Customer Reviews

Give Me Liberty

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
- conclusion of speech attributed to Patrick Henry, 1775, in favor of a resolution to commit Virginian troops to the Revolutionary War

Anvil, Christopher: "Gadget vs. Trend" (1962) is written in the form of a series of newspaper articles set in the then-near future, framed with two newspaper reports covering speeches by a Boston sociologist, each decrying the current popular trend - initially "creeping conformism" - which reverses itself over the course of the story. :) The second article in the sequence is the revelation of a "privacy shield" device by the inventor's grandson, who puts it on the market as a QuietWall unit. As the story unfolds, the original inventor's downplayed concerns about side effects are made clear when the device's true function - the generator of a stasis field - is discovered, and customers begin developing unforeseen uses for the technology. An ultimate defense can be quite awkward in the hands of people resisting arrest, eviction, or process servers...

Biggle, Lloyd jr: "Monument" (1961) A low-rent space bum, having spent his life scraping by on odd jobs and a little prospecting, was lucky to half-land, half-crash the ship he barely knew how to run on a tropical paradise of a planet, where in time he became a respected elder. And foreseeing what would happen when greedy speculators eventually rediscovered his home, he took steps to teach the younger generation how to fight the *civilized* way. This is a beauty of a story, as the eventual unscrupulous politically-connected creep who grabs a foothold on the planet knows how to get things done, but can neither frighten away nor justify the use of force against the rightful inhabitants.

Herbert, Frank: "Committee of the Whole" (1965) The viewpoint character, an attorney representing a cattle rancher about to testify before a televised Senate subcommittee hearing in opposition to a change in the law governing grazing rights, worries that his client is overconfident - and worries still more on being told that his client has modified his statement without prior consultation, and brought along a new gadget that another attorney has been helping him attempt to patent...Very realistically drawn political situation, from the diplomatic illness of an overly cautious ally to the warning signs of which powerful reporters have attended in person rather than sending flunkies.

Leinster, Murray: "Historical Note" (1951) Party politics in the Soviet Union force a professor and his university to hype his latest discovery - and office politics in Aerodynamic Design (who need a new product such that they can blame failures on somebody else) lead to the creation of a revolutionary personal flyer. But when members of the now-flying infantry can go *anywhere* at will, things begin to get out of hand.

MacLean, Katherine and de Vet, Charles: "Second Game" (1958, 1986) grew into the novel COSMIC CHECKMATE, and is chiefly responsible for my initial interest in this book, as my copy was disintegrating. Narrator Robert Lang, a master strategic analyst of the human Federation, has been sent to learn why the newly-discovered planet Velda violently rebuffed attempts at contact. As Velda's warrior culture much admires master gameplayers, and Lang's boast "I'LL BEAT YOU SECOND GAME" both gains the attention of the powerful gives him the first game to identify their weaknesses. But in real life, surely there is no second game...

Russell, Eric Frank: "And Then There Were None" (1951) Several centuries after the development of a super-duper space drive touched off the Great Explosion of colonization, Earth is attempting to establish diplomatic relations with an obscure fringe world whose people don't care, and who turn out on exploration to have a very unusual economy.

van Vogt, A.E.: "The Weapon Shop" (1942) grew into THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER; it's set several thousand years in the future under a Solar System-wide monarchy, and opens on the day one of the fabled weapon shops that the government mysteriously refuses to take action against opens for business in the protagonist's small town - a small businessman about to become a victim of big business/big government. The story doesn't show to best advantage in this short form; there are inconsistencies with whether a given technology is presented as impressive, and gaps between how political figures are shown in a 'shocking' way (just angry) then described (sexually scandalous). Several kinds of magic technology are involved, and more than one organization that openly considers itself incorruptible (something only inconsistently challenged in the story).

Vinge, Vernor: "The Ungoverned" (1985) is set in 'the ungoverned lands' long after the Bobble War (see his novel THE PEACE WAR or the omnibus ACROSS REALTIME). Vinge works without exposition, so readers must pick up historical context as they go along; what was once the United States has fragmented, with the New Mexico Republic on the western side having decided to conquer the ungoverned, far richer farmlands to the east - partly for the land itself, partly to eliminate their dependence on imported technology, and partly because they've bought into their own propaganda that the ungoverned lands will welcome liberation from the protection agencies who sell them law enforcement of their choice. But the protagonist sees no reason why an invading army should be exempt from his contact to protect his clients...The story has a technology = power to the people theme, well-handled; nobody breaks character to supply exposition, but a sufficient variety of characters appear that the reader gets the information eventually.

