Olga Romanoff; or, The Syren of the Skies

Called just Syren Of The Skies in my edition, this is a sequel to Griffith's own Angel of the Revolution, set over a century after the Anglo-Saxon Federation conquered the world, in the year 2030. With peace having been in place for a century, the Federation and its Aerian rulers decide to let the nations of the world govern themselves once more-- how very generous of them. This is an opportunity, however, for Olga Romanoff, the last daughter of the Tsars of Russia, to begin her vengeance on the people that deposed her ancestors.

This is one of those books where you can tell that even the author hated the heroes. The Aerians are smug, obnoxiously perfect, and utterly dull. Thankfully, they're not in it as much as the ostensible villain, show more Olga Romanoff. Olga is one of those villains who does what she wants because she's smarter, more cunning, and more ambitious than those around her, and you like her all the better for it. And she's sexy-- not due to illustrations (in fact, there's no good picture of her, as Fred Jane was clearly hired for his ability to draw airships, not people), but because she has no reservations about using her looks to get what she wants. The Aerians she dominates may blame the mind-control drug she uses, but they're clearly in her thrall long before that. Watching Olga try to get what she wants despite being frustrated by the supercilious Aerians at every turn makes great reading-- I also loved the secondary villain, the Muslim sultan Khalid. Both are the kind of villains you really want to win, because at least with them, 1) you don't have to put up with the boring heroes and 2) at least they aren't hypocrites.

Of course, this can only sustain you so far, and there's still long passages of people talking about their racial superiority, virtuous women being deadly dull (no longer the men all fall for Olga), and a somewhat random telegram from Martians, but on the whole, this was an enjoyable read whenever it was focused on Olga's machinations, even if that wasn't quite so much as I might have liked.

(My Tsar Wars edition tries to further the Star Wars parallels with the cover blurb "The Empire Strikes Back, The Force, & A Death Star," which is a bit contrived on the latter two points. I think "The Force" is just the generic use of the term as a military force, and the "Death Star" is a comet whose tail the Earth passes through. A more compelling Star Wars link would be the psuedo-sibling incest.) show less