1teachingnomad's review against another edition
3.0
While this book is fairly well written with an engaging plot and unique characters, the political landscape that underlies the entire novel is a very one-dimensional, Libertarian wet dream. Everything is perfect in the society of absolute freedom with small government, and the welfare society of Earth is completely corrupt in every detail. Added to this were some issues with fleshing out character development that meant that it occasionally felt like characters were acting out a trope rather than for their own reasons.
Overall it wasn't a bad read, but not something high on my list of recommendations.
Overall it wasn't a bad read, but not something high on my list of recommendations.
wetdryvac's review against another edition
5.0
I reread this every couple years or so. One of my favorites.
nathaniel_1206's review against another edition
3.0
This is a fairly ridiculous, enjoyable bubblegum military science fiction. Williamson is a perfect serviceable writer, and develops strong characters. The first half of the book is all getting to know the main players, and a pretty ridiculous, if not stereotypical, three person romantic relationship. Williamson does a good job making his characters likeable, and interesting. But the romantic relationships are not handled without much nuance, it's all titillation and heavy breathing. There is a middle section that adds the "military" to what science fiction there has been so far, and the the rest is war. Perfectly well written, high death toll, goes on far too long, war. For a while Williamson builds, just by sheer narrative neglect, a question if some of the main character survived the war. The neglect comes in handy, and Williamson is able to reincorporate them back in by stupid subplots. There's nothing new here, and some may find a few characters offensively stereotypical. It's enjoyable, service-ably written, military science fiction.
(If you have an ereader, I would highly recommendation going over to Baen's website and getting it for free.)
(If you have an ereader, I would highly recommendation going over to Baen's website and getting it for free.)
jmartindf's review against another edition
4.0
Still a favorite. Sure, it's libertarian wish fulfillment, but sometimes it's fun to imagine a world where all of your wishes come true. And there are a few good ideas in here too. With Trump as President, who doesn't wish that would-be politicians had to donate their entire fortunate before being eligible to enter politics?
bookstuff's review against another edition
3.0
I thought the libertarian utopia of Freehold was, like most utopias, a bit too *shiny* and unrealistic, but the Earth dystopia was sadly not implausible based on our current trajectory. (Maybe I'm just a natural pessimist.) I enjoyed reading this, nonetheless.
fwhagen's review against another edition
4.0
http://www.fwhagen.com/weblog/2009/12/21/BookReviewFreeholdMichaelZWilliamson2004.aspx
kyleh's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
jamiebarrows's review against another edition
3.0
Fun action scenes pitting an implausible libertarian utopia against an all too plausible authoritarian bureaucracy. Despite the attempt by the author to make this a deep and thought provoking book, it just didn't work out. That said, the book was very fun escapist scifi. Which after some of the darker fantasy I've been reading lately was refreshing.
naturalistnatalie's review against another edition
3.0
This book totally reminded me of Heinlein’s writing style and beliefs. Freehold was built around those libertarian beliefs. Lots of free love and guns and the only crimes are those that negatively impact someone else. If you do harm someone, you owe them monetary compensation. And of course, the society ran beautifully, with only a few bad apples. The second act devolved into sexual exploration by Kendra, which got boring, fast. I was glad when the story shifted from “life is so different on Freehold than Earth” (with the strong implication that “different” is really “better”) back to some military action. The action was pretty exciting and pulled me back into reading again. The end slows down again ans Williamson goes through the post-war recovery for Kendra, Marta, and Rob. I couldn’t really believe Kendra was thinking of going back to Earth. She never would have fit back in after getting a taste of a safer, more efficient and proud society. There’s more in the series, but one is enough for me.