What do you think?
Rate this book
Protectorate
The Earth has been invaded by an advanced alien species, who views both the planet and its peoples as expendable pawns in a galaxy wide war. The "Protector" is the alien appointed ruler of the humanity.
It is a grim and sad world, humans struggle to survive a collapsing economy, political rivalry, rebellious soldiers, and hostile aliens.
It is a grim and sad world, humans struggle to survive a collapsing economy, political rivalry, rebellious soldiers, and hostile aliens.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
Paperback
1 person is currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Mick Farren
67 books81 followersFarren was the singer with the proto-punk English band The Deviants between 1967 and 1969, releasing three albums. In 1970 he released the solo album Mona – The Carnivorous Circus which also featured Steve Peregrin Took, John Gustafson and Paul Buckmaster, before leaving the music business to concentrate on his writing.
In the mid-1970s, he briefly returned to music releasing the EP Screwed Up, album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and single "Broken Statue". The album featured fellow NME journalist Chrissie Hynde and Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson.
He has sporadically returned to music, collaborating with Wayne Kramer on Who Shot You Dutch? and Death Tongue, Jack Lancaster on The Deathray Tapes and Andy Colquhoun on The Deviants albums Eating Jello With a Heated Fork and Dr. Crow.
Aside from his own work, he has provided lyrics for various musician friends over the years. He has collaborated with Lemmy, co-writing "Lost Johnny" for Hawkwind, and "Keep Us on the Road" and "Damage Case" for Motörhead. With Larry Wallis, he co-wrote "When's the Fun Begin?" for the Pink Fairies and several tracks on Wallis' solo album Death in a Guitar Afternoon. He provided lyrics for the Wayne Kramer single "Get Some" in the mid-1970s, and continued to work with and for him during the 1990s.
In the early 1970s he contributed to the UK Underground press such as the International Times, also establishing Nasty Tales which he successfully defended from an obscenity charge. He went on to write for the main stream New Musical Express, where he wrote the article The Titanic Sails At Dawn, an analysis of what he saw as the malaise afflicting then-contemporary rock music which described the conditions that subsequently gave rise to punk.
To date he has written 23 novels, including the Victor Renquist novels and the DNA Cowboys sequence. His prophetic 1989 novel The Armageddon Crazy deals with a post-2000 United States which is dominated by fundamentalists who dismantle the Constitution.
Farren has written 11 works of non-fiction, a number of biographical (including four on Elvis Presley), autobiographical and culture books (such as The Black Leather Jacket) and a plethora of poetry.
Since 2003, he has been a columnist for the weekly Los Angeles CityBeat.
Farren died at the age of 69 in 2013, after collapsing onstage while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London.
In the mid-1970s, he briefly returned to music releasing the EP Screwed Up, album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and single "Broken Statue". The album featured fellow NME journalist Chrissie Hynde and Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson.
He has sporadically returned to music, collaborating with Wayne Kramer on Who Shot You Dutch? and Death Tongue, Jack Lancaster on The Deathray Tapes and Andy Colquhoun on The Deviants albums Eating Jello With a Heated Fork and Dr. Crow.
Aside from his own work, he has provided lyrics for various musician friends over the years. He has collaborated with Lemmy, co-writing "Lost Johnny" for Hawkwind, and "Keep Us on the Road" and "Damage Case" for Motörhead. With Larry Wallis, he co-wrote "When's the Fun Begin?" for the Pink Fairies and several tracks on Wallis' solo album Death in a Guitar Afternoon. He provided lyrics for the Wayne Kramer single "Get Some" in the mid-1970s, and continued to work with and for him during the 1990s.
In the early 1970s he contributed to the UK Underground press such as the International Times, also establishing Nasty Tales which he successfully defended from an obscenity charge. He went on to write for the main stream New Musical Express, where he wrote the article The Titanic Sails At Dawn, an analysis of what he saw as the malaise afflicting then-contemporary rock music which described the conditions that subsequently gave rise to punk.
To date he has written 23 novels, including the Victor Renquist novels and the DNA Cowboys sequence. His prophetic 1989 novel The Armageddon Crazy deals with a post-2000 United States which is dominated by fundamentalists who dismantle the Constitution.
Farren has written 11 works of non-fiction, a number of biographical (including four on Elvis Presley), autobiographical and culture books (such as The Black Leather Jacket) and a plethora of poetry.
Since 2003, he has been a columnist for the weekly Los Angeles CityBeat.
