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.

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!

The characters are the good guy and bad guy but in a spce setting. If you like adventure with a touch of sci-fi you'll enjoy this book. Not real heavy reading and the ending is a bit different from what I expected.