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143 lines
6.6 KiB
143 lines
6.6 KiB
11 months ago
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<html lang="en">
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<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
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<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1, viewport-fit=cover">
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<title>Julio Biason .Me 4.3</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/print.css" media="print">
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</head>
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<body class=" ">
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<div class="sidebar">
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<div class="container sidebar-sticky">
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<div class="sidebar-about">
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me"><h1>Julio Biason .Me 4.3</h1></a>
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<p class="lead">Old school dev living in a 2.0 dev world</p>
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</div>
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<ul class="sidebar-nav">
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<li class="sidebar-nav-item"><a href="/">English</a></li>
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<li class="sidebar-nav-item"><a href="/pt">Português</a></li>
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<li class="sidebar-nav-item"><a href="/tags">Tags (EN)</a></li>
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<li class="sidebar-nav-item"><a href="/pt/tags">Tags (PT)</a></li>
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</ul>
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<div class="content container">
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<div class="post">
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<h1 class="post-title">Live Free or Die - John Ringo</h1>
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<span class="post-date">
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2021-10-22
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/books/">#books</a>
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/reviews/">#reviews</a>
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/john-ringo/">#john ringo</a>
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/scifi/">#scifi</a>
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/books-2021/">#books:2021</a>
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/published-2010/">#published:2010</a>
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<a href="https://blog.juliobiason.me/tags/stars-1/">#stars:1</a>
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</span>
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<p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6713634-live-free-or-die">GoodReads
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Summary</a>: When
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aliens trundled a gate to other worlds into the solar system, the world reacted
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with awe, hope and fear. But the first aliens to come through, the Glatun, were
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peaceful traders and the world breathed a sigh of relief. When the Horvath came
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through, they announced their ownership by dropping rocks on three cities and
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gutting them. Since then, they've held Terra as their own personal fiefdom. With
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their control of the orbitals, there's no way to win and earth's governments
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have accepted the status quo.</p>
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<span id="continue-reading"></span><div>
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★☆☆☆☆
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</div>
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<p>You can say there is something wrong with a book when you have two parts in the
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title, one positive and another negative, and you start wishing the protagonist
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would get the later.</p>
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<p>For a story, it starts really well: It's not "humans conquer space", it is "the
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first contact with another species happens on Earth". So, it is interesting how
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human dynamics change when this happens at our door.</p>
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<p>But the thing focus on a single guy, who suddenly discovers something a merchant
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species gets highly interested and that's when the story goes downhill. First,
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the guy gets a bunch of money. Then it corners the something he figures out,
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practically creating a monopoly -- most of the stuff belongs to him, and the few
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others that have that something are really his friends. It gets to the point
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that he starts complaining that nobody else is doing what he is doing. He bought
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everything, left just a few scraps to others and then complains that nobody is
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trying to do what he did. Genius.</p>
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<p>Also, the story age pretty damn bad, specially since, right now, we are facing a
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virus that is killing a lot of people. In the story, there is something like
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that, which can be cured with some care -- basically, people have to use
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disinfectants to kill some parasite, which can be somewhat painful. And then our
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"hero" proposes that the parasite is actually a good thing, 'cause it would
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solve the problems with government pensions and most people that will die are
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those that do not care or are too weak or not smart enough. The fact that he
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says all this with a "Sadly" in front of it makes nothing to save his
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reputation.</p>
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<p>And that's basically why, not even by half of the book, I was choosing that the
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hero would take the later part of the title, even if that meant that all
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humanity would be lost. 'Cause that guy doesn't deserve to be a "hero".</p>
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<p>I see that the book is part of a series, and even if I still have hopes that
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later books will paint him as the villain, I have high doubts that that would
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happen.</p>
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<p>Even if the writing style is good to read and you can churn chunks of the story
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in fast pace, the whole is enough to make you want to punch a fictional person
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in the face. Hard.</p>
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<p>PS: Oh, there is another point to the hate for the protagonist: After a few
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cities were completely obliterated by said Horvath, the protagonist starts
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building a space force along with NASA but requires pilots to get augmentations
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and he comes with "I hope the government will pay for the augmentations after
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all the taxes I'm paying". Sure, asshole, the government has to make the thing
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that will make him more money (he's basically building a space station, which he
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plans to sell to the government); fuck the build of hospitals and roads and
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schools and what not what were destroyed when three cities turned to dust. Fuck
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the population, all you want is the government to work for <em>you</em>. That attitude
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just adds to the general sense of privilege this guy feels toward everything
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else. So yeah, sad he didn't die.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</body>
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</html>
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