First published as a novella in Amazing Stories, Moon of Ice was nominated for the Nebula award in 1983. Meticulously researched and expanded, it is set in a world where F.D.R. was impeached in 1942, Germany won World War II in Europe and America developed the A-bomb in time to provide a nuclear stalemate to the successful Nazis.

Moon contains many surprises that differentiate it from the long SF tradition of alternative WWII stories. Increasingly libertarian, the U.S. provides a refuge for those fighting the fascist state, in particular Hilda Goebbels, daughter of Hitler's propa-ganda minister. In publishing her father's diaries, Hilda reveals the lunatic core of Nazism (which is fascinating enough). But it is the cultural complexity of Linaweaver's vision and his vivid description of Hilda's evolution from pampered child in an insane society to anarchist revolutionary which gives this novel authenticity and richness.

The above two paragraphs are the entirety of the review I wrote for the March 1988 Laissez Faire Books catalog. I was very impressed with Brad Linaweaver's book and thinking that I would eventually be writing a longer review for Prometheus. I asked Brad if he would send me copies of other reviews that had been written about it partly because I'm also fascinated with the way overtly libertarian books are perceived in the mainstream media.

Since LFS Advisory members have already received their copies of Moon of Ice, and perhaps have already begun reading, a short analysis of this material might be more interesting than a largely superfluous review.

There is an impression among libertarian SF fans (and particularly lib SF writers) that mainstream and non-libertarian-fan critics hate libertarianism, and thus any book that contains such drivel is not given a fair analysis. While I'm not saying that there is no truth to this impression, I found little evidence for it in the stack of Moon of Ice reviews.

To clarify matters, the (approximately 30) reviews were published in newspapers, SF fan newsletters, trade magazines, etc. Only one publication was libertarian. At least 85 percent of the reviews were by non-libertarians and about the same percentage of the reviews were positive, or at least had positive things to say. The most negative, published in the Summer 1988 Thrust, was written by a member of LFS. (Another, very positive, review was written by another LFS member.) Many of the reviewers complained that Linaweaver's mind was on ideas, not plot, but most realized that even without a "tight plot", there was a great deal to admire here.

Many writers were bright enough to notice and find eye-opening, Linaweaver's, comparisons between FDR and Hitler, and Hitler and Stalin —surely heresy in some quarters. Also noted was that Moon refuses to made Joseph Goebbels a cardboard cut-out monster. Instead he is a man with ideas that allow him to commit atrocities and forgive himself for them, i.e. very dangerous, but still human.

One rather interesting review took Linaweaver to task for allowing the Germans to produce a bomb in mid-1944, saying that Nazi nuclear research was fragmented, "with the army, the Luftwaffe, and the post-office (!) all doing some" and that the Nazi principle of "divide and rule" would prevent this achievement.

Most amusing was reviewer reaction to the novel's libertarian America. Some sample quotes: "America has devolved into a fractured country of ruggedly individualists." "America gradually retreats into a loose-knit and slowly dissolving libertarian commonwealth." "America becomes the last bastion of free speech, a kind of melting pot for capitalism, egalitarianism, and laissez-faire bourgeois thought." "America prospers but becomes Balkanized with an even weaker Federal Government." "America is a Libertarian state (this translates into private opulence, but public squalor)." "The United States is Libertarian, which is probably the most unlikely speculation in the book."

None of the reviewers quoted above terribly excited about a "libertarian state", but it's important to note that no reviewer wrote the book off because of its anarchist setting or admitted to that, anyway. In fact, several found Moon's scenario for America compelling, and asked for a sequel with that focus. Which I think of all the books I've read for LFS in the last seven years, and how few dared to show a libertarian America, I must confess that I long for that sequel, too. How about it, Brad?