Corporate Bounty

Space Hunter War #2

by Rick Partlow, Pacey Holden

The galaxy’s most reluctant bounty hunter uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the very peace he fought a war to achieve.

Jack Bennet has done the impossible: collected on a bounty in the notorious Pirate Worlds.

He’s earned himself a nice boost to his reputation, a hefty payday...and a cult of enemies hellbent on revenge.

Reaching out to a friend at Fleet Intelligence lands Jack an offer he can’t refuse, but to collect, he’ll have to take the plunge back into the viper’s nest. In the Pirate Worlds, the only rule of law is a brutal hierarchy written in blood by thieves, murderers, cartels, and con artists running deadly games on their way to the top.

And this time, they know Jack’s name.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

277 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 27, 2022

About the author

Rick Partlow is that rarest of species, a native Floridian. Born in Tampa, he attended Florida Southern College and graduated with a degree in History and a commission in the US Army as an Infantry officer.
His lifelong love of science fiction began with Have Space Suit---Will Travel and the other Heinlein juveniles and traveled through Clifford Simak, Asimov, Clarke and on to William Gibson, Walter Jon Williams and Peter F Hamilton. And somewhere, submerged in the worlds of others, Rick began to create his own worlds.
He has written over 70 books in over a dozen different series, and his short stories have been included in many different anthologies.

He currently lives in norther Wyoming with his wife and their dog. Besides writing and reading science fiction and fantasy, he enjoys outdoor photography, hiking and camping.

Reviews

[Jim]

Ok, to get kind of caught up, while Jack Bennett was trying to go after a bounty on one of the Pirate Worlds he came across a cultist group calling themselves the Predecessor Cult. You’re going to read a lot about them all during the remaining books in this series. They happened to be holding the bounty Jack was looking for so he went to investigate what they were about.

He found that these guys & gals were very serious about their worship of the Ancients believing the Ancients would one day return and uplift all those that believed in them. Meanwhile, the Cult leadership was doing their own “uplifiting” in making major modifications to their followers. They made ordinary men and some women into almost super-humans. These Acolytes were the muscle of the Cult and took their job of protecting the Cult very seriously.

Jack happened to intrude into one of the Cult compounds while looking for his bounty. Since most of the Cultist wore robes which covered their heads, it was kind of hard to tell who was who. Also the Cultist Guardians, those militant members, didn’t want Jack nosing around. But he did get a surprising of one Acolyte that shocked him. He knew her as Lieutenant Valerie Bolesky. Why she was there, he didn’t know, but it didn’t appear that she wanted to be there. So Jack made it his job to rescue Valerie even if it meant taking on the entire cultist operation on this planet.

He also found out that these cultist weren’t pacifist. In fact they were well armed, too well armed for a supposed religious cult. He didn’t know where they were getting their weapons, but he knew they had to be involved in some kind of gun running operations. Little did he know that this would be a problem that consumed the rest of his days.

So, Valerie was rescued only for Jack to find out that she was part of Fleet Intelligence working to inflitrate the Cult. She didn’t feel that she was being accepted when Jack showed up and he practically blew her cover right there. They had taken her to an interrogation room to find out who she really was so when Jack got her out, he probably did save her life.

Now back a Fleet Intell HQ, Valerie offered Jack a job that involved him looking for another person (Finn Burton) probably being tortured by the Cult or even the Corporate Council. Fleet Intell believed that a lot of the funding for the Cult was coming directly from the Corporate Council, but for what reason they didn’t know.

Jack’s new job was to find the Fleet Intel imbed Finn Burton and get him out of there. This would lead Jack to another planet in the Pirate Worlds and would involve him almost destroying another Cult domain. Jacks contact on this Pirate World was Rhonda Lebeck. She had a partner name Kan-Zin-Tel, a Tahni. Jack didn’t know why any human would work with a Tahni. Jack and the humans had just fought a bloody war with the Tahni and Jack didn’t know if he could stand this guy. He might just kill him on sight!

Of course that didn’t happen. But Jack did find a heavy involvement of the Corporate Council by Executive Cassady Duquesne. He also meets Max, one of the Predecessor Cults chief enforcers. It doesn’t seem anything is going to go easy for Jack and company. They have to do a job for the Corporate Council Executive before she will release Finn Burton. Once he gets the job done, Finn Burton is presented, but he’s almost dead. The Executive along with the High Priest of the Cult want Jack to kill Finn since he’s wanted dead or alive by the authorities.

Of course Jack’s not going to do this so another battle breaks out with Jack and his associates and the Predecessor Cult. Birdy in the “Anna” shows up with guns blazing. Rhonda and Kan-Zin-Tels ship the “Valkery” is destroyed so they all flee in the “Anna”.

Jack would also find out if the Corporate Council was indeed involved with the Cult. This mission that Val sent him on was going to be profitable since the person he was after did have a bounty on him, but also, Fleet Intel was now paying for his services. Only Jack wasn’t so sure he wanted to keep doing this kind of work.

Jack’s also find out that he has a bounty on himself set by the Predecessor Cult. Whether someone would come to collect, he didn’t know. More will have to be provided in book 3, “Cultist Bounty”, avialable on Amazon.

[Doug Sundseth]

After angering the pirates and the cult, Jack and Birdie are pulled into an operation for the military - an attempt to rescue an agent from another cult outpost.

This book has better character development than the first book in the series. The planets they visit are a bit less generic this time than last. And we find out that there is a grand conspiracy behind many of the things going on.

The antagonists are rather generic and disposable, and the writing concentrates more on action than story, though with the revelations here, this is slightly better than in book 1.

The climax is written well, and the denouement promises more for the next book. I still can't really recommend this series, but again, I'm not going to stop readingit, though I am going to take a break.

[Cmoore]

Although this isn't my go to genre I'm enjoying the heck out it. It's a good series. Jack nicknamed because he's like the Jack of all trades and when Jack can't think his way outta the box he realize on his pilot, Birdie his partner who often comes up with a good idea...while their both finally getting a handle on being a bounty hunter, when everything goes south. Jack is wants to throw in the towel when he realizes that he can't do that just yet and takes another job.
So if you like nonstop action grab the book better get the audio boxed set to save on credits and Ryan Kennard Burke is a great narrator.

[Joe]

Still grim, but better

Jack and Birdy continue to work together Bounty hunting. They also continue to have their lives at risk consistently with anything that could go wrong doing so. In the truest sense of Murphy’s Law even things that shouldn’t go wrong do! I’m guessing that this will be a trend for the rest of the series.

[Ronnie Komstedt]

wasnt sure whether i would continue the series after the first book. It didnt really excite me even though it was a decent read.
Im glad to say the second book was a bit more interesting, if a bit more formulaic.

[Duncan Crawford]

Great

Really enjoyed this it's a great book and series. I'm looking forward to the next one/rest of them. Hopefully there are more in the pipeline

[Mark Baller]

Pretty good book

A bit of hero worship kind of can't do anything anytime any place kind of guy in a military sci-fi setting is Fun fun fun to read sometimes

[Raymond Clause]

Good book too much fat phobia in it.

[Keith]

Continues with the same action and a question of how to get out of a precarious situation

[John Sheridan]

Very similar to the first in the series. Not a bad yarn but nothing spectacular either.

[Kyle]

It's the same story again. The books just repeat themselves and the main character exists on plot armor.

[Jon Silvester]

Great book loved the story and the book narration can't wait for the next one I highly recommend it
😀⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️👍

[Will]

Jack is extremely lucky with flexible morals and some intellectually challenged enemies. How he survives is pure plot armor