0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Rating: 5 out of 5
It is different, Wednesday, August 25, 2010

If you want cliff notes on the book skip this review or buy the book.

It's not, thankfully, Kildar, nor Rodger and "Rodger's Own" fighting across a savage planet and piling up a high body count, and it's not as scientifically intense, particles confuse me, as Looking glass, a sequel of which I was hoping would be John Ringo's next book.

It is, however, great John Ringo. The science is there as is his way with believable and full fleshed characters. A real old fashion boy meets tree and saves the planet story. Maybe it's just me but every so often John Ringo's writings puts me in mind of H. Beam Piper with a little less tongue in cheek Keith Laumer thrown in for spice. Which, to me, is high praise.

All in all the book proves you really don't have to be committing genocide in every other chapter to make a compelling story. It may not be the sequel to Looking Glass I was hoping for but is certainly is a suitable substitution.

MikeG

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Rating: 5 out of 5
Page turner, Saturday, August 21, 2010

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Rating: 4 out of 5
Hard Sci Fi With Hard Science, Saturday, July 10, 2010

This adventure initiates a new series by John Ringo. It is heavy on real science, full of esoteric humor, and of course, because this is Ringo, some societal preaching. The humor is grand and the problems are the product of a uniquely diseased mind. All the blondes in the world going into heat seven days a month? Suddenly having access to the universe and meeting alien races is good, isn't it? What is that pustule on your arm, and why are those well-armed alien critters offering to kill anyone who won't hand over the maple syrup?

Tyler Alexander Vernon is a hard working former IT exec reduced to woodcutting, grocery stocking, and comics conventions to stay afloat. When alien contact has impacted Earth in several senses, he meets a spacefarer at a convention and discovers something to sell to the critter's race. The rest of the story is both galactic capitalism and an exploration of the meaning and costs of freedom.

Yes, I am trying to intrigue you, and not give anything much away. John Ringo's rollicking, wise-assed imagination deserves that when you read this book you get as flummoxed as I did. For fun and insight both, you should read this book.

Reviewed by David Sutton

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Rating: 3 out of 5
Guilty Pleasure, Wednesday, May 19, 2010

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Rating: 5 out of 5
A vivid, fine story perfect for any science fiction collection, Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Live Free or Die tells of the first aliens to visit Earth - a seemingly friendly contact gone bad. The Horvath's control brings Earth peace - but also brings controversy and an iron grip that leads a hero to rebel. Warfare and bravery permeate a powerful saga blending military and psychology strengths for a vivid, fine story perfect for any science fiction collection.