The American Zone

L. Neil is one of my formative authors and his "Probability Broach" novel is one of my top five books ever, a book that changed my thinking about life in a democracy and government in general. That said “American Zone” is not the PB. While I agree with most if not all of his political points this novel is long on discussions of political theory with characters standing or sitting and talking for page after page and I found the story short on action or even coherence. I had to work at getting through it and I confess skipped a lot of the repetitive political points the characters were making over and over. Prob Broach has been in my home library for 30 years, this one, not so much.

In The Probability Broach we have a really good mystery set in the background of a world where libertarian ideas flourished. The book set up a foundation for future stories.Yet in The American Zone we have a badly designed plot thrust into the background while the libertarian ideas are pushed to the foreground. What I would of enjoyed is less of Lucy jabbering, and pissing off people, and more of a real plot set in new areas of the Confederacy or other parts of the alternate world. Surely Europe and Asia have developed their own forms of libertarian governments based on their own ideas, culture and history?I'm sorry but some of the chapters could of been removed from the book without hurting the plot at all, a sure sign of a book that was written for something else BESIDES the story.Come on, your preaching to the chorus! Turn around and talk to the rest, deliver the ideas of freedom and liberty WITHOUT scaring the day-lights out of them.Lets face it, Lucy is slightly forward, if not sometimes rude towards everybody and anything she does not like or believe in. I love her, but many people, even from the same political parties, sometimes don't see eye to eye, this is not the best way to present a Libertarian, even if she is a person of fiction.I would suggest you start out with other books by L. Neil Smith.

If you want to enjoy Smith's work, please buy ANY other book of his before this one. Especially the new edition of "The Probability Broach," the essays in "Lever Action," or his richly told "Forge of the Elders" saga.~ Two massive terrorist acts have the detective protagonist, Win Bear, and his circle showing very little emotional reaction to them, beyond initial revulsion and bone-weariness. This rings false. Thousands have died instantly, and in a culture that is wholly unaccustomed to it. Win's lack of feeling undercuts one basic point Smith has made: that such mutual support flourishes, rather than wilts, in an individualistic and non-political culture.~ The "stranger in a strange land" focus is weakened by a lack of vivid hints of the statist America(s) from which those in the "Zone" have escaped. Smith's stellar "Pallas" is clearly set in an alternate universe where that fact is never brought up, and his "Broach" makes this escape into one of high contrast -- and both novels are far stronger in that respect. This one is in a mushy middle ground.~ Too many allusions are made to current American pop culture. These wrench us back too quickly to a dreary this-world present -- and we don't see how they're transmitted, nor from which alternate America.~ The statist villains here are caricatures, introduced too quickly and pulled off stage too abruptly. Compare this to the luxurious portrait of John Jay Madison in "Broach," where you want to know him better, even while you mentally hiss him as in an old-time melodrama.~ Names are too often tortured concoctions and are pulled too closely from "real" figures, without the intended satiric effect. "Bennett Williams" is made into a simpleton of an ideologue. William Bennett is not like this, despite his massive faults, and the point is lost.~ Details of gunsmithery get in the way. In "Broach," they furthered the story without bogging down in a collector's zest for minutiae. Here, they end up diluting the vital point about weapons of self-defense adding to human dignity.~ The main characters are undercut by our knowing that they show up in a half-dozen Confederacy novels set after this one. It's like knowing Anakin Skywalker is never in mortal danger in "Star Wars" II, when we realize he already was in IV through VI. (This is more distracting, though, for long-time Smith fans.)~ The copyeditor and proofreader were out to lunch on this one. Misspellings, mispunctuation, shifts of tense, and over-repeated character backgrounds are constant and distracting.Neither author nor reader deserves to have this highly flawed book discourage newcomers from sampling Neil Smith's talent and enjoying his utter passion for human liberty.

If you’re looking for a collectivist vs libertarian fight this hits all the goals. Real “Open Borders” problems and a planned unnatural disaster together with side action in IP theft.L Neil Smith did it again!

I love Neil Smith's conversion of Fort Collins into La Porte, all the minutiae about guns, cars, technology, but I got awfully tired of the preachiness about Libertarianism.

I quit looking for Smith books in the early 90s. Thank you internet for making them all available. Rip roaring mystery with libertarian politics thrown in in a way that doesn’t make it preachy or boring.

Love all L. Neil Smith books, mostly because they are unique to him. Always has that Libertarian twist to them. Certainly not up to his Probility Broach novel and its immediate sequels, but in my opinion, well worth reading.

The American Zone is a good novel, but you really should read at least some of the other books in the NAC series first to getsome perspective on the world presented in this book. Preferably read at least The Probability Broach, the first and best ofthe series first.The story takes place in an anarcho-capitalist alternate universe. And the story is about how a free society with almost nogovernment would deal with terrorist attacks. It`s a good read with plenty of food for thought.I`ve heard some people say that Neil was trying to cash in on the 9/11 terror attacks with this book. But that is NOT true.While the story is in some ways very similar to what happened on 9/11, note the publication date. This book was already written andscheduled for printing and publication before 9-11-2001.

While I love the rest of the books in this set, this is the weakest by far, The probability broach, the Venus belt and Tom Paine Maru are great books, this one not so! unfortunately

Even if you agree with the author's philosophy - which, for the most part, I do - it can become a bit preachy to have said philosophy crammed down your throat again and again. "The Probability Broach" was great, because (among other things) the focus was on the story telling, and not on the philosophy. For those who have read Ayn Rand (author of similar inclinations), it is like the difference between "The Fountainhead" (told for the sake of the story) and "Atlas Shrugged" (told for the sake of the philosophy, even if it is still great). Rand, however, was primarily a philosopher (or at least became one), but Mr.Smith is primarily a novelist, and should concentrate on the story first.Regardless of that criticism, this is still a good and entertaining book, and I rather have too much of the 'right' philosphy, than just a little of the wrong one.In conclusion, if you have read "The Probability Broach", then this is probably as good as most of the stuff you will find in the Sci-Fi section of your bookstore. Everybody else should read the first book, before tackling this one. Have fun!