Product Description
If the twentieth century was the American Century, who will the next one belong to... and what will become of the nation's capital? Will Washington D.C. be drowned in the rising tides and its glory days forgotten, or will its residents rise to the challenge and remake the world in its image? In these stories you'll find as many questions as answers, but if assembled authors agree on anything, it's that we are destined to live in interesting times and more than that... ones that we will have a hand in creating. Ask not what the future can do for you... with stories by Cory Doctorow, James Alan Gardner, Joe Haldeman, Sean McMullen, Kim Stanley Robinson, Allen M. Steele, and many more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good collection of short stories by some very good writers
The common theme of this collection of short stories is the future of washington. Some of these stories are very good and some very good writers like Kim Stanley Robinson, L. Neil Smith, and Joe Haldeman contributed to this effort.
There is a lot of variety and a lot of imagination in these stories. Something for just about everyone.

Clarification
The story "The Day of the RFIDs," alluded to in the Daniel Miller review as a highlight of the FUTURE WASHINGTON collection, was actually written by Edward M. Lerner.

Not as good as I expected it to be
I was kind of disappointed with this book, honestly--the stories are very hit-or-miss.The best one is by Kim Stanley Robinson, but it's an excerpt from a novel, not written for this collection--probably better to just read the novel.Another highlight is by Cory Doctorow, exploring the use of RFID tags and the Dept. of Homeland Security, although I felt like going up to him and whispering "Your ideology is showing".As for the others, some of them are amusing (particularly one near the end in which Democrats and Republicans have devolved into warring tribes--it reads like it was co-written by David Broder and Hunter S. Thompson), but only a few make a serious attempt at exploring an interesting future.More common are relatively shallow attempts at parody, such as one story in which Indiana real estate agents plant a nuclear bomb in DC and exploit the chaos to move the capital to Fort Wayne.Overall, the book doesn't have enough worthwhile material to make it worth buying.Check it out of a library for a few of the stories, but don't waste your time or your cash.

Is there a future for Washington DC ?
Future Washington contains 16 stories from a variety of authors most usually not found in anthologies.The stories posit many different futures for the DC but most are dark and distopian in one way or another.

"Primate in the Forest" by Kim Stanley Robinson, "Hothouse" by Thomas Harlan, "Civil Disobedience" by Joe Haldeman, all have the area suffering from one degree of global warming or another as background.

"Ignition" by Jack McDevitt gives us an idea of what can happen with fundamental religion take over. Paranoia takes over a computer geek in Edward M. Lerner's "The Day of the RFIDs" but is he really that paranoid?

Jane Lindskold in "Tgers in the Capitol" has the original designer of the capitol area who is not all that happy with what was done with his designs. "Hallowe'en Party" by Nancy Jane Moore is basically directions and instructions for a future party in the DC area (the directions are only slightly off from those you'd get if you lived in this security conscious area now).

"Agenda" by Travis Taylor, "A Well-Dressed Fear" by B.A. Chepaities, "The Lone and Level Sands" by L. Neil Smith, "Hail to the Chief" by Allen M. Steele, and "The Empire of the Willing" by Sean McMullen, all deal with politics and intrigue on one level or another.

"Mr. Zmith Goes to Washington" by Steven Sawicki has my favorite aliens (from sfrevu.com's Damned Aliens Column) drop in for a Senate Hearing. "Indiana Wants Me" by Brenda W. Clough gives a look at what could happen to the DC area if Congress moved elsewhere. "Human Readable" by Cory Doctorow deals with the concept of who has access to IT and will it be economic status blind."Shopping at the Mall" by James Alan Gardner give us a view of what would happen if Americans just disappeared one day.

All in all, there are stories to make you laugh out loud, shake your head in frustration, dispair, and agreement.Those that make you think maybe you should pay just a bit more attention to what are leaders are doing FOR/TO us in DC.Every story is strong with character, place, and plot.It's a good buy. ... Read more

Product Description
Bretta, Henry Martyn's daughter, is ejected from a spaceship by her father's old nemesis, left for dead, adrift in space. But resourceful Bretta finds haven on a strange world of escaped slaves. Determined to seek justice and have her revenge, Bretta blazes a new chapter in the interstellar piracy of her father, the dread Henry Martyn. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Bretta Sucks
Bretta Sucks:A Review of BRETTA MARTYN

