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Another question from my childhood:

A book, possible title being Star Kings, but nothing I can find under that title matches.

Alien race destroys all humanity, except one ship, a cruiser Challenger. The Challenger sends off multiple lifeboats with one (?) human plus germ banks in various directions, then is destroyed in hopeless battle.

Time passes. One genius in one of the few remaining lifeboats learns enough about the aliens to defeat them. Humanity re-arises and becomes the ruler of the Galaxy, possibly as the Star Kings, but become lax and are almost destroyed/wiped out overnight again. Slow recovery and...

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  • Edmond Hamilton....
    – Adamant
    Feb 2, 2017 at 9:01
  • goodreads.com/book/show/1514772.The_Star_Kings
    – Valorum
    Feb 2, 2017 at 9:04
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    We don't know how old you are. It might help if, instead of "from my childhood", you said something like "from the 1990s" or "from he 1940s".
    – user14111
    Feb 2, 2017 at 9:25
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    "That's all I can recall". I bet you can recall more. Was there a violent murder at the end? Did it turn out that the ship was made out of cheese the entire time? Was there a twist ending that the main character was Abraham Lincoln?
    – Valorum
    Feb 2, 2017 at 9:31
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    The "Related" list is an interesting read. How about scifi.stackexchange.com/q/71552
    – Mr Lister
    Feb 2, 2017 at 9:37

1 Answer 1

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Crown of Infinity by John M. Faucette

Alien race named The Masters roam space in their gigantic super ships, committing genocide on any other species they encounter. One destroys Earth.

One earthship survives, protected by a stealth technology called the Ramdic Shield. The commander splits the crew in to fertile couples, and equips each with a Life Bank of genetic samples and a small spaceship. They scatter across the galaxy, hiding from The Masters.

Most are hunted down and killed, but a few escape.

Generations later the humans make scientific breakthroughs and can fight The Masters as equals. The humans take the name Star Kings

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    You don't mention this happing over and over, but this review says things like "centuries-spanning bit of space opera about the Star Kings and their various enemies (...) forever in the process of being wiped out of the galaxy, then coming back" so I presume this is the right answer. If you want, you can also answer this question which is obviously about the same book, and then we can wait for confirmation and close one as a duplicate.
    – Mr Lister
    Feb 2, 2017 at 14:55
  • That's not the book I'm thinking of. IF I'm remembering correctly, then once humans wipe out the original enemy they almost become the lawmen of the Galaxy and it's humans who take them down the second time
    – user77832
    Feb 3, 2017 at 6:27
  • After thousands of years of war, the Star Kings subdue The Masters. By this time other alien races have developed since The Masters were prevented from committing genocide. Yes the Kings do become the lawmen of the galaxy. The Masters did manage to frame the Star Kings once. Much later hostile aliens invade from a rift in the fabric of the universe and the battle was almost lost due to the first Star King coward.
    – Winchell Chung
    Feb 3, 2017 at 13:42

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