Free e-book: "Tom Paine Maru" by L. N. Smith

[TadW]

Link: http://www.phoenixpick.com/catalogue/PPickings.htm

Coupon: 9992224 (to expire on 11/30/2010)

[petercreasey]

How does one find the book?

[wayrad]

Originally Posted by petercreasey

How does one find the book?

Click on the author's name over on the left.

[birdbrainbb]

Thank you! I haven't read many space operas, so this should be fun, I think?

[Worldwalker]

Smith's books tend to be, um, heavily influenced by his political philosophy. This may or may not be to your taste. He can be quite an inventive writer (Freenies for the win!) but there are times I think he concentrates too much on the politics and not enough on the story. Your mileage may vary dramatically, of course. You have to read it and see.

I'm a little confused about that website, though. It looks like they mostly offer reprints of out-of-copyright authors (but why only one Burroughs?) and provide links to Smashwords for their ebooks ... which, by the way, sell for as much or more than pbooks. I'm unclear on who they actually are, or whether they're representing themselves accurately.

[petercreasey]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Smith's books tend to be, um, heavily influenced by his political philosophy.

W, Which way does his "political philosophy" lean (or tilt)?

[FF2]

How does one apply the coupon on Amazon since the one-click price does not offer a place for discount? Oh, and the code seems too long for Smashwords

Ah, a separate location for FREE book as opposed to "purchasing" from a store.

[birdbrainbb]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Smith's books tend to be, um, heavily influenced by his political philosophy. This may or may not be to your taste. He can be quite an inventive writer (Freenies for the win!) but there are times I think he concentrates too much on the politics and not enough on the story. Your mileage may vary dramatically, of course. You have to read it and see.

Oh, really? Eh...I was a little put off by the main character's name being "Whitey," tbh. Is it something along the lines of Baen's more right-wing military sci-fi books?

[Worldwalker]

Smith is a Libertarian. He can write very well, but he can also descend to political preaching, and I'm not very fond of political preaching of any stripe. He assumes that a government and society in line with his beliefs would be utopia and builds his stories from there, and that just doesn't work for me no matter what the belief in question is. We've been trying since Mohenjo-Daro, and we haven't come up with utopia yet; if we ever do, it's going to be something we haven't thought of yet, because nothing we have thought of will get us there*. The whole utopia thing is xkcd 808 all over again.

*except putting me in charge; that would work, honest.

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by birdbrainbb

... Is it something along the lines of Baen's more right-wing military sci-fi books?

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Smith is a Libertarian.

And so, the answer depends on your definition of right-wing and military. For example, I remember one of his books (Probability Broach, I believe?) where the people in the alternate world all carried guns and this made them very respectful of one another.

So, to the extent that you are a non-gun person this and 'right-wing military' sound very similar. On the other hand, the libertarian philosophy is more about personal independence and you would see some pretty strong disagreement between a strong libertarian and someone who believes in the need for a strong, institutional military.

Similarly, Baen's books have quite a range here. Some of the Heinlein stuff leans much more libertarian. Weber really mixes things up: a monarchy, capitalism, and personal responsibility with duels and all their consequences. In his Honor Harrington, the "peoples republic" is theoretically democratic, but its actually the most restrictive. Flint, promotes the power of the people and he's a long time Socialist, but he still uses the military and conquest to pave the way. So, Baen has a lot of guns, swords and stuff and a lot of fighting. However, I would not necessarily paint Baen universally as 'right-wing'.

Finally, I do recognize that original statement implied that only some of Baen's stuff was right-wing -- I'm just sharing my thoughts and agreement that there is a wide range to the positions that can lead to guns, wars, and fighting and that its not just a right-wing position.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by birdbrainbb

Oh, really? Eh...I was a little put off by the main character's name being "Whitey," tbh. Is it something along the lines of Baen's more right-wing military sci-fi books?

I don't know if you read past that (I read the book when it first came out) but there is a reason for the name in the context of the story; and it's not a reference to color.

[birdbrainbb]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Similarly, Baen's books have quite a range here. Some of the Heinlein stuff leans much more libertarian. Weber really mixes things up: a monarchy, capitalism, and personal responsibility with duels and all their consequences. In his Honor Harrington, the "peoples republic" is theoretically democratic, but its actually the most restrictive. Flint, promotes the power of the people and he's a long time Socialist, but he still uses the military and conquest to pave the way. So, Baen has a lot of guns, swords and stuff and a lot of fighting. However, I would not necessarily paint Baen universally as 'right-wing'.

Finally, I do recognize that original statement implied that only some of Baen's stuff was right-wing -- I'm just sharing my thoughts and agreement that there is a wide range to the positions that can lead to guns, wars, and fighting and that its not just a right-wing position.

Oh, I don't mind guns, and I actually really liked the Empire of Man series which is chock full of them. It's just that know that some of Baen's authors sometimes get a little, er, strange in some of their books (John Ringo...), and most of the ones that do tend to write military sci-fi and/or be somewhere on the right-wing side of things. I don't think Baen as a whole is right-wing, and I don't think that liking guns or having a lot of guns in your book makes you/it a right-wing thing. So we agree there!

[birdbrainbb]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I don't know if you read past that (I read the book when it first came out) but there is a reason for the name in the context of the story; and it's not a reference to color.

It didn't put me off from downloading it, so I'm not overly worried about it. It just sounded threw me for a loop for a minute.

[Vandy]

Hi,

I wonder if someone could offer some help. I can't find anywhere on the Amazon page to enter the coupon code shown in the first post. The Smashwords page only accepts a 5-digit coupon code.

Help?

Thanks.

Regards,

Vandy

[birdbrainbb]

Originally Posted by Vandy

Hi,

I wonder if someone could offer some help. I can't find anywhere on the Amazon page to enter the coupon code shown in the first post. The Smashwords page only accepts a 5-digit coupon code.

Help?

Thanks.

Regards,

Vandy

You have to go to the website in the first post. Click on the author's name in the left-side frame, and the book should show up in the right-side frame. Then click on the "free download here" link. Then you enter the coupon on another page.

(The coupon won't work on Amazon/Smashwords/etc. Just the publisher's(?) website.)