Ugo Stephant Stephant itibaren Verdigris, NE, USA itibaren Verdigris, NE, USA

The point of this book seems to be that any taxation at all is wrong, that any rules by any government are wrong, that all government wants to do is take your money and send you to war, and that everything would be all hunky dory if the government just got out of the way. While the utopian ideal of a society where everyone is equal and gets along well with everyone else and everything works perfectly without any government interference is very nice, it's not practical or realistic. Utopia isn't possible. I forced myself to finish this book despite frustrating propagandizing. Some scenes appeared to be designed just to espouse Libertarian philosophy. The reason I gave it two stars as opposed to one is the interesting use of laser art as a new art form. Schulman does a great job of describing the way the art is performed and the complex culture that develops around it, from high society performances in auditoriums (much like classical music and symphonies) to pop culture gigs in bars (much like pop music and garage bands). I also felt that Schulman didn't understand women very well, and his protagonist was two dimensional and unbelievable. Her views are sexist while pretending to be feminist (in that very Heinlein way) and she was completely annoying. If you're a Libertarian, you probably would like this book, but I don't like books that are thinly veiled propaganda, even when I agree with their point of view. It detracts from the story and is bad literature in my opinion. The award this book won was the Prometheus award solely to acknoweldge Libertarian science fiction. Interestingly, of the 50 or so award winners over the years, only one has been a woman.

I picked this up because I loved 'Ghost at Work' so much. It wasn't as good but still a quaint little mystery.