War Queen

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Strip away wants. Strip away desire, strip away dreams and hopes. When you peel it back, such things are luxuries only possible when you have first guaranteed your survival. Survival is everything, and in its pursuit, even the self may need to be stripped away for the survival of the species. Life, of her and her people, was nothing to the aliens if it was not useful. So she would be useful, she would be obedient, and she would survive. Under the control of the new rulers of her world and species, as a pawn in a conflict she could scarce comprehend, she would survive. And in this cosmic war of forces beyond her understanding, when all that is known is stripped away, survival is not just everything; it is all there is left.((Hosted for free on Royal Road ))(( https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46850/war-queen ))[Winner during the Royal Road Writathon Challenge October 2022][Winner during the Royal Road Writathon Challenge April 2022][Winner during the Royal Road Writathon Challenge October 2021](( Chapters are 5,500 words on average. Upload schedule is set to every 3rd day, consistently. You can always find my drafts and first story versions on Royal Road, are able to purchase Kindle or ebook-edition versionshere, and if you want to support my work or gain further access to the world of War Queen, as well as early chapter viewing, considerdonatingfor Discord access. Thank you, and enjoy.))

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2021
Author: Illthylian

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 1,894
Views: 719,994

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

litppunkRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
2...and a bit? days binge reading in. I should get some sleep, again before I'm tempted to read next chapter. Drama is neatly folded into real problems that need solving and characters working their best to solve problems as they see them.
Also Bug empire! Zerg/Starship trooper Bugs go brrrrrr with death and compassion hehehaha. Hmm sleep now good.
FreedomUSGreatRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A perfect example of xenofiction, the aliens feel like aliens while remaining relatable. The humans have all the vices and virtues we know yet also manage to show a culture different and alien enough to us that even the xenos feel more like humans sometimes.
It's just plain great and I can't wait for the story to continue.
HiddenslothRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A refreshing and gripping read from an actual alien perspective. Including such description as the warm contents of their second stomach flowed into me and i relished the delightful warm broth fumed with just enough chunks...
Especially noteworthy that the temptation to dip into a nearby human perspective to explain things was avoided completely. Bravo!
Absolutely fantastic work and i look forward to supporting you somehow with your continued work.
KoboldPatrolRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
(as of chapter 9) (I haven't caught up to the most recent chapter yet, but due to the review challenge's deadline I'm posting this now. I plan to update it later)
On a different world with an indigenous human-sized ant-like species, humans suddenly arrive in force. The queen of Skthveraach-Colony has to learn to communicate and come to terms with them, or she and her species will be exterminated. Learning about a species that is so extremely different from you is very difficult though, when each misunderstanding can create lethal tension. The whole story is told from the perspective of Skthveraach-Queen who is there against her will.
The author is doing a great job of showing us an alien perspective on the things that are normal for us humans. Human anatomy, tools, and behavior are described as seen by a creature that is totally different from us in both body and society (eusocial insect, clear caste hierarchy) and thus can't understand how humans (individuals individual-ing even within one group) and their stuff work. Due to that, there are significant parts where the readers have to creatively guess what the MC is seeing; it often stays unknown for a while but later becomes clear with a massive "Oh. Ooooh! Of course, why didn't I realize this before!" realization. (Example adapted from the prologue:
"the head split open horizontally to reveal bone" is nothing brutal, it just means the human opens his mouth, with "bone" being the white teeth )
The details of the descriptions are well done and over time a great amount of excellent world-building is shown. The special vocabulary from all the inter-species differences takes a bit to get used to, but after that little hurdle the prose is very engaging. The way of writing is unique and well done. Pacing is excellent, the plot progresses along logical lines, showing us with great care the careful steps across unfamiliar territory.
Grammar: There are countless instances where the sentence structure and grammar are weird.
RheneriaRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
(Mind you, I am a novice reader, consuming a few books per year, and have read up to chapter six.)
"War Queen" provides an honestly, unique perspective within the genre. Even at your most careful, the story and each chapter have a habit of catching the reader off guard of what's to come; meticulously weaving you into a web of mystery. Ample consideration is forged into the world building with clever inspiration leaving you a reverse feeling of what naturally feels home verses alien. The writing itself is an implicit teacher unabandoning their pupil for those of us unfamiliar with the terminonlogy in play. Then, there is appreciation for the strategist's mind at work, to which I will be most excited to see more of as new chapters are released. The recanting and focus around the protagonist may feel tedious in a few chapters, though the build up is worth the time spent in constructing a proper back drop, alongside explanation for said character's actions. While the aliens have a seemingly unnatural, disturbing to borderline horrific descriptions leaving your skin to crawl where it would not normally do so towards such familiarity.
