Before I went into high school (a long time ago) I read a lot of fiction. My father used to pay me per page that I read as a way of motivating me to read, and it’s one of the reasons why I can write in English as well as I can (well, relative to most others, I guess). I read Animal Farm when I was in third or fourth grade (of course, I didn’t really understand it in the sense that I had no idea that it was talking about communism), and other such books.
While I did read a lot of fiction in high school through my English classes, I started to read more history books on my spare time. I got really into military history, and then into the history of the Second World War. While this type of reading has its uses, I think it really did a lot of damage to my ability to write creatively. I’ve been looking to read more fiction, and I’d like to tie it in with libertarianism.
I own Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead, but never got around to finishing them (I also read 1984 sometime in high school). I’ve been thinking of buying We from the Mises Institute. Is there any fiction anybody would reccomend? Somebody reccomended Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted by Henry Harrisson, although it’s not libertarian at all, last night. Anybody read it?
The Good Soldier Švejk, The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, Catch 22, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, Eden come to mind at the moment.
But generally I think if you are going to read fiction it is more important that it is good fiction, wether it is libertarian or not shoudn’t matter all that much.
But generally I think if you are going to read fiction it is more important that it is good fiction, wether it is libertarian or not shoudn’t matter all that much.
Keeping individual subjective valuation in mind at all times , I’d have to say that I have read a few books in my time touted as being “libertarian fiction”, [for example J.Neal Schulman and Vince Suprinowski] , and although most were OK, nothing supposedly “libertarian” really did it for me .
The closest I got to “libertarian” “satisfaction” was “The Traveller” by John Twelve Hawks- a wonderful, exciting, depressing,violent dystopian vision set in the not too distant future- but its not really “libertarian” , as such, just a very well written and very exciting cross between “The Matrix” movie, and the “Enemy of the State” movie starring Will Smith [ it made the New York Times bestseller lists].
For one thing ,Mr Wilson is, to my mind, one heck of a writer [far better than Schulman and Suprinowski].
For another he is a “hard-core anarcho- capitalist” who read LVM and Rothbard back in the early 80’s [as I only discovered after reading all of the Jack series- although I had suspected as much, based on that series].
The Repairman Jack series is a blend of sci-fi, horror, and quirky conspiracy theories and highly enjoyable.
“An Enemy of The State”-Peaceful Revolution
After going through the entire Repairman Jack series myself , I discovered that the local library had purchased a re-issue of his “An Enemy of The State”, a non- Repairman Jack novel [and nothing to do with the Will Smith movie “Enemy of the State”].
On reading the new introduction, I discovered that Mr Wilson had been / is a follower of Austrian economics, no less , very familiar with both LVM and Rothbard!
Not only that , but “An Enemy of The State” is a great novel [far better than “Atlas Shrugged”].
It is about a man living on an “off world” planet in the future who plots [and succeeds] in peacefully [!] overthrowing the ruling elite [i.e earth government] and replacing it with something called “The LaNague Federation”, which appears to be modeled after the US Articles of Confederation.
This book, for me is easily the single most underrated “libertarian” work of fiction that I have come across. Makes Ms Rand look silly, in my estimation.
I’m the complete opposite, at least in theory. I want nothing more than to exert my biases as much as possible. Or, perhaps more properly, I consider anything that doesn’t over power my tastes not worth thinking about.
That being said Heinlein is one of the better sci fi writers I am aware of. If you are into history though, War and Peace is your book if you want to devote the time.
I spend a lot of time reading and researching science fiction and fantasy. My favorites so far:
Anything by Orson Scott Card. His writing his concise, powerful, emotional, funny, and explores political philosophy, psychology, military strategy, and the nature of power (from an intelligent, if not libertarian point of view). I would begin with Ender’s Game and the series of related books and stories. The four books in the Ender’s Shadow series might appeal to your love of military history - basically, a bunch of children who happen to be military geniuses battle for control of a future earth. Card constantly refers back to real life military leaders of the past like Alexander the Great and Napoleon. Most importantly, Card creates real, honest, characters who you care about.
The Song of Ice and Fire saga by George R. R. Martin. The books are set in a richly-detailed world modeled after the Middle Ages and the War of the Roses era. Each chapter is written from the point of view of a different character, of which there are many. But Martin somehow weaves together all the storylines without losing the reader’s interest. Warning: the books are thick (1,000 pages), the content is R-rated (lots of blood and sex), and the series is not yet finished (only four of seven have been written, and the guy is getting old!)
Anything by Ursula LeGuin. She is simply a fantastic writer with lyrical prose and timeless characters. I have only read two of her books, the first two in the Earthsea trilogy. Her book The Dispossessed explores anarchy.
I’ll second The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and add Vernor Vinge’s The Peace War, and the related short story The Ungoverned (and basically everything else Vinge)
Thanks. I’m making a list of suggested books, looking them up and then deciding what to buy one at a time. I own War and Peace, and so I might as well read it.
For what it’s worth, one of my all-time favorite books is The Once and Future King. This book is widely considered to be the best novelization of the Arthurian legends. If you read the reviews of this book on Amazon.com, and you’ll get a picture of how deeply moving it is. It is probably the most tragic, most inspiring, most human story that I have ever read. In short, it is a story about heroes, and therefore it is libertarian. There is also a strong (but not preachy) anti-war sentiment that runs through the book. I would highly recommend it to anyone, particularly to libertarians.
Did not mention them as could not see a connection to libertarianism, but you are right. Fantastic books, extremely enjoyable. The only problem is they may turn you into a silly person, tormented by the wait for the next installment and being to able to ready very little else because it does not stack up.
I think they might be relevant to Rothbard and Hoppe’s “power elite analysis.” And taking justice into your own hands? Anyway, they are awesome. And LeGuin is boring compared to Martin, agreed, but I find her writing nice and relaxing like good poetry.
I forgot the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett - hilarious satire with libertarian leanings.
There are several (IMO) good libertarian SF. A few have been mentioned. Some others, or an expansion of others.
F. Paul Wilson. Actually, he has several works in the “LaNague Federation” series, that even includes a couple of short stories set before “Enemy of the State”.
Wheels Within Wheels (1978), ISBN 0-385-14397-4 (revised/reprinted in 2005, includes “Higher Centers” and “The Man with the Anteater” ISBN 0-9766544-3-1)
L. Neil Smith. Written several libertarian sf. Main ones being in his “North American Conferederacy” series, but also several others. A few have been turned into graphic novels by Big Head Press.
J. Neil Shulman has some good works.
Vernor Vinge has some good works.
Ken Macleod has some good works, but not that familiar with him.
Michael Z Williamson has some good works, but its not clear to me how much he believes in the philosophy.
James P Hogan has some good works (check out “Voyage from Yesteryear” and “Infinity Gambit”.)
Well, A Feast for Crows was published October 2005. His last official update is from Jan.1, 2008. I think I read on a fansite somewhere that he is very close. And we also have the HBO series to look forward to! I read that AFFC and ADWD were originally meant to be one book, so I am holding off on reading AFFC until ADWD comes out. Good idea?
It won’t matter much unless you want to read both books around the same time. He’s basically telling the story over the same time period for different sets of characters. I think it worked out O.K. because he could give more information on some of the characters that probably didn’t get as much attention in the prior books. But then it makes you wonder just how bloody things will get when he pulls the timelines back together.
The advantage of the time difference between publishing books is that his sales for the early books usually pick-up and revive themselves the closer he gets to the next release date. The disadvantage is that some readers or even the author might die before the series has been completed. What’s irritating is that he’s working on several side projects instead of finishing the series, but I guess the guy has to eat.