_____Folks, I have certain hopes and expectations every time I pick up a new science fiction novel.To start, will it have a decent writing style, being written coherently at least?Will the plot kick butt and maybe have some originality?The characters, are they worth following?Those are the kinds of questions dancing through my mind as my fingers pinch the opening pages of any novel I buy outright or borrow from the library.It's too darned bad that these expectations keep getting thrashed, dashed and smashedevery other time they come up against something written in the genre.It's enough to make a person leap from the side of a ship piloted by space pirates.
_____For those of you still guessing, yes-sir-ee-Bob, BRETTA MARTYN is yet another horribly written piece of junk from the post-1990s generation of science fiction writers, yet another bad book.There are just so many things that the book does wrong that I barely know where to begin.The writing style, oh yeah, that is almost always a heaping helping of Hellish trouble for post-1990s sci-fi writers, and BRETTA MARTYN has a writing style that sucks in that regard.Plot construction with this novel also sucks.For goodness' sakes, half the book is spent with the characters doing nothing but dressing up and swapping gossip!More on that later.A mutant space-caveman in a tunneled-out asteroid could do better, even while sober.
_____I'll begin with where the crap-flow gets its start: the writing style.Inherent in the writing style is the narrative--which is very badly executed.Something gets described, okay?Then it gets over-described some more.Yeah, and then the narrative tends to mutate into rants about the whole darned history of how the thing was made and where it came from...Like we care about each and every little nook and cranny pertaining to every little item in the novel; just get on with the story already!So it is not only that the narrative must talk and over-talk about items in the book, it is worse still when the narrative won't shut up.It is not only redundantly redundant, it is redundancy to dunce-like redundant proportions, redundantly speaking.
_____That is not the worst of it.Worse is when the narrative is even more redundant still, going back over the same items we were told about earlier in the book.You could be a good hundred and fifty pages into the book when the narrative will bring up the exact-same subject matter back near the beginning.In fact, things that should really have been said near the beginning are later said nearing the end.The beginning of a book is when you're supposed to lay out all the mechanics and workings of your sci-fi universe (the rules), along with introducing your characters and what-not.It is called setting the stage...Come on; even a college freshman in creative writing knows that!This scattershot--if not scatterbrains--approach to narration just grates a person's sensibilities.
_____Is it really that bad?Consider the evidence.For example, the workings of those THRUSTIBLES weapons--which were introduced way back near the beginning--are further described nearing the end of the book.How about another example?Well okay, also consider the sails on the starships' sails in the book.A reasonably educated and experienced sci-fi reader would go mentally cross-eyed in confusion as to how a freakin' sailing vessel in space can achieve speeds worthy of Star Trek's U.S.S. Enterprise.Uh-huh...(Theoretically, photon sails are possible, but they're slower than Grandma Moses on Ritalin to start, and they need loads of starlight to get a move on.)So the author waits until over halfway into the book before telling us how that works--a barely convincible rigmarole pertaining to captured tachyons and other subatomic particles interacting with the materials of the sails...or whatever.Again, why couldn't we have had our introductions and explanations given up front and out of the way as so we could get on with the story?
_____Maybe it was because the author just kept writing and didn't figure out how his own book was working until he was almost done with it.However, this is assuming that the book itself works at all.One of the biggest logic errors in the book came nearing the end, which ought to have broken the book anyway.When the author described the force-field thingies that every spaceship uses to get through space (double s-mark fields or something), he wrote that they shut down any and all electrical conductivity inside.Come on now!Impulses in the nervous systems of terrestrial organisms are electrical impulses.The human nervous system is one of the biggest billions-deep collection of electrical connections--some permanent, some done on the fly.Yeah, so the magic force-field thingies would kill all the people on the ships when it stops their nervous systems as so the book can't happen at all:The End.
_____Have you heard enough about how broken the book's logic is?But wait; there's more!When the titular Bretta Martin herself starts zipping around on those mutant manta rays through space without a space-suit, we are again not told the HOW or WHY until lo-o-ong after the fact, when we're let in on the secret that those mutant manta rays also have double s-field thingies....(Uh-huh...)Did I fail to mention that we don't meet the character Bretta Martin herself until chapters and chapters into the book itself?The upshot of this all is, the wards-back approach to storytelling in the novel BRETTA MARTYN could have been fixed by simply using the cut-and-paste functions found in even freeware word-processing software.It's...not...hard!
_____Besides the narrative sucking, there is also the problem of the writing style's mechanics--overblown, over-stuffed, OVERLY DESCRIBED.It is wordy, what I mean.You'd think that this book is from the bad old days of Charles Dickens when writers were paid by the word.There is just too much fluff and stuff.Even the individual sentences are so chock-full of wordy badness that they burst with things that ought to make a paragraph.Some of you people are probably thinking that I'm just talking out the wrong end of my digestive tract in making this claim.Doubters ought to consider this sentence from the book, from page 106 in the TOR hardcover edition:

_____At her slender waist, swinging from the wide leather belt which had been her first handcrafted project, hung the very knife--its broad, spatulate, gleaming-edged blade exactly as long as her littlest finger--which she had, all by herself, flayed, field-dressed, and quartered the antlered forest animal from the russet skin of which she had fashioned her vest and slippers, sewing them with dried gut.

_____That is just one sentence, ONE SENTENCE.I actually had to go back twice and make sure that all of it was copied too, hoping that there was actually the mercy of some terminal punctuation somewhere in that mess.The overly stuffed and stuffy writing is how the book is throughout.It does not get as bad as the above-mentioned in all cases.This is also saying that the writing mechanics only get less bad in places and are never good.That sentence was a real hum-dinger of wreck, yet it was a wreck among wrecks.Stephen King once commented that he writes like a fat lady diets.The writing style of BRETTA MARTYN not only goes like how a fat lady diets, it also eats the fat lady sitting beside.So, get the fork out of the way before the writing style eats your sanity.
_____I maybe said too much about the humanitarian violations put forth by the writing style.Now if the writing style by which the plot is delivered is bad, would it be a believable statement that the book's plot is just as horrible a thing to behold?Oh dear gosh yes, the plot is horrible.It is inconsistent, haphazard and of varying flow.It is also unoriginal and a real pain to put up with.It's really, really bad, and I'm so overwhelmed with the badness of it that it's temporarily hard for me to coming up with other adjectives to use.That could also be because the writing style in BRETTA MARTYN ate my thesaurus after eating the fat lady.
_____Consider the inconsistency.It is as if the plot itself is jam-packed into the last half of the book, with nothing of much worth happening beforehand.We could maybe chop out the first hundred pages of Bretta Martin and still not have the quality suffer.It is because the characters do almost nothing noteworthy up until halfway into the thing--besides giving birth to who is allegedly the main character.The characters spend most all of their time behaving like blonde-haired millionaire hotel heiresses most all of the time:dressing up, sitting around at social gatherings, having sex, going to even more social gatherings, and talking about the time they chopped off some noggins with agiant bread-oven spatula.So this amounts to hundreds of pages with characters getting together and sitting around in to just talk about how awesome they are.This book was advertised as being a swashbuckling space adventure or something--about a rebellious girl and her downtrodden buddies getting together to make things right.I don't want to deal with over a hundred pages of people going to costume parties and behaving like the hotel heiresses.(Skinny blonde what's-her-name didn't chop off anybody's head with a giant culinary instrument as far as we know, but can we really put it past her?)It was painful going reading this generally constipated plot, and relief is long in coming when things finally start happening...after page 120 or so.
_____Yeah, and Bretta's space-mutant underdog rebellion doesn't start until the girl herself gets mistreated in a way that happens all the time in those LIFETIME-channel movies.For goodness' sakes, Bretta said NO...Or the girl WOULD have said no if not whacked on the head.So wham-bam, underaged Bretta gets LIFETIME-channeled and is ditched into space, not to be heard from for too long while everybody else goes swashbuckling for trouble.Then after a good long few chapters, Bretta Martin gets the deus ex machina rescue-treatment by one of those rider-ready space manta-ray creatures.Then the book's advertised plot gets started for real, almost after three-fourths of the book is done.What, but the book is titled Bretta Martin.Shouldn't it be primarily about her?Nope, it's not.It's mostly about the costume-drama shenanigans that happen around her.
_____That said, the math of the book is looking a bit like this.So half the book is fluff, nothin' shakin'.A quarter of it centers around other characters doing everything else besides interacting with the main plot.So that leaves maybe a quarter of the book actually having some nutritional value--actually about Bretta Martin laying the smack-down on Wulf and his mutant employers...which is what this book was said to be all about.The FDA would call it junk food.I wouldn't even feed it to that dieting fat lady down the way.
_____The badly flavored icing on the cake--or its plot--would be the total lack of something important.Hmm, let's see...That would be a little something known as, wait for it...originality.It's as if every magic-spaceship sci-fi novel written beyond the year 1990s is made to be like every other post-1990s magic-spaceship sci-fi novel.Spaceship-oriented sci-fi writers must all have the same darned checklist they go through while they write.It must go a little something like this.Does the book have an evil and anti-democratic galactic empire?Check that.Is there a rag-tag bunch of rebellious underdog protagonists IN IDEOLOGICAL OPPOSITION TO the before-mentioned evil and anti-democratic galactic empire?Give that a check, too.Are there anachronistic clothing styles and totally outdated speech patterns?And does the plot rip off of Star Wars and Star Trek so much that George Lucas and the estate of Gene Roddenberry should be running to call their intellectual property lawyers?Check, check, and check-a-roonie to all of that in regards to BRETTA MARTYN.Therefore, if the plot of BRETTA MARTYN seems familiar, it is because it only appears in every other magic-spaceship sci-fi novel written since the year 1990.This is largely assuming that the reader is masochistic enough to wait around for the plot to get started at all.
_____To put a head on this review, let me end by saying this:Unless some nasty space-mutant pirate guys are threatening to make you walk the plank or feed you to a fat lady for not doing so, do not read this atrocity of a novel.The writing style of BRETTA MARTYN is more suited to an insane Charles Dickens or something.What is this, 1890?Man, we HATED Dickens back in high school--one of those novels force-fed to American kids to make them hate reading.Thank goodness Dickens is dead...even if his writing style isn't.All the sentences of all the pages are wordiness incarnate--overly stuffed writing mechanics and a terribly inconsistent narrative.The author must have been channeling that joker in tapping madly away at the keyboard...Speaking of consistency, the plot lacks it--a truly constipated plot-flow that doesn't do a darned thing until somewhere after half...no, until after three-fourths of the book is already written.The editors should have been kind enough to take the first hundred pages of the manuscript and have them blasted out of cannons like they did in MOBY DICK.In the end, being threatened by mutant space-pirates would put a damper on anybody's outlook on life, and having to read BRETTA MARTYN is pretty much as close as any person ought to come to that situation, ye landlubbers.

