Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Junkyard Pirate #3

Junkyard Spaceship

Rate this book
When aliens threaten his country, one grumpy old vet will take the fight to the stars.

Albert Jenkins would like nothing more than to putter around his junkyard, selling parts and working on old cars. When an alien spacecraft is shot down by US Air Defense and crash lands on his newly rebuilt home, he’s dragged back into the fight of his life. Lightyears away, a war for the control of Earth looms and humanity’s freedom hangs in the balance. Previously kicked off Earth, the Korgul are back and they are willing to destroy any who stand in their way.

To join the action, AJ lacks just one thing, a spaceship. With only a junkyard full of old parts, he’ll need help to get his plan off the ground. Fortunately, he’s got a plucky, pop culture loving, nano-sized symbiote who’s managed to roll back the damages of eighty years of hard living. With dogged determination he’ll repurpose an old, reclaimed shuttle and build a spaceship so he can join the fight one more time.
Buy Junkyard Spaceship today and send AJ to the stars to kick some alien butt!

368 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 30, 2020

681 people are currently reading
122 people want to read

About the author

Jamie McFarlane

65 books453 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
1,421 (60%)
4 stars
686 (29%)
3 stars
190 (8%)
2 stars
31 (1%)
1 star
12 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
1 review
December 10, 2020
I couldn't stop reading...so I read all 3.

A very good read that I have lost sleep on as I did not want to stop. Very interesting characters and truly a high speed ride. Believable story line that hangs together with minor glitches. Well written and I find myself looking for more from this author as I have finished all three of the Junkyard Pirate books. I look forward to many more.
Profile Image for Garry Whitmore.
294 reviews4 followers
February 17, 2021
After really enjoying the first two books in this series, was a touch disappointed with this third book. I struggled to get into it with its darker tone than the prior books. After reading about 65% I pretty much took a break from it as I couldn't face the main characters having any more setbacks. After month decided to try again and fortunately found the last third does get more positive, and more upbeat. In saying that the ending seemed slightly rushed with everything getting sorted out in the last few pages. I also got the impression that maybe the author was tired of the series and wanted to wrap it up. I hope he does get inspired to continue as the central characters are very likeable and interesting they just need a more upbeat plot next time.
Profile Image for Shane.
631 reviews19 followers
December 21, 2020
I had many issues with this book. There were inconstancies with the earlier books and the last third felt rushed. In the end, it was still another fun read from McFarlane. Good characters and enough twists and turns to keep one guessing. The end seemed clear, but never certain.

Probably my favorite part of this series has been the alien cultures that McFarlane developed. It was the Vred in the last book and the Xandarj in this one. Similar enough to human to be relatable but always different enough for a bit of culture shock. Good storytelling
Profile Image for Beau.
312 reviews7 followers
May 24, 2021
I'm a grumpy old man who loves a series about a grumpy old man who stays one move ahead of the bad guys.

Quick! Write another one!
Profile Image for Alex Shrugged.
2,797 reviews30 followers
February 1, 2021
I liked it. It continues the series story line. It is not exactly a standalone novel. One should at least read the first book in the series, "Junkyard Pirate". Otherwise you won't know who "Beverly" is or why that Mexican kid is working so hard to help out, or "why" a lot of things.

The story: A spaceship crashes onto AJ's house, completely destroying it. There seems to be a battle for supremacy over who will rule over the Earth and rule over Beverly's home planet. Aliens have taken control of government officials in order to exploit Earth's resources (covertly). AJ was taken over by "Beverly" a benign alien who wishes to stop such exploitation and to help her own people to stop being such crappy people. For example: Earthlings are not considered sentient by the general galactic population. Now, Beverly's mother, "The Queen" is dying and Beverly's sister is the heir apparent. They must get her back to her home planet, and hopefully save Earth from being exploited... and also to be considered "real people".

I found a lot of the dialogue to be funny in a "caveman" sort of way. AJ reminded me of that character James McGill in B. V. Larson's "Undying Mercenaries" series. (See the first book in the series, "Steel World".)

Any problems with this story? You mean other than it doesn't stand alone very well? I was unhappy as I got toward the end. It seemed that the story was nowhere near the end, but I was running out of book. That meant that the ending was going to be short and sudden... probably a deus ex machina ending. Luckily it wasn't quite that bad, but it was close.

