Lanague Chronicles [Paperback]

F. Paul Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1992

The Federation that toppled the repressive Imperium is threatened from within by a cadre of fanatics who are afraid of independence and diversity and who plan to restore dictatorial rule to the planets of Occupied Space.

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Baen (September 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671721399
• ISBN-13: 978-0671721398
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,666,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Play around in future history, June 24, 2001

By 

Mary P. Campbell "math geek" (Flushing, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lanague Chronicles (Paperback)

In the tradition of other scifi authors who create an entire "history of the future", like Larry Niven's Known Space, Herbert's Dune, Asimov's Empire and Foundation, and Heinlein's Future History, F. Paul Wilson creates a timeline one thousand years long, interweaving two main movements -- one which follows a single man, Steven Dart, and one which follows a single ideology, the LaNague Federation.

This book is actually the incorporation of two novels with several short stories, set in the same timeline (and presented in chronological order, similar to Heinlein's The Past Through Tomorrow). An Enemy of the State, which you can find as a standalone novel in used book stores, tells of the bloodless, economic revolution which brought about the LaNague Federation. Wheels Within Wheels tells of a ruthless revolt =against= the LaNague Federation, to dismantle its protection of free trade and freedom from taxes.

The short story series centers around Steven Dart, aka The Healer, a man who finds himself become potentially immortal through a chance encounter with an alien which takes up residence in his body with him. He is little touched by the politics and economics of the LaNague Federation - he is interested in pursuing ideas and extending knowledge. He finds there is something else out there which threatens humanity's existence. A strange disease called "the horrors" strikes people at random, turning normal people into terrified catatonics; Steven finds that his alien symbiote can help him destroy this disease, individual by individual, but later he comes up against the source of this plague itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - Wilson draws you on, leaving questions open, forcing you to read further so that you can find out how things develop. If you like the idea of building a universe and exhaustively playing around in it, this book is for you.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Political philosophy meets Sci-Fi, December 20, 2003

By 

Paul Stanko (Crown Point, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lanague Chronicles (Paperback)

F. Paul Wilson is my favorite author (and Repairman Jack is my favorite fictional character) so I have made it a point of late to seek out older, out-of-print works by Dr. Wilson to read between his new releases. I was fortunate enough to find a used copy of this book through Amazon and have thoroughly enjoyed the read.

For those of you familiar only with Paul's current works, this book answers the question of how things might be if humankind abandoned its socialist/statist tendencies and embraced a philosophy of true freedom. This is Peter LaNague's lifelong goal. It is also the kind of world in which Repairman Jack (and I, for that matter) would prefer to live. Imagine a time when the planets of "occupied space" are loosely confederated according to their common economic and security interests, but without the central control and coercion we have in today's world (in every country, to a greater or lesser degree). Government (such as it is) takes no more than 5% of income, and in return does only that which it should do, which is very, very little. Free trade and market forces determine outcomes (as should be the case) rather than government policies. There is no legislature, because people should not be making rules for each other. Citizens are bound by a social contract among themselves. The LaNague Chronicles is must reading for political scientists, politicians (not that they would change their evil ways), and all of us working stiffs who keep the world turning despite well-meaning (?) meddling by the powers that be.

If you believe in true Freedom, you will find yourself at the end of this book wishing that you could step into F. Paul Wilson's future world.

By the way, this book is also top-notch science fiction. It contains the best explanation I have read in fiction of why time travel is not possible without corresponding space travel. After all, everything in the universe is constantly moving. If I went forward or back in time even one nanosecond, I would not still be sitting at this keyboard. I can't believe that I didn't think of that until reading Paul's explanation. Duh!

One final note: I am not an anarchist. Still, if Jefferson and Madison were alive today and saw what their heirs had done to the great experiment in limited government they began, they would wonder why they bothered. If they had known what indignities would be imposed upon Americans under the Constitution they wrote, they would have walked out of the Constitutional Convention. If you think you live in a free country, read this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Collection of all the LaNague Federation novels, May 20, 2005

By 

Michael R. Brown (Tamarac, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lanague Chronicles (Paperback)

To add a slight correction to some of the reviews.

This book contains the 3 previous LaNague Federation novels, no short stories. It contains "An Enemy of the State", "Wheels Within Wheels", and "Healer". Because Healer is set over a very long time period (the main character is pretty much immortal), Healer was chopped up into about 5-6 shorter parts and set around Enemy and Wheels in chronological order. So its incorrect to state this work contains short stories.

There ARE several short stories set in the LaNague universe, but none appear here. They are listed in the intro to the book. 3 appear in Wilson's collection "Soft and Others". Uncertain where the others appear in terms of collections.