Bretta Martyn combines Sci Fi with Poli Sci!
In Bretta Martyn, L. Neil Smith reprises his earlier book, Henry Martyn, by weaving the tale of how the notorious space-brigand's young daughter, Bretta, grows from rambuctious tomboy on a rustic frontier planet to astrong-willed, battle-hardened leader of refugees and sacker of evilempires.

All this, and more, takes place over 1000 years in our future,in a galaxy populated, predominately, by human beings who sail the Deep instarships romantically similar to those which once plied the oceans oflong-dead Earth.

In much the same way as he did in his popular book,The Probability Broach, Smith manages to weave a beautifully fantastic taleof fast-paced adventure and imaginative technology while, at the same time,delivering a strong treatise on the evils of Federalism and the glories ofa laissez-faire, free-market system.

Political value aside, BrettaMartyn is a fabulous yarn guaranteed to activate every last emotion in anyreader, and spark the imagination of young and old.:)

I Loved the book Bretta Martyn !!!!!!
I really liked this book.The back made it sound as if it were going to be different, but the way it turned out was just fine, too.I gave it 4 stars because the book was a little slow in some parts, and I did not likehow the prologe/epilogs were written, but other than that, it was a prettygood book. ... Read more

Product Description
Ex U.S. Senator Gibson Altman rules the prison colony where everyone is expected to live by rules that govern every aspect of their lives. ** The inhabitants of the experimental colony survive in a society plagued by crime, corruption and despair, toiling endlessly at tasks they are appointed to. Altman lives a life of luxury, ruling the lives of the souls trapped within his experiment and brooking no opposition to mandate. ** However, Pallas, the terraformed asteroid is also home to Curringer, a society in stark contrast to Altman's prison. It is a community where individual freedoms are championed and men and women are free to live as they please. ** Emerson Ngu escapes from Altman's prison colony and becomes a hero of Curringer. Altman is driven by a deep hatred of Emerson and his triumph and will do anything to get his revenge on him. But in the process will he also destroy and his own daughter and even the world of Pallas ... Read more

Product Description
Final anthology in the series of original science fiction stories. This volume includes: "Making Light" by James P. Hogan, "Horn O'Plenty" by Terry Carr and Leanne Frahm, "Excursion Fare" James Tiptree Jr., "War Movie" by Larry Niven, "Folger's Factor" by L. Neil Smith, "Pelangus" by Rick Raphael, "The Mystery of the Duplicate Diamonds" by Paul A. Carter, "The Two Tzaddiks" by Ira Herman, and "Identity Crisis" by James P. Hogan. ... Read more

Product Description
Three teen-aged friends from 2075 must travel 70 years into a barbaric and dangerous past, to retrieve a "TimePeeper" device they had "borrowed" and then lost.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Really Bad
I'm a huge L. Neil fan so when I got the iPad Kindle App I bought this right away as I had never before been able to read it. It was horrible. The drawings were bad. The story was bad. I really can't say anything good about this one.

Yet Another Great Story from L Neil Smith
If you're so into childish denial of the excesses of rampant government control, this book is NOT for you.However, if you can acknowledge that better government comes from LESS government - and that government which governs LEAST, governs best (And let us face facts here, most Americans living today have never known such a society, having been raised in the culture of fear, Fear, FEAR embraced by both the Republican and Democrat parties.) - then you will thoroughly enjoy this graphic novel.

Still, graphic novels are not as good a forum for getting across the message of personal freedom and personal responsibility, and TimePeeper does suffer to a mild degree from this problem.I think the only graphic novel that's pulled it off is L Neil's first graphic novel, "The Probability Broach: The Graphic Novel", which I highly recommend to you - but which is not yet available in ebook format, so you'll have to "settle" for the words-only version.Buy It!Buy it now!

Mary Sue fluff
Having read the online version of TimePeeper, I can say that it is divided into two clear parts, each equally as bad as the other, but for different reasons.

The second part of the book is mainly bland, insubstantial action that doesn't really "grip" one way or another. The author's libertarian bias is clear, but it's still not as blatantly preachy as the absolutely horrible first part. Had the story just consisted of the second part, it would have earned two or three stars.

But the first part drops it down to one star, especially one scene where a history teacher lectures about how horrible the world was until a constitutional amendment was adopted that made it so that it was illegal to pass laws, only repeal them, whereafter that, things only got better.

If it was adopted purely as a plot device in a fictional story, the lecture would be more tolerable. But Smith has a website seriously advocating such an amendment, and he apparently thinks that repealing the laws would create a stable, prosperous society.

The book itself and Smith's philosophy reveals the ugly, selfish, reactionary views that make up extreme libertarianism, of people who have never felt true oppression or discrimination complaining about services that are truly pitiful. Libertarian complaints about 'police states' pale in comparison to the experiences of true police states like Myanmar or North Korea, and their complaints about taxation pale in comparison to the plight of countless millions who live in utter poverty.

Extreme libertarians come across as spoiled overgrown children who whine about persecution without truly experiencing it, and this book is that philosophy shown in all of its glory. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good, but not great
This was nicely written book, with a few errors.There was very litte, if any, mention of the Empire, and at the present time should have controlled most of known space.Another thing is that the evil wizard, Rokur Gepta,used "magic" when the author could have easily said it was theforce. Overall, if you a well-versed in Star Wars you should enjoy thisbook even though you will question some parts.But I do not recommend thisbook for people who have not read any other Star Wars books. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Worthy
L. Neil Smith is most noted for his libertarian works. This novel is a bit different. It may be a study or lesson in libertarianism but if so I missed the lesson. That is not to say the novel is boring or not worth the read. Far from it. This is an alternate history novel and one done very well.

In L. Neil Smiths future the Europeans and Christians or gone due to a plague which was far more demonstrous then the one encountered in our timeline. This is a very similar premise to what Kim Stanley Robinson used 15 years later in his "Years of Rice and Salt". Smith does it better. In this novel the event change had a clear plot purpose where as in Robinson's novel I never quite got the point.

A densely written novel which requires careful reading and can not be skimmed through. If you give the novel the effort is deserving of you will enjoy the encounter. A worthy novel which should come back into print.

Worthy
L. Neil Smith is most noted for his libertarian works. This novel is a bit different. It may be a study or lesson in libertarianism but if so I missed the lesson. That is not to say the novel is boring or not worth the read. Far from it. This is an alternate history novel and one done very well.

In L. Neil Smiths future the Europeans and Christians or gone due to a plague which was far more demonstrous then the one encountered in our timeline. This is a very similar premise to what Kim Stanley Robinson used 15 years later in his "Years of Rice and Salt". Smith does it better. In this novel the event change had a clear plot purpose where as in Robinson's novel I never quite got the point.

A densely written novel which requires careful reading and can not be skimmed through. If you give the novel the effort is deserving of you will enjoy the encounter. A worthy novel which should come back into print.

Worthy
L. Neil Smith is most noted for his libertarian works. This novel is a bit different. It may be a study or lesson in libertarianism but if so I missed the lesson. That is not to say the novel is boring or not worth the read. Far from it. This is an alternate history novel and one done very well.

In L. Neil Smiths future the Europeans and Christians or gone due to a plague which was far more demonstrous then the one encountered in our timeline. This is a very similar premise to what Kim Stanley Robinson used 15 years later in his "Years of Rice and Salt". Smith does it better. In this novel the event change had a clear plot purpose where as in Robinson's novel I never quite got the point.

A densely written novel which requires careful reading and can not be skimmed through. If you give the novel the effort is deserving of you will enjoy the encounter. A worthy novel which should come back into print. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not an easy book to find... but worth it
This book is an interesting read, especially if you're a big Star Wars fan.However, since there's little information posted about this book online, here's the book description from the back cover:

Their Last Mission...
For a year Lando Calrissian and Vuffi Roa, his five-armed robot astrogator, had roamed space in the MILLENNIUM FALCON, seeking or creating opportunities to turn an easy, but not too dishonest, credit.

But now their partnership seemed doomed - for Lando's uncharacteristic impulse to help a race of persecuted aliens had suddenly made him a Vuffi vulnerable to several sets of their own enemies... not leas of whom was the evil Rokur Gepta, the Sorcerer of Tund!

...Lando shows the humanitarian in him...
Besides being fair minded, lando, as this book proves, can help a friend in need ....................... When lando promises to keep in touch with the big vacuum breather he doesn't take it seriously at all, but he was indeeper than he EVER would have imagined... ... Read more

Product Description
Non-Government Warning: L. Neil Smith’s vision of Libertyis highly contagious and incurable. Exposure to his ideas will changeyour life.

Renowned science fiction author L. Neil Smith (The Probability Broach,Pallas, The Crystal Empire, Henry Martyn, Forge Of The Elders, Hope)has been inspiring, delighting, and motivating Western Libertarianaudiences for 25 years with his iconoclastic letters, essays, anddownright rants. Now for the first time, the best of Neil'snon-fiction writing on gun rights, Libertarian and Republicratpolitics, the sorry socialist state of modern science fiction —even his legendary essay "Why I Hate Breakfast" — aregathered together in a single volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

L Neil Smith Demands You Think.
As with much of Smith's writing, he has a gigantic axe to grind. The axe is morals, the edge is libertarianism and the compelling force is supplied by, of all things our forgotten Constitution. Each article in this collection of essays is meaningful, and if you are honest, should really really anger you. He points at the betrayal of our countries principles by the alleged arbiters of same, our elected officials. He points at the hypocrisy of where the left says morals are important and where not, he points at the murder for and by our government agencies.
I recommend socialists and so called liberals not read this book unless they are willing to risk re-thinking their whole viewpoint of reality.
It is a stunning collection of impressive value and as such is one of the most prized books I own. Buy this book if you want to be free.

