Freedom Book of the Month for June, 2002:

Net Assets
by Carl Bussjaeger, self-published 2002, text or html, 29 ch.

Much of science fiction just isn't what it used to be. Instead of offering sound science in new worlds or exploring endless, exciting technological or philosophical possibilities, many stories contain little science in them. Others blur the line between sci-fi and fantasy, with magic of various sorts providing the gee-whiz. Some hard core sci-fi authors have noted a lack of new talent, speculating that the mass-market-driven publishing houses are rejecting much of the good stuff from unknowns. Add a libertarian tone to the story and it's almost guaranteed the work will end up in their slush piles. That probably explains why Net Assets is self-published online. The story is a solid first novel from Carl Bussjaeger, an up-and-coming sci-fi writer.

Set in the near future, Net Assets is the tale of one man's drive to get into space without the shackles and "help" of government. Hank Hanners, a midlevel engineer with a go-nowhere job, teenage daughter, and alcoholic wife, runs a space discussion forum online. When he challenges the participants who say that private efforts can succeed to actually do something toward making that happen, he's semi-reluctantly swept along for a transforming ride as one effort begins to challenge the American powers that be.

While the story is essentially Hanners', other characters provide more than support. Bill Neville is the man who funds Hanners' dream, and in return gets some of his zest for life back. Hanners' daughter Erin unfolds before our eyes, dealing with her own personal challenges in the process. While Bussjaeger is sometimes a bit heavy-handed, as in one chapter where Hanners' wife is well-described in a scene, and then we're told that she's frumpy, the major characters are well drawn and given plenty of room to grow. And they do, something I wish more science fiction authors would do well.

The action is decently paced -- enough to be engaging but not a nonstop L. Neil Smith type "space opera" -- and Bussjaeger's dry wit bursts through in several scenes. Although Hanners is described as a libertarian at the outset of Net Assets, Bussjaeger's touch there is light. As the novel proceeds, and the characters are visited by various busybodies from NASA, the FAA, and other agencies, the action shows how their bureaucratic bungling interferes with private efforts. The growth of various characters toward more pro-freedom positions is realistically portrayed as well. Some of the novel borders a bit on the unbelievable, but no more so than in books by better-known authors.

So, here we have a good, solid science fiction story, with libertarian themes that won't send non-libertarians away screaming, published online by a man who refuses to let the left-leaning publishing houses thwart him. You gotta like a thoroughly pro-freedom package like that!

Buy "Net Assets" in html, plain text, or zipped file formats, $5.

More book information for June 2002

edited by Sunni Maravillosa

Past Winners:

May 2002: The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz

April 2002: Toward Liberty: The Idea that is Changing the World edited by David Boaz

March 2002: Liberty for Women edited by Wendy McElroy

February 2002: The State vs. the People by Aaron Zelman and Claire Wolfe

Freedom Book of the Year, 2001: Hope by Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith.

January 2002: Death by Gun Control by Aaron Zelman and Richard W. Stevens

December 2001: The American Zone by L. Neil Smith

November 2001: Ayn Rand and Business by Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni

October 2001: Junk Science Judo by Steven J. Milloy

September 2001: Jonathan Gullible by Ken Schoolland

August 2001: Hope by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman

July 2001: Dissenting Electorate edited by Wendy McElroy and Carl Watner

June 2001: Tethered Citizens by Sheldon Richman

May 2001: Lever Action by L. Neil Smith

April 2001: The Cato Handbook for Congressfrom the Cato Institute

March 2001: The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley

February 2001: Crypto by Steven Levy

January 2001: Total Freedom by Chris Matthew Sciabarra

Freedom Book of the Year 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith

December 2000: The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto

November 2000: Escape from Leviathan by J.C. Lester

October 2000: The Art of Political War by David Horowitz

September 2000: An Enemy of the State by Justin Raimondo

August 2000: The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell

July 2000: A Generation Divided by Rebecca Klatch

June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman

May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith

April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben

March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand

February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler

January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood

Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz

November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell

October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy

September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe

July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman

June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant

May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz

April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille

March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary

February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra

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