Scrapyard Ship

Scrapyard Ship Series, Book 1

By: Mark Wayne McGinnis

Narrated by: L.J. Ganser

Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's Summary

Lieutenant Commander Jason Reynolds has had a string of bad luck lately - evident by the uncomfortable house arrest bracelet strapped to his right ankle. Worse yet, he’s relegated to his grandfather’s old house and rambling scrapyard. To complicate things, the women in his life are pulling from every direction. But It’s through a bizarre turn of events that Jason is led to a dried up subterranean aquifer hundreds of feet below ground. Here he discovers an advanced alien spacecraft, one that will propel his life in a new direction. 

The adventure begins...and with it new troubles for Jason: The Craing, an unstoppable interstellar threat, is headed right for Earth. A desperate situation goes from bad to worse as the Alliance crumbles. 

Fortunately, Jason’s unorthodox and impetuous nature seems to work in his favor as he moves up to the captain’s chair. First order of business is to reconnect with his SEAL team compatriots and face this enemy head-on. What's at stake? The very survival of the human race. 

©2013 Mark Wayne McGinnis (P)2014 Mark Wayne McGinnis

waste of time

I lost track of how many times is this guy was about to die because he did something stupid just to make the book longer I guess. in the entire fact that he was a Navy SEAL was a waste other than oh he had some friends who were soldiers exit it's like somebody just took a bunch of stuff from a bunch of different books they read slapping together with action and called it done

Clear that this is McGinnis' first book

Fair warning, some spoilers used as examples.

While this audiobook was released early 2021, it's a bit misleading because it gives the impression that this is a recent work for McGinnis when it's actually the author's very very first book...ever written, or at the very least, released on Amazon. If you check McGinnis' library on Amazon, you'll learn Scrapyard Ship was released late in 2013. His very first work and it shows.

What do I mean? Well, the book starts off interesting, but after a particular point, well to be clear when the conflict actually starts, the MC starts to act like a fool. Definitely the furthest thing from an experienced and trained Navy Seal commander. He acts more like a character forced to do, say, and think things according to the plot. Often times he forgets pivotal information and the hi-jinks ensue.

For example, MC is told early in the story that the alien enemies have infiltrated all of the governments on Earth at high level positions with alien-human hybrids. He's also told it would be disastrous for the galaxy if the titular "scrapyard ship" is captured by the alien enemies. Due to another stupid decision, he gets the bright idea to land the aforementioned ship in the courtyard of the Pentagon. Guess what happens? Alien-human hybrids manage to get aboard the ship and sabotage it and our idiotic MC acts all irritated that the ship couldn't auto-detect them when he was never told that the ship had that capability or even the potential to create something onboard to do that.

This happens a few times. Plot points are brought up and forgotten until the MC remembers them, often in the heat of the moment or when the author decides it's the right time to bring them back up despite missing a relevant point in the story to do so to the detriment of his characters.

Another example, the aforementioned stupid idea that led up to the Pentagon landing. MC and his weapons specialist get the bright idea to test the titular ship's weaponry on U.S. soil. Then they're appalled when the U.S. military rightfully responds. Yes, they tested the weapons in an uninhabited desert, but still, just before this they were accosted by U.S. fighter jets just for flying through U.S. airspace BECAUSE the alien enemies attacked a gigantic region in the U.S. looking for the titular ship. So, what were the U.S. defense industry to think when another alien ship comes flying through space. MC thought just because he could talk to them that they'd suddenly listen? As if it weren't possible for enemy aliens to pretend to be friendly?

Beyond this, there's other things that happen in this story. Granted that it's the author's first story, I don't want to be too nit-picky, but there are things like plot armor occurring almost always to save MC from himself or from the author writing himself into a corner. Ridiculous, sometimes predictable, and/or convenient events, plot twists, and reveals occur. They all seem to be what the author likely thought, "This would be cool to do!" as he wrote them and didn't put much extensive thought into them to mold them smoothly all into a story. There's also warp speed romance with one character in particular, again, likely done because "This would be cool to do!" when a relationship between MC and another female character, although existing, would've been better to explore in a more deeper way.

Most of all, it's obvious McGinnis has no experience with military. I believe his bio admits this by not mentioning any military experience. The MC went on and on in the beginning about discipline and professionalism, only to do the aforementioned silly things that even most non-military-experienced people wouldn't do.

Overall, if you can look past some of these things, it's an okay read/listen. But if you're looking for a story that shows military characters acting like...well...military characters then you might get to frustrated with this.

The main character is an idiot

This is just not for this book but the 1st three, the main character continually does incredibly dumb things that should get not only himself killed but his entire family multiple times only to be saved by stupid luck and over-the-top missions. The vast amount of dumb things the characters do make it hard to care about and root for them.

Predictable fare

Plot lines were predictable. Expositions appear out of nowhere and for no effective story reasons.

Good but not true to military action

An exiting read. Only issue is with a Captain who leaves his ship during pitched battles to join the boarding parties. No captain would do that ever. The captain belongs on the bridge. He should have confidence in his marine officers or seal team leaders to handle boarding actions.

Next Please

loved it! Queuing up the next book. What an awesome adventure. There other similar story lines but author was able to make his book unique.

Don't mess with my Family!

Story is about a Navy Commander who has aliens in his Scrap yard! Its a great book that is well narrated! Book is written by Mark Wayne McGinnis and it is well narrated by L. J. Ganser! Together they make an amazing story to listen to!

Please don't bother, it will derail so completely

First couple of books are actually really good.
But by book four it's heading towards a total derailment. You'll be the judge , if you want to waste time and money. there's so many good books to listen to.

Good military science fiction

A good military science fiction book. A bit predictable but fun nonetheless. I will enjoy listening to book two.

enjoyable listening

having read this series of books, I have enjoyed listening to the first book of this series. And l am looking forward to hearing more.

excellent!

Loved it! McGinnis is my absolute favorite sci-fi author by far. Just hope the next book is even longer 😄