Customer Reviews

Live Free or Die (Troy Rising Series)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Live Free or Die starts as a First Contact story. An alien race visits our solar system and "builds" a Gate for interstellar travel to and from our system to other Gates in the galaxy. The captain of the ship informs us that alien races, both friendly and hostile, can now travel to and from Earth using the Gate. The action starts during the subsequent five years when first a "friendly" race (the Glatun), engaged in interstellar commerce, arrives using the Gate. They are followed a few years later by a more predatory race, the Horvath, who use trade the same way the Mafia uses a protection racket. They destroy three cities, Mexico City, Shanghai and Cairo, to demonstrate how mean they are and then demand all of the stocks of Earth's heavy precious metals, mainly gold and platinum, as payment for the Horvath "protecting" Earth from hostile aliens.

Enter our hero, Tyler Vernon, who is struggling to survive in New Hampshire amidst the worldwide depression caused by the Horvath stealing Earth's precious metals. Tyler is an entrepreneur and seizes the opportunity when he meets a Glatun free trader at an SF convention. Just asking the question, "What could he sell the Glatun that would be valuable to an advanced alien race?" starts something big for him. How big was determined by a second question, "How could he become the indispensable source for that export item?"

As anyone who has traveled to New Hampshire knows, the motto for the State is "Live Free or Die." It's on every license plate. Tyler and a bunch of his neighbors take that philosophy seriously. What starts out as a commercial venture eventually turns into the war for Terran independence from the Horvath and Tyler Vernon leads the fight as the richest man on Earth from trade with the Glatun. How he manages to drive the Horvath from our solar system while saving Earth is a great start to multi-volume epic story. Don't worry, there is no cliff-hanger at the end to ruin the pleasure of an uplifting novel of human courage and ingenuity.

Ringo is writing SF the old fashioned way on a grand scale. The book harkens back to the best science fiction of the 1950's and 1960's. There is no ambiguity about who are the good guys in this story.

Live Free or Die cannot be pigeon-holed as a space opera. First, the book is about the importance of one indispensable man. Tyler Veron solves the practical economics of humans leap-frogging from NASA era technology to star-travel. If I tell you how it would be a plot spoiler, but it's great. The emphasis on the indomitable human spirit give a realism to this novel. Some things we must do or die trying. Second, Ringo cares about getting the science right, especially in how humans would exploit the raw materials of the inner solar system to build a space-faring civilization.

Historians in academia these days treat the great man theory of history with great distaste. So the fact that Charles Martel led the Frankish forces to victory at the Battle of Tours in 732 to stop the Islamic conquest of Europe is not supposed to be important for today's history students. Similarly, a student should not hold his breath waiting for a lecture on King John III of Poland ("John Sobieski") breaking the Siege of Vienna on September 12,1683 against a huge Turkish army. Sobieski was the acknowledged military genius of his age. He had a career of military victories that were the impetus for his being elected King of Poland. His leadership ended the threat of a Turkish military conquest of Europe.

The lessons we used to obtain from history are now being taught in the pages of science fiction novels.

Live Free or Die (2010) is the first SF novel in the Troy Rising series. It is loosely based on the Schlock Mercenary webcomics by Howard Tayler, but is a prequel to that series.

Like the webcomics, it all started with aliens bringing a gate to other worlds. Earth doesn't even have a way to reach the Gudram Ring, much less use it to explore the galaxy (and beyond). And then the rapacious aliens arrive and extort tribute under the threat of kinetic weapons.

In this novel, Tyler Alexander Vernon is a short man who has a hobby of creating SF webcomics. He worked as an IT manager until his comics started making more money. Then the Gudram Ring appeared and science fiction seemed outdated by current events. His wife got a divorce and he is reduced to dwelling in a cabin in the woods of New Hampshire and working four part-time jobs.

In this story, Tyler is cutting wood when Mrs. Cranshaw calls again to harass him about her firewood. He promised it by next Sunday, but the old woman wants it earlier. They settle on four in the afternoon on Sunday and then Tyler gets back to work.

While working at Mac's Market, Tyler is asked to work an extra shift on Saturday. He has a convention gig on that day, so he begs off. He meets an Glatun at the convention and discusses trade. They make an appointment for the alien to test some samples and then try the nonpoisonous items.

The Glatun go crazy over maple syrup. It is a strong intoxicant for them and they offer a pickup load of superelectronics for six barrels of the syrup. After the trade, the freighter crew go home and become rich off those six barrels.

