Freehold (Freehold Series Book 1)

One of my favorite books, read it for the story and later you ponder some of the ideas presented. I do agree that it could be split into two novels as I have seen in other comments, but for me that just made it a great deal.

I have lost track of how many times I have read this book, but it is upwards of 15 times now. The Freehold universe is beautifully detailed, amazingly in-depth, and is perfectly complemented by the other books in the series.

As mili scifi it's ok. The rest is clearly some of the authors very early work. One dimensional characters, gratuitous sex, heroes that can do no wrong, stupid enemies and a rampant ultra liberal society being overrun by the evil, socialist, bureaucratic earthbased union of nations. Quite tiring, even with all the sex and liberty. Read A Long Time Until Now by the author instead...

A lot of text is devoted to the libertarian free state made possible by technology, and how morally superior its inhabitants are to the hypocrites stuck in Earth enslaved by a nanny state. Half way through, it turns into a decent military sci-fi with a plausible infantry bent. No surprises which side is ultimately triumphant, if it can be called that.

While I applaud the effort to bring anything as complex as a new novel into being, I falter at being able to offer anything positive. If you are expecting a brand new writers first effort to paint the entire canvas you may well find things to like and appreciate. If your are expecting to hear a solid military scifi story wait for something else. I did not hate his writing. The pace and flow was ok. the background and story credible. So good luck to Mr. Williamson I hope his writing takes off like a slasher.

Excellent military sci-fi in the libertarian vein. Fans of Rand and Heinlein will find themes that are close to home. Great characters, action, and movement. Williamson tells his story well without dragging his readers down with minutiae.

I got this for free so will give a 2 star rating. If I had paid for it I would give it 1 star and would have only finished it because it cost me money. The cover and description of this book led me to believe I was getting military sci-fi which I really enjoy. That is not what this book is. Yes, the second half of the book mostly fits the description but slogging through the first half was painful. The ridiculous attention to the sexual relationship between the 3 main characters drove me insane. I was even willing to put up with the impossible Utopian society he has created but good lord man move on. After that we get to go through another 1/4 of the book in excruciating detail about her military training. I already understand it. It's called The the store Legion by Kratman (also a Baen book).

For a while the book actually got interesting even if it wasn't perfect. I was fine with the bulk of the war portion of the book with a few hiccups. The timing seemed off. One minute she is dropped in the middle of nowhere fighting a guerrilla fight with invading forces. Then blink your eyes and they have taken over the world's major cities and we have a plan to stop them all. The descriptive scenes for the final battle were too vague for my liking. I need to be able to picture what is happening tactically and this didn't seem important to the author. Once the battle was engaged, the scene itself is expected to become chaotic but during the lead up, he had plenty of opportunity to set the scene and just vaguely brushed over it.

He finishes the book much the way he started, back to sex and love and girly crap that should not occupy such a large part of a military sci-fi book. In a typical book in this genre, all the heroes get awards and fade to black ala Star Wars: A New Hope. It might be cliche but to draw out the finale in this book for as long has he did with the content he used was horrible. I did find myself skimming this last part.

I guess if he had taken the first half of the book and condensed it to the first maybe 1/5th and spent the rest of the book on the war I probably would have really enjoyed the book. He isn't a bad writer in my opinion, just not a good story teller. Although his Utopian society is unrealistic, the contrasting views during the brief war made for some interesting 'what if' reading. Too bad he didn't spend more time on this.

To conclude, read it if you get it for free but read reviews and go into it with eyes wide open. I would not pay for this and will not read any more of his books. This is a shame because the second book in the series has a description that appeals to me with a kind of military sci-fi/ post apoc feel to it but I can only begin to imagine how he would screw that up.

I got this for free so will give a 2 star rating. If I had paid for it I would give it 1 star and would have only finished it because it cost me money. The cover and description of this book led me to believe I was getting military sci-fi which I really enjoy. That is not what this book is. Yes, the second half of the book mostly fits the description but slogging through the first half was painful. The ridiculous attention to the sexual relationship between the 3 main characters drove me insane. I was even willing to put up with the impossible Utopian society he has created but good lord man move on. After that we get to go through another 1/4 of the book in excruciating detail about her military training. I already understand it. It's called The the store Legion by Kratman (also a Baen book).

For a while the book actually got interesting even if it wasn't perfect. I was fine with the bulk of the war portion of the book with a few hiccups. The timing seemed off. One minute she is dropped in the middle of nowhere fighting a guerrilla fight with invading forces. Then blink your eyes and they have taken over the world's major cities and we have a plan to stop them all. The descriptive scenes for the final battle were too vague for my liking. I need to be able to picture what is happening tactically and this didn't seem important to the author. Once the battle was engaged, the scene itself is expected to become chaotic but during the lead up, he had plenty of opportunity to set the scene and just vaguely brushed over it.

He finishes the book much the way he started, back to sex and love and girly crap that should not occupy such a large part of a military sci-fi book. In a typical book in this genre, all the heroes get awards and fade to black ala Star Wars: A New Hope. It might be cliche but to draw out the finale in this book for as long has he did with the content he used was horrible. I did find myself skimming this last part.

I guess if he had taken the first half of the book and condensed it to the first maybe 1/5th and spent the rest of the book on the war I probably would have really enjoyed the book. He isn't a bad writer in my opinion, just not a good story teller. Although his Utopian society is unrealistic, the contrasting views during the brief war made for some interesting 'what if' reading. Too bad he didn't spend more time on this.

To conclude, read it if you get it for free but read reviews and go into it with eyes wide open. I would not pay for this and will not read any more of his books. This is a shame because the second book in the series has a description that appeals to me with a kind of military sci-fi/ post apoc feel to it but I can only begin to imagine how he would screw that up.

I was a little sceptical about this book but gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised. Heck, after a while I couldn't read it fast enough and didn't want to see it end. I will be ordering the sequel books.

This really is a teenagers- like 17+ yrs old because of the sex - book. Also - the longer the story runs, and it's like "endless" the less emotional commitment you have to the primary character as the author seems to go from "smart" to "dumb blonde" to "average smarts" to god in heaven - it's like some reading about young adults 6-month trip to Europe to "find themselves" after college. So...don't bother. If really hard up for something to read - download a travelogue or bibliography or something with some value!

Are you a gun-loving libertarian? Well then this is the sci fi for you. If you're anyone else, get ready to be preached to about how wonderful and great libertarianism is (and guns!). Specifically, get ready to endure that preaching, and nothing else, for half the book. This is the core problem. The author isn't a bad writer, and when there's actual story taking place, things move along reasonably well. The problem is that more than half of the book (literally!) has no story or plot to speak of, but is instead a lengthy tour of the great gloriousness of libertarianism and the slow seduction of the protagonist (which oddly, is then massively back-peddled as the penultimate point in the character's journey, to the point of ludicrous un-believability, and obviously just to add some manufactured drama after all the wartime peril has been resolved). What's worse, is that this libertarian propaganda isn't even done with anything remotely approaching subtlety. As often as not, it's delivered as plain exposition by the protagonist's "native guide", which makes the protagonist, or possibly the reader from the author's perspective, seem thick-headed and obtuse for not instantly appreciating the greatness of libertarianism. It truly is miserable and I very nearly gave up more than once.

Persevering, however, things do improve some once the narrative moves from libertarian evangelism to the protagonist's enlistment in the local military, boot camp training, and the subsequent war/conflict. It's an old trope, and there's nothing original here, but it's fine and reasonably done. I'd give three stars for this part. Even here, though, there's still intermittent pimping for libertarianism, sometimes more and sometimes less; but there are also worse messages, including that torture is just fine and that any atrocity, no matter how terrible, is acceptable (or maybe worse, no big deal) if you can think you have a justification for it (and I mean this less so for the "big attack" and much more for individual character actions, such as revenge-motivated vigilante murder - this is the sort of thing our "heroes" think is moral and ethical).

There are also other things that are at least a little "off" and bothersome throughout. A couple examples: The polyamory seems to cross the line into sex fantasy wish fulfillment when taken from perspective of the lone (of course) male. There's also a seemingly sympathetic character from the antagonists'' side introduced in a brief chapter for which this character is the focus of this chapter (as I recall), and then he's just very quickly killed (apparently)in the next chapter, so glossed over that it practically happens "off screen". It's just very random and out-of-place. About the only way that last one would make sense is if that random character wasn't really dead and is coming back in a future novel in this series. But after the suffering that this one subjects you to with its preaching for libertarianism, I'm completely uninterested in finding out.

Not a horrible piece, but lost interest very close to when the action was to start (skipped ahead a bit as I was losing interest, just couldn't get interested again). You would be better off reading "Better to Beg Forgiveness". I read that work first and was expecting a similarly paced work. Not my cup of tea.

I picked this up on a recommendation.

As you might guess from the cover, Freehold is trying to follow some of the older traditions of science fiction, drawing from the traditions of science fiction from decades past.

Unfortunately I feel like the story falls short in what it was trying to do:

The main character does not have much of a character. She does not seem to make any kind of choice in the first three or four chapters, instead she reacts to circumstances in the only way she can. Even now, I couldn't name a single personality trait she has.

The author wanted to focus on the setting, making it the most important and and interesting character in the book. Unfortunately, the setting is boring. The planet seems to be the "Land of Libertarians and Nudity" without much else to make it interesting or consistent. I will admit that I am generally resistant to someone preaching politics to me in my fiction unless it is done VERY well. This gave the book an uphill battle before we started, so take my criticism with a grain of salt.

Finally, let me say before I make this last criticism that I am not an SJW. I usually don't care about things like "male gaze" and the like provided it does not become obnoxious. However, this book managed to cross that line. The POV character is ostensibly a hetero female. However, whenever the book was describing a woman focused on details like muscles and beauty (as if the POV character was checking her out) and when it was describing a man the description was not nearly so appreciative. If the main character was a hetero man or a gay woman I would not complain about this, but every time this happened it threw me out of the story.

This book is trying very hard to be "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress", a book I really do like. However, Freehold fails to live up to its inspiration.

Two stars.

One long and drawn out books I almost finished. Shallow characters, weak plot, and love action, with an HBO sex that was not needed or at least too long, and did not forward the plot. In the end I just did not care if what happen. Glad it was free.

Freehold by Williamson was an interesting read, mainly focused on a planet called Freehold where people are free to be whatever they want. The main protagonist, Kendra, lands here whilst escaping Earth. Of course, the UN is after one of their own and she ends up fighting them. In the meantime she joins the military and, though it is rough going, she approved of her training. She also has some RnR with a local couple who aren't the usual couple - plenty of graphics. The story line held my attention most of the time, and then I wished to it to end.

