The American Zone (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Whoooooosh...Bang! The pop-bottle rocket, fired past me from across the street, damn near singed my eyebrows..." (more)
Key Phrases: probability broach, medical van, North American Confederacy, Bennett Williams, American Zone (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sermon battles for space with story (and often wins) in Smith's sequel to The Probability Broach (1980), which continues the adventures of cross-time private detective Win Bear in the North American Confederacy, an alternate world that's supposed to be a libertarian, even anarchist Utopia. The serpent in this Eden is a statist plot to generate so much fear of terrorism by cross-temporal immigrants that people will demand a (gasp!) government. Of course, Win and his stout-hearted companions, Militia Captain Will Sanders and centenarian grande dame Lucy Kropotkin, do a splendid job of beating off the clutching tentacles of government. Along the way, there's much effective satire (the statist plotters include a Bennett and Buckley Williams), absorbing if not always plausible world-building and some lighthearted development of the concept of sapience among anthropoids and cetaceans. However, readers will also find the book laboring under a ponderous weight of libertarian philosophizing. Moreover, the plot opens with the evil statists committing two terrorist acts with four-figure death tolls, while throwaway lines like "An armed playground is a polite playground" may put off those who don't share Smith's views. This preachy book sends a message that rings hollow in the world post-September 11. (Feb. 6)Fiction.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Win Bear makes his living as a detective in the North American Confederacy, an alternate America without taxes, government, or police. When a group of dissidents, the Franklinites, launches a campaign of terror to force governmental order upon the population, Bear takes matters into his own hands and declares war on his enemy. The sequel to The Probability Broach continues the adventures of a likable and resourceful hero who stumbled upon another world and chose to make his home in it. Smith's libertarian slant may limit the book's appeal, but general readers may overlook this issue thanks to the fast-paced storytelling and sharp-tongued, folksy prose. For large sf collections.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (November 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312873697
• ISBN-13: 978-0312873691
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #455,394 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WIN BEAR IS BACK AT LAST!!!!, December 3, 2001

By	William Howell Jr. (Sterling, Alaska USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A new North American Confederacy novel at last. After a hiatus following THE GALLATIN DIVERGENCE, L. Neil Smith has finally returned to his most popular creation, the alternate world first visited over twenty years ago in his classic novel THE PROBABILITY BROACH. As fate would have it, THE AMERICAN ZONE deals specifically with how a truly free society would handle a spate of terrorist attacks. In the wake on 9-11, the issues LNS deals with are incredibly relevant for Americans today. All our favorite characters return, including Lucy Kropotkin and Will Sanders, plus numerous figures from our own world (or similiar realities) appear under different names. Half the fun is realizing which real-world public figure LNS is skewering under another name. As always, there's plenty of action, lots of laughs, and a fine mystery along with the libertarian philosophy. If you can stand to take your freedoms straight, with no chaser, this is the novel for you! Read and enjoy.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Smith fan says -- Buy any other work of his first ..., March 2, 2003

By	Steve Reed "Greybird" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Zone (Paperback)

If you want to enjoy Smith's work, please buy ANY other book of his before this one. Especially the new edition of "The Probability Broach," the essays in "Lever Action," or his richly told "Forge of the Elders" saga.

~ Two massive terrorist acts have the detective protagonist, Win Bear, and his circle showing very little emotional reaction to them, beyond initial revulsion and bone-weariness. This rings false. Thousands have died instantly, and in a culture that is wholly unaccustomed to it. Win's lack of feeling undercuts one basic point Smith has made: that such mutual support flourishes, rather than wilts, in an individualistic and non-political culture.

~ The "stranger in a strange land" focus is weakened by a lack of vivid hints of the statist America(s) from which those in the "Zone" have escaped. Smith's stellar "Pallas" is clearly set in an alternate universe where that fact is never brought up, and his "Broach" makes this escape into one of high contrast -- and both novels are far stronger in that respect. This one is in a mushy middle ground.

~ Too many allusions are made to current American pop culture. These wrench us back too quickly to a dreary this-world present -- and we don't see how they're transmitted, nor from which alternate America.

~ The statist villains here are caricatures, introduced too quickly and pulled off stage too abruptly. Compare this to the luxurious portrait of John Jay Madison in "Broach," where you want to know him better, even while you mentally hiss him as in an old-time melodrama.

~ Names are too often tortured concoctions and are pulled too closely from "real" figures, without the intended satiric effect. "Bennett Williams" is made into a simpleton of an ideologue. William Bennett is not like this, despite his massive faults, and the point is lost.

