The Outposter (Dickson)
(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)
My plan with my Analog deep dive was to read the serials later on, after I've gone through the magazines in which the parts appeared. It occured to me that with someone with Gordon R. Dickson (and possibly others, but I've read his work before), that the serial might have been made into a novel. It had been, and it was available at the public library in paperback (not as an ebook, alas). I thought this would be better than trying to read pdf files, and it was.
In the future, the Earth is overcrowded and there is a lottery that sends people to Colony worlds. These worlds have "Outpost". manned by "Outposters" who are step above the colonists, who are, as far as Earth is concerned, disposable garbage. There is also a Navy that the Outposters are not part of. The Navy is supposed to be patroling the area, but they seem to do a poor job of it. There is an alien race, the Meda V'Dans, that the Outposts sometimes tradw with. However, other times, "renegade" ships from the MVD raid, loot, burn and destroy parts of the outposts and just take what they want. They are an Old Race and they deal with the Unknown Races toward the center of the galaxy. No one wants to tick them off.
No one except Mark Ten Roos who was born on a colony world and raised by an Outposter as his own kid after the MVD raid a colony and kill Mark's parents. He's been plannign revenge ever since.
Mark was sent to Earth for schooling and is set to return to the Colony, even though Wilkes, his friend and sponsor on Earth, can get a position for him that would keep him Earthside and out of the lottery. Mark wants to go. Wilkes can keep a position open, but he'll have more competition over time. Plus, Wilkes is dying of bone cancer. In another year or two, Mark won't have any advocate on Earth.
Mark travels to the colony and interviews some of the lottery "winners" to see if any are worth requesting for his outpost, if they have skills that he needs. He meets a few, along with Ulla, who is the daughter of an Adrmiral in the navy. She wants to save a man that she knows (barely) but she's really more interested in Mark.
Mark convincing the Admiral to give him a few ships that aren't much good any more. The colony fixes them and learns the basics of flying them, and goes off to meet the MVD to establish trade, offering objects that the colony can make that they MVD can sell to the Unknown Races who might appreciate them. Mark goes about manipulating the aliens even as he had people trying to understand their psychology so they can predict how they'll react.
Mark's ultimate goal, beyond ridding the colony of the alien threat and avenging his parents, is to make the colonies self-sufficient and independent. He's playing a bit of a long game.
As stated above, this was an Analog story, so I'll add that this could be a full season of shows on cable, open-ended enough that there could be a season two, which modern writers would probably butcher. There are two significant female parts and many of the others could be made female, as necessary. Since people are chosen randomly, there can be a fully diverse cast.
Also as stated before, this was a paperback, not an ebook.
Final note: there is something quite satisfying about reading a complete novel without any ridiculous sub- or side-plots tacked on to pad the book out. It's under 200 pages and tells the story that it needs to without useless stuff.
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