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Hostile Takeover #1
Profiteer
In the 24th century, the human race spans 84 worlds. All but one accept the rule of the Terran Confederacy. Welcome to Bakunin--you've entered a world of hardcore criminals, ruthless super-corporations and anarchy--a world where lawlessness means higher profit. Now the Confederacy wants a piece of the action. This is the first in a new high-action trilogy.
- GenresScience Fiction
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
102 people want to read
About the author
S. Andrew Swann
39 books118 followersS. Andrew Swann is the primary pseudonym of Steven Swiniarski, who also writes as S.A. Swiniarski, Steven Krane, and S.A. Swann.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 14, 2022
Fast and fun read by Swann, and the first part of a trilogy. The world here is several hundred years into the future and Earth has spawned over 80 colony worlds. The colonization was first via one-way worm-holes, but now people move about via 'tach-drive' FTL ships. Most worlds are part of the 'confederacy', but Bakunin is not. Bakunin seems to be where all the idealists went- anarchists, socialists, communes of various types, etc.- and has no central government at all, but still has a population of about 1 billion.
Dominic Magnus runs an arms factory on Bakunin that is the target of a 'hostile takeover' by the TEC, basically the CIA of the confederacy. Why they want this is a mystery at first and the TEC really has no business on Bakunin as it is not part of the confederacy. Turns out that there is some bad blood (and family blood) between Dominic and the leader of the hostile takeover (e.g., via military might), who just happens to be his brother. Mild spoilers here, but both Dom and his brother used to work for the TEC, but Dom 'retired' after a nasty 'pacification' of a rebel planet that killed 10s of thousands of people. Dom's brother wants him dead (again, long story).
In any case, Dom survived the takeover, but most of his capital is held in a safe under the arms plant that the TEC now occupy. The novel quickly becomes a 'heist' tale as Dom, along with some other colorful characters, plan on getting the money back...
Fun stuff, but this is really just the kick off of the series, and the 'hostile takeover' seems to be just one part of a larger TEC plan that has to do with the politics of the confederation. Some kind of crazy politics is going on here and we are treated to various political intrigues going on at the 11th conference of all the planets on Earth. This body meets every 10 years...
I liked the fun quips at the start of each chapter, from historical figures and from the Cynic's Book of Wisdom supposedly penned on Bakunin. Fun read-- not too deep, but enough action to keep you entertained. 3 solid stars!!
Dominic Magnus runs an arms factory on Bakunin that is the target of a 'hostile takeover' by the TEC, basically the CIA of the confederacy. Why they want this is a mystery at first and the TEC really has no business on Bakunin as it is not part of the confederacy. Turns out that there is some bad blood (and family blood) between Dominic and the leader of the hostile takeover (e.g., via military might), who just happens to be his brother. Mild spoilers here, but both Dom and his brother used to work for the TEC, but Dom 'retired' after a nasty 'pacification' of a rebel planet that killed 10s of thousands of people. Dom's brother wants him dead (again, long story).
In any case, Dom survived the takeover, but most of his capital is held in a safe under the arms plant that the TEC now occupy. The novel quickly becomes a 'heist' tale as Dom, along with some other colorful characters, plan on getting the money back...
Fun stuff, but this is really just the kick off of the series, and the 'hostile takeover' seems to be just one part of a larger TEC plan that has to do with the politics of the confederation. Some kind of crazy politics is going on here and we are treated to various political intrigues going on at the 11th conference of all the planets on Earth. This body meets every 10 years...
I liked the fun quips at the start of each chapter, from historical figures and from the Cynic's Book of Wisdom supposedly penned on Bakunin. Fun read-- not too deep, but enough action to keep you entertained. 3 solid stars!!
April 23, 2022
"Dominic Magnus" owns an arms factory on the anarchist world of Bakunin, which has long been a thorn in the side of the Confederacy. A TEC task force commanded by Dom's estranged brother is dispatched to deal with the situation...
"Profiteer" is a page-turner with lots of shoot-em-ups, but a surprisingly low body-count. No startling innovations here - though the Church of Christ, Avenger comes close - just intelligent writing, well-drawn characters, and clever plotting. I liked it. If you like mil.sf, so will you.
1997 review, for USENET rasfw I think.
Note that I later read the omnibus reprint of the trilogy: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"Profiteer" is a page-turner with lots of shoot-em-ups, but a surprisingly low body-count. No startling innovations here - though the Church of Christ, Avenger comes close - just intelligent writing, well-drawn characters, and clever plotting. I liked it. If you like mil.sf, so will you.
1997 review, for USENET rasfw I think.
Note that I later read the omnibus reprint of the trilogy: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
June 2, 2010
Essentially a combo of political drama and a heist story. I liked many of the characters and it kept me interested more than I expected it to. I do wish the characters weren't so black and white, good vs. evil/insane or just blindly following. It somewhat oversimplified what could have been a more thoughtful story. The philosophizing is a bit overdone, but generally interesting. I learned a lot about famous anarchists by looking up the names he used for planets and other locations.
