The Powers of the Earth

Aristillus, Book 1

By: Travis J. I. Corcoran

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Winner of the 2018 Promethus Award for Best Novel

Earth in 2064 is politically corrupt and in economic decline. The Long Depression has dragged on for 56 years, and the Bureau of Sustainable Research is hard at work making sure no new technologies disrupt the planned economy. Ten years ago, a band of malcontents, dreamers, and libertarian radicals bolted privately developed antigravity drives onto rusty seagoing cargo ships, loaded them to the gills with 20th-century tunnel-boring machines and earthmoving equipment, and set sail - for the moon.

There, they built their retreat. A lunar underground border town fit to rival Ayn Rand's "Galt's Gulch", with American capitalists, Mexican hydroponic farmers, and Vietnamese space-suit mechanics - this is the city of Aristillus.

There's a problem, though: The economic decline of Earth under a command-and-control economy is causing trouble for the political powers-that-be in Washington, DC, and elsewhere. To shore up their positions, they need to slap down the lunar expats and seize the gold they've been mining. The conflicts start small but rapidly escalate.

The Powers of the Earth includes zero-gravity gun fights in rusted oceangoing ships flying through space, containers full of bulldozers hurtling through the vacuum, nuclear explosions, armies of tele-operated combat UAVs, guerrilla fighting in urban environments, an astoundingly visual climax...and really, really big guns.

©2017 Travis J. I. Corcoran (P)2018 Podium Publishing

101 GUIDE to how to be an idiot

They didn't do a single thing correctly, when you are breaking off from a country or a world and still have needs from that world you do NOT assume that they won't do anything.... it's like history fucking 101... so hard to listen to

Great story that's far to relevant.

Great story is the struggle for freedom against insurmountable odds. I love ther characters, especially Gamma and the Texan.

I wish I had discovered this sooner

Amazing story definitely a throwback to Robert Heinleins The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. This has everything from science to politics. The characters feel real in every sense. I'm going right to the second novel from this.

Engaging Read But Only Half a Story

The story was engaging enough and had some interesting characters and a decent world. All the characters were very clearly either "good" or "evil" based on their adherence to libertarian principles.

I would have given it four stars, but it felt like only half a story. It's fine to set the readers up for a sequel, but the book cut off in the middle of an action sequence with no sort of closure at all.

More believable

While the science remains fiction for now, between the first time I read the two books and now, the politics have become much more believable. I keep hoping for a third.

Might be worth continuing

This is difficult book to review, the story is about a clash of libertarians which have colonized the moon versus the big brother government's of Earth. The MC seems to have a hate boner for any type of government which at times is interesting but at other times seems to be the only defining characteristic of the character ( I hate government's, other people should be able to read my mind, I have an uncontrollable need to control what my love interest does going against the whole libertarian thing) are the basic three thought the main character has.

The side characters (other Povs) don't seem that interesting, and only seem to exist to drive the plot forward. Let's have a perspective from these people so that we can have observers for this plot point.

Also the moon libertarians are very disorganized and supposedly kept a piece of technology out of the hands of government s for a fairly long time ... stretches believability. Besides that the tech was pretty cool, and the talking dogs was an interesting perspective as well.

So this book was difficult to get through and am not sure If I will continue the story as the main character is not very appealing to me mostly because the reasons for his main three plots arent really expounded on. For example MC hates government's great but the reason for that hate is lackluster.

A great read, in the spirit of Heinlein

Very enjoyable, with a solid framework and plenty of intelligence. Well read by Sean Runnette. Looking forward to the sequels!

great but!

Great Book I imagine Heinlein would approve. However on the end of the audio book there Is a preview for book two. Book two is not out on audible. patiently waiting

John Galt on the Moon

Libertarians somehow learn to cooperate enough to build spaceships and flee to the moon, where they establish a colony independent of Earth governments. Of course, some of the contradictions and shortcomings of libertarianism manifest themselves, although the author seems to prefer those problems to the problems of our current governments.

It's an engaging story, well written, and fun. The first book (and maybe all of them) end with a cliff-hanger, so be prepared to be unsatisfied until you get the next book.

Spaceships, romance, stupid college kids, talking dogs - what more could a fan want?

If you like the SF genre, you will almost certainly like this series.

A Kick-Ass Hard Sci-Fi Debut

Powers of the Earth is a stunning debut from new author Travis J.I. Corcoran. Originally funded through Kickstarter, this hardest of hard sci-fi essentially only asks you to posit that anti-gravity drive could exist, and then explores how those who chafe under the yoke of government would use that to exercise Exit instead of voice or loyalty. Obviously, they go to the moon. Just as obviously, the Earth doesn't really like that.

The rest flows beautifully from there in a great multi-threaded tale full of three-dimensional believable yet flawed characters... And uplifted, talking dogs.

Just as most stories about druids or rangers involve environmentalist themes, so too do moon colony stories involve libertarian ones. Here, they are well integrated into the plot, and not heavy handed superfluous spoon-feeding of the author's views to a captive audience.

By the end, you'll be freaking out that you will have to wait for the second book to see how it wraps up. It's well worth the read, and so is the sequel. But that's a separate review!

Narration here is excellent, with distinct voices for all the characters.