What do you think?
Rate this book
Freehold #8
Angeleyes (7)
THE FREEHOLDERS RETURN in a new novel in the nationally best-selling Freehold Universe series. A return to the libertarian world of Grainne and its battle against an Earth government that cannot let the Freeholders remain free!
Angie Kaneshiro never planned to be a spy. She was a veteran of the Freehold Forces of Grainne, and was now a tramp freighter crew-woman who hadn’t set foot on the dirt of a world in ten years. Angie was free, and that was the way she liked it.
Then the war with Earth started. One thing Angie knew was human space. She knew where the UN troops garrisoned, the methods they used to scan and chip their own to control them. Even better, she had a mental map of the access conduits, the dive bars, and the make-out cubbies people used to get around restrictions.
The UN forces may hold most of the stations, the docks, and the jump points, but now the Freehold of Grainne has its own lethal weapon. The Intelligence branch sends a freighter crewed with Blazers, special forces troops. All Angie has to do is lead them through the holes. Responsibility for the explosions and wreckage will be theirs. But war is complicated, and even the most unwilling of heroes can be forged in its crucible.
About A Long Time Until Now :
“[A] classic story of survival. They may not like each other, but must depend upon each other. Williamson shows how they pull together to create a solid society . . . outstanding entertainment. Each character is different and fully developed. Even those you may dislike seem worth caring about . . . [G]rabs readers from the beginning and keep them reading to the end.”— Galveston County Daily News
About Michael Z.
“A fast-paced, compulsive read . . . will appeal to fans of John Ringo, David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, and David Weber.”— Kliatt
“Williamson's military expertise is impressive.”— SF Reviews
Novels of Michael Z. Williamson's Freehold
Freehold series
Freehold
The Weapon
The Rogue
Contact with Chaos
Angeleyes
Ripple Creek series
Better to Beg Forgiveness . . .
Do Unto Others . . .
When Diplomacy Fails . . .
Standalone
A Long Time Until Now
Angie Kaneshiro never planned to be a spy. She was a veteran of the Freehold Forces of Grainne, and was now a tramp freighter crew-woman who hadn’t set foot on the dirt of a world in ten years. Angie was free, and that was the way she liked it.
Then the war with Earth started. One thing Angie knew was human space. She knew where the UN troops garrisoned, the methods they used to scan and chip their own to control them. Even better, she had a mental map of the access conduits, the dive bars, and the make-out cubbies people used to get around restrictions.
The UN forces may hold most of the stations, the docks, and the jump points, but now the Freehold of Grainne has its own lethal weapon. The Intelligence branch sends a freighter crewed with Blazers, special forces troops. All Angie has to do is lead them through the holes. Responsibility for the explosions and wreckage will be theirs. But war is complicated, and even the most unwilling of heroes can be forged in its crucible.
About A Long Time Until Now :
“[A] classic story of survival. They may not like each other, but must depend upon each other. Williamson shows how they pull together to create a solid society . . . outstanding entertainment. Each character is different and fully developed. Even those you may dislike seem worth caring about . . . [G]rabs readers from the beginning and keep them reading to the end.”— Galveston County Daily News
About Michael Z.
“A fast-paced, compulsive read . . . will appeal to fans of John Ringo, David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, and David Weber.”— Kliatt
“Williamson's military expertise is impressive.”— SF Reviews
Novels of Michael Z. Williamson's Freehold
Freehold series
Freehold
The Weapon
The Rogue
Contact with Chaos
Angeleyes
Ripple Creek series
Better to Beg Forgiveness . . .
Do Unto Others . . .
When Diplomacy Fails . . .
Standalone
A Long Time Until Now
512 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 2016
29 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
October 20, 2016
Quite good, all of the books in the Freehold series are.
August 16, 2018
I got this book after seeing it in store, I have not read any of this authors other works.
The good: The story keeps moving, no paragraph or pages long descriptions of every little thing. It wasnt hard to get into it despite having very little knowledge of the setting. Besides the issues Ill go into below, this book does a great job of easing new readers into the setting so you get an idea of whats what.
The Bad: easily 10% of this book is repeating something already made clear prior in the book, usually about the characters preferences. While the book does feel well edited, this is a big standout issue that got annoying.
Possibly a third of the book is nothing but soft core porn. It took ten plus chapters of her bouncing between sexual encounters before any sort of plot revealed itself. There was far too much focus on sex in this, it actually distracted from the story more then anything else.
