Decent book overall. It just didn't have what I was hoping for. ( )

In 480 B.C. the Emperor Xerxes, leader of the 100,000 man invading Persian Army, stood at the pass of Thermopylae and demanded that the vastly outnumbered Greek defenders surrender their weapons. The reply of the Spartan king, Leonidas, has echoed down the ages, “Molon Labe,” or in English, “Come and take them.” Thus, right from the title, the tone of this most unusual novel is set.

Starting in 1995, the novel Molon Labe explores the idea of libertarians moving to Wyoming. As their numbers grow, they begin to win elections and gradually take political power. The novel moves forward, each chapter is a year, as the libertarian plan to reform the state unfolds. Meanwhile the federal government becomes more oppressive and opposed to the “nuts” in Wyoming.

As often happens in the genre, lackluster writing weakens a great plot. The author Kenneth W. Royce writes under the pen-name of Boston T. Party. Among his most well know books are Boston’s Gun Bible and You and the Police. Molan Labe is his first fiction work and is really a policy outline for the Free State Wyoming Project. In the novel, he mixes interesting plot development with lecture and plan of action. This is interspersed with legal notions, opinion and some conspiracy theory. As I read, I learned a lot more about Wyoming and email encryption.

If you don’t agree with the philosophy behind the book, I suspect you’ll hate it. However, if your economics are laissez-faire, you support gun rights and your politics are libertarian, you’ll be willing to overlook the literary and style issues and enjoy a very thought provoking plot. I give the plot five stars for originality and the literary quality two stars for an overall rating of three. ( )