Book Description
Kenneth Chinran was a disaffected youth who joined the military and was recruited for an elite deep cover unit, shrugging off training and exercises so tough that several of the recruits did not survive. Then he was sent by his star nation to infiltrate a fascistic, militaristic planet-Earth. He lived in deep cover for years, marrying and having a daughter. Then the Earth forces attacked his home system, and he and his team came out of hiding, attacking and destroying the infrastructure of the crowded planet, disabling transportation and communications in city after city. As a result of his attacks, billions died for lack of the food, water and power which the ravaged system could no longer supply. His sabotage was successful, but the deaths of so many weighs heavily on his mind, making him wonder if he can stay sane. Then the secret police discovered his identity. With his daughter, the only thing in his life that had so far kept him human, he was on the run, while the resources of a planetwide police state were tracking him down. He could see no way to escape from the planet, no way to keep hiding, and if he and his daughter were caught, death was the very least that they could expect. But Chinran is a warrior to the core, and even if he loses this last battle, he won't go down without a fight that his pursuers-the ones who survive-will never forget
Customer Reviews:
Wow!.......2007-07-09
This is an engrossing read right from page one until the last page...and I did not even particularly care for the ending! It is well written, humorous, scathing on occasion and just plain fun to read.
The story is one of a soldier. He decided to become a soldier so that he can get away from home. He finds he has a talent for mayhem and is recruited into special operations where he excels, becoming a noncom and, eventually, an officer. His planet is one that broke away from the United Nations and declared independence. This particularly infuriates the UN because the planet seems so successful while Earth and the UN are weighed down by bureaucratic stupidity. The existence of such a successful free planet is viewed as a threat.
This is where our soldier comes into his own. He and his team have a deep cover on earth. When the UN invades his home planet, their job is to bring earth society down around its bureaucratic ears.
This has been a much simplified synopsis. The entire book is worth the read.
Combines Heinlein and Marcinko.......2007-06-07
This is one book I enjoy reading over and over. The author makes the characters believable and the narrative is well-done. I did find some parallels between what the main character (Chinran) says about terrorists and find it exactly in sync with what Dick Marcinko thinks of them in his 'Rogue Warrior' series. Not surprising as both authors were both in the military and walked the walk.
Not worth it.......2007-05-29
I had to put this book down three times, but I had absolutely nothing else to read, so I finished it. The main character spends the first 3/4 of the book proving how macho and bad azz he is (in a boring and predictable, in a childish way). There is an interesting part at the end, but then it quickly gets back to being boring with a poor ending. It is not worth the money to listen to mind-numbing detail of how he is better than everyone else and can do anything anyone else can ONLY BETTER! He has to listen to no one and although he's in the military he can do anything he wants, anyway he wants to do so without answering to anyone. We get it. Move on and tell a real story. I read a TON of science fiction and suspending disbelief is no problem for me. It's the basic common sense that I can't make the leap for.
I bought my hardcover right before Katrina hit..........2007-01-12
Disclaimer: Mike's a friend of mine. Take this review with salt as appropriate.
I enjoyed Freehold. I liked The Weapon more. This book is not for the squeamish, or for pacifists. If, however, you want a look at the lengths to which a man will go, to defend his nation, this is it. The descriptions of Special Operations training, and actual operations, in this book, are fictional. However, you can tell that Mr. Williamson did a LOT of research into actual Spec Ops training methods. There are parallels with current SEAL and other Special Forces training.
The protagonist is a cocky, arrogant, SOB. Take an overconfident punk, an raise him up right, and you get someone who's ENTITLED to be a cocky, arrogant SOB. He doesn't get this annoying trait knocked out of him by outside forces. It's his own actions that beat him up. This book poses the question, "How do you live with yourself, after you've done the unthinkable?". The answer, and the quest for it, make for some great reading.
The book's coming out soon in paperback. If you don't have the hardcover, then get the PB. Read it. It's worth it.
Perfectly splendid and splendidly perfect........2007-01-11
On one hand, this an excellent military science-fiction novel dealing with "the trooper, in training and in battle," even when the battle is behind enemy lines and under deep cover. However, it's also what the Germans call a "bildungsroman", "a novel which traces the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the main character from (usually) childhood to maturity."
