Blockade Runner

I really enjoyed the earlier books in this young adult series because it was about young adults succeeding in life, business, and adventures through guts, brains, and integrity. They were always the smartest people in the room and even their foes were believable and acted intelligently. All of that changes with book 11. I stress this point because I cannot stand and will not read any book that depends on stupidity as a major plot device (that’s just lazy writing) and as a result could not bring myself to finish the book.

***SPOILER ALERT*** It’s pretty obvious to me that the author has either run out of ideas to keep the series interesting or has just got lazy and decided to metaphorically “jump the shark”. A term used for desperate and hokey plot devices used to try and keep a tired series going. First, the smartest people in the room are suddenly way too stupid to negotiate a high-risk-services per diem plus expenses contract that includes battle damage and combat loss expenses and become destitute. That’s just a cheap excuse for a reboot plot device. Second the aliens, whether they be the very nasty human-eating insectoid arch enemies of everyone – who are bullet-proof and do not need food, water or air for decades at a time, or the over the top egotistical and stupid chicken-people and their cat-person minions are just way too over the top to be believable. Third, the long-running and very tired use of domestic violence as a “funny” personality trait of the main character’s love interest has gone on way too long. Immaturity and violence seem to be her only personality traits and having her constantly slugging her boyfriend for every real or imagined micro-slite has gotten old.

What a ride! The Privateer series has been everything I could ever hope for in a military scifi adventure. Starting out with only a few star systems of known space and mankind is depicted in every conceivable representation, from the best we have to offer to the worst scum imaginable, each book adds layer upon layer of wonderful characters to the crew of a salvaged ship led by Liam Hoffen, son of an astroid minor. Rampant piracy has thrown them together to deal with situations not of their making and as often as not, beyond their control. With each new story the tech keeps improving until eventually fold-space travel to far flung star systems and even other galaxies is introduced. Sentient life abounds, good, bad and downright evil. Eventually interstellar warfare becomes inevitable and mankind stands on the brink of extinction. Exploration of an unknown galaxy, star systems and planets combined with run-and-gun space battles involving everything from ship-to-ship to huge fleet battles, it’s all there! Jamie McFarlane’s Privateer series is right up there with the best of Pournell, Weber and Drake!

After reading the previous books in the series, and reading the reviews from other people who read book 11 before I did, I finally decided to write a review on one of Mr. McFarlane’s books. Blockade Runner brought back all the major characters we have followed through the series. True, as one review stated, the story heads out in a new direction and doesn’t have the feeling that it was finished in total at the end of the book. Without revealing any of the storyline, the books ending leaves quite a few directions that a sequel could take. I believe this was the intent, and am actually quite interested as to the direction the series will go.
For anyone who haven’t read the previous books in the series, I strongly advise that you do. The writing is good with decent plot lines without getting bogged down with any highly technical details. A good reader can fill in the blanks here and a good writer can form a framework for them to use. Too much detail , in my opinion, can really drag a story down.

Blockade Runner is the 11th and latest installment in the Privateer Tales series. SciFi has always been my favorite genre, and I grew up reading the classics form the 40’s-70’s. Authors like Heinlein (My favorite.), Asimov, Clarke, Herbert, Bradbury. Books, that when you read them, create a movie in your mind that you actually watch rather than reading the words. Jamie McFarlane does that in these books. If you a a fan of Science Fiction, complete with heroes, rocket ships, blasters, and alien encounters, you will enjoy these books.

Blockade Runner picks up the story of our heroes and begins another exciting adventure for Liam, Tabby, and the rest of the gang. Do yourself a favor, Pick up the series, and get ready for a new universe!

I love to hate these books, I usually read them in three days and then have to wait for the next one to come out! I love the fast pace, the good use of future tech and the fact that with knowledge of a thing, it can be created again from the ashes. I’m wishing we had those AI’s and retinal displays today. The alien’s were well thought out, the Abasi remind me of a Samurai culture, I hope they are a big part of future books. Good job on making me loathe the Strix and I hope there is a chapter in the next book that describes their overthrow and humiliation. I have a feeling Johnathan will continue to be of surprises, possibly even a division of entities into a second Johnathan. I’m curious to see if Marny and Nick continue their long distance love or if one caves and joins the other. All in all, it’s a great series and I highly recommend it to everyone.

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