(Wishing to avoid potential spoilers) offer the chance of the prologue to capture your attention, only to leave you with more questions needing answers.
SlothReader2000Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I always had a interest in non-human stories and this one is by far the best in my opinion. The characters are a group of semi-hive mind bugs and are written very well. The way they talk, and act towards one another is totally inhuman.
I feel like this is a reasonable take on what would happen if humans were the advance aliens stumble on the discovery of this planet by mistake. Not realizing that the giant ants they were fighting were sapient beings until its too late. Ending in the humans finding use for the character who is the leader of her people.
Stonefox01Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a really good story, everything about it is intriguing and thought provoking. The setting, characters, species relationships. It is all so well written, I think I have reread it 5 times by now.
It has a great balance of feelings, often stories evoke similar feelings with events of change. This one is a lot more organic and balanced. I am not a writer so sorry if that doesn’t make much sense, but it made a large difference and helped ground the story.
Give it a read, I bet the first few chapters can hook ya.
Thank you author for writing this, I hope to follow your work in the future.
TwoChaptersAndADreamRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I love this so far. It's humans reaching for the stars, from the perspective of its existing, technologically less advanced inhabitants. It goes about as well for the bug-like aliens as it did for the indigenous tribes of the Americas.
The author of this story manages the tricky balance of making the aliens symphatethic and understandable, but also very inhuman. Half of the story you are drawn in by their plight and struggles, cursing the humans for being *bleep*'s, only to be suddenly and starkly reminded that the protagonists are also giant monsters with minds as sharp and alien as their scythes. The fact that you (as, i presume, a human) can understand why the humans are and rightfully should be afraid really upgrades the story from a more generic "space racism" plot.
The relationship and tension between the aliens and the humans is the main plot point of the story, and I'm looking forward to see how that develops. Extra points for the translator; many of the things humans say are directly translated which makes for a fun time figuring out what was actually said.
darksevenRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
For folks looking for a protagonist which doesn't look human but also doesn't act human this is the perfect book. There are tons of non human protagonist stories which end up being a human in a different body. This one however is an all alien experience and it is masterfully done.
Style: The author really goes all in adopting a unique style to properly describe the behavior from an alien perspective.
Grammar: The story is technically very sound. I almost never stumbled upon a mistake the broke my flow.
Story Score: The broad strokes of the story aren't too complex or intricate. Its first contact with an alien from the perspective of the alien. And yet its so compellingly told that it kept me glued to my seat the whole time.
Character Score: There are only a few different "people" we really get a lot of insight into, but they all feel very real and very alive. Motivations are complex and not always obvious, especially since you only get to understand them the ways the alien protagonist can understand them.
An incredible story that I intend to follow closely. I would note that this story features humanity an an awfully dark light. I don't mind it, because it fits perfectly with the rest of the setting.
GasmaskbroRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
The basic need to know of this story is that it is a very good story of stone age to early iron age eusocial insect aliens encountering a space fareing humanity and the experiences that follow it. The author executes this concept very well making the aliens rather alien but compehedable enough to where you can still identify and empathise with just about everyone.
In full this story is thus far is an excellent first contact story full of misconceptions, misdirections, hope, and betrayal. A story in which all is viewed through the lense of alien species trying to come to terms with a humanity that is in some ways nearly as alien to us as the aliens we follow.
The author has a wonderful means of writing the descriptions and dialog of the characters that does wonders of portraying who they are and how they think. From bugs struggling to comprehend what an APC or gun is while trying to form a counter attack, to the many often times amusing interactions between caste and humans. The imperfect methods of cummunication that are introduced through the story can be difficult at times leaving you trying to fill in missing words or concepts unsuccessfully or wondering if you managed to translate it right at all, but it works for what it is aiming to show.
One of my favorite and least favorite aspects of this story so far are the characters for sure as every character has very defined personalities and most importantly of all is that everyone seems to be at least respectably competent. Even better the story manages to weave character goals in such a way that there is plenty of conflict despite the tale lacking any overt villains. There are antagonist gallore, an incompetent and greedy leader seeking to make and oppertune theift, an arrogant commander making a bad and bone headed call due to pressure from higher ups, but no cackling mustache twirling villains. Just people. The problem being is that a lot of the alien characters don't have proper names as we know them, they have