Space Relations

Space Relations: A Slightly Gothic Interplanetary Tale is a space opera novel by Donald Barr, the father of current US Attorney General William Barr, originally published on 17 September 1973 by Charterhouse and distributed by McKay, and reprinted by Fawcett Crest Books in February 1975. It is one of only two novels Barr is known to have written, the other being A Planet in Arms.[2]

Space Relations
AuthorDonald Barr
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
Set inFuture
Published17 September 1973
PublisherCharterhouse
Pages249[1]
ISBN9780860000242
OCLC856626
LC Class73-79958

Plot

In the future, humans have formed an intergalactic empire ruled by aristocrats. During a time of war with the Plith, an empire of ant-like alien bug people, ambassador John Craig, a formerly Liberal Earth man in his 30s, is dispatched to the strategically important planet Kossar, a human colony that was settled by the Carlyle Society as a place of exile for political extremists and now is ruled by an oligarchical high council of seven nobles, each of whom is in charge of a different domain with its own traditions. Their boredom and absolute power have driven them to madness, to the point that Kossar's entry into the empire has been stymied by the Man-Inhabited Planets Treaty's clause (written by Craig) against alliances with slave owning societies, due to its practice of kidnapping humans to become illegal playthings of the galaxy's super-rich.

Craig, who now is campaigning to bring Kossar into the empire, had previously been to the planet when the passenger ship on which he was travelling on a return trip from the Betelgeuse Conference was captured by space pirates. While en route to Kassar, one of the pirates awakened Craig and the other prisoners to rape a 15-year-old virginal redheaded female captive in front of them; the rapist's fellow pirates later hear of this and dock his pay as punishment for spoiling her market value. Craig then spent two years as a slave of the beautiful, sensual, and sadistic Lady Morgan Sidney, the only female member of the oligarchy, with whom he became romantically involved. Together, they lived in her castle, ruling over and engaging in sexual relations with those under their dominion, including an enslaved teenager at a clinic used to breed enslaved people. When Craig stumbles on hints of an alien invasion, he realizes he must escape to save humanity.

Reactions

The novel was criticized by Pornokitsch for devoting too much attention to character development rather than world-building.[3] The novel was described in a Vice article as "both comically amoral and insufferably pretentious. To be fair, these traits were common in 1970s sci-fi."[4] In 1973, Kirkus Reviews described the novel as "a coruscatingly literate tale for grown-ups."[5]

Space Relations saw increased public attention after Barr's former employee Jeffrey Epstein died in a jail cell. Some have drawn connections between the violent sexual depictions in Space Relations and Epstein's alleged sex trafficking activities and obsessions.[4]

gollark: ABR can roll things in the meantime.
gollark: Does it contain accurate extrapolations of human culture?
gollark: It is.
gollark: Does it contain weather?
gollark: Does it contain magnetohydrodynamics?

References
  1. "Space relations; a slightly Gothic interplanetary tale. (Book, 1973) [WorldCat.org]". worldcat.org. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  2. "AG Barr's father warns of 'dictatorship'...in outer space". Spectator USA. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  3. "Underground Reading: Space Relations by Donald Barr". Pornokitsch. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  4. "Epstein Truthers Are Obsessed With a Sci-Fi Book About Child Sex Slavery Written by Bill Barr's Dad". VICE. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  5. "www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/donald-barr-2/space-relations/". kirkusreviews.com. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
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