Any modesty issues? The F-word was used. There was also a lot of sexual innuendo, although no actual sex that I recall. In one scene two people slept together in their clothes and actually slept. Nevertheless, that was immodest.

I might read this book again. The ending (short as it was) did tie up the major issues brought up in the beginning of the book and left a small opening for yet another sequel. No cliffhanger, thank you G-d!


Profile Image for Ziggy Nixon.
1,172 reviews36 followers
February 8, 2021
Flat 3-ish. A good - not better than nor worse than that - classic and soft scifi tale. While it wasn't unenjoyable (huh?), it did hit me in a somewhat frustrating "I was hoping for Scalzi but wound up getting 'Quozl' by Alan Dean Foster" kind of way.

The story is hurt by some really uneven pacing, with some jumping about even escaping the most skeptical of minds. Even the whole 'let's build a spaceship' start still just has me shaking my head in the abrupt way that was developed. The first two books did a much better job of convincing us a lot of what was transpiring could be doing so as we were "watching" but, again, "JYSpaceship" has too many instances where ALL belief has to be suspended.

In addition, to me there were just too many random instances where we're either situated somewhere way too quickly (like what was that bad neighbourhood on that one planet towards the end? See how poorly it stuck with me?) or just far too lucky to be convincing (side reference: if your symbiote isn't working, all the getting shot by various weapons and/or fishing equipment might be hard to recover from so quickly ... but hey, the Marines will be there, right?). My list goes on and on (are we maybe to assume the side trip to Louisiana by several of our players will appear in a future book?). Even the ending just snaps off from its tether far too abruptly for my tastes but I guess our page count targets had been met by then.

Another thing that hurt at least my enjoyment of this book is bluntly that I can't believe it's rated as high as it is nor that it nearly garnered quite a few awards that I follow. It's just not that good and wouldn't make my Top Anything list for last year (noting I didn't even know it had been released until I started seeing it in those same lists). Kids, I know 2020 was a shitty year for all of us, but I read a bunch more stuff albeit sometimes by lesser known authors that blew this book well out of the water. Or jump space. Whatever.

Oh well. Not sure where it will go from here. Sadly, a lot of the charm that the first two tomes possessed seems to be exhausted. I'm just not sure its worth re-hashing it all over again, at least not if I'm waiting for an indeterminate amount of time for same.
Profile Image for Tammy Hansen.
81 reviews10 followers
January 29, 2021
I read only 27% of a sample of this story and couldn't finish.

Of course we want our heroes to win, else the story is damn short; but I find it irritating that the heroes would keep pulling the exactly right thing out of their asses every time to survive and win.

** SPOILERS **
On top of it all, here's the final straw: "The device didn't actually use rocket technology for propulsion but instead utilized a rare element called Fantastium known to only a few humans." One, I hate made-up technologies not dependent on or extrapolated from known science; two, that's a really stupid name for an element that I can't imagine any scientist would actually come up with to add to the Periodic Table; and three, it's known only to a few humans but our heroes just happen to know it. That's all just way too much for me.
** END SPOILERS **

I had high hopes for this story, because who wouldn't like to hear about someone building a spaceship out of junkyard scrap? The premise sounds cool. But I just couldn't stomach the way the action and heroes in the story are presented.
Profile Image for Michael  Keller.
942 reviews11 followers
May 6, 2022
BB, AJ, Jayne and Darnell fight to save Beltigersk from the evil Alicia

BB's sister plots a coup against Queen Belti to assume control over Beltigersk and bring back involuntary control of lesser populations, turning them into virtual beasts of burden. First, they have to build a spaceship from the junk in AJ's junkyard, get back into space and save the Earth from the Korguls who are stealing all of the planet's Fastorium and Blastorium, valuable compounds responsible for powering the starships and weapons of the universe.

