Help A Bitch Out

HaBO: Scifi Gladiator Heroine on Virus-Infected Planet

Welcome to Tuesday, better known here as HaBO Day! HaBO, or “Help a Bitch Out,” is our attempt to reunite readers with romances that they can remember parts of, but not the important parts like the author’s name or the title. This HaBO request comes from Booklovingirl, who is searching for a scifi title from a few decades ago:

It was a mostly sci-fi book (I think) I read in some random place — I think I was ill, so don’t remember it well. I think “hand” was in the title (maybe?).

Heroine was a slave on some planet, which had been conquered and all the native population injected with a virus that killed them at a certain designated time, unless they had an update or antivirus which would give them more time. She was in a gladiator-type environment and somehow escaped/was freed and found out there was a permanent substitute for the virus. She had a love/hate going on with some guy who had decided she belonged to him (literally) because reasons — or possibly her scent. The main thing I remember was that they were somehow genetically bound so that she could feel what he felt (meaning tactile sensation) when he touched her, so that gave interesting feedback if you know what I mean. I think it was part of a series but…

It was an old book when I read it — I’m thinking 70s-80s, it had that kind of feel to the writing.

This has been bugging me for a while, so any help would be appreciated!

The crazysauce potential of this books sounds pretty high.

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Help a Bitch Out

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  1. M— says:

    Reminds me of the sci-fi warrior culture in Johanna Lindsey’s Ly-San-Ter trilogy (starts with Warrior’s Woman, 1990), but I don’t recall a virus element in that one.

  2. Kristal says:

    I think this is Stardoc by S.L. Viehl. But maybe with bits from other books in the series.

  3. Lostshadows says:

    Not Johanna Lindsey, but the first two of those are good for crazy sauce.(Second one ends with a couple of AI computers starting to get cozy.) Never read the the third one.

  4. GHN says:

    It sounds like Hand of Prophecy by Severna Park. Published in 1999, and I read it – and another book by her, Speaking Dreams, around that time.

    Description:
    Frenna is a slave, bred for bondage and injected with a virus that guarantees 20 years of youth while in servitude, followed by an agonizing death when the virus “Fails.” After she discovers a way to survive Failure, she begins to throw off her inbred mantle of obeisance. She escapes from Olney, the slaver who owns her, only to find herself trapped, without allies, in a place more brutal than anything she’s ever known. Troah, a deposed prophetess, takes an instant disliking to Frenna and immediately sets out to make life difficult for her, perhaps fatally so.

    To survive, Frenna will have to conquer 1,000 years of genetically engineered complacency and find someone to trust in a world that seems utterly devoid of the good things that make us human.

  5. Ashley H. says:

    Omg I need this (and all of the guesses) in my life.

  6. HollyG says:

    Although this isn’t the HABO it sounds
    similar to Susan Kearney ‘the Ultimatum” so you might like it. Blurb (paraphrased). If Alara doesn’t make love soon, her cells will fail to regenerate and she’ll die. Unfortunately, her only option is an enemy- Rystani starpiloy Xander, her abductor…Xander issues an Ultimatum: He’ll make love to Alara only if she will use her psi-talent of identifying DNA to help him find the cure for a deadly Terran virus. Alara is trapped. She gives Xander what he wants but…the more they make love the more Alaras cells adapt to Xander until he is the only person she can make love to and survive.” This is book 2 in a SFR series – they are all pretty good.

  7. TheFormerAstronomer says:

    Ooh, I think I know this one!

    I agree with GHN – this sounds like either Hand of Prophecy or Speaking Dreams by Severna Park.

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