Good yarns, whether sc-fi or not, are even better when the themes resonate with a coherent belief structure.

As a libertarian, I read each of these not-so-well-known stories with joy and a sense of recognition, at times a feeling of ah-ha!

Not all stories are equally well written, but each one is readable, sometimes informing, often amusing or a little bit thrilling, as when an enemy attacks ... Arkansas / Oklahoma and is thwarted by a stubborn farmer.

good stuff.

This is an amazing anothogy of truly thought provoking stories written by top-notch sci-fi authors. Each story deals in it's own way with anarchy or alternate forms of government. With the exception of "The Ungoverned", by Vernor Vinge, all of these were new to me, and every single one should be cataloged as a classic. If you are a connoisseur of this genre, then it's a must for your collection.

A look at what new technology and discoveries can do to the existing power structures and authorities. Some of the stories are overtly satirical, such as Momument. The Leinster is just bad, looking at it now. However, that is made up for by the excellent Second Game, clearly the best work here.

A reasonable reprint anthology at 3.44, with a little too much ordinary work.

Give Me Liberty : MONUMENT - Lloyd Biggle Jr.
Give Me Liberty : GADGET VS. TREND - Christopher Anvil
Give Me Liberty : THE UNGOVERNED - Vernor Vinge
Give Me Liberty : HISTORICAL NOTE - Murray Leinster
Give Me Liberty : THE WEAPON SHOP - A. E. Van Vogt
Give Me Liberty : SECOND GAME - Katherine MacLean and Charles de Vet
Give Me Liberty : COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE - Frank Herbert
Give Me Liberty : AND THEN THERE WERE NONE - Eric Frank Russell

Native planet protection tax strategy.

3.5 out of 5


Quiet struggle statis.

3 out of 5


Private policing provisions.

3 out of 5


Russian flying horde cabbage patch.

2 out of 5


An incontrovertible supply of bang and zap is important.

4 out of 5


The Player Of is a clever sneaky absorbing spy.

4.5 out of 5


Personal weapon power restraint.

3.5 out of 5


Antigand-a be any authority around here, you crazy people.

4 out of 5



3.5 out of 5

because sometimes what you get isn't what you thought you wanted. This sci-fi stories are oldies but goodies. Stories from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s by such greats as Frank Herbert, Vernor Vinge and Eric Frank Russell. Of course, it also has the classic _The Weapon Shop_ by A.E. van Vogt.
The stories show that eternal vigilance, freedom and rights are not just words we can toss about while drinking a soda in front of a babbling TV. You have to stand up and sometimes just say No.
Perfect for any collection.

The stories in this book often have a very bitter tone... one lashes out with contempt for "Russia" (a quaint attitude nowadays), another sets up a strawman republic to poke holes in it, etc. And not a few of their so-called anarchist utopias have chilling elements--for example, murder being punished only if the victim was a "paying client of a justice service."

But that's not to say there aren't good ideas to ponder and explore here--and not every story is so overloaded with political outrage that the tale itself suffers. Van Vogt's "The Weapons Shop" is probably the purest exploration of an "armed-society is a free society" mentality as thought experiment, and the author pays close attention to realistic complications and consequences of his ideas. I wish I could say the same for Vinge's "The Ungoverned," a lengthy and tedious diatribe on the unassailable perfection of pure anarchy--preferably through unrestrained corporate power and lots and lots of weapons.

By contrast, Biggle's "Monument" (the first story) is a refreshingly fun and clever poke at bureaucracy and ways to circumvent it. And MacLean's "Second Game" is a political-intrigue battle of ideas worthy of Asimov. But Murray Leinster's "Historical Note," a 1951 hard sci-fi short about the fall of communism, just comes across as outdated and a little sad with its boatloads of vitriol and hyper-simplified perspectives.

Like most anthologies, this book is a mixed bag. If you're a hardcore fan of libertarianism, or of political theories explored through the medium of fiction, this book will appeal to you (as an interestig series of ideas, if nothing more). And if you're a raving corporate-anarchy loony who genuflects to a portrait of Ayn Rand every day and wants more catchphrases to spout about the Evils of Government, you'll love it. But if you like your sci-fi focused squarely on technology, adventure, or even pure ideas, you'll find the political stuff very heavy and tiresome to wade through. Approach with caution.