~ Details of gunsmithery get in the way. In "Broach," they furthered the story without bogging down in a collector's zest for minutiae. Here, they end up diluting the vital point about weapons of self-defense adding to human dignity.

~ The main characters are undercut by our knowing that they show up in a half-dozen Confederacy novels set after this one. It's like knowing Anakin Skywalker is never in mortal danger in "Star Wars" II, when we realize he already was in IV through VI. (This is more distracting, though, for long-time Smith fans.)

~ The copyeditor and proofreader were out to lunch on this one. Misspellings, mispunctuation, shifts of tense, and over-repeated character backgrounds are constant and distracting.

Neither author nor reader deserves to have this highly flawed book discourage newcomers from sampling Neil Smith's talent and enjoying his utter passion for human liberty.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This is not The Probability Broach, November 20, 2002

By	Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The American Zone (Paperback)

The Probability Broach (1980) tells the story of Win Bear, a detective from Denver, who falls through a hole between universes, meets another version of himself and other interesting people, and saves the day for the good guys. It is very reminiscent of Beyond This Horizon, and other Heinlein stories, in both tone and politics, and the plot came right out of H. Beam Piper. Naturally I loved it and immediately bought every other Smith novel that I could find.

The American Zone (2001) continues this story with Win settled in the house and business of his intercontinual doppleganger. He has married Clarissa MacDougall Olson, a woman straight out of the Lensman series and the sweetheart every red-blooded American male yearns to marry, and his only problem seems to be keeping his weight down.

The novel starts with a bang, literally, as Greater LaPorte celebrates Independence Day. Win is watching the fireworks when a couple of potential clients show up to engage his services. Someone is smuggling videos across the universes that star their dopplegangers or have other actors in their roles. Since they are the local equivalents of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, this intercontinua competition is cutting into their royalties.

As Gable and Lombard are leaving, the sound and pressure wave of a huge explosion pass through. Someone has blown up the Old Endicott Building. And this is just the first in a series of manmade diasters. Who is using terrorist tactics against the North American Confederacy?

At this point the explanations begin. Unfortunately, these backgrounders mostly involve talking heads and some extravagant claims are made for the libertarian philosophy. This pontification got in the way of the story over and over again. While enjoying political discussions and intrigued with the possibilities of libertarianism, I would rather be shown the ideas than be told.

Heinlein did a much better job of weaving the ideology into the action. Even in Starship Troopers, which I consider his most political novel, he presented the philosophy as part of the daily life of the protaganist. Smith tries this approach, but the philosophy overwhelms the plot.

The plot, however, is very weak. Win and his friends reckon that the only people who would gain from these terrorist acts are the political fringe groups avocating more government and successively visit the authoritarians (and their monarchist offshoots), the majoritarians, and the fascists. Meanwhile, Win keeps following leads to the video smugglers. And somebody keeps trying to kill him.

After bumbling around, Win falls into the answers to both his case and the terrorist problems. We are treated to a few interesting treatises on guns, knives and technology throughout the story and meet a number of interesting and disgusting characters along the way. Nevertheless, the ending is just not as satisfying as I would expect.

The book title refers to the section of town settled by intercontinua immigrants who have not yet adapted to their new universe. The Hanging Judge is a restaurant in the middle of the American Zone where most of the political discussions and confrontations occur. The most effective presentations of the libertarian ideology in this book are shown by contrasting the actions and words of different immigrants. Some just want their governmental mommies and others want to be free of government controls.

Other reviewers keep referring to 9/11 as if such terrorist actions invalidate libertarian ideas. Smith's North American Confederacy is a form of limited anarchy and anarchy does not invite terrorist acts; the power is too distributed. It is vulnerable, however, to those who want to establish a government to exploit the people. Cecil Rhodes, Lenin and Hitler come to mind.

If you did not already know, this novel will show you why Smith is a favorite of the libertarian set. Unfortunately, the political diatribes get in the way of the story. While it may have been long awaited, this sequel of The Probability Broach is not as entertaining as the original.

Libertarians will buy this book to wallow in their philosophy. Readers of other political persuasions are more likely to bypass it. Overall, I think Smith has a bad case of preaching to the choir; he would be more successful as a political propagandist -- as well as a novelist -- if he provided more entertainment and less philosophy.

I am quite disappointed. However, the inside jokes -- e.g., Clarissa, Will Sanders -- and public jokes -- e.g., Buckley and Bennett Williams -- are funny.

-Arthur W. Jordin