A book that everyone should read
This is a book that everyone should read, but not everyone will like. Neil doesn`t try to be diplomatic, you won`t find any sugar
coatings, he says exactly what he thinks. That in itself is very refreashing. Neil is a good writer, but that is not his best
talent.
His two best talents are
#1 An ability to cut through all the BS that tends to accumulate around any subject and get right to the brass tacks. He can pick
the wheat from the chaff with the best of them.
#2 In doing the above, he has a real talent for getting under the skin of authoritarians of every stripe.
So if you have a tendency toward socialism or fascism, you are going to have your fur rubbed the wrong way by these essays.
In any case, like the book or hate it, you will find much food for thought in it.

the best
a little bit outdated in hardware terms.That is okay the ideals are still there, ideals that libtards try to crush every day.Amazes me how people forget their own history or what it takes to preserve what they have.Let the libtards in to stary spouting the myths they claim are fact, it is fun.

Have a big enough lever and you can move anything.
L. Neil Smith is one of the most prolific libertarian writer of the last few decades.With more than 20 sci-fi books under his belt this is his first non fiction book.Full of essays on libertarian philosophy, libertarian politics, the Second Amendment, the media, science fiction, sex, drugs, Ayn Rand, freedom and Robert A. Heinlein.
The only problem is that if you are not a libertarian it will piss you off and if you are, well, then why do you need to read it?

Lever Action should have been titled "Full Auto"
L. Neil Smith has gathered a no-holds-barred collection of his finest political essays in this book.I first found "el Neil" in "The Libertarian Enterprise" online. I have since read much of his fiction, and found it to be excellent. Please buy lots and lots of his books--give them as gifts, read them and stock them in every room in your house and in every vehicle. I want him to write more, and the sure way to convince him to do so is to pay him. ... Read more

Product Description
This full-color graphic novel re-tells the story of police Lt. Win Bear, who while investigating the murder of a university physicist, gets blown "sideways in time" and finds himself in atechnologically advanced, fabulously wealthy world where government is nearly extinct and everyone carries guns.

This provocative story was originally a prose novel published in 1980, now updated by Smith with 185 pages of eye-popping drawings by Bieser in a 192-page trade paperback volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Gun Control Means Using Both Hands
When I saw Big Head Press at a comic convention recently, they had several titles that looked interesting, but the cover of "The Probability Broach" was the most promising:

Explosion? Check!
Dark-skinned dude rocking two pistols, caught in mid-air by the explosion? check.
Monkey dressed like a cowboy? check.
Two white girls clinging to each other in a suggestive, but not TOO suggestive way? check.
Sista showing lotsa leg thrown in for good measure? Check.
Everybody (including the monkey) strapped with a gun or sword (or both)? CHECK!

As the description on the back cover of the book (which also features a hot blonde scientist with a pistol and a miniskirt) suggests, this story that starts as a simple murder mystery turns into an exploration of an alternate world that has no police, no real government, where taking the law into your own hands is... well, the law!

"The Probability Broach" was adapted from the L. Neil Smith novel of the same name by Scott Bieser (Roswell, Texas; The Rovers), whose art reminds me at different times of Dave Gibbons, George Perez, or Kevin Maguire. Bieser's art on "The Probability Broach" is dense and imaginative, seamlessly blending contemporary fashion, architecture and design with the fantastical elements of the world the protagonist (police detective Win Bear) lands in. He is also quite good at drawing period costumes and architecture, which comes in handy, since the story often bounces into the past where we see how the history on Lt. Bear's new world diverges from the one he left.

This book, (or rather, the novel that spawned it) was initially conceived as a summary of Libertarianism and "the promise it offers of a better, more peaceful, and more prosperous world" according to Smith. Wisely, he threw as much cool stuff in as possible (advanced 'paratronic' technology, talking apes, dolphin scientists, etc) to keep it from reading like a 185 page political tract. Instead,Neil and Bieser managed to create a wild and engaging science fiction story that makes as strong a case for getting rid of the government and passing out nines as you'll read anywhere.

Hardcore gun control advocates will no doubt be offended by the book, but since I'm not one of them, I was able to consume (and really enjoy) the book without letting the occasional speech-making of the characters derail the story. So unless you're a gun-control activist, I recommend it!

holla!
samax.

Perfect for Introducing Teens and Young Adults to Libertarian Concepts
My teenage son simply does not like to read a book unless it's a couple pages out of a text book for a school assignment.He, like most teens today however, does like to read comics.This is an excellent means for introducing teens and young adults to the Libertarian concepts.

The artwork is very well done and the story text all come together to make a very worthy graphic novel.

If you're concerned your children are receiving a limited abridged view of federal government's "ability" to provide for and take care of all aspects of people's lives, this is a story to read yourself and have your teens and young adults read.Introduce them to the concepts of independence, self-reliance, and the decency, productiveness, and prosperity possible in a world where government steps aside and lets people stand on their own two feet.

If you don't have kids and like science fiction, get it and read it for yourself.It's well worth every ounce of silver your dollars are supposed to represent.

A Good Transfer
Too often, when a good novel makes the transfer from one media to another, the result is less than stellar.How often have you seen a good book make it to the silver screen, only to have the heart and soul of it lost in the translation?I saw that this comic was available for quite a time, but hesitated purchasing it because of what I "knew" was usually done in these situations.However, I weakened because I do enjoy Smith's Libertarian Universe series so much.I was curious too, if truth be known, and besides, I needed a fix of something by LNS.

I am very glad I did!

The artwork is typical of the genre... garish colours, almost cartoonish drawings, but close enough for you to tell who is human and who isn't,... but they are very effective and lovingly drawn.They do the job of presenting the characters involved effectively.If only one artist did all this work, his work ethic is amazing.I would be interested in finding out just how long the project actually took!

The "heart" of the novel, "The Probability Broach" has been kept, especially the heartfelt dialogue between Clarissa and Win just after his forceful interrogation of their Federalist prisoner.This is, I feel, a very key point in the novel/comic, and it is well done.I understand LNS himself had a say in what was presented, and I feel it shows.Even if you have not read the original novel... and who in their sane mind would NOT read the novel?... you get the total overall picture of what the book "means", and what the author is trying to make you understand about Libertarian values.All the important events and characters are presented in the correct sequence.

