A. Bertram Chandler (1912–1984)

So the synopsis under this book is not correct.
It might be a summary of the gist of the whole series, but not this book.

I enjoyed this. Quite old-fashioned, but that's OK.
A bit of a tour around the rim worlds on the ship's trade circuit, with each chapter like a completely new adventure.

A nice bit of background which I felt worked well - Rim pilots generally where disgraced space corps ( or whatever they are called) officers inevitably end up.

The female lead started off with a bit of spunk and actually had me picturing Jane Lynch in my head - a bit sardonic and a reasonably interesting character.
Annoyed that she was relegated to "helpless damsel in distress" role reasonably quickly.… (more)

This is a 4 in one omnibus edition, including: Breaking the Cycle, The Big Black Mark, The Far Traveler and Star Courier. I got through the first two and then had to stop. The plots aren't all that novel or interesting, but the worst part is the gender imbalance (always more men than women) and the poor portrayal of women, even when they are officers. The writing is interesting but the characters are a bit two dimensional and the relationships between Grimes and his various women is always wrong in many ways. Just too dated to continue with. These are old stories from the late 60's and early 70's, the technology isn't bad, but that's about all that's not outdated.… (more)