By this, the third volume in this series, I've gotten to know, admire and love these characters. As close as family, I know them well. The human entry into the cosmos is akin to monkeys, no, more like raccoons, reaching for low-hanging fruit. But we'll surprise them all and the amazing storyline will continue as humanity reaches the stars! Great read!
11 reviews
December 26, 2020
Jamie McFarlane tells a good story, filled with likable, three-dimension characters. There is plenty of action and space-opera adventure, and there is an actual story line and plot to go with it. Since the lead characters are all Viet Nam War Veterans, this series appeals to me on many different levels, but even if you are not a boomer, you will find these characters to be good people that you can actually care about. If you are not familiar with the series, I recommend you start at the beginning with Junkyard Pirate. Junkyard Spaceship is okay as a stand alone, but to catch all the inside jokes and running gags, you need to read the first two books in the series. In fact there is one joke that goes all the way back to the first Privateer Tales book. That is another series by McFarlane that I highly recommend.
Profile Image for Raymond White.
213 reviews12 followers
April 13, 2021
Earth is being pillaged by parasitic aliens who are stealing two of the most valuable resources in the universe--and we don't even know about it. That's the premise of the first book in this, so far three book series. In this third novel, our heroes must build a spaceship and take an alien who is stranded on Earth home to prevent a civil was on her planet.

Jamie McFarlane's Junkyard Pirate series is just as entertaining as his Privateer series. Once again he delivers fun, intriguing and memorable characters, and an interesting and engaging plot. Hard to ask for more. I like that, though his books feature continuing characters, they are all stand alone novels.

Maybe this series spoke to me because all three of the leading characters from Earth are Vietnam vets.
Profile Image for The Mysterious Reader.
3,589 reviews66 followers
December 7, 2020
Go to the stars and kick some alien butt, AJ! And let everyone go along for the ride, because Jamie McFarlane’s Junkyard Spaceship (Junkyard Pirate #3) is one heck of a sweet, super-exciting ride indeed. This is the author that most reminds me of Robert A. Heinlein (a high compliment in my book). His stories are superbly written, totally exciting, and while set in a sci-fi world they just simply work as the characters react to the world they’re in the same way we react in ours. The result is consistently fantastic story-telling and this book (and latest series) are great example of it, and this easy to highly recommend.
Profile Image for Duane Warren.
32 reviews1 follower
January 7, 2021
This whole story could easily be true!! Lol!!

So I can't tell if he's finished with this story. I hope not but if he is the latest book wrapped it up pretty nearly. If curse I want more but if not I can love with it. Honestly I still want more if Liam, Tabby and friends!!
And thank you Jamie for giving us the great stories and places to go and see without leaving my recliner!..
You and your wife are really good ppl! Thanks especially for how you honor
Us old sea dogs. I'm a Navy vet. It seems like you have military experience
somewhere in your history!! Anyway brother I love your ink! Lmao not taking about your tattoo either!
Profile Image for Tim Shea.
5 reviews
December 6, 2020
Another guitarist story

Jamie hit out of the park again. Jamie is a great story teller that keeps you turning pages. Although this is the third book in the series it can stand on its own. I do recommend the other two bookers to get the full depth of the characters. The only problem I have with Jamie's works, Junkyard Spaceship has the problem too, is they are hard two put down. You can't put it down with the anticipation of what will happen next. Thank you Jamie for another great story!
Profile Image for Bruce Dinsman.
1,581 reviews3 followers
April 10, 2021
Aliens among us and in us

Think about the concepts of these books for just a minute. Would you willingly accept a tiny creature take over your body and mind? One kind is mostly benevolent and does a great job of reversing aging and old traumas. The other ones are just bad news entirely, take over, make you do bad stuff. So now the questions come up: is this really about alien races or is it about human nature or both? I was thinking angels and demons the entire time. How about you?
552 reviews
December 14, 2020
AJ, Beverly, Jayne, Darnell, Lisa,

A.J. has a junkyard of aerospace parts. He and his neighbors see an alien spacecraft being pursued by Air National Guard planes. The spacecraft is shot down into AJ's junkyard. He and his Vietnam War veteran friends Darnell and Dr. Jayne rescue the passengers but are illegally detained by a CIA agent Love it, who is collaborating with other aliens.

Characterization and plotting are excellent.
Profile Image for Frank Bertino.
1,771 reviews20 followers
December 18, 2020
Very Entertaining Read

AJ and crew come back together to protect their symbionts, friends and planet. They are trying to get two Princesses back to their home planet to deal an attack on their home world. AJ gets mixed up with a like minded alien drinking buddy and hilarity ensures. The relationship with AJ and Jayne develops further. AJ gains inner strength as his uber protective mode kicks in. I like the action, humor, and romance. I look forward to the next book.
1 review
December 27, 2020
This is for the third book. I'm just going to have to wait for the next book. There's a lot of technology bandied about which is fun, but the core of the story is about people and their "humanity". I would like to note that the main characters were Vietnam vets who survived that time period, which also have them the ability to use technology for human purposes. Maybe a little less faith in the new generation, since they haven't been tempered as much, but the author hasn't given up on them yet.
4 reviews
February 26, 2021
When an author forgets who has slept together, it's not a good sign.