Im not a prudish person, sex is part of life. I understand that. But this was ridiculously too much. I nearly stopped reading the book multiple times because I thought this was a 13 year olds wet dream. I finished it mostly because the actions of all the other characters around her got interesting while she whined about her lack of sex.
Adding to that, my immediate impression was this was a male writer trying way to hard to write a female first person perspective. There were times I felt her characterization was spot on, but that wasnt until the last ten chapters of the book.
I also never got the feeling this character had any agency over what was happening around her except at one or two points and only because she didnt have any other reasonable choice for her chosen lifestyle. I was more interested in the team she meets half way thru the book, although, with how the book ends, her place as narrator makes sense. Just not the content of her narration.
This book could have been made a lot better. Im honestly afraid this could give young men the wrong idea of how most women think. The attempt at socio-political commentary was thin, pitting two unrealistic extremes against each other but hardly had that much over all impact beyond justifying the over all conflict of the story, which the character admitted to being oblivious to for half the book.
I am sure this kind of story appeals to someone, just not me. Not sure I want to know who thinks this is normal, either
The good: The story keeps moving, no paragraph or pages long descriptions of every little thing. It wasnt hard to get into it despite having very little knowledge of the setting. Besides the issues Ill go into below, this book does a great job of easing new readers into the setting so you get an idea of whats what.
The Bad: easily 10% of this book is repeating something already made clear prior in the book, usually about the characters preferences. While the book does feel well edited, this is a big standout issue that got annoying.
Possibly a third of the book is nothing but soft core porn. It took ten plus chapters of her bouncing between sexual encounters before any sort of plot revealed itself. There was far too much focus on sex in this, it actually distracted from the story more then anything else.
Im not a prudish person, sex is part of life. I understand that. But this was ridiculously too much. I nearly stopped reading the book multiple times because I thought this was a 13 year olds wet dream. I finished it mostly because the actions of all the other characters around her got interesting while she whined about her lack of sex.
Adding to that, my immediate impression was this was a male writer trying way to hard to write a female first person perspective. There were times I felt her characterization was spot on, but that wasnt until the last ten chapters of the book.
I also never got the feeling this character had any agency over what was happening around her except at one or two points and only because she didnt have any other reasonable choice for her chosen lifestyle. I was more interested in the team she meets half way thru the book, although, with how the book ends, her place as narrator makes sense. Just not the content of her narration.
This book could have been made a lot better. Im honestly afraid this could give young men the wrong idea of how most women think. The attempt at socio-political commentary was thin, pitting two unrealistic extremes against each other but hardly had that much over all impact beyond justifying the over all conflict of the story, which the character admitted to being oblivious to for half the book.
I am sure this kind of story appeals to someone, just not me. Not sure I want to know who thinks this is normal, either
August 18, 2018
Michael Z. Williamson continues to follow in Robert Heinlein's footsteps, but this time not in a good way.
The Short of It: Soft porn teenage-cis-male wish-fulfillment start (of about 30% of the book) leading into infiltration sci-fi military story. This book adds nothing to the Freehold Lore and can be skipped.
The Long of It
Like Freehold, the first of the series, this book has a very long entrance building character and world before the action starts. In this case the first third of the book follows Angelica as she bounces around the star-ways. Already well-familiar with Freehold and its wars at this point (book 8 of the series and runs parallel with the existing timeline), this book follows the daughter of hippies as she engages in free love and free travel, living in the moment and hitching rides around the Human worlds. This takes 12 chapters; it could have been done in 2. But we would have missed out on the soft-porn of her being "stuffed and stretched" (verbiage used a couple-few-dozen times in the 12 chapters). Plus "spread" is used like making PBJ at a daycare - every.single.chapter, multiple times.
I've previously compared to Mr. Williamson to Mr. Heinlein for his libertarian, competent-man worldbuilding. Now I need to compare the two for the teenage-male wish-fulfillment character of a women existing solely for the sex act - Angie for Mr. Williamson, Friday for Mr. Heinlein. I know there are women who are like this, and being in a society where sex is not hushed up by a Puritan streak may be more healthy than what the US has right now, but it goes on-and-on. Not what I want in my military sci-fi. A little tingle - sure sign me up (I love romance), but 150 pages is too much. The clubbing-and-aftermaths back to a minor thread thereafter, but because the first third already pushed me past toleration, I didn't like it at all.
I trudged through the stuffing and stretching because I previously enjoyed Mr. Williamson's stories (especially the Ripple Creek series). But the problems continue. Angie, as is her nature to bounce around like a pinball, has very little agency. Only once does she grab her future and changes the direction of her life (Chapter 12). After that, she goes back to being reactive. Most of the time she doesn't have a clue to what is happening and can't explain it to the reader so we flail around in a story with no center, no movement, and no explanations.
Angie, as the point-of-view (POV) character, is acting as a reporter to the readers after the fact and she should have had time to fill in the blanks. She isn't even an unreliable narrator, just an uninformed one ... so why is she narrating the story if she doesn't know what is happening? After living through it and having time to research it after-the-fact? Got me.
Very little is added to the Freehold Lore previously presented. I think this book can be skipped. Concentrate on the Ripple Creek and Freehold proper and direct the Earth infiltration. One fail out of eight books isn't bad, but this one is a fail.
Gave up reading page 412 (way past bedtime), skipped to read chapter 39 (page 487) to epilogue. So 65 pages unread of 501. And, yeah, this is going into my giveaway pile. Not interested in finishing the book; I've already devoted too much time to it.
Trigger Alert: Torture of woman using womanly bits. Not a rape scene under the dictionary definition - i.e. male part A inserted into woman part B, but it was under the clinical definition - body parts were invaded without permission in a manner to establish power dominance. Biggest issue from this - no mental repercussions on the female after she took a shower to clean the ick factor. Just one shower. o_O?
The Short of It: Soft porn teenage-cis-male wish-fulfillment start (of about 30% of the book) leading into infiltration sci-fi military story. This book adds nothing to the Freehold Lore and can be skipped.
The Long of It
Like Freehold, the first of the series, this book has a very long entrance building character and world before the action starts. In this case the first third of the book follows Angelica as she bounces around the star-ways. Already well-familiar with Freehold and its wars at this point (book 8 of the series and runs parallel with the existing timeline), this book follows the daughter of hippies as she engages in free love and free travel, living in the moment and hitching rides around the Human worlds. This takes 12 chapters; it could have been done in 2. But we would have missed out on the soft-porn of her being "stuffed and stretched" (verbiage used a couple-few-dozen times in the 12 chapters). Plus "spread" is used like making PBJ at a daycare - every.single.chapter, multiple times.
I've previously compared to Mr. Williamson to Mr. Heinlein for his libertarian, competent-man worldbuilding. Now I need to compare the two for the teenage-male wish-fulfillment character of a women existing solely for the sex act - Angie for Mr. Williamson, Friday for Mr. Heinlein. I know there are women who are like this, and being in a society where sex is not hushed up by a Puritan streak may be more healthy than what the US has right now, but it goes on-and-on. Not what I want in my military sci-fi. A little tingle - sure sign me up (I love romance), but 150 pages is too much. The clubbing-and-aftermaths back to a minor thread thereafter, but because the first third already pushed me past toleration, I didn't like it at all.
I trudged through the stuffing and stretching because I previously enjoyed Mr. Williamson's stories (especially the Ripple Creek series). But the problems continue. Angie, as is her nature to bounce around like a pinball, has very little agency. Only once does she grab her future and changes the direction of her life (Chapter 12). After that, she goes back to being reactive. Most of the time she doesn't have a clue to what is happening and can't explain it to the reader so we flail around in a story with no center, no movement, and no explanations.
Angie, as the point-of-view (POV) character, is acting as a reporter to the readers after the fact and she should have had time to fill in the blanks. She isn't even an unreliable narrator, just an uninformed one ... so why is she narrating the story if she doesn't know what is happening? After living through it and having time to research it after-the-fact? Got me.
Very little is added to the Freehold Lore previously presented. I think this book can be skipped. Concentrate on the Ripple Creek and Freehold proper and direct the Earth infiltration. One fail out of eight books isn't bad, but this one is a fail.
Gave up reading page 412 (way past bedtime), skipped to read chapter 39 (page 487) to epilogue. So 65 pages unread of 501. And, yeah, this is going into my giveaway pile. Not interested in finishing the book; I've already devoted too much time to it.
