No writer knows better than de Camp how to show a reader a good time, and Rogue Queen is a good example of the mixture of ideas and adventure that makes his fiction appealing. At one time, the novel's allegorical portrait of the evils of communism might have been the best place to begin a discussion, but with the end of the Cold War, discussion members may find the topic less urgent than it was when the novel was written. Thus a discussion might best begin with other themes such as the relationship between the sexes, the value of literature as an educational tool (A Girl of theLimberlost), the dangers of giving to technologically primitive cultures technology far in advance of their own, and the challenges in space exploration created by a strict adherence to Einsteinian physical laws such as the speed of light being the...