Give No Quarter

One of the better in the series, definitely a high point so far. By the points:

1) Bigger fleet. Author spends the time to stop and collect booty and war prizes. This is great stuff. It also means a lot of flexibility in the types of scenarios Loose Nuts can take on now from fleet battles to little dirtside landings of 2-4 people. The whole piracy/trade is done very well.

2) All the favorite characters are there, plus a few new ones without adding so many you get lost. Good growth in the Jonathan character (hive of intelligences). Some people come and go, sometimes violently. Were left with an even more interesting crew than we started. The only really neglected characters this time around are Nick the smart sidekick and Ada the cute brown-skinned girl thats great with big ships. This was fine and necessary because so many other characters did develop and receive page time.

3) Larger universe / bigger stakes. Again this was done right in small enough bites that Liam can be pitted against whole new races without it being preposterous. A lot of mystery left to explore. I thought this book would see the story start to run out of gas, but instead its like an onramp to the freeway that somehow manages to keep our core of plucky crew as the focus.

4) Aliens. At last. First contact element was a bit simplistic but still a solid high point. Again theres mystery here, good characters to meet, etc. The only thing I think that fell short was no clear villain/org to face. The enemy is still just kind of them guys and theres no perspective as to the other side. We only get life through Liams eyes.

5) Liam is becoming a bad*ss. Hes a commodore. He makes the calls quickly without any drama and pages of second guessing over emotional angst. Hes a kid but also rapidly becoming the old man that has earned respect in the line of fire pulling people through battle after battle. I also really liked the scenes where Liam is stone cold with outsiders. You can see his steel underneath the yokel faade. Now he just needs a good XO to make him look even better.

6) Space Fighters. Its not that big of a deal story-wise, but a nice little bonus. Throw in some bots, Chinese armor repairing machines, etc. and Liam is getting quite a bit of hardware/capability to go with his ragtag fleet.

This book has a couple different plot lines.
– The fight against Belirand and their standing with the rest of human space.
– The exploration and assistance to the other abandoned Belirand colonies.
– The building up of an industrial base since they are mostly cut off from main earth space.
This book did an excellent job of managing all three at the same time.

Individual characters don’t get a lot of time for development but the overall way they all interact was starting to change, as they pick up some new crew members to fill out the larger ships they have. That was interesting, I hope it gets talked about some more over the next few books.

Of course the pacing and action stay at the extreme end. Fortunately their ships get fully repaired in hours, and not months.

Four and half stars. Sometimes when you look back, it takes a lot of thought to remember just how you got to where you currently are. This story is a long, long way from ‘Privateer Tales’ but that is not a bad thing. It has been a very steady and even progression of an expanding universe. Looking back, it feels a lot like leaving Bag End and finally crossing the river… Funny, many reviews ago I compared McFarlane to Heinlein, now I am comparing him to Tolkien. Once again, not a bad thing.

There is good interplay between existing characters along with some maturity and development. There are also new and interesting characters added into to mix. The ending felt a bit rushed but was still fairly complete. Another fun read from McFarlane.

Aside: Jamie finally understands the difference between a frigate and a cruiser (not an easy task for the uninitiated.) Now maybe we can work on the difference between a lieutenant and a gunnery sergeant.

Privateers is a good read with well-developed characters and an entertaining story line. It is the first series that I have read in a very long time that had well developed foundational science on which the rest of the story framework is based. The use of AI, smart fabric, and Internet of things, was very well integrated into the story and extended into the future. The only nits I have to pick with the series are the improbable interrelationships between some of the characters, the illogical expansion from the Milky Way to the Dwingeloo galaxy, which is 10 million light-year away from Earth. There are many other choices much closer, such as Andromeda, at 2.5 million. Additionally, it is unlikely that the 100 to 400 billion stars within the Milky Way could have been explored. One last nick pick, was the reference to the Marny Bertrand, a former Marine, who is referred to as a Master Chief, which is a Navy rank. The correct rank for a Marine E9 would be Master Gunnery Sergeant, or Gunny.

The war with Bellirand corporation is heating up while an intergalactic war begins. Liam and Loose Nuts are, naturally, at the center of everything. Meanwhile building up new contacts and trading partners for their newly adopted planet of Ophir.
Having read this series as it was written over a period of years, I often lose track of things that happened in previous novels. I can’t for the life of me remember what happened to Liam’s cat. But with a new trans-loc gate between Mars space and Ophir, i suspect other characters from earlier in the series may come out to play once again.

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