Live Free or Die

Troy Rising, Book One

By: John Ringo

Narrated by: Mark Boyett

Beginning a New Series by a New York Times Best-Selling Author.Will the People of Earth Bow Down toAlien Overlords—or Will They Live Free or Die?

First Contact Was Friendly

When aliens trundled a gate to other worlds into the solar system, the world reacted with awe, hope and fear. But the first aliens to come through, the Glatun, were peaceful traders and the world breathed a sigh of relief.

Who Controls the Orbitals, Controls the World

When the Horvath came through, they announced their ownership by dropping rocks on three cities and gutting them. Since then, they've held Terra as their own personal fiefdom. With their control of the orbitals, there's no way to win and earth's governments have accepted the status quo.

Live Free or Die

To free the world from the grip of the Horvath is going to take an unlikely hero. A hero unwilling to back down to alien or human governments, unwilling to live in slavery and with enough hubris, if not stature, to think he can win. Fortunately, there's Tyler Vernon. And he has bigger plans than just getting rid of the Horvath.

Troy Rising is a book in three parts—Live Free or Die being the first part—detailing the freeing of earth from alien conquerors, the first steps into space using off-world technologies and the creation of Troy, a thousand trillion ton battlestation designed to secure the solar system.

©2010 John Ringo (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Not the Hubble

Back in the 80's I read a long article in Discover Mag. about the making of the mirror for the Hubble telescope. It was just before the Hubble was to be launched into space. It was exciting, because we were excited about this huge telescope and what it would mean to science. It was interesting because it was about real people and the real things they had to do to get it done right. ( which turned out they did not do right).

Ringo spends two to three hours telling you how to make a mirror in space out of an asteroid. While this is very interesting, ten minutes would have been plenty. In my non-fiction I want details. In my fiction I want a story, not step by step directions on how to do something for hours. In one part when building a large machine he even goes into the building of giant washers. He does the same with economics. You get a few hours of econ 101 with this book.

Embedded in the hours of take peg A and insert in slot B, is a really really good story. There were chapters I could give 5 stars too, because the story was so good. Take out all the other though and you only have about a four hour story.

I try not to dish on fellow reviewers, as I am pretty sensitive myself, but for some reviewers to say they did not see the politics is ridiculous. Ringo hits so hard on liberals and anybody who lives in a city, that I thought maybe he was trying to do an opposite of "Stranger In a Strange Land". That he was so extremely conservative to show conservatives how overboard they can go. In one part of the book, it is mentioned that most of Africa gets wiped out of existence and he responses by saying they were worthless people anyways. The name of the book is "Live Free or Die".

If you like your science fiction full of the nuts and bolts it takes to build things and economies and if your not politically sensitive, then you will love this. If you like a really good story, it is there, you just will have to wade through hours of instructions, but it is there.

Conflicted

I vacillated between entertained/engaged, mildly amused, bored, and confused.

There are definitely a lot of redeeming qualities here. Humans harness the power of the sun to create massive death lasers, and wipe out some oppressive aliens. Good Stuff.

However, that only described the final 75-100 pages. The rest of the time you watch the main character scheme and build up earth's infrastructure to give us the ability to do the aforementioned badassery. To be honest, it was kind of fascinating to see the obstacles and challenges in catching up to star-faring races. The bureaucrats and the media personalities are often ludicrously stupid and obstinate (I wonder if Ringo has any opinions there).

As fun as all of this was, it was not on par with what I wanted out of the book. (namely alien death-by-laser)

One other major problem that stuck out to me was that certain parts of the plot read like a white-supremacist's wet dream. (the writing doesn't really seem racist but it's still weird) Let me explain: Understandably, Earth takes a beating in the beginning, but for some reason, wiping out major cities isn't enough for the aliens. They also craft a disease that kills off people without the genomes for... [drum roll please] ... blonde hair. The disease then alters the DNA of all blonde females to make them much more orgasmic, and makes them go into heat, monthly. Uhhh... ok. I'll admit that there is SOME justification from the alien perspective... but still.

At least the main character admits it's not very cool that he thinks the world is better-off after most of Africa and the Middle-East get wiped out. Right?

I love Tyler!!

