Customer Reviews

Privateers

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

For somebody looking for realism in Science Fiction this book is not for you (despite the “Riveting Account of the Future” accolade claimed to be by the Wall Street Journal on the front cover). My main problem was the central character, who must have been a Ben Bova wannabe at the time this was written. Try this: He’s young. He’s already a billionaire. He has a “hard” well-toned body. His sexual success puts 007 to shame: He sleeps with a new secretary every other week (all are physical goddesses as it so happens), top Hollywood actresses (two at the same time even), and even the United States woman President who just so happened to be the wife of his now deceased best friend. He seduces a young, innocent and of course beautiful woman who so happens to be the daughter of the soon to be Venezuelan president. He’s a brilliant military tactician, and can somehow transform his corporations’ technical employees into becoming a spacefaring SWOT squad able to covertly rescue comrades from a heavily armed Russian prison facility. He’s also a tactful politician, influential and connected at the highest levels. He has time to run a huge business empire by himself, as well as frolic with women and attend lavish cocktail parties. Achievement to say the least, but lets get a bit real Ben.

There is a common theme in his other books (again the Moon, Mars and Venus sagas); all seem to have a central character with loads of money and incredible sexual success. This seems to be the main vehicle by which the author can get the things done he wants to use in his plots, and it gets a bit boring after a while.

The negative stuff in the other reviews is right on target. I think they are more kind than I am. This book has 200 pages of drivel before any type of story begins. It reads more like a really bad romance novel. I had to keep checking the author's name. Then more drivel is peppered among the thin story line. I continued reading because I thought this was the lead up to the next book in the astroid war series of Ben Bova's. So I trudged thru, setting it aside to read other more interesting stuff but picked it up again because I didn't want to start Precipice without the earlier info (I'm just like that!).

So when I finally got to the end which is the only part worth reading, and yes it's like a cheap James Bond movie, and I pick up Precipice, I discover that when that book starts it is totally disconnected from Privateers. It does not pick up where the earlier one left off but doesn't seem to be connected at all. Privateers ends with our hero and his prize beauty planning a life in space. Precipice backs way up to when our "hero" Dan still loves the former president, Jane. What the heck.

So I don't know why they aren't in sync. Most of Bova's books are great about continuity. I could have totally skipped this crappy, weak book and skipped right to Privateers.

This is a wonderful book with great character development. I found an old copy of it in my hotel on my vacation to Mexico. I didn't put it down the entire vacation. Read this book.

The story works with technology that is nearly possible today and may be reality in the not so distant future, it not a far fetched space opera nor a silly fantasy story. The story also deals with private enterprise challenging governments for domination of space which is a theme I enjoy. There is enough tech. adventure and intrigue to make for a good Ben Bova story.

To put it bluntly, I was totally unable to "suspend my disbelief" in order to get past the first 3 chapters. This is a 15 year old SF book that just got published, in which the Soviet Empire has taken over. This book will only appeal to people that can tolerate alternate universe stories. The writing is so terribly formula that you can see the writers checklist, i.e. violence for attention grab, wet dream scene backup, dull filler, etc. I've read hundreds of SF novels good and bad. This is the first one I've quit reading and actually tossed in the trash. It's not good enough for the Walmart discount bin. It's no wonder it took 15 years to publish. EOS must have just wanted a big name.

This is one of the most misogynistic pieces of tripe I've read in a good long while. Mediocre plot, very fun premise, but it's woven together like an afghan somebody let the dog chew on.

Having just finished Mars, Return to Mars, Moonrise, and Moonwar, I was really looking forward to another excellent Bova tale. Unfortunately, this book left me very unsatisfied.

I would like to say reading Privateers was like diving into a Clive Cussler novel, with Dan Randolph as Dirk Pitt, but that would not be entirely fair to Mr. Cussler. The action was nowhere near as intense, and the story was unbelievably predictable. This book was a VERY quick read.

The only thing that preventing my giving it a 1-star rating was the fact that out of 5 books I've read or Mr. Bova's, this was the only dud.