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Jamie McFarlane

Rookie Privateer (Privateer Tales) Hardcover – April 26, 2021

by Jamie McFarlane (Author)

1,979 ratings

Book 1 of 20: Privateer Tales

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He dreams of sailing the stars, but he never counted on space pirates…

Liam Hoffen wants off the asteroid he and his family call home. Despite passing the Mars Competency Test, he’s stuck mining a plot of land that may never pay off. To make matters worse, the girl of his dreams is about to ship off to the Naval Academy…

But when a brutal pirate hoard sets its sights on Liam’s colony, he and his friends may be their ramshackle town’s only chance of survival. As they gather up all the courage and cunning they can muster, they learn that their little colony holds secrets far bigger than they ever could have imagined. The truth about their dusty asteroid could change everything, if they live long enough to do something about it…

Rookie Privateer is the first book in the Privateer Tales saga, a series of swashbuckling space operas. If you like memorable and witty characters, pulse-pounding adventures, and galactic tales reminiscent of golden age sci-fi, then you’ll love Jamie McFarlane’s explosive tale.

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Print length

280 pages
Language

English
Publication date

April 26, 2021
Dimensions

6 x 0.82 x 9 inches
ISBN-13

979-8718897104
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Jamie McFarlane
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6 offers from $7.00
Jamie McFarlane
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9 offers from $8.41
Jamie McFarlane
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6 offers from $13.00
Jamie McFarlane
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Jamie McFarlane
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Jamie McFarlane
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B093K5J2D4
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (April 26, 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8718897104
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.08 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.82 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #6,649,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #11,745 in Space Marine Science Fiction
- #12,725 in Exploration Science Fiction
- #36,952 in Space Operas

Customer Reviews:
1,979 ratings

About the author

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Jamie McFarlane

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Jamie McFarlane is a graduate of Colorado School of Mines with a Master of Science in Mathematics. An avid reader, tinkerer, woodworker and metal sculptor, Jamie is just as likely to be seen smelting aluminum cans in his garage as he is tacking random, discarded iron objects into a small army of beasties that adorn his home’s landscaping.

Jamie’s writing career began as something of a dare which later turned into a tribute. In his late teens, Jamie was well known as the family story-teller, spinning fanciful yarns about ordinary events, usually with the objective of escaping well-deserved trouble. One day, his mother, often the target of his mischievous tales, challenged him to commit his words to writing. Jamie promised he would but time passed, as did his beloved mother. In 2014, Jamie made good on his promise and published his first book.

Jamie is the author of a growing library of novels and novellas including the space opera series - Privateer Tales, and the urban fantasy series - Witchy World. Jamie lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife and enjoys spending time with family and friends.

Customer reviews

5 star		63%
4 star		28%
3 star		6%
2 star		1%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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J. Foster

Good space opera, not good writing

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2017

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This was an interesting book. I felt like elements of the story were a bit far-fetched, and at times stretched my ability to suspend disbelief. The dialogue "eye-roll" quotient was a bit high (this is the number of times I roll my eyes due to awkward conversation that wouldn't happen in real life). It felt like an author who is still in the beginning phases of honing his craft.

That said, I did find the story rather endearing. The main characters are likable, and by the end of the book I found myself more invested in the resolution than I expected. The payoff was good, and almost made me want to read the next book in the series.

-----------
I think people tend to rate books higher than they should, so I try to rate books on a harder scale, while being consistent over time. Jerry Foster's book rating scale:

5 - Fantastic. Life-altering. Only 10-20 books in a lifetime.
4 - Very good.
3 - Worth your time.
2 - Not very good.
1 - Atrocious

36 people found this helpful

Helpful

Syd

3 A Room Full Of Monkeys Had Been Fed Prunes And Let Loose Stars

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

Rookie Privateer is the first book in the Privateer Tales series by Jamie McFarlane.

I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t fully appreciate this book. It’s definitively an encouraging start in a space opera series. Maybe it’s the lack of irresistible draw before we get to the crux of Liam and Nick taking on the Red Houzi. Or the ridiculous notion that an elite space force, such as the Mars Protectorate Navy, would put so much faith in two barely adults.

Honestly, Liam’s personality was also a little off to me. I mean he was mentioned to be incredibly smart, but then in turn would act in such ignorant ways. Or as with the trial after the attack on Colony 40, where he zones out of the trial to horndog after Tabby on the vid. Made me want to hit him. For murder, he’s being (wrongfully) charged with murder and he’s only sitting there thinking “she’s so pretty”.

That’s not even taking into account how completely obvious all of the traitors/spies/antagonists still on Colony 40 were. The dichotomy between differing scenes within the book; be it the plot, or level of believability really cut into any entrenchment within the story itself. I feel as if I was dragged out of it more times than I can reasonably place a good rating on, with how jarring this impacted my enjoyment for the work.

One person found this helpful

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Char

This is fun and exciting like the Junkyard Pirate series sort of

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2021

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This is a great, fun story. The beginning of a 16? Volume series. Great. The more the better. I read Jamie's Junkyard Pirate series and loved it, so I decided to try this loooong series. The J.P. series doesn't have a lot of unnecessary murder death kill and neither does this one. Liam and Nick are not warriors. In Most of the sci fi I read the characters are already military. This story is fun and entertaining because the two main characters are just out of high school with no military training. They have a friend named Tabby who went into the navy and because our boys are working as privateers for the navy, I think we'll see her worked in at some point. Anyway this is an exciting tale; and yes, there are some ground actions and space battles, but the story is much more than that. If you liked the J.P. series you'll like this one too. Enjoy

Helpful

The Mysterious Amazon CustomerTop Contributor: Fantasy Books

Adrenaline filled fun

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2017

Verified Purchase

Bottom line: if you like Weber and Heinlein (the highest of praise in my book) then you'll enjoy Rookie Privateer.