Farren died at the age of 69 in 2013, after collapsing onstage while performing with the Deviants at the Borderline Club in London.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 3, 2025
This can be read as a loose prequel to Their Master's War and takes place on Earth itself. A few hundred years ago, the 'Wasps' arrived and quickly subjugated humanity; they also brought (accident or design?) a plague that wiped out 80% of the human population. The remnants of humanity clustered in a handful of great cities, or at least the cities were great at one point. When the tale starts, most of humanity dwells in the 'lowers', or the bases of the great towers and such in the city where the elite live.
Farren rotates the narration around, but the main protagonist is one Jeen Vayim, a poet (something like a bard) who lives in the lowers. Other main characters include the Protector, the human 'ruler' who laisses with the Wasps, the head of the 'Killers', e.g., the cops, who alone carry deadly weapons among humanity, and also a wanderer, who leaves the cities (most other people cannot). We quickly learn that humanity has no power-- almost all human tech was destroyed by the Wasps and humanity just lives on the dribs and drabs that are left, such as the belts that allow one to fly.
Things start to change when an odd character named Gywann arrives in the lowers, along with what seems to be a harem of young women. Gywann starts off as something akin to a leader of a cult, preaching 'no fear of the outsiders', and quickly gains a huge following. Preaching 'sedation', however, will not be tolerated by the Killers. Something also has the Wasps all stirred up. I will not go further to avoid spoilers.
Farren's pulpy science fiction I always had a soft spot for. His characters are all so human, flawed humanity. The Protector for example knows he must keep a lid on humanity so the Wasps will not decide simply to wipe them out; he hates it, but does the job. Our poet just wants to drink and screw, but gets wrapped up in the events. The leader of the Killers embodies the jack-booted thug trope to a T. The rest of humanity? The elites just want to maintain their status and the lowers just want to get through another day. Fun stuff! 3.5 stars, rounding up!
Farren rotates the narration around, but the main protagonist is one Jeen Vayim, a poet (something like a bard) who lives in the lowers. Other main characters include the Protector, the human 'ruler' who laisses with the Wasps, the head of the 'Killers', e.g., the cops, who alone carry deadly weapons among humanity, and also a wanderer, who leaves the cities (most other people cannot). We quickly learn that humanity has no power-- almost all human tech was destroyed by the Wasps and humanity just lives on the dribs and drabs that are left, such as the belts that allow one to fly.
Things start to change when an odd character named Gywann arrives in the lowers, along with what seems to be a harem of young women. Gywann starts off as something akin to a leader of a cult, preaching 'no fear of the outsiders', and quickly gains a huge following. Preaching 'sedation', however, will not be tolerated by the Killers. Something also has the Wasps all stirred up. I will not go further to avoid spoilers.
Farren's pulpy science fiction I always had a soft spot for. His characters are all so human, flawed humanity. The Protector for example knows he must keep a lid on humanity so the Wasps will not decide simply to wipe them out; he hates it, but does the job. Our poet just wants to drink and screw, but gets wrapped up in the events. The leader of the Killers embodies the jack-booted thug trope to a T. The rest of humanity? The elites just want to maintain their status and the lowers just want to get through another day. Fun stuff! 3.5 stars, rounding up!
February 23, 2022
The reason I like this book is the very reason my friend loathes it so: What could Earth do if an alien species really came and conquered it? The answer: Absolutely nothing.
Any species capable of crossing interstellar distances in anything like a reasonable amount of time would be thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of years beyond us. Consider what little consideration we give to the primates, and they're our closest relatives! How much more consideration would a species a million years older pay to us? (And it wouldn't be because they're callous or "evil." Like ants, we simply wouldn't register on their "radars" unless we happened to inadvertently cross their paths.)
At some point, the species known as the Wasps conquered Earth, destroying cities, slaughtering billions, and there was nothing humanity could do about it. Now, humans survive in scattered enclaves ruled by a caste of human administrators (the Protectorate of the title) who answer to the Wasps. The Wasps couldn't care less about humans, however. There're here as part of a war against another stellar empire, whose nature is a mystery to the humans. Humanity is tolerated but if their existence interfered with the Wasps' war effort, there's no doubt they would be eliminated.
Into this situation comes a human demagogue, a leader of a new religion, who (as it turns out) was abducted and modified by the Wasps' enemies and then sent back to force a confrontation between the Wasps and the humans. Meanwhile, these aliens are attacking the Wasps and driving them from the solar system.
In the end, these new aliens defeat the Wasps and descend to Earth where they install their own "protectorate." No less a cage than the Wasps' but gilded this time.