After I completed the comic version... and it was good enough to get me to read it almost uninterrupted... I couldn't resist, and so broke out the original novel again, and read it for perhaps the 20th time, just to compare.It was good to read it again, but I was satisfied that the graphic novel "does the job" nearly as well.Yes the novel is better, for me, in giving detail and feelings, but the comic version was great too!

I lent the comic to my son-in-law, and he totally enjoyed it, not having read any LNS before.When he finished he asked me if I had the novel.He is presently reading it.But, we are two very satisfied readers of the graphic novel of The Probability Broach.If you are an L. Neil Smith fan, you should get this work of art, simply as a collectors piece.However, I feel you will be very satisfied with its presentation. New readers will be able to see and understand what they should about this particular political viewpoint, and go away happy.I ,for one, wish this were a reality, however, I fear Man's evil nature prevents it.There are just too many "Red Barons" out there who want or need to control others to allow this revolution to take place.

I just hope "The Venus Belt" gets published in this format as well, but I doubt it will.The work involved in producing something like this is worth it for a one-of-a-kind effort, but since no "new" Libertarian values are presented in the second book, the need to publish is simply not there... but, I hope I am wrong.

Great Version
Having read the novel The Probability Broach, I was very interested in seeing the graphic novel.It was very well done, and compliments the novel well.

I would highly recommend it to any Probability Broach/L. Neil Smith fans.

Excellent Comic
I had read the novel first, and so I was a bit skeptical when I read the comic version. I was very amazed to see so much from the novel included in the comic version. After reading the comic version, I could not recall that anything had been left out. Very well done and entertaining. The illustrations were well done and quite similar to what I had visualized in my imagination while reading the novel.

In this era of so many comics being turned into big screen movies, I cannot wait for the movie version. ... Read more

Product Description

In an alternative universe, Davy Crocket survived the 1836 siege at the Alamo, and Santa Ana did not. As a result, Texas remained an independent republic and never joined the United States.

In 1947, Texican President Charles A. Lindbergh learns that a flying saucer has crashed near the far west Texas town of Roswell. He dispatches his best friend, "Wild Bill" Bear, and three of his best Texas Rangers, to investigate. Our four heroes find themselves in a race against agents from the United States, the Franco-Mexican Empire, the California Republic, and the Third-and-a-half Reich, to find that crashed saucer and learn its secrets.

And when they do, they will change the course of history, again.

Customer Reviews (10)

Great Story
Everyone above has already described it well. The best cast of characters ever.I often laughed at the sets and who was cast as whom.The more SciFi you have read the more you'll like this.Many send-ups of SciFi cliches.

One complaint, it is printed in black & white.I would have gladly paid a few dollars more for color. I originally read the story on line and it was in color which made it more enjoyable.

Great libertarian Sci-Fi
I really enjoyed reading it online at bigheadpress.com and decided to buy it. The only thing different is that the print version is black&white and it's color online.

Give it a try
Normally I`m not a big fan of comic books, even fancy ones they call graphic novels, but in this case I have to make an exception.
The story is excellent and so is the art work. Filled with fun, humor, and the promotion of individual liberty.
It`s not as good as some of Smith`s novels, but it`s still good in its own right. I highly recommend it.

L Neil is King of Libertarian Alt. Hist. SF
Imagine an Earth where Texas stayed out of the Union, where California truly became a "Magical Kingdom" - complete with President Walt Disney - where it was Laurence of Albania, not Arabia, where Malcom X stay Malcom Little - and became a Texas Ranger.Yes, in Roswell, Texas, all this happens!And we find out the source of the Grays as well as just who was piloting the Roswell Saucer.

Don't miss this read!

Roswell, Texas
L. Neil Smith's last book I read, The Probability Broach, was exciting and gave someone what a dyed in the wool libertarian society could look like. The colored graphics was pleasing and engaging. Roswell, Texas is simply not as good in terms of story and graphics which is strictly black and white. Still worth reading but if you were to choose one, choose The Probability Broach. ... Read more

Product Description
For the price of one, you get three Lando Calrissian novels: LANDO CALRISSSIAN AND THE MINDHARP OF SHARU, LANDO CLARISSIAN AND THE FLAMEWIND OF OSEON, and LANDO CALRISSIAN AND THE STARCAVE OF THONBOKA. You know him as a gambler, rogue, and con-artist; Lando's always on the frontier scanning his sensors for easy credits and looking for action in galaxies near and far.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (43)

Only Half-Way Through...
I've only finished the first story in this three-story book and about a quarter of the way through the second... So I can't really comment much but intend on editing as I progress.

So far... Eh. I enjoy Lando and wanted to read the book after getting into gambling myself and I love the details of the resort/casinos and Lando's gambling. In fact, the first story was great until about half way through when it started to become juvenile fantasy. I actually got a migraine just trying to finish the last few chapters in the first story as half-way through it just gets ridiculous- the entire story -and way too repetitive. Star Wars is of course science fiction which means not real but many elements of the universe have the potential of being real in another universe and make sense... What happens in the first story here is just asinine and so totally unrealistic. It's like one of those space movies from the 50s or 60s that are just like WHAT!?!?!

Other than that though I am enjoying the book and am hoping the next two stories have less retardedness as otherwise it's rather enjoyable. Some reviews mentioned the stories not being all about Jedis and the force... Well, the Star Wars universe is just that, a universe. There is more to Star Wars than lightsabers and the force. For me the main attraction is just the universe itself with all the intricate politics and deception. Star Wars Galaxies was a great game because of the fact it took the Star Wars universe and put you in the middle of it to do what you like (RIP SWG.. BOYCOTT SOE and Lucas Arts!).

So so far the first story was extremely lame but the beginning was good and so far the second story is going good too so.. Here's hoping!

The only thing that is annoying is the improper terminology such as "faster-than-light" but it certainly doesn't kill the book (The outrageous, unbelievable plot does that which hopefully was just the first story). Also, one thing I noticed was the writing is a bit jagged here and there. The book doesn't read as smooth and seamless as one might expect which is far more annoying than the improper terminology but again, doesn't kill the book, just makes it seem as if an amateur wrote it.


UPDATE --

Finally finished the book. Long story short, it didn't get better. The stories themselves are far fetched, the only upside is the beginning before it just becomes unbearable. The writing is difficult to follow as well, as mentioned, very jagged and no flow whatsoever. The ending of the last story was rather abrupt and hastened it felt.

