A review by naturalistnatalie
Freehold by Michael Z. Williamson

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.