Any species capable of crossing interstellar distances in anything like a reasonable amount of time would be thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of years beyond us. Consider what little consideration we give to the primates, and they're our closest relatives! How much more consideration would a species a million years older pay to us? (And it wouldn't be because they're callous or "evil." Like ants, we simply wouldn't register on their "radars" unless we happened to inadvertently cross their paths.)
At some point, the species known as the Wasps conquered Earth, destroying cities, slaughtering billions, and there was nothing humanity could do about it. Now, humans survive in scattered enclaves ruled by a caste of human administrators (the Protectorate of the title) who answer to the Wasps. The Wasps couldn't care less about humans, however. There're here as part of a war against another stellar empire, whose nature is a mystery to the humans. Humanity is tolerated but if their existence interfered with the Wasps' war effort, there's no doubt they would be eliminated.
Into this situation comes a human demagogue, a leader of a new religion, who (as it turns out) was abducted and modified by the Wasps' enemies and then sent back to force a confrontation between the Wasps and the humans. Meanwhile, these aliens are attacking the Wasps and driving them from the solar system.
In the end, these new aliens defeat the Wasps and descend to Earth where they install their own "protectorate." No less a cage than the Wasps' but gilded this time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 1, 2021
Given Farren’s background in subversive literature and underground culture - this style of novel seemed inevitable for him. It is easy to say that he is not the best writer that ever existed and it is easy to say that this type of dystopian future novel has been done to death - but luckily he narrates this tale in a way that makes you wholeheartedly believe that he has wandered the streets and stared up at the incomprehensible above him, chatted with those in the lower levels and wondered longingly at the lofty heights above.
This ambitious novel is evocative of ‘The Book of The New Sun’ by Gene Wolfe (without the religious subtext) but written in a straightforward and plainly understandable way that makes this incredibly accessible to all those that need reminisce on a world that is not yet with us - and hopefully will never happen. I couldn’t put it down the first time I read it and I have gone back to it many times since.
This ambitious novel is evocative of ‘The Book of The New Sun’ by Gene Wolfe (without the religious subtext) but written in a straightforward and plainly understandable way that makes this incredibly accessible to all those that need reminisce on a world that is not yet with us - and hopefully will never happen. I couldn’t put it down the first time I read it and I have gone back to it many times since.
March 12, 2017
I loved Mr Farren's early work - DNA Cowboys, Citizen Phaid etc and this book is fun but it's a relatively well done theme of Aliens invade the planet and take over. There is enough with the characters of the Poet and the wild man from the outback etc to remind me of earlier books and that's probably enough to keep me reading. It's a short book that is a little dated now and if I'm honest it was a nostalgic buy on the internet for me. I'm happy I got it but a little sad that I can't have that joy of the first discovery of Mick Farren's books that I had in the eighties.
December 20, 2021
I wasn't expecting much from a yellowed 80s paperback, but boy was I mistaken.
Very very good. Characters have that whiff of believable human nature, and the whole premise of complete species subjugation, and the contrasting scales of human intrigue and galactic warfare.
Very very good. Characters have that whiff of believable human nature, and the whole premise of complete species subjugation, and the contrasting scales of human intrigue and galactic warfare.
December 26, 2025
Once again I wish I could give half star ratings since this was like a 2.5 or a 2.75. But I’ll round up.
Really cool! I found this at a used book store for 25 cents in 2016 and never found the curiosity to read it until this year. The cover was amazing and I’m glad I judged it by the cover cause it was actually really cool with a sick setting. The atmosphere was peak, reminded me of the feeling in mistborn. The characters were hit or miss for me, I didn’t like the main guy but everyone else was good besides a few. I loved the protector and Kraymin the most.
The story didn’t quite hit in the end but it made enough sense to me and certainly scratched the sci-fi itch, just not the character arc itch that I love so much. I was also not very surprised by the outcome.
Cool book!! The writing and style was excellent. I really love the way the author writes.
He was also in a band in the 60’s which I thought was really cool.
Really cool! I found this at a used book store for 25 cents in 2016 and never found the curiosity to read it until this year. The cover was amazing and I’m glad I judged it by the cover cause it was actually really cool with a sick setting. The atmosphere was peak, reminded me of the feeling in mistborn. The characters were hit or miss for me, I didn’t like the main guy but everyone else was good besides a few. I loved the protector and Kraymin the most.
The story didn’t quite hit in the end but it made enough sense to me and certainly scratched the sci-fi itch, just not the character arc itch that I love so much. I was also not very surprised by the outcome.
Cool book!! The writing and style was excellent. I really love the way the author writes.
He was also in a band in the 60’s which I thought was really cool.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews