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kathydavie's review against another edition
4.0
A military SCIENCE fiction tale in the new Troy Rising series, Live Free or Die is an appeal to "life, liberty or death" when the Horvath come through the gate set up by the Glatun and demand Earth's most precious and rare metals in return for their protection (from the Horvath).
Fortunately, Tyler Vernon isn't all that accepting of what Jason Haselbauer calls Revenuers and he plots a tasty trade takeover to get what the he thinks the Earth needs to protect itself against the Horvath (and anyone else who thinks we're easy).
Funny, oh lord, it's funny...but then, what can I expect. It's John Ringo at his hysterical action-oriented best as Tyler defrauds the Glatun and outwits our own government and big corporations to raise the funds for space ships and weapons becoming a multibillionaire in the process.
There is a lot of science in this tale and it is so worth reading if you enjoy the idea of one man putting it over "the man" (of any species). The one sore spot for me was why the Glatun bothered setting up the gate in the first place...they didn't think we had anything to offer in trade and they knew they were setting us up for invasion. Although...snicker...I think we stuck 'em a bit...
Fortunately, Tyler Vernon isn't all that accepting of what Jason Haselbauer calls Revenuers and he plots a tasty trade takeover to get what the he thinks the Earth needs to protect itself against the Horvath (and anyone else who thinks we're easy).
Funny, oh lord, it's funny...but then, what can I expect. It's John Ringo at his hysterical action-oriented best as Tyler defrauds the Glatun and outwits our own government and big corporations to raise the funds for space ships and weapons becoming a multibillionaire in the process.
There is a lot of science in this tale and it is so worth reading if you enjoy the idea of one man putting it over "the man" (of any species). The one sore spot for me was why the Glatun bothered setting up the gate in the first place...they didn't think we had anything to offer in trade and they knew they were setting us up for invasion. Although...snicker...I think we stuck 'em a bit...
ladyzbyrd's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
Terrible writing. Mostly immature dialogue between adult bullies, especially the protagonist, who gets to have his way no matter what, and a “story” about a non-sanctioned Death Star (*cough*ripoff*cough*) and other “action scenes” that remind me of the titanic submersible operated with a video game controller - but in space. Yeah, I get that it’s science fiction, but even science fiction follows a general set of rules regarding mechanics, physics, and chemistry. This story just sounds like a group of teenage boys got together and threw all their ideas together, and forced the puzzle to halfway resemble something. 500+ pages of boredom and what are you talking about?
You can CLEARLY see the politics and badly aged grumpy personality of the author who hasn’t caught up with modern times.
I thought it would be fun to read a book that’s only by John Ringo, since I have been reading the Trans-Dimensional Hunter series, which he writes with Lydia Sherrer. John Ringo’s politics and badly aging grumpiness and really bad dialogue for professional type people bleeds through in the government and high-tier business characters in the story, and it’s fortunate they don’t make very many appearances because they’re gross. Otherwise, THAT series is good. Troy Rising? Nope.
You can CLEARLY see the politics and badly aged grumpy personality of the author who hasn’t caught up with modern times.
I thought it would be fun to read a book that’s only by John Ringo, since I have been reading the Trans-Dimensional Hunter series, which he writes with Lydia Sherrer. John Ringo’s politics and badly aging grumpiness and really bad dialogue for professional type people bleeds through in the government and high-tier business characters in the story, and it’s fortunate they don’t make very many appearances because they’re gross. Otherwise, THAT series is good. Troy Rising? Nope.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying
joshhall13's review against another edition
2.0
If this book was a piece of candy, it would be one of those Harry Potter Jellybeans. The ones where you think you're going to bite into a delicious apple flavored treat, only to spit out a wad of artificially booger-flavored goo.
This was my first John Ringo read, and I had no idea about his oddly placed yet overly angry political rants. I loved the rest, but his propagandist message and method is so off-putting for me.
This was my first John Ringo read, and I had no idea about his oddly placed yet overly angry political rants. I loved the rest, but his propagandist message and method is so off-putting for me.
alexthealdrich's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
adamrshields's review against another edition
4.0
Short review: This is a fairly standard theme science fiction book. Aliens make contact, world goes into some chaos. Bad aliens try to take over. Brilliant underdog human ends up doing really well, but has to race against time to defeat the bad aliens. That sounds more trite than it really is. But the basic theme really isn't all that original. But it is good writing and I really enjoyed it.