I received this as part of a free package. Had I known what I was getting, I would have gladly paid for it, and I will be buying more in the series.

Don’t look to this review for a synopsis of the story; read it for yourself and enjoy. I especially found the cultural study of the different systems fascinating, and saw too many parallels to our own society today. Hard to believe that this was published in 2004. This book’s treatment of the culture of Earth mirrors what’s currently happening in Europe, while the culture of Grainne is held as an ideal, not too different from our American ideals that we never seem to achieve.

Be warned, there are graphic love scenes, and much violent war and crime descriptions. These all add to the plot and enhance the experience rather than seeming gratuitous, though.

Me. Williamson certainly succeeded in building a logical world based on current ideals, which draws the reader in. Too often, sci-fi writers create a world around technology and explain the worlds they build in their own, often leftist ideas. This leads to glaring plotholes and inexplicable actions by the characters. I didn’t see any of that in Freehold. Me. Williamson has done his research.

If the reader has military experience, the book delivers very familiar themes that we have experienced in our careers, and have seen throughout history.

I would recommend this novel for anyone looking to immerse themselves in a good sci-for novel for a day or two.

Freehold
Michael Z. Williamson
Baen, May 6 2014, $25.00
ISBN: 9781476736341

UNPF Sergeant Second Class Kendra Pacelli looks forward to the end of her short-term admin assignment providing assistance to the Logistic Support Function stationed on Mtali. Besides cramped working conditions and lousy quarters, troops on eighteen month deployments loathe short termers like her. Her old lover MP Tom Anderson calls from his personal line to hers with a warning that the UN Bureau of Security pursues those named in the conspiracy of stealing millions in weapons to include an innocent auditor who reported the discrepancy named Pacelli.

She realizes she may not survive the interrogation as the Bureau of Security does not allow innocence to get in the way of insuring the government is not embarrassed or scandalized and that only one planet would not expedite her back to the UN. Thus Pacelli flees to the independent twenty-third century old Freehold of Grainne Embassy requesting asylum. Soon after her arrival, Kendra obtains permission to travel to the independent planet. There she must adapt to an entirely different culture based on very limited government intrusion into people's lives; her new BF Rob and her new BFF Marta help her. Still with her only skill being the military, Kendra enlists fearing that the powerful totalitarian empire will hunt her as no one lives who can humiliate the government.

The special edition reprint of Freehold is a fascinating comparison between two polar opposite societies. Whereas the UN is a rigid totalitarian empire, Freehold is a libertarian former UN colony. Michael Z. Williamson pulls no punches as to which side he is on as the overall exciting storyline (except for some passive pontifications) is an entertaining good and evil human rights science fiction thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Most reviewers here have touched on what makes Freehold work or fail as a story. For me it's always the characters. In this case we start with viewpoint heroine Kendra Pacelli, a logistics clerk noncom in the UN Protection Force (UNPF), who escapes Earth after being framed for military equipment embezzlement, and seeks asylum on the independent colony planet of Freehold Grainne. She gives us the fish out of water look at contrasting the society of heavily fascist UN-dominated Earth with that of Freehold's.

For me, Kendra runs a fine line. She is a bit too naive at times, especially given the society she came from where crime and corruption was rampant, especially very serious crime, like rape and armed robbery. I would've certainly expected a woman who was more cautious and cynical when coming to a place like Freehold, and in dealing with their people. Yes, it can be argued Kendra is in a state of shock and trauma, both at being framed, fleeing for her life, and in dealing with the Freehold's nearly unrestricted libertarian culture, whose minimalist government is completely alien to her. It certainly does not help that among the first people she deals with when setting foot on the planet, Tom Calan, is a scumbag who tries to effectively sell her off into prostitution. That being said, Kendra should be far more street savvy than she initially comes across, and less wide-eyed golly-gosh-gee-whiz. In fact, it's a bit jarring later on that when Kendra offers her services as an Earth cultural consultant, she demonstrates how to be a tough street smart to a group of Freeholders.

A bit of the dread Mary Sue crops up as Kendra is seen by many locals as a highly exotic and desirable beauty. This is in fact mentioned many times, with special emphasis on Kendra being tall and blonde, and Kendra being a bit too modest about it. Wouldn't it have made the story more interesting if she'd been described at times as plain? As other reviewers have pointed out, Kendra almost always succeeds at what she does. Which is fine, to an extent, readers generally like characters that are exceptional, but when Kendra joins up with the Freehold military and goes through it's very rigorous basic training, she succeeds at almost everything, even outclassing several locals, including one of the few "villain" Freeholders we get to see, and these are people who have been raised on this frontier world! Argh.

Also disturbingly a bit Mary Sue-ish, Kendra or someone close to her kills everyone who does something bad to her. Rob kills Calan, and Kendra gets to kill the villain military Freeholder when he tries to force her to surrender so he can collect a UN bounty on her.

Rob McKay and Marta Hernandez, whom Kendra befriends and eventually shares a ménage à trois relationship with, have issues as well. Rob suddenly and disjarringly going from a local guide and apartment owner/manager to Top Gun pilot and badass ground soldier without proper hints and story narrative segways. Marta also being a badass soldier and prostitute. I never really got to understand their motivations very well, and we don't see much in the way of a character arc for either of these two. What are Marta's reasons for choosing prostitution? Money is brought up, but is that all? We never really find out and Kendra never really asks why. At times I got the impression that Rob and Marta were only there to be mouthpieces for the author's views, or to solely prop up Kendra.

Other secondary characters we don't really get to know well enough. Citizens Hernandez and Chinratana, the few actual politicians we see, are never fully explored as people, and why they would be motivated into giving up huge amounts of wealth and serve in government in the first place other than apparently pure altruism, which is not very believable. I really disliked Alan Naumann, the hyper-brilliant commander of the Freehold forces, who really does come across as a Gary Stu with everything he does. He shapes Kendra into a badass during basic, and later develops a strategy to defeat the UN Earth forces when they invade Freehold later in the story, and that really felt artificial as the whole plan succeeds simply because the author made it happen. Naumann's pretty cardboard cutout and not a very dimensional personality. A shame, with military SciFi, a capable and even savvy commander can be shown as flawed, even fatally. I have to compare with Ron Moore's reimagined Battlestar Galactica and the brilliant depiction of Commander, later Admiral William Adama. A capable and well-loved leader, but one who is flawed, and makes mistakes, such as trying to arrest President Roslin (a very interesting politician character in her own right) or early in the story wanting to go fight a hit-and-run war with the Cylons while leaving the civilian refugees in potential harms way without the protection of the titular battlestar, but is talked out of doing so by the more sensible people around him, including Roslin.

So yes, I admit it, I like complex, grey-area characters, and this is one area where Freehold did not capture me. I also like my villains that way as well. It's much more interesting when the villains have motivations and are even sometimes right, occasionally are competent and trope savvy, but they are just going about things in too extremist a fashion. We sadly get potential for this in General Huff, who is in charge of the UN occupation force. Williamson almost gives Huff some dimension, making him a man genuinely concerned for the troops under his command, frustrated at UN bureaucratic and political interference, and he really believes he's there on Freehold to help liberate and bring enlightened civilization to the people there. We also very briefly follow a UN squad on patrol, which starts initially to be portrayed as sympathetic and even hints of three-dimensional characterization with the sergeant in charge of the squad actually showing competence and even is concerned for a rookie corporal who also shows some ability. Sadly all this gets thrown out in the end. The brief look is just that, and it is never revisited. When the sergeant is randomly killed by a wild animal, the troops under his command suddenly go berserk and start raping a local woman and murder her family. The only reason for this it seems is to make the wiping out of the patrol by Kendra's group seem justified.

Also while Williamson shows us how brutal war can be with Kendra having to shoot prisoners who surrendered and commit other atrocities to protect her adopted home. I wonder why, if things are as bad as they are on Earth, that none of the UN soldiers ever defected and joined the rebels? It has happened before, Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan (during the Soviet invasion).

In fact, at times it seems virtually all the UN soldiers are portrayed as rapists, even when there are females serving in a unit, the still go about doing this and no one tries to say or do anything about it. While I get the point that the author was trying to make, it still seemed too forced and jarring from a story narrative and believability standpoint. In real life, atrocities like Abu Ghraib are the exceptions that make headlines, not the norm. We have to have a system that ingrains such things as part of policy. Yet we hear of nothing of the sort for the UN that encourages their troops to carry something like this out.

So, if you've gotten this far in the review, now you're probably asking to yourself "Why did this guy give the book 3 stars?". Well, I gave it that because despite all the flaws, I appreciate that Williamson made a great first effort. When the story works, it works because the author, who is a U.S. military veteran, writes what he knows, and he knows how the U.S. Army and Air Force works. His descriptions of Kendra's time in the Freehold basic training is very accurate to most modern militaries basic and survival training methods. He does a good job with describing small-unit tactics, especially in the guerrilla warfare part of the story and the interesting contrast in Kendra's philosophy of demoralization by attacking seemingly unimportant things, like the U.N. units' mess trailers, but have a huge effect on unit moral by forcing the troops to eat bland rations instead of good food and make them worry over attacks directed at rear echelon soldiers. Williamson also knows a fair amount about technology and tries to incorporate it into the story and how it would affect warfare. Everything from small killer spy drones to nanowarefare and nanotech in general all raise some interesting thoughts. I do agree with one reviewer that some of the descriptions make it seem like Freehold is taking place only "twenty minutes into the future" (look up the trope), rather than five hundred years. Some things I wanted more description of, especially in the battles, like the very brief references to the UN forces making use of powered armor suits ala Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. What is that powered armor like in the Freeholdverse? What effect did that have, especially in fighting in an urban environment where powered suits are small enough to get into buildings and can take small and medium arms fire as effortlessly as rain off a duck's back? We never get to know because it's mentioned only in passing.

Williamson also knows about politics and society, and it shows in the discussions between the various characters. In that respect, Freehold becomes a character in it's own right as the does the UN-dominated Earth society. Granted, the flaws, as have been already pointed in reviews, is that the UN characters and society come across as strawmen way too much at times, but even still, the concepts raised just manage to shine above that.

And yes, an editor should have gone over this and the story given at least one or two rewrites. With the long, drawn out descriptions of how different Freehold. Not that describing Freehold is bad, but pacing is everything, and losing a few pages here and there, or trimming off a few words or lines can really speed the story along. The same is true of Kendra's basic training segment.

What also elevates the story is that Williamson also tried to show that the Freehold society was not perfect, that there were some bad apples "working the system", that there are still poor and disaffected, and that when the forced refugees from Earth arrive, they do not all fit in and many of them are killed or placed into indentured servitude after a large-scale riot breaks out.

