Privateers

Name: Privateers
Rating: 3.672 (16 reviews)
ISBN: 9781429932387

By Ben Bova

Publisher Description

The US has abandoned its quest for the stars, and an old enemy has moved in to fill the void. The potential wealth of the universe is now in malevolent hands. Rebel billionaire Dan Randolph—possessor of the largest privately-owned company in space—intends to weaken the stranglehold the new despotic masters of the solar system have on the lucrative ore industry. But when the mineral-rich asteroid he sets in orbit around the Earth is commandeered by the enemy, and his unarmed workers are slaughtered in cold blood, the course of Randolph's life is changed forever. Now cataclysm is aimed at the exposed heart of America—a potential catastrophe that Randolph himself inadvertently set in motion. And the maverick entrepreneur must use his skills, cunning, and vast resources to strike out at his foes hard, fast and with ruthless precision—and wear proudly the mantle that fate thrust upon him: !

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Privateers Reviews

3.5

ScreamingFirehawk

Created 7 months ago

Graff Fuller

Created 11 months ago

“The Grand Tour 02 Privateers by Ben Bova challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense Medium-paced Plot or character-driven? A mix Strong character development? Yes Loveable characters? It's complicated Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes 3.75 Stars This is the book that I thought Powersat was going to be. This story was the start of The Grand Tour by Ben Bova, and it really doesn't hold up as well as I thought would. I still had fun in this Alternate History story within the Science Fiction Political Thriller genre. This book was published in 1985, and it shows. Dan and his viewpoints on women are also VERY dated. He uses them and abuses them (not respecting them, and throws them away, after he's been satisfied by them). One issue that was glaring, was taking two teen girls away from their own country via space plane, to another country...without the permission of the parents of the two teenagers. Oops. Not politically correct, nor morally right. Also, his conquest of one of them (YES, this does happen), should make everyone cringe. This was "acceptable" by powerful men of the past, but in today's standards, this is unacceptable. Also, the alternate history that shows the Soviet Union in power and the United States of America the country that is spineless and a dog laying on its back...exposing their belly is laughable and not the "American Way" in any alternate history....sorry. One portion of the story that is interesting...is how in our reality Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant hasn't had problems with tsunamis...is interesting. Also, Dan says the statement, "Make America Great Again" to the current president of the United States...and it made me cringe. Yuck! Would NOT want to EVER see that as a slogan in ANY history that the US is involved in. No thank you. After all the yuck is done, this is a fun story to follow and just accept. It is like a "popcorn" film in book form. I'm not worried about the bad "cgi" in the narrative, but going with the flow...that the author wants the readers to accept. I will be picking up Empire Builders soon...in my "trek" through The Grand Tour saga.”

HawkeyeGough

Created 12 months ago

“I have a weak spot for some gritty sci-fi, especially with geopolitical implications. This book was written at the height of the Cold War, and the reader is immediately immersed in some of the paranoia and tension present at that time. Grittiness and geopolitics are both core to this plot, and are delivered adeptly by the author. Ben Bova impressed me with the first installment of his Grand Tour series - a series title I love, since it's reminiscent of the path traveled by the Voyager space craft as humanity just began to grasp for space. The book opens on a world dominated by the Soviet Union, who has forced all the other major political powers out of space. This allows the Soviets to control the world economy by having a monopoly on lunar mining, which has become a major source of minerals across the planet. I really like sci-fi books which imagine us in the early stages of an expansion out into space. It seems like in many cases astronauts fly by the seat of their pants and we get a less polished, more adventurous-feeling type of science fiction. I like this, at least in part because plots like this allow for more action and quicker pacing, which this book took advantage of in a way I appreciated. There is never a dull moment to be had with Privateers, and I found there were some truly forward-thinking moments where I could tell Bova was trying to predict both the direction the world and its technology might be headed. There are some moments that are almost eerily prescient of our modern-day international and domestic politics, as well as some really interesting consideration given to the knock-on effects of the discovery of a cheap source of rare materials. I will say that parts of this book did not age well, both in tone and occasionally in treatment of some characters. I think the main character somewhat exacerbated this simply by not being a very likeable guy, at times. He has been shaped by some pretty negative experiences, and his motivations aren't always altruistic, but he seems to be genuinely trying to do the right thing. While it is hard at times to like him, I was mostly able to suspend this and go along for the ride anyway. These moments are pretty minor and spaced out, so I mostly ignored them. I had another issue with the way this book is organized. <spoiler> In the first page of the book, many important characters die before we even get introduced to them. We are introduced to them in a flashback shortly after, and we remain in that flashback for the majority of the book. This type of heavy-handed foreshadowing really threatened at times to make me dislike this book. In the end, the author managed to redeem this choice in my eyes for the most part by giving us some context at the end to help frame his decision. </spoiler> Overall, this book was a great ride. I will be following Bova to his next stop on the Grand Tour. In the meantime, this book gave me quite a few hours of enjoyment, and I think most fans of sci-fi from the '80s will like this. The quick burn and fast pace really meld well with the atmosphere of the era, and the book captures this all in a great and believable setting.”

Believable Action-packed Fast-paced Gripping/exciting Dark Gritty Easy to read

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Created about 1 year ago