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.

Where's Book Two?

I really loved this book. It is great entertainment, and the hero is really cool. From packaging groceries to the richest man in the world, Tyler sounds just like anyone, even you and me. Good story, great characters, and good science. Where is book two?

Excellent start to a new series

Thoroughly enjoyed the book both the technical as well as the levity. Ringo continues his tradition of mixing both which makes it all that more real. I am looking forward to the 2nd book. Hope it comes out soon.

Live Free or Die! Listen to it now! Read it later!

This is THE book that got me hooked on Audible and contemporary science fiction. Sure you've read Clark and Dick and Asimov but have you read Ringo? The Aldenata series was pretty good, the Prince Roger's series was anthropologically deep and showed a great command of sociology.

That said, the Troy Rising series is his best work to date. It is, hands-down, the most action-packed, butt-kicking, laugh-out-loud piece of sci-fi I've ever read. I listened to these books during my communte then bought the e-books from Baen so I could re-live the story.

The only negative reviews are coming from liberal commentors - you people - are the ones that decided me to take a chance on "Live Free or Die". Now I've read most of Ringo's work. Science fiction has been filled with liberal ideas and propaganda from the first - and I've still loved and stuck with it throughout the years. This is a breath of fresh air and anyone should take a chance on this book. It's that good.

After Troy Rising, check out the Prince Roger Series and if you still have a need for Ringo there's always the Aldenata series which I believe has 13 volumns in the main line plus spin-offs and fan novels.

Great sci-fi with big ideas

What I found so fun about this book is the scale. Complex alien relationships and super structures kept me intrigued.

Entertaining!

What made the experience of listening to Live Free or Die the most enjoyable?

The story is an interesting take on the free market economy. Reminded me of Richard Branson at Virgin.

Fabulous Story!

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

Absolutely! Ringo's story is fascinating, and Mark Boyett's performance was stellar!

What was one of the most memorable moments of Live Free or Die?

I really enjoyed Tyler Vernon's cagey negotiations on the trading ship. Dragon's Tears! LOL

3 STARS for Troy Rising

Very Good listen. Story is very good and the reader is great. It's very important to have a good narrater. Mark Boyett is very good! All 3 books are worth listening to.

some hilarious moments

There are some hilarious moments in this book, I'm talking laughing-to-tears funny. Lots of interesting technology, explained in great detail---a bit much at times, but mostly entertaining. Not a lot of action. Not that that diminishes this book; it's just not a posleen war story. There are plenty of things going on in this book though (eg, astronomical science experiments), and at fast pace. I expect there will be more action in the next book, which I look forward to.

fell flat

Lot's of fun for a nerd.. but after the looooooong engineering section near the end, which got a little to lengthy for me, I had hoped for a big story payoff.. the climax was not.

OK. Not as good as the Prince Roger series

This story line has some interesting and unique ideas to it. I don't think it's as compelling as the Prince Roger series, and I also think the narration for Roger series was exceptional, while I think this is just OK. Far better for various Southern (US) accents than other parts of the US and the rest of the world.