That coveted secret
was what the men of Konapar were looking for when they attacked the long-living
women of the planet Phira.

Their massive
fleet swept down upon the planet with ease.

But though initially defeated in a sweeping space battle, the women of
Phira knew that brutal men can be tamed, and greedy men can always be bought,
regardless of results on the battlefield.

So the initial triumph over Phira appeared settled, the race of aged,
yet still beautiful women had been subdued if not entirely defeated.

But they still had no need or desire for
men.

However, a noble space pirate—with
the help of a ten-year-old—set out to bring the women of Phira to a new
understanding. But what did this race of eternal beauties really have up their
sleeve?

CAST OF
CHARACTERS

CAP GAN ALAIN

Pirate
Captain, mercenary,
business man
.

This guy knew what he wanted—and he knew how
to get it!

CELYS

High
priestess of the cult of Myrmi-Atla.

She had reigned supreme for hundreds of years.

GUNNAR
TOR BRANTHAK

The
ambitious Regent of Konapar, he wanted the secret to eternal life and he would
seize it at whatever the cost.

APHELE

Courageous
and valiant, she was a warrior among the Phiran women.

But she had dreams of a different way of
life…

ELVIR

The
bounty of a pirate raid.

A ten-year-old, would-be
slave, if not for the men who had found her.

CHAN DUCHAILE

First
Mate on the Warspear.

His loyalty to Captain Alain would never be
in question.

THE ANCIENT ONE

One of the
few women on Phira to show any signs of aging, she had been pitting her mind
against men for 500 years!

EMPIRE OF WOMEN

JOHN FLETCHER

ARMCHAIR FICTION

PO Box 4369,
Medford, Oregon 97501

The original text of this
novel was first

published
by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.

For more information
about Armchair Books and products, visit our website at…

www.armchairfiction.com

Or email us
at…

[email protected]com

ORIGINAL COVER ART

In the early days of
Armchair Fiction sometimes we decided to release a story as part of one of our
double novels not because we thought the story itself was good, but because it
had an incredible cover!

When I saw the
front of the May 1952 issue of
Amazing
Stories
, I knew that John Fletcher’s “Empire of Women” was a story we just
had
to come out with.

The original painting, which is a pulp
masterpiece, was created by Lawrence Stevens, better known simply as
“Lawrence.”

As it turned out, the story
was a pretty good one, a lively tale about a race of non-aging females who
possess the secret of eternal life.

It was a pretty tough
job converting the original
Amazing
Stories
cover into our Armchair Fiction double novel cover.

That big
Amazing
logo is always a real challenge to remove.

There were also some sizable chunks of the cover missing, especially
toward the bottom.

These empty spots
were reconstructed using the Photoshop clone tool, which was also used for the
aforementioned text and logo removal.

There was also the usual cleanup:

creases, rub marks, etc.

Below
are the original
Amazing
Stories
cover
from 1952, followed by our final Armchair Double Novel
paperback cover from 2011.