Kings of the High Frontier


Science fiction novel set in the near future has great libertarian ideas


I've about decided that there isn't a great American libertarian novel, But there are great American novels that have great libertarian ideas. One of my favorites, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, shows this perfectly.

Maybe it is because politics itself is confusing unless you are either a politico or a politics junkie. After all, a libertarian novel is going to talk about using the government to reduce the size of government. That makes things a bit jarring. Too many of the libertarian novels I have read get caught up in the speeches and debate that they lose sight of the story, plot, and characters.

Enter Kings of the High Frontier. And before you ask, yes, one of the characters is a descendent of Davy Crockett. You may now commence trying to get the song out of your head.

The characters in this novel are real with problems that aren't easily solved. The cold light of reason doesn't offer to solve all problems. Women characters actually have a reason to exist rather than being a sexual outlet for the leading man. There is sex, but it is touched on mainly in passing in a paragraph or two.

In the novel set in the not too distant future, all space travel is about to come under the jurisdiction of the United Nations, but there is a year before the new treaty takes effect. Several private groups decide that if they can get a space vehicle up before that deadline, there won't be much that the U.N. or the U.S. can do to stop them.

One of the groups is made up of renegade Russians desperate to reestablish Mir and reclaim the honor and glory of the Russian people. It plays better than it sounds.

One group is students from NYU determined to build and launch from the Bronx. Three billionaires each head up their own group. Two are mostly legit, and the third made his money by smuggling and working outside the law.

And then there are the villains. One is a private technocrat who has spent decades developing government and private contacts enough to subvert any space effort outside of NASA. He is a space advocate, but it's always twenty to thirty years away. He's also the author of the space treaty. He believes that space travel must remain under state control, tightly supervised by the elites.

The other villain is the head of a NSA black ops project to develop, build and fly a space interceptor capable of destroying any satellite.

And I haven't even mentioned the rape scene in the space shuttle and the lady's inventive response. Of course, since the rapist is a U.S. Senator, NASA and the government conspire to hide it.

Even if you aren't a science fiction fan, read this one. The characters are believable, the novel doesn't preach to you, and it makes you think.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sat - December 16, 2006 at 08:26 AM  Tag


 ◊  ◊   ◊  ◊ 

Random selections from NeoWayland's library


Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
© 2005 - 2009 All Rights Reserved