SOLVED. Science Fiction / Space Opera author in the style of A. Bertram Chandler. [s]

[Colin]

Way back in the 20th century I vaguely recall reading several books by a science fiction author whose characters and plot lines were rather similar to those of A. Bertram Chandler. A spaceship captain (maybe a commander, maybe a commodore) usually in charge of a Corvette who would end up in a battle against a vastly superior enemy spaceship, say a Frigate or multiples thereof.

One small snipped of a story that sticks in my mind involved some kind of alien life form - a lake, or positioned in the middle of a lake - that at the end of the story was transformed into a solid gold replica statue of a beautiful woman (one of the characters in the story).

In the same book, or perhaps another book in the author's repertoire, as the heroic space captain (commander, whatever) directs his ship to lift up off a planet with enemy ships above that are going to try and blow him up, a woman in the command area (with other crew members) who is his romantic interest in this book notices an extra button on his command console that is a bomb, and grabs it and covers it with her body to nobly sacrifice herself, but the hero guy grabs it off her and throws it out a convenient space garbage shoot, so everyone lives happily ever after.

Oh, and I think the enemy spaceships were often described as having a wasp-like appearance. For some reason the word "scottian" to describe these enemies sticks in my mind, but a google search finds nothing relevant, so that might be a spurious memory.

[Banjomike]

One Is One by John Rankine.

The statue is of Vanora and is platinum, I think.

[Colin]

Yes!!! Thank you!!! My brain was imploding trying to remember - and you know the list of science fiction authors on Wikipedia doesn't even include him?

SOLVED