Forge of the Elders
Capitalist
Monsters from Outer Space!
Just when the 21st
century thought it was safe to throw Marxism on the ash heap of history
once and for all, a worldwide economic collapse suddenly made freedom
seem less desirable than security, and the Total State turned out to be
the comeback kid. In the US, where the power elite had long shown
heartfelt affection for collectivism and making the trains
(nationalized, of course) run on time, communism had a second coming.
Which meant that Earth was now the Red Planet. The few holdouts and
counterrevolutionaries would be dealt with in good time.
Of course, collectivization
only made the worldwide depression worse. But then the People's
Astronomers noticed an asteroid with unusual spectrographic properties,
seemingly a treasure trove of valuable minerals that might rejuvenate
the Earth's economy. So three aged NASA shuttles were pulled out of
mothballs. crewed by a team of handpicked misfits whom no one would
miss, and sent to the asteroid.
However, someone else was
there first, under an airtight canopy made by genetically engineered
trees. And they weren't human, even if they were from Earth. The
Elders were "nautiloids," like intelligent giant squids in
Volkswagen-sized shells, from a parallel universe where they were
Earth's dominant species. Worst of all, they were CAPITALISTS!
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
Writing in the libertarian
tradition of Robert A. Heinlein, L. Neil Smith may be the most
widely-published and prolific living libertarian author in the world,
with over 20 books to his credit, two of them winners of the Prometheus
Award for Best Libertarian Fiction: The
Probability Broach and Pallas.
He has also published numerous short stories and articles, has
contributed gags to such comic strips as "Ziggy" and "Frank and
Ernest," and has lectured annually in the Colorado State University
Physics Department on the physics of alternative realities. He attended
the same university 1964-69, majoring in philosophy and psychology. He
has served as a reserve police officer for the city of Fort Collins,
Colorado, is a skilled competitive shooter, and is a Life Member of the
National Rifle Association. Smith was born in Denver, Colorado on May
12, 1946 to an Air Force family, which led to his growing up all over
North America. A highly prophetic author, his writings have predicted,
among other things, the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the internet as
we now know it, and the digital watch. He lives in Fort Collins,
Colorado with his wife Cathy, his daughter Rylla, and two cats, Amber
and Ambrose.
Illustration
and cover design by Bob Eggleton
Cover Design by Carol Russo
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Hardcover
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and
events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real
people or incidents is purely coincidental.
First printing, April 2000
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Printed in the United States of America
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ISBN: 0-671-57859-6
Copyright © 2000 by L. Neil Smith
All rights reserved, including the right to
reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
http://www.baen.com
Typeset by Windhaven Press Auburn, NH
Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webwrights.com
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