I've never written a review on Audible before but this book drives me to it. I have too... I must.. This book is great. I loved it so much I've order the tree-book version so I can have it on my shelf. The character Tyler Vernon.. or is that Vernon Tyler?? Is so rich (both literally and metaphorically) I love the way he solves problems. I've read many many sci-fi from Baxter to Vinge but I have no Ringo... until now.
You owe it to you iPhone to have this book!

Must read, funny and believable

What about Mark Boyett’s performance did you like?

Mark Boyett narrative and delivery of the book was excellent. His impersonation of different characters was amazing. Definitely recommend the audible version.

Made me read all 3

Where does Live Free or Die rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Live Free or Die was fun and entertaining. The premise drew me in, the writing style is good, and The narrator is fantastic. This book made me buy the other two and listen in order. This is by far the best of the three, Followed by citadel. Hot gate seemed disjointed, almost like it was a "Had to do" book rather than final of the series.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Tyler Vernon is a helluva guy- he is the guy you wish all these rich guys in the world actually were.

What does Mark Boyett bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Mark Boyett does a great job inflecting the different characters and bringing them to life. I will actually look at other books he's narrated and give them a look.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

This book drew me in immediately and caused me to purchase the other two before I finished this one.

Almost a good book

I had high hopes for this book but was a little disappointed. 75% of this book is about an entrepeneur taking advantage of opportunities in syrup and space mining. Only 25% of the book really dealt with the aliens at all and even then, we only got to discover a few races and some bland facts - none of which helped him fight the aliens. The main character was pretty dry and the author intentionally left family members out of the story which could have easily been used for tension or motivation. The book's idea has definite appeal, but the author's inability to capitalize on it left me wanting. I think Mr. Ringo needs to reboot this book and focus more on the alien relationship, spend more time in space, more tension and plot movement and allow the aliens to develop better.

A Great SiFi Listen

One of the best stories I've heard. Great SuFi concepts, from maple sugar as an intoxicant for aliens to ballooning of asteroids. Just outstanding work and the narrator is excellent.

Well written book that was not intended for me

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Good Science Fiction for a conservative with an uncompromising point of view (Rush Limbaugh writing Sci Fi). Someone who isn't offended by half naked women in beer commercials. Fox news watcher. The South will rise again believer.

Would you ever listen to anything by John Ringo again?

No thank you.

Have you listened to any of Mark Boyett’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. It was well read.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Live Free or Die?

Women referred to as being "stacked". Treating enlisted soldiers as incompetent. Women becoming unnaturally horny.

Any additional comments?

I read around 50 books a year and this is the first one in a long time that I didn't like. It was not intended for me and I should of done more research. I bought it on sale and don't mind reading a book that offends me every once and a while. It feels invigorating to disagree with someone. The story and engineering were interesting. The treatment of women I found insulting. I have a Star Trek view of life and when someone is uncompromising, I find it hard to listen to them.

Great story hurt by tragically naive politics

Another fun and mostly enjoyable "low" sci-fi by Ringo. I found myself frequently disappointed in the author for his flogging of the concept the free market and other overwhelmingly discredited social concepts. The narrator doesn't voice female characters well, which is not a major problem since women don't exist in Ringo's universe unless they're "stacked" and a genius; even then, they're respectfully quiet around men. I nearly deleted the novel from my phone when he discussed children of minorities dying because " don't care about their children;" not to mention that in his fantasy world the majority of the lowest income bracket is occupied solely by those minorities. (It's implied that this is because they're lazy, stupid, and don't want to work.)

If a story about an extremely misogynous and racist super-rich Gary-Stu winning the day because he's misogynous, racist, and rich doesn't bother you, then this is a perfectly passable, though simple, science fiction story. If you aren't in the Sarah Palin crowd, (anyone can be President, even when they are dumb as a cow patty!) you should probably stick with more mature writers.

It was ....annoying actually...

The story started out with an interesting and gripping premise. What if an advanced race droped a gateway to your planet that connected earth with all the other advanced cilizations? What if anybody could come thru?

Starts off great actually. Then....it was as if the author had a handful of (right wing) political points that HAD to be worked in to the story....and after he finished glueing those disjointed story lines/talking points together, he went and belabored them all again.

I've heard that the rest of the books are better but I'm not really keen on trying them out.