My Library

Taflak Lysandra is an installment in libertarian science fiction author L. Neil Smith's alternate history of the «North American Confederacy» and its spacefaring spawn. For those not familiar, the North American Confederacy was born when the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 was a success and the «Hamiltonian» Constitution died. The North American Confederacy had, by the 20th century, evolved into an anarchocapitalist society with little government and few rules beyond the social norm prohibiting the initiation of force. It's also a very prosperous, technologically advanced society.

In Taflak Lysandra, confederates G. Howell Nahuatl, the intelligent coyote, Lysandra «Elsie» Nahuatl, his adopted human daughter and Obregon Grossfuss, a Yeti, are set to explore under the «sea of leaves» on the world of Majesty in their state of the art «subfoline.» (I don't recall if it was a yellow subfoline or not.) They are accompanied by a «First Wave» colonist from Majesty. (The First Wave were pro-government «refugees» who fled freedom in slow ships only to be easily overtaken by the Second Wave of anarchists in much faster ships who left a few years later. There are complications involving the nature of space-time and such as one might expect of an alternate universe, science fiction novel. ) They will, of course, encounter the unexpected and I won't spoil it.

The heroes of Smith's novels are big libertarian names from the real world. Elsie (Lysandra) is named after Lysander Spooner. Elsie and Howell arrive on Majesty aboard the Tom Sowell Maru. Smith's books are great reads, but those with a knowledge of libertarian philosophy and the people behind it will appreciate the «inside» jokes and references.