affecting her, and the author seemed convinced by her rational thoughts but us in the bookclub were not. The treatment of sex showed how far we are from the 70s; nowadays we are much more graphic but much less free wheeling.

The book talks a lot about the long view and that’s a big part of my memory but that takes up less space than I remember.

[Jonathan Palfrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I read it in 1979, I commented, “Find it quite absorbing despite its faults.” But I no longer have the book, so apparently I didn’t think it worth keeping.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three books in one.

Originally published as two books, namely "Rissa Kerguelen" and the sequel "The Long View".

"Tomorrow's ultimate woman on a star-flung crusade of vengeance and victory

At five, they slaughtered her parents and doomed her to slavery.

At seventeen, she escaped from earth as a million-dollar fugitive.

At eighteen, she commanded an army in outer space."

[Heather's Mum · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Stellar?" (pun)...Not! Good read, but not the most outstanding read ever. I would have liked it more without the over-done & tedious (sometimes abusive) sexual content which distracted from the otherwise decent storyline.

[Rebecca Huston · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourites from my teenage years, and still pretty readable decades later.

[Tiaret]

I haven't thought about Rissa for years but she was a strong female character, made me proud.

[Liz Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

An oldie but a goodie. This is one of my favorite books. It's science fiction, but not much of it actually takes place in space. It definitely has a lot of 1970s era feminism in the story.

[Amyreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

first SF heroine I ever encountered. wonderful space opera.