Sentenced to desk duty after an unorthodox but successful maneuver, flight engineer Peter Raeder takes a risky assignment on the fringes of Federation Space rather than languish away in an office 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 The second of starfighter flight engineer^-pilot Peter Raeder's adventures begins with him facing a court of inquiry for his conduct in adventure number one, The Rising (1996). To avoid flying a desk, the officially grounded Raeder volunteers to lead a covert mission into enemy space to establish a secret base on an old mining asteroid, from which piratical attacks on the Mollies--the yarn's bad guys--are to be simulated. The goal is to break up the pirate-Mollie alliance. The mission succeeds, but not without considerable cost in sweat, blood, and ingenuity, and plenty of the unorthodox tactics and procedures that got Raeder in hot water before. The collaboration of Star Trek 's Scottie and top action-sf writer Stirling is a good one. The two have compatible senses of humor and the ability to exploit to the full the absurdities of the military and war. At the same time, they don't let the tone turn silly. Solid astronautical fare. Roland Green Used Book in Good Condition