Live Free or Die

Troy Rising, Book One

By: John Ringo

Narrated by: Mark Boyett

Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Beginning a New Series by a New York Times Best-Selling Author.Will the People of Earth Bow Down toAlien Overlords—or Will They Live Free or Die?

First Contact Was Friendly

When aliens trundled a gate to other worlds into the solar system, the world reacted with awe, hope and fear. But the first aliens to come through, the Glatun, were peaceful traders and the world breathed a sigh of relief.

Who Controls the Orbitals, Controls the World

When the Horvath came through, they announced their ownership by dropping rocks on three cities and gutting them. Since then, they've held Terra as their own personal fiefdom. With their control of the orbitals, there's no way to win and earth's governments have accepted the status quo.

Live Free or Die

To free the world from the grip of the Horvath is going to take an unlikely hero. A hero unwilling to back down to alien or human governments, unwilling to live in slavery and with enough hubris, if not stature, to think he can win. Fortunately, there's Tyler Vernon. And he has bigger plans than just getting rid of the Horvath.

Troy Rising is a book in three parts—Live Free or Die being the first part—detailing the freeing of earth from alien conquerors, the first steps into space using off-world technologies and the creation of Troy, a thousand trillion ton battlestation designed to secure the solar system.

©2010 John Ringo (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Live free indeed!

Giving this another listen and watching the news shows one again that Science Fiction is a predictor of the future. Too bad some folks take the wrong parts as a template for action. Outstanding as usual for Jhon Ringo's work.

Best of Heinlein... and his weakness.

I've always loved Heinlein and there is much of him in this book. The one recurring weakness though of Heinlein I always thought was an over dependence on a super man protagonist. Many of Heinlein's books depend on a protagonist who excels at everything he puts his mind to, often to ridiculous degrees and that happens here. Tyler Vernon was a fun character to follow but I find it unbelievable he could go from pet time wood chopping and shelf stocking to master negotiator, investor, physicist, engineer, etc.

I'd give the book 3.5. I did enjoy it and will read the next one. If the Heinleinesque super hero protagonist bothers you greatly you may start to really groan as you enter the second half.

Awesome story, good performance

Would you listen to Live Free or Die again? Why?

I would listen to Live free of Die again. It is a story of adversity and triumph.

What about Mark Boyett’s performance did you like?

He does a very effective New England accent and gave good differentiation and emotion to all of the characters.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The end is nicely cathartic when the the bag guys receive their just rewards.

A Crack up!

Written tongue in cheek, it takes a little while to get the swing of things but once you do it gets you quite hooked. Well written but really well read. Mark is a genius.I went through most of his BV Larson books and they basically got me back in to reading.

Only if you have time to kill.

If you enjoy a SCI-FI you might enjoy this book. If I were to rate this as a movie I would say it is worth renting, but probably not worth spending the money at a theater.
Aliens invading Earths orbits, with an unconventional means of destroying the enemy. Oh and "Blonds in heat" that cracked me up.

5 stars w/out the politics

If you're going to bring politics into your story, try doing it at a level above a 5th grader using faux news talking points. Other than that, I loved the story.

Big

The exciting world of Big Politics and Big Business. Too much like watching the news.

Great if you can get past the politics...

Any additional comments?

This is a really great story idea and generally a nice execution. But there are points where the author really hits you over the head with his conservative political viewpoint. If you can get past that (or are someone who shares that viewpoint) it's a very enjoyable book with some interesting twists and solutions to issues related to first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. I'm coming to the end of book one and have already downloaded book two.

A Swing and a Miss

I do appreciate the conservative views and interesting twists of political insight, but a little bit too much theoretical science and too little action. Because it's Johnny Ringo, I gave it 3 stars. I guess I was spoiled by the Prince Roger and Aldenata series. The main character was pretty savvy, but I couldn’t get over the fact that the aliens acted too human. I’ll pass on book 2 unless there is a serious drought in good sci-fi.

Consider the authors political views

Any additional comments?

Please look up the authors political orientation first before buying/reading this book. I found some very harsh comments regarding John Ringo's works on the internet. So buyer beware. An interview on the Michael Ventrella website with John Ringo might help to get a better idea about his views. I will not return the book but it probably will remain the only John Ringo book in my growing 500 book library.