Brian Stableford's Hooded Swan series was first published in the early 1970s and redefined the genre of space opera. Grainger, narrator and anti-hero, is a cynical pacifist light years removed from the typical space jock, who is indentured against his will as pilot of the revolutionary starship Hooded Swan. Each novel pits him and the Swan against a new puzzle or menace while at the same time letting him pay off his fine, bit by bit, until he can call himself a free man again.