The military science fiction aspects are handled more than competently. Every such novel, done right, covers such things as "Where does the trooper come from?","How is he recruited, trained, disciplined, led?", "How does he function in battle?" and finally, "What happens when the war is over?" We get to watch all of this and more, and there are aspects to the answers for these questions that are both realistic and NOT for the squeamish. I agree that, as a military science fiction novel, this one ranks evenly with Heinlein's masterpiece and in some ways is even better written.
But Michael Williamson has a gift I've found to be rare in writers. He can get you into the hero's heart and mind and feel what it's like, not just to DO the things the hero does, but to BE the hero, and see every event not just through his eyes, but his heart.
You do get warned, very early, what the book is about, when Chinran announces "I'm the man who destroyed most of Earth." But Chinran is NOT a monster. He is very much a warm and loving man who merely happens to be an unstoppable weapon.
I read this book not knowing much more than the above quotation and the fact that I'd already enjoyed every other thing of Williamson's I have read. This one is the best yet. The writing is smoother than ever, the humor, if possible, even viler, and the story riveting. I was enthralled all the way from chapter one to the end of the roller-coaster ride. And I plan to read it again.
With the "Surgeon General's Warning" completed, I urge you to get this book and read it. Meet the kind of man you'd trust to be at your back in a dark alley, to babysit your kids, and keep his promises regardless of cost. He's also the kind of man a people, if they're really lucky, will never need to turn loose on their enemies.
NO culture has ever been THAT lucky.
Enjoy.
Thank you, Michael. Please keep 'em coming.
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Freehold
Michael Z. Williamson
Manufacturer: Baen
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ASIN: 0743471792 |
Customer Reviews:
An Early Women's Rights Fighter.......2002-11-05
Molly Pitcher lived around the time of the Revolutionary War and she wanted to do the things the boys and men in her family did. She was smart but she couldn't go to school because she was a girl. She was brave and did things to help her family. She gave water to the soldiers and they called her Molly Pitcher because they wanted her to bring them the pitcher of water. When she was an adult she foughtbesude her husband in the war and took over firing the canon when he couldn't. She won an award from General George Washington and was made an honorary soldier. This book gives good examples of what life was like when people had to pay taxes to England and it shows how the war started.
A Good Book.......2000-03-27
When I was younger, I enjoyed read the books in the Childhood of Great Americans Series, and this was one of my favorites. It tells about Molly Pitcher's (no, that is not her real name)childhood and continues to briefly describe her life when she grew up. This book portrays history to young children in an interesting, as well as informative, way. If you like this book, then you will definently like the book Abigail Adams, of this same series.
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- My first exposure to Libertarianism
- Where is the Sequel!!!
- A world with no sign of other humans.
- This book is from 1964
- Oh My God! What is this crap you've given me to read.
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Farnham's Freehold
Robert A. Heinlein
Manufacturer: Baen
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ASIN: 1416520937 |
Book Description
Hugh Farnham was a practical, self-made man, and when he saw the clouds of nuclear war gathering, he built a bomb shelter under his house, hoping for peace and preparing for war. What he hadn¿t expected was that when the apocalypse came, a thermonuclear blast would tear apart the fabric of time and hurl his shelter across two thousand years into a future both strange and appallingly familiar. In the new world order, Farnham and his family, being members of the race that had nearly destroyed the world, were fit only to be slaves. After surviving a global nuclear war, Farnham had no intention of being anybody¿s slave, but the tyrannical power of the Chosen Race reached throughout the world. Even if he managed to escape, where could he run to. . . ?
Customer Reviews:
My first exposure to Libertarianism.......2007-08-17
It's been close to 30 years since I first read Farnham's Freehold, and I've read it once or twice since then. Don't get too wound up in "liking" Farnham; he's a bastard, you're not gonna like him. Heinlein just went through a libertarian period, and this is the result of that. The message isn't "only the strong survive, and screw everyone else", I got out of it "We make our own choices, and a responsible adult lives with the consequences of those choice and isn't a big crybaby when things go bad". Don't get me wrong, I'm not an insane libertarian (more of a Green Party/Ralph Nader sympathizer), just read it with an open mind, and not through the PC filter of today.
