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Live Free or Die
- Troy Rising, Book One
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
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Live Free or Die
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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.
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What listeners say about Live Free or Die
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2020-09-18
Painful
Feels like it's trying to be an intelligent Sci Fi but misses the mark, the premise is interesting but the characters all seem to share 2 brain cells between them except our protagonist making him seem like the smartest average guy in the Galaxy.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Douglas granter
- 2020-08-20
Not action driven military SF
You you may assume from the title that this is hardcore shoot em up military SF. It’s not. There are hours of discussions about the physics and economics of expanding industry into space in order to build space defence systems but The battles are summarized in a few minuets. For example, the Horvath destroyed 3 cities. Or, the array quickly destroyed the Horvath ship. Then back to hours of economics, metallurgy, and physics. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the book and plan to continue the series but it is NOT intense space military SF. If your looking for that get into Hell Divers or Expeditionary Force.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Adam
- 2023-04-12
Excellent
As an engineer, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
It shares some similarities with the Bobiverse books.
Other reviews mention the politics of the main character but don't let that dissuade you as it's a minor part of the story.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2022-07-20
wanna be atlas shrugged
was a good sci fi story until the writer shoe horned all their politics into the narrative; including a tirade on why the american civil war wasnt about slavery but the south not getting fair trade deals.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- James S.
- 2022-03-14
Great
John Ringo has a knack for strategy and survival.
if you like his Black Tide Rising zombie series, you will love this space war series.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- shawn ellis
- 2020-09-28
Not compelling enough to read the next in the series
This is a strange book. It starts off quirky. You start to believe it’s a sci-fi comedy. Then it oddly turns serious. Then it tries to become a sci-fi military story.
. In addition to the author’s inability to find an even tone there are unusual racial and social elements thrown in. Government is completely inept and bad. Racial diversity is bad. Wiping out a good portion of civilization, especially ipeople of colour is good. These elements jump out because they seem to be more the author’s viewpoint thrust into the story instead of a believable element arising within the story.
In the end the story was too quirky, uneven with overtones of racism, population control and anti government sentiment for me to desire to read the next book in the series.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2010-04-01
Republican Physicists in Space!!!
This is actually solid and creative sci-fi. A few of the reviews I read accuse the book and the author of racism but I think this is going way too far. The story is basically about Republican physicists saving the world. Even as someone who is very politically progressive I enjoyed it immensely. The conservative stuff is not hidden, the author just throws it right out there and in that way it's almost funny. The good guys are heads of corporations who are trying to save humanity despite government interference/regulation. There's a bunch of little digs in the vein of "if we can just keep the damned government off our backs" and even a slam on space-environmentalists ("we've trashed our own planet enough...")
That said I didn't find any of this overbearing and in reality the author is probably correct that first contact with alien species would not dry up all the hundred year old political squabbles on earth.
Alot of this book is concerned with the size/scope/power requirements of spacefaring. I bring that up to say that despite the levity of the dialogue it's actually pretty hard core sci-fi. Those hoping for laser battles or light-saber fights will be disappointed by this novel. The major battle scene reads almost like a physics textbook.
Overall this is a fun read. The narrator is excellent, he does some voice modulation for different characters but does not go to the ridiculous lengths to which some are tempted.
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93 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Colin
- 2013-02-21
Story is drowning in politics
While the basic plot is interesting and there's no doubt Ringo is a capable writer, Live Free or Die is bogged down by constant political commentary. I'm slightly right of center politically and not normally bothered by this sort of thing (especially as I live in a very conservative area) but it was really extreme and detracted from the otherwise good story.
The theme of "Liberal city idiots" exploiting the hard working country patriots is repeated on nearly every page of this book. Global warming is a joke, Democrats are lazy moochers off the government while Republicans are working multiple jobs, CNN is a bunch of foolish idiots and Fox News is the only station worth talking to and Washington DC should be nuked. Even the aliens society is failing because they are liberal. Even if you agree with all this, the non-stop nature of the barbs is amateurish and very distracting.
I'm sure I will get down votes on this review by people who will vote purely for political reasons but if you stop and analyze the book from the perspective of a Sci-fi fan, not a political rant, you will see the political aspect of the book was so overdone it ruined the intent. There is much to be said of subtlety.
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64 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- A reader
- 2012-03-26
Goes off the rails in disturbing ways
I realize that this is nearly the 100th review of this book, so no one is going to read it, but I feel compelled to write about it anyway, the book was that disturbing.
I read a lot of military science fiction. Ringo, Weber, etc. are all rather right-wing, and, though I don't always agree with the politics, I don't get bent out of shape about it. Good science fiction is good science fiction, and many of the great and good in classic SF (from Heinlein to Delany) have their own weird axes to grind. Science fiction is supposed to require an open mind, after all. I have read Ringo before as well, and even know about the "OH JOHN RINGO NO" meme (seriously, Google it), so I thought this would be fine. But this was really, really upsetting politics, even for Ringo.
