The Pirates of Ersatz

By: Murray Leinster

Narrated by: Jim Roberts

Murray Leinster, whose real name was William Fitzgerald Jenkins, was an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history. In The Pirates of Ersatz, he presents a fast-paced, light-hearted adventure story with a touch of Monty Python and much derring-do.

The hero, Bron Hodon, comes from a planet where there is only one vocation - space piracy. His dream is to become an electrical engineer so he makes his way to a planet with a "perfect society" and invents a power source that should benefit all. The perfect society does not appreciate it, accuses him of creating "death rays" and forces him to flee to Darth, a much more primitive planet. There, and in space, he undergoes a number of rollicking adventures that makes him wonder if space piracy - with a twist - might not be so bad after all. This tongue-in-cheek space adventure has often been compared to The Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison.

©1959 Murray Leinster (P)2011 Jimcin Recordings

He finds himself in messes completely accidently.

I have read and now listened to this story many times over the last four decades. I have always been a fan of Murray Leinster and his views on how little men understand women and vice versa is still very humorous to me despite the current cultural views on the subject. Ladies, in general men really are clueless and subtle hints pass us by unnoticed.
In this novel a very smart and talented young man has left his backwards home world with the goal of making his fortune as an inventor. Unfortunately for him most people with money and power like things just the way they are and he finds himself on the run to the first planet he can get too.
The story is a progression of problems our hero gets himself into by just trying to live a life different than that of his piratical ancestors and I find it to be great fun from start to finish.