That said, this was my second favorite behind Junkyard Pirate of this series. These books are light entertaining reads. You don't need to engage your brain like you do when reading Honor Harrington.

The series engages in a bit too much Deus Ex Machina, but it's so damn entertaining that might be forgiven.

The plot of this book is significantly more complex than the prior two books, which was both good and bad.
142 reviews4 followers
March 2, 2021
Really getting tired of the author not giving anyone a well deserved comeuppance. He never mentioned what if any action is taken against Alicia or those that supported her. Guess she just gets to say oops sorry and go about her business. None of those currently in the us government get any kind of consequences. Basically everyone just kind of crosses their fingers and hopes for the best when what they need to do is execute everyone that hindered them with extreme prejudice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
72 reviews
March 24, 2021
An enjoyable read

Overall liked the book and am recommending it. It concludes the 3 book series but leaves room for more. I felt the middle part was a bit slow but otherwise enjoyed the story. Thanks to the author for making the books in this series available through Kindle Unlimited. This keeps my reading habit/addiction affordable. Based on the series I plan to read more books by this author.
Profile Image for Keith.
2,165 reviews6 followers
June 4, 2021
A Bit Bizarre

There are definite WTF moments in this story, where the narrative seems to propose the impossible and the characters react unexpectedly. Everything works out, eventually, but the descriptions leave much to the reader’s imagination. Rather than facilitate, these moments of sudden solution obfuscate what could be an interesting storyline. Better than I expected, and ends on a positive note with all current story threads resolved.
Profile Image for Michael.
20 reviews
December 3, 2020
Junkyard series latest installment

Great new book!! Love the story telling and the characters. I can visualize the people and interactions. Just too damn short. Finished it in two settings in a single day. Now I need a follow up sometime soon and Jamie just can't churn new ones out fast enough. Great series and recommend all books.
406 reviews1 follower
December 12, 2020
Writers Freedoms.

Good story, quite well told. Having fought in another country in the 'Nam era I can tell you that those people would never high five. Whoopee boys did not live long! However, maybe Desert Storm people did? Apart from wincing from the odd bad use of words, I enjoyed these first three books. I'm sure most will, too.
60 reviews1 follower
December 30, 2020
Another fantastic read from Mr. McFarlane!

I have always been able to trust that any book from this author will keep me entertained for a couple of hours. Ad usual this book contained lots of action, with amusing conversations between interesting characters. There are also deep moments when philosophical matters are discussed. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Thank you, Mr. McFarlane!
(Now, when can we expect to see another installment of this series? Hmmm?
58 reviews1 follower
January 9, 2021
Pretty good

It held my interest at times for an hour or so and then I would lose interest. I would pick it back up the next day and read for an hour or so. The action was pretty good. The triangle of A.J., Beverly and Jayne never got really cleared up. That could have really been an interesting twist to the story. You have to read to understand.
215 reviews1 follower
January 12, 2021
Who's Head is on the Line?

You will want to now that the authors humor is still abound in this book. It got alot to do with the characters he has developed in the first two books. It also has slot to do with our never ending ability to get yourself in trouble. I kind now your going to enjoy this book too!
88 reviews
February 6, 2021
Never have I ever read a 3 book series

This was the first book series I’ve ever read. I usually become bored with reading quickly, but I could not put it down and even my wife was surprised that I had finished the 3 book series. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading more.
302 reviews1 follower
February 10, 2021
Highly recommended sci fi with humour

Another superb instalment in this series with all the characters living up to (my) expectations. A number of twists and challenges built in to ensure that it doesn't go exactly as planned.
The only downside to finishing the book is having to wait for the next one.
165 reviews1 follower
February 12, 2021
Space travel, Ray guns, space battles, and new aliens species!

Well written and good pace of action in this last of three volumes. Same characters with new alien species, many supportive of the space voyage being undertaken to restore the rightful government of another world. Easy and enjoyable read for a Sci-Fi officianado.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.