This was a truly well written book with strong characters and an excellent action-filled plot line in an extremely well constructed universe. The only negative is that it took about 1/5th of the way in before the main plot got going. That first fifth was relevant and necessary backstory about life where the main characters grew up, but with the word "privateer" in the title I just knew they'd be going elsewhere and was over eager for that to happen. I suspect that if I hadn't known that then the backstory (well written in itself) would've been more fun. I know that I will be reading this book again (which in itself shows how much I enjoyed it) and I'm sure I will savor those opening chapters more when I do.

This is the first of a series but it's not a serial so there is no cliff hanger here. Having said that, I'm going to get book 2 and I'm sure most readers will want to as well.

So, excellent writing, strong plot with great action scenes and really great character development = super easy to recommend this book. I almost gave it five stars, which I almost never do (to me only the best of Heinlein or Weber, the original Dune, or equivalent books, would get five stars). If you like adrenaline filled fun the go for it.

7 people found this helpful

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Amaxon Customer

Dangerous Mining Colony

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

Okay, if one of us tried to write SF, the decision about plot speed would lie between describing the activities that fill each watch and day, like Quarter Share (Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper Book 1) , or compressing the weeks into a few paragraphs. Same for tech skills- does the protagonist study a wiki or just suddenly know how to program the computer that controls the weapons defending a base? McFarlane took the shortcut; it did keep the pacing fast. It was hard to put the book down after the first chapter, as the story was so appealing.
Liam, Nick and Tabby hold center stage; their adventures should interest experienced SF readers as well as YA readers. A pod-ball tournament is reminiscent of Ender's Game (The Ender Quartet series Book 1) . Shortly, they embark on careers in space that we might covet. Imagery of ships and asteroids is good. (Four stars)
The science of ship propulsion, inertial compensation and air recycling is vague. The romantic impact is simplistic- Liam blushes at any woman's attentions, yearning for his one true love. Nick is a faithful wingman and mechanic. While we see her, Tabby is mature and goal-oriented. At book's end, no one issue is resolved, but it promises future revelations, hard knocks, maybe battles with their enemies- leaving the impact somewhat muted. (Minus one star)

13 people found this helpful

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VickiD

... recently that my life is too short to read bad books. Given that I like both Tolstoy and ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 21, 2014

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I decided recently that my life is too short to read bad books. Given that I like both Tolstoy and Asimov, this resulted in countless occasions where I didn't even finish the free sample, thirty pages of stilted dialog and not so much as written but scratched by numbers characters in shoot 'em up, poorly disguised as Sci-Fi.

But "The Rookie Privateer" has shown a promise quickly - a book that starts from a detailed explanation of how to fix an ore sled cannot be too bad. I wasn't mistaken. The book is rich in unexpected but totally believable details, such as pirates neglecting waste disposal systems on a spaceship. The characters are likable including love interests, the plot dynamic with unexpected developments - including shoot outs and martial arts.

This book is top 10% of the Sci-Fi book on amazon, not quite Hugh Howey yet, but the author has potential. I'll be definitely buying the other books.

14 people found this helpful

A Woman of a Certain Age

Dreadful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2018

Verified Purchase

Sorry but I could not get on with this at all. It felt as though it was not only a story about teenagers but had also been written by one. There was no depth to any of the characters. The plot was told in such a way that there was no emotion, drama or real suspense. And I had to keep skipping whole pages as I was being bored to tears with far more information than I ever wanted about how they carry out their mining procedures.
In the end I didn't bother reading to the end. I decided that life is too short to read books I don't like, even if they were free.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

hard SF solar-system-only milieu is nice, but good lord

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2017

Verified Purchase

Readable, but the characters are Libertarian fantasy Mary Sues. How does a teenager straight out of school become an expert contract negotiator and Fearsome Space Privateer overnight? From teenage kids to super-capable undercover agents overnight is a bit of a stretch. The no FTL, hard SF solar-system-only milieu is nice, but good lord, golden boy and his compatriots...

2 people found this helpful

Kindle Gailforce

Excellent read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2017

Verified Purchase

Almost from the start an exciting roller coaster ride of action packed adventure. Liam, the main character is suddenly forced to take action together with his friend Nick, to save the space station under attack by pirates. Their success brings about a great change for them and opportunities for their future. Lots of discriptive content to create a different way of life with space ships, asteroids, attack vessels, turret guns and much, much more. I would recommend this novel to all readers.

Tom L

Fun and exciting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

I got the book on a whim (I'm terrible for looking at the covers and judging by that) and I'm glad I got it. The characters were interesting and this books builds them nicely while still allowing them to grow further along in the series. Jamie does a lovely job of painting a lovely and vibrant environment in what is a vast and unforgiving place that is space. I very much look forward to reading the rest of the series. I've already read the second and am writing this because the second being equally (yet different) good as this one!!!

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Rookie Privateer (Privateer Tales) Hardcover – April 26, 2021

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He dreams of sailing the stars, but he never counted on space pirates…

Buy Rookie Privateer to ship off on a wild ride today!

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Jamie McFarlane

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Buy new: $16.00

Follow the Author

Rookie Privateer (Privateer Tales) Hardcover – April 26, 2021

Enhance your purchase

He dreams of sailing the stars, but he never counted on space pirates…

Buy Rookie Privateer to ship off on a wild ride today!

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Product details

About the author

Jamie McFarlane

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

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