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142 lines
6.6 KiB
142 lines
6.6 KiB
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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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<h1 class="post-title">Live Free or Die - John Ringo</h1> |
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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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<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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<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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