Customer Reviews

Dexta

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Dexta is blend of science fiction and soft-core erotica, a space opera about liberated beautiful women using all of their assets to get things done.

The science in this science fiction is quite unimaginative and seems mostly borrowed from other novels of similar quality. But Dexta does not claim to be hard sci-fi, so we won't dwell on that. The fiction part starts out very promising, with an interesting and witty description of the inner workings of a galactic empire, the bureaucracy running it, the excesses of the court and so on. But, starting somewhere in the middle of the book, it gradually deteriorates to a pitiful and ridiculous level of a support plot for a romance novel. And I neither like nor understand romance novels.

A good third of the text, of almost every page, is dedicated to people having sex, thinking about sex, or talking about sex, or, at the very least, to discussions of how little clothes all characters are wearing and how well their assets look when covered by 90% transparent dresses. Constant repetetive references to the sexuality and visual appeal of the heroine are mildly interesting in the beginning, boring towards the middle and simply annoying in the end, when the disintegration of the plot and the constant locker-room quality of sexual innuendo make reading unbearable. Imagine Pamela Anderson running for president on the strength of her bust and you'll get the idea. Don't get me wrong, I like erotic stories as much as the next guy, but this was just not up to the level. I can imagine teenage boys liking this, but hardly anyone else. I would recommend a decent sci-fi book and a copy of playboy instead.

Two stars because I am feeling generous and because I did enjoy the first half of the book.

The problem with this book is that it fails on every genere it's trying to work. It's a lousy science fiction novel, a non-erotic erotic novel and an unromantic romance novel.

Look, if the erotic writing was at least detailed enough to arouse then it could be lumped in with Spaceways and have done with it. But it fails. It's all description of skimpy outfits and cuts to the next scene.

As for adventure Even Spaceways had more action, heck, even The Alien Trace (an eroto-sci-fi work in the 80s) beats this.

I don't know why a sequel was published, but I hope somebody sat down with the author and said:

"These are your choices: read a few penthouse letters and do better with the erotica, read science fiction and try to be original, or go actually have sex or an adventure so you can write about both or either with some authenticity"

Do not buy this book.

Alas, it is no satire. If it were satire, Our Heroine would not be right Every Single Time (even when she's being stupid), and the author would be sniggering at her instead of with her. It's amazing how well she can bend other people to her will with only a single speech, or a single flash of her nipples.

It's also amazing how often Our Heroine is both average and extraordinary. She's a mid-level bureaucrat AND the Emperor's ex-wife. Everyone who's anyone is beautiful AND she's gorgeous even by those standards.

What we have here is not satire but Mary Sue. And a badly written one at that.

I love it when sci-fi takes old trite concepts and takes an alternative look at them. Battlestar Galactica for example.

"Dexta" tries this by starring a bureaucrat (Gloria VanDeen) instead of the usual trouble shooter, marine, navy officer, or secret agent.

Its hard to care about this though since Dexta is a crocodile nest of narcisstic competition. Rape and coercian are standard methods of control over subordinates and Gloria indulges just as much as any other Dextra bureaucrat. She herself is raped repeatedly and she dismisses this as part of the game. Employees working for Gloria are advised to use these stupid methods. You find yourself wondering why the Imperial government just doesn't nuke the Dexta offices to clean out this evil. It would certainly only help the Empire. None of this makes you like Gloria very much.

Beyond this Gloria VanDeen is a shallow character. She is a nympho whose sole ability is to wear tight revealing clothes and use any excuse to get out of them fast. It seems like 1/2 the book is just describing her latest wardrobe choice or lack of it.

In dealing with the Myn alien insurrection its pretty much the same story as at the Dextra offices. You really don't care about anybody in this book since its more about the sex than any other part of the story.

Now don't get me wrong. Sex and eroticism can be important and fascinating parts of a story. But do it wrong and it becomes a bad joke of a novel. Witness the later Anita Blake novels by Laurell Hamilton vs her earlier ones. That series has become a trainwreck due to its overindulgence in sex at the expense of telling a good story.

Ms. Klausner's review gave me pause. As satire, this book would have been interesting and would have merited her glowing review. Unfortunately, I think the author was utterly serious with this book. The turgid focus is mindnumbing, without ever being attractive or interesting. The perpetrators of the central mystery are obvious. And yet...Mr. Ryan can write. He held my interest all the while I said "this is appalling, what a narrowminded, pig". I would buy a paperback of the sequel in December to see how the lead character changes, now that she is leaving being a tigress behind.

One of the other reviewers gave this two stars and said he was being generous. He was very generous. If I could, I'd give it a negative 5 stars. Unfortunately, Amazon won't let me give it less than 1 star. The saddest part is that the plot itself is pretty good, but the writing is so bad, it completely negates anything else. If the constant comments concerning clothing (or lack thereof), sex, thoughts, of sex, and attempts to get sex or use sex as a weapon had been eliminated, the book would have been about 60 pages. Maybe not even that.

I bought Dexta as a result of my curiosity about the author and the positive reviews of the book. I thought the story was interesting but the character development and plot very thin. I think if you enjoy other books by C.J. Ryan you would enjoy this book as well.

Dexta may be set in the distant future, but nothing much has changed, especially not humankind. A touch of the erotic, the ugliness of a gray corrupt corporation, the allure of distant planets-it is just part of the excitement of this galactic mystery.

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.

Ryan bravely goes where few writers would dare with this space opera/romance/adventure/comedy. He sets a dazzling pace and manages to maintain it for large sections of the novel. BUT - if you take this novel too seriously YOU WILL HATE IT!

Why? Because he plays up stereotypes to a fare-thee-well, and hangs heavy on the eros. The heroine is a Blonde/Princess Archetype, and that's just the tip of the one that sunk the Titanic. Yet at the same time, he delves into colonialism and genocide - serious issues that can trap readers into overanalyzing Dexta. But c'mon, guys, this wasn't meant to be taken that seriously! Consider the evidence:

The people at Dexta have levels - which they desperately strive to lower. And what level is the main character, exactly?!? And Dexta personnel are identified according to a Bestiary - Lions and Tigers and Moles, Oh My! The main character is Gloria[na]! The aliens are cute fuzzy-wuzzies straight out of Star Wars! The Spirit of the major religion is a deliberate fabrication, and everyone knows it. Finally, it's a neo-Victorian colonial Empire, and yet the Victorian Empire (ESPECIALLY the royal court) was best known for what? And this Empire (ESPECIALLY the royal court) is best known for what? You get three guesses if you haven't read Dexta, but if you get it wrong, you get voted off the planet!

Ryan walks a fine line here by portraying issues like colonialism - but consider that this is a parody of the Victorian Empire, and note that the colonies are treated no worse here than they actually were by nineteenth-century colonialists. This is no more condescending! And genocide? Ryan shows how ridiculously easy genocide is, and how ridiculous the idea that a personal crusade could stop it through high-minded idealism. All most would-be Joan-of-Arcs succeed at is going up in flames!

I think an opportunity was missed here to make the last quarter of the book much more serious in tone - you have to change your pacing to make a story like this work, and Dexta fades a bit towards the end, bogged down by the seriousness of the issue -genocide. Perhaps the catastrophe should have been embraced, to take the book full circle from erotic comedy to Shakespearean tragedy.

But writing something like this is difficult - it's a different challenge to the structured world-building of hard sci-fi. With a book like this, creating and maintaining energy is more important, and Dexta does quite well. There are flaws, but kudos to Ryan for trying something off-beat, and I hope Glorious Treason is even more engaging!