Monday Book Pick: Roswell, Texas
Filed under: Libertarian, Monday Book Pick, Politics, Science Fiction
Roswell, Texas by L. Neil Smith
This is a graphic novel, set in one of L. Neil Smith’s Libertarian universes. In this reality, Santa Ana was killed by a long range rifle shot from the Alamo, allowing the people in to escape, and the Republic of Texas to survive. Flash forward to 1947. There is a mysterious crash near the Texas town of New Mexico. Four Texas Rangers are sent to investigate, along with various military units and spies from various nations, including the California Republic, the Third and Half Reich, and a much smaller United States. It’s a fun read, and Ranger William Bear doesn’t just get the girl, he gets the girl.
The Cato Daily Podcast
Just a reminder, if you are not listening to the Cato Daily Podcast, you should.
Sunday SciFi: NPR’s looking for the Top Five SciFi books
OK, not really, since they are lumping fantasy in as well. So you have crap written by George R.R. Martin listed along really good SciFi. Ya, I am biased here. I am much more of a SciFi fan than a fantasy one, and perhaps GRRM may be able to be write decent Elf porn or whatever passes for mainstream fantasy these days, but his attempts at SciFi that I have read have been utter drek.
You can enter your top five books or series under comments for this NPR story on their quest for summer reading. Fair warning, you have to register to post.
The five I entered were:
- Space Viking – H. Beam Piper
- The Probability Broach – L. Neil Smith
- The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein
- To Your Scattered Bodies Go – Philip Jose Farmer
- The Mote in God’s Eye – Dr. Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
This list could change on any given day by one or two entries.
Quote of the Day
“Every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor.”
Quote of the Day
“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission.” — Ayn Rand
Quote of the Day
My personal credo as a libertarian conservative: I think all attempts to reform your fellow-citizens or tell them how to live their lives are arrogant and tyrannical. THAT’S why I oppose Leftism. I want people to be free to manage their own lives. “Reform” is just authoritarianism. People are not playthings for anybody’s theories or obsessions.
Monday Book Pick: Alongside Night
Alongside Night by J. Neil Schulman
This Libertarian novel from 1979 predicted the Obama presidency pretty damn accurately! So much so, the author plans on suing the United States for Copyright Infringement!
Quote of the Day
It’s about those Tea Party protesters:
Beware the Libertarians mobs! They will take over the government and then leave you alone!
Today’s Robert Heinlein Quote
I would say that my position is not too far from that of Ayn Rand’s; that I would like to see government reduced to no more than internal police and courts, external armed forces with the other matters handled otherwise. I’m sick of the way the government sticks its nose into everything now.
Robert A. Heinlein, as quoted by J. Neil Schulman in The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana
Monday Book Pick: Tom Paine Maru
Tom Paine Maru by L. Neil Smith
This is the “author’s edition” release, recovered from an old hard drive, in an obsolete word processor format. This is what was originally submitted to a publisher who then edited it with a weed wacker. A delightful bit of space opera in the classic L. Neil Smith Hard Core Libertarian style.