The first third of the book feels like classic Heinlein - one brilliant polymath saves the world through clever tricks, gets to tour alien worlds, and sets up a megacorporation. Lots of fun all around, some entertaining writing, and a good plot. Stop there. Really.
You should stop, because, as the book goes on, the authors worldview comes out in ugly ways. Female characters, when they appear, are only sex objects, but that is only par for the course. Worse, in an excruciatingly long section, the author comes out with a way to kill most of the poorest people in America (with some not-subtle implications that this includes most African Americans), while simultaneously blaming them for their own deaths. In the same mass slaughter are, explicitly, most Africans and most Muslims. And his characters, after mourning for a second, then go and stating that this will be better for society, a point which the book proceeds to demonstrate.
I prefer my science fiction with a lots less eugenics and coded racism. The book would have been 3 stars without it (the last two thirds of the book are much less fun and imaginative than the first third) but I found it entirely unpalatable with. If this wasn't an audiobook, I could have skimmed the nasty parts, but listening to it was incredibly painful. Read some Tanya Huff or David Weber instead, still conservative, still military SF, still idiosyncratic, but much less disturbing.
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57 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Douglas E. Noll
- 2010-02-27
Another John Ringo classic
John Ringo delivers again with a sweeping epic of the near future. He draws on some old sci-fi themes from classic stories of the past, throws in a Howard Hughes-like character, and gives us another great story. Ringo's conservative political views tend to come out in his writing, but are a minor distraction from an otherwise great story. This audio book was well-narrated with good characterization. I am looking forward to Ringo's sequel in what I understand will be a triology. I recommend this one.
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41 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Katherine
- 2013-06-19
I wouldn't pay for this
Originally posted at FanLit.
Humans were alarmed when the first aliens that arrived to introduce themselves to Earth set up a hypergate that immediately connected Earth with all the outside universe. We were no longer alone. At least the Glatun were friendly aliens.
Tyler Vernon, a smart hard-working guy who chops wood for a living, decides to take this opportunity to improve his fortune. He finds a product that our new alien friends love and begins a business empire. Soon he’s the richest man on Earth, and that means he’s got a lot of influence on how things get done. When another alien race, the Horvath, come through the gate, declare themselves Earth’s “protectors” and start demanding tribute, Tyler is the only human who seems ready to take them on.
Live Free or Die, the first in John Ringo’s TROY RISING series, starts strong. Tyler is, at first, a likeable entrepreneur whose clever business plans are fun to read about. I enjoyed watching him begin to trade with the aliens (although I thought they weren’t alien enough) and build his empire. Some of this was amusing and some was just silly, but it was clever and fun.
But once Tyler gets rich and powerful and starts throwing his weight around, he becomes egotistical, dogmatic and obnoxious. Suddenly (or maybe I just didn’t notice it earlier) he begins espousing John Ringo’s political and economic philosophies. It’s clear that Ringo is a libertarian (or possibly a right-wing conservative) and he definitely wants us to know it. His politics is not my problem — I lean toward the conservative/libertarian side of the spectrum myself. The problem is two-fold.
First, I never want to read someone’s political or religious treatise in my fiction. That’s not what I read fiction for. It completely throws me out of the story when I can see the author back there behind the words waving his arms around and telling me what I ought to think. I don’t mind so much if the author is talking about something beautiful — transcendent religious experience, redemption, freedom, etc, but not when the point is simply to promote one’s own views while belittling people with different views. It’s like those obnoxious Facebook friends who never post anything but links to posts about how right their political views are and how wrong and stupid everyone with the opposite view is. This is ugly no matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on. There is a lot of this in Live Free or Die.
Second (and most bothersome), Tyler Vernon’s claptrap isn’t just the typical small-government /family values philosophy that are at the core of American conservatism today. It’s even beyond the distasteful pretentiousness spouted by Rush Limbaugh. For example (and these are just a few examples of many) Vernon (Ringo?) suggests that people of low socioeconomic status are lazy and stupid and don’t care about their kids, liberals are socialists, the French are weak and whiny, the Civil War was the “War of Northern Aggression,” and the American president (clearly Obama, this was published in 2010) is an idiot. He even seems to say that our world would be better off if all the old folks, sick or disabled folks, Muslims, and those who don’t have genes for blue-eyes and blonde hair somewhere in their DNA got wiped off the planet. Um… what??? Are you serious??? Tyler Vernon may do the right thing, but in his heart he’s a Nazi, and it’s clear that John Ringo wants us to admire him. Vernon’s deeds are praise-worthy (he’s saving the world, after all, even those people who he secretly thinks we’d be better without) but his thoughts are very ugly. I want to emphasize again that this is not how the great majority of politically conservative people think and I am embarrassed when I think that some readers will assume Vernon’s politics are representative of conservatism. They are not.