Tyler becomes an instant multibillionaire and engages an attorney to buy land with sugar maples as well as distilleries to refine the syrup. Then the Horvath try to force their way into the trade. The President of the USA uses American troops to gather maple syrup for the Horvath. Those involved in this trade within the USA and Canada are very stubborn people and a Maple Syrup rebellion starts over this issue.

This tale soon brings war from the Horvath and then their allies the Rangora. At first, only Earth is subjected to bombardment. Then the war spreads to the Glatun. Tyler uses his billions to build space fortifications.

The author has been compared to Heinlein, but in this story he is beginning to resemble E. E. "Doc" Smith. The space structures are not yet as large as the mobile planets in the Lensman series. But just give him a few more volumes.

Like both Heinlein and Smith, the author has created some believable aliens. Maybe too believable, since the Glatun seem to have the same sort of problems as humans. Moreove, the Horvath act much like the prewar Italian fascists in Ethiopia and the Rangora resemble the Soviets.

The President of the United States in this novel does not have a name. He is a stock character, a collaborationist much like Marshall Petain of the Vichy government. Instead of building shelters and evacuating the cities, he has American armed forces trying to tap sugar maple trees.

This novel concludes with many loose ends. The next installment in this series is Citadel. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Ringo fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of huge space structures, high energy weapons, and despicable aliens.

-Arthur W. Jordin

LFD is a straightforward shoot-em-up, with all the subtlety and nuance of a rock through your window.

I enjoyed the first half, with our hero Tyler Vernon the only person *both* smart enough to figure out what the aliens want *and* ballsy enough to claw his way to a standoff with the bad guys. Exhilarating.

The second half degenerated into a snarled-up knot of engineering acryonyms and perfunctory space battles. No suspense to speak of; the outcome is never in doubt, except for engineering details like how fast to spin molten space rocks to get the effect you want.

Still not a bad yarn as long as you remember another reviewer's advice that Ringo's "doing it all with mirrors" and just let it carry you along. A good airport read.

I'm giving it three stars rather than four because Ringo makes no effort to make the aliens, well, alien in any meaningful sense. They come across to me as humans wearing funny-looking foam headgear. The good aliens are Americans in space and the bad aliens are Soviets in space. (No kidding - he describes the Horvath as "communalist" at least twice). There's at least one first contact between an alien and a human that to my ear reads like a Happy Days scene with Fonzie and Ritchie horsing around in the garage ("toss me that wrench, wouldya?").

The most interesting character in the whole book, humans and aliens included, is an old New England farmer who believes everyone who lives in a city is a "Revenuer" and everybody from south of New Hampshire is a "Reb." I'd like to read more about him!

I don't mind the "culturally insensitive" stuff except that it sticks out like a sore thumb. When done properly, that kind of material becomes a backdrop or context which helps explain where the protagonist is coming from. In LFD it's too often just enumerated statements where Ringo is telling, not showing (black women find it easy to get government jobs; women are stacked; it would be funny if blonde women were made to be always sexually promiscuous; 'minorities' are poor and lazy; the destruction of most cities in the world would have the silver lining of killing most lawyers). For me it just interferes with the storytelling. I'd much rather have those things emerge from the flow of what makes Tyler Vernon tick.

In the end this book is for me a guilty pleasure - fun and fast to consume, but doesn't stick to your ribs.

This is the best SciFi, in the classic sense, that I have read in a while. Excellent stuff. Heinlein, Weber, and yes, a little Ayn Rand. I truly had a hard time putting this down. If you like good action with a good moral, this is one of those. Great multidimensionality of all the fronts of a war.

A great read and a great start to a new series that doesn't leave you hanging. Unlike some series openers, it is a complete story with an ending that sets up what will come without leaving the reader frustrated. I am looking forward to the next title, satisfied, not tearing my hair out screaming "But, what happens next?!" We know what is coming, war, lots of it. Someone complained the battles were given short shrift; don't worry, Live Free or Die is just an entertaining opening salvo in what promises to be a series chock full of battles. This has the feel of the classics from the Golden Age of science fiction. You won't be disappointed. 'Nuff said.

What I am writing below may sound like ragging on the book. It isn't. This is very well written, very engaging, a page turner, well plotted, great characters, vivid. Five stars only because there are not 6 I can give.

