Books

_The Unincorporated Man_, Kollin and Kollin
_Casino Royale_
_Live and Let Die_
_Diamonds Are Forever_
_Moonraker_
_From Russia With Love_, Ian Fleming

The two brothers Kollin decided that their first novel would be a standard utopia. The classic method is to get a viewpoint character from our 20th or 21st century world to time-travel in some way to visit the land of nowhere (U-Topia) which the authors presumably consider good (Eu-Topia). Said character was ordered up, put in a cryochamber in a mountain, and delivered via a good-hearted prospector/miner to The Brave World Of The Future.

What does it look like?

At a first glance, it's a semi-Objectivist Libertopia. Government is universal, rich, and powerless. Everyone is incorporated as soon as they are born, with a nominal 100,000 shares of stock issued, 5% to the government (which cannot sell or trade them), 20% to your parents (who can) and 75% to you, to dispose of as you wish. Corporate universities offer to trade an education for a large chunk of your stock, and the typical 24 year-old has managed to hold on to maybe 30% of themselves. Rich people might hold 70% or more of their own stock, as well as other people. The poor are referred to disparagingly as "penny stocks". Our authors aren't quite blind to the faults of this system, but they do seem to be advocating for it as a desirable goal.

Amazingly, the writing does not suck. It's not great, but the storyline is sufficient to hold interest, and there is the distinct likelihood of a sequel or two.

==
Ian Fleming wrote 12 novels about Bond James Bond, and I've recently read/reread the first five. Let me tell you, Bond is a racist, misogynist, homophobic bully. He gets beaten up a lot. His enemies are even worse, though -- they generally share all his faults and are out to do evil things, to boot. Speaking of boots, Q Branch hasn't done anything more than provide luggage with hidden compartments for guns, knives, ammo and money. There's a bad guy with knife-boots, though. Bond is clearly the predecessor of lots of current action/espionage tropes, which I presume is why it doesn't feel particularly interesting.

Books

_The Unincorporated Man_, Kollin and Kollin
_Casino Royale_
_Live and Let Die_
_Diamonds Are Forever_
_Moonraker_
_From Russia With Love_, Ian Fleming

The two brothers Kollin decided that their first novel would be a standard utopia. The classic method is to get a viewpoint character from our 20th or 21st century world to time-travel in some way to visit the land of nowhere (U-Topia) which the authors presumably consider good (Eu-Topia). Said character was ordered up, put in a cryochamber in a mountain, and delivered via a good-hearted prospector/miner to The Brave World Of The Future.

What does it look like?

At a first glance, it's a semi-Objectivist Libertopia. Government is universal, rich, and powerless. Everyone is incorporated as soon as they are born, with a nominal 100,000 shares of stock issued, 5% to the government (which cannot sell or trade them), 20% to your parents (who can) and 75% to you, to dispose of as you wish. Corporate universities offer to trade an education for a large chunk of your stock, and the typical 24 year-old has managed to hold on to maybe 30% of themselves. Rich people might hold 70% or more of their own stock, as well as other people. The poor are referred to disparagingly as "penny stocks". Our authors aren't quite blind to the faults of this system, but they do seem to be advocating for it as a desirable goal.

Amazingly, the writing does not suck. It's not great, but the storyline is sufficient to hold interest, and there is the distinct likelihood of a sequel or two.

==
Ian Fleming wrote 12 novels about Bond James Bond, and I've recently read/reread the first five. Let me tell you, Bond is a racist, misogynist, homophobic bully. He gets beaten up a lot. His enemies are even worse, though -- they generally share all his faults and are out to do evil things, to boot. Speaking of boots, Q Branch hasn't done anything more than provide luggage with hidden compartments for guns, knives, ammo and money. There's a bad guy with knife-boots, though. Bond is clearly the predecessor of lots of current action/espionage tropes, which I presume is why it doesn't feel particularly interesting.