I'm compiling a list of libertarian fiction released to print in 2008. You can contribute suggestions by commenting below.
In order to qualify for the list, the story must address libertarian themes (preferably from a libertarian perspective), and the book must have been released in 2008.
Here's the list so far (in order of release):
The Flight of the Barbarous Relic by George Ford Smith
March 31, 2008
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We're told by experts that the Fed is our number one inflation fighter, our protector against economic meltdown. Certainly, any person who cares about our country would accord it only the highest respect. But Preston Mathews wants to destroy the Fed. And he's apparently surrendered everything -- including the woman he loves -- to do so. Who is this renegade who wishes to bring back the dark days of despair, as his critics charge? He's the Fed's top gun, the lord of interest rates . . . the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Combining a high-energy plot with scholarly research, The Flight of the Barbarous Relic pits the entrenched forces of inflation against a growing underground movement that builds to a showdown between the world's two most powerful men . . . with the fate of the country hanging on the outcome.
Moon Flower by James P. Hogan
April 1, 2008
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Something strange is happening on the planet Cyrene, which is in the early phases of being "developed" by the mammoth Interworld Restructuring Corporation. Terrans from the base there have been disappearing. Myles Callen, a ruthlessly efficient "Facilitator," is sent to investigate. Also with the mission is Marc Shearer, a young, idealistic quantum physicist, disillusioned with the world, who's on his way to join a former colleague, Evan Wade. On arrival he finds that Wade too has vanished and doesn't want to be found by the Terran authorities. Wade has arranged contact via the Cyreneans, however, and accompanied by two companions that he has befriended, Shearer embarks on a journey to find his friend that will change Cyrene -- and Earth itself.
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
April 29, 2008
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Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.
When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
Reason Reigns by Ilyn Ross
May 1, 2008
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“Heaven on Earth can be achieved when reason reigns.” Independent thinkers cannot be ruled, so die they must.
Inventor Tony Connor is tied to the stake. Hugo, a healer, faces death. By decree, Governor Rod Gullio Sr. and Rudi Yani imprison innovator Leo Thomas. Builder and publisher Ron Balian is hunted.
The most unexpected of saviors, young beau ideals, rise up.
The thinkers escape to a godforsaken island. Full of conviction that to rule a human being is abhorrent, they enshrine individual rights. They live by the code that a moral man does not rule, nor can he be ruled by men.
But the power-hungry pursue them fiercely. Chief Hunsec unleashes the full might of his empire upon the island. Head-Warlord Imman Kann and the Hunsec armada advance.
The small country, impregnable due to its technology, suffers an unthinkable betrayal. The Hunsec moles exult as the adult islanders lie fallen!
The green of young growth fend off the invaders.
Ruled by reason, the proud, happy, productive heroes achieve Heaven on Earth.
But the island is now a dark, backward hole. Mystery surrounds the fate of the heroes and their wondrous creations. The hunt is on. For the truth. For the heroes’ treasures.
Alisa Connor, Ari Hugo, Frank Thomas, and young Ron Balian endeavor to rise. But great is the wrath of the destroyers. Between tyrants who crave to rule and thinkers who cannot be ruled, once again, the battle is joined.
Keep and Bear Arms by Robert Isham Auler
May 10, 2008
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From the moment a bomb explodes in midwestern courthouse, all eyes turn to the suspect. It is left to a small-town lawyer to dig deep to defend an unlikeable guy with some peculiar habits. Written by long-time attorney Robert Isham Auler, it breathes fire and ice, and will even make you laugh on occasion. A first-time novelist with a lot to say and a great way of saying it.
Jack: Secret Histories by F. Paul Wilson
May 27, 2008
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Ever come across a situation that simply wasn’t right—where someone was getting the dirty end of the stick and you wished you could make things right but didn’t know how? Fourteen-year-old Jack knows how. Or rather he’s learning how. He’s discovering that he has a knack for fixing things. Not bikes or toys or appliances—situations….
It all starts when Jack and his best friends, Weezy and Eddie, discover a rotting corpse—the victim of ritual murder—in the fabled New Jersey Pine Barrens. Beside the body is an ancient artifact carved with strange designs. What is its secret? What is the secret of the corpse? What other mysteries hide in the dark, timeless Pine Barrens? And who doesn’t want them revealed?
Jack’s town, the surrounding Barrens, his friends, even Jack himself…they all have… Secret Histories .
Roswell, Texas by L. Neil Smith, Rex F. May
June 4, 2008
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In an alternative universe, Davy Crocket survived the 1836 siege at the Alamo, and Santa Ana did not. As a result, Texas remained an independent republic and never joined the United States.
In 1947, Texican President Charles A. Lindbergh learns that a flying saucer has crashed near the far west Texas town of Roswell. He dispatches his best friend, "Wild Bill" Bear, and three of his best Texas Rangers, to investigate. Our four heroes find themselves in a race against agents from the United States, the Franco-Mexican Empire, the California Republic, and the Third-and-a-half Reich, to find that crashed saucer and learn its secrets.