I couldn't recommend this book to be honest but for anyone who is a fan of the Star Wars universe itself I certainly wouldn't discourage the read. I don't regret having had read it but I do wish it would've been better written with less stupid plot lines.

The only real joy in the book was Vuffi Raa. I guess just knowing this character alone would be worth the read for any Star Wars fan. Would be nice if there was a better written, better plotted Lando book with Vuffi Raa as really, Jedis and all that crap is the least appealing thing about Star Wars imo. It's all about the universe itself and those who occupy it living their lives. Definatly need more books of this nature but by a different, more in tune writer.

A Different Galaxy Far Far Away
This volume includes the three novels written about Lando Calrissian in 1983 (the same year as the film "Return of the Jedi"). It covers how Lando first acquired the starship Millennium Falcon and his three adventures with a droid named Vuffi Raa, involving a serious grudge from a sorcerer named Rokur Gepta.

It's an entertaining read, but this has to be the strangest Star Wars book (or books) ever written. There's an Empire, but much of the time it is referred to as the Civility. Instead of the Imperial Starfleet there's the Navy, with ships with names like "Courteous" and "Reluctant" instead of "Relentless" or "Devastator", the usual kind of name for Imperial starships.

Moreover, someone has apparently handed a lot of power over to the sorcerer, but nowhere is there an Emperor, a Darth Vader, stormtroopers, Sith, Jedi, or the Force. But all these things were mainstays of Star Wars in 1983.

And Vuffi Raa is referred to as a "robot" never as a "droid", the Star Wars terminology for such beings.

Basically someone took a completely different science fiction galaxy and inserted Lando and the Falcon into it. The corresponding trilogy covering the adventures of the young Han Solo, published in 1997 and 1998, certainly describe Han's encounters with Lando over many years (including how Han won the Falcon from Lando) against a much more plausible backdrop of Empire and nascent Rebellion.

One really wonders what Lucasfilms were thinking when they approved the publication of these books?

Not Free SF Reader
A series of three novels, all fairly ordinary.This is the story of some of Lando Calrissian's adventures before the events in Star Wars.Here, he has a lot of success in card games.He wins the Millenium Falcon, and then he wins a droid.A lot of hijinks for a smooth talking gambler and adventuruer.

"Don't call me master!" - Lando Calrissian to Vuffi Raa
I have always liked Lando, but after reading Shadows of the Empire, I wanted to read more about him. His characterization was really great in that book.Therefore, when I discovered a book about Lando I bought it.I found these adventures about Lando Calrissian a real treat. As for the book,it is really "three books in one": The first book "Lando Calrissian and the The Mindharp of Sharu", the second book "Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon" and the third book "Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka".These books were published well over twenty years ago and about 150 pages a piece individually, so now they have been published together in one volume.

I have heard some statements saying that these books or adventures really don't give a great deal of background on the rogue that is Lando.Consequently, I would disagree.I feel this book might not produce a lot of history or origins of the character, but does exploit personality traits and behaviors that aren't seen in the movies.For instance, we all know from the classic Star Wars films that Han Solo won the Millennium Falcon from Lando in a card game.However, that card game is called sabaac, which is a lot like Black Jack. Now in this book Lando is a master at sabaac and purposely goes out of his way to play the game.He finds it somewhat cathartic.Lando also has a smooth sense of fashion and makes sure he had a nice pair of clothes on, when in public and in private.He also relies on his brains instead of his brawn.This basically means that he carries a only a small blaster and his street smarts.Also in the beginning of the first story, he just "won" the Millennium Falcon in a game of sabaac.In addition, he cannot fly the spaceship at all, which is quite a contrast from the final battle in Return of the Jedi.Again, most of these traits aren't seen in the classic Star Wars film.

Now I will break down each story in this book.

Lando Calrissian and the The Mindharp of Sharu:

Lando has just won the Millennium Falcon and is loving life, despite the fact he has a hard time flying it.He is playing a game of sabaac when one of the players "slips out" some information about a treasure in the Rafa System.In this opening game of sabaac, Lando wins a droid named Vuffi Raa, who I will speak of later.Lando ends up getting involved with a Governor, with questionable standards, and Rokur Gepta, a sorcerer (who I will also go into detail about later) in order to find the Mindharp of Sharu.The Mindharp is a relic of an artifact that is riches to end all riches.However, Lando has to deal with a subservient race of people, life crystals and a planet that has red sand and a green sky.

Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon:

This story finds Lando and Vuffi Raa traveling to the Oseon system.This is a system of thousands of broken asteroids which life forms have inhabited. Lando of course is there to score some credits playing sabaac.He and Vuffi Raa are at the Oseon during the yearly Flamewind.The Flamewind is the release of "unknown" gases that produces different colors in the skies between the asteroids of the Oseon System.The colors vary from every color in the rainbow.It is almost like fireworks that light up the entire sky.The Flamewind also has a strange side effect, it tampers with spaceships in flight and electronic devises.The entire Flamewind paints a backdrop for a story that involves political scandals, drug deals, Rokur Gepta, a burnt out fleet of soldiers and a narcotic police officer that is a huge orange parrot.

Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka:

This time around, Lando and Vuffi Raa are aiding an alien race of naïve, omnipotent, pacifist pseudo manta-ray like aliens; oh these aliens are also transparent.This race is named the Oswaft and is being hunted down again by Rokur Gepta and his navy.Gepta has conjured up a way to destroy the Oswaft, despite this alien race's power and intelligence.Once Gepta finds out that Lando is involved, it is a two for one.Since this is the third book of three, many characters and situations from the two prior books are brought in.This allows for many aspects to be explained and loose ends tied up.

Out of the three stories, I enjoyed the Flamewind of Oseon the most; I really liked the story and the backdrop the Flamewind painted.These stories themselves aren't very long, so they are a quick read.However, a little more development in each story wouldn't have been a bad thing.There were some interesting characters and situations that could have been explored a bit more.Consequently, the stories seem to end before they really had a chance to pick up.