Trigger Alert: Torture of woman using womanly bits. Not a rape scene under the dictionary definition - i.e. male part A inserted into woman part B, but it was under the clinical definition - body parts were invaded without permission in a manner to establish power dominance. Biggest issue from this - no mental repercussions on the female after she took a shower to clean the ick factor. Just one shower. o_O?
December 22, 2016
A rollercoaster of a book. And not always in a good way.
The premise is predictable, but solid enough, another view of the "UN War" that is the basis of a lot of Williamsons "Freehold" universe. This one from someone who is effectively a contract spy do clandestine Spec-Ops work.
Where it falls flat is in its weird, stuttering pacing and repetition. It feels like a series of slightly different episodes that all seem to follow the same general flow, and after the fourth of fifth time it was getting pretty stale. It redeemed itself as some of the story beats really were engaging, and I really enjoyed the entirely-in-space setting with claustrophobic ships and space stations.
As a full novel though, it was an awkward ride that struggled to flow well.
BUT, hey, Freehold is a fun universe, and I always look forward to more.
The premise is predictable, but solid enough, another view of the "UN War" that is the basis of a lot of Williamsons "Freehold" universe. This one from someone who is effectively a contract spy do clandestine Spec-Ops work.
Where it falls flat is in its weird, stuttering pacing and repetition. It feels like a series of slightly different episodes that all seem to follow the same general flow, and after the fourth of fifth time it was getting pretty stale. It redeemed itself as some of the story beats really were engaging, and I really enjoyed the entirely-in-space setting with claustrophobic ships and space stations.
As a full novel though, it was an awkward ride that struggled to flow well.
BUT, hey, Freehold is a fun universe, and I always look forward to more.
December 8, 2016
Angie Kaneshiro is a Freehold-born high tech vagabond. She crews on commercial vessels trading between the various polities in Williamson's Freehold Universe. She likes to dance, have sex and see new places. Then the Freehold War breaks out and things turn ugly fast. After barely escaping a major accident on a space habitat, she volunteers with the Freehold covert forces, acting as a guide for a group of elite special forces on covert missions.
Angie's secret war is terrifying and gut-wrenching. She repeatedly puts her life at risk, is tortured, loses friends and has to kill innocents to protect herself and her team. As the novel progresses, it transforms from the chronicle of a fun-loving, easy going but streetwise woman to a much darker place as Angie sees her grip on sanity crumble away until there is only the mission first, and survival second. This transformation echoes the descent of the war for the Freehold from resistance to an unjustified aggressor to resorting to mass murder in order to survive.
Like The Weapon and Freehold, this book depicts the horrific effects of war on those who fight it without diminishing their heroism and bravery. The personal cost of killing innocents is very high, and in the end it all seems so wasteful.
Side note: There's a lot of rather graphic sex in this book. In my view, it was not put there to titillate the reader, but because Williamson wanted to show that Freehold society is very matter-of-fact about such things, and more importantly because a female character can love sex without having to be a slut.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=2018
Angie's secret war is terrifying and gut-wrenching. She repeatedly puts her life at risk, is tortured, loses friends and has to kill innocents to protect herself and her team. As the novel progresses, it transforms from the chronicle of a fun-loving, easy going but streetwise woman to a much darker place as Angie sees her grip on sanity crumble away until there is only the mission first, and survival second. This transformation echoes the descent of the war for the Freehold from resistance to an unjustified aggressor to resorting to mass murder in order to survive.
Like The Weapon and Freehold, this book depicts the horrific effects of war on those who fight it without diminishing their heroism and bravery. The personal cost of killing innocents is very high, and in the end it all seems so wasteful.
Side note: There's a lot of rather graphic sex in this book. In my view, it was not put there to titillate the reader, but because Williamson wanted to show that Freehold society is very matter-of-fact about such things, and more importantly because a female character can love sex without having to be a slut.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=2018
March 10, 2018
This is another book in Michael Z. Williamson's "Freehold" series. This one is another view of the "UN War" that is the basis of a lot of Williamson's "Freehold" universe. Angie Kaneshiro is a veteran who has been living as a wandering spacer who volunteers to be a contract spy doing clandestine Spec-Ops work when war breaks out between the Freehold and Earth's UN controlled government. She is assigned to a group of "Blazers" to gather information and to sabotage "UN" assets when the opportunity present itself. The missions become increasingly dangerous as the war progresses. This book is action packed and a great example of Military Science Fiction with strong characters and a great story line. Michael Z. Williamson shows a good knowledge of covert military procedures and general military actions. I will warn you not to read this if you are offended by graphic sex and violence. I enjoyed this book as well as all the books in this series very much and I recommend it.