I also give kudos to Williamson for also trying to portray the horrors of war and for not letting our heroes and Freehold itself off too lightly in the end. It is not a fairytale happy ending, Freehold's infrastructure is severely damaged and property looted by the retreating UN forces, uncounted thousands dead and many more wounded and crippled, including Marta and Rob. Kendra herself suffers rape, and she also has a difficult choice to make over whether or not to return to Earth or stay on Freehold when she's offered amnesty by the UN.

So I did enjoy the story over all, flaws not withstanding. I have read some of Williamson's other works, and note that he does make quite a few improvements on the writing style. So I salute him for taking the time to learn from this first effort, and hope to see him continue to put out more work.

As a political commentary this book is excellent. As action book it barely manages to salvage itself in the last third. As entertainment it goes back and forth. Some chapters seem endless while others just race by. The bare story line is familiar yet good. Innocent military clerk finds herself about to be made a scapegoat in a 'liberated' society that strictly punishes non-conformity. Always an obedient cog, she suddenly has to escape being caught in the works. In desperation she runs to a world which is the exact opposite of the current Earth in every way. People are expected to do for themselves, not be given everything. Government is not allowed to interfere with legitimate business, or in the lives of individuals so long as they do no harm to others. A world where personal, individual responsibility is valued over government control. And a world where people can still stop to help someone in trouble without worrying about facing a lawsuit or jail time. It takes a while but she ultimately decides she can live with the hard work in order to have real freedom. Just in time to have to fight to keep it.

So plot is interesting. Characters are fairly good too. Main character isn't a rebel or someone out to buck the system. Not even much of a hero until she has no other choice. Instead she's someone who's been on the inside of a system her whole life and always took it as a given, who must now look at it from the outside to see the flaws as well as its strengths. And to see how some flaws can twist things around until the strength become mere shells. She never 'turns against' her native society, but simply chooses another way. Yea.

Unfortunately it takes forever to get there and some of the twists and turns along the way seem pretty contrived. Not to mention a waste of time. I had no problem putting the book down at regular intervals. It could absorb my attention for a few chapters but there always came a point where you just had enough. Where it seemed to be dragging a bit or covering ground that didn't advance the story in any way. And there were more than a few areas where it seemed entirely too puerile. Specifically the sexual 'messages'. So the new world has no nudity taboo. Great. So they have no sexual hangups, fine. Not likely to happen but whatever. Does that mean you have to shove it down our throats endlessly? I found the various and occasionally explicit, sex scenes to be more than a little boring. It read too much like a poor attempt at brainwashing than any reasonable portrayal of a different society. It was just too much.

The battle scenes were another case in point. I liked that the author portrayed at least a little of the sorts of atrocities that can occur in war. And pulled no punches when it came to his 'heroes' getting almost as bad as the 'baddies' at times. He even made a point of having to deal with the guilt and other emotions afterwards. Fantastic. But after a while the battle scenes seemed a bit monotonous. Almost a case of DE-sensitizing instead of bringing awareness. With all the war vets currently having to face their demons, it's nice to encounter a story to help non-soldiers with a little insight. But when it starts to become almost trivialized by over-repetition it becomes a turn off.

Overall I enjoyed the book and thought it had a lot of thought-provoking ingredients. But editing it down by a dozen chapters or so to minimize the attempt at brainwashing would have improved it to 5-star rating. If they ever print an abridged version for a younger audience I'll buy a phyiscal book. In the meantime the electronic version is sufficient.

Freehold is one of those books that sticks with you. Long after you're done with it little snippets of detail will crop up while watching the news or scenarios creep back while in a mall. This almost new genre is taken to a whole new level in Freehold and brought closer to home and life in our modern world.

The story is of the future, of course. But it isn't the future we've all be fed in Star Trek. The UN is the be-all of military and our increasingly check-in-the-box society is rapidly reaching, or has perhaps already reached, the inevitable breaking point. Almost everything in life is designed for "fairness", which includes a military where selection is based on an endless series of exceptions. In this Earth, crimes of the most heinous sort can be considered "petty" because almost every criminal has an excuse of some sort or another and is therefore, by default, a victim too.

Basically, the Earth depicted is a chilling look into our future if we follow the natural progression we've long since begun.

Enter Kendra, our unlikely heroine and supply clerk in the UN forces. Sweet, a bit naive and certainly cute (because otherwise she couldn't be our heroine) she is the unwitting victim of a major theft ring within the UN forces by being the unfortunate who found it. Not powerful enough to be heard, she makes an excellent scapegoat. A bit of luck and uncharacteristic bravery brings her to a new planet and a new society.

***SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT***

Commonly referred to as Freehold, the system of Grainne is a system unique to the Human colonies and worlds. Staunchly refusing to be "helped" by the UN in establishing social programs and systems of taxation to support it, the entire planet is as libertarian as it gets. Kendra receives one shock to the system after another changing from hapless Earthling to Independent Freeholder. Her adventures lead to a true love of the planet, people and system and when the inevitable war happens, she shows her grit in defending her new home.

Make no mistake, it is a great story with an eerily prescient view of our society. In fact, I think he's being optimistic in thinking we'll be able to avoid that kind of Earth until after we develop interstellar capabilities. But back to the book...

As others have pointed out before, however, the book isn't without flaws or bouts of adolescent male fantasy. The fact that the people of Freehold often walk around naked may have been a way to express that freedom is really theirs and that they aren't bound by convention, it comes off a bit peeping-tom-ish. Considering that Freehold has far more intense sunlight and UV, it is completely counter-intuitive and any reasonably intelligent group of people would more than likely go the other way and develop inventive ways to cover up and stay cool.

Other flaws are the quick descent by Kendra from prudish girl from the Midwest to bisexual. Very quickly she's having threesomes with abandon as well as a very short stint as a prostitute with her prostitute girlfriend. These things don't ring true to most people. While a total libertarian myself; I understand very well that our internal character doesn't vary a great deal and you don't have to be easy to be libertarian.

The obsession with blades in an era of laser cannons and the quasi-mystical but almost planetwide reverence of slightly new age ceremony is also a bit of a problem. In a libertarian culture, it is very unlikely and if anything, you'll find as many beliefs as people in such a society.

These flaws are not at all insurmountable and don't really detract heavily from the enjoyment of the story. Other authors pepper in flaws or generalities like that all the time. The story itself is excellent and unique. And when you consider that this was a first novel that wasn't even really meant to become one, there's no question it deserves notice and respect.

If this author ever decides to do a re-write, you can bet I'll be one of the first in line for an autographed copy. On second thought, after my review of the concurrent book, The Weapon, I might not like what the author writes in any autograph for me!

I'm rounding up a fair amount here. This was at times a good read and at times a frustrating one.

In some ways, for portions of the narrative, this is a Utopian novel (despite the protagonist's declaration at one point to the contrary). Like some other Utopian novels, it indulges in long stretches of world-building and other details without much connection to the plot. I forgot to check (before I returned the book to the library) just how long the reader is immersed in Kendra Pacelli's military training before we finally return to the plot, but it might be 75 or 100 pages. Assuming that all this detail is helpful in setting up later events, the book could have gone back and forth between Kendra's training and plot-related developments elsewhere.

The book eventually becomes a rather interesting examination of war and what war does to those who fight.

I found myself caught up in this story. The characters were believable for the genre, and the story didn't bog down. There are some racy parts, but they add to the character development rather than appear just for "I need a racy section here." I finished the book in three sessions. I could have done it in two, but why disrupt my enjoyment for speed?

Not bad for a first novel. But he strains too hard. Whilst this book lacks the turgid, pompous ponderosity of Ayn Rand's tomes, you can see a pronounced preachy, didactic tone at many places. Now Steve Stirling and other authors have said that it is a common mistake by some readers to assume that a narrative viewpoint in a book is necessarily the author's personal viewpoint. So do keep that in mind.

But in this book, the depiction of the society is so utopic to some political worldviews, and takes up so much of the text, that you have to wonder if indeed it does represent the author's beliefs. Even if not, the plot is trifle more than a wrapper around these descriptions.

Some of you with a historical bent in science fiction will recognise this as the traditional criticism of science fiction. In regular fiction, the characters and the plot are primary. In SF, often it is the idea that is the real hero. The characters are really tokens shuffling across a chessboard in order to give life to the idea.

The influence of Robert Heinlein is pretty clear, even without the inclusion of a spaceship by that name in the plot. One consequence is not necessarily good to the book. By explicitly invoking Heinlein, the author can cause you to compare it against Heinlein's works, especially his best works, because isn't that how you remember most authors? That comparison of Williamson's first novel against Heinlein's finest is not really fair, but inevitable. Well, the two may have similar views, but Heinlein at his peak was a far better writer.

Speaking of which, of Heinlein's works, are we meant to compare this to "Farnham's Freehold"? Superficially, there is the similarity in titles. Dig deeper. Farnham's was a small group struggling to survive a nuclear war. Society had disappeared, and they only themselves to depend on. A graphic, very explicit novel for its time [early 60s] that, amongst other things, depicted incest and interracial sex.

The society in Williamson's Freehold follows the individualistic nature of Heinlein's. But the Heinlein book had a far stronger plot line. More taut. Yes, Williamson's book has its action sequences and characters. Both aspects are far weaker.

Williamson adds a twist. The book is not a simple rewrite of Heinlein's. He appears to be redoing the American Revolution, with this new planet's society mapping to the Americans, and the United Nations being the British. Fine. But the UN characters in the invading forces are totally cardboard oafs, whose main role seems to be clumsily stumble about the land before being killed by the brave colonists. One dimensional cartoon characters. Now, publishing constraints means that authors face practical limits as to the length of a novel. But by not fleshing out the bad guys in any depth just reduces them, and the pedagogic views they stand for, to straw dummies.

One other thing. The society depicted does not have state funded education. Families are expected to pay directly for their children's education. Now it is one thing for parents to support private education alongside an existing state education system. But consider from actual history what societies had no state education. All the preindustrial societies. But of the industrial societies, ALL have state education. If you consider countries without this, they invariably are the poorest, most wretched. Mostly in subSaharan Africa. Or Afghanistan under the Taliban. If you look at the newly industrialised countries - Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, etc, they all invest heavily in state education.

The book posits that you can have, and maintain, an industrial society, without it. And also not have pockets of poverty striken ignorance arise due to this policy. These may really be the most controversial claims in the entire book. Totally at variance with empirical observations of actual industrial development. Most other reviewers appear to have concentrated on the glitz of the plot, without thinking deeper about the implications of the declaimed construct.

For those of you who have read my other reviews you will note I am quick to criticize both writers and stories. There are a lot of valiant attempts to tell a good story and tell it well.

