Rating: 
Summary: Great sequal!
Review: If you are like me you find a good series but you catch a book in the middle and nothing makes sense. This is not that book. If for some reason you read this book first there is enough backstory filled in that it all makes sense.
Rating: 
Summary: A Smith fan says -- Buy any other work of his first ...
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as the first book...
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first book...
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: In Defense of Personal Responsibility
Review: L. Neil Smith once again proves that he can entertain while illustrating society's foibles. In the best tradition of Jonathon Swift Mr. Smith takes us back to the world of the "Probability Broach" and shows us what things could and should be like. A great sequel, a lesson that should be taught in every home and school, both of these books are requred reading in by US History course.
Rating:
Summary: In Defense of Personal Responsibility
Review: L. Neil Smith once again proves that he can entertain while illustrating society's foibles. In the best tradition of Jonathon Swift Mr. Smith takes us back to the world of the "Probability Broach" and shows us what things could and should be like. A great sequel, a lesson that should be taught in every home and school, both of these books are requred reading in by US History course.
Rating:
Summary: L. Neil Smith is back on form in the NAC-iverse
Review: Picture an alternate world where the only law is one against initiating force or ... against another. Compared to our own law-ridden world, it would be a beautiful Utopia. Unfortunately, even in Utopia there are those who would bring it down for their own ... ends.
Rating:
Summary: his "citizens" are NOT sheep
Review: The events of 9-11 hurt the sales of this book. However subsequent policy panic make this work MORE important, not less. This is a true sequel, not a "stand alone". If you enjoyed "The Probability Broach", read this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Political agenda poorly disguised as a sequel
Review: This cannot be considered either a science fiction story, or a sequel to the superb "Probability Broach." This can only be considered a crass attempt to push a political agenda. The story consists of the main characters being set up, chapter after chapter, to abuse and ridicule various democratic ideologies held by the other, completely undeveloped and haphazardly created, characters. The "main" plot? Stuff gets blown up. I'm quite willing to listen to L. Neil Smith's political viewpoints provided he tells them with relevence in the framework of a reasonably intelligent, logically consistent science fiction story. Unfortunately, those criteria don't apply here. If you haven't read this and you're looking for a sequel, or have read this and think that you might ever read another L. Neil Smith novel again, you might try either "The Nagasaki Vector," or "The Gallatin Divergence."
Rating:
Summary: Political agenda poorly disguised as a sequel
Review: This cannot be considered either a science fiction story, or a sequel to the superb "Probability Broach." This can only be considered a crass attempt to push a political agenda. The story consists of the main characters being set up, chapter after chapter, to abuse and ridicule various democratic ideologies held by the other, completely undeveloped and haphazardly created, characters. The "main" plot? Stuff gets blown up. I'm quite willing to listen to L. Neil Smith's political viewpoints provided he tells them with relevence in the framework of a reasonably intelligent, logically consistent science fiction story. Unfortunately, those criteria don't apply here. If you haven't read this and you're looking for a sequel, or have read this and think that you might ever read another L. Neil Smith novel again, you might try either "The Nagasaki Vector," or "The Gallatin Divergence."
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