It’s ironic that Tyler complains that liberals see him as rich and powerful and assume he’s greedy and domineering because… they’re right, he is. He expects the government to kowtow to him. When he decides to go messing around with mirrors in space and starts melting asteroids, it’s hard to believe that the world’s leaders would let him get away with that just because he’s rich. All of this disgusted me, but when the aliens send a virus that makes blonde women go into heat, I dismissed the whole thing as John Ringo’s ugly wish fulfillment fantasy. (And all women are appraised by whether or not they’re “stacked.”)
I listened to Mark Boyett narrate Live Free or Die. He was a terrific reader. Too bad he couldn’t fix this story by leaving out some of Tyler Vernon’s thoughts. If I could have just read about his actions, I would have enjoyed Live Free or Die. I’m fascinated by the space station (Troy) that he was constructing at the end of the book and I want to know what it looks like when it’s done. I will try the next book, Citadel, only because I want to see Troy and because Brilliance Audio sent me a copy for free. I wouldn’t pay for this.
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38 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Elias Rostad
- 2010-03-10
Classic Ringo
If you enjoy john ringo then you will absolutely love this book. Memorable characters, great science, solid story and clear writing, it's all there, along with his political views.
Point is, there is nothing in this book that will be surprising to any Ringo fan. If your a new fan of a politically right bent, you'll love this book.
If you're not, or you haven't been a fan of ringo in the first place, then, like the person who gave the book a 1 star, just avoid this book. It's that simple.
To the Ringo fans out there, Rest Assured, he'd done it again.
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32 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Pieter
- 2011-03-29
A touch of hitchhiker guide to the galaxy
Don't think twice in getting this. It has a original beginning and i am 60% through it and it feels complete. The writer takes the innocences of the human race and ads the confusion of an alien world and how one man outwits them. The narrator has a great way of reading this that makes it almost comical and special at the same time. For me to make effort to write a comment here takes real effort and guts and this book has both. It almost reminds me of the innocense and sense of norm 'Hitchhiker to the galaxy' brought to something that would make us paranoid and confused in real life. This is a good listen if you like sci-fi and space stories.
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31 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Matthew
- 2010-08-15
For Better or Worse: Ringo Channels Heinlein.
I like this book.
I have given a 5 star rating because it does exactly what it promised in the first few minutes: to discuss politics, war and relationships.
I will note that I am sucker for the Heinlein homage that seeps through Ringo's writing in this novel. If you like Robert Heinlein's classic characters Lazarus Long or Jubal Hershaw, you will like Ringo's Tyler Vernon. However, the converse sentiment also holds true, you will likely see in Tyler Vernon the same audacious (maybe even arrogant) attitudes found in Heinlein's writing which alleges that bureaucrats are the single biggest danger to humanity (even more than the dreaded "liberals").
I will note that for the record, the author takes creative liberties with many (read most) of the details regarding space exploration, political/economic philosophies and the suffering that comes with Alien Domination. While I accept that current literary theory holds that authors only tell the stories they themselves believe and as such Ringo must see himself as Tyler Vernon, I will note that the same criticism has been labeled at Heinlein. I would say that if all you hear or read in the character of Tyler Vernon is a fictional caricature of the ideal "rugged individual," you have only seen one dimension of Tyler Vernon.
As a work of Science Fiction, this is not a book that reads like a technical manual nor is it filled with in-depth or vivid descriptions of milieu, environment and setting. Yet careful listening to the words will demonstrate that the relative unimportance of details is a central theme in the life of Tyler Vernon.
At the same time, it must be noted that Ringo is not Tom Clancy. I say this to note that Ringo does not bury you in minute details simply to prove the expertise of his characters or his own depth of knowledge and extensive research. Ringo implicitly requests his readers/listeners accept his authorial fiat on the subject of details in order to tell us a new twist on an old story.
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30 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Nathan
- 2010-04-16
amusing yet sci-fi
Great book. Great narrator. The story was detailed and engaging with out going overboard with endless sci-fi technicalities that can give you a headache. The author does a good job of creating just enough levity to make the main character serious but amusing. Looking forward to the sequels.
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27 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- M. McClure
- 2010-06-04
Author's soapbox
I'll save you some time. Here's the book:
talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk action talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk conservatives=heroes talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk talk asteroids talk talk talk talk mirrors talk talk talk liberals=cowards talk talk talk talk action talk talk talk talk talk action talk talk talk talk talk.
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25 people found this helpful