Where is the Sequel!!!.......2007-06-08
I found myself interested in the actual storyline after the characters were returned in time.
A world with no sign of other humans........2007-03-05
Robert Heinlein's FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD is an old classic brought to new life in a new Baen paperback edition. Hugh Farnham is a self-made man who builds a bomb shelter under his house, only to find nuclear war sends him back in time to a world with no sign of other humans.
This book is from 1964.......2007-02-05
I won't bother repeating the plot of the book, as many others have already done so.
I have read most of Robert Heinlein's books, and although Farnum's Freehold is far from his best it is memorable with typical several typical Heinlein characters. The father is the self sufficient, thinking "hero" who does not have to be perfect, the mother a traditionalist with no original thoughts, the friend a younger, female match for the father, etc.
This book is from the early 1960's, and should be judged for the time it is written. I have the advantage of having read the book closer to its original publication date. Many of the ideas were new at the time - the idea of the reverse slave society, the time travel due to some extreme event - these are all being done again and again by current authors (think some of Turtledove's stories, and Flint's "1632" and its sequels). They might seem hackneyed now, but let's remember who came first.
Many think of Heinlein as sexist, but little could be further from the truth. His frequent use of strong female characters was way ahead of its time, both in and out of science fiction. Yes, he shows some of the stereotypical weak female characters - but usually as the antithesis of his strong, female heroines.
Oh My God! What is this crap you've given me to read........2006-12-17
That's what I told the guy who gave me this book by the time I got to chapter three. And it only went downhill from there.
Conceptually it's a good story. A fairly average household of that time, plus one guest, live through a nuclear attack and end up in a very foreign world. You can get the gist of the story from other reviews.
The problem with the book is two-fold.
Firstly, the characters all fall nicely into various stereotypes and they carry out those stereotypes perfectly. When different situations come up, they all act exactly as they would be expected to from the very beginning of the book. I'm not even sure that Hugh Farnham would have been seen as a mold breaker because there were certainly plenty of non-racist White men at that time.
Secondly, I take issue with certain aspects of the future world. I don't want to go into details because I want you to have the same shock I had when reading it. But I will say this, certain things are too convenient, certain things are blatantly unnecessary, and one conversation in particular between Joe and Hugh is completely unrealistic.
That said, the book is worth reading because the situations that this group of people perpetually end up in are completely unexpected even though their reactions to them are.
Book Description
Celadon, a poor nation on a poor planet, engaged in civil war and a haven for every type of villainy in space, is ripe for cleanup. The military could pacify it handily, but it would take a statesman to fix it.
But some statesmen have ethics, which politicians and megacorps find inconvenient. President Bishwanath compounded the sin by being astute, ambitious and capable. Something had to be done, because a working nation isn't much use for pork and graft.
When the word comes down that he is dead, the politicians move on with a new plan, re-allocating resources, and finding a new, more pliable president to put in place.
There are three problems with this solution. Bishwanath is not dead. His mercenary bodyguards are more loyal than the politicians. And if they're not on contract, there are no rules.
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They Called Her Molly Pitcher
Anne Rockwell
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ASIN: 0553112538
Release Date: 2006-08-22 |
Book Description
The rousing true tale of an American Revolution heroine.
When her husband joined General Washington’s army, Molly Hays went with him. All through the winter at Valley Forge, Molly watched and listened. Then in July, in the battle at Monmouth, she would show how much she had learned. Molly could tell the day would be a scorcher, so she decided to bring water from a nearby spring to the fighting men. More than 50 British soldiers would die of heatstroke that day, but the American soldiers need only cry, “Molly–pitcher!” On one trip through the fighting field, she saw her husband get shot. She satisfied herself that he wouldn’t die from his wound, then took over his job–firing off the cannon!
Molly epitomized the feisty, self-reliant spirit of the colonists who would soon win their battle for independence–and her story has rightly become a beloved legend of American history.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Molly Pitcher: Heroine Of The War For Independence (Leaders of the American Revolution)
Rachel A. Koestler-Grack
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Freehold
William C. Dietz
Manufacturer: eReads.com
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ASIN: 0759202060 |
Book Description
Colonel Stell and his band of mercenaries yearn for a place to call home. To them Freehold is like a bright diamond in the vast universe. But its desert conditions, economic instability, social disarray, and political turmoil render the planet perfect for takeover. Willing to fight anything that stands in their way, Colonel Stell and his small crew contend with all who seek to dominate their planet, even vast interstellar empires. Their success will not be determined by their size but by their resolution to create creating a home for themselves.