July 10, 2017
Mad Mike always writes great characters, and Aonghaelaice (pronounced Angelica) is one of them.
Angie is a spacer from Grainne (Freehold) who moves from ship to ship working as a cargo handler, medic and cook. She knows how to evade security to sneak onto a station, where she can hide to sleep for free, and other useful information that she didn't think was that important.
Then Earth and the UN decide that they are going to invade Grainne "for the good of the people" because they don't want to be controlled by Earth any more. When war breaks out, Angie volunteers to lead a Special Ops team of Blazers into enemy territory, and using her knowledge, they wreak havoc, even capturing an enemy spaceship. After two years of sabotage, they finally commit to an endgame, ending the war catastrophically, and Angie heads for home, to debrief, get paid, and honour their memories.
Angie is a spacer from Grainne (Freehold) who moves from ship to ship working as a cargo handler, medic and cook. She knows how to evade security to sneak onto a station, where she can hide to sleep for free, and other useful information that she didn't think was that important.
Then Earth and the UN decide that they are going to invade Grainne "for the good of the people" because they don't want to be controlled by Earth any more. When war breaks out, Angie volunteers to lead a Special Ops team of Blazers into enemy territory, and using her knowledge, they wreak havoc, even capturing an enemy spaceship. After two years of sabotage, they finally commit to an endgame, ending the war catastrophically, and Angie heads for home, to debrief, get paid, and honour their memories.
November 13, 2016
Amazingly understated story
I pretty much never review books if only because I read too many of them to keep up and the vast majority of them are merely average. Michael Williamson every now and again produces a diamond that is absolutely worthy. Freehold is a great story line and he writes about that society with such grit and clarity that I want to live there. It helps to have read the series before reading this but it is a deceptively engaging storyline and main character. It is about a free spiirited floater amongst the far flung space stations who gets caught up in the war assisting a black ops team and proves herself tohave much moredepth than she realised.
I pretty much never review books if only because I read too many of them to keep up and the vast majority of them are merely average. Michael Williamson every now and again produces a diamond that is absolutely worthy. Freehold is a great story line and he writes about that society with such grit and clarity that I want to live there. It helps to have read the series before reading this but it is a deceptively engaging storyline and main character. It is about a free spiirited floater amongst the far flung space stations who gets caught up in the war assisting a black ops team and proves herself tohave much moredepth than she realised.
June 4, 2021
This is not good. My theory: MZW hates his publisher, but owed them another book. So he cranked out this piece of crap. I have loved many of his earlier works, but if this is all he can do now, I won't bother with any more. First, NOTHING happens for the first 100 pages. NOTHING. Then it is a pointless travelogue of space sabotage. Little of it believable. And the lead character is a total nothing. Yikes this was bad. Luckily, it was brief.
July 22, 2017
Fantastic war story
As a veteran myself, I tend to be a rather well informed critic of milfic, even when it is scifi. It is tough to impress me. Mad Mike doesn't fail to do so, you can tell he has been in the thick of it and writes well about what he knows. This novel is no exception.
As a veteran myself, I tend to be a rather well informed critic of milfic, even when it is scifi. It is tough to impress me. Mad Mike doesn't fail to do so, you can tell he has been in the thick of it and writes well about what he knows. This novel is no exception.
October 19, 2017
This story did get better as it went on. It was reminiscent of Heinlein where hard military sci fi is mixed with lots of sex and bathing. I got a little lost at times with all of the jump point travel but really it's about the people, not the places. Admiral Bertrand is personal favorite. Can't wait for Kylo vs. Kirk.
May 9, 2018
From enjoyable espionage story with a light sprinkle of sexuality to deadly serious survival and evasion, ending with tear-jerking reminiscence masterfully phrased.
Wow.
Williamson delivers yet another masterful Freehold story, like and yet totally unlike any of the others. If you like Freehold, read it.
Wow.
Williamson delivers yet another masterful Freehold story, like and yet totally unlike any of the others. If you like Freehold, read it.
