Free Zone [Mass Market Paperback]

Charles Platt (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 233 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (December 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380754118
• ISBN-13: 978-0380754113
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,852,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charles Platt became interested in computers when he acquired an Ohio Scientific C4P in 1979. After writing and selling software by mail order, he taught classes in BASIC programming, MS-DOS, and subsequently Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. He wrote five computer books during the 1980s.

He has also written science fiction novels such as The Silicon Man (published by Wired books) and Protektor (from Avon Books). He stopped writing science fiction when he started contributing to Wired magazine in 1993, and became one of its three senior writers a couple of years later.

Charles began contributing to Make magazine in its third issue and is currently a contributing editor. Make: Electronics is his first book for Make Books. Currently he is designing and building prototypes of medical equipment in his workshop in a northern Arizona wilderness area.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Lighten up, Francis, October 7, 2011

By 

Lane N Copley - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Zone (Mass Market Paperback)

Free Zone by Charles Platt is a delightful science fiction fantasy novel set in a parallel universe where Los Angeles is a chaotic dictatorship with a libertarian Free Zone in the middle of it. We know it's an alternate universe because ours is referenced in it by the super-intelligent robot from the future who stumbles upon it while threading time-space looking for a better place for the combat-grrl president of the Free Zone and her geek boyfriend, his friends. This is because the Free Zone is being invaded by hyper-intelligent dogs, aliens, dinosaurs and subterranean troglodytes all at about the same time. Fortunately, the Hell's Angels are there to save L.A. from these lesser terrors.

This novel has an alphabetical listing of the seventy-one science fiction themes it touches upon in the back of the book. I bought it for that reason alone.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A mildly amusing stunt, May 14, 2001

By 

Dabooda (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Zone (Mass Market Paperback)

Today class, your assignment is to write a science fiction novel which uses at least fifty common science fiction themes. Free Zone is Charles Platt's answer to this challenge, and he proudly lists 71 themes at the end of the book. It's as light as a souffle, totally without substance. The characters are almost as hackneyed as the multitudinous themes, and the less said about them, the better. The one thing I really liked about the story was the idea of the Free Zone itself: after most state & federal government has collapsed, a section of Los Angeles secedes from the rest of the city and establishes formal anarchy, if that isn't a contradition in terms. The Zone includes LoveLand, the Mafia's X-rated answer to Disneyland. I wish Mr. Platt had stuck with that idea and developed it a little more, instead of running hog wild trying to bring off a meaningless literary stunt.