Customer Reviews:
Surprise!.......2002-03-07
I'm not much of a SciFi fan (this book was givin to me as a gift). So, I was very surprised at how good it was. Dietz's characters were appealing, which is hard to accomplish in such a short book (I'm used to 500 page or more books). I think the fast paced action is what really caught my attention though.
I recommend this book to any SciFi/Fantasy reader.
Book Description
They left Freehold, New Jersey, for service in World War II as six young men-to the army, the navy, and the air corps, to the Pacific, and to Europe-and they returned home alive. But on their return, they faced a new mission as America took a new shape and their community faced new pressures-farms and factories thriving, then fading; creeping suburbs and withering Main Streets; civil rights struggles and race riots.
Offering a gripping look at life in wartime, Marching Home follows each of six men overseas into battles where the enemy was clear and then back home where the lines of combat were more uncertain: the black soldier who endured the segregated army only to face race riots back home and the sailor who watched a kamikaze hurtle toward his ship and then tried to keep peace at home as a police officer.
With the stories of these men, Kevin Coyne presents Freehold, with its mixture of village intimacy and city diversity, as a microcosm of the whole sweep of twentieth-century American history. It is a reminder of what America has faced and overcome and will continue to face as the nation marches forward.
Customer Reviews:
Another Freehold perspective.......2004-02-28
I grew up in Freehold and am just 2 years older than Kevin. I read his book with great anticipation. I was generally impressed by the book in the coverage of the war years and the next 25 years after the war.
However, the history from 1965 on leaves something out. I moved to Freehold in 1959 and attended St. Rose of Lima School. I left Freehold, essentially, in 1979 when I graduated college.
I was disappointed in his lack of coverage of the St. Rose parochial school since this, I believe, was one of the major factors in Freehold. I believe that St. Rose took over the Freehold Military Institute properties, but since there was no discussion of this, I found this to be a hole in the history.
His discussion of the racial tensions fails to portray Freehold in a balanced way. It seems he focused on 1/2 of the town and forgot about my half. On my side of town, we had great neighborhoods, all densely packed on 1/8 acre lots. I lived behind two black familes (a husband/wife teacher team and a blue collar family like my own). There was some initial consternation, but we found them to be just like us. One of them was a good friend of mine and we were both NY Mets fans, he more than I.
They were just as distressed during the riots because they felt they could be subject to attack from people on the "other side of town".
Also, there was much more chaos than portrayed including the famous "Shoot to kill" order given by the mayor at that time, which I still remember so vivdly.
The book fails in it description of this period and I know this from personal recollections.
You should read this book and appreciate the history up until 1965, but should not form a negative opinion of Freehold based on his description of the Freehold of the late 1960s and 1970s. It was more than he related and a lot better than that, at least from my perspective.
Extraordinary View of Ordinary Lives.......2003-02-13
In Marching Home, Kevin Coyne offers a touchingly intimate and unsparing look at the lives of six small-town WWII vets. The men are presented as complete human beings, with strengths and weaknesses intact. The author avoids the cloying sentimentality and overreaching generalizations that characterize many recent works about the "greatest generation", allowing the reader to form his or her own opinions and attachments to the central characters. The affection we feel for these men and their town grows naturally as we share their struggles and triumphs. The six men are drawn with such tender honesty that we will know them as we know our own fathers, grandfathers, and uncles - many of whom we will understand more fully after reading this extraordinary book.
Customer Reviews:
Not a bad piece of book.......2001-03-26
Pretty good source book that provides a lot of backstory to some of the most legendary freeholds in all of Concordia. It has descriptions of the freehold itself, it's history and the people that frequent. Seelie, Unseelie, noble and commoner are all included, making this a valuable resource for adding a little beef to a chronicle.
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Freehold
Fearless (The Lost Fleet, Book 2)
Off Armageddon Reef