Full review on my blog at http://bookwi.se/live-free-or-die-book-1-of-troy-rising-by-john-ringo/
Full review on my blog at http://bookwi.se/live-free-or-die-book-1-of-troy-rising-by-john-ringo/
joestewart's review against another edition
4.0
I generally liked it though the routine insertion of conservative platitudes began to bug me.
jhouses's review against another edition
1.0
Lo que parecía un libro de primer contacto minimamente entretenido (aunque no muy bueno, la verdad) ha tomado un caríz lamentable hacia la verguenza ajena. Un heroe capaz de engañar con su astucia a civilizaciones milenarias con AIs avanzadas y poner en marcha una resistencia contra los alienígenas de pacotilla.
Al escaso precio de perder unas cuantas ciudades llenas de liberales y abogados los Estados Unidos verdaderos (los que votan a Trump) se libran de sus burócratas y se preparan para la victoria. Un ataque biológico de los alienígenas nos deja un sabor agridulce pues acaba con casi todas las poblaciones de africa y los humanos poco higiénicos mientras altera a las mujeres rubias para que sean más activas sexualmente (entren en celo una vez al mes) y no les funciones los métodos anticonceptivos. Una vez garantizada una raza humana en condiciones sin que los buenos tengan que hacer nada feo, nuestro héroe conservador y antiliberal se embarca en proyectos ingenierieles consistentes en millones páginas derretir asteroides y hacer espejos orbitales y fortalezas espaciales.
Esta novela es el sueño húmedo de Jimenez Losantos si le gustase la SciFi.
Espero que al final ganen los aliens pero no creo que me lo lea.
Al escaso precio de perder unas cuantas ciudades llenas de liberales y abogados los Estados Unidos verdaderos (los que votan a Trump) se libran de sus burócratas y se preparan para la victoria. Un ataque biológico de los alienígenas nos deja un sabor agridulce pues acaba con casi todas las poblaciones de africa y los humanos poco higiénicos mientras altera a las mujeres rubias para que sean más activas sexualmente (entren en celo una vez al mes) y no les funciones los métodos anticonceptivos. Una vez garantizada una raza humana en condiciones sin que los buenos tengan que hacer nada feo, nuestro héroe conservador y antiliberal se embarca en proyectos ingenierieles consistentes en millones páginas derretir asteroides y hacer espejos orbitales y fortalezas espaciales.
Esta novela es el sueño húmedo de Jimenez Losantos si le gustase la SciFi.
Espero que al final ganen los aliens pero no creo que me lo lea.
futuregazer's review against another edition
2.0
Good writing. Fun ridiculous space romp. Would have been great, but for the blatant sexism that the author made so obvious that it kept being super noticeable and unable to be ignored. Clean up your dirty laundry fellow. At least put it in the closet when you write publicly published books. Glad a friend loaned it to me rather than having paid any money for it.
tamouse's review against another edition
3.0
The forward and prefice of this book were fun to read; I didn't know that this was loosely based on Howard Taylor's Schlock Mercenary web comic, but now that I do, it makes this book all the more fun. The premise: what happens when an extremely technologically advanced species drops a gate in your solar system, then says you're now "Open for business!" to anyone who wants to come along. Hijinks and Adventure! Much fun ensues.
Update: (10/25/2012) -- thinking about this book, it ended up being less satisfying than I originally hoped. It was fun, sure, but still problematic in so many ways. I can guess Ringo's politics, as there is a fair bit of exposition in this. Also, no real female characters of any substance, and when they are referred to, it is always with their physical attributes, whereas the males get described by their accomplishments or intellect.
Not really recommending this book or series.
Update: (10/25/2012) -- thinking about this book, it ended up being less satisfying than I originally hoped. It was fun, sure, but still problematic in so many ways. I can guess Ringo's politics, as there is a fair bit of exposition in this. Also, no real female characters of any substance, and when they are referred to, it is always with their physical attributes, whereas the males get described by their accomplishments or intellect.
Not really recommending this book or series.
pjonsson's review against another edition
3.0
One has to say that the main story is fairly ridiculous. Having said that, the book is surprisingly entertaining.
There's some amount of political stupidness in it but in general the politicians and pencil pushers gets their arses kicked fairly rapidly.
In general it's a fairly solid first contact, humans take to space adventure. I'm fairly sure that I will read the next one in the series as well.
There's some amount of political stupidness in it but in general the politicians and pencil pushers gets their arses kicked fairly rapidly.
In general it's a fairly solid first contact, humans take to space adventure. I'm fairly sure that I will read the next one in the series as well.