After reading some other reviews of this book, I have come to an astonishing conclusion.Many Star Wars fans are persnickety and snobs.The most detrimental element to Star Wars can be a Star Wars fan.Allow me to explain, (many) Star Wars fans love the Star Wars universe, but have no problem ripping it apart.For instance, I can't tell you how many "Star Wars fans" I know that hated every single one of the prequel movies (Episode I, II and III).Yet, these "haters" are the first in line to buy tickets; they might stand in line for 24 hours just to buy tickets for a movie they know they will already hate.In addition, these same groups of "fans" use the argument that the newer movies suck when compared to the original trilogy.They also abase George Lucas and call him a sell out and he doesn't care about the true vision of Star Wars.Okay first of all, you can't compare the original movies to the new ones.The original films are classics and no movie maker, even George Lucas, can top the magic of the first three films.This fact doesn't automatically mean the new trilogy is trash or not worthy.As for George Lucas being a sell out and doesn't care about the vision of Star Wars, that is dumb. George Lucas created the world, characters and other varies aspects, so why would he create all this if he didn't care?George Lucas created a prequel trilogy to complete the saga and give the fans a treat and now he is a sell out.If it wasn't for George Lucas, these Star Wars "fans" would have had no identity growing up.They also wouldn't have really cool IM names like HanSolo_69 or DrYoda1984.I guess they are biting the hand that feeds them.I say get a life, job and a boyfriend/girlfriend.

The reason for the former diatribe is this same notion of hating Star Wars becomes very apparent in the reviews of these Lando Calrissian tales.Many people stated that Lando didn't seem like the same guy we all knew from the Star Wars saga.Alright, first of all Lando really wasn't in the movies all that much, so how do we know what Lando was really like?Lando sold out Han Solo to Darth Vader, in order to save his city.Darth Vader put Lando between a rock and a hard place. Therefore Han Solo is captured; Lando feels remorse and redeems himself by aiding in the rescue of Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt.Omitting some smooth dialogue and blowing up the (second) Death Star, that is Lando Calrissian in a nut shell.People are saying about Lando's actions in these stories, "I can't imagine Lando doing that!" "It is so out of character for him to do that."Doing what?Lando didn't kill children, rape woman, abuse animals or wasn't flat out evil in any of these stories.He was and is an adventure, gambler, grifter, astute in humor and looking to make a quick buck/credit.Do any of these former qualities make him an abomination in the Star Wars universe?Or just contribute to the character we already knew?

I did really like two of the other supporting characters in the Lando Calrissian adventures, Vuffi Raa and Rokur Gepta.Vuffi Raa is a three foot high starfish shape droid that Lando wins in a sabacca game.He is a very comforting and smart droid and becomes Lando's good friend.There is a nice chemistry between both of these characters and the result is very funny.There is an ongoing joke in all three stories, Vuffi Raa is always calling Lando "master" and Lando always replies by saying "Don't call me master".

As for Rokur Gepta, he is the villain in all three stories.He is also called the Sorcerer of Tund; I love how Tund sounds just like Tundra, a cold, desolate piece of land which really mirrors the character.He is pretty much the poor man's version of a Sith Lord in these tales.Which isn't necessarily a bad thing at all, I found Rokur Gepta to a very enjoyable character.I do wish there was a bit more development around him, as well as Vuffi Raa.I wouldn't mind reading more about either one of these characters in future Star Wars books.The only familiar faces in these stories are Lando and the Millennium Falcon.

This is the sixth Stars Wars book I have read, it could be the ninth if I count all three stories in here as single books.After all, they were originally published as three books in the early 1980s.Anyway, I have discovered that most, if not all Star Wars novels I have read have many of the same aspects: characters/planets/systems/alien races with strange names I have a hard time pronouncing, different cant, technology indigenous to the Star Wars universe and the reader needs to use his/her imagination remembering it is only a book.

When I say it is only a book, I am stating that don't let the story destroy the Star Wars saga for you.For instance, I read the Star Wars "Bounty Hunter Wars" trilogy last year.These books took place in various points in time during Episodes IV, V and VI.Now we all remember from Return of the Jedi/Episode VI that Boba Fett fell into the Sarlacc Pit and was eaten alive.Well in the "Bounty Hunter Wars", Boba Fett survived the Sarlacc Pit and was again on adventures.For those of you that didn't read those books don't worry anything with regards to plot haven't been spoiled.The only reason I bring it up is because this book can really alter the movies, yet it didn't ruin my experience reading those books, as a matter of fact they were great books.I do wish there was a book out there that explained why Obi-Wan Kenobi took the first name Ben.Why not Barry, Ted or Philip?

I digress the Lando Calrissian Adventures is a quick read that is fun and different.These books were written right when Return of the Jedi came out, so the tone of these books isn't the same as the Star Wars books written today.L. Neil Smith used earth terminology when writing this book: cigars, cigarettes, manta-rays, etc. and written style that is different from Star Wars novels written currently.This again doesn't make this a lousy read, just a different approach.As formally noted, I wish L. Neil Smith elaborated more on each of these stories, but it didn't kill the book(s) for me.Besides it is in "The Flamewind of Oseon" that Lando grows his famous mustache.Overall, these aren't the worst books I ever read, they aren't the best I ever read, but as a non-persnickety Star Wars fan, I found it an enjoyable read.

Some Redeeming Qualities
As a big Star Wars fan, I found that I both loved and hated this book. I realise it was written in the 1980's, and before the EU was out at that. Mindharp Of Sharu was really hard to get through. I winced at the corny writing, the thin plot, and what today are considered anachronisms in the Star Wars universe. I really groaned when the author threw in the Trix rabbit at a random inapropriate time in Flamewind. What really worked well for this book was the subplots. The concept of the Centrality, Vuffi Raa, the Oswaft, and especially the strange subplot of the Renatasian System made the series redeemable.I would love to see further EU stories expand on these things in future books.I also liked that it was a refreshing look at the Star Wars universe that showed that it got on without the Jedi or Sith involved in absolutely everything. ... Read more

Product Description
Flight into danger! Gambler, rogue, & con-artiste, Lando Calrissian was born with a well-developed taste for the good life. More comfortable at the dealer's end of a fast shuffle than at the rear end of a blaster, Lando always had his sensors scanning for the chance to pick up easy credits. So when he heard that the planets of the Rafa System were practically buried in ancient alien treasure, he hopped aboard the ''Millennium Falcon'' & brushed up on his rusty astrogation. He never stopped to think that someone might be conning the con man. ... Read more