Space Viking
The murder of his wife-to-be on their marriage day sets Lucas Trask on a quest for revenge. With the purchase of a space ship, Trask enters the world of Space Vikings, and begins raiding worlds while simultaneously searching for his beloved's killer. Realizing that raiding is a waste of resources, Trask begins to trade, begins to build a galactic empire, and begins to face the despotic power of his wife's killer.
Approx. 64,052 words.
rdshaven as typical. Some of these duchies, like Glaspyth or Didreksburg, are literal snake pits. All the major barons are at each other's throats, and they can't even keep their own knights and petty-barons in order. Why, there's a miserable little war down in Southmain Continent that's been going on for over two centuries."
"That's probably where Dunnan's going to take that army of his," a robot-manufacturing baron said. "I hope it gets wiped out, and Dunnan with it."
"You don't have to go to Southmain; just go to Glaspyth," somebody else said.
"Well, if we don't get a planetary monarchy to keep order, this planet will decivilize like anything in the Old Federation."
"Oh, come, Lucas!" Alex Gorram protested. "That's pulling it out too far."
"Yes, for one thing, we don't have the Neobarbarians," somebody said. "And if they ever came out here, we'd blow them to Em-See-Square in nothing flat. Might be a good thing if they did, too; it would stop us squabbling among o