Earth's solar system is, out of the blue, linked into a Galaxy wide system of rings that allow travel in return for a small fee. The ring system builders don't care who uses the rings or why, and they go off stage within a few paragraphs.

To cut to the chase, within the first three chapters (mostly off stage) Earth is being orbited by a race that acts just like the Europeans in China circa early 1900s. The nearest high tech somewhat powerful race is America circa now, and their media and government has decided the people raping Earth are more oppressed and native than the Earth people.

Enter the hero. Within a few chapters I noticed the difference between the hero and the hero from Have Spacesuit, Will Travel is that this hero was a sci-fi cartoon writer and finished his degree.

Hero follows the fairly standard Heinlein hero track. Hard working, smart, capitialist, will--with a little luck which always shows up-- start the day by chopping wood or mucking stalls and will be filthy rich and powerful after meeting all the alien races and getting their high tech toys.

In this book the hero has to fight not just the evil aliens, but his own government who wants him (first) under control and (then) dead to appease the aliens.

Since Ringo wrote this, untold millions of Earth residents have to die, along with all our great cities. It doesn't do anything for or against the hero, though.

For a wonder, the book ends not with a cliff hanger, just with the next threat a few years down the pike.

Something else interesting is that while many of the smart women in the book are (as usual for Ringo) "stacked" and hot, the hero does not end up with one. Nice change up by the author.

If you're looking for a space opera featuring the good guys (Earthlings, of course) beating the bad guys (lizard beings, quite natch), then you'll like "Live Free or Die" by John Ringo. Just try to ignore the poor editing, grammatical errors and cumbersome phrases scattered throughout. Or, better yet, wait for the paperback.

Tyler Vernon (or was it Vernon Tyler?) goes from being an unknown New England wood chopper to King of the Universe in a nifty 402 pages. With a main character reminiscent of Johnnie Goodboy Tyler from Hubbard's "Battlefield Earth," Ringo's Tyler (or was it Vernon?), is confronted -- along with the rest of us Humans -- with the inconveniences resulting from an alien "gate" technology similar to that found in Peter Hamilton's "Pandora's Star." It's not a bad premise.

Ringo throws in enough technical mumbo-jumbo to keep this book off of the "Men's Fiction" shelf. Maybe a little too much, actually. If all the jargon about BDA's, VLA's, UNG's, SAPL's, and whatever other gizmos he's dreamt up tends to confuse you, just remember he's doing it all with mirrors, and try to move along. If you are a stickler about such details, make some notes on the fly-leaf to remind you what the abbreviations are, and refer back to them as needed.

"Live Free or Die" manages to lay the groundwork for future entries in this series. I've been leery of serial sci-fi since my eyes rolled back and got stuck in my head after reading "Blood Brothers of Gor" a few years ago. I never could go on to Number 19. The "Area 51" series by Robert Mayer (as Robert Doherty) didn't help.

But if it's mindless escapism, written with a dry sense of humor, and the promise of a sequel you'd like, I'd give this book a thumbs up. It's not going to take home a Hugo, but it'll keep you off the streets for a couple of days.

John Ringo reminds me a great deal of a writer of yesteryear, Keith Laumer. If you're old enough to remember Mr. Laumer, enough said. Most of his work is a great read and a fun read. If you're too young to remember Keith Laumer, he created heroes who ignored common sense, bad luck, and impossible odds. Ringo's hero in Live Free or Die is such a character.

John Ringo has developed not only a great character, but also an intriguing setting for his story. Just a word of warning up front, John Ringo's political ideas are a little to the right of Attila the Hun. He'd be right at home at Tea Parties and Freedom concerts. This is not the first story he has written where he cheerfully wipes out whole sets of people he deems unworthy of breathing.

Telling you more would spoil the read. It is a fun, fun book, and I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

Typical Ringo, but better. Someone once described his writing style as what would result if Tom Clancy wrote science fiction and I would compare this book to the best of early Clancy. Sure there were some editing mistakes and some of the dialog was a little hard to follow and had to be re-read, but this was a fun book.

This book also reminded me of the spirit of some Heinlein's work (The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress) and the early, nation and economy building stories of Eric Flint's 1632 series.

"Live Free or Die" is hard science fiction that's fun, fast moving, and clean. If you enjoyed Heinlein's 'The Moon in a Harsh Mistress" and/or books by Niven, Pournelle, and Drake, you'll very likely enjoy this book as well.