SOLVED. sci fi written in 80's I think, where Earth has been conquered [s]

[Ann aka Iftcan]

While conquerored, there are humans all over the galaxie. The species that defeated humans was a humanoid race that was much bigger physically than humans. One of the characters in the book mentions that because we do look vaguely alike, but humans are smaller and "cute" the aliens kept us as "pets" instead of doing what we (the humans) would have done and wiped them out of existance.

The main character of the book is male--he's from a breeding farm, and his owner/breeder was trying for something specific with his breeding program--but I don't remember if it was never SAID what he wanted, or if I've just forgotten it. MC manages to escape somehow. He does this after everyone in his "house family" (who may or may not be related by blood, but were viewed as related because they all came out of/lived in that particular breeding house) is killed for some reason by their owner.

For a bit he kind of bums around, but I don't really remember what he's supposed to be doing during this phase. Then he meets some rebels or something, and gets recruited to help them try to find "The Man With Half a Brain" who supposedly knows where to find a very powerful weapon.

There are various goings on before he succeeds in finding the weapon and defeating the aliens and freeing humanity.

Other stuff I remember:

The aliens are ruled by a monarchy where the 'King" or "Emperor" is considered divinely appointed, and worshipped by the general population of the aliens. They also believe that they rule the galaxy because they were divinely appointed to do so.

The MC's former owner was exiled to the planet where he was doing his breeding experiments, because the Ruler was angry with him for some reason. NOT because of the experiments, since all of the aliens with wealth or who are members of the aristocracy do it.

This next is kind of ick factor 10, so I'm putting it in as spoilers, since it is definately NOT for the viewing of minors. (view spoiler)[ One type of humans that the aliens have bred for is great big huge bodies with almost no brain. They do, however have tremendous sex drives and the aliens use them to torture any human that they think is plotting against them. The will use these monster humans on anyone, sometimes just to make a point. There is a minor female charater that the MC meets and is attracted to who's father was rich and powerful (for a human) and she had led a sheltered, priviledged life. The Aliens discover that the MC is working with the rebels and the take the girl and her father captive. They make her watch as the giant sub-humans they have created rape her father to death. Then they tell her that they will let them do the same thing to HER unless she tells them everything she knows about the MC. So she does the sensible thing and lies, telling them that he is/was in love with her and that she can get close to him. So they send her in to keep an eye on the MC and to alert them when he finds the weapon. (hide spoiler)]

Ok, spoiler 2 is just the ending of the book, and anyone can read it. (view spoiler)[ the weapon was created by yet a DIFFERENT group of aliens, who were even more powerful than the ones that conquerored humans. This group of aliens had engaged in a long war with a different species of aliens--one that I don't think was entirely sentient, unless it took an intelligent host--and pre-dated all of the "modern" species. The aliens who created the weapon used it to destroy all of the planets (and possibly stars??) where there were any of the other aliens. I think that in doing that, they also pretty much wiped out their own civilization and species. The weapon is all that is left of the aliens (who were kind of frog like in appearance.) There is one member of the enemy species left, and its also in this weapon, and is struggling to get to the command part of the weapon.

Appearantly, before the last of the frog aliens died, it set the semi-alive AI that controlled the weapon up so that it created a kind of obstical course so that only a member of another intelligent species who was NOT controlled by the enemy creature could get through to the command section.

The breeding program that the MC was a product of gave the MC the psychic powers or whatever it was that the frog aliens considered necessary to take control of the weapon.

The MC used the weapon to destroy the Enemy Alien ships that were surrounding the world where the weapon was, and to then demand from the Alien ruler that he surrender and pull his people out of the space that humans had had control of before they met up with them. The Ruler agrees to this and, just as he's starting to give the order to his fleet to pull all of their people out of human space, he's assassinated by a member of the fanatical religious group who said that he had proven himself unfit to rule and that all humans must be killed and so on and so forth--in other words, totally delusional, since they couldn't fight the Frog Alien weapon. So the MC gets impatient and blows up the Homeworld of the Aliens. He then orders the military to find whoever is in charge now and HE could surrender. The new ruler was like 32nd or so in line to the throne, and almost the ONLY member of the royal family who hadn't been on the home world. And, yep, you guessed it--it was the Alien who had bred the MC. (hide spoiler)]

As you can tell--I remember a LOT about this book. Just not the title or author or even what the cover looked like

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Bump

[Diana]

I don't know what your book is, but I thought I'd pop in and say that if no one here recognizes it, your next best chance of getting a title is to post it on What was that book?

[Mawgojzeta]

I swear I read this book (or something similar). I will look through my list to see if I have it on there. If not, I will think on it some more.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

bump

[Ann aka Iftcan]

bump

[Kris]

I thought of Sardonyx Net by Elizabeth Lynn but that's not it at all...

[Grey]

This might be Battlefield Earth by L Ron Hubbard? The book is tremendously different from the film.

[Melanti]

I was about to suggest Battlefield Earth too... I'm not sure all the info in the spoilers fit (especially the first spoiler) but It's been a few decades, so my memory is shaky. But quite a bit of your description does fit.

The secret weapon in that book is: (view spoiler)[Uranium. The alien's atmosphere is explosive in the presence of Uranium, so when they transport a casket of Uranium there, the alien's planet explodes. (hide spoiler)]

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Bump

And it isn't Battlefield Earth.

The secret weapon in Battlefield Earth is way to mild for what the secret weapon in my book did. Oh, and when the weapon is activated, it takes a big chunk out of the planet that it is on. I'm talking like a square a mile on each side and a mile deep. Part of the mystery of the planet is what has caused those holes on the planet.

[Daphne]

Ha, when I saw your post on whatwasthatbook I *knew* I'd seen it before. The answer is Starhammer. Interestingly you put up different details there. "Man with half a head" turns out to be the phrase that I googled to get the answer.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

OOHHH, thank you Daphne--I've been searching for that book for years. Found one available on Paperbackswap.com and ordered it. Here's hoping it's as good as I remember it being.

[Daphne]

When looking at links I discovered that this novel is thought to have influenced the game Halo. I never played Halo so I can't say if that's a positive thing, but I thought it was interesting.