This started getting really hokey about 2/3s of the way in. I mean, it was moderately hokey before that point, but ye gods. ( )

Very readable, has some really interesting ideas and could perhaps have been a favourite of mine if it hadn't been for the unnecessary racism, sexism and the eugenics. The lead characters are opposed to a situation involving eugenics in a major plot strand, but apparently only because the baddies are going about it wrong.

Now I get this is the characters, and not necessarily the authors opinions, but I don't think he is a skilled enough author to have a protagonist present a controversial opinion without the reader going "hmmm".

All that and using a genocide to set up a particularly unfunny blonde joke. ( )

Great, unapologetic libertarian sci-fi - Robert Heinlein meets Ayn Rand. Government fails to fight off aliens, private sector steps up. ( )

My requirements were thus when I set out to read this novel (which is really a series of three novellas packed into one larger work):

1. Aliens.
2. Lasers.

Live Free or Die starts with a near Douglas Adams' flair for comedy. Gate pops up in the general region of earth, aliens fly through and gave a brief humorous description of what the gate exactly provided: namely, the ability for anyone who could pay (aggressor/trader made no difference to it) a trip through. So, we had aliens. Shortly later, aliens nuke cities and take over the world. We give them our rare precious metals; they don't nuke more cities. A human entrepreneur finds out another group of aliens love Maple Syrup. Its like alcohol to them. He makes a fortune. Funny, but still not as well delivered as the aforementioned Douglas Adams. With this fortune, he begins to create lasers. Requirements met. Eventually he makes a prototype Death Star. So, there's that.

John Ringo is not a great author; he isn't even a good one. The science is fascinating, the plot moves along, he obviously knows military tactics, the characters are one dimensional bores, every female mentioned is "stacked", and Ringo has a nasty habit of injecting ridiculous political agenda into the weirdest bits of his story.

So, interestingly, after searching the Internets for opinions on this novel I come across an internet meme I never knew existed: OH JOHN RINGO NO. The book this review discusses is not the one I read, but probably matches many of his points which is condensed into this: "Because dammit, there's bad, and then there's so bad you have to memorialize it for future generations." ( )

A fun read, and with some seriously funny moments. ( )