The Privateer (The Flight Engineer, Book 2)

Gene Roddenberry created Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott--the Enterprise's beloved chief engineer Scotty--in the image of his friend James Doohan, a former real-life engineer and officer in the Canadian Army. Now Doohan, in his Flight Engineer series, coauthored with military-SF powerhouse S.M. Stirling, has created an equally likable character in Scotty's image: Commander Peter Ernst Raeder, a sly and salty flight engineer for the Commonwealth Navy.

Be warned: Baen Books has given the series an astronomically inappropriate tagline--"Beam us up again, Scotty!" And they've likewise made the unseemly decision to set Doohan's disembodied head afloat on the cover of both this and the last book, spinning surreally above generic space battles like some mustachioed, Scottish Death Star. But despite the crass cashing in on Scotty and his mug, Doohan and the already accomplished Stirling come through with fun and competent, if straightforward, work, a jocular mix of naval intrigue, pitched ship-to-ship combat, and (surprise!) last-minute, skin-of-your-teeth problem-solving. And at the heart of the story sits the worldly-wise, sardonic wit of Commander Raeder.

If you're new to the series, you'll probably want to check out The Rising first. But if you're anxious to see whether Raeder's daring aboard the Dauntless earned him reprimand or reward, pick up Privateer. One of his commanders puts it best: "You know the reward for good work, don't you, son?" "More work, sir?" "You're learning, son." We can trust the same applies to Doohan and Stirling. --Paul Hughes