Freehold is one of the best books I've read in a very...very long time. It is well written, excellent choice of words and phrases. It flow well, is easy to read, engaging and paints a picture that makes the world and people real and clear.

I also appreciate the effort required to paint a world that has thrown out the many controls, welfare and other attempts by our "modern" society to take care of people. The flaws of our current system are legend and seeing a view of how it could be different if people took responsibility for themselves is refreshing.

I think this book could translate well to the screen but should be part of any PoliSci education. Heck, it should be part of any educational effort to expose people to the benefits of freedom and self reliance.

Please...please take the time not only to read the book but to share it with others.

The story of Kendra Pacelli and her friends, the Earth she knows, the true home she comes to find off world after America is no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave.

This was a very touching story that sent shivers up and down my spine with a glimpse at a possible future. A future that if you know where to look even now just might be a possibility. Earth in this future is a over crowded hell-hole unless your rich. America has bought lock, stock and barrel the ideology of the United Nations. It is no longer the home of free. It is instead corrupt, over-crowded and "freedom and justice" is available only to those who are the new rich socialists.

Our Heroine Kendra Pacelli leaves Earth for the world called Freehold. It is on Freehold she finds happiness and love and realizes all the lies that have been told over by the U.N. to the billions of humans back on earth. For on Freehold there is more than enough for everyone. Sure you have to pay or take it out in trade or work out some kind of arrangement, but if you want it you can get it, you can earn it without being filthy rich.

The truth of this story come out when the U.N. decides that Freehold needs to be under Earth's control for its "Own Good." The vastly out number Freeholders fight a Gorilla style war, while non-combatants and prisoners of war are raped, murdered and tortured by the soldiers of the U.N. In the end its only by drastic measures, the threat of extinction of all live on Earth that forces the U.N. to back down all the while spouting their sanctimonious B.S.

The author. Michael Z. Williamson, has created a story that is both fictional and prophetic and I look forward to the next book in the Freehold Universe!!!

Freehold is a book that reminded me of the worst parts of Robert Heinlein's writings. Far too many reference to naked breasts, causal sex, and way too much intoxicated drug use without much by way of negative consequences.

Negatives:
The action is very slow to come, and the villains are more stereotypical than I expected.
Characters are not well developed, especially the main character Kendra. They all just seemed one dimensional to me.
Violent, at times pretty graphic.

Positives:
Some interesting world building and social ideas.
Military skills and planning and execution were effectively written.
It is clear the author put a lot of time and thought into the work.

Overall the story just did not work for me. I kept thinking of Heinlein's "Friday" which is a book I really dislike, so that may have influenced how I felt about "Freehold." Overall I was disappointed.

My rating: C-

"Freehold" is yet another in the spate of fast-paced hard military sci-fi to come out of Baen Books in the last two decades, and is itself part of a series written by Williams.

Kendra Pacelli, a sergeant in the UNPF seeks asylum in the Freehold of Granine after being framed in an investigation of embezzled military equipment. She arrives as a refugee, and after a shaky period of cultural acclimatization, begins to find her place in this new society and build a life for herself, just as a cold war with Earth heats up into open conflict.

In this case, the Freehold of Granine is not attempting to hold itself up as a paragon of virtue, or the ultimate Utopia, they just want to be left alone to pursue their own destiny as "a nation of co-operative loners" (p. 228), which is a very apt description of life in the Freehold. Politically, economically, and socially, the Freehold is best described as 'libertarian', and very successful in all that they do, as contrasted to Earth under the totalitarian/socialistic rule of the United Nations. And that success is the one thing that Earth cannot stand in the face of its own propaganda.

The Freehold contains a minimalist government (political leadership is predicated on building wealth only to give it away), unregulated capitalism (in every sense of the word) and a live-and-let-live social structure (it is even expected that everyone and anyone will carry personal weapons about their person). The majority religious influence seems to be Goddess based, though the presence of other religions is noted from time to time. With very few laws or regulations, crime, graft and corruption are virtually nonexistent.

The one partial exception to this free-wheeling existence is the military, which still maintains a hierarchical, regimented life -though even here Kendra will find major differences in the spirit of discipline and responsibility between her birth planet and her adopted home, usually with her home coming out the worse for the comparison.

More than half of the book is devoted to Kendra's life in the military (similar to Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" and John Scalzi's "An Old Man's War"). Of a 54 chapter (plus epilogue) book, all but 14 directly connects Kendra to the military. Additionally, the major military campaign/war against the Freehold is from chapter 29 to the end.

Everything in Williamson's book (as in most offerings from the Baen pantheon) is highly realistic -almost hyper-realistic- from its description of combat, military life and training, to passages of sexual liaisons and relationships, which is the one aspect of the book which sits ill with me (the same can be said for John Ringo's "Kildar" series), and makes this an adult reading experience. The realism serves to push the story forward, and to act as an anchor for contemporary readers, but it can also push us to want to learn more about things it takes for granted (such as technology and science, economics and economic theory, even philosophy and military science). At the same time, if you don't leave the Freehold without a few criticisms of social, political or economic policy (both your own and the Freehold's), then I think you're not actively reading.

Other [the store] reviewers either hate him or love him for the implicit message about "libertaian" political economy, and like to compare Williamson's work (favorably or not) to Robert Heinlein's work. If Williamson is trying to 'shove' his political, economic and social views down our throat as at least one reviewer asserted, he is at least not the first, nor shall he be the last to do so in a a work of fiction (Upton Sinclair's "Jungle" comes to mind here) at least goes about it in an entertaining way. And at least one other reviewer hit upon a truth of science fiction: in science fiction, it is Ideas, more so than character or plot that take center stage. And quite often, in order to air out the Idea properly, you need to take it out of current context and place thus the future setting (it assists the contemporary reader to achieve the emotional detachment necessary to analyze a concept). Obviously the world wide UN government and the Freehold, for all the realistic description employed, comes off as either "too good to be true" or "too bad to be believable", but I choose to believe that this was intentional, so that we could see the outcome of the competing ideas in action. Sometimes though, a story is just a story.

This will not be (nor was it) the last book by Williamson I will read, even if parts of it leave me a little squeamish.

Freehold is part action adventure and part utopian science fiction. The author executes both of these aspects well while also developing characters that, while maybe not the most fleshed-out in science fiction, are believable and likeable.

The action aspects of the novel were highly enjoyable and, as far as I could tell, quite realistic. For me though, the best part of the book was the author's extrapolation of libertarian principles into a fully functional futuristic society. Whether or not you agree with libertarianism, the author's realization of a libertarian society is done so well that most readers should enjoy sitting back and watching all of its parts interact.

The one minor issue I had with the book was the sex that occurred somewhat more frequently than plot progression or societal description required and read as fairly one-dimensional. Overall though, the book was an excellent debut novel on Williamson's part that should particularly please fans of more seasoned Baen Books writers like John Ringo.

This was a fantastic, fun read. While it makes a statement, it doesn't beat you over the head with the author's politics--just the characters' views, which vary. Part thriller, part dystopian, part military sci-fi, it's a fantastic start to a promising series.

Ignore the back cover, it is a misinterpretation of the actual contents in some aspects. This is a great read and one that many Heinlein readers would be able to equate to.
The world Freehold represents what many libertarians would call home in my opinion. The author does a fine job in describing it in sublte ways and with enough space between descriptions to not drive off hardcore conservatives and Liberals.
I highly recommend this book to help illustrate what a Free Market world could be, if only enough people would realize the need to let government go.

Freehold is good, very good. It is a very long book in both ideas and story. It kept my interest and has numerous good scenes. Many are a great deal of fun and many I deeply appreciate. An important scene and one I appreciate is the Freehold military funeral scene. It sets the stage for the military battle scenes later in the book. It's important to me because every generation of my family has served in the military and it's traditions are important to me.

In many lucid and well written steps you are brought through a very alien culture with Kendra as your measure. Kendra is very much a future character, beholding to a corrupt and stifling world government. Both are a strong contrast to the responsible and liberty minded Freeholders and their government. I liked this contrast of differing world views. I find earths government stifling and Freeholds appealing.

The scenes where Kendra flees her home from wrongful prosecution at the hands of the world wide UN government kept me interested throughout. I felt that she was competent and capable when she chose Freehold as the only planet that will not extradite her. From the moment she lands at Freehold she is battered by a kaleidescope of strange local practices. I throughly enjoy the contrasts between her upbringing under what amounts to a totalitarian dictatorship and her experiences with the Freeholders free wheeling capitalists. Be warned that Kendra is human and Freehold has few sexual taboos nor restrictions on what consenting adults do.

Kendra has no good marketable skills and finally turns to the familiar and joins the the Freehold military and finds out they do things harder and tougher with no allowance for female frailty. She becomes proficient and becomes more settled into her new life.

No totalitarian regime can long suffer an independent thorn in it's side it thinks is weaker. The UN attacks Freehold by using an elaborate ruse to garner public support for it. The battle scenes in this book had me glued to the book. The scenes are very realistic to me and like war, there are many brutal scenes and atrocities are committed.

Freehold is an extraordinary first novel and I look forward to this authors future work.

Others have detailed the plot, so I will just say that I became enthralled with the characters and the plot.
The reader gets inside the characters and makes them totally believable. You see how horrible war can be from the level of the individual soldier with no excessive gore(there is plenty) or histrionics.
You also see the hard decisions and what it costs the people who have to make them. This is seen from the side of the residents of the Freehold, with only a little devoted to the UN side, but our POV is the Freeholders'.
There is also a wrenching description of the damage war does to those who fight it, and what it costs.
The book is reminiscent of Heinlein at his best. The Freehold also reminds me of L. Neil Smith's North American Confereracy stories, but done right, with no extraneous lecturing. Infodumps are subtle and fold well into the story.
I believe that, in a few years, Michael Z Williamson will be one of the leading writers of this generation.

I read Michael Z. Williamson's The Weapon before I read Freehold. Both take place in the same time and world with some of the same characters but Freehold was published before The Weapon. The Weapon isn't what I'd consider a direct sequel so reading the newer novel first didn't ruin reading Freehold for me. Both these novels are incredible and I haven't enjoyed any sci-fi novels this much in the last 10 years. This guy writes sci-fi like the masters I grew up reading and devouring every new novel they'd come out with. The likes of Heinlien, Asimov and Clarke with a kind of edge reminiscent of Harlan Ellison. I just got his newest novel, Better to Beg Forgiveness which just came out in hardcover and I'm psyched up now. Can't recommend these books highly enough. If you liked Starship Troopers by Heinlien or The Forever War by Haldeman then you'll love Freehold and The Weapon.

