Purrfect Plunder

Spaceways #6

by Andrew J. Offutt, John Cleve (Pseudonym)

Book by John Cleve (pseud. Andrew J. Offutt)

Genres: Science Fiction

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 1982

About the author

Andrew Jefferson Offutt was an American science fiction and fantasy author. He wrote as Andrew J. Offutt, A.J. Offutt, and Andy Offut. His normal byline, andrew j. offutt, had his name in all lower-case letters. His son is the author Chris Offutt.

Offutt began publishing in 1954 with the story And Gone Tomorrow in If. Despite this early sale, he didn't consider his professional life to have begun until he sold the story Blacksword to Galaxy in 1959. His first novel was Evil Is Live Spelled Backwards in 1970.

Offutt published numerous novels and short stories, including many in the Thieves World series edited by Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abbey, which featured his best known character, the thief Hanse, also known as Shadowspawn (and, later, Chance). His Iron Lords series likewise was popular. He also wrote two series of books based on characters by Robert E. Howard, one on Howard's best known character, Conan, and one on a lesser known character, Cormac mac Art.

As an editor Offutt produced a series of five anthologies entitled Swords Against Darkness, which included the first professional sale by Charles de Lint.

Offutt also wrote a large number of pornographic works under twelve different pseudonyms, not all of them identified. Those known include John Cleve, J.X. Williams, and Jeff Douglas. His main works in this area are the science fiction Spaceways series, most of whose volumes were written in collaboration, and the historical Crusader series.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spaceways series spanned nineteen volumes that were published 1982 - '85, and were the creation of andrew j. offutt, who wrote a lot of works of erotic content under his John Cleve pseudonym. He wrote nine of the books on his own (1-6, 8-9, 19) and ten of them were collaborative, but all nineteen had terrific covers by Ken Barr. The first nine were published by Playboy Books and the rest appeared under the Berkley imprint. There was definitely a lot of adult content, erotic rather than pornographic, though it must be remembered that standards in the early 1980s were much more oriented towards male dominance. The goal was to tell a space opera style adventure story while paying off and playing off of the sexy covers of the magazines of the '30s and '40s. In this sixth story the focus returns to Captain Jonuta and The Coronet crew. Jonuta has a new obsession, a furry catwoman, and there's a lot more space battles than we've seen previously. More space pirates than Mal Reynolds could shake a stick at. The series has a rich interstellar setting filled with nefarious characters, wild schemes, and adventures of all kinds. As always, there's nothing here in the way of literary worth, but it was just intended for fun.

[Elf M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, let's be honest. This is not a great book. Andrew Offut (nee' "John Cleve") wrote this to fill a contract, and it shows: he repeats himself, a lot, in order to fulfill his wordcount. The opening crisis is cheap and irrelevant to the main plot, and it's not even good character development. The characterizations are often silly and stupid.

But it's all fun. And dirty. And sexy. And if you're a Furry, this 1982 work is the foundational work of furry science-fiction erotica. Nothing like it had ever existed before. It's been completely surpassed both by modern SF and by modern Furry fiction-- but for the latter, it's still better than the bulk of what's out there.

Because when the big-bosomed Kenowa and excessively manly Captain Jonuta encounter the eight-breasted, all-muscle, hypelithe feline creature named HRlee, things aboard the Starship Coronet get very, very sexy indeed...

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. More space action than others in the series but largely dull and repetitive in parts.