June 5, 2017
Does what it sends on the tin. It felt a bit creepy with her focus on sex toys; somehow I kept losing sight of the protagonist and seeing the middle-aged author instead. I don't think it would work well as a stand-alone; she's only believable if you know the pretend society she comes from.
November 11, 2018
This is a great book. To some extent it is space opera but with hints of Robert Heinlein's Friday and Starship Troopers. Angeleyes is a spy from an earth colony during a war between that earth colony and the United Nations of earth. The books is suspenseful and thrilling. It is hard to put down.
January 6, 2023
It started out not my fav
Stick with it, it’s worth the slog. I initially thought it was maybe a 2 star however I did grind through the first part were I was thinking to myself every great Author has one not so great.
Stick with it, it’s worth the slog. I initially thought it was maybe a 2 star however I did grind through the first part were I was thinking to myself every great Author has one not so great.
March 23, 2017
Angie Kaneshiro, a tramp freighter crew-woman, volunteers information to the intelligence service of Freehold/Grainne and soon finds herself immersed in black ops against UN-Earth.
May 8, 2018
Great entry into the Freehold series, great heroine. Could have done with fewer sex scenes but overall a great book on covert small group insurgency during time of war.
September 16, 2018
Another book in the Freehold series. Perfectly readable but not the strongest. More references to sex than the others.
April 3, 2019
I was shocked, amazed, and highly entertained that Williamson was able to work Rule 34 into the book, not once, but twice.
It was also a fun continuation of the Freehold series.
It was also a fun continuation of the Freehold series.
April 29, 2022
Enjoy this author. Book is worth its price.
January 12, 2024
good
Good read. Character development was excellent. The differences in societal differences was well done. I liked the dog the Admiral.
Good read. Character development was excellent. The differences in societal differences was well done. I liked the dog the Admiral.
November 22, 2025
A fun book to read. it was a good break from other readings.
March 22, 2017
A good book and a nice addition to the series, it was a bit heavy on the sex, not that this is a problem in general, but it was a departure from previous books in the series.
October 22, 2023
It was a decent book. Lots of action and very detailed.
March 15, 2022
Williamson's work can be described as mil-scifi with more than a slight libertarian twist. As such, it belongs in the same genre as Heinlein's Starship Troopers, or L. Neil Smith's Probability Broach series.
Angeleyes, the latest in Williamson's outstanding Freehold series, looks at an unusual Freeholder. "Angie" Kaneshiro is a rolling stone, a spacer with multiple skills whose primary lifestyle is "moving on." After Earth's crackdown on its former colony of Grainne, Angie lists her origin as "Caledonia," because as Earth ships and uniforms become increasingly prevalent, new regulations tighten down on travel for all, but especially Freeholders.
Blessed by her parents with an opaquely-spelled name (Aonghaelaice) and the right to return to her real homeworld of Grainne, Angie prefers to camp with a series of friends, or kip in the odd spaces of habitats and stations until she can find a berth on a ship going somewhere—almost anywhere—else. She has a talent for spotting those unused, unmonitored spots in the interstices of her stop-over worlds. These are places she can live free, if with little comfort, until it is time to move on. She's made a life out of living briefly in such places before she ships out again.
When war actually begins, Angie realizes that her knowledge is vital to her homeworld. She contacts a Freehold Special Ops base, and volunteers her expertise. The rest of the story is a delicious sequence of sneaky maneuvers, sabotage, and mayhem centered around Angie's teammates, with Angie supplying the hideouts and cultural data to prevent their discovery by the Earth forces arraigned against them.
The most intense part of the story, which like Freehold, is definitely not suitable for young readers, is when Angie is seized as a spy, and tortured by her captors. Readers of the earlier books in this series will recognise Williamson's unwillingness to "prettify" warfare. We know Angie doesn't die, but there are no guarantees about any other character in the novel.
This is fiction at its closest approximation to real life. You could believe this action and these people taking life in any setting of current day or history, anywhere on Earth. That it is set in space simply leaves us free to notice how well the reasonable libertarian society functions despite its philosophical enemies.
Angeleyes, the latest in Williamson's outstanding Freehold series, looks at an unusual Freeholder. "Angie" Kaneshiro is a rolling stone, a spacer with multiple skills whose primary lifestyle is "moving on." After Earth's crackdown on its former colony of Grainne, Angie lists her origin as "Caledonia," because as Earth ships and uniforms become increasingly prevalent, new regulations tighten down on travel for all, but especially Freeholders.