First off I found out about this book while I was going home on emergency leave from an Army acquaintance in the same situation. I managed to read enough to get interested to buy as soon as I got back home. I was fascinated by the story.

///Possible spoilers below\\\

Even I noticed that things were going a little too perfect for Ms. Pacelli from the very start of the book (lucky streak of a lifetime?) but I can appreciate how it was set up that way. The nudity, carefree sex, utopian lifestyle and the very neighborly cooperation of Freehold society did seem a little over the top but that brought more drama to the story when Freehold was invaded and Kendra's world was shattered/destroyed. I've never really been squeamish about rape and torture in movies or books but as the story goes on I really did not want that to happen to any of the main characters. The worst part for me was with Kendra. Despite all the hints in the book that it was going to happen to her I was hoping it wouldn't happen as the story went on. After the major battle that defeated the UN's Command and Control I felt relief at the possibility that it might not happen after all. Then I read the "Delph" chapter and I could feel the blood drain from my face and my stomach go nauseous. I can't remember the last book that had me that emotional. I guess its because I really liked this woman, as well as the other characters, and it was unfair what they did to Kendra (even if she did take it easier than Marta). Marta, Rob, all the citizens of Freehold, what had happened to them really hit me hard. So in that aspect I can appreciate that the Freehold society seemed like a Utopia. One part I disliked about the book was the ending didn't seem to do justice to the story. I wanted to see Earth get far worse than what it received, I wanted to see Kendra, Marta and Rob get back to the way things were and I wanted to see Freehold rebuilt. I guess I wanted a happier ending than what I got, but thats drama for you.

Nevertheless I enjoyed reading about a Libertarian utopia, enjoyed the characters, the lives they led and the conflict between two political enemies.
All in all this book kept me entertained from leaving the sandbox, time home, going back to the sandbox and just yesterday finishing the book in the sandbox. It was more than worth the ten dollars I spent purchasing.

I read lots of books and remember few of them. Freehold is a book I have thought about nearly every day over the past two years. Michael Williamson shows us a society that has not traded their liberty for a little security and the promises of politicians.

The book blew me away, not the plot or action - which wasn't bad, but for the vision. It also shamed me. I swore to protect and uphold the Constitution when I enlisted, and I failed. We really aren't free people any longer. I would pack up the family and head for Freehold tomorrow if I could.

For me, this is a uniquely different direction for sci-fi novels: the libertarian universe. I've been a hard core scifi fan for most of my life, and I really enjoyed that the author took the universe of scifi in a totally new direction, with a compelling culture, and characters. I've now read "The Weapon" by the same author, and am really impressed by his works. Regardless of how you feel about the politics, you will enjoy this book. Its very much like Heinlein, or even Asimov. Excellent political and military scifi at its very best.

This book kept me reading late into the night, till my eyes wouldn't focus anymore.
It is, for one, a great first contact novel: the main character leaves Earth for elsewhere and finds her new home to be strange and oft disagreable. Just as she assimilates, her former home world attacks and she has to fight against former compatriots.
Secondly, it is an excellent companion to such books as "Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and "Alongside Night" in its detailed rendering of the economic realities of life. It shows the advantages as well as the warts of societies more free than our own.
Thirdly, it is splendid military fiction, written by an author who understands war and insurgencies. Both tactical and strategic aspects of future war are shown in gripping, realistic detail. Moreover, the heroes of this tale are complex, imperfect and very scary people. Williamson manages to deal in moral absolutes and shades of evil concurrently.
Lastly, it is one of the few books which puts human sexuality into a science fiction plot as an intergral, subtly-written aspect of the character development. "Freehold" reminds me of the book "Charlotte Grey" in its warm but uncompromising portrayal of veterans as a social group.
Highly recommended.

I looked forward to reading a novel with good military themes, and good atmospherics on what is wrong with the country today, and what is right with what our founding fathers wanted to build. This novel covers both areas excellently, and is very readable, and kept me glued to the story from start to finish(resulting in lost sleep each evening.)

I would recommend Michael Z. Williamson's Freehold, and follow-on works unreservedly.

If you like Heinlein you'll like this. Think a combination of Starship Troopers and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.
The heroine, Kendra, is framed by her crooked superiors in the UN (Earth) military. Due to a warning from a friend she is able to escape to an independant planet and former colony called the Freehold of Grainne which is a libertarian planet. The first half of the book deals with how Kendra adapts to life in such a different environment. The second deals with how the UN attempts to conquer the planet and how the Freeholders fight back. Needless to say Kendra is in the thick of the action!
All in all this is a book that appeals on many levels as it has believable characters, a gripping story and a well constructed underlying philosphy.

This book is all about a libertarian paradise called Freehold that gets invaded by a welfare-state Earth government. It's great because the author seems to know all about everything, you can tell he's really done his research on stuff like future economics and military combat, either that or maybe he's a veteran.
Good action scenes and some really good sex too, but it's a bit explicit, not porn or anything of course. I liked them myself. And it's realistic, I mean he's described interplanetary jet lag like it probably is, as well as culture shock and everything. Overall a [good] book

I love Heinlein and the other libertarian futurist writers that paved the way for attempting to describe what a real libertarian society would be like...but I've found them a bit on the "egg-head" libertarian side. I also love Boston T Party (Molon Labe) and Vin Suprynowitz (Black Arrow) with their hard core libertarian views, but (although bloody excellent first novels for both) they were a bit on the simplistically brutal side. Williamson combines all of this, includes excellent mililary, battle and action, and combines it all with the writing of an accomplished novelist. I think this is the best new sci fi novel that I've ever read. This is a burgeoning new genre. And Williamson is leading the pack.

Williamson is the kind of writer that I wish there were more of. He was able to write a story that was so well paced and so immersive that I was literally unable to put the book down until I had finished the last page.

Like all of the best science fiction novels, it's not a story about battles and technology, it's a story about a slice of the human condition WITH battles and technology. If you read a book for the setting and characters, he is able to immerse you in the setting and make the characters engaging as well as anyone out there. If you like battles, realistic combat and tactics, and acts of heroism.... well, I honestly think Williamson does that better than just about anyone.

Freehold is easily one of the best science fiction books I've ever read and I'm looking forward to everything else he gives us.

667 pages. Feels like 150. This is a *good* book. Reasonably interesting plot, nice depiction of a libertarian society that is, however, a little *too* perfect. Realistically flawed in some areas - there are still jerks here and there, and corporations can be dishonest - but still, the streetgangs in Freehold don't write graffiti and mug people, they take care of the local park and help lost children find their parents.
That that's the worst flaw I've found in Freehold, says something. The book's well done; realistic, some excellent ground combat, and Williamson clearly knows what the hell he's talking about in everything from economics through war and diplomacy. Writing style is crisp, using less words rather than more - something I like - and intelligent.
A very, very impressive first novel. I'm looking forwards to more from this guy.

Freehold is Michael Z. Williamson's first novel. If he can keep the same level of quality through all his work, he should have quite a career ahead of him. If he actually manages to improve, he has the potential to become one of the really big guns.
Now, on to the specifics of the novel. Freehold centers around a woman named Kendra. At the beginning of the story, she's a supply sergeant in the UN military (the year is roughly 25XX. We're never given the specific date). When a friend warns her she's about to be arrested for selling military equipment out the back of the supply shed during her last mission (a crime she documented, not committed), she makes a run for the Freehold of Grainne, the one place in the known galaxy where the local government won't turn her over to the UN.
Of course, there's a catch. On Grainne, the idea of Welfare and government charity runs contrary to the very nature of the society. Grainne also has the highest standard of living of any human planet. In short, the UN welfare state doesn't dare allow the Grainne to go on existing, because it throws a bright light on all that's wrong with the UN's socialist nanny state.
In other words, Kendra has run to the only place she could possibly hide, just in time for it to turn into a war zone.
Of course, the idea of the failing socialist state attacking the smaller but far more successful capitalist state has been done before in science fiction. It's one of the central themes of David Weber's wonderful Honor Harrington series.
What makes Freehold different is how the story focuses on Kendra. Weber's Harrington novels, which have a similar political theme are high space opera. This is not. This is the story of one woman, torn from her home, exiled in a foreign land, forced to make a life there and eventually to defend her new home against her old.
Williamson does a brilliant job making you feel the story. Everything from her initial sense of panic when she learns she must run, to her sense of displacement every time the realities of her new society throw her a curve, to the horrors of a war that brings home the old proverb "War does not determine who is right, but who is left.".
But as much as I enjoyed the social and political aspects of the novel, what really made this story for me was Kendra's personal life. A story arc that puts me very much in mind of some of Robert A. Heinlein's best work. This, in my opinion, is where an otherwise excellent novel is elevated to the level of masterpiece.
While I've already compaired Williamson to Weber and Heinlein, I think there is one other comparison to make. Williamson's handling of the soldier's perspective remind me of another of my favorite authors. John Ringo. In fact, my initial impression of the novel was that it read very much like what I imagine a collaboration between Heinlein and Ringo would be like.
In the time since I've read it, that impression hasn't faded one bit.

When I first finished this book, my first reaction was, "When can I move?" It was only a few minutes later that I realized that Freehold existed only in the wildly creative mind of Michael Z. Williamson. I also realized that Mr. Williamson had just given me a glimpse into the future - where we, as a human society are headed, and where I wish we would end up.
Kendra Pacelli escapes from a human hell -- the kind of Earth most dread, but know deep inside that we could become if we continue on our present course. Human beings are controlled by government, by force, tracked, licensed and regulated. The United Nations, corrupt and power-hungry, governs earth with a socialist iron fist. Framed for a crime she didn't commit, Kendra escapes to the Freehold of Grainne - a society of a truly free people that refuses to become part of the UN's domination plans.
In her new home, Kendra learns what it's like to be truly human - to live, love, work, deserve, achieve and succeed without a power-hungry government controlling her every move. She learns that to be a wholly human means relying on oneself, taking responsibility for one's own actions and reaping the consequences. She realizes that true freedom is not easy, but worth defending.
As is typical of tyrannies, the UN cannot afford for the Freehold to exist. It cannot afford to allow its enslaved sheep to realize just how subjugated they are. The UN cannot tolerate the existence of a free, uninhibited society, so it attempts to destroy Freehold and the beneficial, successful society its inhabitants treasure.
It is during this war that Kendra learns how much she treasures freedom and what she will sacrifice to preserve it.
This book is an excellent read. It's a page-turner from beginning to end.
Freehold is a society of free human beings - a society I, personally, want to inhabit.

I really liked this book. Kendra was a great MC. It had outstanding battle scenes and the military training was interesting. I would also like to know more about the government of Freehold and just how it came about.

