SmithNeil

L. Neil Smith is probably the most Libertarian author in the world. In fact, he made one out of me, though I'm a little more conservative about the cause than he.
       If pushed to classify him, I'd have to say he's a science fiction author, but I'm putting him both in the Mystery Ship and in Transuranic Science Fiction because he fits in both places, damn it.
       One thing I have to compliment Smith on is not having a dust jacket mugshot wearing a leather jacket.
       He was born in Denver, CO, in 1946 and was an Air Force brat – no negative connotation intended. He is a guitar and banjo player as well as an expert pistol marksman.
       His favorite boyhood authors were Arthur Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov, Richard Wilson, Robert Scheckley, Robert Heinlein, and Ayn Rand.
       Ayn Rand? Yep. Her works place him on the road to becoming a mover and shaker in the Libertarian Party. In fact, he states that he wrote The Probability Broach in hopes of doing for the Libertarian Movement what Uncle Tom's Cabin did for Abolitionism.
       He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with his wife Cathy, his daughter Rylla, and two cats, Amber and Ambrose.
       If you're Googling around, don't get him confused with L. NEAL Smith. Who'da thunk there'd be two guys with such homonymous names?
       BTW, the photo of L. Neil was taken by Cathy L. Z. Smith and snarfed from his web site. I wonder if she's any relation?

The Cases of Win Bear

Edward William "Win" Bear is, or was, a Denver police detective in a near-term future one step away from morphing into Blade Runner: The federal government has grown grotesquely intrusive and is impoverishing America in both wealth and spirit. Through a series of adventures, accidents, and luck, Win falls through a broach between realities and ends up in a Libertarian Denver-analog that is a relative paradise where he joins his probability counterpart's detective agency.
The four novels are a meld of mystery, science fiction adventure, and Libertarian messaging. The novels aren't on par with Raymond Chandler, but Marlowe never solved any crimes in the Asteroid Belt either.
Why "Win?" Ask A.A. Milne about ursine names.

ProbabilityBroachNNS.jpg (3685 bytes) The Probability Broach
© 1980

Synopsis
Notice there are two covers here. That's because The Probability Broach came out in two versions, a "censored" version first and then a "restored" version later. I've read both and honestly couldn't tell you what was left out. 'Course that was the same way I felt with the restored Stranger in a Strange Land. Guess I'm just dense.
       The novel takes off when Det. Lt. Edward W. "Win" Bear is tracking down a murder in a Denver. The city is the logical result of the politics of 1980. It's a pretty distopian place where Nanny Amerika has made life miserable.
       Through a series of circumstances, Win is transported, through a inter-reality portal into a Libertarian-based reality where he is promptly shot to death – well, nearly so.
       He meets his other-reality self and they go about trying to solve the attempt on Bear's life.
       Turns out that the Feds in Bear's original reality are working with remaining Federalists in the other reality to take it over, with nukes, if needed.

Analysis
The novel starts off with a hard-boiled feel but once Win enters the Libertarian Paradise it morphs into something closer to the science fiction of Robert Heinlein.
       The political messages are delivered mostly by the alternate Bear's neighbor lady and are in the form of disabusing Win of the Nanny Amerikanisms inculcated into him by his society. They have a little flavor of the "Gee, Professor, let's stop the narrative while you lecture me of stuff I already know!"
       Well, maybe not quite that bad.
       All in all, Smith keeps the story moving, the science fiction elements cool, the gunplay hot, and the political message at less than lecture-level.
       I discovered Smith and The Probability Broach while on a business trip to profile a Honeywell facility in Minneapolis. Just by luck I found Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore. The intriguing cover – a semi-threatening figure of an ape in front of a giant TV screen with silhouette of what looks like a tentative woman – got me to plunk down my $1.95.
       To show you how much I like Smith's work, 20 years later I plunked down $6.99 for the same book. According to an inflation calculator, a $1.95 book in 1980 would cost about $4.50 in 2000. I hope Neil got the extra $2.50 . . . right, I'm sure he did.

The Venus Belt
© 1980

The Nagasaki Vector
© 1983

The Gallatin Divergence
© 1985

The American Zone
© 2001

The Probabilityverse Novels

I suppose every author with a series would like to tie in as many of his novels as possible. I mean, creating a universe is hard work. Just ask God. It took Him seven days, well he featherbedded on that last one.
       Smith is no exception. Through some minimal retconning, he managed to incorporate his first published novel Their Majesties' Bucketeers into the same probabilityverse occupied by Win Bear.
       Many of the protagonists in these books were feature characters introduced in the novels that focused on Win. Some of the books even revolve around his descendants.
       The last four novels listed in this segment were part of a trilogy that took place in an even more repressive Liberal-Fascist Nanny Amerika than Win Bear's original universe. The first two novels of these last four were so larded with Libertarian soapboxing that the publisher canceled the third novel – that's completely my guess. Don't feel like you've missed something, Smith combined the three short novels into the last novel in this section, Forge of the Elders. Some of the political satire was updated to skewer new politicians.
       As in the case of many of Smith's later novels, the entertainment aspect of the novels has taken a backseat to the Libertarian political agenda, much to the detriment of his novels' readability. But, hey, that's my opinion. If you like lots of Libertarian lectures stopping the action, then fine.

TheirMajestiesBucketeersS.jpg (3959 bytes)

Their Majesties' Bucketeers
© 1981

Tom Paine Maru
© 1984

Taflak Lysandra
© 1988

Brightsuit MacBear
© 1988

Contact and Commune
© 1989

Converse and Conflict
© 1990

Concert and Cosmos
scheduled for April, 2000, but never published as an independent novel

Forge of the Elders
© 2000

Other SF Major Works by Smith

The Crystal Empire
© 1986

The Wardove
© 1986

Henry Martyn
© 1989

Other Works

A collection that reprints many of Smith's Libertarian essays. How about calling Honest Abe Lincoln America's Stalin? That'll get the blood up. Trouble is, Smith makes a logical case.