Blessed by her parents with an opaquely-spelled name (Aonghaelaice) and the right to return to her real homeworld of Grainne, Angie prefers to camp with a series of friends, or kip in the odd spaces of habitats and stations until she can find a berth on a ship going somewhere—almost anywhere—else. She has a talent for spotting those unused, unmonitored spots in the interstices of her stop-over worlds. These are places she can live free, if with little comfort, until it is time to move on. She's made a life out of living briefly in such places before she ships out again.
When war actually begins, Angie realizes that her knowledge is vital to her homeworld. She contacts a Freehold Special Ops base, and volunteers her expertise. The rest of the story is a delicious sequence of sneaky maneuvers, sabotage, and mayhem centered around Angie's teammates, with Angie supplying the hideouts and cultural data to prevent their discovery by the Earth forces arraigned against them.
The most intense part of the story, which like Freehold, is definitely not suitable for young readers, is when Angie is seized as a spy, and tortured by her captors. Readers of the earlier books in this series will recognise Williamson's unwillingness to "prettify" warfare. We know Angie doesn't die, but there are no guarantees about any other character in the novel.
This is fiction at its closest approximation to real life. You could believe this action and these people taking life in any setting of current day or history, anywhere on Earth. That it is set in space simply leaves us free to notice how well the reasonable libertarian society functions despite its philosophical enemies.
November 6, 2016
Good science fiction yarn of a tramp-freighter hand-turned spy in a war between Earth and the independent system of Grainne/Freehold. The book is a third person view of the war Williamson writes about in his "Freehold" and "The Weapon" novels, and like those tells a compelling tale of a free-spirited but patriotic resident of the Freehold of Grainne. Although at points it, like John Ringo's "Ghost," turns towards being a "romance novel for guys," he does a good job of capturing the "philos" love that exists between combat buddies in a small unit in the midst of what seems a more apparent focus on the "eros" love of the title character - the former, in fact, is the broader theme of the book for those who read deep enough and pay attention. I found his attention to details of life for the crew of a small interstellar freighter compelling, whether the uncertainty of finding a job as a deckhand, the transient nature of life in port, or the surprisingly compelling character of "Admiral Bertram," a small dog deadheading between stations and adopted as a pet by his crew du jour. Williamson also develops the novel as a broader discussion of the stifling economic effects of overregulation of trade and commerce, and the damage such can do to a society. A nice addition to a body of libertarian science fiction, perhaps a less polemic successor to Rand's "The Anthem" and Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451."
February 14, 2017
Good read although not as good as some of his earlier Freehold work. Spent a little too much time on the heroine's sex life in my opinion to the point that it detracted from the main story.
November 3, 2016
Good book, too much sex
I think Mr. Williamson is a great writer and I love all of his books. They are well written with plenty of fighting, the characters are well developed, and the editing is nearly flawless. Including this one. However, this book has too much sex in it. I do not mind some but it was really out of hand in this book. Try his Cripple Creek series and books with John Ringo.
I think Mr. Williamson is a great writer and I love all of his books. They are well written with plenty of fighting, the characters are well developed, and the editing is nearly flawless. Including this one. However, this book has too much sex in it. I do not mind some but it was really out of hand in this book. Try his Cripple Creek series and books with John Ringo.
December 13, 2016
This was pretty good. While not my favorite of the Freehold series, it was interesting to get a different perspective on the UN/Freehold war. The main character is kinda of...meh? But we get to see some personal growth, and how the war affected her, which was also cool.
Certainly don't start this series here, you'll be totally lost as to what's going on, but if you already like it, this is a nice change in perspective.
Certainly don't start this series here, you'll be totally lost as to what's going on, but if you already like it, this is a nice change in perspective.
November 4, 2016
Angeleyes
I found this book to be similar to Freehold 1, but a shadow of it. It took a while to get into the characters. After I got into it, it was good to the end. But, it had way too much porn. At times it was as though there was just enough story to tie the porn together. In my opinion had it been left out the story would have lost nothing and gained a great deal.
I found this book to be similar to Freehold 1, but a shadow of it. It took a while to get into the characters. After I got into it, it was good to the end. But, it had way too much porn. At times it was as though there was just enough story to tie the porn together. In my opinion had it been left out the story would have lost nothing and gained a great deal.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews