tamouse's review against another edition
3.0
The forward and prefice of this book were fun to read; I didn't know that this was loosely based on Howard Taylor's Schlock Mercenary web comic, but now that I do, it makes this book all the more fun. The premise: what happens when an extremely technologically advanced species drops a gate in your solar system, then says you're now "Open for business!" to anyone who wants to come along. Hijinks and Adventure! Much fun ensues.
Update: (10/25/2012) -- thinking about this book, it ended up being less satisfying than I originally hoped. It was fun, sure, but still problematic in so many ways. I can guess Ringo's politics, as there is a fair bit of exposition in this. Also, no real female characters of any substance, and when they are referred to, it is always with their physical attributes, whereas the males get described by their accomplishments or intellect.
Not really recommending this book or series.
Update: (10/25/2012) -- thinking about this book, it ended up being less satisfying than I originally hoped. It was fun, sure, but still problematic in so many ways. I can guess Ringo's politics, as there is a fair bit of exposition in this. Also, no real female characters of any substance, and when they are referred to, it is always with their physical attributes, whereas the males get described by their accomplishments or intellect.
Not really recommending this book or series.
pjonsson's review against another edition
3.0
One has to say that the main story is fairly ridiculous. Having said that, the book is surprisingly entertaining.
There's some amount of political stupidness in it but in general the politicians and pencil pushers gets their arses kicked fairly rapidly.
In general it's a fairly solid first contact, humans take to space adventure. I'm fairly sure that I will read the next one in the series as well.
There's some amount of political stupidness in it but in general the politicians and pencil pushers gets their arses kicked fairly rapidly.
In general it's a fairly solid first contact, humans take to space adventure. I'm fairly sure that I will read the next one in the series as well.
addypap's review against another edition
4.0
First 3/4 was great, tapered off a bit but enjoyable. Reminded me the First Contact series.
lyrrael's review against another edition
2.0
This started getting really hokey about 2/3s of the way in. I mean, it was moderately hokey before that point, but ye gods.
fathershawn's review against another edition
5.0
Great SF romp! I bought the DRM free ebook direct from the publisher at Baen Ebooks.
eishe's review against another edition
4.0
Live Free of Die seems like a mixture of space-opera and sci-fi humor with a tiny bit of hard-sci-fi mixed in. It has the classical adventures and space battles mixed with sometimes humorous exclamations and dialogue with some realistic technical information mixed together with purely fictional one. And it comes together as something highly likable that's easy and entertaining to read.
The book probably had such a great appeal to me because I am, for a lack of a better term, a sci-fi geek. And so is the main and several supporting characters therefore it's extremely easy to connect with them. It is filled with allusions to plethora of science fiction works and it is evident that all the plans of Tyler are greatly inspired by some piece of fiction, whether it's Star Wars or The Illiad, sometimes the source of allusions is plainly stated. I doubt this particular technique could work in another universe, but here it just does.
The whole world is mainly seen through Tyler Vernon's eyes and most of the time he is a mixture of a child that is seeing a new playground and an engineer that has had a new epiphany regarding a new project (but rest assured, the main character is neither a child nor a technological genius, he just comes up with stuff or rather comes up with a way to adapt stuff someone else has come up for the current situation). We also see a pleasant change from the classical trend of making all aliens humanoid on some level as there are different kinds of strange beings introduced - e.g. how would you feel if your doctor was a huge beetle?
While I can't say I fully support Ringo's political views they did not reduce my reading experience in any way. However sometimes going over the top with humor and repetition did. I got the fact that something weights nine trillion tons the first time. I already knew that laser is an acronym, no need to repeat it ten times. Perhaps it adds to the realism of how annoying real speeches can get, but what it did for me was just make the description annoying. Also I don't know if I support blondes going into Pon Farr every month. Come to think of it I most likely don't, but then again I think the book is mainly aimed at male audience. For these and several other points I could not give "Live Free or Die" 5 stars, but it's well worthy of 4 or even 4.5.
I will most certainly look forward to reading the sequel next year.
The book probably had such a great appeal to me because I am, for a lack of a better term, a sci-fi geek. And so is the main and several supporting characters therefore it's extremely easy to connect with them. It is filled with allusions to plethora of science fiction works and it is evident that all the plans of Tyler are greatly inspired by some piece of fiction, whether it's Star Wars or The Illiad, sometimes the source of allusions is plainly stated. I doubt this particular technique could work in another universe, but here it just does.
The whole world is mainly seen through Tyler Vernon's eyes and most of the time he is a mixture of a child that is seeing a new playground and an engineer that has had a new epiphany regarding a new project (but rest assured, the main character is neither a child nor a technological genius, he just comes up with stuff or rather comes up with a way to adapt stuff someone else has come up for the current situation). We also see a pleasant change from the classical trend of making all aliens humanoid on some level as there are different kinds of strange beings introduced - e.g. how would you feel if your doctor was a huge beetle?
While I can't say I fully support Ringo's political views they did not reduce my reading experience in any way. However sometimes going over the top with humor and repetition did. I got the fact that something weights nine trillion tons the first time. I already knew that laser is an acronym, no need to repeat it ten times. Perhaps it adds to the realism of how annoying real speeches can get, but what it did for me was just make the description annoying. Also I don't know if I support blondes going into Pon Farr every month. Come to think of it I most likely don't, but then again I think the book is mainly aimed at male audience. For these and several other points I could not give "Live Free or Die" 5 stars, but it's well worthy of 4 or even 4.5.
I will most certainly look forward to reading the sequel next year.
spinnerroweok's review against another edition
3.0
The book consists of three parts.
Part I: "The Maple Syrup War" is great. 4 stars. The tone is light and humorous. The writing style is fast moving and attention grabbing. The hero is inventive, ingenious and likable.
Parts II and III are dull, tedious, plodding, boring etc... 1.5 stars. These parts mostly consist of engineering design and business meetings. The hero from the first part becomes a bossy, threatening CEO who gets the impossible done by other people by shouting at them and threatening to fire them. It's like an endless Star Trek look of Kirk going "Scotty, I need more power." Then Scotty saying, "I canna give ya eny more cap'in." Then Kirk threatens to fire him, and Scotty miraculously does everything he said was impossible at the last moment.
The main idea is that only entrepreneurs and business owners can do anything right, and governments cannot. The hero even goes so far as to pilot the government's only fighter to destroy some aliens. While making some good points about government bureaucracy, the story overreaches to the point where almost anything the government does is stupid, and anything the hero does is right.
My suggestion is to read Part I and skip the other two unless sitting in on engineering meetings and business negotiations is your idea of fun. Part I totally had me hooked enough that I slogged through two other parts in the hope of coming back to that which I found in the beginning.
I listened to this on Audible. The speaker took such long pauses that playing the book on fast speed actually made it normal.
This book is a set up for a series, but I think part I could be enjoyed by itself. Yes, the ending is completely predictable, but the humor and style are worth it.
Part I: "The Maple Syrup War" is great. 4 stars. The tone is light and humorous. The writing style is fast moving and attention grabbing. The hero is inventive, ingenious and likable.
Parts II and III are dull, tedious, plodding, boring etc... 1.5 stars. These parts mostly consist of engineering design and business meetings. The hero from the first part becomes a bossy, threatening CEO who gets the impossible done by other people by shouting at them and threatening to fire them. It's like an endless Star Trek look of Kirk going "Scotty, I need more power." Then Scotty saying, "I canna give ya eny more cap'in." Then Kirk threatens to fire him, and Scotty miraculously does everything he said was impossible at the last moment.
The main idea is that only entrepreneurs and business owners can do anything right, and governments cannot. The hero even goes so far as to pilot the government's only fighter to destroy some aliens. While making some good points about government bureaucracy, the story overreaches to the point where almost anything the government does is stupid, and anything the hero does is right.
My suggestion is to read Part I and skip the other two unless sitting in on engineering meetings and business negotiations is your idea of fun. Part I totally had me hooked enough that I slogged through two other parts in the hope of coming back to that which I found in the beginning.
I listened to this on Audible. The speaker took such long pauses that playing the book on fast speed actually made it normal.
This book is a set up for a series, but I think part I could be enjoyed by itself. Yes, the ending is completely predictable, but the humor and style are worth it.
coatiwrangler's review against another edition
2.0
2 ½ to a light 3 stars. I thought the story started out strong but quickly nosedives to being rather tedious. The MC at the beginning was set up to be s likable go-getter type of entrepreneur but quickly becomes an obnoxious twerp in my opinion. None of the other characters stand out.
This book does get pretty political and has a conservative/right-libertarian bent which doesn't bother me in and of itself but I don't think the political commentary was done in a particularly thought provoking way and when stories get on political soap boxes just for the sake to preach to the audience it kinda annoys me.
I will, however, push back on some reviewers who say this book promotes fascism. It doesn't and you'd have to be somewhat disingenuous to read that into the /Bad Event/ that happened in the story.
In short the book has an interesting premise and start but quickly turns into a boring slog with annoying characters who give political rants akin to what your 67 year old uncle would give during Thanksgiving dinner.
This book does get pretty political and has a conservative/right-libertarian bent which doesn't bother me in and of itself but I don't think the political commentary was done in a particularly thought provoking way and when stories get on political soap boxes just for the sake to preach to the audience it kinda annoys me.
I will, however, push back on some reviewers who say this book promotes fascism. It doesn't and you'd have to be somewhat disingenuous to read that into the /Bad Event/ that happened in the story.
In short the book has an interesting premise and start but quickly turns into a boring slog with annoying characters who give political rants akin to what your 67 year old uncle would give during Thanksgiving dinner.
dai_shan's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0