The American Zone

A book-length exposition of libertarian philosophy thinly veiled in plot. It's somewhat sweet that libertarians have such deep faith, despite all evidence, in the innate good sense of human self-interest, but the whole milieu is wildly unlikely to someone not blinded by wishful thinking. In 200 years nobody has tried another governmental power grab? (Oh but they couldn't, everybody has guns!) And now three such groups, conveniently representing three distinct types of governmentalism, arise? How coincidental. And the Confederacy natives don't recognize the problem because they lack the desire for power? Yes, I'm sure we've all noticed this in the personal lives of American gun owners. Robert Heinlein did it better in The Moon is a Harsh show more Mistress. Heinlein's political setup on Luna was credible and the behaviour of human groups (if not always of individuals) was reasonably true to life. show less

The American Zone was a good way to end out the North American Confederate series. Nearly as good as the first. It really can stand on its own certainly no reason to read the rest of the series. That being said it is certainly a product of its time, written at the tale end of 2001 there is a more than mild obsession with terrorism and the possibility that the terrorist aren't who they seem but actually folks who want to create a laviethan state. I susepct that L. Neil Smith is, or at least was at the time, a so-called 9/11 truther. Regardless the story is entriguing. our hero Win-Bear is saved by his healer wife far more times than should be justified for any red-blood American. And even the open minded confederates start blaming the show more terror plots on immigrants, like those from the USA and other altenrate realities, after all they didn't have these issues before there was an "American Zone." A few thigs do seem a bit far fetched, like that one of our new comers finds a market for troll dolls because they never came to this reality, but somehow no one has thought to bring all the gold from all the other realities to debase their precious metal currency? Oh and of course there is Smith's regular obsessoin where we get more descriptions of a character's fire arms than we do of the characters' character. show less

Author L. Neil Smith became one of my literary heroes the instant I read his first novel, "The Probability Broach." It presented, in an exciting novel, all the concepts and precepts of human rights and individual liberty I believed in -- and still do! -- in a fictional form that was entertaining as well as instructional.
L. Neil's writing style just got better and better -- most of the time. (He had a vocabulary bigger than the dictionary and sometimes he did use too many words -- an understandable, and minor, flaw, I guess.)
As I've said in other reviews, L. Neil was so well-read and knowledgeable, he could over-awe near-hermits like myself who simply don't have the knowledge of popular culture he had. Therefore, some of the references show more went and go over our heads.
But that just means we can re-read and re-re-read his books and get fresh insight each time.
Yes, first we read L. Neil Smith's books for the philosophy, the ideas, the support of human rights and individual liberty, but we also read for his enjoyable style, his frequent tongue-in-cheek references.
Though Neil and I talked often on the phone, and e-mailed back and forth a lot, we never met. Still, I miss him every day. Selfishly: We need, we desperately need, thinkers and writers to help us spread the message of freedom.
We can, though, continue to be grateful we have what Schopenhauer called "that paper memory of mankind," books, plus Neil's powerful essays are also available on the Internet.
His influence remains. And we are grateful. show less

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