Freehold Author: Michael Z. Williamson | Language: English | ISBN:
B00BEQLTZY | Format: EPUB
Freehold Description
The Innocent Run When Everyone Pursueth!
Sergeant Kendra Pacelli is innocent, but that doesn't matter to the repressive government pursuing her. Mistakes might be made, but they are never acknowledged, especially when billions of embezzled dollars earned from illegal weapons sales are at stake. But where does one run when all Earth and most settled planets are under the aegis of one government Answer: The Freehold of Grainne, the only developed system that belongs to neither the UNES nor the Colonial Alliance. There, one may seek asylum and build a new life in a society that doesn't track its residents' every move, which is just what Pacelli has done. But now things are about to go royally to hell. Because Earth's government has found out where she is . . .
A Fast-Paced Novel of an Indomitable Individual Against a Monolithic Tyranny
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Michael Z. Williamson was born in Birkenhead, England and raised in Liverpool, and Toronto, Canada, before moving to Newark, Ohio. A 22-year veteran of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, he is a state-ranked competitive shooter in combat rifle and combat pistol. His other books include
Freehold and
The Weapon for Baen, the Target Terror series for HarperCollins, (
Targets of Opportunity,
The Scope of Justice,
Confirmed Kill) and
The Hero, a collaboration with
New York Times best-selling author John Ringo for Baen. He currently lives near Indianapolis with his wife Gail, also a veteran, their two children, and various cats that are not to be trusted.
- File Size: 787 KB
- Print Length: 688 pages
- Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
- Publisher: Baen Books; 1 edition (December 3, 2013)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00BEQLTZY
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,698 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
- #8
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military
- #8
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military
Buy this book if you like Military fiction or Libertarian philosophy, worked out in an unflinching and sometimes blunt way.
It's an excellent tract on Libertarianism carried out to a logical extreme, and a **** RIPPING GOOD ADVENTURE/WAR YARN ****. The infantry fighting and guerrilla warfare are just as credible as anything I've ever heard from a Viet-vet or any other military people who've ever described fighting in my hearing. The desperation and fear and occasional sense of unreality are all immediate, full-color, up close and personal, brutally direct.
The pre-war sequences are pleasantly entertaining, with a bit of set-piece background thrown in to educate the reader about the realities of life in a genuinely Libertarian society, as the author conceives them. In this, too, Mike reminds me of Heinlein -- just enough background to provide color for the piece, not enough to overwhelm or even seriously impede the plot. He has a good touch for this.
I had trouble in one or two places sympathizing with protagonist Kendra -- I couldn't get a read on what she was _feeling_ as she had certain _thoughts_ -- but the rest of the time she was completely real. That needs more consistency, but it's still better than three-quarters of the stuff I read.
I think this is a good first work, and in fact the rigorous working-out of the effects of theories does remind me quite a bit of early Heinlein (sorry, Mike). It hangs together nicely, and all the major plot threads are tied off in believable ways. It's not for the under-13 crowd, as it handles adult subjects in adult ways, without flinching or Bowdlerizing; both sex and violence are dealt with in the book, in ways that seem integral to the plot.
Freehold is good, very good. It is a very long book in both ideas and story. It kept my interest and has numerous good scenes. Many are a great deal of fun and many I deeply appreciate. An important scene and one I appreciate is the Freehold military funeral scene. It sets the stage for the military battle scenes later in the book. It's important to me because every generation of my family has served in the military and it's traditions are important to me.
In many lucid and well written steps you are brought through a very alien culture with Kendra as your measure. Kendra is very much a future character, beholding to a corrupt and stifling world government. Both are a strong contrast to the responsible and liberty minded Freeholders and their government. I liked this contrast of differing world views. I find earths government stifling and Freeholds appealing.
The scenes where Kendra flees her home from wrongful prosecution at the hands of the world wide UN government kept me interested throughout. I felt that she was competent and capable when she chose Freehold as the only planet that will not extradite her. From the moment she lands at Freehold she is battered by a kaleidescope of strange local practices. I throughly enjoy the contrasts between her upbringing under what amounts to a totalitarian dictatorship and her experiences with the Freeholders free wheeling capitalists. Be warned that Kendra is human and Freehold has few sexual taboos nor restrictions on what consenting adults do.
Kendra has no good marketable skills and finally turns to the familiar and joins the the Freehold military and finds out they do things harder and tougher with no allowance for female frailty. She becomes proficient and becomes more settled into her new life.
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