Privateers [Mass Market Paperback]

Ben Bova (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Mandarin; 1st THUS edition (1990)
• ASIN: B000RTGOWW
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fun, quick read, May 16, 2002

By 

D. B. Killings "Dagnabbit!" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Privateers (Mass Market Paperback)

OK, the story itself is now a little dated (among other things, the Soviet Union is still around), but aside from that this is a nice little brain-dead novel. Don't expect the kind of hard-SF extrapolation you'll find in most of Bova's other novels; rather, this one is more or less a James Bond movie in space, complete with over-the-top villians, femme fatales, and enough plot holes to fit an asteroid or two in. It's popcorn of the printed variety, not meant to make you think but just to have a good time. Read it on the beach.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars My first Bova book - A great read!, October 20, 2001

By 

Richard C. Drew "Anaal Nathra/Uthe vas Bethod... (Oak Lawn, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Privateers (Mass Market Paperback)

It's not romping, wide-flung space battles or huge space-going battle ships. It takes place in the near future, on the Earth, Moon and inbetween. Sure there's politics. The `hero` is a playboy self-made millionaire. The nasty is a Russian meglomaniac. Toss in the hero's affair with the first lady, piracy in near space, and a great plot, and we have a pretty good book!

4.0 out of 5 stars Despite Flaws, Privateers was a Fun Rread, February 16, 2011

By 

Steve King - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Privateers (Mass Market Paperback)

Privateers, written originally in 1985 stands a bit apart from the rest of the "Grand Tour" novels (now at about 17 total). While it works as a stand alone book, some knowledge of the Grand Tour universe makes this book a little easier to digest. From a chronology only standpoint, Privateers would be the 2nd book in the timeline of the Grand Tour, but because it was written in an era when the Cold War still loomed large in the hearts and minds of many Americans, it reads as basically an alternative ending to the first book in the chronology, PowerSat.

Privateers takes place in the relativly near future. The Russians have won the cold war and now through force of arms and political dominance, control the body that governs space exploration and its associated resource and economic use. The US is a shadow of it's former self, simply trying to hang on in a world dominated by Marxist communism. Only a rough alliance of Asian nations (China and Japan) and half a dozen other space-faring nations have any real power to resist total Russian dominance.

Dan Randolph, protagonist in PowerSat appears again, now as a expat running his company, Astro Corp, from Venezuala. The Russian (naturally) antagonist is a meglomaniacle baddy, bent on crushing the last vestigages of Capitalism from space. In typical 80's fashion, the Russian antagonist preaches the glories of Communism while hypocritically living a lavish lifestyle. With the Russian's firmly in contol of price setting for lunar ores, which they mine, Dan Randolph will risk it all to take his mining operation to near Earth orbit asteroids.

If you know Bova, you'll find plenty of his normal writing here. Randolph as protagonist bears near super human abilities. He's ultra wealthy, sleeps with a new model every week, and seems to always be one step ahead of his enemies. While I can't put my finger on why, I'm more sypmathetic to the Dan Randolph of Privateers vs the Dan Randolph of PowerSat. Still, at times he's hard to take - essentially an independently wealthy James Bond in space.

There's the usual love entanglement - perhaps even above the usual Bova style - in Privateers. Randolph lusts after Lucinda, the daughter of the Venezualan minister of space, who is to be married off to the Russian antagonist to further the minister's political career. In addition, one of Randolphs allies is also smitten with the beautiful-beyond-words Lucinda. The romantic sections of the book may induce more than a little eye rolling but ultimatly are more successful than in PowerSat as they do have a role in the overall plot of the book.

While Privateers may be somewhat dated (keep in mind it was written 25 years ago), it fits in with the "hard" Sci-Fi of the time and the ending is fast-paced, fun and fulfulling. Unlike some of Bova's other work, I found Privateers to be a very complete novel - that is to say that everything introduced in the book was tied up and there were few pages wasted on fluff that was not related to the core plot. If you don't mind a novel that in 2011 is somewhat dated and Bova's clunky work around the book's romantic sections, I think you'll enjoy Privateers.