From the back flap:
“Sold into slavery to an insectoid race, Aleytys had been chosen as proxy-mother to the old queen’s successor. In short, like an Earth wasp’s prey, she would be both bearer and food for that which was to come.
Had Aleytys been any other human, this would have been the end. But she was the wearer of the Diadem, that creation of galactic science that linked her nervous system to powers of strange potency. And for Aleytys and the queen the fateful conflict was about to begin!”

I started skimming half way through the book. I was bored by the writing style and by the story. This is the third book of the Diadem series. I realised today, that I read another one of the series as a teenager. I remember that I liked it. Tastes change.