While not openly libertarian, Steve White's novel tells the story of a revolt against a repressive U.S. government and an imperialistic group of aliens. In the near future, the United States becomes dominated by the Earth First party, a group of repressive socialistic environmentalists. Just as their grip on world power has become absolute, Earth is contacted by a superior civilization, which forces Earth to accept a one-sided trading relationship (obviously modeled on the actions of the Great Powers in 19th-century China). The "good" aliens want to trade ("free trade and no favors") while the "bad" aliens want to take the Earth itself.

The story revolves around a former U.S. Intelligence agent, Ben Roark, and his efforts to change the balance of power among the aliens, free the U.S. from the Earth First Party, and give humanity a destiny in the stars. Some of the ideas expressed by Roark should sound familiar to libertarians. For example, discussing the goals of a resistance group, the Eaglemen: "And as for going back to the idealized fantasy of the good old days when there were two political parties—The Republicrats and the Democritans or whatever they called themselves…Shit, the only change is now the U.S. admits it's a one-party system!" The villain of the piece, besides the Earth Firsters and the Imperialist power among the aliens, is a truly Machiavellian U.S. Intelligence Agency chief—and that may be an insult to Machiavelli! This guy is a nasty piece of work. Before things are done, we have covert ops and hand-to-hand fights, massacres and orbital strikes, revolts and space battles. White keeps things moving, and the novel never seems to bog down in discussion.

Eagle makes an unusual first contact novel, as it revolves around trade and internal Earth politics as much as the relations with the alien Lokaron, and it's worth a look from libertarians. Besides, judging from the reviews on Amazon.com, the Earth First! folks out there hated it…which means it must have something going for it!