And when they do, they will change the course of history, again.
The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod
June 10, 2008
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It's after 9/11. After the bombing. After the Iraq war. After 7/7. After the Iran war. After the nukes. After the flu. After the Straits. After Rosyth. In a world just down the road from our own, on-line bloggers vie with old-line political operatives and new-style police to determine just where reality lies.
James Travis is a British patriot and a French spy. On the day the Big One hits, Travis and his daughter must strive to make sense of the nuclear bombing of Scotland and the political repercussions of a series of terrorist attacks. With the information war in full swing, the only truth they have is what they're able to see with their own eyes. They know that everything else is--or may be--a lie.
The Return of the Last Space Explorer by Simon Drake
July 1, 2008
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Adam is the Captain of a Space Explorer, he is a neo-human specifically designed for space travel, and is sent to seed life on a planet orbiting one of earth's closest stars, Sirius. After a 99 year voyage he returns to earth, crash lands in Berlin, and is the sole survivor. Earth has changed and unexpectedly lurched backwards: He is imprisoned by the New Revolution, a hybrid Environmentalist and Communist Regime controlling much of Europe, who treat him, a survivor of the Golden Age of a century ago, as a cause of earth's current Global Freezing. Traumatised by space, isolation, death and the mutiny of his own crew, Adam has many secrets to hide, and the only person to confide in is Lothar, a fellow prisoner. Together they form a friendship that is tried through a daring escape, a Counter Revolution, passage to London as refugees, greed and the keeping of a simple pact: To look after your friend.
Fe Fi FOE Comes by William C. Samples
July 15, 2008
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A warning to the reader ... You may not wish for people to know you are reading this book. In some jurisdictions such material is banned, and in some there may be severe penalties should you be caught with it in your possession. Even in places with free speech some authorities, and some of your neighbors will be suspicious if they open and read portions of this book, and find you reading it. In the near future the consequences could be much worse. You may not wish to read it at all. ... A note from the author ... The fact is our world is mostly made from refined technology invented long ago. Shelter, transportation, medicine, even space exploration technology dates from more than half a century ago. The most innovative technology of our times is electronic, including computation, because it is the least regulated by the government. Regulation, taxation, and stagnation go together. To those of us that grew up with visions of a world with freedom, and technology that would save time, human effort, much human misery, open the door to space travel and all the benefits that can bring, including perhaps the ultimate survival of our species, current events and the status quo signal the death knell of such possibilities. Until when? What will change? Rather than ending on a note of doom, I will say that indeed things do change. The truth is really out there. To those who think maybe truth is important, and maybe things should change, I invite you to read the book ... in private ... while you still can. This is a work of fiction, or maybe it just hasn't happened yet.
The Conscience of Abe's Turn by J. Timothy King
October 1, 2008
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A story of Espionage, Romance, and Abuse of Power in the fictional town of Abe’s Turn Somewhere in America, the people live in a police state. Ted and Clydene Jackson have felt it personally. So have their friends Mira and Michael, and all the victims they’ve tried to help, and all the volunteers lobbying to remove Police Chief Baedes from power. For Baedes’s sole ambition is to “protect” the town of Abe’s Turn, at all costs, even if he has to destroy a few innocents in the process. And he will knock down anyone who tries to get in his way.
However, these four friends, unknown even to them, have the means, motive, and opportunity to restrain the forces around them, if they dare… and if their own feelings for each other don’t stop them before they even begin.
Politically incorrect, distinctly libertarian, and teeming with complex characters, this epic novelette series (with a planned 24-episode story arc) explores the heart of freedom and the dangers of power. It blurs the lines between state, revolution, and terrorism. It asks what Thomas Jefferson once asked: “What country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance?”
By the Sword: A Repairman Jack Novel by F. Paul Wilson
October 14, 2008
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By the Sword takes up the adventures of Repairman Jack directly after Bloodline . Jack is hired to find a legendary Japanese sword, a katana stolen from the Hiroshima Peace Museum and brought to New York City. Central characters include the members of a weird Japanese cult, a young Japanese businessman and his three Yakuza bodyguards, plus Hank Thompson, the Kicker cult leader from Bloodline . The cult, the businessman, the Yakuza, and the Kickers are looking for the sword as well.
Also in the mix is the pregnant teenager carrying a child, loaded with abnormal DNA, who will be a decisive force in the cosmic shadow war raging behind the scenes. She becomes a pawn in the game, hunted by both sides. Following his usual m.o., Jack maneuvers all sides into a bloody melee from which he plans to waltz away with the fabled katana. Of course, when things don’t go as planned, Jack must improvise (and he hates to improvise). By the Sword takes F. Paul Wilson’s trademark breakneck pacing and interweaving storylines to a new level.
Please suggest more titles by commenting below!
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