Freehold, The Word Raises the Hair on the back of my neck.
Michael Z. Williamson has written one of the finest calls to action that I have yet read. Packaged as a one sitting Science Fiction Thriller Mike has crafted a full explanation of a future we can embrace preventing that First Premise his book starts from, U.N. Control of our Future. A must read for all interested in Mankind's future both here on Earth and out in the Deep Black of interstellar space. Freehold is a great story of Deception overthrown by Guts and Ingenuity. Solidly Developed Characters drew this reader into the action; his great ideas kept this reader into the action till the last words, or were they the last words. I believe that this is the first of many From Mike which future generations will Honor as the cutting edge of Literature.
Added 28, Dec 2003 3:54 AM
Copy of Personal Message to the Author
Finished Reading Published version of "Freehold" in just under 36 hours by the clock. I Estimate I spent around 20 hrs actually reading in a high Distraction environment. I Had both Physical and Emotional impacts in the last third. Masterful work by any literary Standard.

All in All a truly Great book. One which will rank you with the Masters of the Past in years to come. The Frank level of exploration of Sexual and Moral issues puts you ahead of most current writers. I have enjoyed all three readings through the different variants and look forward to your future efforts.
Joseph A. Merrill III
Sarge the Poet
SFC USAR (ret)

Although the author has said he does not consider Freehold to be a Utopian novel, I must respectfully disagree. The author paints his libertarian society in unrealistically complimentary terms without seriously exploring its dark side. For instance:

* As another reviewer pointed out, one street gang (complete with red bandannas and canine teeth) control an eight block area, but rather than fighting over turf, they see it as their job to make it "the safest, cleanest urban environment in the system." The disconnect between aggressive, rebellious styling (canine teeth) and civic pride is never explored. I suppose if they had been dressed like boy scouts the author's scenario would have been less radical.

* Another example is a throwaway comment from the author that "bullies were rare and the older kids would stop the few there were." The reader never gets an explanation for how human nature has been so effectively subverted.

* One last example is that at one point the main character helps someone out in an emergency. The next morning she receives an unasked for check from the insurance company of the person she helped, covering much more than the cost of her damaged clothes. In what world other than a Utopia does an insurance company pay out money the very next morning, without being asked, and for more than they had to?

Those are just a few of the more blatant examples, but the book is full of situations in which the libertarian society works implausibly well or without sufficient explanation.

The author also fails to capitalize on opportunities to make his society more realistic by showing the disaffected. For instance, at one point the main character is working with prisoners cleaning up a park. That would have been a fantastic opportunity to introduce someone who could serve as a window into the society's seedy underbelly. Letting the reader see that not everyone is well-served by the society (even if only a small minority) would make the whole thing more believable.

All that said, the book is not badly written and when I wasn't throwing my hands up in frustration I enjoyed it. Those willing to overlook (or push through) the Utopian styling will find a solid and enjoyable book.

OK I can see the comparison to Heinlein. I'm currently reading (for the umpteenth time) "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (ISBN: 0312863551). Both societies are very "don't tread on my toes and I won't tread on yours". Nice idea and sounds like it might be a nice place to live. Would a system like that work in real life? I doubt it. How would you go about converting the USA to something like that? Some of the founders wanted it to be more like that and some people still think it should be, but the problem is that we got top heavy with government. Oh well, enough soap box. Great book Mike, keep it up!

Heard about this from some Libertarian source, I think, maybe -- and since I'd read (and totally absorbed) Atlas Shrugged, Orwell's works and some other stuff, why not....?
Started like a good yarn -- a fun read. Some reviewer said that some uptight Christians might not like it because there's some fun sex included (isn't it funny -- they talk about "Sex and Violence" but never seem concerned about the violence, of which there's plenty!! I find that somewhat amusing. Pathetic too).
The Libertarian message was obvious 'most everywhere, and that suits an independent Independent like me splendidly, but somewhere around page 335 it gets strong. Mighty strong! Strong enough that I wanted to depart for a planet 34+ light years away and enlist in Freehold's armed forces and way-of-life ----- Marxist socialism and creeping/future fascism under the guise of Political Correctness is NOT for me.
Finally, for this review, let me say that I HAVE NOT FINISHED THE BOOK, yet, but felt strongly enough about it to suggest it highly... IF you're not of the Obama/union/ACORN or welfare-state ilk (love that word).
Think I'm kidding? The way things are going, we might move to Brazil or Costa Rica to escape the threats that are flushing our once-great country right down the crapper.
Now, if you'll pardon me, I have another 285 or so pages to read....

Buy this book if you like Military fiction or Libertarian philosophy, worked out in an unflinching and sometimes blunt way.
It's an excellent tract on Libertarianism carried out to a logical extreme, and a **** RIPPING GOOD ADVENTURE/WAR YARN ****. The infantry fighting and guerrilla warfare are just as credible as anything I've ever heard from a Viet-vet or any other military people who've ever described fighting in my hearing. The desperation and fear and occasional sense of unreality are all immediate, full-color, up close and personal, brutally direct.
The pre-war sequences are pleasantly entertaining, with a bit of set-piece background thrown in to educate the reader about the realities of life in a genuinely Libertarian society, as the author conceives them. In this, too, Mike reminds me of Heinlein -- just enough background to provide color for the piece, not enough to overwhelm or even seriously impede the plot. He has a good touch for this.
I had trouble in one or two places sympathizing with protagonist Kendra -- I couldn't get a read on what she was _feeling_ as she had certain _thoughts_ -- but the rest of the time she was completely real. That needs more consistency, but it's still better than three-quarters of the stuff I read.
I think this is a good first work, and in fact the rigorous working-out of the effects of theories does remind me quite a bit of early Heinlein (sorry, Mike). It hangs together nicely, and all the major plot threads are tied off in believable ways. It's not for the under-13 crowd, as it handles adult subjects in adult ways, without flinching or Bowdlerizing; both sex and violence are dealt with in the book, in ways that seem integral to the plot.
The thing that I find most likable about the book is that neither the hero nor any of her comrades are glamorized. The only thing I found even slightly unrealistic about the plot was the survival of all three members of the central trio throughout the war ... I guess someone hinted to Mike that you can't kill off major characters in mass-market any more, if indeed you ever could. I've also got some issues with his concept of how such a political system would work, but my point here is that his _people_ are believable as actors within the system.
I recommend it if you're tired of reading books of Glorious War, and if believable people are more important to you than sweetness-and-light characterization. It's a good book, and I look for more from this writer.
--Phil

I read this book in 24 hours. I want to live in Freehold ! Freehold is what the USA was intended to be, a libertarian society. The fact that the older society that spawned the new society in is in decline is a typical fact. The older society attacking the new society is also a typical fact.

The characters are well developed and the book is great !

I have to admire the authors style, he has a very fluid, easy going writing style that draws you in.
This is, for all intents and purposes, a light, enjoyable, good time of a story, that will keep up late at night.
Michael Z Williamson is obviously a Heinlein fan. I recognized a similarity in style by chapter 2, and there are several references to the man throughout the story. So if you've ever enjoyed Heinlein give freehold a chance.
The only drawback of the story is that he has obviously given this society such much thought that he can't stop talking about it.
Michael, if your reading this, sometimes its alright not to explain why things are. :)
I would, and am, recommending this to all my friends.

Mike Williamson does war and politics. Moreover, he does them well.
FREEHOLD is fast-paced, with details of politics, everyday interactions and combat that read well. The combat scenes are fast, with the attention to small details that makes them realistic. The politics are idealistic, as are the politics of most novels. Mr. Williamson's grasp of political treachery is good. His villians are villians, heroes are heroes, soldiers are soldiers - on both sides.
In summation, if you like fast-paced novels of war and political betrayal, you'll love this one.

the book grabs your interest from the first pages, the details of the planets, and environments,physical, political and technical are all very very well thought out! Of course the Characters are very important, they are rich and full and you actually care if they live or die! the story gets intense and combat is something realistic compared to so much out there! I would recommend it highly!

A glance at Williamson's site shows him to be a veteran, an immigrant and a classical-liberal leaning libertarian. This unique combination of ideals tempered with practicality gives him the viewpoint to create one of the more interesting SF societies depicted. I expected a libertarian pseudo-utopia in Freehold. I didn't get one.
We feel the understandable fear and culture shock as Kendra Pacelli, our viewpoint character, goes through as she adapts from what is a gritty, frightening concept of a global (and more) fascism (not "socialism" as some reviewers suggest) to a highly constitutional, very limited republic with low taxes and ultimate respect for the individual. But is this entirely for the good? One of the first characters she meets attempts to subvert her into prostitution. While cliche, this is a common enough occurrence historically to justify it. There are some very self-centered people in this society. Think of Gold Rush California and the Irish and Chinese immigrants for a taste of what we have here.
In sub-plots, we have a well-thought out study of how such a society would handle an Enron-type debacle. Williamson is obviously a student of Roepke and the other Austrian School economists, and offers an improbable but still thought-provoking concept of economic-based punishment and compensation.
There's a technological but still dirty war, not for superiority of culture, but simply for survival. Williamson maintains a focus on the character, with the society and warfare platforms from which to study the human experience. Nevertheless, it seems somewhat lacking in technological development for its claimed timeframe 500 years in the future. The human development is pretty good. The SFnal elements are so-so.
Pacelli is a highly intelligent character, groping at self-identification through inadequate preparation. In this, the story should appeal to younger women culturally held back behind their innate capabilities. The romance and sex are fairly simplistic, but he does maintain reader interest. I would have liked to have seen more development in this area, but the book already is substantial. He spends more time on the question of how one adapts from a society much like that Orwell envisioned and Hitler created as a black comedy, to one that combines socio-political elements of feudal Japan and the Icelandic Republic? Casual nudity and prostitution, religious freedom, an over-riding sense of honor and a thirst for property and status? An unlikely blending of honor cultures, it's nevertheless quite readable. Though he covers it enough the society becomes a character itself. This is not always a bad thing, and this is his first novel.
Hopefully, he will grow through this stage and learn to focus on one or the other.
The Earth described is fascistic, but it's almost a parody. There certainly are societies that despotic. I can't believe one would have any durability, given the access to space and other systems in this universe. The Freehold is the first breakaway state, and I have a hard time with that. It may be a literary device, but it's a contrived one, really. It's good for juxtaposition, but it is overdone. There's not a lot of subtlety here. That is true throughout. Lots of elements are crammed in and it's too clever in spots. In that way, you can tell this is a first novel.
At least the ending isn't "happily ever after." We learn things about the heroes that show them to be flawed, vicious, vengeful people when hurt. Individualism does create a hostile and sometimes malicious attitude toward more group-oriented societies. Warm amongst themselves, elitist and brutal to outsiders. Many Libertarians will not like the revelation of a
certain level of selfishness that inevitably transfers from the body-politic to the individual. But Williamson is honest enough to admit it. His overall tone is still too optimistic for my taste, but fiction does have to entertain, not depress. There's ways to do this, too. Hopefully, he'll develop.
This book is at once pleasing, disturbing and visceral, optimistic and depressing. There's something to offend everyone, and that may be a deliberate dig. Williamson's elitism may be personal, or it may be a literary device. I couldn't tell, which is a positive sign. The concept is good, the writing is excellent. The storytelling can lag at times. But if he improves, he'll be well worth the reading in future.

Earth native Kendra Pacelli has fled to the planet of Freehold to escape a frameup for embezzelment from the military. She builds a new life which is threatened when Earth invades, and must fight back to save her new home from destruction
If ever a debut novel needed anothe rewrite and 150 pages of editing, it was this one. Williamson spends too much time discovering the culture by writing about, wasting time that doesn't advance the plot. The early chapters have an indistinct voice that does refine as Williamson writes but that clashes with the overall cohesiveness of the book. Secondary characters change implausibly. Rob, for example, starts as landlord-cultural-narrator-lover then suddenly becomes the cocky hot pilot, with no hints of the pilot-characterization when the character is in the earlier role. In fact, the entire book switches from an immigrant discovery story to a military SF story, with few hints of the second them to tie it to the first theme.
Freehold and Williamson show great promise, but the book would have been far better with stronger editorial guidance that made him decide what story he wanted to write. The structure of the plot is weak because he tries to tell two stories in continuum without appropriate details, foreshadowing or build up. The book is worth some time, but if you are a demanding reader, be prepared for some frustration.

The novel is a fast pace, exciting, vivid account of the last enclave of freedom in the human universe and their struggle against the communo-socialist power brokers who seek to enslave them. The main character around which the story swirls, Kendra, is a female from earth who flees to Grainne (the Freehold) to escape a plot to scapegoat her in a typical military/corporate scandal. She is shocked at the unbridled freedom she enounters in her new home but slowly adjusts to her new found liberty. In the end does our hero go back to Earth and slavery or stay on Grainne and remain free? Does the Freehold remain free or do the forces of tyranny prevail? You'll have to find out for yourself in this page turner! I couldn't put it down.

I finally read Mad Mike's first book. While it was a bit longer than needed for the story, it was well written and has a theme that deserves a lot of thought. Regardless of the setting, I believe the story revolves around a few choices that Kendra makes.

Would you drop bombs on civilian population centers? Would you be a sniper? Would you plant roadside bombs, torture prisoners, or switch loyalties?

Kendra makes a lot of tough choices and lives with the consequences. I understand that our military servicemen do the same, but what I found disturbing was the similarities in her actions to those of Iraqi insurgents. Reading a book where the "hero" does many things that our troops face in Iraq is not pleasant. Maybe that's a good thing.

For me, Kendra loses sight of proportionality. She sacrifices family, suffers personal hardship, and commits war crimes. All of that for either a libertarian ideal (which she is ambivalent about) or a sentimental attachment for serving in any military.

I recommend reading the book, but don't assume you will root for the "good guys".

Freehold drags on for way too long in the middle with the protagonist's exploration of the society and culture of the world she finds herself in. Overall I found the world of Freehold to be interesting, but would have preferred a little less time spent on social exploration and gratuitous sex scenes and more time spent on fleshing out the structures of the planetary government and economy.

The utter bias towards Libertarianism is also a detractor, this coming from a libertarian. Freehold is far too utopian and Earth is merely a straw man of authoritarianism. Even if I agree with the basic premise, I believe Williamson could have sold his ideology better by actually examining the pros and cons of each governmental system rather than just portray one as good and the other a bad.

Wow!
Not only is this book one of the BEST first novels I have ever read, it is also has a nice heft to it. Hours and Hours of reading awaits even the speedreader out there, as this book could realistically been released as two separate novels. Fast paced action from page 1 that drags you in, and refuses to let you go.

God where to start.
The book was a real eyeopener about the way tings could go. I liked the comment about what a One World Government could led us towards.
Politics aside. Deatils of the training was very good. The combat also was a part that made sense. The fact that the reader might not totally understand anger one character has towards another is explained as it would be in the real world.

Freehold was a great read, crossing new boundaries in science fiction. Because of the length at 660 pages, I almost put the book back on the store shelve... The book came highly recommended, so decide to give it go. From start to finish it was well worth the read. Glad I didn't put it back on the shelve...

Up there with Heinlein, Niven et al. Can't say enough good things about this book, exciting, tense, action packed and good alround fun. I have bought all his books on the strength of this one. Best scfi for years.

This novel reads like a mashup of Heinlein's worst works, with a bit too much anti-government propaganda thrown in.

Don't get me wrong, I love Heinlein -- but the Earth Kendra comes from is too much like a futuristic China than anything I recognize about the United States.
Seriously, I know people complain about lowered educational standards, but do you honestly think any self-described 'political scientist' would not know what the term "empirical data" means?

Overall, the book could use a good editor. And really, just eliminate the scenes about gardening.

I was pulled in and anxious to turn every page. The writer has a knack for putting you there. The buzzkill was into the book the writer went way off topic into threesomes and sexual situations. I have no problem if that's what a person wants to read God bless America, but to suddenly put it into a plot that has nothing to do with the story just.........it's a buzzkill.

Oh God, where to start? This book is a train wreck of all the worst possible cliches and strawman arguments for libertarianism thrown into a truly horrific war setting where the 'good guys' end up being genocide-inducing terrorists. Do you like books where your main characters murder innocent people? And not just a few, do you want them to wantonly lay waste to cities containing literally billions of non-combatants? Do you like your bad guys' sole characteristics to be their hatred of freedom and their never-ending hunger to rape? Do you want your main character to literally get off on beheading captured POWs? If the answer to any of these questions is 'Yes', then I feel bad for you because you're probably a terrible person...but this would be the book for you.

The story was easy to read. It was well proofread. That is all that I liked about it. I don't like political propaganda and I don't believe that the Heinlein style free love is viable. I lived through the 1970,s and I saw what free love did to family life. It wasn't pretty.

Save your life span, do not read this book. He can write well, about absolutely nothing. Nothing happens in this recycled Heinlienfest. If the author has not read the "Probability Broach" by L. Neil Smith they should. They will realize that they are simply recycling, and poorly. And the lovefests are juvenile and dumb. Get a plot. Get a REAL antagonist. Oh really the placement guy ? Read the 1st 1/3, skimmed up to the 50 % mark, and then I ditched this boring train wreck. I give Probability Broach 4 stars though.

The premise for the books is super interesting, but there is just way too much sex and emphasis on that aspect of society for my taste. The world building is good and the idea for the story would have been fine, but I was totally turned off by the sexuality exploration.

The book is an easy read, but not great. If you liked the movie Red Dawn, you'd like this book. The good guys are good, the bad guys are incompetent and bad. There is very little character development despite the length of the book, mostly its just action, unrealistic action, but action. The good guys can stand in the middle of nuclear blast and come out with a flesh wound, the good guys can hit the enemy by firing into the air. I'll finish the book, but most likely won't read others by the same author.
Nope, couldn't finish the book. I try and keep an open mind about points of view while reading, but I just can't swallow the politics in this one. The author has a libertarian point of view and just can't see around it. All liberals are set up as straw men and knocked down. He just can't and won't ask any hard questions of his libertarian leanings. Such as what happens to the misfits that came with the native population of the planet (there ain't any). Everything goes the way of the heroes and what doesn't is overcome by their ingenuity (read the author wants it to work so it does). Can't finish. Won't read anymore of these or John Ringo, who pretty much does the same thing. Read these if you're a libertarian and don't want your point of view questioned.

I'm really glad I didn't pay for this book! It is poorly written and poorly conceived and filled with ideas that could best be described as mildly retarded with touches of insanity. Libertarian, borderline anarchic, capitalist anarchic society with no tax base with super competent highly disciplined military that is well equipped with all sorts of high end weaponry...to quote Dr. Evil, RRRRRIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHTTTTTT!!!!!!!

In many ways this is a good SF story with a libertarian utopian society. The author pokes fun at himself and the utopia when one character says it is not a utopia, there are man-eating animals way out in the woods. OK, so it is not a utopia. And the utopia is more of a sexual fantasy than a political ideal. Some of the politics of the tiny "government" are not clear; there seems to be some sort of democratic influence on the placement of roads. There seem to be some good libertarian ideas and some good commentary on priorities, but most of that is lost in the noise. Eventually I realized this book was more libertine than libertarian, more about license than liberty; I stopped at a little past a third in and put the book down.

You should note that this review is written by somebody who did not read to the end and so did not see any redeeming features near the end. Completely unfair, I know. The tiny gems I did see did not tip the scale enough to get out of one star.

If you can stand reading about a planet with no laws, this book may deserve to be finished. I couldn't.
Earth is hell because it has laws and bureaucracy.
This planet is Eden because it doesn't.
C'mon, really?
And every adult carries, even they don't have any idea of how to use them, let alone knowledge of what said weapon's effect would be on another human being.
I could not get past 12%. It MIGHT have a good storyline, but I could not stomach the author's"hidden" agenda.

A libertarian gun-nut dream land where law and order are apparently the norm in a society without want, which it contrasts to the evil successor of our current society. Tries to make political statements in the mode of Heinlein but fails in its absurd portrayal as the UN and government as the sole source of all evil; at least Heinlein had empirical evidence for his theories on the faults in certain societies. Like Heinlein, the author uses his work to exercise his sexual fantasies in ways that really do not forward the plot -- almost as if it was written by HBO.

Military action is spotty and unrealistic. Characters are shallow.

He very bravely attempts (without success) to explain the psychological trauma of gang rape which falls flat and contrived.

I only bothered to finish the book because of my OCD and so that I could comfortably deride this novel (in case it somehow improved).

Just to let you know, I stopped reading half way through the novel for two reasons: nothing really important happens to the character except in the first chapter and the author does a lot of political posturing about what a perfect, pure Libertarian world would look like and no time explaining how it would work.

The cover is misleading. This is not an action-packed novel. Most of the first half of the novel is spent with Polly Perfect (Pacelli, the main character) and her near perfect experiences in a near perfect Libertarian paradise. All this is done from a horny, straight male perspective even when he's writing from Pacelli's perspective. The two woman aren't involved because they are attracted to each other, but because they are both involved with the same man and want to remain involved with him. It is very male oriented sex, even when the two women are alone together. I'm not against sex at all in any form as long as it's between consenting adults. But the sexual dynamics of the novel's triple relationship leans really hard towards the male ideal of having a sexual relationship with two women. Where two men are involved in a group dynamic sexual experience, they aren't even mentioned together in the same sentence let alone as touching each other once. Furthermore, prostitution is legal and an honorable profession. AWESOME! I say. However, the writer never goes into the reasons why a woman would chose this profession and why another woman would find it unappealing. He only assumes that the person from prudish Earth would not like it because she's been trained it is dirty and the woman from the open society of Freehold would be fine with it because she's from Freehold. The end. With all the words he spends describing the world, he would have done a much better service to his readers if he'd have done some work on making his characters a little more believable.

Conservatives would balk at the over abundance of sexual freedom and drug use. Liberals, like myself, will be confused as to how the Libertarian utopia could actually work what with human nature being the way it is and all. I really tried to like this book. The world was interesting to visit, but I couldn't get beyond the inexplicable success of the society. The plot of the book hinges on the reader buying into the Libertarian ideal society working but assumes the buy-in without any logical explanations.

And as I said the book is slow and not remotely action packed, at least through the first half. Pacelli's military training takes way too many chapters. And that wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't just describing Pacelli's successes and mini-trials. Nothing interesting happens to this woman at all. Maybe once the war with Earth starts the trauma will begin. But I didn't get past the Libertarian rant by a Freehold general. I didn't buy it and I just couldn't care about the characters anymore. This wasn't even a good social commentary. This book is what my writing professors warned us NOT to write: Polly Perfect.

The only political idea in this book I could buy is the path to Citizenship. In order to be a leader, you have to be willing to gain a lot of wealth and then give it up to serve. That, I could get on board with wholeheartedly. The only trouble with his idea is that there is no way I can see it ever happening because the people who could make this rule are rich and in power. How would they be convinced to make a law that would strip them of their wealth. HAHAHAHAHAA.

I couldn't finish it. The society the protagonist emigrates to was too good to be true, too reliant on 'humans behaving themselves' and pre-behavioural economics (the type where it is assumed that everyone behaves rationally and has access to all information required to make decisions) to be plausible. Whether he means to do so or not, the author comes off as 'just another rightwing nutjob UNaphobe' who shows no appreciation for the natural tendency of a percentage of humans in any society to try to game the system - an astonishing assumption for anyone who has served in the military like he does.

While delusional economic systems in novels is hardly new (David Weber's Manticore - which I love - allegedly runs on a flat tax), that's usually made up for by the rest of the story. And perhaps that's also true for this novel, but not for this reader.

On page 55 of my copy of "Freehold," the protagonist tastes the most delicious strawberry she's ever eaten and uses the cleanest public restroom she's ever seen. Why? Because everything is sooo wonderful in the Freehold of Grainne.

The fruit tastes better, the citizens are healthier, and the street gangs "organize community sales and cleaning parties." Hallucinogenics are legal despite the fact that the majority of citizens carry loaded firearms everywhere they go (ostensibly to protect against wild animals, since there is practically no crime). Everyone is healthy, wealthy, and wise despite the utter lack of government-supported health care, social security, or public education.

How do the roads get built? How do the parks get maintained? Simple: everyone in Grainne is genial, altruistic, and self-sacrificing. We would all love to live in such a place, but can it really be achieved through the means Michael Williamson proposes? No. This book is idealistic mush, and its author takes fatuous pride in mocking "big government" without ever offering realistic solutions. Unless you want to be smugly preached to, skip it.

There is a market for good military science fiction, and I am a member of that market, and have been for five decades. There is also a market for blatant libertarian propaganda. I am not a member of that market. Finding a way past the speed of light is one thing, discounting the nature of our entire species at the same time requires far too great a suspension of disbelief for me to have an entertaining time with a book such as this one.

Yes, interesting views on a free people versus corruption and oppression. It seemed as though the characters where mainly one-sided, either all good or completely evil. No complexity of character or redeeming features.

Also, too much swinger sex, bi-sex, etc... for me. Not just one instance, it's throughout the book.

I doubt I'll buy anything else from this author. Definitely not Heinline.

Author lost me at the first page where he quotes the words "that raghead crap". I understand the background of the author and why he has this world view. However the beauty of Sci-Fi is that you have the creative license to invent a world that does not borrow from the same tired themes that we see in so much ho-hum sci-fi. And on top of that to perpetuate racist themes like that is something that I have no time for. If I could ask for my money back, I would.

While I am sensitive to Baen wanting to keep the legacy of Heinlein a part of their stable, the choice of Williamson to do so is wrong. You know that Williamson is trying to evoke Heinlein from the number of times Heinlein is mentioned. Heinlein however would not have written this, even when writing the Juvenils.

The book only really starts after you have read more than half and you realize that the it is a to Red Dawn, the movie that Milieus directed, but set in this pseudo Libertarian world that the first half of the book is the propaganda advertisement for but so much worse than Neil Smith ever did. And that is the fallacy that you have to buy into, that the Earth we live on would be so screwed up that they couldn't handle a future society, and that in response one world would have the perfect Libertarian world. Except the truth is that Libertarianism when practiced on a significant scale is just a fantasy that wouldn't work, else, being humans, we already would have seen it working. We are good like that which Williamson who shows his own juvenile writing style probably doesn't have enough critical thought to realize. (When writing and having one previous error in a paragraph that then uses the word fuller, instead of more fully, shows that Williamson doesn't have an adults grasp of English since fuller does not mean that something is more full and immediately stops one reading in mid stream to decipher the authors intent. That is just one of several mistakes of the use of language)

But then to show us that we have been searching for a theme amidst too much prepubescent sex fantasies that have so little to do with a story but to just provide titillation along with the push for propaganda without clear direction that is the first half of the book and giving us nothing shows that the last half of the book is where the story lays hidden. Again trying to emulate Heinlein and failing since Heinlein would have had us understand the theme from the beginning. We then see that if you watched Red Dawn, you would know the story, and the anticlimax accounts for far too much as well. Our heroine could have led us, but our writer made the villains too stupid, and the heroes too able that what conflict and drama there are is cliche and forced.

the store kept thinking I would like this, and my library is filled with Baen books I read and reread. This will not be one of them.

This is lolbertarian masturbatory bilge at its very finest. I cannot fathom how any intelligent and educated being could enjoy this novel without being repulsed by the blatant strawmen and self-contradictory claptrap being espoused.

This is not a good book for the simple reason that it is more propaganda than story telling. The set up takes a while so you will be about of a 1/3 into the book before the unrelenting promotion of unregulated capitalism (as opposed to the regulated capitalism that is practiced in the US, largely in response to the Great Depression.) and gun ownership begins.
Many science fiction authors address the question of future government- will it become more oppressive because technology allows even closer monitoring or less oppressive because technology will so empower the individual that government will no longer have to concern itself with regulatory oversight of food production, employment, education, etc. Here the author does not explore that question at all- he only sets up everything other than unregulated capitalism and gun ownership as bad.
Potentially worse of all from a science fiction reader’s point of view is that the author does nothing with scientific advancement. For example, in a society where “work or starve” is the central principal, there are no starving people. Is this because robots wander the streets carting away the bodies? No, because robots able to act with direct supervision would mean people wouldn’t have to work or starve- they could just have robots do everything for them. So, when the main character lands on a strange planet and needs work she is employed directing a robot in park maintenance- something she has to on-sight. So, to make his fantasy work the author has created a universe where faster than light travel exists but robots are less advanced than what now exists in present day laboratories. (Generally, other than cars that fly and FTL travel the technology in this book is comparable to what now exists.)
So here are the authors fantasies:
1. A society without a government, including police, and universal gun ownership won’t have crime because every single crime will magically be witnessed by reliable individuals (since there aren’t any cameras because it would take a government to maintain them) who will act to stop said crime and serve as witnesses in a magically reliable citizens court later if necessary.
2. Prostitution is good because it is capitalism (and people are magically not forced into it or taken advantage of in anyway- see above).
3. Drugs are fine (and people magically don’t become addicted even though addiction is the best possible way to insure repeat business in this unregulated capitalist society).
4. Dueling, and murder dressed up as dueling, is not only fine but good. (At one point a citizen who has just acted as a judge and convicted a man of rape challenges the defendant to a duel. The judge, knowing the defendant is unfamiliar with guns, has a gun with the safety on thrown to defendant. The judge shoots the defendant dead as soon as he catches the gun (so murder) but in the book the murderer is that scenario’s hero. Also, interestingly, the “judge” goes on to have the body dumped in the street where it apparently magically disappears since there are no institutions for street cleaning or body disposal in this world without a government).
5. Slavery is good as long as it is called “life-long indenture”.
6. Schooling is magically better even though there are no schools (and apparently the video game industry magically doesn’t exist in this unregulated capitalist society).
7. Unregulated capitalism is good NO MATTER WHAT. (In one instance the capitalist society sells off excess military stock and the main character realizes that some of that stock is being purchased by terrorists, but that’s fine since unregulated capitalism is so inherently good that it is irrelevant if terrorists are benefited.)
8. Terrorism is good as long as it is in defense of unregulated capitalism and gun ownership. (Of course, the evil promoters of bureaucracy come calling and war ensues which the good-guy capitalists conduct terrorist attacks on the earth killing an estimated 8 billion people just so they didn’t have to give up their guns or participated in a government they deemed to be overly bureaucratic).
9. Insurance magically takes care of everything all the time and is somehow magically affordable by all.
10. Free-love is good and all women really want to be in a threesome with another woman.
In short, the author treats unregulated capitalism as magic- crime, unemployment and politics all magically disappear and contracts are all 1 page long and are magically completely and identically understood by both parties. This book is by far more fantasy than science fiction.
In the end this book made me very sad because:
1. I like my science fiction to promote self-reliance but this author went about in a way meant to indoctrinate 13-year-old boys into blindly supporting unregulated capitalism and gun ownership (what with all the threesomes and heroics they can expect to follow) and
2. It was pretty well written- enough so that I was able to finish the book despite the fact that it is little more than propaganda (maybe I should check out Mein Kampf next).

I really wanted to like this book, but it quickly became a tired repetition of Libertarian fantasy. Spoiler alert... every single one of society's ills is evidently caused by laws and regulation... Or something. Somehow, inventing a society without those things compels everyone to be their best selves. You know, like in China and third world countries without much regulation. Anyway, if you are a Libertarian and want to dream of a perfect society, pick it up. The writing is solid and characters interesting. If you arent, then you might want to pass.

Downside is about 20 percent of the story should be edited out as extraneous amplification of ideology.
My guess is the author's intent is to grind into the heads of young liberal SF readers the fallacies of socialism.
Perhaps it will even make them think.