My Thoughts on Boltguns and Duct Tape (Spaceship Mechanic Book 1) by Jamie McFarlane...

First of all, this was an enjoyable read. A book that I found myself hooked on, reading through it in only two days. The characters were rich and fully realized, the dialogue was snappy, and the plot moved along at a steady crescendo.

That being said, I have some issues with this novel. This first one is an issue I have with many science fiction tales (please note that I did not say hard science fiction stories). The issue involves time, especially the passage thereof when it is measured by the time taken by a planet to make one revolution around the sun or star it orbits.

But what happens to years when you spend time on other planets in this solar system? Or other planets orbiting a sun in a completely different, faraway galaxy? Can time in these places be measured like it is on Earth? I don't think so. But that doesn't stop soft science fiction writers, or writers of space opera, from completely glossing over this concept, saying that a year is a year is a year, measured as our Earth orbits around our sun.

Hard science aside, the idea of establishing years in a faraway planet may very well be the detail that editors tell writers to whitewash for the sake of pacing, story arc, and other elements in a novel. But it still bugs me nonetheless when I see it; not so much as to outweigh the joy I feel when reading a sci-fi story, though.

My other issue with Boltguns is that the protagonist Rix Banner, a WWII veteran and airplane mechanic, seems too perfect a dupe for the machinations he is thrust into. In Earth time (days and years, etc.), the story takes place soon after the conclusion of the Second World War, with Rix in the process of establishing himself as a business owner who runs an auto repair garage and the diner next door to it. He is a sharp-witted, articulate problem solver who thinks on his feet. When a spaceship lands on earth in the idyllic town of Cranberry Cove, Wisconsin, and the pilot seeks out Rix because of misleading images on a billboard that advertises his aptitude as a mechanic, Rix is thrust into a life-changing adventure.

He's also too perfect a dupe when presented with "futuristic technology." Said tech in this book includes gadgets and processes that we, as 21st Century humans, are familiar with. The presence of tablets, haptic transfers of data between said tablets—especially the transfer of funds—and interconnected networks (read: the Internet), all seem too convenient a vehicle to get the plot going and to discomfit Rix—Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court notwithstanding. Here, in Boltguns, this seems like a go-to convention, a tired trope, a stereotype in its larval stages.

But, as I said, I enjoyed the book. And I recommend it to those who enjoy space operas. The next chapter in this series is arriving in January 2026, and I plan on adding this title to my To Be Read (TBR) List.