May 17, 2011
Profiteer starts off with some action packed chapters when the evil Terran Executive Command (TEC) goes after Dominic Magnus' corporation, which is set on a planet outside the Confederacy. Dominic is a cyborg who has been running away from a tormented past. He survives the initial attack in some thrilling scenes, but I wasn't quite sympathetic to his cause. Luckily Swann included Kari Tetsami, a superb hacker who gets entangled in the events surrounding Magnus. As the book goes along, it becomes more of a heist story, and the cast of characters expand to include a charming rogue AI and a weird alien bird-like creature who joins the caper just for the raw experience. I was racing through the pages by the end and already into book two.
January 10, 2022
You ever forget that you have books by an author you really liked in your TBR pile? I went into the garage expecting to start a binge read of a series that I had been intending to get to. Low and behold I found this three book series by Swann who's Moreau Quartet was an unexpected surprise for me.
This first book in the trilogy is in some ways an exposition dump, and by that I mean we are introduced to the majority, perhaps all, of the characters who will be following through this story. While Dominic Magnus apppears to be the lead on the surface, freelance hacker/cyber thief Tetsami and soldier Shane move more to the forefront as the story progresses.
Magnus appears to be the main because the Terran Confederacy has targeted both him and his company. The planet Magnus has settled on, Bakunin, is kind of a free for all when it comes to capitalism and business, and that is not sitting well with the confederacy (and not all of the details for that are exposed in this intro volume).
Some can argue that the story degenerates into an heist story during its final third, but there is a sound reason for that happening.
This first book in the trilogy is in some ways an exposition dump, and by that I mean we are introduced to the majority, perhaps all, of the characters who will be following through this story. While Dominic Magnus apppears to be the lead on the surface, freelance hacker/cyber thief Tetsami and soldier Shane move more to the forefront as the story progresses.
Magnus appears to be the main because the Terran Confederacy has targeted both him and his company. The planet Magnus has settled on, Bakunin, is kind of a free for all when it comes to capitalism and business, and that is not sitting well with the confederacy (and not all of the details for that are exposed in this intro volume).
Some can argue that the story degenerates into an heist story during its final third, but there is a sound reason for that happening.
April 23, 2022
Swann, S. Andrew. Profiteer. Hostile Takeover No. 1. DAW, 1995.
S. Andrew Swann has published 25 fantasy and science fiction novels in the last 30 years. Profiteer is military scifi, focused on ground assaults by marines and a good deal of libertarian politics. The central character drama is about the conflict between two brothers, neither of whom score high on the warm and cuddly scale. The political drama has to do with well-armed bureaucrats horning in on the one independent planet left in human space. The action zips right along, and I was amused by the epigraphs at the beginning of chapters. Some are from something Swann calls the Cynic’s Book of Wisdom. Others are from well-known authors from Shakespeare to Ambrose Bierce. It is not as stylish or original as it needs to be. 3 stars.
S. Andrew Swann has published 25 fantasy and science fiction novels in the last 30 years. Profiteer is military scifi, focused on ground assaults by marines and a good deal of libertarian politics. The central character drama is about the conflict between two brothers, neither of whom score high on the warm and cuddly scale. The political drama has to do with well-armed bureaucrats horning in on the one independent planet left in human space. The action zips right along, and I was amused by the epigraphs at the beginning of chapters. Some are from something Swann calls the Cynic’s Book of Wisdom. Others are from well-known authors from Shakespeare to Ambrose Bierce. It is not as stylish or original as it needs to be. 3 stars.
October 30, 2025
Finished the first part of the trilogy. No stellar writing, but pretty consistent throughout. Nonetheless, excellent build-up of suspense. Feels like a sci-fi Ocean's Eleven with a little bit of politics sprinkled in there that I'm assuming will be fleshed out further in the coming two novels. Would recommend for fans of generic sci-fi done well
January 17, 2018
3.5 stars
November 2, 2020
I had this trilogy called Hostile Takeover sitting on my TBR pile for a very long time, and thought I'd give it a try. I almost feel like I missed some early short stories, since the tale begins with two brothers who have been lethally at odds with one another for a very long time, Dom and Klaus (neither one of their real names). Dom has gone underground on a planet filled with anarchists, Bakunin, and is the CEO of a large company, while Klaus is a Colonel in the Terran Executive Command, the power behind a group of solar systems with a common defense, trade and political structure. Klaus has been assigned a mission to get the planet of anarchy under Confederacy control, and the added bonus is he gets a shot a killing his brother as part of the deal. The first attack pretty well destroys the corporation, but Dom has a plan to steal back some hidden resources and make a comeback. He encounters a hacker girl named Tetsami when they are both in the custody of a militant religious order, and they team up with some of her confederates to pull off the heist. This religious order had some interesting practices, and it would have been fun to explore that and other aspects of the planet, Bakunin, filled with anarchists of various stripes, as Michael Z Williamson did with a Libertarian planet in Freehold. Kinda fun, but it didn't hold my attention enough to make me finish the trilogy.
March 9, 2010
An improvement on the Nohar Rajastan books and their spin-offs in many ways, but still not essential reading.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews