Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Weapon (Freehold Series Book 2)

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A well trained man who believes in his mission and is not afraid to die is the most dangerous thing in the universe

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2017

A man receives the highest possible training to be an independent military operative. He is turned loose multiple times in defense of his homeworld. The training sequences are brutal to the point of sadistic. But the training is so successful that when he and his fellow agents are planted in deep cover on Earth they managed to defeat her brutal attack on an independent colony. The mental suffering the agent has from what he needed to do to succeed is profound. I give it four stars instead of five because the training process was so brutal and inhuman that it defied belief.

This is a well written, but very dark book. The most dangerous thing in the universe is a well trained man who believes in his mission and is not afraid to die. Human history has shown this to be true and this work takes that concept to the next level.

5 people found this helpful

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A good story buried by a political diatribe

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2022

There's a really good story with a very engaging central character at the core of this book. Unfortunately, the story is buried under a totally unrelated political diatribe. Yes, we get it, the author thinks government is bad, more is worse, and less is better. But this heavy layer of political rant has nothing to do with the story. There is a five star story and characters here but it just can't carry the weight of the boring political rant. Three stars is being generous.

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Avery Abernethy

A well trained man who believes in his mission and is not afraid to die is the most dangerous thing in the universe

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2017

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5 people found this helpful

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A good story buried by a political diatribe

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2022

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Grim tale of planetary survival against pitiless clerks in a remorseless bureaucracy.

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2015

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“The first time you suffocate, it's terrifying. It doesn't get any better with practice.”
Is that a great opening line or what? It hooked me and author Williamson dragged me through the next few hundred pages with my mouth bleeding and me gasping for air. He didn't let up for a moment.
The second in Williamson's freehold series departs in both theme and style from the first volume in the series. In this volume the protagonist, a young soldier named Chinran on the planet known as The Freehold narrates his own tale, almost as if he recited for transcription to a publisher or a superior or even for the lasting family record. He begins with his training and continues as his career evolves in an off planet military excursion. Finally, horrifyingly he describes his last mission, a mission which preserves his homeland and the free people of his planet against the multi-system bureaucracy, not even a dictator to be hated but simply a heartless mass of clerks moving glacier like to crush any spasm of freedom.
But the toll on Chinran for his service, for his saving his nation and people puts him beyond redemption, not the least in his own mind.
In the first volume Williamson builds a philosophical foundation for a libertarian society of equals. In this volume he shows just how far a free people will go to preserve their freedom. It turns out that they will go just as far as the clerks will go to deny them their freedom. All the way.
Williamson has a strong character here who he presents in the not always successful first person narrative. He succeeds. As exciting military fiction he succeeds. As a caution about the unfathomable horror of war to the knife, he succeeds.
I like his writing so much that I have read three of his books practically back to back. He's good.

3 people found this helpful

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Pete Roche

A good tale of suspense

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2014

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This novel is the second book in the Freehold series. Williamson does a very good job of making his characters real and believable. The book follows Kenneth Chinran through his career as a special warfare soldier with the Freehold of Grainne, a colony world that has declared its independence but whose independence is not recognized by the United Nations.
Anticipating that the UN is going to attack the Freehold, he and his teams of saboteurs are inserted as sleepers into Old Earth cities. Once the attacks occur, the agents go to work with infrastructure attacks, devastating the vulnerable Earth society and economy. Eventually the UN gives up the attack and pays reparations to the Freehold, but the UN secret police discover Chinran's team and massacre them, except for Chinran and his infant daughter. The last few chapters of the book follow the father and daughter's life on the run and his attempt to escape the Earth dystopia.
The book is filled with suspense, and its characters are well developed. It is a grim, dark story of a grim, dark time.

2 people found this helpful

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Fun read - and coherent, too!

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2020

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I'm digging this series. Sometimes when you read a sci-fi series, there's some disconnect between the installments, whether that's in the characters, the story lines, the milieu, the tech, the voice.....whatever. There are no disconnects here. Mr. Williams seems to have a well-constructed universe and consistent themes that allow him to set many good stories in motion.

So far, I just plan to keep reading.

One person found this helpful

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John Thompson

Good character development and the political environment is close to ...

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2015

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Good character development and the political environment is close to Hienlein or Nuttall in that sacrifice and citizenship is the bedrock of character.
A small democracy is taken over by earth and subject to a bureaucracy and incompetent government. The main character's story is his lengthily training is special ops and belief that a small dedicated, well trained force can prevail against a much larger force. He and his teams are infiltrated to earth and cause massive damage through terrorist acts killing millions and effecting his conscience.

2 people found this helpful

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ideas equate

Goes to the edge to support personal freedom and justice.

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2006

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The story finishes by setting up another book proposition to explicate how the daughter of Captain Kenneth Chinran develops into a force of her own. If the writer takes this route, I'll be an immediate buyer.

The story builds up a detailed, richly cathartic, and barely fictional expression of how disciplined and trained members of the professional military apply courage and tactics to whump tribal theocracy. All right! Then it shifts up to the morality of confrontation with the galatic elites, the iron rule of the few over the many, based on our future Earth, where freedom and justice are mere vestiges of old ideals. It is a shocking and unsettling juxtaposition, and one that comprises the essence of the story.

The battles and terror tactics are horribly plausible, although artfully premised on one more leap into future weapons development and not on things that would represent a recipe or textbook for terroristic criminality today. In the phobic world now surrounding us, the writer shows notable personal courage to carry out his creative efforts to tell the story the way he did.

10 people found this helpful

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John Kidd

Freehold contuned

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2013

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When I was in high school back in the 50's, I discovered a author by the name of Robert A Heinlein. He is my favorite author of all time. Last month I was in the Goodwill looking for something to read and came across "Freehold by Michael Z. Williamson". I thought that I would give it a try. As I got farther into the story there was something familiar about the style. It felt like I was reading a new story by Heinlein. So I couldn't wait for the story to continue. The Weapon runs on the same time line as freehold and is just as exciting. So If you like Heinlein you will love Michael Z. Williamson's Freehold series.

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John A Lee III

Wow!

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2007

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This is an engrossing read right from page one until the last page...and I did not even particularly care for the ending! It is well written, humorous, scathing on occasion and just plain fun to read.

The story is one of a soldier. He decided to become a soldier so that he can get away from home. He finds he has a talent for mayhem and is recruited into special operations where he excels, becoming a noncom and, eventually, an officer. His planet is one that broke away from the United Nations and declared independence. This particularly infuriates the UN because the planet seems so successful while Earth and the UN are weighed down by bureaucratic stupidity. The existence of such a successful free planet is viewed as a threat.

This is where our soldier comes into his own. He and his team have a deep cover on earth. When the UN invades his home planet, their job is to bring earth society down around its bureaucratic ears.

This has been a much simplified synopsis. The entire book is worth the read.

6 people found this helpful

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jack

Number 2 of Freehold. Must read, I say...

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2018

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Second of the Freehold series. I've read all four now and they are great! It takes a veteran military man with
an out of control imagination to do MilScify this well. Williamson is a solid master writer. Get it and enjoy. In fact,
get all the Freehold series and do read them in order. You won't be sorry.

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